So here's a strange thing about Download.com which you may or may not have noticed. This will change day to day, but currently if you go to the games section and hit the "new releases" button to see what new games are around you get 1 page of 25 new releases which are ALL, without exception add-ons, maps, patches etc.. for commercial games. (in fact that's true for the 2nd page as well... I didn't check beyond that)

As someone looking for a new game I can't see what's new. So I no longer have any interest in surfing there. Seems like a bad thing for Download.com - Very short sighted. Seems to me this sort of thing could kill the site outright. It's already gone way downhill in terms of exposure in the last year. Something like this is a nail in the coffin if it's the norm. I guess if you're looking for a map you'd go there, but for casual browsing of shareware? Probably not.

It also brings up questions about why it's happening.

- Are the maps being added for free in an effort to populate download.com's site with all add-ons?
- Are publishers flooding the list on purpose?
- Is it always like this or is this some temporary thing?

It goes in bursts. Every couple of months there's a huge wave of retail-related things.

I've emailed and complained and asked that mods and patches be confined to the mods and patches category... (since not only do they flood New Releases, they flood the game categories!)

Download.com's response was to delete the mods and patches category. :)

They've also got a "Retail Games" category and a "Tools and Editors" category, but will they shove their high-paying retail buddies off into those corners? Oh, no...

I'd love to see someone try to organise some serious complaining about this problem. If they'd just put Mods and Patches back and actually *use* it, there wouldn't be a problem.

We updated BrickBuster 2 days ago on download.com, BB is now on page 8 on new releases (games). Funny? No...

Wow, see what you mean. 6 months back we wasted 3 listings there and best response got 50k downloads and others got 2k and 8k. Pretty darn weak if ask me. Odd how their alexa rank (http://www.alexa.com/data/details/traffic_details?q=&url=download.com) made HUGE jump past few months, wonder how.

It does seem unfair that shareware games should sit alongside commercial game demos. Still, if my game is sitting next to FIFA2004 which is drawing in more people then i guess it's good for me. So are they pushing us out and getting us seen?

PS How the hell can Direct X drivers be allowed in the Top 50 games chart? 4 times!!!

I don't care if we're along side commercial game *demos*.

I care if we're stuck in the middle of ten pages of

<RetailGame>1.0 to 1.6 Patch
<RetailGame>1.1 to 1.6 Patch
<RetailGame>1.2 to 1.6 Patch
<RetailGame>1.3 to 1.6 Patch
<RetailGame>1.4 to 1.6 Patch
<RetailGame>1.5 to 1.6 Patch

all of which bores the brains out of anyone and prevents them from looking through the category to find actual new games.

Originally posted by papillon
I don't care if we're along side commercial game *demos*.


I agree completely.. being beside demos is fine. But the current situation is quite frustrating.

It seems like the source of most these mods/patches isn't from the publishers but from mod makers. At least that is who is listed under the "publisher" field. Most of them have a huge file size and only have a "secure download" link. So maybe mod makers are using download.com just to host their files? If the file is greater than 100 MB, it might be the best option for them.. after all, most people browsing within the site can't care about all these small patches... hmmm, the whole thing doesn't really make very much sense.

Download.com has certainly gone down hill.

Alright, I'm off to download "Danish Douglas DC-3 Model"... sounds like a fun game ;(

Can't be the mod makers themselves, not coming in such a huge batch all at once (not to mention not being able to afford the listing fees). And at least in the case of Neverwinter Nights (which I did see in there somewhere) the user mods *already* get free file hosting courtesy of IGN. I'd be more inclined to assume that the publishers asked if they could redistribute the user content - the original NWN EULA gave them rights to do that without even asking, but I think it was eventually rewritten to them having to let you know first - and are using it for publicity.

*shrug* I don't get it.

Yes, I noticed this as well. I just posted Trials of Werlin 1.1 and only got a fraction of the downloads that the original got.

This is a bit off-topic so PM me if you want to respond: Are newsletters the best way to keep the traffic coming once you get it from download.com or wherever?



EDIT: I just emailed them as well with a descriptive complaint of the situation. Maybe if enough of us have a similar complaint it will be noticed.

Sounds like some big organised mass-protest thing is in order. After all, people pay good money for download.com's "services".

Wish I knew what Download.com did to get that sudden surge of traffic (and they managed to hang on to it, also!)

Well I think the first thing to do would be to explain to someone at Download.com that a "New Releases" listing that's all...

patch
upgrade
map
map
map
upgrade
patch

For many pages is terrible for the average person surfing the site for new shareware. I could be wrong I guess, but in my view this will have negative consequences for download.com's average game browser traffic. I'm not sure about that alexa ranking. All I know is what it use to be like doing a new release on download.com vs doing one now. It use to often tripple the sales of the product in the new-releases section. Currently a new release has little or no effect unless it happens to get highlit in some way. And that was even before this mod flooding started.

Ugh, that's very frustrating.

Just tell me what and where to write to and I'll do it. Hopefully if they get enough valid complaints, they'll do something about it.

The worse thing is that once this damage has been done its very hard to undo it. People will stop browsing there for games.

I had hopes when download.com started charging that the money would go towards improving the site and drawing more traffic, but that hasn't happened at all. They could have used that extra money flow to make some good improvements like comprehensive reviews of most new titles and so on... Things that would have really made a difference to surfers and posters. It's kind of dissapointing. There seems to be a lack of forsight and direction. I don't know if the mods are making them any money, but I suspect that they're either being posted for free or for a very low bulk rate. If it is a cash grab it seems crazy to me that they'd jeapordize their traffic and how useful people find the site for a short term money boost. Its equivalent to me adding spyware to all my games for 1000$ or something like that.

Possibly download.com want all serious developers to pay $15 per 100 downloads and stay at the top of the page forever. Games with CR of 2% or more may afford that.

I sincerely doubt that they're doing it to push some other monetary thing. If they want people to pay to appear in that list all they have to do is charge for it like Tucows did. No trickery is needed.

I reported the issue to them and got this reply. They are aware of the issue so if we all contact download.com (http://upload.com.com/1200-21-954390.html?tag=txt) perhaps they will make it a higher priority.

----- edited out cookie cutter paragraphs

I understand your concerns and the frustration of seeing the recent addition a few hundred retail-game add-ons.

The current "flood" this week is due to a backlog of files created by a technical problem that was recently resolved. It is an exception rather than a rule. If you have looked at previous weeks of Download.com Games, you'll see that this week was unusually full of additions to the library.

Thanks for your comments. I genuinely appreciate the concerns. It's definitely not out of the question that maps and mods will be separated from demos and full games sometime in the future, but that's not currently in the short-term plan.

They make it sound like a one off... but I've seen this kind of flood a while back. As well it's more of a general problem. Not only for us but an even bigger problem for download.com as, unless I'm completely out to lunch regarding what people want from a site, they're alienating their audience.

Originally posted by svero
All I know is what it use to be like doing a new release on download.com vs doing one now. It use to often tripple the sales of the product in the new-releases section. Currently a new release has little or no effect unless it happens to get highlit in some way. And that was even before this mod flooding started.

I don't know if anyone noticed, but I think this may be partially due to another reason:

Before (6 months ago or so), when you listed a new listing it went to the top of the New Released section. This much is still true. But one difference I noticed right away was the JUST IN section on the right hand portion of the front page. The way this used to work was that all of the entries in the past week (or maybe a little longer) we're shuffled randomly into the JUST IN list. So your game would be there occasionally throughout the day for a good week or so. The way this works now is just the 5 most recent entries stay on the JUST IN list. This means your game could potentially be there for only a few hours. I was kinda upset when I noticed this. And whether this was the direct cause or not, I only got a few hundred downloads the first day and then it dropped drastically.

I think the moment download.com stopped bringing in traffic was when they split the game categories. Now there are 10 times as many categories, with a lot less visibility.

original post by download.com
I understand your concerns and the frustration of seeing the recent addition a few hundred retail-game add-ons.

The current "flood" this week is due to a backlog of files created by a technical problem that was recently resolved. It is an exception rather than a rule. If you have looked at previous weeks of Download.com Games, you'll see that this week was unusually full of additions to the library.

Thanks for your comments. I genuinely appreciate the concerns. It's definitely not out of the question that maps and mods will be separated from demos and full games sometime in the future, but that's not currently in the short-term plan.

Bah, when my game was swept from the first page after just 10 days, I didn't want to pay for another update again.

The problem could be solved simply by adding maps and patches to the end of the files list rather than on its front. All the users who want maps and patches get to them by searching not by browsing.

Well download.com simply get too many submissions.
If 20 games are submitted the same week, they fade quickly from the "Just In" listing.
I doubt I'll use them anymore... paying 79$ to see a quick link that if I am unlucky can disappear after 5 minutes? :D
Maybe it's better pay 50$ to get featured listing on other sites with decent traffic (even if not as much as download.com).

Has anyone had any luck with sponsered listings at download.com? I noticed every sponsered listing has 10's of thousands of downloads, but it ends up being pretty expensive.

Sponsored Downloads...

You pay per completed download. The cheapest it can be is .15 per download.

If you could be CERTAIN of a 1% CR on a game you net 18 dollars per sale on, you could use it successfully (and net .03 per download, or 3 dollars per 100 downloads).

Of course, that assumes you get sponsored at the cheapest price...

I think thats what we are talking about, right?

Joe

With only 2 days until bidding ends.

Here are the prices:

Action .17 per DL high bid

Arcade .18 per DL high bid

Cards .30 per DL high bid (!)

Puzzles .18 per DL high bid

all the others have no bids on them... so at least in those catagories you could get .15 per DL.

Of course, to fund 10,000 downloads you need to put up 1,500 dollars...

Joe

You gotta be very careful spending 1500 for 10k downloads even on a game that normally has a 1-2% coversion rate. The reason is that as you sponser or advertise a game the quality of the downloads you get drops dramatically. That's not to say this form of advertising is useless... just that you can't do a normal conversion calculation to determine it's worth.

Why is that?

Suppose you have 2 people...

A) Really wants a good turn based strategy game and goes looking for one. Searches sites and finds yours.

B) Not looking for a turn based strategy but notices your game at the top of some listings and figures... what the hell, that thing about orcs sounds neat. I'll give it a go.

It's not too hard to see that person A is generally a much better prospect. So basically as exposure from advertising goes up, conversion rate comes down. By necessity the more advertising you do the less targeted your audience becomes. The only exception is if you manage to advertise to a very particular group of people who fit your target, but it's hard to do that on a general download site.

Does anybody know how to get on download.com's "Spotlight on games" section on their main games page?

Originally posted by ConanCurrie
Does anybody know how to get on download.com's "Spotlight on games" section on their main games page?

I'd imagine it's like their reviews, it's just a matter of luck as to which they pick.

We were lucky enough to get reviewed on Download.com in the first place, and then even more fortunate to get a 5-star rating for Plummit.
Before this, we were getting about 80-100 downloads for the first couple of days, until we were pushed off the front page due to the flooding. After this, our downloads halved until we received the review rating a day later.

The main advantage from getting a good review, as far as we can see anyway, is that you get listed in the first page of the 'Top Rated' listing. We are now getting about 200 downloads a day.
The downside to all this though, is that the exposure to 'downloaders' seems to be of very low quality. By this I mean that the people downloading the games are far less likely to actually buy, than downloaders from a more targeted audience, like Adwords for instance.

All in all, though Download.com has produced a lot of downloads for us, I not confidenced that it's worth the $79, even without the flooding.