MouseDenton

After having created an account here on Mod DB for no real self-promoting reason, I decided to look around a bit and found myself being asked to type something about... well, anything. So I chose a type of writing I am quite comfortable with: ranting. (But just a short one, I promise)

Third-Party and Middle Men
Okay, I won't rant on the whole idea of adding steps into a mechanical process that ultimately decreases the efficiency and effectiveness of the whole (plenty of better qualified people have done that already), but I will rant on the topic of requiring third-party programs.

This is effectively hiring a middle-man to do take the (in this case) download and then install it for you in your game. While I do like convenience and automatic updating, there are instances in which I prefer to do the work myself, particularly when I feel that the middle-man takes up space and memory, along with carrying possible corporate Easter-eggs I can live without.

I am a great fan of the .zip file, and I play Gmod so getting add-ons and extracting them to the right game file is a large part of what I do. Personally, I think it's overall a good experience for any computer user--particularly gamers--so they learn how their system works, along with all kinds of developer knowledge along the way. Plus, the .zip download is easy as cake to back-up, albeit at the risk you'll extract it to the wrong place and have to hunt it down in a mine field of vital files.

I guess what I'm saying is this: If you want to make people's lives easier, go ahead and encourage these extra programs, lord knows there'll be people dying to use them. But for people like myself, who prefer to make life difficult for themselves and micro-manage their computers (to a reasonable extent), give us the option to do so. More often then not you'll find people who don't update their files use the middle-man to do it for them, and only the hardcore, huge file path lovers ask for the .zip every time.

PS: the cake is a lie
PPS: the cake is a lie
PPPS: the cake is a lie
PPPPS: the cake is a lie