Zugg Software :: View topic

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

is there any type of discount or upgrade or anything for the people who only need to use cmud for vista capability, who have already purchased zmud previous?

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:24 pm

There was a discount for quite some time before the first public release of CMUD. They were announced several times last year. In addition if you bought zMUD today you would get a CMUD license. Finally, the main website list a CMUD sale so that it retails for 29.95 instead of the normal price of 34.95.

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

Doesn't say much in regards to how you feel about old customers I suppose. :>

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:26 pm

Quite the contrary actually. The period of free or discounted upgrades lasted for close to a year. It was discussed at length in the forums. In addition Zugg sent out email notifications several months before the release CMUD to make zMUD users aware of the coming new software and the discount period.

I'm sorry you did not get the opportunity to get the discount, but Zugg did expend great effort to inform customers of the discount period while it applied.

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

And this is why everyone I know just uses cracks and doesn't pay for the product. :)

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:43 pm

As a matter of curiosity, what more do you think could/should have been done in this situation?

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

I think it's ridiculous that people are required to buy a new product to run it with a new operating system that comes out.

Every other product on the market, Adobe, Napster, etc. All of those pay-to-use products, they make their product work for the new system.

You guys have one that works for the new system, and sure, you can have it, if you buy it again!

Really, you give out zmud & cmud for those who buy zmud now, but what you're saying is "i don't care that you ligimitately bought our product years ago and have supported us thus far, we don't need your business anymore unless we can have your money again".

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

zMUD works fine with Vista, it's just not officially supported. To say 'every other product on the market make their product work for the new system' is just plain wrong.
I've been using zMUD on Vista for about 6 months and the one problem I had is easily fixable and stickied at the top of the zMUD forums now with screenshots on how to 'make it work for the new system'

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

It flat out says "you're on your own". And it works, if you can tolorate that obnoxious flashy thing that happens every time you try to mouse-over the main window.

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 6:52 pm

Wizard Joined: 25 Mar 2003 Posts: 1113 Location: USA

zMUD has been around for about a decade, and your "free upgrades for life" applies to the life of the product. Thirty bucks for a program like this isn't asking much. In fact, your friends who use cracks and/or share registration codes are harming the future of the product more than Zugg or Vista ever could. If you don't like the software or the usage policies, find yourself another client. It's that simple.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

Edit: Seems people have got to the answer first. I think I'm saying the same thing as Taz but anyway...

Fine, the wording could be more diplomatic, but the fact remains that it does work.
You will find precious few bits of software that are designed to work on all versions of Windows from 95 -> Vista. Lots do work, but very few that are *certified and supported* on all those OSs.
McAfee VirusScan failed to run on Vista and I had to get an updated version. This wasn't free.
Nero v6 didn't work, so I had to upgrade - again, not free.
Logitech Setpoint didn't work, I had to upgrade. This was free but it still doesn't work as well as zMUD.
RivaTuner doesn't work fully yet - but then that's free so no big deal.

So please don't say that it's standard for people to support all future versions of OS when a product is no longer in active development.

zMUD does work.
If it didn't then I could see a reason for people like you to bitch and whine, but it works properly in Vista and everything else Microsoft have made since 1995.

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

My expectations are completely reasonable, and it seems that Zugg himself thinks so.

Buy ZMud now, get CMud free.

My point hasn't changed. You're giving a big middle finger to old users. And if you aren't, then take the free cmud key off of the new purchase of zmud.

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 8:15 pm

The reason for the buy now, is not in advocacy of your claim that zMUD should work with Vista. It's for those people buy zMUD thinking they are buying CMUD. It's also a nod to industry standard practice regarding upgrade protection.

I'm not sure when you bought your copy of zMUD, but the policy went something like this.

If you bought zMUD with 6 months before the release of CMUD (officially I think it was some date in in June) then you got a free CMUD license as well.

If you bought it it 2 or 3 years (I can't remember which one so let say two) prior to that you were able to get CMUD at half price.

All others would have to pay full price.

I understand you are upset that you did not know about the upgrade period in time to take advantage of it. If you feel zMUD is has given you value, then by all means look at CMUD as an opportunity to get a MUD client that takes advantage the latest features of XP and Vista. If you do not want to spend another dime then your are free to continue to use zMUD under it's supported environment (or with minor hiccups, in an unsupported) and continue to received the value it has provided you.

I'm not sure if it will influence your opinion or not, but as a point of information, it is impossible (or just shy of it) for Zugg to provide better Vista support. The tool set and code base used to develop zMUD was released circa Win 95, and because of the changes to the Windows Vista architecture he is not even able to compile the code under Vista. Beyond that, I'm not sure what to tell you, except that I hope you change your views and that you get a chance to see all the wonderful feature CMUD has to offer.

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

Well, according to the store, I purchased it May 7, 2006, so by your post I SHOULD have gotten a CMud key. I didn't.

Wizard Joined: 03 Mar 2001 Posts: 1127 Location: London

If you're entitled to one then mail support and they'll sort it out. Chiara is very quick at dealing with such things, you just need to ask

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 9:06 pm

You may actually be on the boundary there. As I said I THINK the cut off date was sometime in JUNE (The reference to 6 months was an estimate). At any rate, if you did qualify for the free the code would be automatically mailed to you. You would have to go to the ZuggSoft store click on the purchase of CMUD, then whatever discounts were available would be automatically applied.

The other problem you may have though, is that I believe this had to be done before the public release of CMUD in December, but I could be wrong.

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

I've sent in a request, as well as linking to this thread, so here's to hoping.

And if I was coming across as "bitching or whining" as someone said, I wasn't trying to.

I'm pissed off that Vista sucks so much and that I am having to go through this hassle with every single piece of software that I have purchased in the past.

Wizard Joined: 14 Aug 2004 Posts: 1269

alwaysalmost, note the following post (the first in this Beta forum) from December 2005(!), so this shows how long you have had to get informed. As it is old, I wouldn't take what Zugg says as 100% gospel since the position may have drifted slightly in the 16 months since that post.

What about zMUD?
http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=22664

And from this post (also December 2005):
How much does CMUD cost?
http://forums.zuggsoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=22663

Posted: Fri Apr 13, 2007 11:31 pm

I'd never, ever upgrade to a new OS this soon after its release. There's too little driver support even now.

I just thought I'd add two things - firstly, that CMUD isn't "zMUD for Vista" - it's a totally different product with more features but with less support for old versions of windows. It's an upgrade in the sense that it's better, but not in the sense that it's the same product with minor alterations.

Secondly, the cutoff points were Jun 1st 2005 (note the 5 - it was actually 18 months!) for free and September 5th 1999 for half-price (see here for a copy of the email that was sent out). That's not two or three years, that's SEVEN! I'd like to see a company that offered a free "upgrade" to a more feature-rich piece of software for people who bought a product of theirs a year and a half ago, and then offered discounts that far back.

Beginner Joined: 13 Apr 2007 Posts: 11

I have gmail, and don't delete anything. I didn't receive any emails regarding Cmud and my license key with my current copy of Zmud.

I also don't peruse boards for software that i use.

As for the Vista issue, I'm a med student, laptops are mandatory and my last one took a crap. I couldn't find a decent one out there worth buying that didn't come with Vista, and if I install XP i've voided the warrent. catch 22 ftw.

But as I previously stated, I've sent out a quick request, and the "IN YER FACE" attitude isn't much helping, but thanks anyway.

Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2007 12:17 am

Just to be crystal clear on this:

The discounts for qualified zMUD users were only available from June 2006 until December 2006 (during the Beta period).

As many people have mentioned, we went out of our way to try and inform all existing customers in October 2006 about these discounts. But the discounts ended in December and are no longer available. We emailed all customers, posted to the forums and main page on this web site, posted to other MUD-related web sites, and added a message to the zMUD MOTD startup window. Sorry if you still didn't find out about the discounts.

Keys were not automatically mailed. As per the discount instructions that were emailed to everyone, you had to go into the Zuggsoft Store and login and add CMUD to your cart to get it for free or at the discounted price.

The current offer for getting CMUD for free with zMUD is only to help people who buy zMUD by mistake. It just saves us from refunding a zMUD purchase for people who wanted CMUD instead.

As with any other business, we always reserve the right to add or remove discounts, sales, and other offers at any time.