Back in the OS/2 days, Microsoft got caught using what were called “Microsoft Munchkins” (coined by John Dvorak). Essentially these were guys whose job was to smear OS/2.
Anyone who has had to deal with these kinds of users whether it be on Wikipedia or some forum tends to be able to spot these guys since they usually create accounts only to smear a particular product or service (or boost a product or service).
As many people know, I spend a lot of time online and thankfully, I haven’t seen anything that struck me as peculiar until very recently when suddenly, comments on articles regarding Impulse have detractors appearing out of nowhere. I.e. they create an account specifically to smear Impulse usually saying things that really sound like FUD.
Now, I might think Impulse is the greatest thing since sliced bread, but I would be the first to admit that the average person isn’t passionate about digital distribution or development platforms. Certainly not passionate enough to bother creating a new account just to smear something.
I’m inclined to chalk it up to just the usual Internet junk. Maybe people are more into this kind of thing than I thought.
So I thought I’d hand it over to you guys and see what you think.
Here are examples:
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?story=62814
User called Gahenna creates an account on Shacknews just to smear Impulse Reactor.
“From my limited experience with Impulse, it's interface is garbage and slow, there's nothing worth purchasing (everything is D list or worse). It's not even close to the same league as Steam.”
Within 24 hours Gamautra puts up its Impulse::Reactor thing and sure enough, a user pops up who has never posted before anywhere as far as anyone can tell.
“While I appreciate the competition with Valve's service, Impulse seems to provide a much lower quality service”
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/27687/Stardocks_Wardell_Details_Impulse_Reactor_Specifics.php
And on the same day or so 1Up puts up their article:
http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3178341
And a user called “Grizzt” (real name “dasd asd”) and writes:
“i tried there service before it wasnt quite up to par with steam or the other services i tried.”
Okay, maybe there’s just a dedicated fanboy out there. Or maybe it’s a different fan boy writing up the same points over and over. Thanks to the anonymity of the Internet, nobody knows. Heck, maybe Impulse just sucks in ways I never realized.
The writing style seems different to me. I’m no expert but it doesn’t seem like it’s the same person.
It’s probably just coincidence. But there’s a lot of news items on Stardock on various sites and it’s pretty unusual to see such…dedication.
What do you think?
Always seemed like a silly saying. Like if GE suddenly dumped toxic chemicals in 42 US cities, yeah thats good publicity! ...for their opponents.
But you're spot on with the second part.
Steam has 30 "Munchkins" on the internet used for this specific purpose. They aren't paid much, just given the game library and made into fanboys, and kind of told to "Go spread the Steam Religion".
These are really nothing more than corporate lobbyists in cyberspace, that's all. It's just an extension of the same thing we seen in politics and corporate America. But a lot is at stake, reputations can be forged or destroyed by these people.
Think about how Zicam nasal swabs was destroyed by false information from munchkins. Zicam Nasal Swabs were putting a lot of big cold medicine companies into lower fiscal returns. So out of 30 million dosages find 5-10 people that had issues, then trumpet them around the internet.
Later of course, we found the primary doctor that was promoting the banning of Zicam, had a "Cousin" that short-sold thousands upon thousands of Zicam stock the year before his little campaign.
It's all too common, and very well orchestrated, and companies do it all of the time. That doesn't mean I agree, it's a slime tactic, but to these demons nothing else matters but the cash.
I find it both amusing and puzzling that companies in competitive industries have fans that behave as if the company, which is unaware of their existence, is somehow an extension of their personality and that any attack on the company is an attack on them. Hundreds of years of economic theory tell us that competition results in lower prices. Any attempt to try and contradict this based on a single anecdote is just ludicrous.
Valve and Stardock have both made great games in the past and will hopefully both continue to make great games in the future. There is nothing stopping you from purchasing games on both Steam and Impulse any more than there is anything stopping you from purchasing games from both Best Buy and Gamestop. To think that somehow Steam has "won" the digital distribution battle and therefore all competitors should go away because it is more convenient is shortsighted, to say the least. Steam's large catalog puts pressure on Impulse to list more games. Impulse's (and GoG, and D2D, etc.) mere existence puts pressure on Steam to keep prices low, and vice versa. This is a healthy economic system.
It doesn't really matter which company makes it big first. Just look at Apple, they were the underdogs for awhile, whining a lot about Microsoft practices and then what do they do when they begin to dominate two industries... the exact same thing. It doesn't matter how "good" management is, corporation just naturally lean towards monopoly type tactics when they can.
Yeah I can dig that perspective, I used to agree myself...but then I noticed that the people bagging your work are really doing you a favour, because ultimately they bring its integrity into question...which if you have done your best, can never be an issue. What else can anyone really do?
Here is why it helps...people that sit around all day teeing off on the endeavours of others, are very rarely worthy individuals, which just makes their vitriol all the more galvanizing to their current subjects integrity. The fact that they are aware of it in the first place...means you have succeeded in your marketing approach...the fact that they hate it...is meaningless in economic terms, unless they have constructive suggestions, which is again...positive
That's not publicity mate...thats a jail term and the dissolving of your assets, thereby nullifying your point...however, I am open to further examples if you have them?
Actually it's exactly my point. It'd make news. Therefore it'd be publicity, whether you went to jail and such or not.
I never bothered downloading Steam because I never wanted a game that Steam offered which Impulse didn't, and I downloaded Impulse first. But more importantly, I don't buy every game that comes out, and when I do buy a game, I want to be sure it doesn't suck. So far, games on impulse have been more or less suck-free. The first game I bought was Sins, and that game was absolutely great (and a value buy at just $40). Then I bought Demigod, which also lived up to everything it promised me. Subsequently I bought Spore, which was not published by Stardock, and it was miserable.
So far, the only three companies I know that don't rely on unethical marketing principles to sell watered down and poorly built games are Stardock, Blizzard, and Bioware. On the other end of the spectrum, EA Games is like the MTV of the software world. They mass produce crappy games and try to get people to buy them by making them believe they aren't as bad as they really are.
I plan on buying Elemental. I played the original Magic when I was a boy, and I remember the hours of entertainment that game afforded me. So I was excited about a re-make. And since it will say Stardock on it, I don't have to worry about it not being what it says it is.
k fair enough, but it's still marketing right? Would you say that the goal of publicity is to generate awareness? Some people might agree with destructive tendencies...better that you're in the category of discussion than ignorance wouldn't you agree?
I'm very surprised that this discussion hasn't mentioned Battlenet2.0 yet. Want Starcraft 2, Diablo 3, next gen World of Warcraft? Then go through Battlenet 2.0 (beta). Point is the new players are in town and Impulse is being (unfairly) singled out for abuse.
Don't be disingenuous. You neglected SupCom and SupCom: FA in your last sentence. If you didn't play them, and thus can't address them, then say as much.
Put another way, the expression below is not necessarily true.
A = X + YB = W + Z(X + Y ) > W∴ A > B
I mentioned some of my feelings on this issue in the most recent "OMG! PC gaming is dead!" thread. I am happy to use Impulse for single player titles. From the technical perspective I generally prefer Impulse particularly for the fact that I can install a game on any drive partition. The fact that Steam installs to a single root path is a pain. Impulse generally gets me better download speed but as someone else mentioned patching seems to be less reliable. When it comes to the "value added" perspective of connecting me with other gamers in an integrated environment Steam wins. Some of this has to do with the large install base which could theoretically change but it is largely up to competitors like Stardock to convince people to move over. The negative experiences that people had with high profile titles like Demigod and Dragon Age did not help in this regard.
This is the first time I've heard anything like that, I'm just wondering where you heard this.
Edit: I can't say I'm particularly enthusiastic in taking one side or the other when it comes to critiquing the difference in technique and philosophy between Reactor and Steamworks which is why I didn't mention it specifically
The requirement for Steam to run as a front-end for all of the games it manages is not acceptable to me. Early versions of Steam wouldn't even run without internet access. They've since corrected that, but it soured me on Steam the first time I used it. I haven't tried the latest version, but I have yet to accept any of its previous iterations.
Granted that Impulse is not as big and does not have the selection of games, but they're adding new ones every day. Even now, there's plenty to keep me stocked. Several years ago, I posted on the GC2 forum that I'm hoping to see Stardock become my one-stop shop for games. They've certainly accomplished that for me. I look forward to seeing Impulse become more refined with a larger selection of games in the future.
I really don't think the "munchkins" could ever sour me on my opinion of Impulse. Granted it could be better and does have some faults, but its advantages far exceed its failings. And, I'm sure those failings will be corrected at some point. While Impulse is only getting better, Steam will always just be a big ugly front-end to me.
Me personaly impulse has been better then steam.
Steam needs to be connected and allows only 1 user to use the game, But I have 2 cpus so I can play 1 game on my cpu and my gf play an otehr one if booth are steam and that even if they are different games. Their si a way aroudn it but it's anoying. With impulse game we can booth play no probelms and we can even play teh same game if we want to.
Impulse:1Steam:0
Game's support. So far on the steam service I have 2 games that have newer patches out available tot he public but steam has yet to have those patches available. Men Of War is one of thsoe games. For almost a year now the japan patch has been out, but the steam version is 2-3 patches behind with no sing of being adressed. With Impulse so far all my games are up to date nd functioning perfectly.
Impulse:2Steam:0
Sicne booth Steam and Impulse are download content the speed at witch you can get your games is important. And in that feild I found impulse to be consistenly faster then Steam. Steam has increased their downlaod speeds since impulse came around, but impulse still remains faster.
Impulse:3Steam:0
Prices, now here impulse loses out for they are a new service. Steam seems to have more sales then impulse and prices seems to be a tad bit cheaper in some cases. Impulse has been catcvhing up very quicly in that feild but is not yet on par. I hope that will continue to improve over time.
Impulse:3Steam:1
Games available, once again here steam has teh upper hand because it is an older more established system that simply has more clout to get tittles. This has made it so that teh steam libriry of games available for purchase si bigger then impulse. Impulse is still making up ground and the gap will be narrowed. But for now selection is still in steam's hands.
Impulse:3Steam:2
Communaty, steam has a friendlist with is very practical, impulse does nto have such a system yet instaled, recent impulse blogs show that such a system is in the works but for now this is still steam's domaine.
Impulse:3Steam:3
So for nwo we seem to have a tie, but I do not belive that tie will last. Honestly I belive Impulse will catch up int he feilds they are lacking over the next year and will eventuly overtake steam. And so far from what booth compagnies are doing I favor Impulse over steam.
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