Let me get this out of the way: I like Steam. I like Valve.
We have a poll up right now that asks whether you use Steam. Let us know please.
I’ve been in digital distribution since before digital distribution was a thing. The very first computer game that was launched at retail and digitally distributed was Galactic Civilizations back in February 2003.
For us, digital distribution was a matter of life or death. Consider this, how many other independent (or heck, just non-publicly traded) game studios have been around 20 years? Go ahead. Count them up. Not many eh?
I incorporated Stardock back in 1993 from my college dorm room. And I can tell you, if it weren’t for digital distribution, we would have stopped making games a long time ago. That’s because the more people that are between you and your customer, the more opportunities there are for theft. Not by players but by retailers, publishers, distributors, etc.
One of the reasons why the whole “piracy” bellowing from publishers irritated me was because the biggest obstacle to getting paid for my work wasn’t from pirates. It was from the middle men.
In 1994, we released our first game. Galactic Civilizations for OS/2. It was published by a company called Advanced Idea Machines. The game was a huge hit. So I heard anyway. We didn’t get paid. And being a poor college student at the time, I couldn’t afford a lawyer.
So in 1996, we released Galactic Civilizations 2 for OS/2. This time we released it ourselves. But our retail distributor, Micro Central, went bankrupt and didn’t pay us and our mail order distributor, Blue Orchards went out of business as well and didn’t pay us.
So then we moved to Windows and we released Galactic Civilizations for Windows, published by Strategy First….and again, didn’t get paid.
Do you see a pattern here?
What saved us was digital distribution. With it, we could sell directly to customers, cutting out the middle man.
As you can imagine, when Steam came out we started to get a little nervous. Not because of the competition but because we feared the idea that we would one day need to sell our software through a third party and hence risk not getting paid…again.
As it had turned out, our fears have been unwarranted. Impulse, now owned by Gamestop, pays like clock work and so does Steam. By contrast, with a retail distributor you were lucky to get paid merely 90 days late. And that’s not counting the obnoxious and expensive RMA games they play. I like the service Steam provides. They’re easy to work with, they’re honest, and they’re passionate about what they do. And most importantly, they let me, as a game developer, focus on what matters: making games.
Anyway, the point here being, what are your feelings on Steam these days?
Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised to see Steam (and other digital retailers) simply stop selling to the EU given that ruling. If people can start re-selling digital copies (which unlike buying a used physical copy, has absolutely no downside), it might no longer be practical for them to bother with that market.
Yes, it does seem that having a right to be able to sell something that you can make infinite copies is a bit silly. Although if you are just selling a key and your existing installation becomes invalid, that might work. But still, a funny ruling.
Actually, I was assuming you lose your existing installation when you sell. But looking at it as a buyer, if I buy a "used" digital copy, it's exactly the same as a new. If I buy a used physical copy, I risk missing manuals, or even damaged disks.
There'd be almost no reason to ever buy new again. Would kinda shred the market.
That makes sense.
So in the EU there would be nothing they could do to stop you selling your account then? That is the only way i can see to transfer games, and then it would be an all or nothing deal.
Just a couple things here.
First..*the* resource for Civilization stuff is the Civ Fanatics forums. Go there for help, ignore all other places.
Second, why would you expect Valve/Steam or 2K to help you with mods? Mods are what they are and many times are broke or don't work for many people. If you want help you'll need to get with the mod author or the community that surrounds the mod (if there is one). Just like for Skyrim. If I download and install a mod I certainly don't expect Bethesda or Valve to help me if it breaks the game or crashes it. Something is wrong with the mod or it conflicts with other mods I have. That simple. Thus I hit the Bethsoft forums, Skyrim Nexus forums and discussion threads on the mod in question and see what's up. Same goes for Civ 5, get with the mod author or check the community around the mod (Civ Fanatics would be the first place to look). Not every mod will run for every person. And all Steam Workshop is, is a way to easily get mods to you. There is no guarantee that any of them will work for you.
Good luck!
So Steam=Illuminati?
I guess I should have figured as much when they absolutely insisted that I needed to get microchips grafted to my central nervous system to get the most out of the service; I suppose the intensive indoctrination "therapy" was another red flag.
Oh well, Steam is practically my OS now so if Fallen Enchantress isn't available on Steam I'll just add and launch it with Steam anyway.
To those who say you have to be online to go into offline mode... you are wrong.
I disconnected my network while steam wasn't running.
Started up steam and it says it couldn't connect and asks if I want to try again or go into offline mode.
I select offline mode. Steam starts up.
Maybe they have something wrong with their steam, or maybe they just need to check things out before posting.
All steam has to do is implement a system of moving a game from one account to another. Pretty easy and much preferable to stopping sales to the eu.
I can only say that it rarely works for me, since it requires you to have all downloads finished and I'm usually in the middle of one.
So Valve 0 everyone else 1 on that issue
I have not had any problems playing Sins Rebellion off line. When I demo it on media tours, I'm obviously not connected to the Internet. It's just a lone laptop. Steam just says "Would you like to go in off line mode" to which I say yes and off I go.
Brad, you are wasting your breath. We've said it a million times, but they don't want to believe. They hate Steam blindly.
Funny how the world works sometimes
Sincerely~ Kongdej
Been loving the Steam summer sales as usual. Got The Witcher 2 Enhanced Edition for $12 or so. Legend of Grimrock for $4. Tropico 4 with all DLC for something like $9. Even picked up Oblivion and Morrowind just for the heck of it, *both* of them for $11 total.
Love it!
Steam is infinitely better then buying at the store...
But I hate that it is another middle man dipping into the pockets of developers (Last I heard they eat up 30%).
I hate the DRM (it freaks the fuck out if I open up my laptop and have forgotten to sign off of my desktop... which I leave on when I travel to VNC into)
I hate that if they go bankrupt I permanently lose all my games.
I hate all the damn bugs in steam which will occasionally even prevent me from playing
I hate the lack of basic features (can't install 2 games on two different hard drives!)
GOG I love... only problem I have with gog is that they REFUSE (I asked them to) to version their file names so I have no clue if a patch was released.
the problem is when the steam server are overloaded, it doesn't work very well and you have to know the trick:
in the case where you have internet access, but steam backend is not responsive, the only option is "server is unavailable" and no way to go offline.
it also happens when your internet box is not working but still your computer is connected to a switch so for windows you are supposed to be online => no option for offline mode.
in either case, people have to physically unplug the cable to make it work and really that's not very user-friendly.
Good point.
I'm fine with Steam and Impulse as digital downloading sites, that's fine. I personally like a CD/DVD copy of my games, cause you just by god never know when you feel like loading and playing that out dated, dinosaur of a game, but it's always there. Gaming companies and their distribution methods can and do come and go sometimes.I prefer not to play online though, and while we will have the option, I hope, I have a couple of games that require me to log into steam to play, and I absolutely hate that idea, it keeps me from wanting to play them at all. I was one of the millions that had accounts hacked when SOE/Sony got hit, I've had my account hacked with EAMythic a few times as well, and the bad thing with the EA Mythic one, it was an inside job, they confirmed it and made efforts to make my account(s) totally thief resistant. i.e. those accounts can not be transferred, even if I called them, faxed them, showed up in person and told them to give them to someone else. They will be mine till their servers are unplugged and are no longer in service. The power of Attorney's can be amazing.ANYWAY.. Using a digital distributor is cool, as long as there are no direct ties to that distributor after the distribution is concluded, meaning, I do not have to log into Steam to play this game after I have it on my computer. I play on my computer, with or without the need for internet, so that way if I wanted to play on my laptop at work I could other than that, I have no restrictions to who we use, just don't force me to log into them every time I want to play the game.
I was one of the skeptical masses about Steam, and I have never used it. Until 2 years ago, there were some deals there that I can't just pass up, and so it went. 2 years later I have around 200 games registered with Steam. From buying developer bundles, franchise bundles to individual sales , for me they have the best deals and they make it easier and much more affordable for people to buy and collect games. This coming from someone who never bought an original game until i'm a teenager (Original games are not available in my country, if they are the prices are astronomical). Now I bought my old favorites on GOG.com and newer games on Steam.
I am not a computer whiz, but I have never have any problems with Steam that I can't solve with logic or looking for the answer from Google.
I am not afraid that Valve/Steam will go bankrupt since I think their business model is sound, even if they close somebody will take over their business. 2 million+ people online at all times with a peak around 6million+, one of the big boys will buy them out if ever they are available.
True. However going forward even this is going to be harder and harder to do. Take Skyrim for example. Having the DVD all day long doesn't help you since you have to register it on Steam anyway. If Steam were to go away Bethesda would have to patch out the Steam requirement (because Skyrim is a Steamworks game). Same would be true for Civ 5 and hundreds of other games. Same for EA games which now require Origin. They all require something online so the DVD does you no good.
Offline mode has been off and on broken over the last month, though. Steam has a way of breaking itself with updates. That's about the only downside to it.
Steam is a mixed bag.
I like that it always has stuff on sale, and that it has a fairly good selection of games. It helps me organize my games, and for those of us who enjoy being social and playing video games, it helps us with that as well. No more chatting through facebook while I'm playing Mass Effect. Now I can do it while I'm nuking people with the Cain.
On the other hand, the offline feature sometimes is buggy. On occasion, Steam seems to decide that it needs ALL the RAM. Some of the groups that Steam allows seem to be nothing more than attempts to spread viruses (i.e. "Plz. Don't Hack Me", a group that seems to try to get people to download viruses by disguising the viruses as game key downloads.) Steam's claim to "cut out the middlemen" is ironic, as steam is now the ultimate middleman.
To summarize: Good sales, helps organize games, and helps with social gaming. Also can be buggy at times, can hog resources, and has become the thing it has sought to replace.
I like Steam. I'll even buy games I already own just to have them on Steam. I can't be bothered with physical media anymore.
I have had steam for many years and there are so many advantages to it. I own over 250 games now, mostly bought at less than 5 dollars on their 2x annual sales.
One of the key things I like is the match making ability in games that support it. All I do is hit shift-tab and invite my friend. It is so painless compared to many other games. Everyone on steam has the same version, no compatibility issues. Never had a problem playing multi-player games.
Mods are fantastic. Look at Skyrim, all you have to do is browse, and subscribe. It could not get any more easier. I hate going to different sites like Civ fanatics etc... It is so much nicer with steam. I have not bought a game in years retail. Picked up some great games for cheap on the July sale last week. I think I paid $15 for the Witcher 2, that was the most expensive game, the rest were $5 or less. All the expansions for Fallout Vegas were 75% off. If you don't know all games go on sale in July, and at Christmas time. People that don't like Steam must have money falling out of their pockets, or just don't play enough games to justify it anyhow. I however am completely in love with Steam
I wish something like this existed in the 90's.....
What is there not to like about it? I have NEVER had a problem with steam, and never had a problem playing games offline (unless of course its multiplayer). I often buy two copies of games so I can play with my son, they are such a good deal.
I also use Gamefly (Direct2Drive), Gamestop (used to be Impulse), and a few times Amazon.com. I always regret buying games from any other service, I really don't like them.
I also have repurchased several games just to have on Steam. Most recently I purchased Borderlands, think it was 5 bucks (or maybe 7.50) with all the expansions .... why? Because when my hard drive crashed, I had a hell of a time getting my DLC re-activated again, it took weeks! I had to email them so many times, and it was almost impossible to find the place to re-download it. What a nightmare! It had to be one of the most frustrating experiences ever. On steam, its simple. Just right click on the title, and it knows what DLC you own.
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