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STEAM | January 2016 - Out of cash, out of cache

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C

CecilRousso

Member
Lain said:
Are we funding Valve's monopoly over PC gaming by buying all our Steam games from Nuveem, Amazon, GMG, GamersGate, WinGameStore, GamesRepublic et all?
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Possibly.

But I don't care really. Valve's monopoly has been good for me, and good for PC games in general. I don't see being forced to use other services, a.k.a. competition, as something that improves the situation for me.

When most games are available on most services, and everyone can pick and choose what they want to support, then we have an improvement. EA locking away their games on Origin, and then selling a handful of other titles isn't.
 
D

Dr Dogg

Member
Amazing the things you find on your travels.

24057810153_6bed1d0d31_o.png


24057811013_225ed05c6a_o.png
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Although looking at shots others have posted in various threads they are all a bit samey so be interesting to see when folks get to the more open areas.

dex3108 said:
I think that we will see something on E3. At least teaser.
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Be interesting to see if EA are going to try and bring it out near a film again. Rogue One is meant to be out later this year so maybe paired with that.
 
A

Arthea

Member
Deques said:
Which devs do that?
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lately, a lot of them
indies mostly, of course


texhnolyze said:
Yeah, I was kinda surprised at that point as well.
Shoot first, ask questions later.
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words to live by
why are you surprised?


Dr Dogg said:
Recently over the years I've seen a few devs on here post that Valve prefers devs to put a store page up but only allow wishlisting rather than preorders to gauge interest in their title. No idea why though I've maybe thought this could be due to being able to cancel and refund preorders at any time and save them admin fees on refunded transactions or something similar but even if that was the case we're in a post Steam Refunds world now.
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oh! that kinda makes sense, but I thought Valve is not letting indies to do preorders at all, anyway.
 
D

Dr Dogg

Member
Recently over the years I've seen a few devs on here post that Valve prefers devs to put a store page up but only allow wishlisting rather than preorders to gauge interest in their title. No idea why though I've maybe thought this could be due to being able to cancel and refund preorders at any time and save them admin fees on refunded transactions or something similar but even if that was the case we're in a post Steam Refunds world now.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Lain said:
Earlier today I was made aware that wanting certain games to be also sold on Steam equals to wanting Valve to have a monopoly.
That not wanting to have to deal with more accounts than necessary is lazy. That one should care about the profits of publishers and distributors. That competition comes out of which games aren't available from specific storefronts, not from the quality of the service being offered by specific storefronts.

This got me to ponder a question: is it legit to prefer to keep a unified library of games instead of needing different clients AND account? Wanting to get Steam keys for a purchase is mere fanboy-ism or just a show of preference for a client one likes and that links him/her to his/her community?

Are we funding Valve's monopoly over PC gaming by buying all our Steam games from Nuveem, Amazon, GMG, GamersGate, WinGameStore, GamesRepublic et all?
Click to expand...
Steam has a lot going for it at this point: convenience, familiarity, featureset, community... and so on. Competing sites/clients need to offer more, or better stuff to compete at all, and, really, price is the best point of competition at this point, save maybe customer services. Though by now, Steam's size feeds itself, with Steam keys being the preferred method of product delivery. And honestly? I prefer this, if only because it avoids all of the developer/publisher-specific clients and DRM methods.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a DRM-free future for games, but Steam does make it easy to reject. Dealing with GOG made me realise how much I miss auto-updates (manually updating DLC-laden game is a tricky affair) and other features like screenshots, guides, and even verifying the game cache. Fortunately GOG is making great strides with Galaxy.

The bottom line is, Steam makes us love it too much. Even with how bad Steam can be.
Dr Dogg said:
Recently over the years I've seen a few devs on here post that Valve prefers devs to put a store page up but only allow wishlisting rather than preorders to gauge interest in their title. No idea why though I've maybe thought this could be due to being able to cancel and refund preorders at any time and save them admin fees on refunded transactions or something similar but even if that was the case we're in a post Steam Refunds world now.
Click to expand...

There was some game released recently that spilled the beans on no pre-orders before release. Basically, Valve advises this so that the rush of purchases on launch puts the game on the top of the sales charts, prompting further purchases; you know, free advertising. IIRC it's critical for smaller games to get that extra boost of revenue and not that important for giant titles that will chart either way.

I wish I could remember the specifics beyond this.
 
A

Arthea

Member
LurkerPrime said:
Steam has a lot going for it at this point: convenience, familiarity, featureset, community... and so on. Competing sites/clients need to offer more, or better stuff to compete at all, and, really, price is the best point of competition at this point, save maybe customer services. Though by now, Steam's size feeds itself, with Steam keys being the preferred method of product delivery. And honestly? I prefer this, if only because it avoids all of the developer/publisher-specific clients and DRM methods.

Don't get me wrong, I'd love a DRM-free future for games, but Steam does make it easy to reject. Dealing with GOG made me realise how much I miss auto-updates (manually updating DLC-laden game is a tricky affair) and other features like screenshots, guides, and even verifying the game cache. Fortunately GOG is making great strides with Galaxy.

The bottom line is, Steam makes us love it too much. Even with how bad Steam can be.
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IDK, with gog policy changing to offering more or less all games that are DRM free not only old ones, they only need to implement good friends, updating and cheevos system to be much more attractive than steam, for those that ignore multiplay mostly, I mean.

And let's be real, valve needs competition, we need it, not valve, to be precise. Monopoly never did good for any customer. On paper valve doesn't have monopoly, but in reality it's very close thing.
 
C

CecilRousso

Member
Dr Dogg said:
Recently over the years I've seen a few devs on here post that Valve prefers devs to put a store page up but only allow wishlisting rather than preorders to gauge interest in their title. No idea why though I've maybe thought this could be due to being able to cancel and refund preorders at any time and save them admin fees on refunded transactions or something similar but even if that was the case we're in a post Steam Refunds world now.
Click to expand...

For Valve, it might be the reason. But it might also just be best practice recommendations to help the dev. If devs stay away from preorders, they will get more sales on the release day, and better momentum with the game getting higher upp on the best selling list and similiar stuff.
 
L

LurkerPrime

Member
Arthea said:
IDK, with gog policy changing to offering more or less all games that are DRM free not only old ones, they only need to implement good friends, updating and cheevos system to be much more attractive than steam, for those that ignore multiplay mostly, I mean.

And let's be real, valve needs competition, we need it, not valve, to be precise. Monopoly never did good for any customer. On paper valve doesn't have monopoly, but in reality it's very close thing.
Click to expand...

GOG's issue is that they're in a real tight space in regards to their niche (DRM-free titles). If they drop that requirement to get bigger games on release it'll basically be the death of the reason to use their service, and if they don't they'll always be marginalised below.

Then again, being marginalised may be ideal... They'll always be the second choice.
 
D

Dr Dogg

Member
When does the PC beta of The Division go live? 2 hours from now?

Arthea said:
oh! that kinda makes sense, but I thought Valve is not letting indies to do preorders at all, anyway.
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As I said I've not the foggeist but I guess you could ask folks here like Dusk, Chubs, Beril, Thomas from Moon Studio, Ross from Ghostlight etc. if they can shine any light as to why.

CecilRousso said:
For Valve, it might be the reason. But it might also just be best practice recommendations to help the dev. If devs stay away from preorders, they will get more sales on the release day, and better momentum with the game getting higher upp on the best selling list and similiar stuff.
Click to expand...

Actually that makes quite a lot of sense. You normally see something that goes up for preorder hit the top sellers chart on the first day, disappear shortly after, and then only reapear when it's a day or two from release.
 
D

dex3108

Member
Dr Dogg said:
Be interesting to see if EA are going to try and bring it out near a film again. Rogue One is meant to be out later this year so maybe paired with that.
Click to expand...

Well Episode VIII is delayed to December and i guess they had in mind Spring 2017. for SW game, so they will probably move Mass Effect to Spring and SW to Holiday Season. But there is no way they will release it this year. But who knows, i just want to see what is game about.
 
A

Arthea

Member
It just occurred to me, that maybe that it has nothing to do with any extra benefits, only that there are so many games releasing that devs are afraid of their games being lost, forgotten unless on wishlists.
Well, we need some gafdev to say which is true.
 
L

Lain

Member
Devs can see the number of people that have their game wishlisted I think, and they can see the turn around between a user having a game wishlisted and purchasing it. It helps them get a better idea on how sales and discounts affect that turn around.
 
T

The Dear Leader

Banned
Lain said:
Devs can see the number of people that have their game wishlisted I think, and they can see the turn around between a user having a game wishlisted and purchasing it. It helps them get a better idea on how sales and discounts affect that turn around.
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everyone add the witness to wishlist pls ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
Why was this removed?

326340 Removed store name – River City Super Sports Challenge ~All Stars Special~

Did Arc System Works make a mistake again? That game just came out last month.
 
J

jdw_b

Member
Being cheap, I played '13 Tomb Raider last night.

Game looks great considering its a few years old. Played at 1440p at Ultra (except for tressfx) and managed a stable 60fps. Although I turned AA off as i'm comfy couching.

This has probably been covered countless times, but the button mashing bullshit in this game is infuriating.

"MASH Left and Right to Defend"....

It gives you a 1 second prompt and instantly kills you for fucking up. So, for me at least, it turns into trial and error gameplay which is something I loathe in games like this. I'll probably carry on as I'm trying to finish every game I start, and despite the QTE's, it seems a decent romp.

I look forward to playing ROTTR in a few years when its £0.99
 
S

Saty

Member
I asked Polish developer 11 bit studios and I'm afraid it sounds like The Little Ones won't be coming to PC any time soon.

"I can say that we would love to have this content available on PCs one day but for now we're focusing on developing modding tools for PC and supporting the console builds," senior producer Marek Ziemak told me in an email.

"I'm afraid we're too small to do everything at once and time will show what we will focus on next."
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2...little-ones-content-probably-not-coming-to-pc
 
D

Dr Dogg

Member
The QTE's in Tomb Raider 13 were pretty much all front loaded and after the first 30-45 mins next to never make an appearance again (unless you're one of those sorts that considers an interaction prompt a QTE). Though considering that's an issue quite a few highlight it's a wonder it made it past playtesting. You'd still get the same impact from the first chase sequence if the QTE's were removed and there were no failure states, probably give a better first impression for some peeps too.
 
D

Dr Dogg

Member
Next up; Valve bans users who have custom background set in Enhanced Steam. Representative says 'You must only use backgrounds bought from our marketplace!'
 
R

Rhaknar

The Steam equivalent of the drunk friend who keeps offering to pay your tab all night.
freshVeggie said:
I remember your recent post when you were undecided to get Darkest Dungeon since Xcom2 was so soon and you'd be surely lost for a while there. I see you are of a weak mind! Cracked without any outside pressure. How will you ever fare once monsters face you deep down? Better take me on your adventure! ;)
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WBHLVkb.png


Congratulations, you were my first death

You were my MVP so far too, sigh. Its xcom all over again
 
S

Saty

Member
Waiting for the inevitable Gabe response 'We fucked up. We are reverting this'. It happens so many times you gotta ask yourself if people are Valve really think it's not the way to go. Valve has been increasingly in need of 'babysitting' by the community for decisions they make. You can no more trust them to act on the best behalf of the community and players need to be alert and call them out each time they fuck up.
 
B

bobnowhere

Member
Rhaknar said:
WBHLVkb.png


Congratulations, you were my first death

You were my MVP so far too, sigh. Its xcom all over again
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I get too attached to my guys, that would make it worse!

Only lost 5 so far, ignoring all the crappy level 0 pitch black cash runners! 4 to a Shambler wipe and 1 to the Siren.
 
C

Chairmanchuck

Member
Saty said:
Waiting for the inevitable Gabe response 'We fucked up. We are reverting this'. It happens so many times you gotta ask yourself if people are Valve really think it's not the way to go. Valve has been increasingly in need of 'babysitting' by the community for decisions they make. You can no more trust them to act on the best behalf of the community and players need to be alert and call them out each time they fuck up.
Click to expand...

I actually think that maybe the ones in charge of the economies in DOTA2, TF2 and CS:Go are not the devs themselves anymore, but really economy specialists and not the "gamers".

Just thats what it looks like when I see such shitty decisions. I mean Valve actually was about "all power to the modders and the community".
 
T

The Red Wizard

Member
LurkerPrime said:
GOG's issue is that they're in a real tight space in regards to their niche (DRM-free titles). If they drop that requirement to get bigger games on release it'll basically be the death of the reason to use their service, and if they don't they'll always be marginalised below.

Then again, being marginalised may be ideal... They'll always be the second choice.
Click to expand...
GOG slowly became my first choice but the Steam Controller only working in BPM made me rethink things. I had trouble setting up the controller in Game of Thrones with Galaxy running. I'll give it another go to see how it fare as it has been a while.
 
lashman

lashman

Steam-GAF's Official Ambassador to Gaming-GAF
American Truck Simulator review (8/10)

I’m driving down a long, remote desert road in the dead of night. There’s no other traffic and I can’t see anything except the glow of my headlights and the cracked, dusty asphalt ahead. I’m hypnotised by the road, which seems to go on forever. My attention drifts. ‘In the Air Tonight’ by Phil Collins plays on the classic rock radio station I’m tuned to. Then, suddenly, something appears directly in front of me. A shape on the road.

I panic, my heart racing. In a long instant I think: is it a car? An animal? I slam on the brakes and skid to a lurching halt. Then I see it. A tumbleweed rolling lazily across the road in front of me, lit up by the glow of my lights. I laugh at myself and continue towards Los Angeles. I’ve got 30 tons of fertiliser to deliver, and time’s running out.

This is what passes for an anecdote in American Truck Simulator, a game so slow and uneventful that the sudden appearance of tumbleweed is genuinely thrilling. These little moments—military jets streaking across the sky, strange sculptures by the side of the road, trains rumbling past—feel almost like rewards. A brief glimmer of excitement in a long drive across vast swathes of largely empty nothingness.

Like its predecessor, Euro Truck Simulator, it’s a game that is mysteriously compelling despite its mundane subject matter. It’s a fundamentally good game, with weighty, nuanced handling, a deep simulation, and higher production values than most sims. This results in something both very playable and oddly hypnotic. Driving from place to place, obeying the traffic laws, watching the scenery roll by, listening to the radio... it’s incredibly relaxing.

There are two main ways to play. One is working as a freelance gun for hire, taking on delivery jobs where your truck and fuel expenses are provided by your employer. This is the easiest, most accessible way to play, and as you level up you can spend XP to unlock more lucrative jobs including longer hauls and fragile or dangerous cargo. These earn you money that can be spent unlocking the other side of the game: running your own business.

Once you earn enough money to buy your own truck—or take out a bank loan if you’re impatient—you can start your own company. You choose which city you’re based in and can customise and upgrade your truck. Eventually you hire drivers and create your very own haulage network. It’s a fairly involved business management sim, but entirely optional. There’s satisfaction in owning a truck and being your own boss, but I prefer being a contractor so I don’t have to worry about buying fuel or crashing my truck and spiralling into debt when the repair bills come in.

At launch, American Truck Simulator comes with two states: California and Nevada. More will be added over time, but it is slightly disappointing that you can’t yet drive from coast to coast. Still, it’s a huge space, and you can visit cities including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Las Vegas—and a number of small towns between. Set on the sun-scorched west coast, the scenery is mostly dusty and desert-like, but they’ve captured the look and feel of both states nicely. I prefer the overcast, rain-soaked motorways of Europe myself, but the new setting is detailed and well-made.

Anyone who played Euro Truck Simulator 2 may find the game a little too familiar in places. The interface and structure are pretty much identical, and it feels like they’ve picked up the old game and dropped it into the new location. Even different colours or visual flourishes on the interface would have been welcome, just to remind you that it is indeed a new work.

As a result, if you were already burned out on ETS, the new setting might not be enough to reignite your passion. It’s a very similar experience overall. The trucks—of which there are only two available at launch—don’t really feel that different to their European counterparts. It’s more like an iteration than a fully-blown sequel.

But if SCS are as tireless and passionate with ongoing updates as they are with Euro Truck Simulator 2, ATS will only get better as it grows. America is a vast, varied country with a lot of different scenery, and more states to drive through will make for more interesting journeys. For now, this is a polished, strangely enjoyable simulator that you can easily lose hours to. But if you want to travel further afield, you might want to wait until there are more places to go to.
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Tektonic

Tektonic

Member
spares from hb

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t1cxE6r.gif
cities xl platinum -- MB-B6EB5A295DF0096C - Taken by Ludens
game of thrones -- MB-7628412DD0FB4118 - Taken by Ozium[/QUOTE]
 
Haunted

Haunted

Member
ricochetguro said:
50 minutes of Tomb Raider before I'm straight massacring people. So silly.
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You've also already had 30 completely death defying jumps, numerous one handed ledge grabs and at least three different "sliding down a slope towards an abyss and holding on with the pick at the last second" moments.

Game looks absolutely beautiful, but if you even stop to think for one second about what you're actually doing, it's all falling apart. :p
 
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