I mean, the way I see it, getting mad at Valve for taking away a second-hand key is tantamount to getting mad at the police for taking possession of a stolen TV you bought from a pawn shop. Sure, you have proof of purchase, but if the original owner can produce something more pertinent then it's only natural that you're going to lose out. There's a small distinction to be made in that in the case of SCDK, you know that the key wasn't stolen and the company is just being a dick, but Valve doesn't and can't be expected to know this -- it has to make the call with the evidence it's provided and it's going to choose physical evidence over a digital receipt.
Edit: To be perfectly clear, I'm not blaming you for getting into this situation, just disagreeing with what Valve's role should be. As I said before, most resellers try their best to make their stores seem as authentic as possible, and rarely does a day go by where someone doesn't ask if [some reseller] is an officially-recognised retailer, plus in the case of SCDK in particular it's a reasonable assumption that there situations wouldn't arise since it's affiliated with an actual retailer that ships physical goods.
I don't think Valve should be even remotely thought of or act like the police at all and when they do encounter situations where they suspect something illegal has happened they should pass the information on to a legal body to deal with instead of making rash and (in this instance at the very least) wrong decisions. They should at least ask the other party (ie me) for information before denying me access to my game surely?
I know you aren't blaming me and am sure you understand I'm pretty frustrated at the moment with all this, I was bloody loving playing DS2 - more than any game in the last 18 months or so which doesn't help my mood with the whole thing.
To be honest I'm still mostly worried about losing my saves, I'm sure I'll get my money back in the end. I just think Valve should have at least made an effort to contact me before acting
All I know is I am going to buy it to support future Grasshopper games on Steam, if it does well they may be more interested in developing for the platform in the future.
I don't think Valve should be even remotely thought of or act like the police at all and when they do encounter situations where they suspect something illegal has happened they should pass the information on to a legal body to deal with instead of making rash and (in this instance at the very least) wrong decisions. They should at least ask the other party (ie me) for information before denying me access to my game surely?
Oh, there's absolutely an argument to be made that communication in these matters could be improved (you could say this about a lot of things Valve-related, in fact), I'm just stressing that the outcome wouldn't have changed even if there were more steps to the process.
To be honest I'm still mostly worried about losing my saves, I'm sure I'll get my money back in the end. I just think Valve should have at least made an effort to contact me before acting
I don't believe so, past titles being transitioned over seems unlikely because there have been so many companies involved with publishing their titles, on-top of the fact many Japanese devs outside of SEGA and Square-Enix seem scared for some reason to bring their old games to Steam, even if their old games had PC ports.
But if it does well, maybe they'll look more into the platform as a viable option for the future.
However, I'd be super excited if Shadows of the Damned ever made its way to Steam. But as the game was published by EA... But maybe they own the rights to it, they seem to be in charge if they make a sequel to the game or not.
Concerning the curating at the store level, they absolutely should and it's really a terrible look to not monitor the content your system sells. Everything on the platform is a reflection of the brand or store that sells it. Reputation is going to be fought and won or lost, not only on the developer level, but the sales front level as well
All big box stores curate or manufacture everything those stores sell. For good reason.
Buyers are already wary of eBay sold products, as well as amazon marketplace items. I don't think steam needs or should follow suit.
It's an awesome addition to the best feature on Steam and works well with Uplay because who is going to be hogging their Uplay account or logging into to it to accidentally boot someone out lol.
I don't believe so, past titles being transitioned over seems unlikely because there have been so many companies involved with publishing their titles, on-top of the fact many Japanese devs outside of SEGA and Square-Enix seem scared for some reason to bring their old games to Steam, even if their old games had PC ports.
But if it does well, maybe they'll look more into the platform as a viable option for the future.
However, I'd be super excited if Shadows of the Damned ever made its way to Steam. But as the game was published by EA... But maybe they own the rights to it, they seem to be in charge if they make a sequel to the game or not.
Hopefully it does well. I haven't played any of their games since I don't own a console but watching the reviews and gameplays, their games looks like a lot of fun.
After Dark Souls 2 and Bound By Flame I think I need a break from ARPG. So either KID or Transistor will probably be my choice for my next game. Leaning more and more to KID.
Although if Transistor will be on GMG, I can get both!
TF2 has a maximum backpack/inventory space. F2P players get one backpack page (50 items I believe). Premium players get 6 pages, and you can buy backpack expanders that give you extra pages.
300 (un)dedicated employees for 75 million customers. This is not normal.
Riot are 3 times bigger than Valve, Wargaming.net are 5 times bigger, and Blizzard are 10 times bigger.
So why? Why are Valve reluctant to expand properly? They're handicapping themselves for no damn reason. It's like Arsene Wenger and Arsenal, with how everyone is saying the current situation is not healthy, yet he stubbornly continues do his own thing.
What the hell are they doing with their money? Laundering it? :lol
My only guess would be that their "flat business structure" just doesn't work after a certain point. Apart from that expansion is something they need to do, but for all I know they may already be doing it or have done it and none of us heard anything... ie nothing changed
And dying in your beds, many years from now, would you be willin' to trade ALL the days, from this day to that, for one chance, just one chance, to come back here and tell our enemies that they may take our lives, but they'll never take... OUR SAVES!!!!
300 (un)dedicated employees for 75 million customers. This is not normal.
Riot are 3 times bigger than Valve, Wargaming.net are 5 times bigger, and Blizzard are 10 times bigger.
So why? Why are Valve reluctant to expand properly? They're handicapping themselves for no damn reason. It's like Arsene Wenger and Arsenal, with how everyone is saying the current situation is not healthy, yet he stubbornly continues do his own thing.
What the hell are they doing with their money? Laundering it? :lol
Sometimes Valve's flat structure drives me crazy. Even though TF2 is seven years old at this point it's making tons of money for Valve yet they have a tiny team on the game that's barely putting out any content anymore. Most other companies would probably have more people working on the game so they could put out more content. Of cours if they didn't have their flat structure they may not of worked on TF2 for as long as they did in the first place so I guess it has its advantages and disadvantages.
Concerning the curating at the store level, they absolutely should and it's really a terrible look to not monitor the content your system sells. Everything on the platform is a reflection of the brand or store that sells it. Reputation is going to be fought and won or lost, not only on the developer level, but the sales front level as well
All big box stores curate or manufacture everything those stores sell. For good reason.
Buyers are already wary of eBay sold products, as well as amazon marketplace items. I don't think steam needs or should follow suit.
But, in a way, you're contradicting yourself.
If a non-curated store would overshadow Valve, lessening the Steam brand, why this doesn't happen with (mostly) Amazon and eBay?
I mean, even if we exclude for a moment the Amazon sellers, still Amazon sells low quality products (a bad dvd, a bad ebook, a crappy cable, whatever), but is not like customers blame Amazon for them...
This said, I would be overjoyed by a curated Steam, but it is realistically impossible, so...
Hopefully it does well. I haven't played any of their games since I don't own a console but watching the reviews and gameplays, their games looks like a lot of fun.
After Dark Souls 2 and Bound By Flame I think I need a break from ARPG. So either KID or Transistor will probably be my choice for my next game. Leaning more and more to KID.
Although if Transistor will be on GMG, I can get both!
If you haven't played Shadows of the Damned, I would say it's good to set the right expectations for it. I love the game personally, but not in a way I think it's one of the best games ever, as there are some flaws in the game, and the game isn't the best third-person action-horror game or anything. There's a few sections that are a bit drudge-worthy, and surprisingly I think the game has some of the weakest bosses in a Grasshopper title (with a few exceptions).
It's a 'weird' game like all of Grasshopper's games, but it actually is less zany than most of their other titles, which will either be a good or bad thing depending on who you are. Yes, goats make light, demons eat strawberries, and there's like 101 sexual jokes through the course of the game, but the game kind of early on defines what sort of world they're in, honestly the setting (being hell itself) makes for a lot more of it to suspend belief in certain areas, and the game doesn't really go all-out crazy for most of the game (maybe with sections of Chapter 4 excluded from this). It's all decidedly fantasy, but everything is more explained and more down-to-earth, and dare I say artistic, than most of Grasshopper's other games. It also delves more into myths and folklore than most other games, outside funnily enough than Killer is Dead.
But I ended up loving Garcia and Johnson quite a bit, they make a good comedy duo and fairly likable characters, and the game sort of has tones of being more serious between the silliness before it gets a bit more serious towards the end (serious is relative here, but the game's humor goes down a lot during the final chapter for developments, but the final chapter is actually my favorite part of the game). The gameplay is fun for me, and its all backed by a pretty good soundtrack and some very fun scenes and references.
I want to talk more about it, but it's kind of off-topic. I have more praise for individual elements but I don't want to spoil. It's not the best thing since sliced-butter, but I found the game to be a very enjoyable experience that surprisingly has stuck with me more than I thought it would, but I still would define it like other Grasshopper titles as a love it/hate it game, and a big part of this comes down to what you're looking for in a game.
Baseline thing about Grasshopper:
While their games gameplay I'd argue is not bad, it's not cream of the crop either.and is more style over substance. Many of their games get weird, though what kind of weird changes from game to game (Killer7 for example gets psychologically weird, Shadows of the Damned has a kind of weird atmosphere to it, Lollipop Chainsaw gets poppy-weird by which I mean it gets zany and over-the-top, etc.), and usually their stories have deeper meanings to them, and in some titles cases you have to read into things to fully understand the plot (and as a heads-up, Killer is Dead is definitely this).
It's incredibly hard to believe that Valve still has only 300 employees, I mean including dev teams, support, servers maint., tech staff and so on? How is that even possible? Or do they hire some third parties for some of work?
It's incredibly hard to believe that Valve still has only 300 employees, I mean including dev teams, support, servers maint., tech staff and so on? How is that even possible? Or do they hire some third parties for some of work?
I tried, paypal went fine but I'm now stuck back at the website endlessly circling waiting for them to acknowledge the payment. An email from paypal, but none from the website.
I tried, paypal went fine but I'm now stuck back at the website endlessly circling waiting for them to acknowledge the payment. An email from paypal, but none from the website.
I bought it and had no issues, I got an email and I got my keys. I activated two of them I did not own already and the keys worked perfectly fine, and stored the other two keys to either giveaway here or to friends.
My only guess would be that their "flat business structure" just doesn't work after a certain point. Apart from that expansion is something they need to do, but for all I know they may already be doing it or have done it and none of us heard anything... ie nothing changed
Well they have shown some signs of expansion with their European office in Luxembourg and apparently looking into a UK office. Tho at 5 employees at last count I am not sure how big a deal the Luxembourg office is, probably mostly for handling EU based legal issues and dev outreach if I had to guess.
Would a 2 tier Valve work? Say have a Steam team with a more traditional structure with certain people allocated positions of responsibility and be a more target driven environment and then have a Valve we all know and love where they're free to experiment and flex their creativity driving their game, hardware and other bizarre ventures.
I'm sure there would be 100's of thousands of people just willing to do a mediocre run of the mill 9 to 5 job working on Steam out there.
Sometimes Valve's flat structure drives me crazy. Even though TF2 is seven years old at this point it's making tons of money for Valve yet they have a tiny team on the game that's barely putting out any content anymore. Most other companies would probably have more people working on the game so they could put out more content. Of cours if they didn't have their flat structure they may not of worked on TF2 for as long as they did in the first place so I guess it has its advantages and disadvantages.
I personally think their structure does more harm than good. There's a reason most company's don't have a flat structure. I think productivity would be higher if they weren't. I'll change my opinion of that if I see a change though.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. There better be a preload. I mean I CAN DL 50 GB since I got no bandwidth limit but come the fuck on, compress those audio and what have you, fuck's sake...
Sorry for flaming but I honestly see no reason for it to be 50 GB.
So how about that Dark Souls II thing? Anyone playing that video game?
I am not a person that owns video games stuff. Closest thing(s) I have to video games stuff are a few Olly Moss Pokemon prints that are tucked away in a flat file. Yesterday, the Dark Souls II strategy guide arrived. I laid across our bed with my legs kicked into the air, like a preteen girl circa 1990 with the newest issue of Tiger Beat in hand, examining map layouts and comparing my fluffier cat to Sweet Shalquoir, wondering if it's totally inappropriate to rename her. Tomorrow, the Dark Souls Design Works book arrives. Today, I am looking at listings for the OG Dark Souls strategy guide which sells for over a hundred bucks new. Tonight I stock up on Bonfire Ascetics and go about building my final Knight PvP set.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck. There better be a preload. I mean I CAN DL 50 GB since I got no bandwidth limit but come the fuck on, compress those audio and what have you, fuck's sake...
Sorry for flaming but I honestly see no reason for it to be 50 GB.
This seems like one of those things that's outrageous now, but in 10 years time will probably seem like nothing. Hell, internet speeds for 1,000 MBPS are starting to be installed in cities around the world as the new standard.
This seems like one of those things that's outrageous now, but in 10 years time will probably seem like nothing. Hell, internet speeds for 1,000 MBPS are starting to be installed in cities around the world as the new standard.
It'll happen of course, but typically there is a few years downtime of the standard remaining around the same, then technology catches up and surpasses it, so the standard is raised again. We're just in a period where the standard is being raised again, which makes sense as we're at the new console generation, which means developers are making games with a lot bigger resources for the moment than we're used too.
It'll happen of course, but typically there is a few years downtime of the standard remaining around the same, then technology catches up and surpasses it, so the standard is raised again. We're just in a period where the standard is being raised again, which makes sense as we're at the new console generation, which means developers are making games with a lot bigger resources for the moment than we're used too.
Oh please I'll only believe that when the game actually delivers on these 'resources'. I can get if the game is 20 GB, but 50 GB? It makes me think they were too lazy to compress some of the data.
Well they have shown some signs of expansion with their European office in Luxembourg and apparently looking into a UK office. Tho at 5 employees at last count I am not sure how big a deal the Luxembourg office is, probably mostly for handling EU based legal issues and dev outreach if I had to guess.
When I was there in March they mentioned that their Luxembourg office was down to 3 people, and that all three people were legal/accounting folks.
I can also confirm that there are indeed only about 300 people in the whole of Valve - 3 in their UK office, about 20 people that work "from home" (doing support for foreign countries) and the rest that work in their Bellevue office.
What are they doing? I don't have actual figures, but based solely on the size of the teams I saw when I was there, I'd say it's about 40% Steam support, 30% DOTA2, 20% L4D3 / Source 2, and the remaining 10% (about 30 people) were split between Steam "engineering team" (where I want to work - the people who actually update the Steam client and website), the Steam business dev team, receptionists, and Gabe Newell.
Of course, I could be way off - this is just what I observed.
Oh please I'll only believe that when the game actually delivers on these 'resources'. I can get if the game is 20 GB, but 50 GB? It makes me think they were too lazy to compress some of the data.
It's probably part of it. I literally know next to nothing about the new Wolfenstein so I couldn't say, but for better or worse I expect games between 30-70GB to not become all too uncommon in the next few years.
It's probably part of it. I literally know next to nothing about the new Wolfenstein so I couldn't say, but for better or worse I expect games between 30-70GB to not become all too uncommon in the next few years.
We want rich detail, crisp, clear audio. We want 25+ hour campaigns at least, and we want multiplayer that is precisely balanced. We want games to come out now. But we want them to fit on a 3.5" floppy and we want them for $1.99 or to get them through some key reseller from a country ending in -stan.
Sheesh.
C'mon Bethesda, give me 50GB games with rich detail and uncompressed audio. Right in my veins.
We want rich detail, crisp, clear audio. We want 25+ hour campaigns at least, and we want multiplayer that is precisely balanced. We want games to come out now. But we want them to fit on a 3.5" floppy and we want them for $1.99 or to get them through some key reseller from a country ending in -stan.
Sheesh.
C'mon Bethesda, give me 50GB games with rich detail and uncompressed audio. Right in my veins.
Oh, it's laziness, is it? Those lazy developers. Lazy, lazy, lazy. Must be it. So lazy. They're probably greedy too.
Well there could be some middleground though, because every time I think I'll have to download 50GB games over my 4Mbps connection a cute fluffy bunny dies.
For example, hi res DLCs like the Sleeping Dogs one, would benefit both people with non-gaming rigs and people with crappy connection speeds.
EDIT: or better yet, "hi res uncompressed cutscenes" packs.
Speaking personally, larger game downloads don't faze me (I'm currently synced at a paltry ~5.5Mbps, however I don't have a download limit), but I just hope pre-load periods account for the larger sizes. Wolfenstein, for example, is all but assured to be a 40GB+ download and therefore its pre-load period really should have started by now.
What with both PS4 and XBO sporting Blu Ray drives I'd say get used to 30-50gb+ downloads in the future for AAA multi plats. Christ some PC centric titles might be even bigger.
Wolfenstein is in the case of being idTech 5 and current gen so those MegaTextures are going to be huge 12k bastards. Case in point Rage was around 30gb and last gen.
I think the boat has sailed on the RTS genre outside of a few select titles no thanks in part to DotA. I'm more in the quality over quantity camp though with RTS', I'd prefer one really deep on that can last for years than lots that grab my attention for a month or 2. Would have liked to have seen how EA's f2p Command & Conquer would have play out but that died a very quiet death.
Thanks to an anonymous benefactor, I am giving away 4 Steam keys. To enter this giveaway, send a PM to ModBot with any subject line. In the body, copy and paste the entire line below that corresponds to the key you want (if you include more than one game, you will be blocked from entering).
Rules for this Giveaway:
- This giveaway is a LIGHTNING raffle. The winners will be selected by random draw 15 minutes after the draw was created. Any games not claimed after that point will be given away first come first serve.
- This giveaway has a manual blocklist. The giver has identified members who abuse giveaways and restricted them from participating.
- Do not trade keys you win off-site to enrich yourself. Don't try to claim games you have no interest in collecting or playing. Don't claim games to give them to friends off-site.
- If the key is already taken you will not receive a reply. Replies may take a minute or two:
X-Blades -- MB-8ED1A04FB8489D15 - Taken by Aku-Audi. 1 entrants total.
Two Worlds II -- MB-C8305E9B407896AC - Taken by zeroOman. 1 entrants total.
KnightShift -- MB-941D54C5A5F45B16 - Taken by NingenJanai. 2 entrants total.
Retro/Grade -- MB-50548B0F1AB49ACE - Taken by Freedom = $1.05. 7 entrants total.
Speaking personally, larger game downloads don't faze me (I'm currently synced at a paltry ~5.5Mbps, however I don't have a download limit), but I just hope pre-load periods account for the larger sizes. Wolfenstein, for example, is all but assured to be a 40GB+ download and therefore its pre-load period really should have started by now.
i just wish they made the super uncompressed stuff an optional download and be done with it. i don't want super high res audio and super high res textures :I
