Originally Posted By Fnord (9 JUN 2012 5:07am)

 

There are plenty of reasons why developers chose to relese their games on steam:
-Kill the second hand market (this is only true for boxed copies)

-Metrics. Steam allows the game to send back information on what weapons you prefer to use, where you die, how fast you do things and so on and so forth. They have actually released a lot of TF2 metrics to the public, and been very open about what information they collect

-Easier to distribute patches when there is only one place to distribute them, and Steam will take all the server load.

-If they have their games as Steam only, then Steam might offer them a better deal (a larger cut on any purchase through steam). This is unconfirmed though.

Let me make a bold statement now, aren't all of the above positive things..

- Metrics: ideal for showing devs how we really play and what we like in games

- quicker distribution gives a bigger revenue for devs and publishers, which generates more budget to make better games.

- one place to get patches, i hate it to search for patches, finding the right patch AND making it work can be hard for some games.

and last but not least...

Yes please kill the second hand market, from an economical point of view that would be a good thing.

Devs get absolutely nothing for a game sold this way, the big difference with other stuff games don't get worn out. cars, electronics, artifacts do. I always buy oldery games during sales instead of on the second hand market, so that the devs get the credit the deserve.

Originally Posted By markornikov (10 JUN 2012 3:34am)

 

Let me make a bold statement now, aren't all of the above positive things..

 

- Metrics: ideal for showing devs how we really play and what we like in games

- quicker distribution gives a bigger revenue for devs and publishers, which generates more budget to make better games.

- one place to get patches, i hate it to search for patches, finding the right patch AND making it work can be hard for some games.

 

and last but not least...

 

Yes please kill the second hand market, from an economical point of view that would be a good thing.

Devs get absolutely nothing for a game sold this way, the big difference with other stuff games don't get worn out. cars, electronics, artifacts do. I always buy oldery games during sales instead of on the second hand market, so that the devs get the credit the deserve.

The problem with killing the second hand market is that it means that if a game disappears from steam/if steam dies for any reason, that game will be lost forever, with no way of actually playing it. I think there is value in preserving things like this, much like I think there is value in preserving books & movies.

Metrics is mainly a good thing, but it does have a few pitfalls. I think these guys explained it better than I'll be able to.

The patching thing I do think is a great thing. In particular in a world where you have US patches, EU patches, AU patches, and so on, and sometimes actually finding the right one becomes a pain, even if you are just looking at the English-language patches, due to how horrible inconsistent it can be. Why exactly should the Swedish version of a game use the US patch, while the UK version uses the EU patch? 

Having all the patches on one server only?  Certainly not a good idea at all!  If the server goes BOOm, so do your patches.  Hey wait,-so do your games..

Regarding the 2nd hand market, I agree with both Fnord and Marko, but yes Marko, I also changed from having used to buy used games to not doing that at all anymore, because it takes cash out of the gaming market sphere.  (So I'd rather pay whoever publishes it, even if it only goes to the publisher and not the devs anymore).  I'd also rater wait for a game to go cheaper . As for old games, well, if they're not commercially available anymore and not on GOG, then I doubt that you could still play them anyway...

But yes, totally agree re the remark that if Steam or any internet venue is your only outlet, you have a bit of a problem if something goes wrong with your connection por the server.

yeah that's indeed of a risk with steam, but i've been using it for more then 2 years now and their servers have never been down

...

in other news i've completed Fallout 3, literally:

- finished all quests

- played all DLC

- visited all locations

- found all vault-tec bobbleheads

- gathered a huge amount of teddy bears

Never thought i would actually complete such a big game.

I've never really had any significant complaints with Steam, I like the way it organizes things, manages settings, updates, etc. I've no doubt that the system/servers are solid and backed up redundantly and so forth but like you folks say, nothing is indestructable...

I couldn't help thinking about what happened to us last year with tropical storm Irene and the valuable lesson I learned. All it takes now is one clap of thunder to stop whatever I'm doing and set Steam to offline mode.

I've been playing Batman: Arkham City obsessively the last couple of days. An amazing sequel to a great game. I AM THE BAT !

I always thought you were a bit batty, Mr. I. 

Originally Posted By Lady Kestrel (11 JUN 2012 3:15pm)

I always thought you were a bit batty, Mr. I. 

That was why he had a stay in Arkham Asylum a few years ago. 

The Broken Sword trilogy for 2,5€/$ (-75% sale) on steam.

BS IV still not available for purchase though

Originally Posted By markornikov (11 JUN 2012 5:19pm)

The Broken Sword trilogy for 2,5€/$ (-75% sale) on steam.

 

BS IV still not available for purchase though

Could be because there isn't a patch for Vista and Win7 users. Then again I'm not at all sure of their policy for the sale of games with compatability issues. :\

Originally Posted By CB (11 JUN 2012 6:01pm)

Originally Posted By markornikov (11 JUN 2012 5:19pm)

The Broken Sword trilogy for 2,5€/$ (-75% sale) on steam.

 

BS IV still not available for purchase though

 

Could be because there isn't a patch for Vista and Win7 users. Then again I'm not at all sure of their policy for the sale of games with compatability issues. :\

 

If there're compatebility issues, steam clearly indicates which OS the game is compatible with.

But since BS IV doesn't run on modern machines, they might not include it unless Revolution comes with a patch 

Chances are that Revolution don't want to deal with all the hassle that comes with releasing a game that does not work well on modern computers. Chances are that their support would be pestered constantly if they decided to do that. 

Originally Posted By Fnord (12 JUN 2012 8:49am)

Chances are that Revolution don't want to deal with all the hassle that comes with releasing a game that does not work well on modern computers. Chances are that their support would be pestered constantly if they decided to do that. 

It certainly looks that way, since it's been announced that Broken Sword 5 is going to be 2D.

Here is one for all of you grand strategy lovers:

http://memegenerator.net/instance/21943752

I'm totally addicted to Crusader Kings 2 right now. I've managed to unite Ireland (it is ruled by me, of course

I've heard some intriguing things about Crusader Kings 2... I wonder how accessible it is for a grand strategy noob like me.

I finished the main campaign in Batman: Arkham City, but there is so much left to do! Serial killers and hired assassins on the loose, a mysterious stranger watching my every move, thugs assaulting innocent people right and left, a really cold damsel in distress, and last but not least, the Riddler's trophies and challenges.

Then there are the challenge maps, and to top things off, New game+ mode. There's lots and lots of content, and it's one of the few recent games I feel is worth full price... if you manage to get it at a significant discount, like I did, all the better.

Originally Posted By Mr Innocent. (13 JUN 2012 10:14am)

I've heard some intriguing things about Crusader Kings 2... I wonder how accessible it is for a grand strategy noob like me.

It is relatively accessible actually. Unlike Paradox's other games, you don't have to play as an entire nation, you can play as a noble family that only owns a single province, and by doing that, the game wont' overwhelm you with choice. Also, the further down into the nobility "foodchain", the less things you have to worry about in general. 

It also has a pretty good tutorial (for a grand strategy game at least), which eases you into it. Each topic has 3 levels of "complexity", and as a first time player, you don't have to understand everything, so you can just run through the basic tutorial to get to know what you need to know in order to play the game.

The demo should give you a pretty good idea of what to expect from the game:

http://www.crusaderkings.com/media/demos

*edit* Double post

Is the gameplay mostly menu based/map based? Do battles happen behind-the-scenes or is it similar to total war games or something?

It seems (from looking at videos) that the actual game is mostly menu's menu's menu's, rather then graphical details or anything.

I've recently been playing Warlock: Master of the Arcane which I'm enjoying, is it similar to that? Where you move around the map and battles take place ont he map between your character/enemies?

Also just started Diablo 3. My medicial problems kept me from getting it/playing it when it came out but now I'm getting into it, still on Act 1 atm, playing as a Barbarian.

Originally Posted By Stiler (14 JUN 2012 1:35pm)

Is the gameplay mostly menu based/map based? Do battles happen behind-the-scenes or is it similar to total war games or something?

 

It seems (from looking at videos) that the actual game is mostly menu's menu's menu's, rather then graphical details or anything.

 

I've recently been playing Warlock: Master of the Arcane which I'm enjoying, is it similar to that? Where you move around the map and battles take place ont he map between your character/enemies?

There are no tactical battles in CK2, everything you do you do either on the main map view or in menus. On the other hand, there is a lot more to do on the main map & sub-menus than in Total War & its ilk. Also, Crusader Kings is not as focused on wars as Total War (though more so than Paradox's Victoria series), and there is enough other things to do in it for it to be enjoyable even when you have very long stretches without any combat. This is also reflected by how Crusader Kings handles victory conditions. Basically, the goal is to make sure that your noble lineage has accumulated as much piety & prestige as possible, and while one way of doing this is through combat (though you usually lose piety if you fight against other Christian kingdoms), there are also many other ways to do this.

I would not say that it is similar to Warlock: Master of the Arcane though. Warlock is a far more fast paced and war focused game, and it is more "balanced" in that everyone starts at the same strength, in Crusader Kings your starting strength depends on which noble lineage you decide to play as (playing as a count who just own a small patch of poor land will make it very hard for you to top the "scoring", so you need to set more realistic goals for yourself, while getting the top score as the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire is relatively easy). The only real similarities is the fact that both would fall roughly into the "grand strategy" genre, and as dissimilar as it is to Total War, Crusader Kings is still closer to a total war game than to Warlock. If you are interested in getting a feel for the game, try the demo, it does give you a good idea about what to expect (though due to the fact that the demo will only let you play as a limited amount of different noble families and only for 20 years, the great joy of long term planing is lost). 

*edit* Ah dang it. I made a huge mistake of marrying my oldest daughter into a non-Irish family, and then I died with no son to take over the throne, so my daughter became the rule (and I play as her), but any children she has will count as being from a Norwegian family, so I basically gave away Ireland to some minor Norwegian noble family, and lost the game

Sounds like fun. ...nice map.

It is a great game, probably Paradox's most refined title to date. Sadly, I lost

Anyway, next up:
Cargo! The Quest for Gravity. I'll let this image speak for the game:

*edit* no wait, I won't

I think I've been able to dig up one of the strangest games ever.

Let me explain how it starts:
You fly around in a blimp, when suddenly some naked balds dwarfs are starting to launch themselves as firework towards you, and explode in "fun". Unfortunately they make your blimp crash.
So you land on a strange island, where there are more naked bald dwarfs running around, and the gods tell you that they need a plumber and the cargo that you were supposed to deliver, but of course the cargo is currently sinking, and they won't sell you a sail until you have extracted more "fun" out of the naked bald dwarfs. So you run around and kick the dwarfs, until they all have exploded, and then dump metal into a swirling thing in the water, to make a volcano erupt, which will throw out all the naked bald dwarfs you have previously made explode, so that you can kick them again. As soon as you have bought a sail from the gods and gathered enough cargo, the gods tell you that the naked bald dwarfs have found a turbine which they throw themselves into, and which kills them (permanently), so now you need to build a motor boat to get to the turbine, in order to kick the dwarfs away from it.
But some of the dwarfs have built a ship/balloon which sinks, so now you need to attach a ring buoy to your motorboat, which in turn will let you save the naked bald dwarfs from drowning. The dwarfs enjoy going fast, so as long as you control the boat, they will hold on to the ring buoy, in a long naked bald dwarf chain, and this is also how you lure them away from the turbine. And by going fast, the dwarfs have fun, which will allow you to call down a glacier from the sky, filled with evil penguins who like to squash naked bald dwarfs. So now I need to stop the penguins. And that was the first level of Cargo: Quest for Gravity.

That is one strange game, Fnord!  

Originally Posted By Lady Kestrel (18 JUN 2012 8:32pm)

That is one strange game, Fnord!  

And it keeps it up. I just had a dragrace against the bald naked dwarfs, where they were on ice skates, carrying bombs, and I was in a car that I built myself, with a skyscraper floating around in the sky above me. 

Heh.  The important thing is, are you having fun with it?

Originally Posted By Lady Kestrel (19 JUN 2012 10:19am)

Heh.  The important thing is, are you having fun with it?

Oh yes, the game is hilarious. I'm afraid that the novelty will wear off before the game ends though, but right now I'm really enjoying it.