Official Fulqrum Publishing forum - Shame on you for using STEAM !

Quote:

Originally Posted by tintifaxl (Post 231667)

Another thing regarding Steam: if the decision to use the steam libraries wasn't made a few weeks ago, I don't think we will see a release on the 25th with working multiplayer. Integrating a framework this far down the development process will take some time.

This has been talked about in past communication with the developers and that's when the first suspicions about Steam use started circulating. I think that the actual quote (ok, slightly paraphrased as i'm going from memory here) was that "we are currently adding the multiplayer functionality/lobby tools at the request of the publisher".

At the end of the day, we're not trying to force you guys not to like steam. We just want to have a choice not to use it, to have a choice of rolling back a patch without copying the entire game folder and so on, without having someone else's preferences imposed on us. I don't hate Steam, i hate the lack of choice in the matter when it's clearly obvious that

a) it's not included as a copy protection method (it has Solidshield DRM) and
b) it just adds some nice side-benefits for online play, which however are definitely not essential items for the success of the title

IL2 had a developer sponsored multiplayer feature as well and nobody used it in the end. For CoD the only real advantage of using Steam is word of mouth advertising for the product (which is definitely a big deal and the only reason i'm willing to compromise), as for what actually has a direct impact on the players it's just some nice to have but definitely non-essential matchmaking features.

I didn't use friend lists in Hypperlobby, i never auto-update anything without first waiting to see if it messes up someone else's PC unless i know i can roll the patch back, i only ever joined 2-3 specific servers that catered to my preferences of online flying, have only flown with a small amount of people and it's not only for flight sims. I have starcraft2 and there's only 4 people in my in-game contact list, all of which are my real life friends. There are even more friends of mine that play the same game and yet they are not in my contact list. If i want to play a game with them i'll give them a call on the phone and add them, but i certainly haven't found some magical super-functionality in Blizzard's battlenet service just because it automated a couple of things. In fact, more often than not it's the negative stuff that stands out: forced update in the middle of a match and lag spikes, which is understandable when playing against someone who's 1500km away but not when playing against a buddy in the same room, on a PC that sits on the same router, just because Blizzard decided to ship the game without a LAN feature. The only reason i've bought SC2 is because it's mostly a multiplayer thing for me...since i will already be online to do what i want to do, i can compromise with some of their stupid design decisions. That's not the same for games that have a significant offline gameplay component however.

I don't go around the internet adding random people in contact lists and CoD won't change this, so Steam for me is basically a bunch of things i will never use that come at the potential of hassle if i want to have multiple installs or rollback a patch at some point, which i often do. It seems that each day software companies are pushing for more automation at the cost of being unable to actually tinker with your PC...some day in the future we'll end up with glorified consoles to play with that sport the customization potential of a washing machine :-P
That doesn't mean things should be difficult all the time, it doesn't mean they should be railroaded super-automatic all the time either though. If i want to mess with what's under the hood, there better be a way for it otherwise the community will make its own: that's what makes the PC a Personal Computer ;)

Long story short, the final tally ends up in the negatives for me, it could be just fine for someone else though.

This doesn't meant i'm bashing Steam, it just means that Steam is unsuitable for what i want to do with this game. It might be perfect for what someone else does though, so that's all i'm saying in the end: let both of us have a choice to enjoy this fine piece of entertainment software instead of mulling over how outside software can enhance or detract from our enjoyment.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vyper (Post 231692)

Like I said, if you choose to use that service, good for you. I choose not to. Why should I be forced to?

This is what it's all about. Just like we get scalable, customizable difficulty and realism options we should also have customizable software setup options.

For example, i bet 90% of the people will be flying with simplified engine management the first few days while learning the ins and outs and the differences between CoD and IL2.
Well, how would you feel if complex engine management was enabled by default and the first few times you went online you got schooled by people who fly a bit of FSX or X-plane on the side, just because your engine constantly blows up and their doesn't because they are familiar with operating limits and checklists?
Wouldn't you be frustrated at your inability to choose not to use one of the game's features if it had an impact on your gameplay experience? Oh, i bet most of us would.

This is what it's all about and nothing more. I'm not going to boycott the sim, in fact i ordered a collector's edition from a relative who's studying abroad, but i can fully understand people who will pass it up due to the lack of options to satisfy their opinion on how a piece of software should function once it's paid for and installed on their PC.

This is the thing most publishers fail to realize: by trying to shepherd the customers through removing their choices they are forcing them to make another choice that will hurt them the most, the choice of not buying the game at all.

EDIT: Steam could work just fine for CoD and in the end i could be proven completely wrong. In fact, i very much hope i'm proven wrong. However, the best way to do this is to tailor Steam to the needs of CoD and not the other way around. Steam is not the spawn of the devil and it's much more user friendly than other platforms (eg, you can play offline and you can also download the game again if your disc is damaged, this is a big plus), so all we would need is three simple things to make it perfect: the ability to have multiple installations, the ability to patch manually and the ability to roll back a patch. The rest is fine.