[Comrade_Mike]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Which brings us to your final point. Forcing things on people and p*ssing off roughly 1/5th of your potential customer bases is not the way to form an online community under one roof.
First of all, the game will still support integration with 3rd party server browsers and multiplayer tools according to the developers. And since steam is pretty much forced on those who would rather not have it, the people who don't like it will switch to a community custom-made solution at the first possible moment, not only out of personal preference but to also reinforce the point that for what they want to do with the sim steam is dead weight.

Is a community custom made solution really going to work better than what steam has to offer in the way of server browsers and multiplayer tools? i'm not convinced it will. hyperlobby is good, but it's not even close to the convenience of a good in-game browser.

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

The modding community for IL2 show a far greater percentage of disapproval for Steam.

modding support doesn't have to be mutually exclusive with steam. Mount and Blade have an epic modding community and excellent support for it in the game itself.

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Don't get me wrong, i'm still buying this and i will never pirate a flight sim. However i have no use for Steam, its promotional offers or its social features and since i'm going to be a legitimate customer, i'm going to make use of my consumer rights to my own backup copy that law grants me and bypass something that may very well be something good for you, but it's something i don't need and as a result won't tolerate when there are alternatives around. If i need to use a crack on a game i actually bought in order for it to work in a hassle-free manner, then so be it. The law says it doesn't make me a pirate since i have bought the game, plus it won't be the first time i have used such work-arounds on games i bought in a perfectly legal manner.

is cracking a game and setting up work-arounds really less of a hassle than having steam running while you play a game? or do you just want to satisfy your convictions without missing out on the game?

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

It really baffles me that when we could have a best of both worlds scenario with two separate versions that would keep everyone happy and boost sales, both on steam and outside it, the majority of people is sitting here with horns locked on a debate consisting of "steam is the devil- no, steam is baby jesus".

assuming of course that the extra sales they'll get from the anti-steam elitists will exceed the cost for setting up two different versions of the game.

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

Steam is a third party tool just like hyperlobby, people who like it will use it and people who don't will not, it's as simple as that. The lack of choice in the matter doesn't mean the community won't create a choice by themselves, let's not be naive about it.

steam is a bit more polished than hyperlobby, which came around primarily due to the lack of any alternatives.

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

The fact that all of this is totally preventable makes me consider not Steam per se as a platform but the lack of choice in using it, a completely stupid decision that is against everyone's long term interests. It's the publishers who are cutting their nose to spite their face in this, because they think they can force everyone to use this platform as a cheap advertising vehicle, when the reality is that most of the anti-steam legitimate customers will be running their legally purchased game with some form of no-steam crack within a few months.

i wont be, but then again, my actions aren't dictated by childish convictions. i have better things to do than spend my weekends patching and cracking games i legally bought, let alone having to fire up the game everytime i want to join a friggen server FFS. i really can't see people rushing from a perfectly functioning platform to a community-made one.