Poll regarding Steam users

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by ElAurens

My opposition to it is solely based on the less than stellar experience I had with it in the past.

I'm not saying it's the tool of the devil, or any other conspiracy theory that can be ascribed to it.

If I own a hard copy of the sim, purchased through a traditional retailer, that already has copy protection/DRM/anti-zombieware on it already, why should I or anyone else be forced into having yet another layer of complexity added to what is already a very CPU intensive piece of software?

I'm not saying that Maddox Games/1C/UBI should not market on Steam for those that like that approach.

I just don't understand forcing it on everyone, even if they do not buy their copy from Steam.

What is wrong with that?

Exactly. Options people, options. If the the game shipped with wonder woman view enabled by default you'd all be up in arms because it limits your choices, but apparently when things are getting automated on the set-up side of things even for those that prefer to do things manually, it's the future and we all have to deal with it.

I don't have anything against Steam in particular, i just don't want to have it forced on me, but all this take it or leave it attitude displayed by some is too reminiscent of the "Great RoF War: fanboys vs haters" of two years ago. Tough luck, because if people dislike it enough they'll keep saying so until they're given a satisfactory alternative. If you want to like the platform then by all means do so, just don't try to force others to like it if they don't.

Originally Posted by csThor

Barking at Ubisoft (while not unreasonable in 99% of the cases ) is wrong this time. 1C is the big proponent of STEAM and either Oleg or Ilya did drop hints a few weeks back that STEAM would be involved some way or another.

I'm somewhat ambivalent towards STEAM myself. I use it and never had issues, and quite frankly it made things a lot easier for me when I was seriously ill in 2008/2009 and only had a notebook to play with, but I also don't necessarily like having yet another software running in the background. I do not necessarily see advantages for CoD apart from the additional revenue for 1C, since I consider this "going online for playing offline" trend of late a major PITA of every honest customer.

That's my exact opinion as well. In all fairness, Oleg said that it will be possible to use 3rd party server browsers so there might be a solution in the future. Steam is not that hard to bypass, so in a few months maybe we'll be able to disable Steam with a community mod and connect through Hypperlobby or something similar, plus it won't help pirates if we disable Steam because the game already has a second layer of copy protection (Solidshield DRM). So, even with Steam disabled it will only work for legitimate copies of paying customers, so there's nothing wrong with that and won't cost 1c a dime.

After all, for people like me advertising the game involves having a friend come over for a few beers and letting him fly a couple of sorties, not having 20 people in a friend's list watching what i play. Every single time i've used such a feature (from facebook to online matchmakers), my contact list only includes people i know in real life and for this reason i end up not using it at all after a while.
I don't need to message anyone on the internet if everyone i interact with is a person i can reach by phone or in person. They have absolutely nothing to gain in the advertising department from those of us who will not use Steam's community features but prefer external tools and forums, so i won't have any second thoughts about disabling Steam integration first chance i get.

All this is like paying for a game and then cracking it while you have a legal copy to make it easier to to use (yes, it's irony gold), but it's not going to be the first time i've done it to play a game i paid for on my own pace.

[Feuerfalke]

I like STEAM and it's features. It's very comfortable and easy to use.

IMHO it's a great chance for CoD to get more attention by various means:
1. e.g. IL2 is amongst the highest-scoring games in Steam and a real bargain.
2. STEAM supports community-groups, which is:
- an ideal news-portal in a magnitude much larger than Banana+Ubi-Forum
- a great support for Squads and Groups flying (complete with Squad-Banners, MOTD, rankings, organizing 'clanwars', etc.)
- a nice communication platform to attract new customers and share knowledge with them
3. STEAM support Auto-Update. A great help! If you don't think so, make up your mind and count the posts in both forums where new players ask for patches needed and their installation-order.
4. STEAM gives much more money to Oleg than any other distribution method
5. You can install STEAM on any PC you want. Download your games there and play. No more "7 activations for your lifetime are enough".

[addman]

With regards to the "kiddies on steam" comments, WOW! how bigot can you get?LOL! Not only kids play games, gamers grow up and continue to be gamers. I'm 27 and I've been playing video/computer games since I can remember. Sometimes after a long period of playing ETW (for example) it feels so good to shake things up and shoot somebody in the face with an AK-47 in Far Cry 2 or crushing the competition online in Mario Kart Wii. Thank God for variation in games, I'd probably be bored to death if I could only play IL-2. Little OT I know.

[Korn]

Originally Posted by Kikuchiyo

Steam was 1C Publishings decision for some simple factual reasons: More profitable for them, a simple user interface for MP gaming, more money for them and less for Ubishaft.

I'm sorry, do you know that for a fact? I can tell you for a fact who's going to make money if Steam is on: Valve. Now why do i need to pay Valve for? I don't even like Steam (i like Valve though lol). Actually Steam and Valve's "bussiness model" (fancy expression for bs) are the reason downloadable games are not cheaper.

If you want to screw 1C for making a smart business choice, and ensuring a huge market of 30 million people, and the most dominant thriving PC community on the planet then you can't see the forest for the trees.

What most dominant community? That's not even a community. Me using Steam to play Il2CoD does not make me pal with the guy playing The Sims or whatever; we're not a community. There's just a bunch of people using a download service. Dominant community? WoW has a dominant community, Starcraft 2 has a dominant community. I don't see Blizzard on Steam... you know why? Because they're smart. Wanna download Starcraft? No problem. Wanna pay Valve to download Starcraft? No you can't . Why would Blizzard share some of that money with Valve? Why? Bandwidth is cheap this days. The developer should sell it as directly as they could, not go through 2 intermediaries, and then wonder how come they're not making as much money as they should for their hard work.

I got no problems with downloadable games, yes, that is the future. But not by giving half your profits to Valve (or anybody else). You don't need to do that. I bought a few months back ARMA2 Complete, where did i bought it from? Sprocket download baby, because i wanna put money in the developers' pockets, not a bunch of middlemen.

They should have went the Bohemia Interactive way, sell it yourself if possible at all, especially in niche markets. Make no mistake, if a game is good, it will sell, but such types never in huge volume, so more reason for you as a developer not to let other people get money you deserve for your work.

[TheGrunch]

Well honestly I'm glad they have used Steam. At least the game will have a working server browser. I don't see Steam dying any time soon the way the ubi.com servers did for Il-2.

[Kikuchiyo]

Originally Posted by Korn

1)I'm sorry, do you know that for a fact? I can tell you for a fact who's going to make money if Steam is on: Valve.

2)Now why do i need to pay Valve for? I don't even like Steam (i like Valve though lol). Actually Steam and Valve's "bussiness model" (fancy expression for bs) are the reason downloadable games are not cheaper.


3)What most dominant community? That's not even a community. Me using Steam to play Il2CoD does not make me pal with the guy playing The Sims or whatever; we're not a community. There's just a bunch of people using a download service. Dominant community? WoW has a dominant community, Starcraft 2 has a dominant community. I don't see Blizzard on Steam... you know why? Because they're smart. Wanna download Starcraft? No problem. Wanna pay Valve to download Starcraft? No you can't . Why would Blizzard share some of that money with Valve? Why? Bandwidth is cheap this days. The developer should sell it as directly as they could, not go through 2 intermediaries, and then wonder how come they're not making as much money as they should for their hard work.

I got no problems with downloadable games, yes, that is the future. But not by giving half your profits to Valve (or anybody else). You don't need to do that. I bought a few months back ARMA2 Complete, where did i bought it from? Sprocket download baby, because i wanna put money in the developers' pockets, not a bunch of middlemen.

1)All the evidence points to it, and that has been pointed out numerous times over the last 2 days by numerous people with numerous links.

2)Frankly because although bandwidth is relatively cheap these days running FTP servers 24/7 365 and maintaining your servers isn't. STEAM (which is a software program made, updated, and run by Valve not a separate business or partner business) Has an approximate 70% market share of DD, and 30 million users. You don't get that kind of business over night, and 1C sees that. Valve had to keep prices up to the same levels as brick and mortar stores because B&M's threatened publisher with "we won't stock your games if you let Valve sale lower than box retail prices."

3) 3.
a social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or interests and perceived or perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society within which it exists (usually preceded by the ): the business community; the community of scholars.

I wasn't referring to a social community such as this one. As to why Blizzard can do that and say 1C can't really at this juncture is frankly Brand recognition and loyalty. It has nothing to do with Blizzard being smart or dumb they just simply have the weight to do it on their own.

[GnigruH]

Looks like few ppl just woke up, after 10 years of playing sturmovik exclusively, only to realize that the gaming world around them has changed...

[JG27+Freid]

Ubi tried their own DRM and STEAM didn't like it so they refused to sell UBISOFT games which pretty much screwed them so they had to let STEAM sell them and run them. Evidently STEAM is the microsoft/google of PC gaming sales. They use every tactic to gain and keep a stranglehold on the market. They like google are also known to be a data mining company extroidinaire.

I am not interested in a third party dictateing to control what i choose to have installed on my PC and how i choose to use a product I paid for. I am not new to this.

I still have my commodore 64. My first flight simulator was RedBaron and it was 8 floppy disc's. Thats right i am not a kid. I have been flying flight simulators for nearly 20 years. I find this digital download and 3rd party software with a permanent internet connection an infrignment on my freedoms and rights.

This will eliminate and water down the present IL2 community and replace it with an Arcade group dominated and controlled by a corporation only interested in profit and control.

Bye Oleg and enjoy kids !

[TheGrunch]

Originally Posted by JG27+Freid

This will eliminate and water down the present IL2 community and replace it with an Arcade group dominated and controlled by a corporation only interested in profit and control.

By God, you're right! I also heard that you shouldn't trust foreigners. Thanks for the good info!

[JG27+Freid]

Originally Posted by TheGrunch

By God, you're right! I also heard that you shouldn't trust foreigners. Thanks for the good info!

How mature of you !