Poll regarding Steam users

[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.

[nearmiss]

Steam or no steam...

Piracy is an enormous problem.

Piracy is not abated. If anything it is more pervasive than ever. The pirated download of software, music,movies,games,etc. is enormous. You cannot use any of those piracy facilitating software without noticing they have millions of people online stealing someone's intellectual property 24/7.

Oleg has put his money and efforts into producing an exceptional product for us to enjoy. He is entitled to be paid, even if we are inconvenienced somewhat. Steam may just be that additional sacrifice needed by us to encourage further development by people like Oleg.

So, steam or no steam I plan to accept the inconvenience and invasion of a steam if necessary. I plan to put my BOB COD on my computer dedicated to it. I may be able to just add a virtual drive or hard drive and solve any issues I might have with a steam. I'll have to wait and see, on that.

[Mick]

What is totally insane in that Steam enforced solution, is that around 20% of the people who voted won't BUY the game, and since they probably badly want it, will have no other hope than wait for an "alternative" solution and let's be frank, this means a cracked version, when their goal is NOT to avoid paying for the game and all the talent and dedication Oleg and his team put in it ....!!

Most of us, the great invisible and silent majority who play and BOUGHT the IL2/FB saga and don't visit and post at forums are strict OFFLINERS, and that Steam thingie is TOTALLY USELESS to play CoD that "already has the necessary tools to function on its own".

[JG52Krupi]

Originally Posted by Mick

What is totally insane in that Steam enforced solution, is that around 20% of the people who voted won't BUY the game, and since they probably badly want it, will have no other hope than wait for an "alternative" solution and let's be frank, this means a cracked version, when they goal is NOT to avoid paying for the game and all the talent and dedication Oleg and his team put in it ....!!

Most of us, the great invisible and silent majority who play and BOUGHT the IL2/FB saga and don't visit and post at forums are strict OFFLINERS, and that Steam thingie is TOTALLY USELESS to play CoD that "already has the necessary tools to function on its own".

Something tells me that ~50% of that 20% of people who voted will buy the game anyway...

[David603]

Originally Posted by Mick

Most of us, the great invisible and silent majority who play and BOUGHT the IL2/FB saga and don't visit and post at forums are strict OFFLINERS, and that Steam thingie is TOTALLY USELESS to play CoD that "already has the necessary tools to function on its own".

Well, that's fine, said users won't need to use Steam for anything other than the initial activation and updates (if they want the updates). And if they do at some point want to try CoD online, they will have everything needed.

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by Comrade_Mike

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.

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.

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?

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.

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

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.

You seem to think i'm going by conviction alone while in reality it's a matter of simple preference and not having to deal with something that upsets my habits. The game is already able to interface with 3rd party multiplayer tools so yes, i do believe that a minimalist custom-made server browser that's specifically geared towards a flight sim and not much else is a very valid option for a lot of people. I don't mind one bit what the majority will use, as long as there's a small minority to justify its development and use i'm switching to that. People who don't like one won't have to use it and can stick with Steam's features, so it's all good.

This will depend a lot on how the in-game front-end is implemented: if all we get is a list of server names with their ping values i'm switching to something that shows a few more things, like which realism settings are in use and so on (aka Hyperlobby or something similar).

My comment on the modding community was not meant to say that mods don't work on steam. What i meant to say was that due to their higher % of disapproval i expect them to provide a steam disabling mod at some point.

As for the rest, i find that taking the time once in a while to bypass anything that potentially causes me trouble is worth my while: it stays disabled and i can focus on enjoying the game without distractions.

Of course your mileage may vary and you don't have to agree with me, just like i don't have to agree with you
What you say in your post is your personal opinion and you are perfectly entitled to one. Your reasoning is valid for you and how you want to use this piece of entertainment software, others will disagree and try to find workarounds to suit themselves.

Edit: As for the cost of having a non-steam version, there is none. If there was any cost in the matter it probably goes the other way around, since we know straight from the horse's mouth that steam integration was done very recently and work hours were spent to integrate something that was pretty much an afterthought and a decision from "above". The game didn't have anything related to steam until a 1-2 months ago, maybe even less. Maybe you should think about labeling us elitists when it's clear that it's some among the pro-steam crowd who are so eager to force their preferences on everyone and not the either way around. I don't care how you guys play your games, i just want a choice on how to play mine and there's nothing elitist about that

[Mick]

Blackdog, you have no idea how much I agree with you

I have no idea what Steam does or doesn't on a PC, I just don't want it simply because I don't NEED it to play CoD, which as you said, wasn't designed with Steam embeded in it right from the start but very recently ...

I just would like to BUY CoD and opt out of Steam ...

[MadBlaster]

Steam is lame spyware imo. I understand having to go through Steam to validate my DVD purchase. If that means I have to have an account with them to get the validation done, so be it. But beyond that initial validation, I do mind. I would much rather download the patches myself than put spyware on my machine. Having it do whatever it does in the background, or getting spammed with Valve e-mails everyday to buy more games...why would I want that???

Also, I am worried about the online gameplay experience under Steam. As it is now, I only like flying WoP server. They make good historical type missions, the server is moderated for following the rules and the players don't suck. And if I don't want to go through Hyperlobby for some reason, I can always just put in the IP address in the game directly and it connects. I guess we won't be able to do that anymore??? I have a bad feeling that playing online on Steam server will become a 128 player furball.

Anyway, I still waiting to find out technical stuff like Freetrack capability, how many cores it will run on so I know what chip to buy...etc. So, my CoD purchase is on hold for now until this stuff gets cleared up.

[David603]

Originally Posted by MadBlaster

Steam is lame spyware imo. I understand having to go through Steam to validate my DVD purchase. If that means I have to have an account with them to get the validation done, so be it. But beyond that initial validation, I do mind. I would much rather download the patches myself than put spyware on my machine. Having it do whatever it does in the background, or getting spammed with Valve e-mails everyday to buy more games...why would I want that???

I don't get emails from Valve, did you somehow sign up for them when you made your Steam account?

Also, I am worried about the online gameplay experience under Steam. As it is now, I only like flying WoP server. They make good historical type missions, the server is moderated for following the rules and the players don't suck. And if I don't want to go through Hyperlobby for some reason, I can always just put in the IP address in the game directly and it connects. I guess we won't be able to do that anymore??? I have a bad feeling that playing online on Steam server will become a 128 player furball.

Why? It will mostly be the same people running servers and creating missions, Steam is replacing Hyperlobby, not hosting the servers itself.

[Moggy]

I'm going to stick tin foil on my head, disconnect from the internet as Valve is trying to take over the global economy via my pc and steam...probably. Go live in a cave somewhere, put my fingers in my ears, shut my eyes really tightly and whine some more about conspiracies (the Cornwall conspiracy is my favourite) which don't really exist but in my mind they do.
IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD PEOPLE, CAN'T YOU SEE IT?

Either that or grow a beard and buy an Apple Mac as you can't run anything remotely bad on 1 of those beauties.

Oh and btw, I've never received any emails from Valve\Steam with any offers except to tell me when I've bought something. They must not like me or something.