dear turbine...

[AsherStar]

Steam Integration, make it happen.

[Missing_Minds]

Steam Integration, make it happen.

Huh???

Are you talking about getting steam to host for downloading of DDO as well as file check updating?

[AsherStar]

exactly, and think of all the possibilities for steam achievements in ddo. Like find all the valves in a given zone, complete all the quests in a given zone on hard, complete all the quests in a given zone on elite, kill so many kobolds or sanguine(sp? I just call them fishmen) or complete so many quests without going below zero hp, lots of different stuff. steam already overlays a screenshot tool and library.

[Asketes]

Wouldn't happen do to Steam not being in control of the micro transactions and content releases.

[Missing_Minds]

Wouldn't happen do to Steam not being in control of the micro transactions and content releases.

Steam doesn't have to be in control of those. That plays no factor other than getting proper files to them for updates. That it is.

Champions Online and Star Trek Online are both f2p games, release content, and do microtransactions. This is not a worry about such integration.

[bigolbear]

NO.

many people here dislike steam, we dislike what it represents and what it stands for.

If DDO advetises on steam - fine. we wont know and wont care.

If DDO moves to steam it will likely loose many customers, and wont gain any more than it does by advertising there.

Many within the gaming comunity loathe steam with a passion.

[Asketes]

Many within the gaming comunity loathe steam with a passion.

Better than ... Origin

[Bogenbroom]

NO.

many people here dislike steam, we dislike what it represents and what it stands for.

If DDO advetises on steam - fine. we wont know and wont care.

If DDO moves to steam it will likely loose many customers, and wont gain any more than it does by advertising there.

Many within the gaming comunity loathe steam with a passion.

Since we are in "Off-Topic" can I ask why? I mean, my exposure to steam is very limited, so I honestly don't know the backstory here. (95% of my gaming is ddo, so...)

[bigolbear]

the reason why is because games are now shipping with steam, and a permanent net connection as a requirement. Downloadable content is becomng a massive money maker for such games, now all this would be tolerable but for the terrible tactics some games companies are using.

1. Often games you buy in a shop, and own the disk for now REQUIRE steam to run, infact the disk you own is little more than an Id label. We cant instal games we want without an active steam account - even if we buy them in the shop, and that means an active net connection - so no playing them on your laptop away from wifi etc etc.

2. The price of a downloaded game on steam is often the same as the cost to buy the game in the shop, its more than a little rude considering distribution and sales costs are negligable. infact it is a blatant ripoff.

3. Games are being shipped unfinished, and when i say unfinished - for example both skyrim and civ 5, 2 big releases were shipped in shuch a ****poor state that they were essential unplayable before patching, and in both cases those patches werent available immediately - customers are buying second rate goods here, and the habit is spreading. Hell skyriim remained unplayble for a long time, unless you were willing to manulay tweek the ini files manualy.

4. downlaodable content. It is becoming standard practice with many steam required releases to relase an initial product at the normal price - that is unfinished, un playable and not polished. they then charge for dlc - civ 5 for exxample, came with only 5 or so civs to play - all the rest were DLC, charged individualy and surprise surprise were better. All the extra civ leaders were charged DLC too. this is compared to CIV 1 that had more, civ 2, 3 and 4 all had a lot more and multiple leaders before buying any addons.

5. selling abandonware. This is utterly contemptable, Abandon ware games are sold on steam. These are games that are out of any copyright, most likely due to the original softeware house going bust. Abandonware games can be freely downladed and shared by all - steam charges for it, and doesnt lt u share them - which btw is illegal in some countries, ie they are trying to retain a copyright on somehting they dont own.

6. bloat ware/addware. In my (and others)opinion steam counts as addware, it is simply taking up space on your hard disk using your processor cycles and ram and providing no benefit to the end user - all in the name of anti piracy. There are measures us software developers(yes im a software developer, a net game dev to be precise) can take to prevent piracy without bloating peoples systems or forcing adverts at them when they have already payed full price for a product.

For those interested in avoiding steam, but who still want to play games steam has the monopoly on Id suggest searching for 'steam' and 'razor' Im sure this gentleman and scholar will enlighten you further.

[Bogenbroom]

the reason why is because games are now shipping with steam, and a permanent net connection as a requirement. Downloadable content is becomng a massive money maker for such games, now all this would be tolerable but for the terrible tactics some games companies are using.

<chop>

For those interested in avoiding steam, but who still want to play games steam has the monopoly on Id suggest searching for 'steam' and 'razor' Im sure this gentleman and scholar will enlighten you further.

Interesting. Thanks for the info. Personally, as a *very* casual gamer outside of DDO, I have used steam a few times to purchase games that I have played before and either lost or damaged the discs to. But I do not play the latest releases, so the stuff I've purchased has been exclusively older games. The prices on those have been quite good when I compare them to walking into Gamestop... and I don't have to worry about discs and such.

So, from that perspective I was interested to hear the concerns. I can certainly see where the more ardent gamers (of which I was once one) would really dislike such things, and I am, by no means, a fan of any existing DRM model currently in use. And I won't be until there is one developed from the user's perspective and forced upon the providers instead of the other way around.

[Flavilandile]

Steam Integration, make it happen.

No.

I despise a system that assume that I am a pirate by default.

I do buy my computer games, and being required to be online to be able to play a single player game ( Napoleon Total War ) is a big No-No for me.

And I won't even go into the performance hog Steam is.

( don't worry I have also lots to say about the late SecureRom that made me look for cracks to play the games I bought [ NWN2 and Civ IV to name them ] because it couldn't handle 3 Optical drives, 1 Magneto-Optical Drive and 5 HDs )

[bigolbear]

SNIP

( don't worry I have also lots to say about the late SecureRom that made me look for cracks to play the games I bought [ NWN2 and Civ IV to name them ] because it couldn't handle 3 Optical drives, 1 Magneto-Optical Drive and 5 HDs )

about nwn2, yeh i had the same or similar issue there, but it took me a mere hour to sort out. Another prime example of the publisher(atari) to blame there - using a disc burning and copy protection technique that was not fully compatable with international standards. I got in touch with obsidian support and within the hour a game coder called dave got back to me, pointed me to a torrent of an individual game file and that resolved the issue. me and dave had an amusing chat - code monkey to code monkey and aparently the guys there were just as upset at atari as turbine was a year or so later.

repeat after me.. its all ataris fault!

Civ 4 i cracked my self it was an easy ini /reg entry fix. Again tho, it was slopy publishing.

I duno, the subject of copy protection is a tricky one. But there are much better ways to handle this than 'steam' or requiring the disk in the drive to play an installed game. I just wish the software industry would stop treating its customers like the enemy. Hopefuly more companies will take a leaf out of turbines book, in regards the 'freemium' model.

[Flavilandile]

about nwn2, yeh i had the same or similar issue there, but it took me a mere hour to sort out. Another prime example of the publisher(atari) to blame there - using a disc burning and copy protection technique that was not fully compatable with international standards. I got in touch with obsidian support and within the hour a game coder called dave got back to me, pointed me to a torrent of an individual game file and that resolved the issue. me and dave had an amusing chat - code monkey to code monkey and aparently the guys there were just as upset at atari as turbine was a year or so later.

repeat after me.. its all ataris fault!

I know, but the phone call option wasn't available for me... unless you expect Atari support to have a clue, which even then I didn't expect them to have.

As for Atari... I did consider going to their worldwide headquarters (Infogramme, Lyon, Frog Country ) to explain them face to face what I thought of the way they considered the market that allowed them to buy the Atari brand. The price of the TGV return ticket is what stopped me.

[Stermlin]

No.

!@#$ No.

[phebia]

No No No

Why would it be a good thing?

As for achivments how would you get that working with true recination?

[Vordax]

Personally I love steam:

Its nice not having to store boxes and boxes of games.
Its nice knowing that if my current computer dies, I don't need to find the install disks for my games.
Games go on sale for cheap!
Don't need a constant net connection, can play in offline mode.
Supports indie developers, no need for a publisher.
Harder to pirate, so the developers get paid.

Vordax

[Drakos]

Steam Integration, make it happen.

/NOT SIGNED, please don't migrate the service over to steam.

[Cauthey]

Interesting topic, and positions...

From what I've seen, those that speak out against Steam do so vehemently; almost as they would speak out about a political candidate that they hate.

I've seen the reasons. Yet, I still don't understand what all the fuss is about.

Steam is little more than a digital delivery mechanism. No more "evil" than Amazon, or iTunes. The arguable exception there is that Steam requires you to "check in" with them to play. You don't necessarily need to do that with a Kindle or an iPod.

Not sure why that argument would even hold any water for an MMO. You can't take DDO offline to play. So, meh!

I don't think that Steam integration for DDO is very likely. So, the Steam haters can likely put their raised hackles to rest.

[Vordax]

Steam is little more than a digital delivery mechanism. No more "evil" than Amazon, or iTunes. The arguable exception there is that Steam requires you to "check in" with them to play. You don't necessarily need to do that with a Kindle or an iPod.

Never had a problem with offline play and Steam before either. Well except the time when the power went out and my laptops battery was dead. Couldn't get steam to even start up, of course Windows didn't either.

Vordax

[Missing_Minds]

Never had a problem with offline play and Steam before either. Well except the time when the power went out and my laptops battery was dead. Couldn't get steam to even start up, of course Windows didn't either.

Vordax

I've lost track of the number of times my wife has used steam to verify files to fix her EQ2 files to help her get back into the game as their weekly patches tend to break things client side often.