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[Sensei]

I do know that Total War insisted on downloading itself. I also had X3 installed with out steam; and when I added it to steam then steam wanted to download its own copy. Maybe it's because I changed the install location? I dunno.

[10ebbor10]

Its laggy, annoying, requiring you to jump through an excsessive number of hoops, and a pain in the ass.

Why? It isn't.

I know normally being a spelling and grammar nazi isn't cool, but I'm mentally doing this every time I read your posts. Proofread, would you? And what are you saying steam isn't?

Anyway, back I topic, you can fucking bet I was grumpy when I bought a boxed copy of Empire: Total War at Best Buy and had to install it through Steam. All ten gigabytes or so; the thing came on three or four discs but it wouldn't let me use them. I have to say though, I DID eventually warm up to Steam mostly based on the sales in their store. As a distribution platform it's convenient and really works. It really sucks if developers have a hard time getting on there, but I don't see it being worse if a developer can't get on steam with the new system than if they couldn't get on in the first place.

i've never had to use it myself, but isn't there a way to install a game off disc and then add it to your steam account? I know you can add non-steam games to steam. Seems wierd that it wouldn't let you use the discs if all the data was there? :S

For some games (Like X³: Terran conflict), you can install it from the disc and then (optionally) add it to steam. If the game requires steam activation(Like Empire: Total war), I think it wouldn't let you do that. There might be a way, but I'm not sure.

My brother had supreme commander, installed from the disk, then used the cd key on his steam account and it worked just fine, steam acknowledged that it was installed elsewhere and patched it which is still able to be played even when steam isn't running at all, know quite a few other games even when they are installed in the steam common directory that doesn't require steam running.

If the game uses steam as DRM, it forces you to download. If steam is optional, you can certainly install it from the DVD.

I do know that Total War insisted on downloading itself. I also had X3 installed with out steam; and when I added it to steam then steam wanted to download its own copy. Maybe it's because I changed the install location? I dunno.

My version got recognized by steam, and I think you can install it and then drop it into the steam folders to get steam to recognize it if it doesn't work.

[Duuvian]

Well yeah, if you want to download games through Steam you need the internet. Once you've downloaded it you can play it without connecting, though I'd guess the game's developers can request that Steam requires a connection first if they want to; maybe because that game requires it anyways.

This is true because you can play Crusader Kings 2 while your internet is unplugged through steam.

EDIT: Oops, was looking at the wrong page when I replied I think.

[10ebbor10]

Well yeah, if you want to download games through Steam you need the internet. Once you've downloaded it you can play it without connecting, though I'd guess the game's developers can request that Steam requires a connection first if they want to; maybe because that game requires it anyways.

This is true because you can play Crusader Kings 2 while your internet is unplugged through steam.

EDIT: Oops, was looking at the wrong page when I replied I think.

However, steam occasionally gets a bug , or maybe a feature, I hope it's a bug, when you try to start it up without internet connection.

Ie
>Start steam
>No internet connection, try again or offline mode
>Offline mode
>Error: Could not connect to steam servers

[Vherid]

its laggy, anoying, requiring you to jump thru a exxsessive number of hoops, and a pain in the ass.

why? it isent.

butguys, steam is sobadf i mean my computer nd netwrok are pieces of shit but its al their fault.Imeanits not limke its blizzardactin vsin where they you know, shut down serversat durn peakrtime for hours nsrnhours. Steamgoesdown for 10 muibnutes itsosfucking bad.

Yeah I bet it's also extremely intrusive on your computer, downloads a shitload of spyware, and yeah they are certainly the biggest money grubbing assholes to ever exist. They're also massive douchebags for actually caring about their customers, god forbid, because oh no, they're giving us, as consumers, even MORE OPTIONS, as opposed to the piece of shit that EA has made called origin. Then when certain games are forced to be online in steam because their PUBLISHERS DEMANDED ONLINE DRM, it's clearly all steam's fault, not the publisher.

Hell yes I am a steam fanboy. Come at me. The offline version of steam being wonky is really the only thing that I agree with, it's pretty shifty, but I think the way it actually works is it does need to make a check at least once every certain amount of time, and then it's fine, kinda like blizzards weekly authenticator access or such.



But on topic, I think this is a good idea, whether the effects could be questionable as some of you have stated,  it's definitely something good to at least try out, I mean hey, steam was certainly something new and crazy when it first came out, look where it is now. I don't know where you guys are coming from by actually believing that this is some tin-hat ploy to do some weird ass social experimenting, or that they charge indie devs a shitload of their profit. I don't even-

If anything this is gonna help devs get on steam easier, because if you think about it, now instead of them playing and rating the game, and then making the decision, a game they might think that was JUST not enough, but got a shitload of wants by steam users, will then probably make the cut. Also, most of these indie games that have come out on steam, you can certainly get from things like Desura, or you can get from their site, DRM free. There's usually alternatives with the indie games. I think this is mostly for people like me who want more games on steam that might be on desura, or some other kind of lesser program and I'd rather have it on steam, just because I have everything else on steam, and I like steam a lot more. It's really just about more options in the end, and I don't see how you should have a problem with more options.

and don't forget guys, piracy is VERY BAD.

[Felius]

Back on greenlight: From what I've read it does not exclude one from using kickstarter. It's just another platform to help tell people about your game, and possibly being voted to get into steam, as apparently indie games had a pretty hard time trying to get in steam. Although considering the amount of apparently pretty bad indie games that appear on Gamersgate (and I'm betting these are some of the best on their genre) I don't think we were losing all that much.

[lordcooper]

This seems like a pretty cool thing to me, but I'm unsure how this will affect the more niche indies.  It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.

[Felius]

This seems like a pretty cool thing to me, but I'm unsure how this will affect the more niche indies.  It'll be interesting to see how it all turns out.

The overly niche games wouldn't likely get on steam anyway, so won't make the situation worse. Hmm, they might end having to create categories of games that get in with more or less vote depending on how niche the game is. Mostly use it merely to avoid the trash, not very niche games, since if it's easy and cheap for them to get the title on their catalog they have only to gain even if it barely sells.

P.S. Oh, and on the subject of how much money steam gets from the sales, from what I understand they have NDAs most of the time, but from I what I heard it's around 30%-40% to steam, and the rest (60%-70%) to the developer/publisher.

[lordcooper]

You raise a valid point.

[forsaken1111]

Everyone must immediately go upvote Dwarf Fortress for steam distribution and it must remain the #1 indie title or I will shoot this kitten:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would not actually shoot a kitten. That is my kitten. His name is Davian Thule and he is a spaec mahrine!

[Catastrophic lolcats]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would not actually shoot a kitten. That is my kitten. His name is Davian Thule and he is a spaec mahrine!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[forsaken1111]

Hah, you made my day.

[BigD145]

Everyone must immediately go upvote Dwarf Fortress for steam distribution and it must remain the #1 indie title or I will shoot this kitten:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I would not actually shoot a kitten. That is my kitten. His name is Davian Thule and he is a spaec mahrine!

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Pussy!

[Denzi]

Personally I'm rather excited for this. Even if it does not mean necessarily that more indie games will be put on steam it will at least mean that indie games in general will have a source of easy/free publicity and feedback for their games...

Now who wants to see Double Fine Adventure or Wasteland 2 run the gauntlet through this just to see some record high numbers? 

[jester]

Little sidenote on the offline system for steam, it doesnt require a net connection if steam was properly shut down last time it was connected to the net (steam never shuts down properly if its running when you close windows), obviously this doesnt help if you turn your pc on and BAM no internets, but if you can get enough of a shitty connection for a second or 2, then exit out of steam, offline will work fine, there is also a way you can get it going by thrashing out a little config file or something if you have no net connection at all.

  Though you would have to go on the net and find out how to make that file and what to put in it.