Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sheb]

Beware of the word infinite too. I remember reading somewhere that ther eis only about 10^80 ways to arrange the universe's particle, which mean 10^80 things that can happen. And most of them are some sort of boring emptiness thingy. After a while, things will start repeating themselves.

[Scoops Novel]

I take immortality because it's better then the alternative. I've never seen the point in "opting out", as the walking dead would put it, for my own sake.

[Valid_Dark]

 

” time crystals”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-time_crystal


But here is a stupid thing I've heard today.
"Valve is an indie game company, just a really big one"

[Sirus]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space-time_crystal


But here is a stupid thing I've heard today.
"Valve is an indie game company, just a really big one"

I think I've got a concept for a sci-fi story...

[Graknorke]

Valve is an indie company.
They publish on Steam, which is their own platform. They have no publisher.

[Valid_Dark]

Valve is an indie company.
They publish on Steam, which is their own platform. They have no publisher.

Valve had had plenty of publishers before steam existed.  And even after steam existed they still use several publishers.

Half life was first published by sierra,  half life 2 was published by EA  etc.

[Graknorke]

I don't think the title of indie transcends time or anything; what they did before isn't relevant.
Though I didn't know that they still used third party publishers.

[Valid_Dark]

yeah, The Orange Box was released on 360 and PS3, but there is no Steam on 360 and PS3, so they used an outside publisher,
same with CS:GO was released on 360 and PS3

[Karnewarrior]

Semi-indie?

[Korbac]

I get what you guys are saying, but that's a bit like saying Nickleback is indie because they have their own label.

[fqllve]

It's hard to call Steam an indie distribution platform anyway, since it distributes so many games by large publishers and it's by far the dominant software in its market.

[SealyStar]

It's hard to call Steam an indie distribution platform anyway, since it distributes so many games by large publishers and it's by far the dominant software in its market.

Steam has basically given Valve a monopoly on PC gaming. I don't see how that's "indie" in any sense.

I'm a little wary of Mojang's growth as a business after Minecraft's success (and cynical about them still calling themselves "indie"), but I am proud that they have refused to put their stuff on Steam, at least so far. I kind of hope they'll inspire new indie developers to stay truly independent, so that Steam will be put back in its place.

[Flying Dice]

It would be more accurate to describe Valve as a company which, rather than being oriented on maximizing short-term profits, instead focuses on customer loyalty and hats. The issue is that some people tend to use "indie" to mean "not a soulless, monolithic corporation". The music analogy is apt, with the sole difference that Valve doesn't churn out a continual stream of crap. In other words, Valve is like a pretty cool band that has its own label, which still cares about its fans (or at least does a really good job of pretending to). In the same sense, an indie developer would be like a small-time band that mostly plays gigs, releasing small batches of records under a local label.

Granted, I'm never comfortable with a near-monopoly, but Steam has been remarkably not shit, more so than I would have expected. Especially now that there are multiple up-and-coming competitors. I think that Origin has shown us all that Steam could be much, much worse, whatever problems it currently has.

On an unrelated note, my main issue with it (only being able to go into offline mode while still connected to the internet) has apparently been changed/fixed; it now automatically starts in offline mode when I'm not connected.

[SealyStar]

I just don't like Valve because they haven't produced a really great game since HL2 or maybe TF2 (I hate TF2, but a lot of people love it), but have profited handsomely for years off the sales of other games. That's my problem with centralized distribution of specific products like games - someone always benefits from others' work.

I feel like all Steam does for "indie" games is replace the old-school publisher with a promoter/hoster than serves the exact same role from a business perspective. In my - obviously controversial - opinion, indie devs who sell their stuff via Steam aren't really independent anymore.

[Sirus]

What, no love for Left 4 Dead or the sequel?

Portal? Portal 2?