49 replies to this topic

[Dukarriope]

I think that having MWO on Steam would ultimately attract more players, but even if it was on Steam, it doesn't mean that you as a player have to use Steam for it. Steam hosts many F2P games that can be run separately without Steam if installed through the game's own official client.

[Egomane]

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

Saved me, without Steam, I would be stuck with a PS3 and XBox by now.

Good for you. Not good enough for me.
Saving you isn't the same as saving PC gaming as a whole, like it is claimed often enough by the fanboys.

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

Who cares, I never got back to an old game after I played it once.

I love playing my old games. Some of them are more then 20 years old and I still install them from time to time. Yes, that does mean I have a working 5,25" floppy drive.

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

I bet you also run TeamSpeak which is also not needed, and a browser, which is not needed too, and torrent client which is not needed. You got the point.

Not while playing a game. Teamspeak I use only for MWO, when I run with my friends (which is about 50 % of my MWO time). I have no need for it otherwise. Why should I run applications, that are not essential to the game, during my play time?

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

I'm pretty sure Steam is not about DRM.

Not in whole, but in a substantial part. Steam had two marketing strategies running, during its growth phase.
Number 1: The Enduser - Easy accessability; downloadable and automatically patched games; low prices
Number 2: The Publisher - reduced production cost because of no longer needed shipping and packaging; copy protection; marketing information about currently widespread hardware

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

Yeh, a friend of a friend of a friend of mine told me they're broke, those autumn sales are all a desperation move.

I never bought a game because it was cheap. I buy games, because they look interesting, because I played a demo of them and found it fun or because I had the chance to test it at a friends place. Price is never a deciding factor. Maybe my carefull selection is the reason, why I have a lot of fun replaying my old games?

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

Not even politicians argue rationally.

That's why I despise most politicans! They argue like fanboys, even if it is against their own best interest.

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 04:19 AM, said:

And so the Battletech and Mechwarrior fans, cause everyday we have a new thread about DHS, gausscats, streaks, screen bugs, crashes, MCs, unbalance, low FPS, UAC5, premades, PUGs, matchmaking, lag, and so on.

Sadly true!

Sifright, on 03 December 2012 - 04:39 AM, said:

Steam peaks at 6,000,000 concurrent users each day.

to get that kind of sustained user base you need in excess of a hundred million accounts.

You might be interested in this article ...
http://www.gamesindu...oncurrent-users
... it is only a few days old.

Steam has just above 50 million users.

Edited by Egomane, 03 December 2012 - 04:58 AM.

[Taidan]

The "30% cut" that people keep talking about is a non-issue for F2P titles.

Firstly, the actual percentage that Steam takes through direct sales can be negotiable, depending on what kind of numbers we're talking about. Irrelevant though, because...

Secondly, the cut only applies to direct sales through the Steam store. There are plenty of games that will allow a free client download through the Steam client, then will sell you in-game currency directly though their own web or in-game storefront, in which case Steam takes no cut. See, for example, Planetside 2 or Tribes: Ascend, or pretty much most of the free-to-play titles on Steam. (But not all) Also, Perpetuum, a mech-based subscription MMO that was recently Greenlighted and will be added soon. No idea what the deal is there, but considering they sell those subscriptions directly, and their entire current user base are playing a non-Steam client, I feel it is extremely unlikely that the publishers of that game have agreed to hand over any percentage of the money they're taking at the moment.

(They also have the option of allowing Steam to sell bundles of items directly, but that would very likely be subject to Valve taking a cut. And then there's the "discount issue"...)

PGI would have to make alternate licensing agreements for that kind of deal, but would then get to keep 100% of subsequent MC sales (minus tax, of course). Considering the vastly increased exposure and user base that Steam can give, it may well be worth it, as long as they don't jump in too early and do a Towns, in which case the negative publicitymight not be beneficial to the game or publisher. (Understatement)

[PurpleNinja]

Since you took the time to answer so politely to a troll...

Egomane, on 03 December 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

Good for you. Not good enough for me.
Saving you isn't the same as saving PC gaming as a whole, like it is claimed often enough by the fanboys.

Can be true. I took myself as an example. Have no idea about industry actual numbers.

Egomane, on 03 December 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

I love playing my old games. Some of them are more then 20 years old and I still install them from time to time. Yes, that does mean I have a working 5,25" floppy drive.

Holy ****. Sometime ago I played a few old classic games and I was like: "thank the gods game industry has evolved". I'm not saying they're bad games, I had a lot of fun with then in the past, IN THE PAST.

Egomane, on 03 December 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

Not while playing a game. Teamspeak I use only for MWO, when I run with my friends (which is about 50 % of my MWO time). I have no need for it otherwise. Why should I run applications, that are not essential to the game, during my play time?

Can't speak for the entire PC game community, but all the gamers I know (beyond the virtual enviroment) run lots of programs while gaming.

Egomane, on 03 December 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

Not in whole, but in a substantial part. Steam had two marketing strategies running, during its growth phase.
Number 1: The Enduser - Easy accessability; downloadable and automatically patched games; low prices
Number 2: The Publisher - reduced production cost because of no longer needed shipping and packaging; copy protection; marketing information about currently widespread hardware

Exactly. That's how I knew about Steam.

Egomane, on 03 December 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

I never bought a game because it was cheap. I buy games, because they look interesting, because I played a demo of them and found it fun or because I had the chance to test it at a friends place. Price is never a deciding factor. Maybe my carefull selection is the reason, why I have a lot of fun replaying my old games?

I get games for both reasons, and got some surprises on the way, like buying a total unknown (to me) game because it's cheap, and having lots of fun.

Egomane, on 03 December 2012 - 04:52 AM, said:

That's why I despise most politicans! They argue like fanboys, even if it is against their own best interest.

OK, let's skip the politicians, it was just plain trolling.

[Captain Midnight]

Egomane is an antisteam crusader, let him not use steam in peace.

[Egomane]

PurpleNinja, on 03 December 2012 - 05:19 AM, said:

Since you took the time to answer so politely to a troll...

Yeah! Not wearing my "Don't feed the Trolls" shirt today. At least you are not a flaming troll, but an arguing one, so I can forgive myself.

I have no problem to agree, that we disagree on the benefits steam delivers. I also said in the past, that I would be okay with making MWO available on steam to spread its publicity, as long as it does not become steam integrated or, even worse, exclusive.

[Egomane]

Captain Midnight, on 03 December 2012 - 05:25 AM, said:

Egomane is an antisteam crusader, let him not use steam in peace.

Yes, I totally admit it!

Just like I admit, that it would be good for MWO to be distributed in as many ways possible, including steam. I am open to compromises. A lot of steam fanboys, from the way they are arguing, are not.

[FerretGR]

I will simply say this about Steam: I am a casual gamer by most folks' definition of the word. Until this fall, I had only ever bought Civilization 4 and 5, and Sins of a Solar Empire. Through Steam, I now have a library of like 20 games. That's 17 pubishers that wouldn't have gotten a penny from me if it wasn't for Steam. Steam, for whatever negativity you might associate with it, is easy for the end-user, and good for the games that call it home.

Edited by FerretGR, 03 December 2012 - 05:39 AM.

[S3dition]

Secundus, on 02 December 2012 - 07:33 PM, said:

I think the other thing about Steam Greenlight as I understand it is only for game developers that don't have a publisher, which MWO doesn't fall under.

Correct. Green Light is for developers that need help getting into steam due to:

A) Limited programming ability
Limited asset development

MWO is made by veteran game designers with no problem doing the coding necessary for integration.

IceSerpent, on 02 December 2012 - 05:38 PM, said:

1. A lot of people don't use steam and never will.
2. "Saved" PC gaming from what? Brick & Mortar has been dead for a while for quite a lot of things, but you can still buy games (and other stuff) online without ever touching things like steam.

PC gaming almost died because of a severely limited market and almost impossible ROI for a publisher. This is why for a span of about 8 years, PC games were only added as a console port. Though most games were never released on PC (even Microsoft dragged its feet to port the HALO series, which was originally designed as PC exclusive). PC games were relegated to the "wall of shame" next to wheel of fortune and barbie adventures.

Valve jumpstarted the PC market with Steam (as Valve has always hated publishers and never fully trusted them after the whole Sierra debacle). Steam is an outstanding platform for indie games or smaller publishers to thrive on. It made such an enormous impact that multiple other platforms began to copy it, such as Direct2Drive, Impulse, and Origin.

Now, if the developers decide to work with Steam, it doesn't preclude a standalone version. They can run two separate client types, though that requires a lot more work (since bugs will manifest on one that don't on the other). It's also a bit of a pain for versioning.

[Thrak]

This game should definitely be on steam; I have it running in the background anyway, and get 2-3 people message me a week asking me "hey why aren't you playing anything?", and I have to introduce them to MWO. If steam said that' I'm playing MWO, and they could join me easly then playerbase++

Steam = Win. I see someone playing a new game on steam and I ask 'how is it?'. Fantastic word-of-mouth marketing tool.

Edited: for english.

Edited by Thrak, 03 December 2012 - 05:55 AM.