Vote For or Against THIEF 4 on steam?

[bikerdude]

This may or may not have been discusses already, but a thread has been started over on ttlg and the consensus thus far is the thief community would prefer for Thief4 not to be released on steam.

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129937

Originally Posted by The_Raven

I myself am no fan of STEAM and DRM and would gladly see Thief IV not use it.

• First, Steam's less than stellar user interface.
• Second, the complete inability to roll back game breaking patches after having updated.
• Third, Valve's mandatory updates via STEAM have modified system requirements in the past; effectively imposing floating system requirements to their games.
• Fourth, I am quite opposed to the idea that any system or game requires one to activate over the internet in order to play a single player game.

I have many reasons for hating steam(see ravens comments above), but the foremost of which is I want the ability sell a game on when I'm finished playing with it. Which Valve in their holier than thou position forbid people to do... er up yours Valve. And lastly I like others are still playing the original Thief1/gold which is 10years old, I very much doubt that steam wills till be around in 10 years or if the steam game/s will still work or even been supported after that amount of time.

So I hereby vote NO...!!! to T4 on steam and if it does come out on steam I will NOT be buying it.

]I buy games I don't rent them

.

[esme]

damn straight biker

I don't care how good it is and yes I will be sad about it but

steam = no purchase

[Pieter888]

Personally, I don't care...

EDIT: since steam also has it's benefits.

[PlumsieTaker]

I use Steam constantly for games, in fact I have over 20 games I play on or through Steam and have never really had a problem with them, save for Frontlines: Fuel of War which had a buggy release due to developers. Most games can be played in offline mode anyway, so It doesn't really effect gameplay even if you can't connect to the internet.

It probably might be released on Steam, but as a retailer.. it doesn't mean that you can't purchase hard copies from other stores. However, if the hard copies require registration through Steam, then we have to assume; T4 has some multiplayer component in it, to which we also have to assume that Eidos and Valve have come to some sort of bi-distribution agreement for it to use Steam Software (such as Sega and Valve with Empire: Total War). But this is all highly unlikely.

I myself prefer hard copies, especially ones that don't require online registration. But either way, I don't mind.

[bikerdude]

Originally Posted by PlumsieTaker

I myself prefer hard copies, especially ones that don't require online registration. But either way,

So even a hardcore steam user would prefer a non-steam solution....let me ask you something... have you ever wanted to sell a game on after playing it and then found you cant because you bought a download copy and that valve said you cant even it you could...

As you probably figured out by now if you buy all your games on steam, your essentially doing a long term rental of a game for a fixed price, but you never actually own the game - which to me and others that is unacceptable.

And using steam is a mute point, thief players will WANT to buy the game as most of us will keep it to ad to our Thief collection. Fyi I actually paid full retail for T3 when its came out of £35, where as other games like Batman I sold down the local computer exchange after I finished with it getting most of the money back I paid for it.

[DarknessFalls]

Steam is rediculous. A big no from me. If I want to rent a game, I'll go to Blockbuster Video and rent one; which I never do, btw.

I enjoy having a self-contained hard copy of my games that I can install, un-install and re-install whenever I please and however many times I please, with no frustrations. I've probably done it 10-15 times with Thief 2 over the years. And if I ever want to sell my copy, I should be able to do so without fearing or knowing the buyer will have activation issues.

I will be taking the game off the store shelf and buying the it for like $60 with my hard-earned money. Let me feel some sense of independent ownership already. No Steam.

I've always wondered what would happen to games when Steam goes out of business and is no longer around to support games. And no other company wants to pick up the pieces and support their business model. Could be 2, 5, 10 or 30 years from now. Does anyone know? 10 years after Thief 2 and were still able to play and I anticipate being able to play for the rest of time. I could be wrong, but I just don't see that happening if Steam is involved; or it will become infinitely complex to get to play

[Telex]

I couldn't care less. I'm not going to use it, I prefer to own physical copies of my games. You don't have to use it either. Fact of the matter is, it makes the game available to more people, and this is a good thing. I'd be opposed if it were being discussed as a steam only release, but this seems highly unlikely.

At the end of the day, Eidos is going to do whats projected to be more commercially viable, regardless of what the fans want. So there's not much point in complaining about it if it ends up on Steam.

[bikerdude]

Originally Posted by Telex

At the end of the day, Eidos is going to do whats projected to be more commercially viable, regardless of what the fans want. So there's not much point in complaining about it if it ends up on Steam.

But at least we will have tried, as apposed sitting on out collective hands....

[ToMegaTherion]

I have a few things from Steam. I like not having to put in a DVD to play a game. Automatic updates also have their good points: you don't have to remember to check for updates. It's good that all the games work in Offline Mode too, since I don't have internet at home right now.

Releasing a game that requires Steam or some other download site is unacceptable for a major title, of course.

[bikerdude]

Originally Posted by oO_ShadowFox_Oo

The actual proportion of people that will want to buy the game for their collection will be fractional of the total number of players who will actually play it.

Er if that was the case then lots of very good non-steam good games that I have played (Bioshock, Elderscrolls4, MassEffect, Batman, CnC4) would never have been released to retail/etail

[Telex]

Originally Posted by bikerdude

But at least we will have tried, as apposed sitting on out collective hands....

I don't disagree, I just think it's something we'll have a lot less chance of changing than an aspect of gameplay, for example.

[esme]

Originally Posted by Telex

I don't disagree, I just think it's something we'll have a lot less chance of changing than an aspect of gameplay, for example.

which still doesn't mean we shouldn't try to change it

[Viktoria]

Enjoy this discussion, taffers.
But may I please remind you all that any posts that forget rule no.2 of the ToU will have to be deleted, sorry.

[bikerdude]

Originally Posted by VIKTORIA

But may I please remind you all that any posts that forget rule no.2 of the ToU will have to be deleted, sorry.

Yes, so heads up taffers!

Originally Posted by NewHorizon

To be perfectly honest, when I buy a game and it forces me to leave the disk in, or activate online, I turn it off and wait until I can download a cracked exe. Why? Two reasons. 1. It wears out my hardware. 2. I have bought the game. I own the physical disk. I should not be required to jump through any more hoops to play it. DRM activation does nothing more than inconvenience inexperienced computer users.

I don't like DRM in any form either, but I like even less the way a steam game has to be locked down to an email account. If this wasn't the case and the game simply needed activating like some games I have bought, this would allow me to sell the game on should I wish too, but that is also fraught with flaws.

One interesting way to make a game less pirated is by the Developers providing DLC, the devs get the cash direct and we the end user get to keep playing the game for longer. E.g. ElderScrolls, MassEffect, FallOut3.... all of which I have bought from my local game store. I have even bought copies of said games for friends.

[oO_ShadowFox_Oo]

Originally Posted by bikerdude

Er if that was the case then lots of very good non-steam good games that I have played (Bioshock, Elderscrolls4, MassEffect, Batman, CnC4) would never have been released to retail/etail

People still do purchase hard copies of games, but that was not my point.

I was commenting on the proportion of gamers that purchase games to add to their collection is minor in comparison to those that actually play the game.

If I ever purchase a game I insist on getting a hard copy, but not to add to my collection. I may pass it on to a friend or I may throw it out or sell it on. I just dislike digital copies because they are much more easily lost and your *actual* possession of them is debatable.

[CavaliereNero]

I made the mistake of buying Thief: Deadly Shadows through steam. It worked fine at first, but after a few updates, it wouldn't even load the main menu, endlessly looping the opening cinematic. Thus far, I've still no reply from them on this error, and at this point I don't expect one. Better just to get the disk and apply the patches as needed.
Though if it's a quality product, like we're all hoping, there wouldn't be a need to sell the disk later. And even then, I'm waiting on a demo before deciding to make a purchase.

[Telex]

DRM isn't only included in Steam games, alot of DVDs include them as well. So it seems like a more reasonable gripe would be "We want T4 without DRMs" as opposed to "We don't want T4 on Steam" when it's a convenient way of obtaining games that many people find extremely helpful.

[Albi]

agreed... steam is . as if you need internet to play and SP game.

[Mr. Perfect]

I'll buy it on DVD myself, but if other people want to buy it on Steam I really couldn't care less. If they want to pay for a download, that's their choice.

[Peter Smith]

If T4 were to be released only on Steam, I would never get it. I really dislike the concept of Steam. I loved Half Life, but I passed on HL2 for that reason. Requiring an Internet connection to start the game is for the birds. Has your internet ever gone down? That is exactly the time you want to play a stand-alone first person sneaker. And, Steam has had a way of messing up other versions of Thief, so why should we trust that Thief 4 would be any better? Plus, I don't know what you would do for a backup in case Steam went out of business.

If Steam is only an option, then caveat emptor. There had better be a substantial discount.

[DarknessFalls]

And I made the mistake of downloading Thief Gold from the Gamestop online store or wherever you go online to get it from these days. They messed with the EXE file's code so that it's different than the original CD's code, and so you can't properly apply the patches to it to get it to work on a modern computer. At least not mine. And yes I tried everything in the troubleshooting FAQs. I Eventually had to ask for a refund and then buy the actual CDs from Amazon. The patches worked like a charm on that. Bottom line, I just want a CD. Soft copies can morph over time too easilyy unbeknownst to the masses who like to keep things operational, causing heartache, as they did with Thief Gold.

[ToMegaTherion]

Originally Posted by Peter Smith

If T4 were to be released only on Steam, I would never get it. I really dislike the concept of Steam. I loved Half Life, but I passed on HL2 for that reason. Requiring an Internet connection to start the game is for the birds. Has your internet ever gone down? That is exactly the time you want to play a stand-alone first person sneaker. And, Steam has had a way of messing up other versions of Thief, so why should we trust that Thief 4 would be any better? Plus, I don't know what you would do for a backup in case Steam went out of business.

If Steam is only an option, then caveat emptor. There had better be a substantial discount.

If your internet connection goes down then Steam will start in Offline Mode and you can play all your games. I have no internet connection at home and can happily play all my Steam games.

[Pieter888]

I don't see a reason why not to release it via steam.
As long if it gets sold both in stores on dvd AND in the steam store, people who prefer to have the game in their hands buy it in stores, people who don't want a dvd in their drive to play simply purchase it via steam. Either way, EM get's more buyers when there are more ways of obtaining the game.

[esme]

currently my ISP is using a BT wholesale line, my rated speed is 8Mb/s down and half a meg up

however due to a c*ck up at BT for the last two days I have had speeds of around 30Kb/s down and this is set to continue indefinitely although I'm told it is being worked on, I've turned off image downloading in my browser it's that bad, and I'm trying to run a business on this connection too

I'm so glad I haven't got any steam games

I'm tempted to dig out an old 56K modem as that would be faster but it would tie up a phone line

--EDIT--

and as soon as I post about it they fix the thing I can't even have a good rant

[zhunt]

what bugs me most is the updating cant be paused. thought id play some hl2 the other day, fired up steam, and of course, it wanted to update, and was going to take some ridiculously long time period, so i just canned it, and dint bother, and then remembered thats why i didnt play last time. you should be able to play steam games without having to download updates first, and yes, i tried starting in offline mode, and it then just says u cant run them in offline mode. i like to keep games up to date etc, but at a time of my choosing thanks!