Civilization 5 and Steam(works)

How will the integration of Steam(works) influence your decision on buying Civ5?

  • I will probably buy the game, Steam is making me more likely to buy it.

    Votes: 62 9.3%
  • I will probably buy the game, Steam does not influence this decision either way.

    Votes: 93 14.0%
  • I will probably buy the game, Steam is making me less likely to buy it.

    Votes: 94 14.1%
  • I am undecided on whether I will buy the game, Steam is making me more likely to do so.

    Votes: 4 0.6%
  • I am undecided on whether I will buy the game, Steam does not influence this decision either way.

    Votes: 9 1.4%
  • I am undecided on whether I will buy the game, Steam is making me less likely to do so.

    Votes: 48 7.2%
  • I will probably NOT buy the game, Steam is making me more likely to buy it.

    Votes: 1 0.2%
  • I will probably NOT buy the game, Steam does not influence this decision either way.

    Votes: 2 0.3%
  • I will probably NOT buy the game, Steam is making me less likely to buy it.

    Votes: 27 4.1%
  • I will definitely NOT buy the game, because of Steam.

    Votes: 103 15.5%
  • I will definitely NOT buy the game, Steam doesn't affect this decision.

    Votes: 3 0.5%
  • I will definitely buy the game, because of Steam.

    Votes: 24 3.6%
  • I will definitely buy the game, Steam doesn't affect this decision.

    Votes: 196 29.4%

  • Total voters
    666
Good point about Gamespy, Fin.

--

I'm getting sorta tired of tethering games to my Steam account, so I'm slightly less likely to get Civ5.

I'll probably cave and get it, though...


Edit: Bought the Steam Digital Deluxe Edition just a few minutes ago. :woohoo:
 
I'm in the boat of buying civ but don't like Steam. I don't have any technical issues or compatibility issues...after all, Valve has monetary reasons to make things easy. But I had Steam a while back for Tf2 and my experience was poor. It's just another program your PC has to load at startup. It's slow to boot, slow to load games, and freezes often. It's also just another way for companies to shove advertisements in your face.


So, ya, I'm not happy but w/e. I won't be buying valve games again :P
 
I think Valve have been clever to spin Steam as a "service to the player". In reality it probably leans more toward being a service to Valve and other publishers.

@Fin,

I wouldn't bet on MP being better with civ5. If it was so good, why are Firaxis/2K not showing us? Maybe I'm rationalising things too much, but frankly I find it hard to be enthusiastic about a major feature of a game if the person selling it (2K) doesn't even consider it worth mentioning in the advertising. Optimism and faith are what's needed, and I have little. :(
 
I think it is unfair to discribe Steam as just DRM software. It is much more than that. Steam is more like the PC version of Xbox Live or PSN. Even as a DRM is is a whole lot better than other alternatives.
 
I'm in the boat of buying civ but don't like Steam. I don't have any technical issues or compatibility issues...after all, Valve has monetary reasons to make things easy. But I had Steam a while back for Tf2 and my experience was poor. It's just another program your PC has to load at startup. It's slow to boot, slow to load games, and freezes often. It's also just another way for companies to shove advertisements in your face.


So, ya, I'm not happy but w/e. I won't be buying valve games again :P


I've played TF2 since release and have purchased every valve game there is and have never had a problem with Steam. It boots in seconds, loading games is no slower than loading a non-steam game, and could count the number of times hl2.exe has crashed (While playing TF2) on my hand and I've never, ever, had the actual steam client freeze on me. I could see how it might be slow to load at startup if you also have a lot of other programs loading and a slower computer (Clean up your start programs maybe?) but you can always set the client to not load at startup.

Not to say your issues aren't real, but the vast majority of people I know have no problems at all running games on steam. Also no game you play today (steam or non-steam) is going to be perfectly bug free upon release.

That said, I'd buy Civ5 steam or no steam. Though I do prefer Steam so as I can have my entire game library easily downloadable and always up-to-date. Plus they normally have great summer and holiday sales, especially on indie games (Like Trine for $4!).
 
I think it is unfair to discribe Steam as just DRM software. It is much more than that. Steam is more like the PC version of Xbox Live or PSN. Even as a DRM is is a whole lot better than other alternatives.

Steam's two most essential functions are (1) DRM and (2) selling games (also DLC). Take away either of those and Steam probably wouldn't exist or at least not with its current massive install-base.
Everything else about steam is just fluff to encourage/convince customers to accept it (e.g. "community" stuff like friends lists).
 
Steam's two most essential functions are (1) DRM and (2) selling games (also DLC). Take away either of those and Steam probably wouldn't exist or at least not with its current massive install-base.
Everything else about steam is just fluff to encourage/convince customers to accept it (e.g. "community" stuff like friends lists).
It's always been a distribution platform first, supported by community elements and matchmaking for its various games. The DRM aspects are much more recent, and steam doesn't rely on steamworks games to exist. Calling it a "DRM platform" is kind of silly. The major retail games released on steamworks, while growing significantly, is a new thing.
 
Steam's two most essential functions are (1) DRM and (2) selling games (also DLC). Take away either of those and Steam probably wouldn't exist or at least not with its current massive install-base.
Everything else about steam is just fluff to encourage/convince customers to accept it (e.g. "community" stuff like friends lists).

You may consider "everything else" to be fluff but to me it is essential. Those features don't just make me "accept" Steam, they make me love it.

Steam has made my PC gaming experience far more enjoyable than it used to. Part of is the convenience of having all my games centralized and easy to access, but most of it is how I interact with my gamer buddies on Steam.

I won't even get started on the crazy deals. So yes, I buy games on Steam, and that is one of its primary functions, but I pay far less for them now than I would have in the past (12 dollars for the entire Company of Heroes collection, for example).

EDIT:

The major retail games released on steamworks, while growing significantly, is a new thing.

Dunno if I agree with that though. Major big-budget games have been selling on Steam for a long time now.
 
I should have qualified: it's relatively new. I mean, steam has been around for about 6-7 years. Major retail steamworks releases started about 3 years ago. (Note, I mean steam-linked games, not games that are sold on steam).
 
Steam's two most essential functions are (1) DRM and (2) selling games (also DLC). Take away either of those and Steam probably wouldn't exist or at least not with its current massive install-base.
Everything else about steam is just fluff to encourage/convince customers to accept it (e.g. "community" stuff like friends lists).

On the other side the DRM is 100% non-intrusive (less intrusive then having to insert the original DVD), the games selling part is great (and special offers are sweet) and "everything else" is a lot of stuff :p

p.s.
This game will unlock in approximately 2 weeks, and 18 hours
This game will unlock in approximately 2 weeks, and 18 hours
This game will unlock in approximately 2 weeks, and 18 hours
This game will unlock in approximately 2 weeks, and 18 hours
This game will unlock in approximately 2 weeks, and 18 hours
Man, time is so slow
 
I will definitely buy the game, Steam doesn't affect this decision.

This is closest to truth. Steam caused a small hesitation but without prior experience of it I decided to plunge myself into the unknown (I don't have Steam account yet so I'm quite neutral towards them but I consider the idea of forcing me to use unrelated services rather annoying).
 
You may consider "everything else" to be fluff but to me it is essential. Those features don't just make me "accept" Steam, they make me love it.
Exactly, so Steam has been successful. Though I do wonder now what you consider the word 'love' to mean.:p
Steam has made my PC gaming experience far more enjoyable than it used to. Part of is the convenience of having all my games centralized and easy to access, but most of it is how I interact with my gamer buddies on Steam.
As nice as the community features are, I argue they are fluff because Steam could easily exist without them. But in the way they attach people to the service in order to enjoy community interaction (a basic need for all people), it is very effective in breaking through the acceptance barrier of many a gamer. If gamers depend on the Steam service, it puts the provider of the Steam service in a stronger position to push on the consumer more things that benefit the provider or its associates.

As for having all your games centralized, are you implying that you don't have any games that aren't on Steam? I have a hard drive where I install games and in the root directory of that drive I have a folder called "Games". In that folder, all I store is shortcuts to launch games. Some of those shortcuts are even customised, for example to launch the game in windowed mode at a particular resolution. I use Windows 7 (and I know the following can be done on winxp too) and have a toolbar on the taskbar that is just the contents of that folder. Launching any game is a matter of 2 mouse clicks.
Spoiler :
taskbarq.jpg


Why am I telling you this? Because I find this to be more convenient than attaching non-Steam games to Steam and using it to launch them, and also I don't like cluttering up the desktop with millions of shortcuts and hate using the Start Menu. In simcity4 for example, I'm using a mod that uses Shift+TAB as a shortcut for something. But if the game is launched from Steam the Shift+TAB shortcut brings up the steam community.

Apart from that, I'm not much aware of what it means to launch non-Steam games through Steam but unless I'm missing something, it seems to be mostly pointless.
I won't even get started on the crazy deals. So yes, I buy games on Steam, and that is one of its primary functions, but I pay far less for them now than I would have in the past (12 dollars for the entire Company of Heroes collection, for example).

The fact that games are cheaper when they are not so new is not something new about the games market. I have argued in the past that digital distribution has impacted the way video games (PC games in particular) are priced, increasing the speed at which games drop in price, but that is something to be attributed to digital distribution in general. Obviously there are fewer costs to a seller in distributing a purely digital product, than distributing a physical boxed copy with all the shipping, storage (inventory), shelf-space etc. costs that go along with it.

Look at the price of Civ5 on steam. At least where I am, it's costing 80 USD to order it on steam. Alternatively I can pick up the identical game in boxed form from a retailer offering it for roughly 46USD (postage included). That says a lot. This is perhaps a good time to remind you of the often-stated argument of those defending steam - Publishers set the price. You like the fact that you picked up the CoH collection so cheap. That's the publisher you should thank - not Steam. If Steam didn't exist today, any digital distributor that filled a similar role would likely offer you the same price.

EDIT:



Dunno if I agree with that though. Major big-budget games have been selling on Steam for a long time now.

Indeed (agreed), and games don't need to be steamworks to have steam drm. Correct me if I'm wrong but Civ4 on steam never needed a disc in the drive.


On the other side the DRM is 100% non-intrusive (less intrusive then having to insert the original DVD), the games selling part is great (and special offers are sweet) and "everything else" is a lot of stuff :p
100% non-intrusive? Seems to be completely a matter of opinion. I'm happy for you that you find steam drm acceptable. I find its drm acceptable as well but I don't consider it to be 100% non-intrusive. It is at the very least a small nuisance. For me putting a disc in the drive is a similar level of nuisance. It's not as if I'm playing a different game every day, so it's not difficult to leave the disc in the drive. I mean, I don't often hear console players whingeing about how they have to put a disc in the drive or a cartridge in the slot every time they want to play a game (let's ignore for the moment the possibility of console gamers buying every single game digitally because I'd imagine that is extremely rare). They appear to be perfectly fine with it.

With other games that use a disc-based DRM, I don't have to manage an account with some overseas company like I do with steam. I don't have to sign an agreement stating that my service could be cancelled should I negatively affect the enjoyment of the service by another of its users (for example), and worry about the terms of that agreement changing at any time with my sole remedy should I disagree with those changes being to cancel my subscription and hence lose access to games I paid for.
 
Apart from that, I'm not much aware of what it means to launch non-Steam games through Steam but unless I'm missing something, it seems to be mostly pointless.
I also use Steam as a game launcher for all my games, it's the same thing as having shortcuts somewhere, you can set launch parameters and everything, so it's just personal preference. In fact I have both things :D

The only benefit you have from launching non-steam games from steam is that you can access the community/clock/browser thingie while ingame.Which can be good for some games because you can check what time is it or surf the web while you see what's happening in your game and without changing screen resolution.
 
I also use Steam as a game launcher for all my games, it's the same thing as having shortcuts somewhere, you can set launch parameters and everything, so it's just personal preference. In fact I have both things :D

The only benefit you have from launching non-steam games from steam is that you can access the community/clock/browser thingie while ingame.Which can be good for some games because you can check what time is it or surf the web while you see what's happening in your game and without changing screen resolution.

Thanks for the infos. Is there a way to change what shortcut launches that feature? i.e. changing it to something other than shift+tab?

Also, I see you're right about being able to set launch parameters. However this is, from what I can see, identical to the way the operating system does it. Sure, it's "nice" that the shortcuts can be modified in this way, but it's nothing over what an ordinary shortcut already does.

EDIT
In case it matters, apart from setting categories for games on steam, the method I advocated (putting a toolbar on the taskbar for games) has the extra advantage of being able to change the order to something other than alphabetic. Can that be done on steam? (e.g. I'd put civ4bts and its mods together in the order)
 
Thanks for the infos. Is there a way to change what shortcut launches that feature? i.e. changing it to something other than shift+tab?

Yes you can change the shortcut key or even disable the feature for a specific game.


Also, I see you're right about being able to set launch parameters. However this is, from what I can see, identical to the way the operating system does it. Sure, it's "nice" that the shortcuts can be modified in this way, but it's nothing over what an ordinary shortcut already does.

Exactly, it's the same things as having a toolbar of your shortcuts. So it's just personal preference.

Also, you can add a non-Steam game to Steam, and then create a shortcut to launch it from Steam, and add the shortcut to your toolbar on the taskbar. That way you keep using the shortcut from your OS but you can use Steam features while ingame :p
 
So basically you don't buy any games anymore? Because every game has 3rd party software integrated into it. DirectX is another program required for many games.

Exactly, the only games I've bought in the last 15 years are Civilizations and Football Managers (previously known as Championship Manager). I skipped FM09 as it had a very problematic DRM solution (Uniloc), but luckily SEGA (the publisher) learned from that and offered a choice with FM10 (Steam is one choice; another is having to keep the disc in the drive while playing, which I'm using).

DirectX is a driver not a program per se. I have no problem with that.
 
Until Football Manager 2009, the only game I used steam for was CounterStrike/CounterStrike Source and used it almost daily for 5 years.

Considering my usage I had relatively few problems, and most of which were solved by deleting a few Steam registry files which would then be automatically replaced after a Steam restart. That being said, if I had the option I'd rather not have have Steam at all and just click on the game shortcut I want to play and away I go!

As to keeping the disc in the drive, it isn't much of an bonus for me as for PC (well, laptop really) gaming it is going to be all CIV from release day. And when I take a break from CIV to subdue my jealous PS3, switching discs between MAG and Pro Evo isn't something that is particularly draining.

So, I chose:

I will definitely buy the game, Steam doesn't affect this decision.
 
It's always been a distribution platform first, supported by community elements and matchmaking for its various games. The DRM aspects are much more recent, and steam doesn't rely on steamworks games to exist. Calling it a "DRM platform" is kind of silly.

mmhh...how many game studios would release their games via steam if there was no DRM included? 0, i bet it.

And sure it's based on community elements, that's why it had to be forced upon the CS community, and that's why it's now forced upon us, because it's great for the community.
 
mmhh...how many game studios would release their games via steam if there was no DRM included? 0, i bet it.
A CD/DVD is also a DRM platform then, and how many game studios would release their games on CD/DVD without DRM included ? :p
 
Back
Top Bottom