Civilization 5 Steamworks questions/concerns for inclusion in the FAQ

[Senethro]

No, I think the gulag is pretty good. When people ask complicated legal, licensing and distribution issues or for tech specs of the content of packets sent via Steam and expect a quick answer, or even an answer at all then you need a gulag to put them in.

 

[Psyringe]

No, I think the gulag is pretty good. When people ask complicated legal, licensing and distribution issues or for tech specs of the content of packets sent via Steam and expect a quick answer, or even an answer at all then you need a gulag to put them in.

I am very confident that this is not the opinion of the CFC staff, otherwise this site wouldn't have been such a great source of information in the past and I probably wouldn't be here. The point is that a part of the fanbase does have significant concerns. If we find a way how these concerns can be voiced without continuously affecting other threads, and without putting them in a "gulag" where no question gets answered (as you put it, and as acknowledged by The_J), then that's a better solution for all people involved.

 

[The_J]

No, its great! It has really worked. The overspill of Steam issues into every thread on the board showed no sign of stopping and you were out of more lenient options.

But it's still not a good solution.

No, I think the gulag is pretty good. When people ask complicated legal, licensing and distribution issues or for tech specs of the content of packets sent via Steam and expect a quick answer, or even an answer at all then you need a gulag to put them in.

Sarcasm?
If we really wanted to handle it in the hard way, we would just delete these things.
And i also think, that i didn't move any real question from the FAQ to this thread here.
If i'm wrong, then please correct my.

 

[Senethro]

Borrowing a post from another thread...

Between the release date for the FAQ for Steam and this demo release date, that is two deadlines you have missed in promises to a community you are supposed to work with. In my business, my customers would be wondering why my company was setting me up to look like a fool. AS one of those customers I would also be wondering what promises I could ever believe from that representative. If the company is not ready to meet the promises, they should not be made. In my company, someone's job would be on the line for such mishandling of customers. We consider promises to customers should be the highest priority. Your and your company's performance so far gives evidence to the contrary. I am not threatening boycott or any other extreme action, etc, but I will think three time before ever believing a 2K anouncement given by 2Kgreg because it is obvious tome that he and his company do not have a shared vision of community interface for their game.

Broken promises are sloppy work. Sloppy work comes from sloppy companies. If that is how 2K wants to appear, then they have a good start.

Look at this guy and his entitlement. This kind of attitude is the problem. Why are people actively trying to find things to be offended by? Its difficult to have free discussion or a good FAQ with so much bad faith. All these issues and worries will turn out to be false and forgotten one week after release and replaced by the actual problems which noone will have seen coming.

Sarcasm?
If we really wanted to handle it in the hard way, we would just delete these things.
And i also think, that i didn't move any real question from the FAQ to this thread here.
If i'm wrong, then please correct my.

And no, I wasn't being sarcastic. When people ask for information that doesn't exist yet or for what amount to trade secrets, they deserve to be disappointed.

The great thing about a gulag is its quieter than a harsh crackdown and engenders less resistance.

 

[Ondskan]

Hi! I was told this is the place to rant about Steam.
Steam is a platform thats incredibly buggy with bad support and forced updates. Not only that but its unethical that one corporation monopolises distribution like that. It screws up with developers and what now has become producers like yourselves in the long run. For a game of this high quality and standard it is below you to release it on steam.


I certainly won't be buying the game due to this. Hopefully you will release an independent version later. Cheers.

 

[Mercade]

Hi! I was told this is the place to rant about Steam.
Steam is a platform thats incredibly buggy with bad support and forced updates. Not only that but its unethical that one corporation monopolises distribution like that. It screws up with developers like yourselves in the long run. For a game of this high quality and standard it is below you to release it on steam.

I certainly won't be buying the game due to this. Hopefully you will release an independent version later. Cheers.

Not really. Actually this thread is for questions (and concerns) about Steamworks to be added to the FAQ. But you're welcome to your 15 seconds of rant. Feel better now?

And no, they cannot release an "indepenent" version later, because they've used Steamworks as platform for their product, not just as DRM.

It'd be like asking for a version of Open Office that doesn't use Java. (I know, using analogies is asking for trouble.)

 

[Ondskan]

Always feel better after a rant. Some mod told this was the place

Well I have a suggestion to!
I do I do I do!


Release a non-steam version!!!! OMFG!!! EPIC!!!! Overload...
Heck having online verification done through your own servers if you must have it isn't even that hard nor expensive. I really don't see the point for Steam.

 

[ori]

doesn't preclude the possibility of having a patch removing the DRM part, though
Not that that is likely, but given the claim that Steam could, if needed, free all their games from the need to contact the servers - it should be possible for any company using steamworks to do the same for their own products

edit: x-post this was a reply to mercade

 

[Ondskan]

I have no idea how it will be distributed but if its distributed in the CD like a steamfile you can just open up the steamfile using various programs and then procede to do the same.


Actually its only more inviting

 

[Sahkuhnder]

Not really. Actually this thread is for questions (and concerns) about Steamworks to be added to the FAQ.

But evidence shows the thread title is a lie.

This thread was opened by a 2K corporate PR rep three months ago and has over 1100 posts yet not one single question has ever been added in the FAQ. 2K broke their promise and completely abandoned their Steam FAQ threads many weeks ago.

At this point only the most optimistic fanboi would expect 2K to be good for their word and to answer the questions in this thread, so the thread has inevitably changed from questions for 2K to rants about 2K and why they refuse to answer their own threads.

 

[Mercade]

I have no idea how it will be distributed but if its distributed in the CD like a steamfile you can just open up the steamfile using various programs and then procede to do the same.

Actually its only more inviting

I have no idea what this means.

@Sahkuhnder: Yeah yeah yeah (although I sympahise with your plight of having your question answered).

 

[Ondskan]

^ it means funny stuffz

 

[ori]

Moderator Action: and now please step back from the brink and refrain from going anywhere closer to piracy discussion.
@sahkunder: well, there is a Steam FAQ (the sticky thread) - and actually a few of the more obvious questions actually are covered in it...

 

[Psyringe]

@sahkunder: well, there is a Steam FAQ (the sticky thread) - and actually a few of the more obvious questions actually are covered in it...

But let's be honest, a major fansite like CFC could do better than offering its members a FAQ in which "a few of the more obvious questions are actually covered", couldn't it?

 

[Mercade]

But let's be honest, a major fansite like CFC could do better than offering its members a FAQ in which "a few of the more obvious questions are actually covered", couldn't it?

The question that Sahkuhnder posed a few times can only be answered by 2K (/Firaxis/Steam). This also goes for most of the other questions posed in this thread that are either very detailed on legal or technical issues or question that involve guess work between multiple viable alternatives. In either case, the answer should come from 2K (/Firaxis/Steam) to be definitive.

 

[Sahkuhnder]

@sahkunder: well, there is a Steam FAQ (the sticky thread) - and actually a few of the more obvious questions actually are covered in it...

My question is post #14 dated July 26 (the same day 2K opened the thread) on the first page of that thread.

Do you really expect 2K to answer my question? Do you expect 2K to answer all the questions in this thread? Am I being unfair when I say "2K broke their promise and completely abandoned their Steam FAQ threads many weeks ago"?

 

[Psyringe]

Mercade: I didn't necessarily mean that CFC could answer all questions, we obviously can't. But adding the answerable ones to a FAQ, and collecting those that we can't answer yet in a list, wouldn't be bad imho. It might even help people like the 2K community manager (who hasn't answered any questions in this thread for more than six weeks now, after explicitly stating that users shouldn't answer questions here because the 2K people are going to do it) to look them up, in case he really does want to answer them.

 

[ori]

@Psyringe: I do not disagree, if one or more users here would like to compile such a FAQ, I am sure there would be support from the staff here.
@Sahkunder: well, they did answer some stuff, that was all I meant to say. They did not completely walk back on their promises, though I agree that what was delivered is ... suboptimal, to be polite.

 

[Senethro]

@Psyringe: I do not disagree, if one or more users here would like to compile such a FAQ, I am sure there would be support from the staff here.
@Sahkunder: well, they did answer some stuff, that was all I meant to say. They did not completely walk back on their promises, though I agree that what was delivered is ... suboptimal, to be polite.

I don't think its suboptimal to not respond to hostile questioning about what every packet sent by Steam contains.

 

[ori]

Curiously such a question was not actually posed. Dismissing valid questions by arguing against questions not actually posed is not an optimal discussion technique.