Selling Civ5

[mtrein]

i once heard that steam eats babies, gives you cancer and seduces your mum out of spite.

Was this meant to be funny?

 

[Louis XXIV]

Quick question, how do you get it so steam doesn't load when you start your computer? I haven't had any complaints while running the game, but it does seem to slow things down when my computer starts.

 

[Codeman]

people had said in years past the big 3 auto makers would never go under. people didn't think movie rentals places would go under. people thought Montgomery Ward would be around forever. 8 tracks where the future... history is plagued by companies people thought would never go under. to say steam won't is careless.

that said, i have no doubt the future of steam is secure for quite some time to come.

i think some people just don't like being required to partner with a 3rd party. each have their own reasons.

i think some revolve around people's limited access to internet (they wouldn't get benefits from steam). since they have no choice but to have an internet connection to install the game... there are a lot of people who don't have high speed internet; either due to price or other reasons. in the past they could still put up the money to get the game. making a 1 time $50 commitment was tough but they could manage. now they need internet connection to their pc, and most isp require 1-2 year contracts. for some 6 months is too long to know a monthly charge can be paid. they have been left out of the civ V community. everyone says it's only one time, for the install. what isp will let you connect 1 time only?

granted, this isn't everyone, but some. some of the others may only play civ. to them this adds extra hoops to jump through. many won't bother. i wasn't going to but my wife bought the game for me. i've been playing civ for about a decade. i have several other games. but since BTS came out i haven't bought any.

civ is the only game i would buy. i wasn't going to this time due to the extra hoops. i love civ and i always have multiple games running. right now i have 2 bts games in progress and just finished another.

having to add steam to my pc is just something else i didn't want to mess with. i suspect others may feel the same. if the game isn't just the best and most addictive game i probably won't both[er] when i upgrade my pc in the spring.

i installed the game last night but haven't yet loaded up the game. probably will role up a civ V in an hour or two.

 

[tomppb]

Im ignorant...how does steam make money? Do they get a cut of every key activation?

 

[Codeman]

Im ignorant...how does steam make money? Do they get a cut of every key activation?

you are suddenly part of their audience. whether you like it not. simple numbers, put your products in front of enough people and X% will buy. for steam, you're a number, potential sales. instead of telemarketing, cyber-marketing.

 

[Zelig]

Im ignorant...how does steam make money? Do they get a cut of every key activation?

They get a cut if you purchase via Steam.

 

[Nataku]

Quick question, how do you get it so steam doesn't load when you start your computer? I haven't had any complaints while running the game, but it does seem to slow things down when my computer starts.

This is true when its setup to load during windows startup its a pain, but right click the steam icon in your taskbar and go to settings then go to the interface tab and there close to the bottem the option to turn off steam while windows start will be.

Now as for steam in general i think these rumors come from a day and age when steam was release 7 years ago. I was there when it launched as beta with only counterstrike 1.6. In those days we did not have the pc's we have now, if you had 1GB of memory you were bad ass, not to mention the cpu's at that time were a joke to what we have today. So yes steam slowed down your system and games runned worse. But this is 7 years later and steam only uses 65Mb of memory and the amount of cpu usuage on my i7 is a joke. The interface has become very slick but will require some gpu power.

So if you say that you dont wanna run it because it slows down your rig.. Seriously i cant imagine you not being able to run steam but you can run civ 5. You really should start looking around to improve it, its not always needed to buy a whole pc you know. Not everybody has a the money to buy thing like intels i7 or the high end amd quad's. But until a few months ago i was also still on a intel duo core system and it runned steam without trouble and those systems are not expensive anymore.

As for digital download, i am loving it no more cd, dvd's or cases lying around. Not to mention steam has become a working social tool for gamers wich makes it even better. I can understand people wanting hard copy's but at this rate in a few years time i would not be suprised if hard copy's would dissapear completly. Wich in turn would really mess up gameshops and the company's that distribute the games to these shops so i might be completly wrong. But the fact that steam has its own friends list wich is automaticly intergrated into the game complete with browser and a few other options makes it appealing to me.

Greetz Nata

 

[knug]

This was going to be a post from another thread, I'm putting it here instead

Steam, as a digital distribution platform, has been a fantastic service that I have used for a couple years. I have purchased about 25 games from them, including some free games, like Trackmania United and Alien Swarm (go check those games out, they're both full fun games), as well as several bargain purchases. I picked up Civ VI complete, $10, Civ III, $5. I got portal, a really sweet valve game for free. As well as being able to buy a game on the day it comes out, (I would never pre-order), you get patch distribution, and forums for all your games all in once place. From now on, anytime I buy a game, I have instant back up of that game online. I can buy a game at home, be at work and download that game as soon as I can log in. Steam has a fine chat program I use with friends and family while we game together, and can use the overlay browser to watch You tube vids, as well as read the strategy section of Civfanatics, in between turns, without having to alt-tab. If steam were to go under, (which I doubt) then I have to believe steam would give us our games in a downloadable format

I don't know that making people install steam with civ V is is the hottest idea on the user-end, but it's really not anyone's decision but the people who made the game. If you want to buy their product, you have to buy it the way they sell it. ing about probably won't change anything. There is probably more than a few of Civ V players now browsing Steam's collection of games, it's a win for steam for sure, and after the dust settles and problems are worked out, you'll probably only see more of it. My only hope is that the purchasing of DLC doesn't get worse, I refuse to buy it unless I feels the content is worth the price. I have Railworks, and probably will not download a whole lot of the 3400 DLC packs for the game, as the price is way to high for a frakin' train. That's where your power lies. Don't like it, don't buy it.

 

[Bridger]

I don't see the need for bloatware.

Then it's a good thing Steam isn't bloatware. It barely uses any resources. It is, after all, designed to run in the background when you are playing games. Gamers demand that their games get all the performance their system can handle. As such, Valve has made sure that steam uses an extremely small amount of resources. If it's good enough for gamers to leave running while they play, it's for sure not a problem when your running AIM and Firefox.

 

[lynxxyarly]

The only people who complain about steam or the ones who refuse to accept change.

Consequently, most of those people are also the ones who refuse to like civ 5 because of it's change.

Bottom line is, people still cling to the old ways of things and refuse to believe anything nor hear any kind of rational thinking about new things and how they are better or more convenient or just less of a hassle than the likes of before.

I've been using steam ever since it existed and I hated it when it first came out. It has come a long way since then and It's quite the amazing piece of software. As far as DRM goes, this is the least bit of DRM one can take short of having no DRM (which, for all those saying 'I'll play civ 5 when steam isn't required - that will NEVER happen). People would complain if this game had atrocious DRM like Spore did - and justly so, but simply put, there is nothing obtrusive about steam. The fact that you can put steam into offline mode and never worry about it again is better than any other DRM out there.

And for those of you who forgot to take your meds today, having no DRM in today's world of technology is never going to be a viable option and making statements about how bad steam is because of it's big and bad DRM is something that only a minority of people who are living in the past would complain about.

Saying the best kind of DRM is no DRM is like living in a fantasy, so maybe you should go hop on your unicorn and fly off into the sunset.

Funny that I've been browsing this forum for a long time and enjoy most of the reads -- but I finally couldn't take all the hate on steam any more. Lovely that my first post is as rough as it is. Thanks steam-hate mongers. Stop spreading your lies about software you know very little about.

EDIT: Steam has made it public many times that if the company were to ever go under they would completely unlock all the games under their service and you would be free to store them on your hard drive for backup purposes and reinstalls.

EDIT 2: to thunderlips, or anyone else who has his/her mentality about 'owning' software. You will never own software. You merely are buying a license to use said software. You don't own it and as a result it's why you can't modify it without express permission from the author. Owning a game or owning music is not the same as owning a car. Trying to compare the two makes you look silly.

 

[ashmizen]

So let me get this straight.

Past - you buy a game, you get a CD and a CD-key. Lost the CD? Can't play. Lost the CD-key? Can't play. Stuck for a week at Aunt Jane's house, and her computer has no games? Tough luck.

Steam - you buy a game, its added to your collection. You can walk up to ANY computer with an internet connection, and download ANY game you have ever bought. Your entire games library is always at your fingertips.


See, me, I don't buy games that ARE NOT on steam. I LOVE that I no longer have a boxful of cd's and cd keys that I have to be careful not to lose, and have to digg out everytime I buy a new computer.

 

[Quetz]

I used to hate steam, but being able to shift-tab and browse forums in between turns has really sold me on it.

 

[Abremms]

Was this meant to be funny?

yep, because all this hyperbole is going to ruin everything for everyone forever.

 

[frekk]

The only people who complain about steam or the ones who refuse to accept change.

Consequently, most of those people are also the ones who refuse to like civ 5 because of it's change.

Bottom line is, people still cling to the old ways of things and refuse to believe anything nor hear any kind of rational thinking about new things

Sorry but this is an incorrect criticism .... one manufactured by Steam to dampen criticism, no doubt. I loved the way Civ5 looked until Steam came into the picture. Seems part of their marketing strategy is to demonize people who won't buy their particular product. Lovely company. Maybe other companies should start behaving like that, wouldn't it be wonderful to get stereotyped for every product you're not a fan of! Maybe they could just use some brevity and use "Don't want our product? You're a jerk!" as their slogan.

 

[Maniacal]

Quick question, how do you get it so steam doesn't load when you start your computer? I haven't had any complaints while running the game, but it does seem to slow things down when my computer starts.

This is true when its setup to load during windows startup its a pain, but right click the steam icon in your taskbar and go to settings then go to the interface tab and there close to the bottem the option to turn off steam while windows start will be.

You can disable Steam from starting with Windows in the options. Open up Steam, go to the upper left corner and click Steam, go to Settings -> Interface -> deselect Run Steam when my computer starts.

 

[White Elk]

The only people who complain about steam or the ones who refuse to accept change.

NOT TRUE! I embraced the new digital distribution age the moment music became available for paid download. I was very interested to support it. I thought it was a great thing. So I invested a few hundred dollars to do my part to help usher in the new age ASAP. But a couple hundred dollars of that support was utterly wasted once Yahoo and MSN Music went under. The loss of the music sucked big time. But even when the services were still live, the restrictions made it such that I couldn't always use the music in the way I wanted.

steams method reminds me of that music experiance. I am once bitten twice shy. I still like the idea of digital distribution for a number of reasons. But outfits such as steam, do not give me assurance that I own the usage license I pay for. Impulse however does give me that assurance. And to the point of this thread, with Impulse, you CAN SELL YOUR GAMES! Because you own the license. And you don't have to load up Impulse to play your games. You can outright uninstall Impulse if your wish. And you don't have to update your games if you don't want to. And much more. I don't like steam because steam goes about this all wrong. I do however very much like Impulse.

 

[lynxxyarly]

And much more. I don't like steam because steam goes about this all wrong. I do however very much like Impulse.

For the most part, steam is remotely like Impulse. I use Impulse myself for only one game, and that is Sins of a Solar Empire. It's by no means a bad service, I just don't feel the need to use Impulse when I already have steam. Except steam didn't have sins TT.

Other than game distribution, Impulse is nothing else like Steam. Steam offers a sweet overlay that connects you to a plethora of things while in-game. As well as a friends list (that I am, as of late, unfamiliar with Impulse having any such device). Steam also has achievements for those who care, as well as keeps track of time played in all games for all you stat whores out there ( ).

As far as you jumping on-board for an early adoption of something, I could understand that your fears of it failing. But steam has been around for almost 10 years now. It's like saying you're still afraid to adapt to fuel-injected engines because it's new and you still want to hang on to your gas-guzzling 4-barrel carb because you just don't quite think fuel injected engines are gonna catch on.

Sorry but this is an incorrect criticism .... one manufactured by Steam to dampen criticism, no doubt. I loved the way Civ5 looked until Steam came into the picture. Seems part of their marketing strategy is to demonize people who won't buy their particular product. Lovely company. Maybe other companies should start behaving like that, wouldn't it be wonderful to get stereotyped for every product you're not a fan of! Maybe they could just use some brevity and use "Don't want our product? You're a jerk!" as their slogan.

I apologize if I came off as insulting towards you (maybe you should ask yourself why what I said insulted you?), however the fact remains that you are somehow insinuating that I work for steam or something, and that I was paid to come on here and defend said service. Believe what you want, crazy man, but maybe you should reconsider taking your meds again. You've obviously dropped off the deep end of paranoia.

Simply put: Have you even tried steam? Even for the demo of civ 5?

EDIT: As it stands, I am thoroughly enjoying civ 5 and it's unfortunate that certain people will outright refuse to play the game blindly without even trying to use steam. They seem more content constantly complaining about how it uses steam and how they refuse to play the game until it breaks away from steam. In all honesty, in my mind, the main reason civ 5 came exclusively to steam was to keep the multiplayer strong years after its been released. Civ 4 was a great game, but suffered horribly due to gamespy support for servers and people just didn't like it. Combining with steam is great from a developer's stand-point simply because it's always going to have a huge face due to steam NOT GOING ANYWHERE ANY TIME SOON.

EDIT2: I simply don't understand how people can rationally hate on steam yet provide no info based off of any rational evidence and experiences.

 

[dannythefool]

that said, i have no doubt the future of steam is secure for quite some time to come.

Steam will still let you play your games in offline mode, should the platform die. Unlike other DRM that needs a server.

 

[GreyIago]

Steam is a fantabulous program. It gives users freedom to use their game when and where they want. It's an all-in-one thing...and who can deny the allure of the consistent bargains they have on games?

Were Steam to go under, what would happen? Your games would still exist on your hard drive and you would be pushed back several years to the days of CDs. TBQH, as we've seen in the tech world, Steam may go away but another entity will likely gobble it up. Having several million subscribers who have several hundred dollars sunk into a gaming platform is good for business. So, yes, in 5-10 years we may have "Kaboodle" instead of "Steam"...but it will be the same deal.

 

[White Elk]

Other than game distribution, Impulse is nothing else like Steam. Steam offers a sweet overlay that connects you to a plethora of things while in-game. As well as a friends list (that I am, as of late, unfamiliar with Impulse having any such device). Steam also has achievements for those who care, as well as keeps track of time played in all games for all you stat whores out there ( ).

Check out Impulse::Reactor. It is a fullblown alternative to Steamworks.

As far as you jumping on-board for an early adoption of something, I could understand that your fears of it failing. But steam has been around for almost 10 years now. It's like saying you're still afraid to adapt to fuel-injected engines because it's new and you still want to hang on to your gas-guzzling 4-barrel carb because you just don't quite think fuel injected engines are gonna catch on.

No, it's like saying I won't use Brand X fuel injector because it tends to blow up, and is a pain in the arse to use. Before I can start my car, I have to wait for the injector to call home and get permission to engage. If the call can't get through, I can't start my car. If there is an update pending, I have to sit and idle while it completes. And due to a host of loopholes in the sales contract, the distributor can disable my vehicle at any time. So I don't use Brand X. I use Brand Y instead. With Brand Y I can fire up my speedster and be off to the races whenever I get the urge. Hit the ignition and I'm off! I don't have to wait for someones green light. And I will never stall due to some third party clog in the line.