Steamed!!!!!!

[Asher]

PC Gaming was very much dying before Steam. Things were not fine.

[Al B. Sure!]

Who buys the PC version if there's an xbox version? PC gaming is dead except for the strategy game genre. Name a major PC release that wasn't a strategy game.

Hell, they stopped making sports games for the PC like 5 years ago. The sports video game industry got the hell out... and shooters are obviously console-first...

The expanding console market, shrinking pc games market, and all the pirating combined to make producing games for the PC very unattractive.

And the Steam model is inevitable. Pretty soon, brick and mortar game stores will be as rare as boardgame hobby stores. Microsoft is clearly trying to have XBOX Live downloads of games supersede going to brick and mortar retailers. It may not happen fully til the 3rd XBOX but it's definitely in process. With the commonality of high-speed internet and cheap disk storage space, it makes no sense to spend so much money on packaging and distributing hundreds of thousands of copies of games. It's a lot cheaper just to maintain servers and let people download.

Obviously, this is to the benefit of consumers as well since they do not have to physically go to a store, never have to worry about stores not having copies of the game, don't have to worry about scratched or damaged discs, etc.

[Boris Godunov]

Asher makes a good point about DirectX. Pretty much every game you install searches for it on your computer and then makes you install it if you don't have it or don't have the latest version. If the issue is really only about having to install something third-party that you might not necessarily want, why doesn't that apply to DirectX, too?

[vee4473]

PC Gaming was very much dying before Steam. Things were not fine.

Whatever upsurge PC gaming may have seen recently may or may not be due to steam, but that isn't particularly relevant to this topic I don't think.

Your obviously a fan of steam, that's fine, but I think you're not being very objective about this topic. You like steam and use it. Others don't. As I said before you can still ike a service and also be against it being shoved down the throats of gamers under the guise of "streamlined MP develpoment".

I suppose it doesn't really matter since this is all moot now. Maybe someday you will come across something that you dont' want shoveled onto you just so you can have something else. I don't know.

Anyway, I appreciate the mostly civil tone with me Ash baby.

We agree on LOTRO anyway I think.

[Al B. Sure!]

Whatever upsurge PC gaming may have seen recently may or may not be due to steam, but that isn't particularly relevant to this topic I don't think.

Starcraft. Seriously.

Overall U.S. console game sales shrank 1 percent in July, continuing a weak trend that has persisted for much of the year. But sales of StarCraft II, which went on sale on July 27, were so strong that PC game sales rose 103 percent during the month. That game helped push the overall console and PC game sales for July to 4 percent growth, according to market researcher NPD Group.

5 days worth of Starcraft caused PC game sales to more than double from the previous month. That's what happens when one game moves 720K copies in mere days.

But compare to Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 which sold 4.7 million copies in the first 24 HOURS! (I know the PC version sold well but how much of that 4.7 million in one day did the PC version consist of; not much I bet)

PC gaming clearly is nothing compared to console. Which explains why Civilization: Revolution exists

[Wyrda Edocsil]

Whatever upsurge PC gaming may have seen recently may or may not be due to steam, but that isn't particularly relevant to this topic I don't think.

Your obviously a fan of steam, that's fine, but I think you're not being very objective about this topic. You like steam and use it. Others don't. As I said before you can still ike a service and also be against it being shoved down the throats of gamers under the guise of "streamlined MP develpoment".

I suppose it doesn't really matter since this is all moot now. Maybe someday you will come across something that you dont' want shoveled onto you just so you can have something else. I don't know.

Anyway, I appreciate the mostly civil tone with me Ash baby.

We agree on LOTRO anyway I think.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that you're saying that not dislike having steam as necessary for playing the game is less objective than disliking it. Neither viewpoint is objective, and so it is irrational to disregard a statement with a viewpoint that opposes yours due to a lack of objectivity.

As to the off-topic discussion of whether PC games will continue to be sold, I really hope that they do. The only console games that I wouldn't rather play on a PC are the games for the Wii, which would use completely different controls that could not be properly replicated using a mouse and keyboard, and I usually prefer PC games, anyway. Sales might be higher for console games, but, as long as companies can make some profit off of releasing a PC version of their games for people like me, they will.

[vulture]

Asher makes a good point about DirectX. Pretty much every game you install searches for it on your computer and then makes you install it if you don't have it or don't have the latest version. If the issue is really only about having to install something third-party that you might not necessarily want, why doesn't that apply to DirectX, too?

Just my personal answer, but DirectX doesn't make me log in every time I want to play a game, and doesn't open up several windows with adverts in once I do log in.

I'm fine with steam for mulitplayer - it is much easier to program with than Gamespy or other 3rd party online libraries in my (limited) experience. I just live in a dreamworld of hope that they will produce a purely single player version with no MP support and no steam. And I speak from experience that it is less than a day's work for a programmer to strip all steam/multiplayer related code from a game

[self biased]

yeah, but the big draw for civilization is multiplayer. I enjoy single player games, but playing against Ming, Rah, jrabbit, &c really makes for more memorable games. it's like single player is the practice mode for multiplayer.

[vulture]

yeah, but the big draw for civilization is multiplayer. .

I really, really don't think that is true. Civ is even less MP oriented than most games, and even in most of those multiplayer users are in a minority.

[Boris Godunov]

Just my personal answer, but DirectX doesn't make me log in every time I want to play a game, and doesn't open up several windows with adverts in once I do log in.

Neither does Steam.

I downloaded Risen from Steam 2 months ago. There's an icon for it on my desktop. I double-click on it and the game starts. I don't have to log in to anything, nor do I see any adverts...

[Asher]

You don't need to open the actual Steam client to play Steam games. You can also turn off (in options) the Steam deals window that opens when you load Steam...

[MRT144]

Anything that afford easier matchmaking is welcome.

[Hauldren Collider]

Honestly guys, which is better? Steam or ****ing GAMESPY?

[SpencerH]

I dunno. I never installed Gamespy. It wasnt required in order to play.

[self biased]

I have to agree. i haven't messed around with gamespy since civ 2? 3?