Civilization 6

[Leisher]

If the price is right, I'll grab it in the sale. I honestly would be crazy gung ho about a long term turn based multi game.

It'd be fun to always know it's out there waiting for your next move and wondering what diabolical things your opponents are up to when it's not your turn.

[Stranger]

Just downloaded this to see what it was like and I noticed a mode called "Pitboss" under multiplayer. looked it up and here's what it says.

Pitboss is, in the words of the patch notes, a mode "which allows players to connect, take their turn, disconnect, and come back later. Email notifications and steam notifications are built into the system." A more laid-back mode for people who don't want to sit and play a round for several hours straight. At first Pitboss will require someone to act as server, but developer Firaxis plans to release a standalone server that doesn't require a Steam account

That sure sounds like asynchronous play to me. Sweet!

[Leisher]

That does sound cool.

[Stranger]

Sean Bean narrates the latest walkthrough video from E3.

[video][/video]

[GORDON]

Just downloaded this to see what it was like and I noticed a mode called "Pitboss" under multiplayer. looked it up and here's what it says.

Pitboss is, in the words of the patch notes, a mode "which allows players to connect, take their turn, disconnect, and come back later. Email notifications and steam notifications are built into the system." A more laid-back mode for people who don't want to sit and play a round for several hours straight. At first Pitboss will require someone to act as server, but developer Firaxis plans to release a standalone server that doesn't require a Steam account

That sure sounds like asynchronous play to me. Sweet!

Wow.... they rediscovered 1993 multiplayer game technology. noice.

[Stranger]

If the price is right, I'll grab it in the sale

Steam summer sale has Civ 5 complete bundle set on sale for $12.27. Helluva pickup if your interested in playing this before Civ 6

[Leisher]

Sean Bean narrates the latest walkthrough video from E3.

I assume he gets killed while doing so?

[Malcolm]

Eh, he survived in The Martian. I was half expecting his character to drop dead of a stroke in a couple scenes.

[TPRJones]

He also survived in Pixels. Although I think there he wanted to die.

[Stranger]

Playing as the Americans.. Built the Great Wall around Washington.. Made America great again!

[Stranger]

Releases today!

Really want to buy it but $60 is just so much to pay for a game anymore. Still think this would be a fun multi asynchronous game if that is supported.

[Leisher]

Games on Steam for $60 infuriates me.

[GORDON]

"Yeah but if we sold the game with the box and mini instruction booklet (for more detail go to the support forums on the website) we'd have to charge like $75!" But you'd still only get a Steam key to download the game. No physical disk.

And i still say there's going to be a catastrophic Steam failure one of these days, and millions of peeps are going to be screwed out of their stuff.

[Malcolm]

Even if the Steam network dies, there's enough infrastructure for them to send you all the files you're due. Worst comes to worst, they ship you a massive compressed file over gmail or something that contains working stand-alone versions.

[Leisher]

"Yeah but if we sold the game with the box and mini instruction booklet (for more detail go to the support forums on the website) we'd have to charge like $75!" But you'd still only get a Steam key to download the game. No physical disk.

The problem with that argument is they're doing that exact thing for consoles at the same price.

Currently, they're getting away with it because there are a lot of stupid and/or impatient people (or people with a lot of disposable income) who are paying the same amount for a digital copy of a game that console players are paying for the game, a box, a disk, inserts, instructions, etc.

If everyone simply refused to pay that price, it'd end immediately. You'll never have that happen though. Too many dumb people. Like the idiots who actually spend real money on casual games to "win".

And i still say there's going to be a catastrophic Steam failure one of these days, and millions of peeps are going to be screwed out of their stuff.

I highly doubt it. Disaster Recovery is a pretty big deal in IT these days. I'd bet some paychecks that Valve has offsite backups.

[Malcolm]

Currently, they're getting away with it because there are a lot of stupid and/or impatient people (or people with a lot of disposable income) who are paying the same amount for a digital copy of a game that console players are paying for the game, a box, a disk, inserts, instructions, etc.

You think power gamers, ones with PCs so ridiculous that they make Alienware look affordable, are going to sit back and wait patiently as the console babies twiddle their thumbs and have the fun first? If they can drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on vid card x-fire hookups, then punching in $60 for a day-one digital download isn't shit, nor will it ever be.

Disaster Recovery is a pretty big deal in IT these days. I'd bet some paychecks that Valve has offsite backups.

I guarantee it.

[Leisher]

You think power gamers, ones with PCs so ridiculous that they make Alienware look affordable, are going to sit back and wait patiently as the console babies twiddle their thumbs and have the fun first? If they can drop hundreds or thousands of dollars on vid card x-fire hookups, then punching in $60 for a day-one digital download isn't shit, nor will it ever be.

I'm a power gamer and it's an issue for me. Not because of the money, but because it's bullshit.

[Malcolm]

You have a wife and kids. I'm talking about people not so encumbered with that much more disposable income. I, and the game publishers, bet that most of them aren't going to wait. So far, we're right.

[GORDON]

Is Valve based in Seattle? There's possible disasters, when-not-if sorts of things, that will wipe that city off the map. Disaster recovery won't work when the building in which the company is housed is a smoking ruin, and no one will care when the people all over the world who just lost their "property" howl.

[Leisher]

I, and the game publishers, bet that most of them aren't going to wait. So far, we're right.

I dispute your use of the word: "most". Prove that.

You should use "enough" instead.

Is Valve based in Seattle? There's possible disasters, when-not-if sorts of things, that will wipe that city off the map. Disaster recovery won't work when the building in which the company is housed is a smoking ruin, and no one will care when the people all over the world who just lost their "property" howl.

This reminds me of a scene from Defending Your Life.
"How long were you in a coma?"
"I don't know"
"Quick question: Elvis, alive or dead?"
"Alive."
"Long coma Al."

You've been out of the game a while sir. When that F5 took out most of Joplin, Missouri it wiped out some suppliers for big businesses. Some never reopened. This caused a major panic and customers started asking their vendors what contingency plans they had in place for natural disasters. They didn't want a tornado to come through and wipe out whatever their vendor was supplying them. Disaster Recovery was already a thing prior to Joplin, but after Joplin it became a buzzword for management outside of IT.

Even before that day of a thousand tornadoes, I kept my backup tapes in Detroit via Iron Mountain. When I was with HP, our stuff was kept in a state of the art vault at Willis Day. At the TV station stuff was replicated to Montgomery, Alabama. Our previous employer had a backup site, via a vendor, in Florida.

These days most companies keep their DR out of state. Many companies, like mine, have build second plants to offset losing a plant, let alone data.

Hell, my data is stored on tape, digitally, and in two states nightly. Not to mention the fire proof vault on site, and the weekly pickups from Iron Mountain. If we get wiped out in one natural disaster it's probably the end of mankind.

If Valve can be completely wiped out via a hack or a disaster on their main facility then their IT people are incompetent twits who need to be fired.