Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2015 3:37 pm
Page 34 of 69
Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 1:49 pm
Early Access's current success rate is 25%.
The Long Dark director kind of blames gamers, or at least, the studios that listen to them.
Notice they mention people are getting tired of being burned by Kickstarter projects too.
Kickstarter is what it is and buyer beware, but I do think Steam needs to separate Early Access games from finished games. Currently they promote and sell them as equals despite the light blue bar, that's sort of buried, specifying a game's Early Access status.
The Long Dark director kind of blames gamers, or at least, the studios that listen to them.
Notice they mention people are getting tired of being burned by Kickstarter projects too.
Kickstarter is what it is and buyer beware, but I do think Steam needs to separate Early Access games from finished games. Currently they promote and sell them as equals despite the light blue bar, that's sort of buried, specifying a game's Early Access status.
Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 3:10 pm
The key to Early Access is sell it and buy it strictly as "for the money I am paying now there is enough game here to make me happy". If it's not that far along yet it shouldn't be on Early Access. If it is then great, and future improvements are just gravy for the early adopter, but failure to finish is no skin off the buyers nose as they got their fun out of it.
The problem with Kickstarter is it's being used for the wrong things too much. It works best for small projects for specific physical or digital items, and if structured that way then even if it goes viral and explodes it still has a good chance of successfully completing. It's the over-promising stretch goals and way too many tiers full of special goodies that can't all be cost effective that are the problem. And once some key bonus items can't be fulfilled the resulting panic and despair crashes the whole project.
The problem with Kickstarter is it's being used for the wrong things too much. It works best for small projects for specific physical or digital items, and if structured that way then even if it goes viral and explodes it still has a good chance of successfully completing. It's the over-promising stretch goals and way too many tiers full of special goodies that can't all be cost effective that are the problem. And once some key bonus items can't be fulfilled the resulting panic and despair crashes the whole project.
Posted: Mon Apr 27, 2015 12:43 pm
Paid mods hit Steam.
Petition to remove paid mods hits 34k in one day. (I just looked and it's up to 130K.)
One paid mod already removed due to using content from a free mod.
Personally, while I think folks should have the opportunity to make cash off their hard work, I'm not sure they should here. They're using technology they didn't pay for, licenses they didn't pay for, code they didn't create, and riding the coat tails of other people's work. And how do you police this stuff, as it seems like it'll encourage more theft as folks might try to do a quick cash grab via blatantly stolen content? Plus, Steam is already filled with a ton of shit games, and that's not counting the Early Access stuff. Do we really need to muddy the waters even more? Granted, this will be a very niche market thing (actually more like a niche market within a niche market), but still if you fill your store with too much shit, it makes it harder for folks to find stuff they want, and thus, sales drop. I know I'm getting more gun shy about indy and Early Access games based on some of the crap I've purchased.
I certainly don't want to discourage mods, but they weren't being paid before and things were working. Now I'm worried we'll see another Early Access situation where folks do just enough to get paid and then abandon their projects.
Petition to remove paid mods hits 34k in one day. (I just looked and it's up to 130K.)
One paid mod already removed due to using content from a free mod.
Personally, while I think folks should have the opportunity to make cash off their hard work, I'm not sure they should here. They're using technology they didn't pay for, licenses they didn't pay for, code they didn't create, and riding the coat tails of other people's work. And how do you police this stuff, as it seems like it'll encourage more theft as folks might try to do a quick cash grab via blatantly stolen content? Plus, Steam is already filled with a ton of shit games, and that's not counting the Early Access stuff. Do we really need to muddy the waters even more? Granted, this will be a very niche market thing (actually more like a niche market within a niche market), but still if you fill your store with too much shit, it makes it harder for folks to find stuff they want, and thus, sales drop. I know I'm getting more gun shy about indy and Early Access games based on some of the crap I've purchased.
I certainly don't want to discourage mods, but they weren't being paid before and things were working. Now I'm worried we'll see another Early Access situation where folks do just enough to get paid and then abandon their projects.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 8:41 am
Valve is removing paid mods because their customers asked.
When asked for comment an EA spokesman said, "We don't understand what Valve is doing here. They have all the power over the suckers...I mean, consumers. Clearly all these people are thieves since they don't want to pay."
When asked for comment an EA spokesman said, "We don't understand what Valve is doing here. They have all the power over the suckers...I mean, consumers. Clearly all these people are thieves since they don't want to pay."
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 12:39 pm
This was badly done.
I understand what Steam was trying to set up and I think their intentions were good. But there are WAY too many problems that haven't been resolved with the system they went with. I'm glad it's all been pulled down.
I understand what Steam was trying to set up and I think their intentions were good. But there are WAY too many problems that haven't been resolved with the system they went with. I'm glad it's all been pulled down.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:04 pm
People should be free to sell mods.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:16 pm
I'm sure they can, just not on Steam at the moment.TheCatt wrote:People should be free to sell mods.
And you're ok with them getting around all the licenses, using code they didn't create, using tools they didn't create and potentially don't have access to, using content from other mods, etc.?
So would you agree that if I filmed an alternate ending for Return of the Jedi, I could slap it onto the rest of the film and then sell that?
I'm just giving you a hard time, but this is clearly an area that the law isn't ready to cover. People should be free to sell their work, but there are flaws in this system where other folks would have their work ignored and they wouldn't be paid.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:23 pm
So would you agree that if I filmed an alternate ending for Return of the Jedi, I could slap it onto the rest of the film and then sell that?
Long as it didn't suck as much ass as the original.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 1:40 pm
That's why I went with Return and not Empire.Malcolm wrote:Long as it didn't suck as much ass as the original.So would you agree that if I filmed an alternate ending for Return of the Jedi, I could slap it onto the rest of the film and then sell that?
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:35 pm
I'm not big on what the state of mods is.Leisher wrote:I'm sure they can, just not on Steam at the moment.TheCatt wrote:People should be free to sell mods.
And you're ok with them getting around all the licenses, using code they didn't create, using tools they didn't create and potentially don't have access to, using content from other mods, etc.?
So would you agree that if I filmed an alternate ending for Return of the Jedi, I could slap it onto the rest of the film and then sell that?
I'm just giving you a hard time, but this is clearly an area that the law isn't ready to cover. People should be free to sell their work, but there are flaws in this system where other folks would have their work ignored and they wouldn't be paid.
But, I assume that people have tools generally provided by developers to make them. Artwork, etc may be part of that.
ie. Mods are encouraged by the developers.
Movies do not fit that.
But I lean towards people being able to be creative and do what they want.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:38 pm
So would you agree that if I filmed an alternate ending for Return of the Jedi, I could slap it onto the rest of the film and then sell that?
Doesn't apply in this case; developers had to opt in and allow it in order for people to monetize mods to their game. It's like having pre-approval from Lucas (now Disney) to do what you say in your example, so yes you could sell that. And some of the money goes to Lucas, too, not just to you.
Edited By TPRJones on 1430246343
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 2:48 pm
But, I assume that people have tools generally provided by developers to make them. Artwork, etc may be part of that.
Doesn't apply in this case; developers had to opt in and allow it in order for people to monetize mods to their game. It's like having pre-approval from Lucas (now Disney) to do what you say in your example, so yes you could sell that. And some of the money goes to Lucas, too, not just to you.
I don't know much about modding either, but based on some of the comments on the petition, there are people getting fucked in the deal. It's not just about the developers because sometimes they didn't create all the content or tools. Essentially, the argument being made was along the lines of someone getting paid for making a movie, but the writer never receiving a dime.
And that's assuming the game's engine was created by the company behind the game. What happens in a situation where they licensed the engine? Now folks are trying to charge for mods using an engine they don't have a legal right to use.
Like I said, I think there's a LOT of work to be done before this can become a business.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 3:10 pm
Well, in some cases people were uploading mods they didn't write or that included dependencies that they didn't write. Modders stealing from other modders. And that's a problem. But they were stopped from stealing form the game developer by how the process was set up.
Basically the setup was entirely geared towards protecting businesses, and had no tools in place for protecting the rights of individual content creators.
Basically the setup was entirely geared towards protecting businesses, and had no tools in place for protecting the rights of individual content creators.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:32 pm
All Star Wars games are on sale through May 4th.
Posted: Tue Apr 28, 2015 10:46 pm
Ha, Star Wars Day.
Posted: Fri May 01, 2015 12:36 am
The Activision sale going on right now is the least impressive sale I've ever seen. Holy shit is their stuff over priced.
The original Call of Duty is $10 and that's at 75% off? Do they think they're EA and Steam is Origin?
The original Call of Duty is $10 and that's at 75% off? Do they think they're EA and Steam is Origin?
Posted: Mon May 11, 2015 8:45 pm
Is Troy the "Captain Bill" who just appeared in my Steam friend list?
Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 2:48 pm
New Refund Policy.
"Any Reason"
"Any Reason"
Posted: Tue Jun 02, 2015 4:28 pm
Hmmm, there are a couple of games I bought in 2008 that were such total shit I never played more than 10 minutes of them. Too late for that refund?