Current [POLL] Would you use Steam for Rebirth?

General discussions about X Rebirth.

Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum

If X-Rebirth is exclusively Steam, will you purchase at least one copy?

Yes, do you even need to ask!
395
79%
No, I'll immolate myself before that day comes!
23
5%
Maybe, see what the future brings....
8
2%
Maybe, if I can then get a DRM-Free copy from Egosoft.
47
9%
Maybe, but only to support Egosoft.
12
2%
Maybe, but would prefer an alternate Digtal Provider (e.g. GoG)
18
4%
 
Total votes: 503

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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths »

WRT the 2 month restriction on downloads with Origin, I have just scanned the Origin EULA and see no mention of such a restriction.

As far as digital distribution clients are concerned, IMO Steam is the best game in town. It is relatively independent (distributes titles from lots of developers/publishers) and seems to be way ahead of the competition (Native support for Linux for instance).

Origin exclusively publishes EA titles, Origin titles are not available via Steam. Origin would appear to be trying to compete with Steam as a platform, but IMO it is not as good.

uPlay at first appears to be just Ubisoft's attempt to make themselves independent of Valve/Steam as they still use Steam as a supplemental Store front, but as it stands you can pre-order AC4 on uPlay but not Steam.
uPlay also currently only distributes Ubisoft titles in it's store front.

Personally, I prefer Steam to uPlay and Origin and only use the other two when I have no other choice (Crysis and Assasin's Creed for instance).
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams
GCU Grey Area
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Post by GCU Grey Area »

For me it's the quality of the offline mode which is key.

Have no interest in buying games directly from a digital distributor - don't have anywhere near a good enough monthly download limit for that. It's also far quicker for me to spend a couple of hours ambling into town & back to buy a game on disk than it would be to download a modern game, which could easily be 10-20Gb or more (pleasant walk too, with very little traffic - across a park, down a canal towpath & straight into town - much more enjoyable than watching a download meter slowly fill up).

On that basis, have to say both Origin & Uplay offline modes are significantly better than Steam's. They just work, flawlessly, for months on end so far without any need for me to plug in the network cable so they can contact their respective servers.
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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths »

GCU Grey Area wrote:pleasant walk too, with very little traffic - across a park, down a canal towpath & straight into town - much more enjoyable than watching a download meter slowly fill up
Sounds quite enjoyable, but while a game is downloading I can go and do something more enjoyable than watch it and I do not have to spend ages trying to find the game in store (perhaps only to find out it is out of stock or not sold from there), or wait in the queues for the tills. :wink:

I just click and then go and do something else. Traffic on the way to town is terrible.
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams
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Darrosquall
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Post by Darrosquall »

Albion Prelude sales on Steam save the Egosoft franchise and allow them to release this november X:Rebirth.

This is a strongly point for me to close on the corner all the steam hater.
GCU Grey Area
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Post by GCU Grey Area »

Darrosquall wrote:Albion Prelude sales on Steam save the Egosoft franchise and allow them to release this november X:Rebirth.

This is a strongly point for me to close on the corner all the steam hater.
Hardly - AP is also available on disk. Indeed, as for myself, if I'd wanted to I could have downloaded a completely free copy (due to owning the Superbox) which would have done nothing to 'save the Egosoft franchise'. However instead decided to buy the disk version, both to support Egosoft & also avoid a huge download.
Roger L.S. Griffiths wrote:Traffic on the way to town is terrible.
Same here, as are the extortionate charges for parking a car anywhere in town, which is why I prefer the walk. Takes a little longer but is far more enjoyable.
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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths »

Perhaps Steam should add a mail-order option ;)
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams
fairywhipper
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Post by fairywhipper »

Roger L.S. Griffiths wrote:Perhaps Steam should add a mail-order option ;)

That would be nice, but i bet i would still end up with a 10gb download patch...
Given up gaming because of steam
exogenesis
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Post by exogenesis »

GCU Grey Area wrote:
Darrosquall wrote:Albion Prelude sales on Steam save the Egosoft franchise and allow them to release this november X:Rebirth.

This is a strongly point for me to close on the corner all the steam hater.
Hardly - AP is also available on disk. snip
Is it ? didn't know that.
But I assume it also requires steam account etc ?

Still thinking about how to vote on this poll ....
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NUKLEAR-SLUG
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Post by NUKLEAR-SLUG »

Ebany wrote:I understand that your an avid fan of Steam, I also understand we've had differences of opinion in the past and by agreeing with any part of someone's personal attack against me your simply giving a veiled insult while been able to maintain un démenti. It's petty.
That wasn't a veiled insult, that was me agreeing with Chris0123 because what he said was entirely correct. Everyone is entitled to contribute their opinion, but they're not entitled to have that opinion treated as though it has the same merit as someone with more knowledge on the subject.

You don't ask a plumber to fix a light socket. Sure, he can offer an opinion on how to go about it if he wants to, that's his right. But if I want an expert opinion on an electrical question I'm going to be taking the advice of an electrician over a plumber.
Ebany wrote:
EmperorJon wrote:Indeed. The phrase "Everyone's opinion is equal" often gets interpreted as "Everyone's opinion is equally correct" whereas it should be interpreted as "Everyone's opinion should be equally considered, nobody should be totally ignored before actual analysis of their opinion..." ;)
I fully agree

It's not about "who is more correct"
No, as EmperorJon says it is very much exactly "who is more correct".
Ebany wrote: Feeling safe to voice an opinion should be every-ones right.
Demanding that opinion be considered of equal merit as the opinion of everyone else however is not.

exogenesis wrote: Is it ? didn't know that.
But I assume it also requires steam account etc ?

Still thinking about how to vote on this poll ....
Yep, you get the disk to preload onto your machine and a Steam code to register it with Steam. Download any updates and you're good to go.
Chris0132
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Post by Chris0132 »

It is possible to respect somebody's right to have an opinion without having any respect for the opinion itself.
JackBNimble wrote:
Chris0132 wrote:I never used my offline mode much but when I had to due to outages it generally didn't work. What information there is suggests it's highly random as to whether it works for you.
That's strange , I use offline mode quite often and never have any problems. It is also a myth that you need to log into steam for verification to start a game, that's just simply not true at all.
Well, it sort of depends, if offline mode is working then you don't need to log into it, though you do need it running in order to be able to use some games on it (I think that varies on a per-game basis however, some you can indeed run from the executable without any issues.)

However if offline mode isn't working, it will occasionally just say 'There's a problem with offline mode, please log in.' and if you can't or don't log in and authenticate with the steam servers, then steam won't start and you can't use any games that require it to be loaded.

I don't generally consider this a problem because steam is an online distribution platform, almost everything it is designed to do requires it to be online because otherwise it couldn't download games or talk to people or update things or whatever. As a rule it does what it advertises, but it does require internet access as part of that.

So I'd say it's reasonable (if possibly slightly self centered) to object to the use of steam as a necessary component of X rebirth, if you live in an area with very poor internet connectivity or for some other reason cannot use the internet reliably. Though objecting to steam itself on principle doesn't make a lot of sense because as I said, it does what it's supposed to do, by and large.

If anything, I'd say something that would be beneficial for anyone who can't use steam is to write to your local legislator and try to raise the issue of telecommunications infrastructure improvements in your area. It's an important thing for both business and recreation as it allows a lot of smaller businesses access to very inexpensive advertising and communications. As time and technology continue to advance, outdated infrastructure is only going to become more of a problem. Good internet is just as important as good roads nowadays.

Which is why I say it's a little self centered to say developers need to hold back from pure digital distribution. Traditional distribution methods are very expensive and inefficient compared to digital distribution and a lot of smaller developers will find it very hard or impossible to fund them. Doing them on a small scale is especially inefficient because you have all the prototyping costs associated with large scale distribution, without as much return in sales.
eladan
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Post by eladan »

Ebany wrote:I've met many people with this view, my main aim is to see just how many people (those who'd not normally use Steam for any reason) would be willing to use Steam under the right circumstances.
I can't imagine that you'll get an accurate indication in any case.

How many non-steam lovers are going to be hanging around the forum of a game which has already established beyond any hope of change that it will be steam exclusive? I hang around pretty much from habit alone, and partially because I still support Egosoft, despite them not supporting me. :)
(Don't jump on me, all you steam lovers - I concede ES' right to choose any platform they desire, and I'm perfectly aware they owe me nothing. :P)

TL:DR; Useless poll. Might as well ask how many people like steam on steam's own forums.

PS - haven't voted, can't be bothered.
Jumee
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Post by Jumee »

eladan wrote:I can't imagine that you'll get an accurate indication in any case.

How many non-steam lovers are going to be hanging around the forum of a game which has already established beyond any hope of change that it will be steam exclusive?
you could just as well argue that people that are fine with rebirth being on steam can't be bothered to vote either ;) or that they do not feel that they "must be heard" :P

but yeah its incredibly difficult to get a valid poll especially in the environment of a forum
"If any idiot ever tells you that life would be meaningless without death, Hyperion recommends killing them"

lets pretend november 15 never happened
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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths »

eladan wrote:Useless poll. Might as well ask how many people like steam on steam's own forums.
Actually this poll provides a better view of the community's position on the Steam exclusivity issue. It would appear only 5%-15% of the voting sample (so far) object to Steam strongly enough not to buy X-Rebirth despite it being exclusively on Steam.
eladan wrote:PS - haven't voted, can't be bothered.
I think we know you would have voted for the immolate option ... But I could be pleasantly surprised and be completely wrong on that score. ;)
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams
eladan
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Post by eladan »

Roger L.S. Griffiths wrote:
eladan wrote:Useless poll. Might as well ask how many people like steam on steam's own forums.
Actually this poll provides a better view of the community's position on the Steam exclusivity issue. It would appear only 5%-15% of the voting sample (so far) object to Steam strongly enough not to buy X-Rebirth despite it being exclusively on Steam.
You poll a group of people who are going to buy a game on steam, and ask them if they mind it being steam exclusive. And you don't think that might skew the poll just a wee bit? :?

But then, why am I surprised. You've never made sense before.
dougeye
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Post by dougeye »

just choose option 2 if you don't like steam lol
I used to list PC parts here, but "the best" will suffice!
dougeye
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Post by dougeye »

+ no one has said its exclusive to steam as in you can only buy it on steam but it is a steam works etc game so you need steam to register etc for drm purposes and updates.
I used to list PC parts here, but "the best" will suffice!
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elexis
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Post by elexis »

It will always require steam to install.

As for where you can buy it; you can't buy it outside of steam. But seeing as you cant buy it on steam at the moment either that isn't saying much.
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NUKLEAR-SLUG
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Post by NUKLEAR-SLUG »

It's going to be a Steamworks game regardless but Egosoft have indicated that in certain markets where it makes financial sense to be able to do so (Germany apparently seems to be that way inclined) they will also hope to be releasing a physical box copy with a disk/manual/etc for those that like such things.

So the potential there is for the game to be made available via other outlets and download portals for those that wish to support their preferred retailer. Details on that one are obviously down to Deep Silver to release at a future date.
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Sam L.R. Griffiths
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Post by Sam L.R. Griffiths »

Regardless of the purchasing options (you can pre-order it from Amazon for instance) it will still require Steam which was my point. It is Steam exclusive in the sense it will not run without the Steam client.
Lenna (aka [SRK] The_Rabbit)

"Understanding is a three edged sword... your side, their side... and the Truth!" - J.J. Sheriden, Babylon 5 S4E6 T28:55

"May god stand between you and harm in all the dark places you must walk." - Ancient Egyption Proverb

"When eating an elephant take one bite at a time" - Creighton Abrams
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elexis
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Post by elexis »

Don't trust preorders from amazon or any other source. They have just as much information as we do about where it will be sold.

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