Video Game Thread 2.0

[syaoranvee]

Guild Wars 2 was almost completely wrecked for me because of my time reading Massively, a news blog dealing in MMO news.  You have no idea of how many people believe this game to be the messiah of onling gaming and all other games inferior.

Don't let a couple assholes ruin a perfectly good game for ya.  I can tell ya from personal experience, most of the people in-game ain't like that.  Actually...they're pretty friendly and helpful.

Naw, it ain't the messiah of online gaming, but it is good.  To me, at any rate.

Meh, I'm kinda waiting and seeing if it ends up on steam or not like the first one is.

[Saturn500]

Meh, I'm kinda waiting and seeing if it ends up on steam or not like the first one is.

^This, very much this.

[RavynousHunter]

Wow, it's amazing how potent the night vision + sharpshooter perks are in Fallout 2. 118 points in small guns and I have a 95% chance to hit a target in the eye, from around 9 hexes away, in the middle on the night with a scoped hunting rifle. I have to say, it's a beautiful thing.

Yeah, once you break 100 things get a bit nuts, particularly with the right perks.

But yeah, checked out character creation and I was mildly impressed. Given my mmo history that's actually saying something, the game I've spent the most time with had people subscribe largely to play with it's character creation. Not entirely sold on the rest of the mechanics so far, but I'm still figuring them out.  For a ten minute exposure all I can really say is, where is the 'dressed' option for female characters?

You can find it from random armor drops, but you can also craft it.  Since I'm assuming you're talkin about caster women, lookin into tailoring will make things much easier, aesthetically.  Also, never hurts to be able to make your own armor.

Also...what's with people and Steam?

[Witchyjoshy]

Also...what's with people and Steam?

What do you mean?

[RavynousHunter]

Also...what's with people and Steam?

What do you mean?

Its like, everyone wants to get everything on Steam.  I mean, I understand if its somethin otherwise hard ta find or a Steam exclusive, but...Guild Wars 2?  Its right freakin there, you can even get a digital download version thingy.  I mean, unless you're gonna wait for a Steam sale, should it come there...then, that would make sense.

[Witchyjoshy]

Also...what's with people and Steam?

What do you mean?

Its like, everyone wants to get everything on Steam.  I mean, I understand if its somethin otherwise hard ta find or a Steam exclusive, but...Guild Wars 2?  Its right freakin there, you can even get a digital download version thingy.  I mean, unless you're gonna wait for a Steam sale, should it come there...then, that would make sense.

Ease of installation
Community (You can keep in contact with your Steam friends without having to drag them in-game)
Sales potential
Automatic updates that can happen anytime Steam is loaded up
Organization
Some form of weird loyalty that doesn't make any sense
Having your right to download the game basically stored in your Steam account as opposed to a potential digital download key that can get lost

[Material Defender]

Also...what's with people and Steam?

What do you mean?

Its like, everyone wants to get everything on Steam.  I mean, I understand if its somethin otherwise hard ta find or a Steam exclusive, but...Guild Wars 2?  Its right freakin there, you can even get a digital download version thingy.  I mean, unless you're gonna wait for a Steam sale, should it come there...then, that would make sense.

Ease of installation
Community (You can keep in contact with your Steam friends without having to drag them in-game)
Sales potential
Automatic updates that can happen anytime Steam is loaded up
Organization
Some form of weird loyalty that doesn't make any sense
Having your right to download the game basically stored in your Steam account as opposed to a potential digital download key that can get lost

I think the loyalty comes from the fact it's easiest to mesh everything in one place as opposed to spread them out and have to check different stores at different times.

[RavynousHunter]

Also...what's with people and Steam?

What do you mean?

Its like, everyone wants to get everything on Steam.  I mean, I understand if its somethin otherwise hard ta find or a Steam exclusive, but...Guild Wars 2?  Its right freakin there, you can even get a digital download version thingy.  I mean, unless you're gonna wait for a Steam sale, should it come there...then, that would make sense.

Ease of installation
Community (You can keep in contact with your Steam friends without having to drag them in-game)
Sales potential
Automatic updates that can happen anytime Steam is loaded up
Organization
Some form of weird loyalty that doesn't make any sense
Having your right to download the game basically stored in your Steam account as opposed to a potential digital download key that can get lost

Aye, but like...one of those things, maybe two (Steam community and...whatever organization is), apply to GW2.  Sure, you can lose your digital product code, but that doesn't prevent you from accessing the game, and that easily applies to the hardcopy version you get with the on-DVD form of the game...that, and its generally good practice to write those things down, anyway. 

Ease of installation?  Download the client from the GW2 website, and tell it where you want it to go.  It does -not- get simpler than that.

Sales potential?  Eeh, maybe, but its hard, in my mind, to offer a game for digital distribution...when its already got digital distribution that doesn't come tied to another service and potential DRM from said service clashing with other programs you might have installed on your machine don't make a whole lotta sense.

Automatic updates?  Already handles that in the launcher itself, don't even got to log in, just fire the fucker up.

Lose your game due to HDD crash or having to reformat/repartition?  Again, just download the client, install, and you're golden so long as you remember your account info, which applies equally to Steam and GW2 on its own.

Again, while Steam certainly works well for other games, I don't see any reason why GW2 would ever need or want to be on there, other than to pander to a niche market of folks who refuse to play any games that aren't available on Steam.  Steam sales are the only real reason I see why you'd want the Steam version over the one you can get directly from the game's site.  Or Amazon.  And probably a lot of other places, too.  Well, that and the whole Steam friends list thing.

[syaoranvee]

I like having everything in a simple library which allows me to install or uninstall games without having to rumage through numerous folders to find a uninstall button for a particular game.  I also know that if I have to manually remove some form of files left over, I can easily find them located under the steam folder instead of swamping my Program Files folder.

Another thing that I like is that through Steam, I can easily pay for anything that I want without having much trouble or delay.  Using Steam also negates the need to have my payment info widespread across the net. through various websites(I usually use prepaid cards for game with subscriptions.)

[Art Vandelay]

I like having everything in a simple library which allows me to install or uninstall games without having to rumage through numerous folders to find a uninstall button for a particular game.  I also know that if I have to manually remove some form of files left over, I can easily find them located under the steam folder instead of swamping my Program Files folder.

So going Program File > [Publisher] > [Game] is harder than going Program Files > Steam > steamapps > common > [Game]? How does that make any sense?

[RavynousHunter]

I think Vee's mostly talking about what ya do once Steam's client is already fired up.

That said, uninstalling isn't too terribly difficult, without Steam.  Considering most games keep their uninstall executable where the main game executable is, all you need ta do (if you're runnin Windows) is right click your shortcut and hit "Open file location."

That, and I keep my game shortcut folder meticulously well-organized.  I'm a lil OCD, lol.

[ETA]

In the end, you got your way, and I got mine.  Neither is the "right way," just different means to achieve the same ends.  Personally, only time I ever used Steam was for Counter Strike.

[Art Vandelay]

I think Vee's mostly talking about what ya do once Steam's client is already fired up.

Sure, it's ever so slightly more convenient then clicking the uninstall.exe, but he also said it's easier to hunt down and delete manually anything the uninstaller happened to miss because somehow finding the game in your program files is harder than finding the game in your Steam files (which itself resides in program files).

[syaoranvee]

I think Vee's mostly talking about what ya do once Steam's client is already fired up.

Sure, it's ever so slightly more convenient then clicking the uninstall.exe, but he also said it's easier to hunt down and delete manually anything the uninstaller happened to miss because somehow finding the game in your program files is harder than finding the game in your Steam files (which itself resides in program files).

In the Steam folder, the games are labeled under their names, in the Programs File, they're labeled under their producer. I don't feel like looking through folders trying to find what I'm looking for because I forgot who produced the game. (For example, folders labeled Activision, Funcom, Ubisoft etc.)

[largeham]

I kinda agree. Digital download isn't limited to Steam and the (Guild Wars 2, Minecraft, Unity of Command jump to mind of games that are primarily or entirely downloaded), and the problems you get with digital distribution can happen with Steam. Arguably in that sense Steam is worse, if it fucks up you lose all your games.

Automatic updates are annoying. What if the update makes the game worse? What if I want to play the game now and update it later?

The online aspect of Steam annoys me: advertising everywhere, having to go online to play offline, can't stay more than a month offline, etc/ The worst thing about Steam though is how many games now are forcing Steam on customers. Sega/CA forcing Empire TW through Steam was one of the reasons the game pissed me off.

[Distind]

Automatic updates are annoying. What if the update makes the game worse? What if I want to play the game now and update it later?

When discussing MMOs that's not a real concern.

It's kinda nice to have it DL patches for you rather than needing to wait on start up.