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Steam (!) Why?

Mangler

FNG / Fresh Meat
Nov 21, 2005
3
0
To be Honest, I don't like STEAM I don't like the concept. To me its just evil DRM.

Also STEAM is the MORTAL Enemy of Unreal as it serves Valve's Half-Life 2.

So I ask you Tripwire Interactive, why in the Heck have you chosen this system?!?

Are you going to offer alternate distribution meathods? Online CD Ordering?

Encrypted Downloads?

Or will I have to have STEAM?
 
I don't see how Valve and Epic are enemies...and even so how would that affect RO??

As for Steam...well I have yet to hear a valid explination for why it is so 'evil'... I would imagine also that Tripwire chose Steam because of how incredibly cheap the distrobution is and the fact that they get a larger sum of the money paid for the game, thus allowing for a much better and well funded future.
 
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Read this quote carefully as its from the mod website, more than likely that is the answer :)

"Digital content delivery is the future of gaming, and we are very excited to be a part of that future" said Tripwire Interactive President John Gibson. "Working with Valve to release the game over Steam allows Tripwire to remain independent and keep control of the games content and development. This allows Tripwire to continue to offer our fans the same uncompromising level of realism, authenticity, and gameplay they have come to expect from Red Orchestra while continuing to innovate and push the boundaries of the military FPS and simulation genres."

Which in all honesty the devs control the content, not a publisher
 
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Would you rather have RO to be teamed up with EA, and then have give up controll over the release dates, the content, etc and end up with a rushed and shitty game? This is the best step for RO, dont be so old fashioned and cling to having a traditional CD-ROM and case, you didnt have one when downloading the mod and you still managed to have fun, and hey guess what now RO is a full stand alone game and 100 x more awesome then the mod, so look forward to it.
 
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Steam (!) Why?


"...deliver it to over 6 million customers."
-Taken from the press release.

I believe that's your answer.

Tripwire is a business, and businesses exist to make money through the best, easiest, and most profitable means available. Nothing wrong with it. It's just the way it is.

And Tripwire chose a path that will get them the best, easiest, and most profitable distribution. There's no production time, no shipment of boxes to get to stores. Players pay, players download, players play - and the Tripwire team pays their own salaries and gets the funds together for the next adventure.

My only real beef is the Linux issue, because it has hurt a lot of my online friends. More than one person has told me they no longer even feel like playing the RO mod.
 
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"and if Steam/Sierra/RO do not evolve with the times, they will lose not only playerbase and community support, but creditablility."

I have to mention here I believe these times you speak of are so far away they are not worth considering at the moment, the problem is not to get Linux to gain popularity but they need to force Microsoft to lose it, Impossible in the near future.

The issue with games on Linux (or lack thereof) is an Industry issue and has alot to do with the use of Microsoft DirectX.

How they would find a way to port DirectX based games to Linux without spending alot of development time getting it to use OpenGL is beyond me!

Oh, Don't get me wrong, I'm a windows and linux user, and i'd love to play games in Linux, but just can't. Linux users may benefit from having a dual boot system with Linux and Windows, works great for me.
 
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"Why Steam?"

Look at John's quote from the press release. Steam may have its detractors and it currently has its limitations. Valve are already working to address those. But Steam DOES provide a route to market that enables us to deliver a game that no "Big Retail Publisher" would do, believe me! What that independence is worth to us as a studio - and to the fans of RO - is huge.

We've always tried to listen to the fans and their ideas - the mod wouldn't have got where it did without that. With Steam we can go on doing that in a way that we would never have been able to do with a "Big Retail Publisher". We knew there would be headaches and arguments - but this way we have far more chance to "make a difference". Go buy RO... and lobby Valve for support for Mac/Linux... they want to keep growing the channel - lets help them do it. Lets help keep game prices at an acceptable level. Lets allow developers to remain independent and to take risks that Big Publishers can't/won't.

KEEP GAMING INDEPENDENT!!

Rant over :)
 
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Me like many others cant wait to purchase RO when its released early next year, there may be some pain for the Linux/Mac users but I guess thats progress and you cant please all the people, all the time.

Releasing thru Steam has to be best for an independent dev like Tripwire, as someone has mentioned earlier you wouldn't want RO to be fecked up by being managed by the likes of EA, now would you?
 
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CatMangler said:
there may be some pain for the Linux/Mac users but I guess thats progress

??? WTF?

Progress? How is that progress? Progress is allowing users freedom of choice. To buy what they want from where they want. In this case, I want the new RO to be available to me and other non-Microsoft users. There is a vicious circle here... games writers don't cater for Linux -> we lobby them for Linux support -> they say there is no demand for Linux games -> Linux users can't therefore buy the game ........ and on it goes.
 
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Steam does not keep small studios independant. That statement is not yet proven because Steam is much too new. People say it so much because Valve has beat the idea into their heads. Steam is a cool concept on so many levels but it's bloated, it's invasive, and it gives Valve a lot more power than people appreciate. Loving Half-Life games does not make Valve a great ethical company by default.

If I am required to launch Steam every time I play RO, and cannot aquire this game through means other than Steam, I will not be a customer of Tripwire, and that makes me very sad. I love RO, and really have been looking forward to this. Please tell me I don't have to load Steam to load Red Orchestra! Please tell me you're using this model for DISTRIBUTION ONLY, and not being tied to it like Half-Life 2 and several other games are....
 
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