Octopus Overlords

LordMortis wrote: Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:55 am The idea that publishers can gimp games on Steam comes as a bit of surprise to me and I might start moving more and more to GOG.

It isn't anything new. Microsoft killed a bunch of games from a bunch of publishers on Steam when they shut down Games for Windows Live. Some of them were quickly forgotten. GTA IV became impossible to sell and had to be re-issued. In fact, Fallout 3 is unplayable without a mod or crack because of this now.

And this is Ubisoft, what have proven time and again that they're about as worthwhile as the shit you scrape off of you shoe after stepping in it. They're incredibly consumer-unfriendly. They like to look at what the 90% of their money-spending customers are doing, and then they cut the rest, trying to force people back into the more profitable options.

And here is the full list of games that Ubi just shut off online support for, including multiplayer, rewards, achievements, and unlockable content you may have, even if you have already redeemed it - you can't download it (which includes exclusives, preorder bonuses, and pretty much anything else unlocked with a code.)

Most games that I've seen end support this way do it the other way around - they unlock everything for everybody, so that they're not taking earned rewards away from people. Not Ubi.

As far as I know, none of my Steam games have gimped yet but I only seem to go back three or four very old ones. Not sure what I'll do when the first game is gimped. Right now the biggest <hrumph> I have had was with Clockwork Empires, which I bought in early access, it never quite worked, and they abandoned the game. Steam quit selling it but I can still download and run the not quite functional game. The team from Gaslamp got put on my shitlist and also began my early access hesitancy. That's a shame too, as I loved Dungeons of Dreadmore so much CE was a blind buy.

for one of the Impulse titles i lost (Mr. Robot), i wrote directly to the developer and they just provided me with the game executable via download. (the other was an old version of Space Rangers and i already had the HD re-release)

also i had a Games for Windows Live title on disc (The Club) and after going through a rigamarole with Sega's technical support (sending in a photo of the disc and case and license key) i got a NoCD or new license or something.

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Jul 07, 2021 1:00 pm

LordMortis wrote: Wed Jul 07, 2021 10:55 am The idea that publishers can gimp games on Steam comes as a bit of surprise to me and I might start moving more and more to GOG.

It isn't anything new. Microsoft killed a bunch of games from a bunch of publishers on Steam when they shut down Games for Windows Live. Some of them were quickly forgotten. GTA IV became impossible to sell and had to be re-issued. In fact, Fallout 3 is unplayable without a mod or crack because of this now.

And this is Ubisoft, what have proven time and again that they're about as worthwhile as the shit you scrape off of you shoe after stepping in it. They're incredibly consumer-unfriendly. They like to look at what the 90% of their money-spending customers are doing, and then they cut the rest, trying to force people back into the more profitable options.

Yeah, the original Red Faction Guerilla had to be patched as it used Games for Windows Live. This was before the Remastered version.

Some games do a server check before you can even load into the game. Example is Just Cause 4, which presumably if the server were taken down, you'd be left with a game that sits at the title screen and not much else unless they patch it out.

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Jul 07, 2021 1:00 pmAnd this is Ubisoft, what have proven time and again that they're about as worthwhile as the shit you scrape off of you shoe after stepping in it. They're incredibly consumer-unfriendly. They like to look at what the 90% of their money-spending customers are doing, and then they cut the rest, trying to force people back into the more profitable options.

Eh, it's not like other companies are any better. EA completely shut down the DRM servers for Darkspore something like two years after it was released, and as far as I know it's still impossible to play that game.

That's true - pretty much all large-scale publishers are profit-first, and EA has always been known for putting profit above customer interests. But many other companies are better at balancing the two, figuring out how to maximize profit as much as possible without actually walking all over the consumer to do it.

EA is such a story that makes me so sad. In the 80s when I scratching together everything I could at $3.35 an hour to buy video games, they were my favorite publisher and they were selling my favorite games at $20 or less when everyone else was testing $30+ market. Mail Order Monsters, Herarcles/Ali Baba, 7 Cities of Gold, Archon all sold in those record sleeve packages at $15 to $20. Then later creating genres in SimCity and Populous. I forget where they went wrong with me but I do remember it was DRM related in the CD era, where they burnt imperfections in the CDs and DRM needed to read those imperfections correctly to make the game work.

LordMortis wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:50 am EA is such a story that makes me so sad. In the 80s when I scratching together everything I could at $3.35 an hour to buy video games, they were my favorite publisher and they were selling my favorite games at $20 or less when everyone else was testing $30+ market. Mail Order Monsters, Herarcles/Ali Baba, 7 Cities of Gold, Archon all sold in those record sleeve packages at $15 to $20. Then later creating genres in SimCity and Populous. I forget where they went wrong with me but I do remember it was DRM related in the CD era, where they burnt imperfections in the CDs and DRM needed to read those imperfections correctly to make the game work.

FWIW, The Digital Antiquarian provides an extensive write-up that covers that particular subject in quite some detail. It's a lengthy but interesting read for anyone that can fondly recall playing Pinball Construction Set, Archon, Mail Order Monsters, Seven Cities of Gold and so on.

That's why I feel Games as a Service is probably the worst thing the game industry has ever come up with, because what happens when they shut down servers? You can't play your game, can you? It's nice to have constantly evolving content and all, but if that's at the sacrifice of a game that you can play and keep playing even if servers are down, it's not a game I want to play.

Latest rumor is that the next Assassin's Creed will be a live-service game.

LordMortis wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 10:50 am I forget where they went wrong

probably when Trip Hawkins left the company in 1991

EDIT: while looking through their home PC ports of arcade games in the 80s i saw (and remembered) they did Marble Madness, so now i have the second level music stuck in my head. there is something particularly earworm-y about this track.

Rumpy wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:20 pm That's why I feel Games as a Service is probably the worst thing the game industry has ever come up with, because what happens when they shut down servers? You can't play your game, can you? It's nice to have constantly evolving content and all, but if that's at the sacrifice of a game that you can play and keep playing even if servers are down, it's not a game I want to play.

Latest rumor is that the next Assassin's Creed will be a live-service game.

Yeah. I guess it worked for World of Warcraft, but tough luck if you played any of the other dozens of MMO's that weren't WoW.

I think games as a service is awesome with something like game pass. You don't buy games you play them based on a monthy fee. Much better for a console market. For PC games I have a different attitude about it.

Chraolic wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 5:05 pm

Rumpy wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 4:20 pm That's why I feel Games as a Service is probably the worst thing the game industry has ever come up with, because what happens when they shut down servers? You can't play your game, can you? It's nice to have constantly evolving content and all, but if that's at the sacrifice of a game that you can play and keep playing even if servers are down, it's not a game I want to play.

Latest rumor is that the next Assassin's Creed will be a live-service game.

Yeah. I guess it worked for World of Warcraft, but tough luck if you played any of the other dozens of MMO's that weren't WoW.

For MMOs, yeah, it's a given as it's their constantly updated nature. And I guess I can see it with competitive shooters too, but for supposedly single-player games? There's no reason for it. And if there is, there better be a benefit for the player.

JCC wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 6:57 pm I think games as a service is awesome with something like game pass. You don't buy games you play them based on a monthy fee. Much better for a console market. For PC games I have a different attitude about it.

I have PS+, which I feel is pretty good, as you get access to the games as long as you keep paying, and they stay in your library. But correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I'd heard you lose access to the games on XBox Game Pass when they're no longer available (narrow window), which IMHO takes you right back to square one about why these online services are not so great.

Rumpy wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 7:00 pm I have PS+, which I feel is pretty good, as you get access to the games as long as you keep paying, and they stay in your library. But correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I'd heard you lose access to the games on XBox Game Pass when they're no longer available (narrow window), which IMHO takes you right back to square one about why these online services are not so great.

That may well be the case. Not owning an XBox currently, I wouldn't know. I just remember reading an article about it and it sounded like a much better way to play console games. (I mean we are really always renting console games - even if it's a decade (or more) long rental.)

JCC wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 6:57 pm I think games as a service is awesome with something like game pass. You don't buy games you play them based on a monthy fee. Much better for a console market. For PC games I have a different attitude about it.

I am not a big fan of the (S)aaS as business model, but if I were to embrace it rather than accepting it when I have to, this would be the way I would. Much like you would happy for a streaming service rather than owning a large library of movies. "Owning" a streamable movie as a service seems stupid. Having access to a streamable library as a service makes a lot of sense. This would be the same for me and SaaS in general. If O365 were to become so much more than it is, then subscribing to it personally would make sense to me. As it exists today, the fact that it is under constant update makes more sense to me than does subscribing to other software like TeamViewer or Adobe Acrobat or a video game, especially when I'd have to pay more for the "updates" aka DLC.

This was why I never joined the MMORPG fanbase. I simply couldn't warrant paying $60 so I could pay $15 a month to then pay $20 every time new content is available. I couldn't jump on that model. Even DLC is generally a hard sell for me when a game is full priced up front.

So they've decided to recreate the late 90s dotcom boom as a business model. Let's see how that works out for them.

As long as they're raking in billions from Fortnite, they can afford to burn hundreds of millions in the Game Store indefinitely.

I saw another article indicating they only profited from one exclusive (identified as likely to have been Satisfactory).

https://www.pcgamer.com/only-one-of-epi ... snt-metro/

malchior wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 4:45 pm So they've decided to recreate the late 90s dotcom boom as a business model. Let's see how that works out for them.

Amazon lost money for years. Worked out OK for them

jztemple2 wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 5:33 pm

malchior wrote: Fri Aug 06, 2021 4:45 pm So they've decided to recreate the late 90s dotcom boom as a business model. Let's see how that works out for them.

Amazon lost money for years. Worked out OK for them

Oh totally. I just see a company sinking in a half billion so far to try to displace several incumbents and ... yeah ... well good luck with that.

(Meanwhile I'll bank the free games and try not get too upset if the whole thing implodes).

hitbyambulance wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:05 pm

Victoria Raverna wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 9:07 am

LordMortis wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 8:30 am What does EA have to gain from such things?

EA gain from people doing this:

hitbyambulance wrote: Sat Jun 26, 2021 6:01 am Syndicate Plus and Ultima Underworld 1+2 have been sitting in my GOG wishlist since... why, since GOG first introduced the wishlist feature. so i guess now, over a decade later (and multiple decades since these titles first came out), is the time to re-get them. (though i have the original CDs right here!)

also threw in Syndicate Wars - never played it, but why not.

they got their $2, to be sure, but i'd rather GOG got their percentage than all of it going to EA

(just remembered i have Syndicate Plus on EA's service, but that was an on-the-house giveaway)

OR I COULD HAVE JUST WAITED

https://www.gog.com/promo/rerelease_ult ... _syndicate

Don't know if this is the best place to mention it, but Steam has updated a couple of features on its client, as explained in this article: Steam now has a better downloads page and Storage Manager.

The downloads bit is a nice tweak, but the new storage manager is pure gold.

It looks really clean. In Downloads, I like that I can suspend the download speed limit just by right-clicking on the active download.

Rumpy wrote: Thu Jul 08, 2021 7:00 pm I have PS+, which I feel is pretty good, as you get access to the games as long as you keep paying, and they stay in your library. But correct me if I'm wrong, I thought I'd heard you lose access to the games on XBox Game Pass when they're no longer available (narrow window), which IMHO takes you right back to square one about why these online services are not so great.

PS Now is a more accurate comparison to Game Pass. You have access to a large library of games at any time as long as you're a subscriber, and some titles do have a limited stay on the service. PS+ only gives you access to the 2 or 3 games per month if you add them to your library during that month. They just added a collection of ~20 games that are available any time, I think because the incentive to be a new subscriber was low since you'd have access to just the 2-3 games for that month.

I’ve used Steam’s built in ability to move games from one drive to another for years, with nary a problem, but the GUI is a nice touch.

I wouldn’t call what they had before this update a ‘hidden feature’ but you definitely had to know where to look for it.

Now if they could just spend some dough on redesigning or just updating/fixing their awful, clunky as hell iOS app…

I have moved games for years, too. I just love the ability to be able to see which games are on which drives at a glance. As an example, there are times when I want to install something big on one of my drives and need to figure out which games to move to make space. Before I had to dig out WinDirStat to figure out which games were taking up space on A: and D:. Now I can just look and see.

Damn, I can't for the life of me find this feature! And while it's obviously described, and shown in the latest Steam news/updates blog entry, it doesn't say peep about HOW TO FREAKING get to it.

Does it only appear when installing a game maybe? I've clicked, right clicked, checked MANAGE, checked PROPERTIES, investigated the TOP menu options, and the menu options below that as well...nada.

This also reminds me that I think I hate whoever designed and continues to work on the Steam UI/UX. I want to throttle them way more often than is probably healthy. It's streets ahead of most other platforms, but I also expect more since they are the biggest ape on the block, and have had decades (?) to perfect the client.

The storage manager? Settings/Downloads/Steam Library Folders

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:53 am The storage manager? Settings/Downloads/Steam Library Folders

Gah! Thanks

The more I think about it, the more I think that Steam is overdue for a reboot. They set the standard, but the Steam client itself hasn't really kept up. They've added features, and tons of them, but they squeeze them in to the existing structure. It's made it messy and disorganized.

I don't want them to reinvent the wheel, but I'd love for them to take all of the current features, write each one on a scrap of paper, and then shuffle them around until everything is a little more intuitive and less cumbersome.

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 15, 2021 10:30 am They've added features, and tons of them, but they squeeze them in to the existing structure. It's made it messy and disorganized.

I don't want them to reinvent the wheel, but I'd love for them to take all of the current features, write each one on a scrap of paper, and then shuffle them around until everything is a little more intuitive and less cumbersome.

YES.

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:32 am I have moved games for years, too. I just love the ability to be able to see which games are on which drives at a glance. As an example, there are times when I want to install something big on one of my drives and need to figure out which games to move to make space. Before I had to dig out WinDirStat to figure out which games were taking up space on A: and D:. Now I can just look and see.

You can also sort the games list based on size before this update. So there were way to do the same but the changes made it easier.

Victoria Raverna wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:43 am

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:32 am I have moved games for years, too. I just love the ability to be able to see which games are on which drives at a glance. As an example, there are times when I want to install something big on one of my drives and need to figure out which games to move to make space. Before I had to dig out WinDirStat to figure out which games were taking up space on A: and D:. Now I can just look and see.

You can also sort the games list based on size before this update. So there were way to do the same but the changes made it easier.

By size, but not by drive (at least not that I ever saw.) I have a VR SSD, two regular game-dedicated SSDs, one SSD just for the often-giant coop games I play with Brian/BadDemo/Ham Spade, and a game 'storage' drive (big platter drive for inactive games or games that don't benefit from SSD speeds.) If I have 100GB on D and E and need 125 for something, I need to figure out what to move off of either D or E, and to either the other of the two or the storage drive. Before it required checking each game's properties to see which drive it was on. Now I can see at a glance.

Good gosh, that's a lot of gaming drives!

Blackhawk wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 9:19 am

Victoria Raverna wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 5:43 am

Blackhawk wrote: Wed Sep 15, 2021 9:32 am I have moved games for years, too. I just love the ability to be able to see which games are on which drives at a glance. As an example, there are times when I want to install something big on one of my drives and need to figure out which games to move to make space. Before I had to dig out WinDirStat to figure out which games were taking up space on A: and D:. Now I can just look and see.

You can also sort the games list based on size before this update. So there were way to do the same but the changes made it easier.

By size, but not by drive (at least not that I ever saw.) I have a VR SSD, two regular game-dedicated SSDs, one SSD just for the often-giant coop games I play with Brian/BadDemo/Ham Spade, and a game 'storage' drive (big platter drive for inactive games or games that don't benefit from SSD speeds.) If I have 100GB on D and E and need 125 for something, I need to figure out what to move off of either D or E, and to either the other of the two or the storage drive. Before it required checking each game's properties to see which drive it was on. Now I can see at a glance.

It is by size only but it changed to show the drive letter next to the size a while ago when you sort it based on size. So you didn't need to check each game's properties to see which drive it was on.

jztemple2 wrote: Thu Sep 16, 2021 12:25 pm Good gosh, that's a lot of gaming drives!

It's really just two 500GB SSDs plus a platter drive I had left (I didn't get it for gaming, I just had it left over so I take advantage of it.) So a terabyte of active game install space. The other two SSDs are specialized.

With the bi-weekly coop games, we ended up having multiples that we switched around, and at one point we had several 100GB+ games installed, plus multiple 50+ games. GTA Online, Red Dead, R6 Siege, Conan Exiles, others. We never know what we'll play from session to session, so we keep quite a few of them installed all the time. It got to the point that I had to get a drive just for those as they were taking up most of my free space.

The other SSD I picked up just for VR gaming when I found that an m.2 drive really benefits VR games over an SATA SSD.

I'm now getting a message on my Epic client about not getting any more updates till I install the Epic Online Services. It redirects me to this page.

Epic Online Services and Epic Games Launcher 13.0.0 Update

The Epic Games Launcher is now using Epic Online Services natively to keep cross-platform in-game overlays up-to-date for integrated games.

With this change, the Epic Games Launcher will need to install a local Epic Online Services component as a prerequisite. Once you’ve installed the 13.0.0 launcher update on Windows you will begin to see messaging informing you of the changes and prompting you to complete Epic Online Services installation to receive future launcher updates.

To ensure you are able to continue to use the Epic Games Launcher we recommend getting the Epic Online Services installation completed as soon as possible. This can be done in just a few short steps from the settings menu in the Epic Games Launcher.

Epic Online Services is a set of online services originally built for Fortnite and now available to all creators for free so they can easily launch, operate, and scale their games using any engine, store or platform of their choice.

You can read more about Epic Online Services here.

Anyone installed the Epic Online Services update yet? Any issues or hiccups that might induce me to wait? I don't do online gaming on Epic so I'm not in any rush.