The Grand Campaign Mega Pack is coming!

[FOARP]

You can see the kind of games that get approved here:
http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/brow ... cepted&p=1

Holy straight-to-discount-download McNeilman!

[FOARP]

Also: any word on an ETA?

[IainMcNeil]

April 23rd is the planned date.

[Ralle]

I got an eMail for the Mega Pack Beta - but the links don`t seem to work

[VPaulus]

I got an eMail for the Mega Pack Beta - but the links don`t seem to work

I've just checked and the links for downloading the beta are working. Please try with another Internet browser:
viewtopic.php?f=148&t=41580

[torrone]

Don't know why anyone would want a game to be on Steam if it didn't have to be. It may benefit the the company monetarily(Slitherine, in this case), which is fine. But I've never seen much benefit to the end user. One of my main complaints is that you don't actually own the game. When I purchase just about anything else(books, cds, cars, etc), I have the option to resell it when I am done with it. Not so with Steam. Once the game is activated, that's it. The game cannot be transferred to anyone else without allowing them access to your Steam account, not a viable option for most. The freedom to sell something you supposedly own is taken away. Unfortunately, most games today are forced to use a client like Steam, Origin, UPlay and the like. And this takes away the option of choice to do what you like with an item you supposedly own.

[MrsWargamer]

"The freedom to sell something you supposedly own is taken away."

Sadly this is a misconception that has always been a misconception. You never actually 'owned' anything other than a plastic disk. That isn't my being yet another internet lawyer talking crap, that IS the actual truth. The thing is, if you have nothing preventing you from reselling it, well people will do so.

Now I for one, think the Slitherine Group's means of selling access to a game is the best method I have encountered in the entire time I have been playing digital games.

But I am ok with Slitherine Group scoring the biggest response to a product they can. And if there are X customers that will buy from them, and Y customers that will gladly buy via Steam and Y customers tends to be several times the number of X customers, and they generate several times as much cash even with insanely near insulting prices, well a publisher is about selling a product profitably such that the people they represent gain the greatest benefit from their creations.

I don't like that tomorrow I might never be able to reach the internet again, and thus cut off from my legit bought products even if it is no fault of Steam. I sure don't like being vulnerable to the whim of Steam, but, clearly Steam interests enough people, or it wouldn't work to begin with.

It might cost me more, and likely always will cost me more, to pay full price at Slitherine Group for their games sold their way, but the upside, is once I have the file, the need to be online ever again doesn't exist. If tomorrow I stopped paying to be online ever again, it wouldn't mean squat to my purchases. So it's basically peace of mind that I am buying. Sort of like how stores will sell you 'disk protection' often for pennies to a couple of bucks to safeguard against the disk ever coming to some fate that makes it not work.

Now what is often funny to me, is how so many will gladly pay 10 bucks to have a disk mailed to them in a dvd case. It's hilarious how some think it actually represents some magical value, but it's nice that Slitherine Group will aid those seemingly incapable of burning a simple file to a blank disk. The process takes me about 30 seconds. In fact, I can even send a downloading file directly to a disk to be burned as it is downloading if I desire. I can send the file through the network and simultaneously save it to every device in the family network if I want it redundantly backed up, also in mere moments.

But non of this cool functionality ever gave me any form of ownership over the program. It's just that I can sell it second hand, if I really felt like it, if anyone really valued the access to the game sufficiently to pay me. After all, it would just be a data file, and a disk. It's a pity I can't unregister some titles. I have a few I'd like to release.

[torrone]

Point well taken. But how do you resell an activated Steam product? Answer, you can't. Well, that's not entirely true. You can sell it and allow the purchaser access to your Steam username and password. This method, however, would give the buyer of that particular game access to your entire Steam library. So that is a rather unsavory solution. I recently sold the game Bioshock after completing it. It was a pre-Steam game so the new owner will be able to enjoy it as I did. I just bought Bioshock Infinite and activated it on Steam. That activation code applies to me and only me. I can't transfer it to anyone else without allowing them access to my entire Steam library. There is no other way that I am aware of that this can legally be done. I fully understand why game companies would want their games on Steam. Everyone has to buy their own copy. The game company makes more money that way than if I buy a game, play it, and sell it to someone else. They don't make any money from that second party sale. Obviously smaller publishers like Slitherine would benefit from having their games on Steam. As it stands now, anyone owning a Slitherine game disk can pass it on to as many people as they want, since we are allowed unlimited downloads of the games we own. What is to stop anyone from making a disc copy as you suggest above and selling to to multiple people? The only downside is that they cannot register the game, but they certainly can still play it. I certainly don't advocate this since I love Slitherine products and want them to be as successful as possible. I want games of the type they produce to continue to be available to gamers like us. So, whatever avenue they need to take to be successful, I will support it. If it seems that I am on both sides of this issue, it is because I clearly see the pros and cons of both. In either case, someone will be unhappy, but so be it.

[MrsWargamer]

Steam is a method of sale.

It is up to the gamer to decide, do I like this method of sale. Now the detractors need to prove that Steam's owners are not making any money in order to demonstrate why Steam is no good. If making money was all that was important. It seems that is all that is important to some companies. EA being a good example. They couldn't care less about the gamer, you are just a source of cash. You won't see any genuine remorse for that completely buggered Sim City launch. The best you will get is an embarrassed 'oops' and they will go back to taking your money.

What's to stop me burning to disk and selling my Slitherine Group purchases? Nothing, well aside from the risk of a prison cell and the real chance of finding out what same sex relationships feel like.

But I think theft is something that won't be going anywhere any time soon. We humans have been taking each other's stuff since we started using tools.
I don't think pissing off the paying portion of society is an answer.

I don't own the recent version of Combat Mission from a rival publisher. Their concept of DRM is moronic. They can keep their game and I will keep my money. And their nowhere company and their meaningless products can drop dead. And they are not the only publisher I am ok giving the bird to.

If Steam didn't offer some use of some sort to the gamer, the service wouldn't work.
It is required I be able to go online periodically (if I change rigs). Not impossible, but not always perfect either. I have internet, my mother does not. Oh well, I'm supposed to be visiting HER while I'm there
No if a service required me to be always online, well that is hilarious. Only a moron thinks that is a good idea. I have internet outages some days. Some days I just don't wish to be online. Making it so my game won't run otherwise, is a good way to kill a game.

It doesn't take a lot to kill a game.
I LIKED Civilization Revolutions, but the PS3 multiplayer was so buggy/broken the game died before they could fix it. The Nintendo DS release was fine, but the PS3 port killed the title.

I will be genuinely surprised if Sim City is grabbing any interest in 6 months. If it isn't dead by then, then I can fairly call the fans consumer whores and cash cows with no brains.

For a time, I felt having a game on cd was just making it too easy for the pirates. Then I was shown how the Nintendo DS cartridge was in fact the industry's easiest to copy gaming product on the shelf. I suppose there simply is no such thing as real copy protection beyond make a good game, sell it in a way that pleases the fans not the share holders, accept that part of society is going to steal your stuff, move on and get over it, and make as much money in as many useful ways as possible, and stop pretending the impossible is doable.

The only reason I support Steam as an option, is enough gamers use it to make it a viable source of cash if it is allowed to.
I support Slitherine Group making money. Why not eh, if they die as a company, I don't get squat.
I don't support being unable to get the game in my preferred fashion, I only support Slitherine Group exploiting all the variables, all the options.

Some people mention 'but they are a company' as if saying something like water is wet is any manner of revelation to anyone here. Heck if you can read a post, you have to have enough brains to know that

If something were to actually happen to Steam tomorrow, there are going to be a lot of gamers that will be a combination of pissed off and suddenly wiser about what is and what is not ideal about Steam. It's ideal I can play a game from any machine anywhere and install it without needing a copy present. Ideal as long as I have internet.

I like to think being able to carry my entire catalogue of Slitherine Group installers and serials on a single device with me is superior. They make flash drives now able to hold immense sums of data. I don't think every wargame I own exceeds a 16 gig flash drive. And they make 32 gig flash drives anyway. A lighter is bigger than a flash drive eh. I can dump the data, and renew the folders files as often as I want with those things. People spending 10 bucks to get a hard copy mailed to them, likely are not clever enough to be a decent enough level of opponent to my way of seeing it. Not only is it not rocket science, I think cooking dinner takes more work.

No amount of capital makes a company incapable of outright stupid choices either. Stupid is stupid regardless. I don't think just because Sony is filthy rich, means everything they do is brilliant. And I could talk all day about the folly that is Hollywood. I'm only using Windows 8 because I got it on sale for a lousy 16 bucks thanks to marketing at MS being inept. Sure 16 bucks, why not. 200 bucks? not likely pal

To succeed in business, you need to actually be good at it too. To be liked, you need to earn it. No amount of money can buy a good reputation.
I have for instance, zero respect for EA.

[torrone]

I have to agree about EA-Origin. They are awful. I was about halfway though Amalur Reckoning. I stopped playing it for a while. When I decided to play the game again, Origin did an automatic update when I logged in. That process wiped out my save games. It happened to a lot of others too. I went on their forums and asked if there was any way to retrieve my saves. Absolutely no response. My only option now appears to be starting the game from scratch again and wasting hours upon hours to get back to the place where I was in the game. While I might do this, I am certainly reluctant, since who knows if this won't happen again. While there are the restrictions associated with Steam that I mentioned above, Steam is infinitely better than Origin.