Steam version please
Please make this available on Steam. I will buy it as soon as it is.
Many people like all of their games organized into one account. Steam is by far the best.
Many people like all of their games organized into one account. Steam is by far the best.
0
Comments
That said, as long as this thread doesn't degenerate into a lot of people throwing mud at each other for liking or not liking Steam, I'll allow a second thread here, since it's definitely a feature request.
On a personal note, I wouldn't want it to be released on Steam until the multiplayer matching is completed; one of the biggest draws of Steam is the way it interfaces with multiplayer, and I think that would be wasted if the game's multiplayer isn't ready to handle it.
And is it really that hard to have games installed just like any other programme? I know that Steam has done a lot to promote certain games, but it's not perfect by any means.
L.
I don't see how steam helps organize all your games.
I've been organizing all my games for decades on the same account long before steam.
I call it my C: drive.
Buying direct from the developer is great. It gives the developer all of the revenue from the purchase, which does the most good for producing new games.
On the other hand, the thing that Steam does exceptionally well is marketing. If you put a game on Steam, and it makes it to the front banner of the client, that game will sell. Whether it's people who have played the game before and forgot about it, or were considering buying it but were having trouble justifying the purchase, or people who have never heard of Baldur's Gate and are suddenly curious about it, a game is much more likely to be purchased when it is conveniently located.
Developer-run sales are great for the folks who support the developer, but for casual sales, Steam reaches a lot more people a lot more quickly, and yields some massive returns.
They also keep a large portion of the profits. So the question isn't, "Is Steam a good client" (I submit that it is), but rather, "Will the Steam sales be significant enough to offset the effective cost of selling through its store?"
I suspect that they will be. But the game needs to be stable and fully functional first; in its current form, I don't think the game would sell well on Steam; it's received too much bad publicity from frustrated fans, and it would be much more beneficial to release when issues have been resolved and people are happy with it.
That's one thing that I do like about Steam: internet connection is not necessary to run your games once you have them.
After that, you only need Internet to check for patches. Very light DRM,.
Steam is fine, but to boycott a game for not being sold there, as some are claiming to do, is just plain stupid, IMO.
It requires no more effort to get BG:EE than any other game sold today, be it on Steam, GOG or your local store.
You can even make a link in Steam to the game, so you can launch it from there.
Long answer:
It's not even about whether or not Steam is a good client, the answer is yes, it is. That's from a layout and ease of purchasing point of view (even though when I was on satellite broadband a couple years, I had purchasing problems due to the IP address not being from the country I was living in, so I couldn't even purchase anything without jumping through a bunch of hoops). Is it convenient for anyone other than people with high-speed cable or DSL broadband: no, it's not, it is decidedly inconvenient.
I would rather go back to the days where I could install a game like any other piece of software; mainly due to only having a mediocre internet connection - as it is, I have to download games like BG:EE while I'm out, then copy it over to one of my other computers when I get home. Steam won't even do that very well, since any computer it is installed on will need an internet connection about once every two weeks to update the credentials so you can use offline mode (I keep getting messages every now and then saying it can't use offline mode until I log in, at which point it downloads about 15MB (I've watched it doing something to both the winui.gcf and ClientRegistry.blob files), and for me that process usually takes about 20 minutes), which is why I've uninstalled Steam on my other computers and don't generally buy Steam games -- not that I don't want to, but because they are unusable without some form of bypass (which is 'illegal'). I even reported the issue to Valve, which they then told me to either use Steam or not buy their games.
It's a lot of hassle, and it's hassle I never had with games like the original Baldur's Gate, or Age of Empires, or a considerable number of other games -- right up to 2007, when BioShock left out the executable file, so you had to go online and activate the game, at which point it allowed you to download the EXE as part of the activation. I left my computer going for an entire day during the 'patching' period, right up until the connection timed out at about 5%, at which point I requested a refund then went to a friends house and played his copy (which, in recent years, has become more frowned upon). At least with Beamdog's standalone installer I only need an internet connection for less than a minute during the installation, while it checks all the files out (not including updates, since I can update on a different machine and copy all the files across) and it only needs to be done once per installation, then you don't even need their client running while you play.
Besides which, Beamdog has it's own delivery system. As long as they keep their own system, then allowing third parties - like Steam - to sell it probably wouldn't be all that bad, and would probably get more sales. Though I would argue that it is like Valve saying, "hey, I know we have this great client, but Half Life 3 will only be available through EA's Origin client for the first few months." Everyone who loves Steam would be thinking Valve has gone mad. It would seem a bit pointless, and a bit of a joke (and it would be the ultimate troll to Valves' fans, blame GabeN is it happens). Then again, if you love Origin and Half Life 3 only ends up on Steam (which is what I would imagine will happen, assuming HL3 ever gets released), I can imagine people shouting "install Steam if you don't like the situation." Same with this game.
If you want to play the game, but don't want the entire Beamdog client, then download the standalone installer -- it's really not that bad.
Also, the standalone installer can even be found on the purchase page. A button labelled "Install Now," right under the "Buy now for $19.99" button.
Please give me a step-by-step instruction list of how to run BG:EE without an internet connection. I have already installed it with BeamDog. What next?
That's the only time you need to so that.
Then you can make a shortcut directly to baldur.exe which runs fine without Internet connection.
It's located in Beamdog\games\00766\baldur.exe
Steam would then open up a new viable market for other gamers as it has a massive following and they sell a hell of a lot more games. Saying Steam is destroying the industry is pure garbage.
My suggestion is if they are planning to ever go third party with releases, it would be after sales of BG2:EE have slowed right down, and then they work with GOG and steam. I am sure sales would pick up again (at the loss of small cut of zee moneys)
Actually, when I tried doing a direct launch like that during release day, it didn't work at all unless I opened it through the BeamDog client. Thus, I thought that I couldn't do it like that. Works fine now though.
Glad I could help.