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DooberGuy
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Already on sale?

Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:10 am

Pride of Nations is now $10 on Steam, this seems like bad news to me. Did the game not do well, or is this just paradox being dumb?

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Gray_Lensman
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:14 am

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DooberGuy
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:16 am

Nope, not this time. The annual summer fire sale happened a week or so ago. This is purely on its own.

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DooberGuy
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:19 am

by the way Gray, Atlas Shrugged is a great book, I agree with your message :thumbsup:

StephenT
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:01 am

Looking at it just now: there's a big green "-50%" next to the price, and it's showing two prices, one crossed out and another next to it that's half the crossed-out one.

Looks like a special sale to me. :)

(Also, Gamersgate is still selling it at the full price.)

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kayapo
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:02 am

I really think a lot of people haven't upgraded their minds yet to the new order in the game selling market.

You are still thinking that a game on sale on steam is the same as finding it on the bargain bin on Gamestop (or whatever store you used to go to). No no no...

Steam (and other download sites) type of business is way ahead of those days.

See, at that time game stores worked just like any other store. They bought a stock of merchandise. If it wouldn't sell and they couldn't send it back to the manufacturer it was off to the bargain bin.

It was a good way to spot either a failed game or an overhyped game that didn't deliver.

Now it is different. Steam doesn't care about size of it's stock at all. Actualy, scratch that. They do, the bigger the better. They want all games to be available to everyone. GoG, Steam, Gamersgate, you name it, the war is to have the largest selection of games available and to push them down the bandwidth of as many people as possible.

How do you keep gamers downloading games that were already released weeks, months, even years ago? You create awareness. You have sales, you make package deals, you make bonus content available, everything with the aim to make people aware that there is a game outhere for them to download.

Sure, a blockbuster high profile game (say, Fallout 3) can take a while to need a awareness check, while a niche-wargame might need many awareness checks throught the years but you rest assured that it doesn't mean that it sold badly and is now relegated to the bargain bin.

In the age of digital download what matters is keeping the ball rolling and the downloads going fast. It isn't about cleaning the shelves for the next title.

Heck, Steam just had a gigantic summer sale and I'm pretty sure everygame outthere was on the "bargain bin" for a day or two during it. Can you really say then that all those games failed because, well...steam has/had them on sale?

I have no hard data at all, but I'm willing to bet that PoN sold well and possibly above what was expected. The steam sale will only increase this success.

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Hohenlohe
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:49 am

DooberGuy wrote:Pride of Nations is now $10 on Steam, this seems like bad news to me. Did the game not do well, or is this just paradox being dumb?


To me that means downgrading the real worth of a product in this way, but at the other side you can increase your future customership for certain niche products like PON and therefore if PON will become more successful you will see that there are a greater interest by the people for such good work.

heartly greetings

Hohenlohe...*smile*
R.I.P. Henry D.

In Remembrance of my Granduncle Hans Weber, a Hungaro-German Soldier,served in Austro-Hungarian Forces during WWI,war prisoner, missed in Sibiria 1918...

tagwyn
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:11 am

AS is unmitigated crap!! Where is John Galt? t

goodwood
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:10 am

I wouldn't buy a game from Steam at any price, I betcha I'm not Robinson Crusoe either
Happily Grumpy:siffle:

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ERISS
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 11:17 am

tagwyn wrote:Where is John Galt?

Lol, I wish Big Gabble would take his Steam back and desapear with.
But some other would take his place...,
maybe without drm?: Big-head-deap-pockets like Gabble already took the place of just-big-head ones. Let all the john galts go, and may all einsteins reveal.

Bohemund
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:16 pm

Why exactly wouldn't you guys buy it at steam? Just a general hate or is there a problem with the steam version? I tried the game with my brothers version and fell in love, but as everyone is bashing steam, I'm not sure where to buy it.

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McNaughton
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 2:58 pm

Bohemund wrote:Why exactly wouldn't you guys buy it at steam? Just a general hate or is there a problem with the steam version? I tried the game with my brothers version and fell in love, but as everyone is bashing steam, I'm not sure where to buy it.


Buy it here from the AGEOD site (that's where I bought it from!)...

http://shopuk.ageod.com/fiche.html?REF=737136

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ashandresash
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:03 pm

Bohemund wrote:Why exactly wouldn't you guys buy it at steam? Just a general hate or is there a problem with the steam version? I tried the game with my brothers version and fell in love, but as everyone is bashing steam, I'm not sure where to buy it.


I particularly don't like Steam because of needing to be connected to it by internet when you want to start your game. And it's difficult to apply things we all love like beta patches (they provide you the game updated to their last version, which is the official, when you launch it).

Maybe PON is available disconnected, and there are tricks to update your game with beta patches (not sure if it's always possible; though I have a few games in my Steam account I'm not really an expert on it). But, why should I take the hard way when there are easier options?

I bought PON (as well as my other ageod and Paradox games) from Gamersgate.

RobC04
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:04 pm

Bohemund wrote:Why exactly wouldn't you guys buy it at steam? Just a general hate or is there a problem with the steam version? I tried the game with my brothers version and fell in love, but as everyone is bashing steam, I'm not sure where to buy it.


Some people just don't like Steam on principal because it is a form of DRM. All things being equal, I would prefer to buy a non-DRM copy. That being said, I have about 30 games on Steam and have rarely had any type of issue with them working. I had some bandwidth isues during their sale but it was only for a couple days. It is hard to argue with their sales. Right now Pride of Nations is on sale for $10.

You can play your games in offline mode so you don't need to be connected to the internet. I have a good connection, so I just leave it in online mode.

I also make purchases from GamersGate, but right now Pride of Nations is $20 there.

Czert
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:12 pm

problem with steam -as I heard - is that you must first connect to steam to be able to play games downloaded from steam (very different to games to downloaded from gamergate or others sites which ackt as games italed from dvd but without dvd check).
And imagine problems if you have unreliable net conection, steam temprialy unavaivable or worst steam ban your acount for whatever reson.

edit - rob - what means DRM ? And how is posible to play steam games in offline mode ?

Bohemund
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:29 pm

DRM means Digital Rights Management, it's the copy control mechanism a game uses.
The offline thing is easy, you just connect to steam, start the game and then go into offline mode in steam.

So, the general opinion is, steam is evil. :)
Besides that, did anyone have real problems with the steam version, like not being able to install the beta patches?
I don't like platforms like steam either, but 10$ for PON is unbeatable and if there are no real gameplay or compatibilty issues I'm really considering buying it off steam.

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Kev_uk
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 3:48 pm

Steam takes a wack of memory usage, plus you need a constant connection to the internet to play. The only game I ever played with Steam was King Arthur, and as a matter of principle I purchased a hard copy from Amazon because I did not want to use Steam to play it. Unfortunately, despite buying the DVD version, I still needed to download steam to register and install it. This kinda really sucks, right? I DID NOT want to use this DRM which is why I purchased a hard copy. That is against consumer interests, no?

So, no, I use Gamersgate all the time now. I remember when Steam first was released, and there was a lot of noise against it...how our gaming shops stopped selling PC titles because of lack of profit (it was said) in them. Everyone was buying console stuff and the PC shelf became relegated to the back. This has happened in less than five years.

Sucks. Big time.

RobC04
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:34 pm

As the prior reply said, DRM is Digital Rights Management. There are lots of different ways publishers implement DRM. Even some games on GamersGate has DRM, it is just that GamersGate doesn't put their own DRM on top of the games they sell.

To play Steam games in offline mode, you select 'Go Offline' from the Steam menu. You can disconnect you internet connection and play your games without connecting to the internet. The only caveat is that Steam states your games must be up to date, which they pretty much always are since it patches them automatically when in online mode.

Yes, I would prefer to play games that don't use Steam or any other 3rd party platform and I take that into consideration. But cost does count and when Steam has a game for 50% cheaper then other outlets I do buy from Steam and as I said I have been content with the service.

Edit: As far as memory usage, Steam is using about 23 Meg on my system. A drop in the bucket compared to the 8 Gig my system has. Even if your system only has 1 or 2 Gig, 23 Meg isn;t much. Adobe Acrobat reader is using more on my system right now.

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DooberGuy
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:41 pm

Bohemund wrote:Why exactly wouldn't you guys buy it at steam? Just a general hate or is there a problem with the steam version? I tried the game with my brothers version and fell in love, but as everyone is bashing steam, I'm not sure where to buy it.


THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE STEAM VERSION!

You will hear a lot of people complain about it on this site, but the game doesn't have anything wrong with it if you buy it off steam and if you wait for sales you can get it cheap. To be honest though, this game is already cheap.

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DooberGuy
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:43 pm

Kev_uk wrote:you need a constant connection to the internet to play.


No, you don't. Just select Steam and click on offline mode. Seriously people, Steam is not the devil.

Edit: Oops, I see Rob already beat me to it.

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DooberGuy
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:49 pm

To Cayapo,

You make some valid points about how sales no longer have anything to do with clearing inventory, and that Steam puts even successful games on sale. However, Steam doesn't put successful games on sale at 50% within months of initial release. I may be wrong and I hope I am, because I really want this game to do well. I even went and purchased extra copies for my friends.

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kayapo
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:56 pm

heh, PoN costs $19 on steam. Put that on sale for 10-20% off and you get what? Almost nothing being discounted.

On the other hand there are games on steam that are pre-release and sell for $50-60. Even before being released steam puts a sale tag on them and sell for 10-20% off which amounts to more or less the same as giving a 50% discount on PoN.

A lot of games on steam stay on a constant "pre-release" sale.

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ERISS
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:16 pm

DooberGuy wrote:Seriously people, Steam is not the devil.

Devil is in the details. DRMs are details uselessly threatening (and sometimes forbidding or damaging) our use of pc games. Nothing and nobody are proven devil, until you are their victim; but you can see what are their means. I just don't want to let them an opportunity to prove it.
Some say Microsoft is worst, but it has much more alternatives, legal or not, to use the softwares (such as usual pc games) depending on it.

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Kev_uk
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 5:30 pm

DooberGuy wrote:No, you don't. Just select Steam and click on offline mode. Seriously people, Steam is not the devil.

Edit: Oops, I see Rob already beat me to it.


Well I had to have an active internet connection to install Steam and register King Arthur. I brought a hard copy in order to prevent this. It became irrelevant.

RobC04
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:50 pm

Kev_uk wrote:Well I had to have an active internet connection to install Steam and register King Arthur. I brought a hard copy in order to prevent this. It became irrelevant.


Yes, that is true for games that decide to require Steam (King Arthur, Civ 5, the more recent Total War games, etc). It annoyed me too with Civ 5. Of course if you buy any game through a download service you have to have an internet connection to download and install, but you can go offline to play it.

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Kev_uk
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 7:57 pm

RobC04 wrote:Yes, that is true for games that decide to require Steam (King Arthur, Civ 5, the more recent Total War games, etc). It annoyed me too with Civ 5. Of course if you buy any game through a download service you have to have an internet connection to download and install, but you can go offline to play it.


Yes but what I am saying is that I brought a actual hard copy from Amazon in the (vain) hope that I did not want to use Steam to actually play the game. I still needed that internet access to install and play.

Beorg
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 8:08 pm

I find it much more annoying that I have 10+ games on my steam account but I am only allowed to play 1 at a time!

So if I have my nephew and niece over I have to choose do I play a game or do they play a game I bought and paid for.

I can understand that I cannot play two copies of the same game. But why should I not be allowed to run Civ 5 on computer A and PoN on computer B at the same time?

I understand that the developers like Steam to get a copyprotection service, but this limitation of use of items I have purchased and paid for is going too far.

RobC04
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:12 pm

Kev_uk wrote:Yes but what I am saying is that I brought a actual hard copy from Amazon in the (vain) hope that I did not want to use Steam to actually play the game. I still needed that internet access to install and play.


I know, I was mostly agreeing with you. It is the same with the games I mentioned that require Steam, such as Civ 5. I bought it from Amazon, but since Civ 5 actually requires Steam, you must connect to Steam to actually install it. But after installation, you can set Steam to play in offline mode so you don't need the connection to play. I am pretty sure any game can be played in this manner. Once it is installed (and up to date via any patches) you can play it in offline mode.

It is possible it appears to connect to Steam since you still see the login screen, but I think it is just logging into your Steam account locally (not over the internet). I will test this by shutting down my internet connection...

Yep, I was able to disconnect my internet connection and start Civ 5 from Steam. You still see the Steam login, but it did not actually connect to the internet.

RobC04
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:13 pm

Beorg wrote:I find it much more annoying that I have 10+ games on my steam account but I am only allowed to play 1 at a time!

So if I have my nephew and niece over I have to choose do I play a game or do they play a game I bought and paid for.

I can understand that I cannot play two copies of the same game. But why should I not be allowed to run Civ 5 on computer A and PoN on computer B at the same time?

I understand that the developers like Steam to get a copyprotection service, but this limitation of use of items I have purchased and paid for is going too far.


I agree!

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Gray_Lensman
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Tue Jul 19, 2011 9:36 pm

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