Poll regarding Steam users

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by leggit

Oleg is protecting nearly 10 years work...i'm 100% behind his decision to use steam...like it or not gaming on the pc has moved on because of piracy.. If you don't like using steam well thats just tough.. the poll would indicate that most people are happy with the idea. stop crying.

It's not about piracy, we already have Solidshield DRM for that.
I would guess it's about cheap advertising (which is just fine) if the game was sold on Steam, but it's not.
It's not about multiplayer either, since Oleg Maddox said himself that it will be possible to use 3rd party server browsing tools like hypperlobby.

It's also been mentioned by a developer at some point during the last few months that they were working on integrating the multiplayer features "as per the request of the publisher". They just didn't say which publisher, some say this publisher is Ubi, some say it's 1C but in any case Maddox Games is neither of the two: it's a gaming studio that's working under 1C (a publisher) and publishing under Ubi in the west and 1C in the east.

So, the bottom line is that it's quite clear that Steam is not Oleg's decision but the publishers'.

Oh, and they also had to spent time to code this last minute integration of Steam, so arguments that "they went with Steam to save time on making their own server browser" are somewhat moot, especially when the rest of the netcode was something that the game was already capable of.

I don't have anything against people who like Steam or the platform itself but let's get over ourselves here for a bit, it's a publisher decision that's been forced on Oleg's team.

Best way to do things would be to have a Steam version for those who like it, sold through Steam with no additional DRM. The other versions would have the Solidshield DRM but no Steam integration. Everyone is happy, people are not boycotting the game, more sales, profit.

As it is now, both the pro-Steam and the against-Steam people are getting the short end of the stick: the "steamers" are forced to use a second DRM layer and the "non-steamers" have to also contend with two DRM layers and total lack of options in the whole matter.