Captain-Electric

After reading through this most recent page of posts, and without addressing any specific points (it would be a laundry list if I did, and tedious for everyone), I'm going to briefly just make a couple of blanket statements to address the core of the "gain/benefit versus loss/loss leading" arguments here.

In a great many other venues, those might all be arguments worth having. But PEOPLE! In this specific case, with Steam, when ya'll say things like, "I wouldn't want to see Valve take a cut of the money I fork over to Paragon," you're overlooking one huge detail. STEAM. Because even after Steam does take its cut, an MMO's publisher STILL ends up with a crap-ton more money to fork over to its development studios than it had before Steam. The gains dwarf the cuts. Otherwise, it wouldn't be worth it for the many MMO publishers who've begun working with Steam over the past year. So, look, all I'm saying is that for the purposes of a fair discussion, maybe we shouldn't be avoiding this GINORMOUS FREAKING DETAIL.

Comparisons to Google aren't technically accurate, but the spirit of the comparison is 100 percent accurate. In a discussion like this, people who don't use Steam or haven't used it in a few years, or who don't like it and avoid it (and avoid knowledge about it beyond hearsay), they're standing next to a colossal elephant in the dark--with absolutely no idea about the size and magnitude of the thing they're standing next to. Go post on the message boards for Star Trek Online or Fallen Earth and tell them that Steam doesn't do an MMO good. Or if you're worried about technical hurdles, post on forums for the handful of multiplayer games (especially well-aged war games) from the early 2000s AND BEFORE THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY who've made a small but profitable come-back, thanks to Steam integration and microtransactions.

Then, come back here to these forums and report, when they're all done laughing at you.

I'm typing this with a smirk and my tongue is planted firmly in cheek, by the way, in case any of the above reads a little more bluntly from your end of the intertubes. I can and do see where people are coming from with some of the criticisms in this thread, like for DLC, for instance. You love it or you hate it, and people have valid reasons for loving it and hating it. But when the discussion turns toward, "Pfft, what can Steam do for us?", those of us who know better just have to smile and try to formulate a polite and educational response.

I could be swayed toward agreeing with some of the criticisms I've heard here. And no one's even brought up, for instance, how some MMO publishers as well as single-player publishers have abused the microtransaction model, holding back on half their content at release and then essentially charging many times over what the game in its entirety SHOULD have cost, under the cover of "DLC". That's what we in the super hero world call "shady." But not all publishers do it, or at least not to such an extent that it's blatant cow-milking greed. I honestly don't mind if a company plans and develops DLC content even before release, if the game at release is a full meal on its own.

But I will say this. Like some other things in life (sushi, cliff-diving, signature task forces...), someone had to talk me into Steam and nearly twist my arm to get me to try it out. I'm glad they did. Regardless of all the tiny details, and even a few large ones, I think the influx of players would be worth it. Contrary to some of you, I think if Steam brought them, Paragon Studios could keep them. For those of us who continued to ignore Steam, all we would see would be benefits. More zone revamps, more power sets, more story arcs, more cool stuff.

And for the record...

Errrr, no, I can't believe how long my post is, either.

I'm sure I either deserve a high-five or a slap in the face, one of the two!

I've done a little research into some of the bolder claims made against Steam (meaning I called/talked to a few of my dorkier friends about it over the course of the day and evening). And there are a few factors at work, as they see it, some of which I completely sympathize with; and some of which I actually find offensive.

The Good
Steam is great, and always has been, IN MY EXPERIENCE. But today, since ya'll saw me post last, I learned of its seedy, bug-ridden past. Steam suffered launch woes and in its first several months, the service suffered through a perfect storm of annoying and even harmful bugs. Many early adopters left and never came back, but those early adopters told their friends how horrible this "Steam" service was, who in turn told their friends. Some of the stories may have grown more horrible over time. Some were undoubtedly true. Meanwhile, Steam pressed on, ironing and squashing bugs. But the seeds of popular opinion had been sewn. Which is why today, I was put in the position of informing a couple of under-the-rock friends that the bugs they're still ticked off about were probably ironed out a few years ago.

I will take this opportunity to mention that I actually played City of Heroes for a couple of months way back in 2004 (that account is still tied to my master account; I even blew the dust off of it one night after CoH: Freedom launched). There simply wasn't enough of it there to keep me interested, but that NEVER led to making false assumptions over the next several years. Online services grow and change. I can't believe this is news to people. I always expected that I'd come back one day, and I did.

So, the good news, apparently, is that Steam is not what it used to be. If you haven't checked it out in a couple of years, then you should.

The Bad
The bad news is that Steam loves the DLC/microtransaction model. Now, I actually love the DLC model too, so this isn't bad news FOR ME. DLC is a great way to expand the life of a product, and many single-player games large and small are getting the sorts updates and patches you'd normally only expect from the land of MMOs. Coming from a Warhammer 40,000 franchise fan, I can assure you that this is good news for me (yes I know the gravy train has now stopped for Retribution, but hey, DoW III! Someday! *Shakes fist at Company of Heroes 2*). A lot of (seriously uninformed) people in this thread have claimed that MMOs don't have a place on Steam, but a quick look at their Massively Multiplayer category will reveal a large and growing pile of MMOs, mostly F2P. DLC and microtransactions make that possible. Unfortunately, a huge crowd out there simply feels like they're being nickel and dimed (never mind the fact that those nickels and dimes are what is allowing some of their favorite franchises to continue on). I can't really argue with them, because part of their argument is just the facts.

But here's some perspective. When Fallen Earth went F2P and put their product on Steam last year, the insanely massive influx of new players actually crashed their servers. They made a quick recovery, and have gone from a flailing, drowning MMO to something else entirely. That's what Steam does. Like it or loathe it, it brings money to online games. Lots of money. Coupled with the fact that NO pre-existing MMO has ever REQUIRED its users to switch to Steam as their game's launcher (meaning none of this would effect those who don't use Steam), don't ya'll think City of Heroes could benefit from that sort of exposure? No? Well, okay.

One thing I learned that isn't so bad is the fact that Steam doesn't actually take a cut off every microtransaction. That's pure rumor. In the case of some F2P MMOs it DOES take a cut whenever players buy the equivalent of Paragon Points to spend in their various MMOs digital marketplaces. But in the case of some MMOs (like STO for instance), it's STILL cheaper to buy points via Steam than via the publisher's website.

But for many of you, the bad is still the bad: if City of Heroes ever went back on Steam, there would more than likely be some content available only to Steam users. That is just the reality of the market. It is a tactic (and a compromise between Valve and publishers) that gets more people to install and use Steam. I'll concede that this stinks for people who just don't want another service to subscribe to. But...

The Ugly
On the other hand, I have over 150 games on Steam, most of which I paid chump change for. POCKET CHANGE. I've only played a small fraction of them. Maybe I'll get around to the others. Some day. But that's not the point. With a little bit of patience, and a couple of Summer and Christmas sales, these are games that YOU paid twenty to sixty dollars for and I didn't. Mass Effect, Bioshock, Half-Life 2, Arkham Asylum, Borderlands and all DLC, Deus Ex, Freedom Force and Freedom Force vs. the 3rd Reich, Gratuitous Tank Battles, Dungeon Defenders + DLC, Civ V + DLC, the ENTIRE Dawn of War and Dawn of War 2 series + ALL DLC for 75% off a couple weeks ago (I was missing a few things), Red Faction: Guerilla, Spore + expansions, all of Tale Tell Games Back to the Future and Wallace & Gromit titles (and Ghostbusters), Every X2 game for 75% off, Torchlight, the Witcher, plus many, many more big names and dozens of smaller indie diamonds like Runespell: Overture, Machinarium, all the Majesty games, King Arthur, Legendary, Din's Curse, Braid, Armada 2526, Nuclear Dawn and so on.

In comparison, think of what your games have cost you. But...wait, you DID pay for your games...didn't you?

Remember I mentioned at the start of this post about being offended by some factors? Here is the worst thing I learned today from two friends and a co-worker who hate Steam the most. It has ruined "free gaming" for them. A.K.A. piracy. DLC, patches, achievements, Steam activation, all of these things are like iron bars for software pirates. Not to mention, Steam has been rumored not to play nicely on computers where it has come into contact with pirated Steam-ready games. When I flat out cornered them about it, when I explained how Steam as a digital content distribution platform was running smooth as glass these days, they had to admit that all of the squashed bugs and streamlining in the world was beside the point, and always would be: they just want everything for free, and the rise of digital distribution has rained all over their pirate parade. (They didn't exactly put it like that, but...)

So behind all the ill-will and bad press they've thrown around over the years, there was this really offensive idea: Steam is "awful" because it keeps them from stealing.

The one silver lining, I learned, is that when you put it like that to someone, any pirate with a conscience will frown (hopefully at themselves). Even if just for a moment. Not saying I changed anyone's mind (or behavior). But I think most people really do know better.

CoX players hate Steam, got it.

Well, not all CoX players--I have plenty of fellow CoX players on my Steam friends list. I have been using Steam for a couple of years now. It has made it so easy to keep track of my games and updates (and saved games across computers, go cloud!), and team up with friends, and yeah, I look forward to earning achievements. But it's possible for Steam to simply sync up with an MMO's already-extant achievements/badges (as other games have shown), but I don't expect that minor detail to change anyone's mind here.

A couple of friends have claimed that Steam wreaked various forms of havoc on their PCs, but I've used it across three systems now with no such problems, along with many other people I know (and both of those friends were in the habit of pirating games instead of paying for them when they complained the loudest about Steam--wonder if that had anything to do with it? )

That would be pretty cool, huh?

Sometime during my first couple of months in City of Heroes, I came to the realization that, creatively speaking, this isn't just a game about super heroes. It is also a game about super powers. Now, before you confuse me with Captain Obvious, I would like to remind you that some players, in practice, do not feel this way. They completely differentiate their heroes from their powers, almost as if one was made without any prior conceptual knowledge of the other.

I'm not talking about about players who seem to have pressed the random button in the costume creator. I'm talking about the natural dual pistols blaster standing next to you at Wentworth's who looks like he put a lot of effort into his character, who possesses no fire powers and whose bio says he's just a regular Joe--and yet...he's standing there with his hands on fire, completely nonchalant about it. That is nothing short of a complete creative separation of one's character from one's powers. And it's not good enough for me. So a couple of years ago, I respecified all of my characters to remove hasten, except for one who actually does have fiery fists. I waited too long for a game world like this to make such creative compromises.

Oh, snap, I think I scared Black Pebble away.

Exactly. Vast and corrupt regimes (in fiction and also in real life, unfortunately) can be overwhelmingly competent, which is how they are able to do so much damage before their inevitable defeat. If it weren't for Nazi-Germany, I'm going to go out on a very short limb here and say that we would not have had an Empire in Star Wars or a Fifth Column in City of Heroes. Science fiction often does a worthwhile service in helping us to come to grips with how such an insanely large and evil organization could have come to pass, but it also helps us to imagine other forms of tyrannical corruption that might not be inherently evil, but end up at a similar result anyway through unchecked systemic problems. I've always believed Cole's empire borrows significantly from Philip K. Dick's dystopian futures. Praetoria is in its own way just as chilling, because such an empire could have come to pass slowly and for individually and socially acceptable reasons, as the populace willfully traded individual liberties away (their freedom) in return for increased safety.

Is the Coralax costume in this sale different from the Facebook code giveaway last year? I don't want to buy it if I've already got it, and I'd love to have two different Coralax costumes!

Take the best parts of Paragon City with you. A hero's job is never done.

Alright everybody just needs to cooldown, okay? For 20 hours or so.

Smurch's base item suggestion shouldn't be overlooked, folks. It's the only suggestion that involves letting friends gaze upon your statue/plaque, while not cluttering up the primary game world in any way. All of the technicalities and logistics described a few posts up would be handled by a pop-up menu offering you a choice of character/costume slot/pose, and my personal suggestion: a choice between a stone/marble/iron/elemental/holographic statue.

I highly suspect that this will be the only way this ever happens, if it ever happens. Benefits are obvious--you get to choose exactly where and how to display your immortal or memorial visage.

They've also got statues in Ultima Online (stop snickering, it's my other virtual home), but they can only be displayed in/on player-made housing. There are various materials and hues available, and it is a 6-year veteran reward.