Community MetaSteam | April 2019 - "Objection!" the One Finger Fatality

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Copons

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Nov 12, 2018
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After discussing (actually, flaming and fighting) for almost 1 week with some Italian devs, I guess there is an unbridgeable gap between us and them.

Some of the features that I cherish the most about Steam are regarded by them as what makes it a piece of shit.
They believe that Steam got worse when Greenlight was replaced by Direct, which to me is a bold democratic move and it doesn't matter if Valve did it out of laziness, etc. It instantly allowed everyone to distribute their games on a major platform. It's fucking huge. It's for gaming what some blogging platform did for the internet as a whole.
But for established devs, that sucks. It means competition (and apparently competition is only good when it goes in your favour).

They hate the 30%, of course, who wouldn't when there is a so much better alternative.
And yet, they never mention what Steam has to offer to them.
For them, Steam is pretty much just a gamified storefront with cards and badges, that also provides an outlet for review bombers (negative reviews always have malicious intents).
They pay (or should pay) for software, rent an office, have expenses, and I believe that some of them are perfectly fine to pay, say, 1000 for Photoshop instead of 500 for a worse alternative.
But then, they aren't up to pay 30% for Steamworks, and instead pay 12% for a glorified downloader.

They believe that EGS is good because eventually will make Valve decrease the fee, which is just too high and prevents devs to put food on the table.
Which, I mean, it's a perfectly legit reasoning, and also a very ethic one (reason why when Valve decided to lower the fees for games selling big numbers, I was like, WTF, indie devs need that money more than majors).
But then they won't own up the hypocrisy of supporting a company that says it's building a better industry for devs, and at the same time overworks its own devs to death.
On the contrary, for them the crunch culture is just an unavoidable fact of life.

But what always triggers me is when they say "you don't work in the videogame industry, you don't know what it's like".
Well fuck them, I might not have ever done a videogame, but I work for one of the most important companies in the internet, that powers a shit ton of sites in the world (most likely also those devs sites).
I know what it means to handle literal millions of dollars and shitting bricks because I could bring down major sites with a fucking typo, I know what it means crunching (for previous experiences in corporate world) and I know what it means working for a company that simply doesn't allow it. And I also know what it means to have your own company and crushing it into the ground.
But it doesn't matter. Game devs are the only ones that can understand how the world spins, and everybody else just need to suck it up.

(sorry for venting, my daughter has been crying nonstop for like 5 hours and I'm out of painkillers 😅)
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
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the ports are kinda meh (as per usual with Kecmo) ... but the games themselves .... well ... it's basically like asking how the new LEGO game is compared to all the other ones ;)
So they're amazing then :p I love musou
 
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lashman

lashman

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So they're amazing then :p I love musou
indeed :) i like them too!



hey guys ... RPS is good again!

Epic Store would end exclusives if Steam gave devs larger cut, CEO claims

Which… is a nice idea, but I can’t say I believe him. A clear intent of Epic paying megabucks for exclusives is to bootstrap their own Store, to try to become a profitable rival to Steam by securing big games from big developers and publishers. They’re burning huge amounts of cash now to gain users and make even more in the future. Sweeney’s implication that they’re only doing it to pressure Steam into treating developers better is laughable. Their store, as a store for customers to use, is worse than most of its rivals – scloosies are its saving grace.

I certainly support Valve giving developers a larger cut of Steam sales, to be clear. I’d love for my scepticism to be proven misplaced. I’ll also point out that Epic going on about caring for developers while reportedly massively overworking their own employees is iffy at best.

Epic’s longing to be seen as saviours of PC gaming is frustrating. Their pretence that they’re not trying to straight-up buy a share of PC gaming is daft. The over-enthusiastic (and disingenuous-feeling) hyperbole from Sweeny and other connected industry figures makes me feel they think we’re rubes. God, don’t even get me started on Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford saying their next boring FPS being Epic-exclusive will end Steam’s supposed monopoly. I know that you’re running businesses and that businesses both need and want money. Please abandon this television evangelist act.
 

Mivey

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I get why indie devs would love a smaller cut, but when you consider all the fees that Steam ends up eating, and how they are fine with giving out keys and asking nothing for them, they are already taking a far smaller cut.

Asking for a lower cut upfront, would require Steam to forward the costs of payment providers to devs or customers, and ask for money to give out keys, or simply limit the number of them, say limiting it by the number of sales from Steam, so that no game can sell "too much" outside of Steam.

There's no fairy land where Valve would reduce their cut significantly and not forward the costs of this to Developers (at least to some aspect).

Alice continues to be one of the few sensible people at RPS. No clue why she chooses to stay there.
 

Copons

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I get why indie devs would love a smaller cut, but when you consider all the fees that Steam ends up eating, and how they are fine with giving out keys and asking nothing for them, they are already taking a far smaller cut.

Asking for a lower cut upfront, would require Steam to forward the costs of payment providers to devs or customers, and ask for money to give out keys, or simply limit the number of them, say limiting it by the number of sales from Steam, so that no game can sell "too much" outside of Steam.

There's no fairy land where Valve would reduce their cut significantly and not forward the costs of this to Developers (at least to some aspect).
Yeah that's one of my main point.
I mean, I'm sure Valve can go lower than 30% (like, of course they can, they have a margin), but between keys, infrastructure as a whole, gift cards, and whatnot, I don't believe they can go much lower without cutting stuff out that would make Steam worse for both devs and users.
Which also makes the whole "competition" point totally moot.
As chubigans said on Gamasutra, Valve is often reactive to (good) competition: Twitch led to the streaming thingie, Discord to the new chat.
Epic doesn't have anything, so won't lead to anything (good).
(Also I guess in other industries what Epic does would be called predatory pricing, but I don't know shit about this thing, so don't quote me on that :D ).
 

texhnolyze

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lashman

lashman

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Yeah that's one of my main point.
I mean, I'm sure Valve can go lower than 30% (like, of course they can, they have a margin), but between keys, infrastructure as a whole, gift cards, and whatnot, I don't believe they can go much lower without cutting stuff out that would make Steam worse for both devs and users.
Which also makes the whole "competition" point totally moot.
As chubigans said on Gamasutra, Valve is often reactive to (good) competition: Twitch led to the streaming thingie, Discord to the new chat.
Epic doesn't have anything, so won't lead to anything (good).
(Also I guess in other industries what Epic does would be called predatory pricing, but I don't know shit about this thing, so don't quote me on that :D ).
if volvo decided to lower their cut to 12% they'd be hit with an anti-competition lawsuit (in EU, at least) faster than Tim can say "mandatory crunch"

a move like that would basically obliterate most of the game stores out there
 
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arts&crafts

MetaMember
Oct 26, 2018
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There are not enough games on PC like Crackdown. I want more arcadey open world games. The arcadey aspect is key as I dont care much for the slow openworld gameplay of Grand Theft Auto for example. So far I have played.

Crackdown 3 (windows store)
All Saints Row + Gat Out of Hell
Prototype 2
Agents of Mayhem
Sunset Overdrive
Just Cause 3

Any secret games I am missing? I wish I could play infamous :(
 

Spamlynguist

I can never decide on an avatar
Dec 31, 2018
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There are not enough games on PC like Crackdown. I want more arcadey open world games. The arcadey aspect is key as I dont care much for the slow openworld gameplay of Grand Theft Auto for example. So far I have played.

Crackdown 3 (windows store)
All Saints Row + Gat Out of Hell
Prototype 2
Agents of Mayhem
Sunset Overdrive
Just Cause 3

Any secret games I am missing? I wish I could play infamous :(
Red Faction Guerilla maybe?
 
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lashman

lashman

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There are not enough games on PC like Crackdown. I want more arcadey open world games. The arcadey aspect is key as I dont care much for the slow openworld gameplay of Grand Theft Auto for example.
yeah ... i wish MS would port the first Crackdown and release it on steam .... i'd sooooo buy that ... hell, full price even
 

NarohDethan

There was a fish in the percolator!
Apr 6, 2019
9,147
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There are not enough games on PC like Crackdown. I want more arcadey open world games. The arcadey aspect is key as I dont care much for the slow openworld gameplay of Grand Theft Auto for example. So far I have played.

Crackdown 3 (windows store)
All Saints Row + Gat Out of Hell
Prototype 2
Agents of Mayhem
Sunset Overdrive
Just Cause 3

Any secret games I am missing? I wish I could play infamous :(
The Saboteur
 

Nyarlathotep

The Crawling Chaos
Apr 18, 2019
190
494
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There are not enough games on PC like Crackdown. I want more arcadey open world games. The arcadey aspect is key as I dont care much for the slow openworld gameplay of Grand Theft Auto for example. So far I have played.

Crackdown 3 (windows store)
All Saints Row + Gat Out of Hell
Prototype 2
Agents of Mayhem
Sunset Overdrive
Just Cause 3

Any secret games I am missing? I wish I could play infamous :(
MGSV and Earth Defence Force might be worth a punt?
 

SRossi

regretten? rien!
Dec 9, 2018
383
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well, about good again...

Alice continues to be one of the few sensible people at RPS. No clue why she chooses to stay there.
Alice had no problems with harping on Valve and defend Epic from the bad Steam crusaders when she felt hat EGS was on a run; but...

I was going to post this. I guess with the news on Fortnite's crunch, it's no longer cool to give Epic the time of day.
now it's cool again to shit on Epic because they are bad bad people because they do bad bad crunch all the time :(
Alice has to pick up the sword again! Poor devs!
 

「Echo」

Reaper on Station。
Nov 1, 2018
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Mt. Whatever
So, I got a new APU from AMD for my living room PC early, which didn't solve anything (I thought that my previous APU which went bad). I already bought new RAM sticks for the main build but they are taking a lot long to reach and I'm kinda looking at new Mobos since I probably will have to do a full revamp, Boy, I might take the dust of my PS4 at this pace.
It's true this is mostly a PC-centric forum but nothing wrong with a little PS4 time now and again! Before I had my 1080ti I was playing on my PS4/Pro almost exclusively this gen, cuz I only had a 970 and games just weren't taking advantage of my 4K TV.

I hope you are able to fix your PC though. (y)

Looking good!
Looking good indeed, I had totally forgot they even announced this. It'd be nice if there was a Steam page already so I could wishlist and keep track of it. Developers might be underestimating how important it is just to have the page... It's pretty much how I keep track of upcoming games these days.

And my PSU has died again. I'm going to have to order a new one, which is an annoying amount of money.
My papa has had an EVGA gold PSU last for over a decade. I've always had EVGA PSU's as well, even if it meant importing them and never once had an issue with them.

Atlus hyping a Persona release for months that happens to be a musou has to be the most Atlus thing ever Atlus'd.
wonder if it'll come to steam :smirking-face:
Since it's KT, I could see this one coming to Steam but I really don't want it lol. I feel bad for the Switch folks who really built up their own hype and got crushed. As a PC-user I can kinda understand cuz I was really hoping myself that the upgraded P5 would be multiplat. :suicide-blob:
 

itsamiracle

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Dec 31, 2018
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You playin with jp or us music? Fyi sonic cd stages are designed for exploration so ull want to explore and get the good futures :x
I guess US music? (didn't change any option, just went with the defaults). The time mechanic is kinda interesting actually, although I haven't figured it out 100%
 
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texhnolyze

Child at heart
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Looking good indeed, I had totally forgot they even announced this. It'd be nice if there was a Steam page already so I could wishlist and keep track of it. Developers might be underestimating how important it is just to have the page... It's pretty much how I keep track of upcoming games these days.
There's already a Steam page. But they never update/post anything on it so far.


And why is the embedded icon looks different here compared to the store page?

 

Tizoc

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I guess US music? (didn't change any option, just went with the defaults). The time mechanic is kinda interesting actually, although I haven't figured it out 100%
Basicslly run past a future or past sign post, then keep running and dont lose momentum. Sonic will start to sparkle at which point u could jump then the screen will flash to send u thru time.
Fyi if u want best ending, go to past then explore to find hologram machines. Jump to desteoy them then finish the stage. Do this for each zone at least once i think to get the good ending.
 
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Stone Ocean

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But it doesn't matter. Game devs are the only ones that can understand how the world spins, and everybody else just need to suck it up.
This type of argument pisses me off so much. it's basically people with no empathy accusing me of having no empathy.

The industry is hard, boo fucking hoo. I'm trying to make ends meet like every other bottom feeder in this god forsaken world, stop acting like you're tragic unsung heroes because I have standards on how I spend the little money I have for entertainment.
 

Ge0force

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Jan 12, 2019
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lashman

lashman

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I really love this part:

God, don’t even get me started on Gearbox boss Randy Pitchford saying their next boring FPS being Epic-exclusive will end Steam’s supposed monopoly. I know that you’re running businesses and that businesses both need and want money. Please abandon this television evangelist act.
yeah, lol ... it's the best bit ... and sooooo true too
 

prudis

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The Kingdom of Beer and Porn
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Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland. Set to release on May 21, 2019, for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, and PC Steam.

The game will have players follow the young Lulua on a journey across the lands of Arland to decrypt a mysterious codex known as the Alchemy Riddle. Attackers have an arsenal of unique skills they can use to strike enemy weaknesses. For example, the talented Eva can use the Range Shift skill; expanding her area of attack for a few rounds. These abilities can also aid in the decryption of the Alchemy Riddle, helping players unlock new synthesis recipes and further skills. Depending on the formation of attackers at the start of an encounter, a special dormant ability known as a Primal Art can also be awakened. These arts automatically activate to offer the party support through their battle in the form of increasing Item Damage, or even increasing Attack Damage, for the entirety of the fight.

In Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland, alchemists are able to utilize the new Interrupt ability, offering the chance for them to perform a special Interrupt Skill and use a pre-equipped item, outside of their turn. Once the gauge is full from performing attacks, the skill can be triggered and the pre-equipped item will not be consumed when used – giving the attacking team the upper hand against powerful foes.

In addition to the new gameplay details, We also revealed early purchase DLC bonuses and a Limited Edition version of Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland. All aspiring alchemists who purchase the game either digitally or physically within the first month of launch will receive the “Innocent Fairy” and “Fish Girl” costumes for Lulua via DLC.
 

PossiblyPudding

sometimes a doctor of rhythm
Apr 17, 2019
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I’d probably buy P5S if it came to Steam. I’ve always had a distant interest in musou games but never pulled the trigger on any.
It's always a bit tough to recommend musou games to newcomers even though I've played nearly every single one and still love them (with a few exceptions).

They're not exactly great or sometimes even good at a lot of what they do. You're not going to find a good story usually and in Dynasty or Samurai Warriors case it's always the same retelling with minor tweaks here and there. Tight controls are generally something you won't find either. While they've gotten better most are still pretty stiff.

But as lashman said, they're still one of the best for mindless fun. Musou games kind of scratch that "power fantasy" itch. You can take any random character and fight through thousands of enemies and with the light RPG elements you're constantly getting stat increases or new weapons that only make that easier.

I bought Monster Hunter World on a whim, did they add PlayStation button prompts or will I need a mod?
Awesome! Hope you'll like it. It's one I've put 300+ hours into and am still going. And unfortunately I'm pretty sure you still need a mod for the button prompts.
 

Stone Ocean

Proud Degenerate
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Basicslly run past a future or past sign post, then keep running and dont lose momentum. Sonic will start to sparkle at which point u could jump then the screen will flash to send u thru time.
Fyi if u want best ending, go to past then explore to find hologram machines. Jump to desteoy them then finish the stage. Do this for each zone at least once i think to get the good ending.
No, to get the good ending with the holograms you need to destroy them in Act 1 and 2 to get the good future version of Act 3 and then beat that for every level.

Alrernatively just get all emeralds.

And the US soundtrack is a fucking BANGER dont @me.

 

Tizoc

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No, to get the good ending with the holograms you need to destroy them in Act 1 and 2 to get the good future version of Act 3 and then beat that for every level.

Alrernatively just get all emeralds.

And the US soundtrack is a fucking BANGER dont @me.

Ah thanks, I keep forgetting this about the game ^^;
 
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