Community MetaSteam | August 2021 - Openness Is Its Superpower

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beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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Leave it to a tabloid rag like Kotaku to frame consumer friendly policies as a harmful thing. The writer probably enjoys and demands all kinds of consumer protections for everything else they purchase in life but somehow this is a problem. Here's the cold, hard truth; the Steam marketplace is survival of the fittest, insofar as indie devs are concerned. The fact that someone endured your game (or any media) to the end does not automatically imply that it was worth the money. How many people do you think watched the latest Justice League movie or Mulan remake and wouldn't have taken a refund when they walked out? The primary criterion for a large number of refunds isn't whether a game was long enough, but whether it was good enough. Take a game like A Short Hike. Probably less than 2 hours but I promise you the number of refunds the developer got was a rounding error compared to his sales. Because the game is bursting with charm and beauty and it makes you feel good. The experience is what people judge when deciding whether to refund or not.
If the numbers are indeed so dire, I'd love to hear if the developer was able to contact Valve to figure things out and what the response or proposed remedy was, if any. It seems like a thing that communication could have solved.
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,783
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Started Psychonauts 2 ! Meh, camera is not always nice, some moves can be fiddly... wait, what ? How do you make a game so good and well written ? :fearful-face:
It feels like I'm watching (and playing) a good Pixar.
 

Tizoc

Retired, but still Enabling
Oct 11, 2018
7,622
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Oman
ko-fi.com
Started Psychonauts 2 ! Meh, camera is not always nice, some moves can be fiddly... wait, what ? How do you make a game so good and well written ? :fearful-face:
Are you playing M+KB? I'm playing with controller and the camera is fine and hasn't messed me up at all.

Yeah some platforming or interacting with walls can be finnicky and I drowned or fell to a bottomless pit more times than I should but you respawn nearby so is all good.

Game is 9/10 for me. It's positives waaaaay outshine it's negatives or flaws.
 

Aaron D.

MetaMember
Jul 10, 2019
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Started Psychonauts 2 ! Meh, camera is not always nice, some moves can be fiddly... wait, what ? How do you make a game so good and well written ? :fearful-face:
It feels like I'm watching (and playing) a good Pixar.
Man I wish I could get over the mental hurdle of the $60 price tag and jump right into P2.

For some reason, my brain simply refuses to shell out that much for a single title. And it's not like I'm poor either as I'm a pretty comfortable boomer/dad-gamer who has no trouble dropping 3 figures for a nice meal for 2, etc.

The punchline is that I'll throw $20's & $30's around like I'm at a strip club without a second thought for new indie releases .

It's so strange.
 

Tizoc

Retired, but still Enabling
Oct 11, 2018
7,622
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Oman
ko-fi.com
Man I wish I could get over the mental hurdle of the $60 price tag and jump right into P2.

For some reason, my brain simply refuses to shell out that much for a single title. And it's not like I'm poor either as I'm a pretty comfortable boomer/dad-gamer who has no trouble dropping 3 figures for a nice meal for 2, etc.

The punchline is that I'll throw $20's & $30's around like I'm at a strip club without a second thought for new indie releases .

It's so strange.
It's $48 on humble with the 20% discount. I'll see if I have one I could share, otherwise any of the peeps on here could share theirs.
 

Lashley

Please disperse! Nothing to see here!

Aaron D.

MetaMember
Jul 10, 2019
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It's $48 on humble with the 20% discount. I'll see if I have one I could share, otherwise any of the peeps on here could share theirs.
Thanks, that very kind of you.

I'm going to dive in at the $30 range though. My plate is already full between Car Mech Sim, PowerWash and City of Gangsters.

What's funny is I'm one of the Proud Dozen who nabbed P1 at launch on OG Xbox, lol.

I'll get there eventually.
 

Readher

Resident Cynic
Jun 23, 2020
430
1,236
93
Poland
Picked up Delta Force pack for dirt cheap recently (DF1, DF2, LW, TFD). Holy shit, the nostalgia is real.

The music and main menu effects are insane. So much soul and power. The effects when you hoover over an element or select it fit so well (and also destroyed my ears before I changed audio settings).
 

fokkusu

Burn baby burn🔥🎵
Dec 9, 2018
1,729
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Picked up Delta Force pack for dirt cheap recently (DF1, DF2, LW, TFD). Holy shit, the nostalgia is real.

The music and main menu effects are insane. So much soul and power. The effects when you hoover over an element or select it fit so well (and also destroyed my ears before I changed audio settings).
That's so nice, thanks for sharing. Need to get this one and all the others :cat-heart-blob:
 

Li Kao

It’s a strange world. Let’s keep it that way.
Jan 28, 2019
7,783
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Thanks, that very kind of you.

I'm going to dive in at the $30 range though. My plate is already full between Car Mech Sim, PowerWash and City of Gangsters.

What's funny is I'm one of the Proud Dozen who nabbed P1 at launch on OG Xbox, lol.

I'll get there eventually.
Don't get it the wrong way because that could totally be a cringey thing an asshole would say, but you are missing out !
Now to expand on this tired saying, I too played Psychonauts back in the day. And let me tell you, this morning I was thinking how I really liked it but didn't miss it, that it had been too long for a sequel, that it was a great game at the time but maybe not the masterpiece people allude to, etc.
...
At the end of the introduction level and the lore bits that go with it, I was all 'that felt like sex. I should light a cig'. So well written.

I nearly want to tweet the dev a thank you, that's how much this felt... right.

At least you will play the retail version and won't have to face the stuttering or whatever shit is in the Game Pass version. The game is not smooth, at least at the beginning.
 

Digoman

Lurking in the Shadows
Dec 21, 2018
854
2,390
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Slept on it.... Pychonauts 2 is still awesome. Wrote my full impressions here.

It was about 16 or 17 hours of more or less pure fun for me. Buy it when you feel comfortable or are able to do it. It's very expensive over here so I completely understand being hesitant about paying full price. That's why I went with the crappier gamepass version. Just make sure to play it sometime if you are a fan of the original. It really is that good.

Also, it has this character on it:
That you will love by the end of the game, unless you have no soul of course :p
 
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Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
4,923
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France

This game is in the tier 2 of this bundle. It looks interesting to me, the rest of the bundle not so much though.

You guys not vibing!? I love me vibrations.
Here are the first things which I do when I launch a new game:
  1. mash buttons to skip the intro,
  2. open the settings,
  3. deactivate gamepad vibrations,
  4. deactivate camera shakes,
  5. toggle ON the photosensitivity mode when there is one,
  6. trigger the credits in case there is an achievement for it,
  7. fast-forward the credits because there is no achievement for it,
  8. click on "new game",
  9. increase the brightness until I can distinguish the darker logo from the background.
By the way, I think Psychonauts 2 does not have a photosensitivity setting, which is not a big issue but a bit disappointing. When you have a time window to hit the first boss a few times, the whole screen repeatedly turns white, which was unnecessary imo. It is not too bad because you are in control of the hits, so you can space them out.

You can get an extra 7% off using "PAYDAYAUG21" coupon code. It work on tier 1 at least so should do with the rest of the tiers
There is only one banner on which I cannot read the title unless I zoom in. Out of 12 games. That is a sign that the banner is badly designed.

 
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toxicitizen

MetaMember
Oct 24, 2018
1,540
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No, you idiots! I said Mana! MANA! :disapproval-blob:

Kidding aside, though, this is cool and hopefully the Mana collection will follow shortly. But man, it would've been something if they had announced it just days after I complained about it lol.

I was seriously considering just emulating the original Secret of Mana but I guess I'll hold off. Probably better to take a short break from JRPGs until FFIV anyway. Doing all the endings in Chrono Trigger has been getting a little dull.
 

fantomena

MetaMember
Dec 17, 2018
9,672
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3 quick updates from today and the past week that I forgot to mention:

1) I did grab the Cheat Engine lifetime thing.
2) I got my 2nd vaccine shot yesterday, was pretty tired earlier today, but no problems atm.
3) Psychonauts 2 is really good so far.

Can someone explain what’s special about this Moon remix thing? Can’t say I’ve heard of it


Psychonauts is on game pass 🤷‍♂️
And Aliens is cheaper to buy
Despite it being on game pass it's on the top 10 global seller (5th currently) and afaik the IP is quite niche so it's doing better than I expected at least. Plus the Steam version is better (dx11 - gives less stutter) and the reviews are overwhelmengly positive so the Steam version is not doing bad at all.
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
2,170
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Can someone explain what’s special about this Moon remix thing? Can’t say I’ve heard of it
It's an old PS1 JRPG that never made it over to the west, so this version is also an entirely new translation. It was evidently very groundbreaking at the time, and I read it served as inspiration for popular contemporary titles like Undertale. The game is also one of the rare opportunities to revel in Akira Ueda's beautiful and unique signature art style.

It's too bad FunktionJCB isn't around anymore, but I hope they come across the game and play it. I recall their avatar featuring a character from Contact, a very niche Nintendo DS game by Grasshopper that Ueda also worked on and has a very similar art direction.
 
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EdwardTivrusky

Good Morning, Weather Hackers!
Dec 8, 2018
7,322
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Can someone explain what’s special about this Moon remix thing? Can’t say I’ve heard of it.
It's an old JRPG from around 2000 by ex Square devs who left and formed their own studio. Moon was one of their games, they had some odd twists on games, game design and narratives. Moon RPG is an influence on Toby Fox Undertale and another game i forget. Basically you are transported to the game world and the Hero is going around killing people and messing things up as Heroes normally do so you have to right the wrongs of the world by helping people instead. It has close ties with games like Chulip and some of the people went on to form Onion Games who have carried the quirky yet great game ethos with them to this day with Blackbird and Dandy Dungeon.

It had a switch release last year but it was a quirky and niche game even when originally launched.
 
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gabbo

MetaMember
Dec 22, 2018
3,512
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Toronto
Picked up Delta Force pack for dirt cheap recently (DF1, DF2, LW, TFD). Holy shit, the nostalgia is real.

The music and main menu effects are insane. So much soul and power. The effects when you hoover over an element or select it fit so well (and also destroyed my ears before I changed audio settings).
Is the resolution still a pain in the ass to mess with in DF1? my one complaint about BHD and 2 is the fight to get proper widescreen
 
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madjoki

👀 I see you
Sep 19, 2018
3,013
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Apparently 10 days ago, Valve won (I'd guess) an important appeal in Ironburg Steam Controller case over determination that patents were valid. (and based on that won $4 million on trial)
Apparently Ironburg somehow convinced patent board to not consider some evidence because they were printed in wrong way.
and because reading 9 pages (12 paragaphs and 23 images) is too much of task.







a lot more on full decision:

 

fspm

MetaMember
Nov 1, 2018
443
1,030
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Man I wish I could get over the mental hurdle of the $60 price tag and jump right into P2.

For some reason, my brain simply refuses to shell out that much for a single title. And it's not like I'm poor either as I'm a pretty comfortable boomer/dad-gamer who has no trouble dropping 3 figures for a nice meal for 2, etc.

The punchline is that I'll throw $20's & $30's around like I'm at a strip club without a second thought for new indie releases .

It's so strange.
This is how gachas and f2p work: first you get a hoard in the nets - that'll never pay for a game, blink 5 times and they are bringing you thousands over the course of months. Because $60 is a ripoff and thousands of $ is an investment.
Timmy can confirm.
 
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Tomasety

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Jun 8, 2020
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Last week, the free-to-play naval warfare game was criticized for its increasing use of loot box-style mechanics to monetize its summer event, leading dozens of streamers to abandon World of Warships' Community Contributor program.
One of the few streamers that didn't abandon the program was kicked for being critical of the developers.
And on top of that, someone within Wargaming even sent a personalized "f--- you" to said streamer in the form of a promo code
Really sad news.
 

beep boop

MetaMember
Dec 6, 2018
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I wish we could get an English release of Sakura Note somehow. Hopefully Moon does well for Onion Games.
 

Tomasety

MetaEyesMember
Jun 8, 2020
882
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It is not the first time that you post news from Steam. Do you read the press on Steam? I see we can do that:


Would you have Steam groups to follow for news, preferably from famous gaming media?
I decided to follow most Steam Curators that appear on the list after clicking "browser more sources" box on Steam news hub as you mentioned.

A few weeks ago I opted for being less nitpicking (curators to follow) so I could get an ample source of news.

 

Wok

Wok
Oct 30, 2018
4,923
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France
I decided to follow most Steam Curators that appear on the list after clicking "browser more sources" box on Steam news hub as you mentioned.

A few weeks ago I opted for being less nitpicking (curators to follow) so I could get an ample source of news.

I don't know where this box is. Maybe it is a browser add-on which messes up the layout.

It is here?


Edit: Okay, I have found it after much scrolling.


 

Kyougar

No reviews, no Buy
Nov 2, 2018
3,146
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24 as well. Ha.

I also watched Serial Experiments Lain. And I have a Serial Experiments Lain wall scroll hanging in my VR room, which I think is a very important point in my favour in this competition :p
You win :<
 

LEANIJA

MetaMember
May 5, 2019
2,976
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Austria
Testing
Posting my most played games. I didn't do it when everyone was doing that

Now everyone post screencaps of their libraries and wishlists, uncropped and un-resized!


I played 24 of those, and you? :>

Lets see... I technically played (as in: I started it up and played it for less than 30 minutes): Diablo, Fallout, Planescape Torment, maybe Icewind Dale and/or Neverwinter Nights.

I really played (as in, several hours): Deus Ex

I really really played (as in, lots of hours + completion): GTA 2
 
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