Duke Nukem Forever Using SteamWorks!

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Because Valve only employs the exact same group of people as they did 15 years ago... I'm not really concerned about Valve's ability to code. If nothing else, their netcode is 400 times better than every single Unreal game.

If you are planning on removing the requirement of Steam from the game, you are breaking the law. Sorry! If you're in the US, the DMCA specifically prohibits breaking DRM in order to make or use copies of a product. There is a similar law in the EU and probably lots of other non-US countries.

From any standpoint. Releasing with Steamworks integration means they understand what the majority of active PC gamers want right now. There isn't a middleware that I would rather they were using, and I can't really blame them for using one, either.

I am very aware of what the DMCA says and I will not be in violation of it. As a legality conscious consumer I don't break the law. The only way I would be is if I distributed this. (So those who have PMed me can stop, I am sorry but no distribution.) The big crux of things is the EULA and what it says, if it is stated to cover certain things the DCMA doesn't I may still be SOL.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Even if you don't distribute your own modifications, you may not be protected from violating the DMCA..

 

[ambershee]

Save that the DMCA would never know about it.

Steam is simply a no-sale for me. I've had problems with it in the past, and there's no room for 'third chances'.

Valve games at launch are way more stable than most other companies can push out

Are we talking about the same Valve? The original Half-Life had massively game breaking bugs, like say, the one where you'd get stuck in the floor and be killed on elevators every other time you used one. How about Half-Life 2 where loads of people playing the game discovered that the AI would simply stop doing anything and just stand there? How about the 'Map Version 0' bug that prevented loads of people from even starting the game? The giant letter 'Q' appearing in the middle of the screen for no apparent reason? Sound that didn't work at all if you have a speaker setup anything other than simple stereo? The game starting up completely in wireframe on some machines? Now Left 4 Dead. Remember the 'Killer Jeep' bug? Getting stuck in objects that are thrown at you and not being able to move afterwards? Being killed by objects randomly if you touch them?

The list is endless.

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

Well as I said b4, I know what the DMCA says.

I took allot of law in college rather then take meaningless crap as an elective. One of which was centered around so called 'e-laws'. I even wrote a 14 page page paper solely on the DMCA. I have kept up with it's changes and revisions over the years as well.

Considering how unlucky I am I don't do illegal things.

The news would be likely to run a story about me getting lynched (more about the angry mob at 11, back to you Bob)

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Save that the DMCA would never know about it.

Well, that's the kind of thing anyone breaking the law could use as an excuse

Are we talking about the same Valve? The original Half-Life had massively game breaking bugs, like say, the one where you'd get stuck in the floor and be killed on elevators every other time you used one. How about Half-Life 2 where loads of people playing the game discovered that the AI would simply stop doing anything and just stand there? How about the 'Map Version 0' bug that prevented loads of people from even starting the game? The giant letter 'Q' appearing in the middle of the screen for no apparent reason? Sound that didn't work at all if you have a speaker setup anything other than simple stereo? The game starting up completely in wireframe on some machines? Now Left 4 Dead. Remember the 'Killer Jeep' bug? Getting stuck in objects that are thrown at you and not being able to move afterwards? Being killed by objects randomly if you touch them?

The list is endless.

The sad thing is, even with all that, Those games were still some of the most stable and bug-free games out at the time of their respective releases. Not only that, but Valve has been relentless at keeping their entire catalog of games updated. I can only think of two other companies that even attempt that (Blizzard and id).

 

[[GU]elmur_fud]

With my luck as soon as I did something illegal it would gain global attention. Not interested.

I think Brizz wants to change this place's name to BeyondValve.

 

[Northrawn]

well, with all of these steam games I do hope they stay in business for a long time, just so our games don't become trashed.

In the same thread (DNF uses Steamworks) on the GBX forums there is a link to the statement of VALVe who have and have also tested the patch that removes online authenticatio in case VALVe should go out of business.

I am a little lazy so I don't wanna search for it now.

 

[elmuerte]

In the same thread (DNF uses Steamworks) on the GBX forums there is a link to the statement of VALVe who have and have also tested the patch that removes online authenticatio in case VALVe should go out of business.

People still believe that nonsense?

If valve goes out of business it will mostlikely be because of:
1) bankruptcy
2) bought out

In case 1) it would be illegal to release that patch. Steam is worth quite some money, and the debtors have dibs on that money. Subscribers (i.e. people that have games in Steam) will come absolutely last.
And in case 2) I think the buying company would start a massive lawsuit against whomever released that patch.

 

[zynthetic]

People still believe that nonsense?

Safety in numbers. It's a lot more practical to believe that a service used by many developers and publishers will be around much longer than any single one of those developers and publishers. For any modern game it's a far greater risk to expect the authentication server a dev/pub was running for that non-steam game you bought in a store to still be running after only 5 years.

 

[elmuerte]

Did you even read my post?

 

[Kyllian]

As long as Valve stays smart and doesn't start acting like Microsoft bankruptcy isn't going to happen anytime soon and it's going to take a very sizable chunk of cash for them to sell out to someone

In regards to the "auth-removal patch" bit, I dunno about bankruptcy, but in the case of a buyout I'd be Valve has a smart enough attorney to make sure the auth-removal is written into the contract

 

[elmuerte]

In regards to the "auth-removal patch" bit, I dunno about bankruptcy, but in the case of a buyout I'd be Valve has a smart enough attorney to make sure the auth-removal is written into the contract

A clause like that would make Valve pretty much worthless.

 

[zynthetic]

Did you even read my post?

Clearly. If you're going to entertain the possibility of Steam going bankrupt to support an argument to not use it, it's greatly in your favor to omit that the odds of this happening to a single developer or publisher are much more realistic. Taking into account if your argument is to not use Steam let's say said developer doesn't either. When they go under so does their independently run authentication server (we're talking about modern games here). It's the same situation but far greater odds. In short your argument is promoting a much higher risk.
What do you do then? Maybe they release a patch and take out the DRM; that's about as silly as Valve releasing a patch when they go under, right? Maybe I just get a NO-CD and fix it myself; too bad that doesn't work with Steam except you've already mentioned No-Steam patches so there's no need to be coy about this option either.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

I honestly don't play Valve games that frequently and I prefer Unreal (which is why I am a part of this community for so long and why I still have so much hope for Epic). It's simply really hard to argue who, aside from GOG, is winning the digital distribution "war" right now.

 

[JaFO]

Saying it's DRM disguised as a service is ignoring the fact that the extra features actually add value for most people

*most* != all ... especially for games whose primary feature is single-player in nature.

From a pure single player perspective there simply is no reason to want Steam/Steamworks integration.

 

[Sir_Brizz]

Sure there is. Maybe YOU don't want those features, but millions of PC gamers are using the system every day, and the most popular multiplayer games on there are only getting several hundred thousand a day.

What you're really saying is that you don't care about the features so there is no reason to want the features. Well, that doesn't make sense, since a lot of other people DO want the features

 

[Darkdrium]

From a pure single player perspective there simply is no reason to want Steam/Steamworks integration.

Why is cloud saving not good from a pure single player perspective? Sure, you have to have multiple computers and for Duke on UE you probably don't have two computers able to run it, but for Portal and such for example...
Or automatic game updates? That's cool for all games.

I get that achievements are not for everyone (Even me...) but why those two conveniences aren't good for you I don't...

 

[Mozi]

ZOMG STEAM IS STILL EVIL!!!

 

[elmuerte]

Sure there is. Maybe YOU don't want those features, but millions of PC gamers are using the system every day, and the most popular multiplayer games on there are only getting several hundred thousand a day.

Millions of people are Christian, Jewish or Muslim every day.
That doesn't make it a good thing.

 

[shoptroll]

If valve goes out of business it will mostlikely be because of:
1) bankruptcy

Won't happen as long as they're raking in almost a billion USD in sales annually. Which is close to 1/4th as much as GameStop makes in new game sales. Pretty damn respectable for a "dead" platform.

2) bought out

More likely to happen, but as a privately held company they can hold out as long as they want (no danger of hostile takeover). Gabe's said they've had offers for the Steam portion of the company alone and they've turned every one of them down. Again, the volume of sales helps here. A lot.

I can only think of two other companies that even attempt that (Blizzard and id).

id is questionable. I haven't seen any updates for their games in a long time. Despite the fact that OpenGL 4 support pretty much nuked older Quake engine games due to an increase in the number of API methods increasing which broke some sort of enumeration. NVidia and AMD both had to do some weird stuff in their drivers to get around this issue.

Blizzard is absolutely insane in their dedication to supporting their games. Only exception being that they haven't patched their older games to get around the DirectDraw display issue that appeared in Windows 7. Fortunately the guy who ported DeathRally came up with a dll file that fixes this issue (except you can't get on Bnet as long as it's loaded).