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Rank: One of the Main Weird
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So I read about the SoE titles on Steam. I've never used or been a member of Steam.
I went to the Steam site to check it out - it looks like if you want EQ2 you need to pay 39.99 and then a monthly fee.
So, aside from the exposure to a vast gaming audience, what's the deal? Do Steam members get free gameplay or some other bonus? Or is this a type of advertising - like getting an ad in the paper?
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Rank: One of the Main Weird
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I'm not sure here what the big deal is either, I use steam to play day of defeat : Source (recommended, very good fps), I think there are some free games on there and some beta ones you can download and try out, but apart from that I just find it a way to launch an online game.
I'm guessing for SOE this is just a way to reach a bigger audience with downloadable games.
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Lomax wrote:
I'm guessing for SOE this is just a way to reach a bigger audience with downloadable games.
Indeed - Steam is just a sales platform for the games. There is no benefit to getting it on Steam over anywhere else, except it looks like on some older titles you get $5 off the purchase price.
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Rank: One of the Main Weird
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Ok. Its the way I thought.
Steam is just a distribution system - like Walmart.
Some people are saying that this is a great thing for SoE and EQ2. I don't see it. I"m thinking that most Steam users have already heard about EQ2 so its not really going to influence them to buy the game.
If there were any creative people over at SoE they would seek out new audiences for their games. Perhaps advertise during daytime dramas.
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I think overall it is a good thing just because it gives them a wider audience that could buy the game but frees up SOE to worry about more content for the games as opposed to building a big content delivery pipeline of their own. I am all for letting them leverage Steam.
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Rank: One of the Main Weird
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I'd agree too, using Steam sounds like a no brainer for distributing their game. I did hear of another company that was doing an all-in-one download just before Kunark came out, but also of problems with getting hold of them, maybe this move is to get a more reliable partner.
Now I just hope they can get some sort of strategy to get EQ2 back on the shelves, in comparison to WoW they actually have much better value game package now with the all-in-one boxes while WoW is stuck with escalating costs for new players. A big showy launch that grabs a display stand in summer or some other time when people have holidays to burn would work I reckon.
Changing the subject a bit, I wish they would fix some of the overly grindy parts of the game though, needing to create 40 shields just to level seems a tad excessive when I have 100% rested! And also unrewarding when your 10 levels higher then the item you are trying to produce. I'd like to see a bit more creative role playing feel go to these things, maybe where a NPC assesses your work for levelling up with maybe a serious undertaking like a quest needed every 10 levels to move on. The WoW tradeskilling is disappointing though in comparison since it feels simplistic, the EQ2 one has promise, but lacks that extra bit of magic for me at least so far.
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