Yet again you need to have STEAM to d/l game giveaway
Well I don't and have no wish to clutter up my machine with useless software..
I used to look forward to an ocassional game...now forget it.....
Steam again
(7 posts) (4 voices)-
mikiem2
ModeratorIf it helps at all, purely FWIW, & apologies if it's not what you want to hear...
Some software developers believe that they can build interest & increase their sales if they sometimes give away copies. That includes some game developers. Some developers give away older versions of apps or older games rather than their latest -- it may be no different from those Kindle book authors who sometimes give away the older books in a series, hoping that you'll then buy the rest of the series.
It takes time, effort, & money to give something like that away -- you have to build awareness so people know to download whatever, you have to have a web page or pages telling people about what you're offering, & you have to have a server that they can download from, paying for whatever bandwidth is used. And that's where GOTD comes in.
It's still up to the individual developers though to decide to give something away, & to decide to use GOTD to help them do that. A store buys whatever & then charges customers to pay for that cost, usually tacking on a profit. Since GOTD doesn't charge you, it doesn't have the money to buy the stuff it offers, and so it's all up to the developers to give folks something for free. It's Not a matter of going shopping, picking & choosing what you want most. And that's equally true for us as consumers, who can decide to download a giveaway, &/or go buy something else instead.
"Yet again you need to have STEAM to d/l game giveaway"
Well, that's where the game's developer distributes the game. Steam offers game developers a service, handling many [most?] of the tasks necessary to sell a game, but to use Steam, developers write the code for their game so that it works with Steam's client software. It's one thing for a developer to give up whatever money they would have made if they sold each copy given away, and it's entirely another for that developer to invest in re-writing that game to not use the Steam client software.
In the past there were more casual game developers that didn't distribute their games via the Steam [or Amazon] client. Nowadays it's harder to make money that way, and the steady stream of Windows games they produced has become a trickle, if not a drip. If you have to blame something, start with Apple introducing the iPhone, then move along to Android & Google's Play store. Amazon advertises over $20,000 worth of Android apps & games for free via its Underground app. Simply put, if you're a game developer looking to put food on the table, you're Very tempted to go where all the action is.
"Well I don't and have no wish to clutter up my machine with useless software."
What's Useless or not is like Beauty, pretty much in the eye of the beholder... for any software &/or service that you can name, there are people who feel that it's a useless waste, & that includes Windows. Using Steam is so common, so widespread, that the necessary client software Is Not terribly buggy, but in the sense that the more there is, the more there is to go wrong, yeah, you might be slightly better off without it. The problem is that for gamers it's becoming increasingly hard to avoid -- for harder core PC gamers I think it is impossible to avoid it.
"I used to look forward to an ocassional game...now forget it..... "
When it comes to the old style casual games that used to be common on GOTD, unless you go with Steam, you may well have to forget about them in the future. Many [most?] of those games, while they were still quite playable, were already older. Amazon lists near everything so they still have quite a few, but the numbers & quality have been steadily decreasing. Big Fish may be under pressure, based on their now almost constant 1/2 price sales. And if you're restricting your options to only those games that are free, there's no telling how long MPC & similar will still be around.I hate to say it, but for many folks the best option for the future may actually be something like a cheaper Kindle HD, which I've seen pretty reasonably priced as remans. They have decent enough quality, performance & support that you won't get with a similarly priced pure Android tablet, & loads of free games to play. Of the time my wife spends gaming, a bit over half nowadays is on her Kindle rather than her PC.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I hate to say it, but for many folks the best option for the future may actually be something like a cheaper Kindle HD, which I've seen pretty reasonably priced as remans. They have decent enough quality, performance & support that you won't get with a similarly priced pure Android tablet, & loads of free games to play. Of the time my wife spends gaming, a bit over half nowadays is on her Kindle rather than her PC.
It's a bit off the original subject but pertinent to your comment about Amazon so I have to put in my 2 cents.
I have no where near as many Android games as I do PC games and I do not have them all installed anywhere. I have over 400 Amazon Underground games and a fair number of both free and purchased Amazon games. I will not pay for in-app purchase so the only way I will get such a game is as an underground game.
Where the plus comes is the newest line of Fires (no longer called Kindle Fire but now just Amazon fire - the 5th Generation). The lowest line of them is 8 MB (a bit over 5 MB after formatting) with a 16 MB version now available. They allow the micro SD card and also allow apps and games to put part of their data on the SD card and minimizing the amount on the internal storage. That SD card can be up to 128 GB.
I have the low end one (retailing for $49.99) that I got on sale last fall for about $35! I put in the 32 GB SD card I had in another tablet that was useless because of the way that OS uses the internal storage. Result -- fantastic since the later couple of OS upgrades.
You can now put books on the SD card and free up much space on the internal storage. That is, those from Amazon. Those from elsewhere still must be on the internal storage but, even for me, that's minor (only a couple hundred MB).
By putting most of each game on the SD card makes it an efficient and rather nice tiny gamer. I have a series of games from GabySoft (most through the Underground) called Hex Logic. These game put 1 - 1.5 MB of data on internal storage and 10 - 15 MB of data on the SD card. That's efficient and allows me to have several of them (same game, different puzzles) installed at one time. That is one big plus.
With the portability of these devices and the fact that the "game engine", the Underground, is built into the Fire OS, this is a really viable alternative to PC gaming if you are not the hard-core intensive gamer. For a casual games, it's really quite nice! Even for non Underground games, the use of the external storage makes it quite nice.
Posted 8 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorThanks Dragonlair
You might be interested in this game at Amazon - you get a $10 credit for downloading it to your Kindle [not all of these give you the credit when you use a Kindle, but we got the credit a few days later].
amazon[.]com/dp/B018GSK5ZC/ref=pe_385040_202526280_TE_M1T1DPPosted 8 years ago # -
Thanks!
I don't expect to keep the game -- it has in-app purchases and it's not Underground but I did see that message about it. Maybe I can get some of the HexLogic games that are not underground (charge from $0.99 to $1.99).
I will at least try it -- once I turn on my Fire and download it.
Posted 8 years ago # -
jgf
Member"to use Steam, developers write the code for their game so that it works with Steam's client software. It's one thing for a developer to give up whatever money they would have made if they sold each copy given away, and it's entirely another for that developer to invest in re-writing that game to not use the Steam client software. "
It can't be that difficult. For example, Runic did it with Torchlight 2; and I emailed them commending that decision, noting "if Steam had been the only source I'd never have purchased it".
"...What's Useless or not is like Beauty, pretty much in the eye of the beholder..."
Not a single game I currently own, nor any I have ever purchased in the past thirty years, require Steam software to run ... therefore it is useless. It is the exact type of software people otherwise go to great lengths to keep off their systems - intrusive, invasive, datamining.
But the main reasons many find Steam so repellent is twofold:
-their totalitarian demand that you accept installation of this unnecessary and unwanted software merely to buy a game from them
-their obvious attempt to create a monopoly of the game market (how I would love to see an anti-trust suit against them). If you want to buy a burger but do not like a particular burger joint, there are dozens of alternatives. If you want a new pair of jeans but don't like a particular clothing store, go to a different store. If you want to buy a particular computer game but do not like Steam ..... ??? They are removing our options; and that is totally unacceptable.
There are many games I would purchase from Steam right now, and I would gladly pay twice whatever they are currently asking... but being forced to accept unwanted software on my system is a complete and undebatable dealbreaker.
Posted 8 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorMy earlier post was inspired by comments I think that were based on frustration, &/or maybe anger at Steam's dominance RE: Windows desktop games, and folks maybe redirecting that towards GOTD. I'm sure the GOTD team cares about its users & community, & it's good to give them feedback, but it's necessary I think to remember that they have their own limitations... Unless someone(s) donates a ton of money, they can only offer what they're given, & if that means a game on Steam or nothing at all, well at least people can take advantage of the offer on Steam. Asking to turn the clock back several years OTOH isn't going to make a big difference, because that's just not possible.
In the 90s we [meaning my family & I] bought PC hardware & software, including games, from B&M [Brick & Mortar] stores, usually visiting the physical store, but occasionally by mail order. It was really no different than buying anything else, though the stores were fewer & sometimes much farther in between. With apologies for being [overly?] blunt, that world doesn't exist anymore. Retail is one of the things that has irreversibly changed -- it won't go back to the way it was simply because some of the ways it used to be are no longer profitable, and no biz exists just to lose money.
People can argue whether this future is better or worse, and both sides of the debate have extremely valid points, but the only way that discussion changes anything is if it motivates someone(s) to build or help build something new that's successful. Apart from that, we individually decide what we take part in, or use, or buy, and what we don't. No one's always right, & no one's always wrong, & either way our decisions have consequences.
When it comes to Steam, people either accept it, warts & all, or do without any games that are only available there. Steam & its client software is neither as good nor as bad as it could be, same as anything else. Steam provides a service like Amazon & eBay, offering a store with payment support etc. for independent sellers. Steam also has necessary client software that includes DRM capabilities as one of its features -- some games use its DRM, some don't, & some would likely have much more limiting & intrusive DRM if they added it themselves to a non-Steam version. There are lists of DRM-free Steam games, or you can try individual games yourself, bypassing the launcher -- if someone wanted to, you could install the Steam client in a VM, & try moving DRM-free games to your regular copy of Windows.
As far as Steam itself goes, it's just a biz that exists to make money, regardless any claims made by it or anyone else -- it's neither pure evil nor totally benign. There are other game stores, and there are other proprietary software clients, so while Steam may be huge, it's not been officially deemed a monopoly. Sure there are some games only available via Steam, but that's a choice made by the companies behind those games -- not Steam itself -- and it's not much different than a company making a game just for the PS4 or Xbox.
Steam's biggest potential competitor IMHO is the store in Windows 10. Microsoft's store hasn't been a big success -- you could probably write a book on why. They have managed to get a couple of big titles recently, & since they moved the Xbox to Windows 10, they're pushing Xbox game developers to include both a PC & Xbox version for the regular price. 10 itself is generally preferred by at least mid to hard core gamers, so it's not out of the question for MS to clean up its act, providing something that might rival Steam's current dominance.
At the same time there's more to the store in Windows 10 than simply providing Microsoft with a cut of the action -- its universal platform aims to put an end to aging win32. If it gains enough traction that might mean that some day game devs feel they have to take advantage of new features only available when/if they use that universal platform. And that could change the way that Steam & its software works.
"There are many games I would purchase from Steam right now, and I would gladly pay twice whatever they are currently asking... but being forced to accept unwanted software on my system is a complete and undebatable dealbreaker. "
And IMHO that's fine -- I'm nowhere near a Steam fanboy -- but it limits you, at least today, by not having access to Steam-only games. You might be able to gather enough people who feel the same way that you do & persuade one or more game devs to release one or more titles outside of Steam. You might embrace Windows 10 & its store, & someday have enough games available that Steam was irrelevant. And there may be alternatives for PC games I haven't mentioned or thought of, or you could just adopt another platform like the Kindle.
But again this is all FWIW, because I simply don't know if listening & trying to paint a clear, unbiased picture of the way things are, makes the least little bit of difference. Perhaps I'd be better off just saying get over it &/or deal with it like I believe they'd do in most other places?
Posted 8 years ago #
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