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Sounds quite a lot like Steam. Copy protection may well be handled same way (which is breakable but takes considerable effort = good).

Zetetic Apparatchik wrote:

Sounds quite a lot like Steam.

It's something they need to do. Should be good for all involved.

I guessed right (not here. Reef, where are you when I need a piggybank deposit? )



...

Bat wrote:

I guessed right (not here. Reef, where are you when I need a piggybank deposit?)

It wouldn't do you any good for six months anyway.

Earendil the Mariner wrote:

elpato84 wrote:

Zetetic Apparatchik wrote:

Sounds quite a lot like Steam.

Except less retarded.

Could you please elaborate?

How is Steam "retarded?"

Earendil the Mariner wrote:

The Cynic wrote:

How is Steam "retarded?"

Well, the fact that Valve forces you to install it to play any of their games, whether you bought said game at a physical store or not.

Fair point but it's not a major problem. It's not like you have to run it all or the time or the internet connection isn't a stated requirement.

And the fact that it only supports titles coming out of a single developer.

No. Wrong. See Ostfront (for example).

Never mind the clunky interface, connection issues, and general irritating vibe I get from it.

Connection issues and offline mode problems still exist but are being tracked down. I didn't find the interface any worse than dealing with Windows' configuration. Irritating vibe, I can't help you with.

NAG wrote:

They're copying the iTMS and not Steam.

"We don't want buggy stuff and that's like being more like the iTMS because, like, Steam had buggy stuff, so our 'model' (:air-quotation-marks:) or 'paradigm' (:air-quotation-marks:) or 'antelope' (:air-quotation-marks:) is the iTMS not Steam. 'Cos we don't want it buggy." Oh, except that they're charging the same price for some data as they would for a box and a CD and a properly printed manual (maybe excluding serial numbers being in the correct places) which is more like Steam than the iTMS except that even Steam tends to sell somethings (e.g. DoD, HL2:Ep1) at lower than normal boxed retail prices would suggest.

And the lack of multiplayer just means that it's less useful ; some competition to Gameranger would be nice but I don't really expect decent integration with other services in ported games soon anyway (since most ports miss stuff from the PC version). I can understand why they want the association with the iTMS but if they don't want unauthorised copying to occur (a large problem when trying to sell to 15 year olds [Jackass=Jack Thompson]and other revolting masturbatory gamers[/Jackass] ) then it's going to have be fairly restrictive and fairly Steam-like. Which if the technical implementation is better than Steam (was originally) is convienient enough if a little soul destroying.

Last edited by Zetetic Apparatchik (2006-07-12 7:22 pm)

Valve largely develops games and publishes them via Steam.
Aspyr largely ports games (under license admittedly) and publishes them via Gamerhood.
Apple buys music and resells it via the iTMS (not in that order but you get what I mean).

I believe that Aspyr is closer to Valve than Apple because porting is closer to developing than simply recieving (since the labels are supposed to the digitising themselves etc.?). This has of course become more the case since ~2003 (year of Brad Oliver's move to Aspyr for example). It now seems to be like this across the entire industry since the 2005 merge/takeover of Westlake by MacSoft/Destinee and now I'm not sure if anyone is even just in Mac games for the porting aspect.

True, Aspyr does simply publish some games developed entirely externally (which will become more relevent if they really do extend the Gamerhood to other platforms). But so does Valve, for example: Tripwire (Ostfront), Outerlight (The Ship), Ritual (SiN), Sonalysts (Dangerous Waters), Malfador (Space Empires) and Introversion (Darwinia).

That interview was nothing but a marketing exercise designed to associate the Gamerhood with the ease-of-use iTMS and disassociate it with the problems of Steam. Software is more like software than music.

Last edited by Zetetic Apparatchik (2006-07-13 4:47 am)

Yeah, I was mostly talking about the titles you can't find almost anywhere so they charge you a bunch (just look at some of the more rare games on Amazon or eBay).

Also, I don't believe Aspyr is going to be porting all of the games that appears in it. I thought they were trying to diversify out of the mac game porting market. I'm not saying that they aren't trying to distance themselves form Steam, that is obvious. I'm saying that they might actually be farther from Valve than you think.