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General discussionThe Banner Saga 2 is coming april 19th.(232 posts)(232 posts)
(232 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted March 31, 2016
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Ixamyakxim: This sounds more and more like a case of timed exclusivity. Maybe I'm just trying to talk myself into being optimistic but I really do hope they "change their mind" and end up tossing a build up here at some point after release.
While I would like to share your hopes, Stoic's representative on KS made certain to crush it in all of their responses. This is from their final KS response to my questions:

Sadly, all we can tell you right now is that DRM-Free is not being planned.

If they had said "Not being developed right now, will consider it in the future" or something along those lines, I would be in agreement with you. Stating outright that it is not being planned even after being told how much it would hurt their sales and saying that they are currently only focused on "the people who are helping us and willing to help us make it better by playing in this beta", makes their direct perfectly clear.

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GR00T: He did point out though that they're only saying no plans for DRM-free at this time.
If you look at the above quote from Stoic, the dev was either lying to you, or they have serious in-house communication problems. Considering how often we were pressing for such information on the KS's updates, they seem to be quite adamant at going Steam-exclusive.

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Wolfram_von_Thal: I've written them a long and honest email to tell them about my deep disappointment. They answered very fast and in a kind way, but their course is rigid - no drm-free version planned.
Thanks for the additional info.
Post edited March 31, 2016 by de_Monteynard
Posted March 31, 2016
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de_Monteynard: If you look at the above quote from Stoic, the dev was either lying to you, or they have serious in-house communication problems. Considering how often we were pressing for such information on the KS's updates, they seem to be quite adamant at going Steam-exclusive.
Yeah, I've been watching pretty closely about this issue, so I've seen that. Bottom line for me is, if it comes to GOG eventually I'll consider buying (on sale), depending on how they resolve things with their kickstarter backers. If it doesn't, then I'm completely done with these guys.
Posted March 31, 2016
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GR00T: He did point out though that they're only saying no plans for DRM-free at this time. Not that it's off the table permanently. So there's hope it will arrive perhaps arrive here.
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Ixamyakxim: This sounds more and more like a case of timed exclusivity. Maybe I'm just trying to talk myself into being optimistic but I really do hope they "change their mind" and end up tossing a build up here at some point after release.
Other commenters' corrections aside, we're coming up on a year since the Linux+SteamOS release of episode 1 on Steam (April 16th, 2015) and we still don't have it here despite any pirates being able to run the Windows version in Wine easily. Take from that what you will.
Post edited March 31, 2016 by ssokolow
Posted March 31, 2016
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ssokolow: Within the last 12 hours, I've filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, asked Kickstarter to rule on whether this is acceptable under their terms (if it is, then I'm never backing anything again), and wrote a how-to blog post for others.
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ValamirCleaver: I wish I could give you a lot more than a +1 for the above and this blog posting.
Anything you can do to spread the word will help. If their actions don't have visible consequences, they'll never learn.

By the way, status update:

1. The BBB has informed me that they're now waiting on a response from Stoic
2. I've sent a message to GamingOnLinux.com to make them aware of this.
3. I've submitted my blog post to StumbleUpon and added it to my own Delicious.com bookmarks (again, every little bit helps)
Posted March 31, 2016
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Wolfram_von_Thal: I've written them a long and honest email to tell them about my deep disappointment.
Where did you find an eMail-address?
Posted March 31, 2016
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Wolfram_von_Thal: I've written them a long and honest email to tell them about my deep disappointment.
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Klumpen0815: Where did you find an eMail-address?
It's quite hard to find on the site. It hides under "Stoic Team":
help@stoicstudio.com

Spread your disappointment, share it with them, comrades! Every tiny single scratch in the paint has an impact. :)
Post edited March 31, 2016 by Wolfram_von_Thal
Posted March 31, 2016
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Klumpen0815: Where did you find an eMail-address?
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Wolfram_von_Thal: It's quite hard to find on the site. It hides under "Stoic Team":
help@stoicstudio.com

Spread your disappointment, share it with them, comrades! Every tiny single scratch in the paint has an impact. :)
Thanks, I did:

Title: Pirate exclusive DRM-free releases of Banner Saga 2+3 and BS1 for Linux?

Hello,

I finished The Banner Saga 1 two days ago and really enjoyed it, it is a great piece of art although one of the videos in the beginning didn't show thanks to some bug.
Sadly since I'm a customer at gog.com and avoid Steam at all costs I had to boot my rarely used WindowsXP partition for it although there is a port for my main operating system (Linux) on Steam for a long time.

Still waiting for the DRM-free Linux port of Banner Saga 1 I've just read, that episodes 2 and 3 are Steam exclusive, effectively making the DRM-free versions of those pirate exclusive and preventing me from playing them since I neither use Steam nor piracy since they are related evils.

It may be worth a mention that the version of "The Witcher 2" which was pirated shortly after release was in fact not the version from gog.com but the Steam version, proving that there are a lot more pirates lurking and looking for new things to crack.

By insisting on making your games Steam exclusive, you generate lost sales by shutting out all your customers at gog.com and you make the only existing DRM-free ports exclusively available to pirates - therefore slapping honest customers in the face.

I hope you will reconsider your position.

greetings
Post edited March 31, 2016 by Klumpen0815
Posted March 31, 2016
high rated
Another status update:

1. I sent off an e-mail to let Rock Paper Shotgun know what's going on.
2. I added the names from the Stoic Team page (Arnie Jorgensen, John Watson, and Drew McGee) to my "Companies/Products To Be Wary Of" list and saved the photos for comparison so that whoever is responsible for this decision can't escape the effects of their actions simply by changing jobs.

(Also, I just noticed the RPS for the [url=http://www.openxcom.com/mod/x-piratez]X-Piratez total conversion for the original X-COM. I think I know what I'll be playing instead of TBS 2.)


UPDATE: Looks like a DRM-free Linux release of episode 1 may not yet be off the table. See the attached screenshot.
Attachments:
screenshot12.png (99 Kb)
Post edited March 31, 2016 by ssokolow
Posted April 02, 2016
Another status update:

1. I've amended my instructional blog post with some advice given by the Kickstarter people.
2. I'm waiting for a reply from Kickstarter after telling them that I already tried to work it out with Stoic and they told me to report them if I don't like the terms they've dictated.
3. I received a reply from GamingOnLinux.com saying that, since Stoic has clearly stated no plans for a Linux release of 2 and 3 (something I didn't know had been confirmed), it's not currently relevant to them.
Post edited April 02, 2016 by ssokolow
Posted April 02, 2016
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ssokolow: Another status update:

1. I've amended my instructional blog post with some advice given by the Kickstarter people.
2. I'm waiting for a reply from Kickstarter after telling them that I already tried to work it out with Stoic and they told me to report them if I don't like the terms they've dictated.
3. I received a reply from GamingOnLinux.com saying that, since Stoic has clearly stated no plans for a Linux release of 2 and 3 (something I didn't know had been confirmed), it's not currently relevant to them.
Thanks ssokolow to share this value information. Henceforth a lot of customers will have an ''instruction manual'' to treat with Kickstarter conditions and this is actually convenient.

Finally, it seems like we won't see E2 here on GOG, at least on the very early. Stoic is firm in their position so I hope GOG managers take a look of this thread and decide to intercede since there's a lot of interest in this saga.
Post edited April 04, 2016 by menganogog
Posted April 03, 2016
Another update:

1. I hadn't realized it and the person I was talking to didn't know until just now, but backers can get the Linux build from the download link Stoic set up prior to getting TBS on GOG.

2. I've tried the Linux build and I can see why it never went out of Beta on Steam. It's much slower than just running the Windows version of the DRM-free build in Wine.

Aside from camera pans being occasionally a bit jittery, it plays perfectly when I'm playing the Windows build in Wine on my GeForce GTX750 with a triple-head 3840x1024 desktop and ForceFullCompositionPipeline=on, but the Linux build freezes for up to 10 seconds every time I click an action and any animations end up skipped as a result of it.

Given that it appears to be the second "Adobe AIR with bundled runtime" game I've ever encountered after Botanicula, I had to run Botanicula in Wine because it hated my triple-head configuration, and I've never allowed the AIR runtime installer to have the root access it demands, I can't tell whether it's a TBS problem or an "AIR on Linux" problem, but I suspect the latter, knowing Adobe.
Post edited April 03, 2016 by ssokolow
Posted April 19, 2016
For those interested, I messaged their twitter and they told me that it's not in their 'launch/immediate plans' and that that doesn't mean that it won't become available in as many ways as they can in the future, they are just not making any promises for the future right now (almost a quote from their message). Edit: When I asked if it probably won't be released on gog this year they said they haven't given it much thought at this point.

That's a loud current 'no' to me :/. Agh. I really wanted to play it as soon as it was out but I'm not really planning on using steam.
Post edited April 19, 2016 by katerinafm
Posted April 19, 2016
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Well.. 30mins after release there are already torrents of the game... So I wonder how exactly the drm-free version will increase the piracy of their product...
Posted April 19, 2016
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ssokolow: Given that it appears to be the second "Adobe AIR with bundled runtime" game I've ever encountered after Botanicula, I had to run Botanicula in Wine because it hated my triple-head configuration, and I've never allowed the AIR runtime installer to have the root access it demands, I can't tell whether it's a TBS problem or an "AIR on Linux" problem, but I suspect the latter, knowing Adobe.
Adobe never heavily supported AIR on Linux, and even discontinued it fairly quickly (curiously enough, after AIR 4, it seems they've numbered the releases by "how many releases ago did we last bother with Linux support" *). Not to mention, that they've stopped developing new versions of Flash for Linux, and Flash is used in most AIR applications - though you can use just HTML and Javascript, I'd guess many developers prefer Flash as it's easier to get a flashy result, also the source to a Flash application isn't immediately open as it is with Javascript.

* Yeah, I counted the versions on the page of "Archived Adobe AIR downloads", doesn't seem there were any between 4 and 13. Also, I realise it's probably intended to be a sync between AIR and Flash releases, but the fact that it neatly syncs up with dropping Linux support is eerie.
Post edited April 19, 2016 by Maighstir
Posted April 19, 2016
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kokosabre: Well.. 30mins after release there are already torrents of the game... So I wonder how exactly the drm-free version will increase the piracy of their product...
This just made my day. Thank you for the info.
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General discussionThe Banner Saga 2 is coming april 19th.(232 posts)(232 posts)
(232 posts)