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Pheace: Pretty sure Battle.net plans are to open it up to third parties, and they don't have a need to spread out their games to begin with since they're doing fine. So yeah, not going to end up on Steam.
I can't believe they haven't put CoD on Battle.net yet, at least.
Amazing that there's such high demand on games like Warcraft 1 or Tides of Darkness. Those games dont run on windows. They need dosbox.
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bladeofBG: Delixe, at the same time, Blizzard's old games still sell as much as many companies' and corporation's new games.
That was my point, Blizzard have no reason to join Steam or GOG. They make pots of money as it is.
Gotcha! I thought you might've been implying something else! Ha!
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StingingVelvet: So Fable 3 is up for pre-order on Steam, meaning Microsoft Game Studios is now a Steam partner. I don't think anyone expected this because of Games for Windows Live, but there it is anyway.

My GOG-specific question is this: does this mean MGS is a possible GOG partner now? When GOG said one of the five most-wanted remaining publishers was signed with two more close to signing I think most people wrote-off Microsoft as impossible. Should we revise that assumption?
This is a special case, most of the Fable faithful bought it on its primary platform last year. New sales at this point will likely be new converts (save for the few Lost Chapters fans from years ago that managed to never own any kind of XBox).

Now, I don't see why MS wouldn't keep releasing on Steam, they release on their own store, after all. I don't know that they're willing to strip DRM out of any new games but given that Age of Empires/AoE2 + expacs still sells retail (in a jewel case) for 10 bucks would argue for them maybe pushing their back catalog on GOG, even without DRM. I doubt their reluctance so far has anything to do with the DRM, rather they were probably evaluating if they had to share their pie with anyone else or if they could do it themselves. I think GOG is really the standard for classic gaming and MS games are already pretty compatible so GOG is the probable decision for their back catalog if it's sold anywhere at all away from their own store.
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bladeofBG: Delixe, at the same time, Blizzard's old games still sell as much as many companies' and corporation's new games.
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Delixe: That was my point, Blizzard have no reason to join Steam or GOG. They make pots of money as it is.
Blizzard is the devil, I'd praise Gabe's fat buttcheeks for a day before promoting Blizzard at this point. Every year they push gaming more in a negative direction. I really hate what Valve has done to PC gaming but damn, Blizzard takes the cake! No lie:)
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KavazovAngel: Only one problem... The AoE guys bitched how the game is worldwide... I asked them to define worldwide... They pretty much said worldwide equals 20 or so countries.
By AoE guys do you mean Ensemble Studios? Do you have a link or article?
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PhoenixWright: I hope this means Age of Empires will become available for DD. It's not available anywhere, is it? God, that on GOG would be fantastic.
It's 10 bucks retail at your local Walmart, if you literally can't find it I'll mail it to you and you can mail me back a check for 10 bucks.
Post edited April 21, 2011 by orcishgamer
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orcishgamer: Blizzard is the devil, I'd praise Gabe's fat buttcheeks for a day before promoting Blizzard at this point. Every year they push gaming more in a negative direction. I really hate what
OK I'm gonna have to call you out on this one Orcish. How is Blizzard the bane of PC gaming?

I'll give you that they probably screwed up Diablo 3 and made World of Warcraft a little too 'easy' but they are pushing Esports very hard with Starcraft II. I don't even own Starcraft II and I watch it on a regular basis which says something about the game to me.
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orcishgamer: Blizzard is the devil, I'd praise Gabe's fat buttcheeks for a day before promoting Blizzard at this point. Every year they push gaming more in a negative direction. I really hate what
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Whiteblade999: OK I'm gonna have to call you out on this one Orcish. How is Blizzard the bane of PC gaming?

I'll give you that they probably screwed up Diablo 3 and made World of Warcraft a little too 'easy' but they are pushing Esports very hard with Starcraft II. I don't even own Starcraft II and I watch it on a regular basis which says something about the game to me.
They killed LAN play, they split SC2 into 3 episodes (the jury is still a bit out on whether this was justified or not), they sold out WOW ages ago (a game based on the very effective but bad mechanic of the Skinner Box), Diablo 3 will be crap (again with no LAN play), Battle.net was shit for D2 and they crapped all over BNetD for trying to solve it for the interested in the community even after BNetD said they had no problem acceding to all of Blizzard's stated complaints they were still sued into oblivion. They pushed the WC3 campaign with Heroes and small groups to an annoying degree, when it frankly, wasn't fun for most people. Their only interest in SC2 is for competitive play as far as I can tell, I'm not sure where this leaves people who just want to play their game but I don't consider a tight focus on competitive play as an argument in their favor...

I could probably go on for longer, but if you think your list is even close to their list of sins, you are new to this party.
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Whiteblade999: OK I'm gonna have to call you out on this one Orcish. How is Blizzard the bane of PC gaming?

I'll give you that they probably screwed up Diablo 3 and made World of Warcraft a little too 'easy' but they are pushing Esports very hard with Starcraft II. I don't even own Starcraft II and I watch it on a regular basis which says something about the game to me.
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orcishgamer: They killed LAN play, they split SC2 into 3 episodes (the jury is still a bit out on whether this was justified or not), they sold out WOW ages ago (a game based on the very effective but bad mechanic of the Skinner Box), Diablo 3 will be crap (again with no LAN play), Battle.net was shit for D2 and they crapped all over BNetD for trying to solve it for the interested in the community even after BNetD said they had no problem acceding to all of Blizzard's stated complaints they were still sued into oblivion. They pushed the WC3 campaign with Heroes and small groups to an annoying degree, when it frankly, wasn't fun for most people. Their only interest in SC2 is for competitive play as far as I can tell, I'm not sure where this leaves people who just want to play their game but I don't consider a tight focus on competitive play as an argument in their favor...

I could probably go on for longer, but if you think your list is even close to their list of sins, you are new to this party.
I sure don't think of them as a good company but they are far from the worst. I only used Starcraft 2 as an example because Esports is something most companies neglect which has always annoyed me especially after Valve completely shit on the competitive Team Fortress 2 community.

I don't buy the selling out, they made it more accessible which is just good business sense for the type of game it is. Now they could have handled it better but meh.

Warcraft 3 had heroes which everyone I've talked to liked and it even spawned a genre in DotA (yes I know about AoS but it didn't get the popularity Dota did) that is becoming very popular now.

Indifferent on LAN but I can see how it would royally piss people off. That BNetD thing really does suck though and something like that doesn't surprise me in the least.
Post edited April 21, 2011 by Whiteblade999
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orcishgamer: They killed LAN play, they split SC2 into 3 episodes (the jury is still a bit out on whether this was justified or not), they sold out WOW ages ago (a game based on the very effective but bad mechanic of the Skinner Box), Diablo 3 will be crap (again with no LAN play), Battle.net was shit for D2 and they crapped all over BNetD for trying to solve it for the interested in the community even after BNetD said they had no problem acceding to all of Blizzard's stated complaints they were still sued into oblivion. They pushed the WC3 campaign with Heroes and small groups to an annoying degree, when it frankly, wasn't fun for most people. Their only interest in SC2 is for competitive play as far as I can tell, I'm not sure where this leaves people who just want to play their game but I don't consider a tight focus on competitive play as an argument in their favor...

I could probably go on for longer, but if you think your list is even close to their list of sins, you are new to this party.
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Whiteblade999: I sure don't think of them as a good company but they are far from the worst. I only used Starcraft 2 as an example because Esports is something most companies neglect which has always annoyed me especially after Valve completely shit on the competitive Team Fortress 2 community.

I don't buy the selling out, they made it more accessible which is just good business sense for the type of game it is. Now they could have handled it better but meh.

Warcraft 3 had heroes which everyone I've talked to liked and it even spawned a genre in DotA (yes I know about AoE but it didn't get the popularity Dota did) that is becoming very popular now.

Indifferent on LAN but I can see how it would royally piss people off. That BNetD thing really does suck though and something like that doesn't surprise me in the least.
I wasn't clear on WC3, I had no problem with the heroes mechanic, they just pushed the hero + group of 5 guys so hard in the campaigns that it almost ruined the story for me. I know I wasn't the only one that felt this way.

I also forgot about how hard they were promising the D2 community to push out the 1.10 patch, a year later they crapped it out and we find out they'd dedicated one, single developer to it. To be clear this is the patch that was supposed to fix the rampant duping, cheating, and griefing that were the cause of many a ruined gameplay experience and resetting the ladder over and over again. Yuck.

LAN play is actually important, as well, as far as eSports goes, nothing like having your competition screwed up due to reliance on Blizz's servers. I believe I've seen more than one article about this happening. You also can't designate your own patch level, can you (I haven't checked, but I'd be shocked if I was wrong)? If Blizz pushes out out a patch right before your event and it screws up stuff you're kind of boned.

Beyond that, LAN parties don't always have big, outbound pipes. This just makes Blizzard games a non-choice at LAN parties.
LAN play would usually just take play on the newest patch for SC1. Some tournies like to stick with an old patch but most expect the players to be able to make adjustments if a patch hits. No reason this would change for 2.

I'm not sure on how server issues are (I don't have the game like I said) but Blizzard does seem to have a patch day, Thursday I think, and most tournaments run on weekends.

Edit: I'll stop derailing the thread now.
Post edited April 21, 2011 by Whiteblade999
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StingingVelvet: My GOG-specific question is this: does this mean MGS is a possible GOG partner now?
Simple answer: No. Reason: http://store.steampowered.com/app/6720/?cc=jp
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orcishgamer: It's 10 bucks retail at your local Walmart, if you literally can't find it I'll mail it to you and you can mail me back a check for 10 bucks.
I have my original discs from years ago, as well as their .isos on my hard drive. I just want a GOG version or a Steam version for some strange obsessive reason.
Post edited April 21, 2011 by PhoenixWright
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StingingVelvet: My GOG-specific question is this: does this mean MGS is a possible GOG partner now?
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bansama: Simple answer: No. Reason: http://store.steampowered.com/app/6720/?cc=jp
... WTF?

Seriously, you're blocked?
Post edited April 21, 2011 by Foxhack
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Foxhack: ]... WTF?

Seriously, you're blocked?
Naturally. That's the norm these days. It's an exception when we're allowed to buy an AAA game.

Oh well, I've asked Alden about it (one of the only Valve staffers who takes the time to discuss region restrictions).

I see they lifted the restriction for the UK though. It was restricted there too when I first checked.
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orcishgamer: It's 10 bucks retail at your local Walmart, if you literally can't find it I'll mail it to you and you can mail me back a check for 10 bucks.
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PhoenixWright: I have my original discs from years ago, as well as their .isos on my hard drive. I just want a GOG version or a Steam version for some strange obsessive reason.
Lol, fair enough. I wouldn't mind GOG versions as well, but at least these games are otherwise available, it would be a shame if they weren't.