Will not buy from Steam.

[FidelCastrol]

Hi !

First of all, I wanted to congratulate all the team. This game keeps coming back to me.

I'd really want to buy it, really !

But I will not, because Steam is needed. Oh I understand very well, using this platform will save you some piracy issue, and that's okay ;-)

What is not okay though, is that Steam considers us, Europeans, as rich people, and is charging way too much for games at the moment.

The game is available at ~20$ ...which is ~24$ with VAT, so around 17€. Instead, the game costs us 20€, which is a freaking 28$ !

So yeah okay, some will tell me that it's not that big of a difference. But I wouldn't really mind paying the game 28$ from your website, giving you the money directly, and thus indirectly tell Steam to f*** off.

Anyway, I sincerely hope you will be able to find an alternate way of distribution. Like I said, people wouldn't mind paying a bit more, but sparing us some "feed the St€am" would be great ;-)

PS:
Can't wait to put my hands on your game, let's hope it will be soon enough !

[Dysprosium]

you can get it from direct2drive instead if you prefer

[FidelCastrol]

Hi.

Seems that it is NOT available there.

Check this : http://www.direct2drive.com/Search.a...defense%20grid

[jeff]

Direct2Drive should be selling the game soon - there were technical difficulties that are getting ironed out.* That said, when you do purchase it from D2D be aware that it installs the Steam client to manage our user accounts, leaderboards, achievements, and updates.* So, Steam is a part of the game even when purchasing from D2D because of their technologies we utilized in building the game.





Jeff

[FidelCastrol]

Okay...thanks !


Then I'll guess either Steam drops the price or I'll have get it from D2D.


But keep up the good work guys ! And maybe we'll be able to get the game directly from you one day...

[jeff]

For all you folks out there who don't want to install Steam, our first non-Steam option just became available.* The folks at Greenhouse are selling a version of Defense Grid: The Awakening that use their Nitrogen online libraries for user authentication, standings, and triumphs.* Enjoy!





Buy at Greenhouse








Jeff

[Bernd]

I do not know how the Nitrogen stuff works; is it similar to steam in overhead and waiting time?
While I have no objections against a one-time logon to validate the activation key, I do not like
to have to sign in to some service -that I do not need- everytime I want to play a quick game.

Having bought the game from D2D less than a day after playing the demo, it took even less time (about 1 hour) to cancel the purchase - that was when I had to accept that that version required steam.

[radio_babylon]

seriously... what overhead?

steam on my pc launches when i log in, and i auto-login at bootup... my system uptime is currently 6977 minutes. the cpu time on the steam client is 3 minutes 44 seconds. that makes the cpu overhead for steam an extremely small fraction of one percent. its so small as to be negligible. and this is from someone that actually uses steam for chatting and stuff from time to time. its memory usage is likewise negligible, especially for users with 2gb or more of ram, which is probably the norm anymore.

hate on steam if you like, everyone is entitled to an opinion, but dont try to pin stuff like "overhead" on the steam client. youve almost certainly got a dozen or more processes on any given machine that have WAY more overhead than steam.

and your typical steam-hater tends to just ignore the fact that steam isnt just some needless app running in the background, or some kind of annoying DRM like EAs securom. steam is a PLATFORM, a whole framework that provides very real and substantial benefits.

steam allows me to re-download a game a few years later when i get nostalgic for it and want to play again... it automatically and transparently keeps my games patched and up to date... it tracks my achievements and lets me chat with my friends... it lets me quickly and easily uninstall it whenever i want, without worrying about any kind of weird de-authorization or whatever... i dont have to worry about losing cd keys or disks, i dont have to carry around disks if i want to play a game at the office (yeah, i know, im bad) or at someone elses house, i dont have to sweat buying a new pc, i just install steam and off i go... and soon, once the steam cloud stuff gets going, i wont even have to worry about backing up my save games.

and yet, even with all that, youre getting all bent about fractional hundredths of a percent of cpu overhead? i think you might be missing the forest for the trees... or, more accurately, missing the forest for a tiny half-blade of grass.

[Bernd]

Overhead is not necessarily technical... when I start a game I do not want to wait for another program to start, update itself, restart itself, login, collect some data so it can then offer me the option to start the program I actually want. This is overhead too.
I have seen it in action, I have seen it hang a few times, I do not like it, it's a no-buy for me. Your mileage may vary.

The benefits you mention do not convince me - for chat there are tools like ICQ and Skype which are widely used, re-downloading a game is possible from other digital download websites, same goes for the authorization keys, and the overwhelming play time is in my case spent on just one machine.

If steam is the thing for you that is fine with me, but it has nothing that appeals to me.

[HTWingNut]

It's available for purchase and download.

[jeff]

Both the version sold at Steam and the version sold at Direct2Drive use the Steamworks libraries.* The version sold at Greenhouse uses the Nitrogen libraries instead.





Jeff

[Deozaan]

Here's a great way to get Steam games at a good price:

1) Find someone you trust who lives in the USA.
2) PayPal them the $20 USD. (maybe add a dollar or two for the favor or to take care of the bit that PayPal skims off the top)
3) Have them gift the game to you via Steam.
4) Enjoy your game at the USD price.

I think I've gifted games in this fashion at least 10 different times now to four or five different people who do not live in the USA.

Got a copy of the game. Came to this site to pay for it. It seems theres no simple way to just "pay for it". Im not gonna "steam" it. Im not gonna make an account somewhere, I just want to (hassle free) use my credit card, to pay for this great game.
So it seems kinda silly that this cant be done, right?

[jeff]

I understand your thinking and appreciate what you're trying to do.* Right now we have a few versions of the game and we don't sell any of them directly.* The main reason for that is that we've partnered with people who are better at selling games than we are so we can just focus on making the games.





Aspyr sells a no-DRM version of the game through their "gameagent" site.* Here is the link:* http://www.gameagent.com/store/aspyr...ctID.127701700





I am told that this is the same version that ships at retail, is completely offline and has no DRM.





In the retail version, because some people may be expecting the features that are found in the Steam version, we also include a Steam code in addition to the offline game (2 games in 1 - choose which one you want).* I'm not sure a Steam code comes in the online purchase (it's not something you are looking for anyway, but I figured I'd clarify for others).





Jeff

[iffer]

Generally I object to purchasing DRM'ed content too, but in my opinion Steam gives as much as it takes (I've even rebought some games I have in box form to have them via steam).
Steam's option of loading on as many systems as you like, no hardware or install limits, download from their servers if you can't find the disks, etc is a fair trade. (However the games with EXTRA DRM/limits on top of the steam miss out on my dollars!)
And the guys at Valve have pledged to have a way to unlock steam controlled games in the advent they have to shut down the servers - but thats still to be seen.

I got DG on impulse on a steam sale day and it was incredibly easy. Frankly, if I'd seen DG in a discount bin at a shop I might have looked but prob not purchased - and would have seriously missed out because its great fun!.
hope you find a way to get a copy too
Jen
ps: unless you have an ATI graphics card on windows XP... then I suggest you wait

[Mojo582]

I am definuitly not a steam fan and ive heard far to many horror stories about it to even go near it and it was a shame when i found out that this game uses the very same to download and update the game,please guys can we see at least a "Downloads" section on this site that dosnt involve just looking at pictures and wallpapers of the game but actual "patches" and "expansion" material that players can manualy dl and install themselves,great game but a terrible way to get a hold of,alot of people just dont want the intrusiveness of steam on their computer.