Mister Jack Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 Hugh Laurie for Gordon Freeman. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted February 6, 2013 Report Share Posted February 6, 2013 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 13, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/186592/Several_out_of_work_as_Valve_makes_large_decisions_about_its_future.php#.URvg7J3wETQ Â Word is they've laid off 25 staff in a semi-major reshuffling/rethink of company direction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Valve reminding everyone that they are indeed a real business. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Saturnine Tenshi Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 A good thing. Not for the employees, but for people who idolize Valve. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted February 13, 2013 Report Share Posted February 13, 2013 Seems like hardware and art folks mainly. Perhaps they are streamlining what they want to do since at the moment, they seem to be everywhere with no real direction. They have games to develop, Steam to improve and monitor, Steambox and some other misc. stuff like cross platform stuff. They're like some weird version of Nintendo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted February 14, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 14, 2013 It's a bit of everything going over the updated lists. Doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. Valve tend to be pretty quite when it comes to random press releases, but this is something that could maybe be done with at least going "yeah we got rid of some staff" even if they don't explain the thinking behind it. They have stated before they've a regular churn with new staff due to the "flat workplace" stuff not working out for them, but there's been nothing like this with long-term staff and in a relatively large quantity.  edit: Well what ya know. Issued a press statement of sorts, even acknowledging they normally don't: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/13/valve-gabe-newell-layoffs-statement/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted January 17, 2014 Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2014 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted March 4, 2015 Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 https://steamdb.info/blog/source2-announcement/ Â Steam Link, Steam VR and Source 2. I'm now going to bed, I imagine when I wake up there might be more but don't get hopes up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 People were seriously expecting a Half Life 3 announcement. Â 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted March 4, 2015 Report Share Posted March 4, 2015 People were seriously expecting a Half Life 3 announcement. It does determine what engine HL3 will be using. Personally, I don't care for Half Life so whatever but man does HL3 got a lot to live up to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 http://steamcommunity.com/workshop/aboutpaidcontent  Upon further review, I am okay with paying for mods since people worked on it and they got the okay from the devs and publishers to monetize their work. For my self personally though is that my spending habit will be done similarly as paying for official DLC. I very rarely pay for cosmetic DLCs. So cosmetic mods are out of the picture. Even weapon mods are out of the picture since I can live without them. So far, what I'm seeing are a bunch of Horse-Armor like mods being sold. There are some decent ones which I could jump on but right now I'm wondering if these guys will ever go on sale.  This brings up another thing... viability of said paid mods and of the modding communities that go this route. I have a feeling that such communities are going to be very volatile. Hell, communities surrounding free mods are already dens of drama. If there are teams of modders working together and someone prominent drops out and disallows their work to be use, the mod is certainly dead. The consumers are shit out of luck.  Eh... there are so many things that could go wrong here, like the blatant mod stealing going on right now. This isn't curated so yeah (with Valve taking 75% cut)... this is going to mirror Early Access before the $100 fee (even the fee isn't doing much).  tl;dr I'm no oppose to paying for decent mods but the system in place right now to facilitate it is absolute shit. There are so many nightmare scenarios as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 I'd say one of the issues is that if you release a game that's "broken"* and the mods "fix" the game, e.g DsFix, TES Unofficial Patch, SkyUI etc, those kinds of things, and they're monetised (I'm all fine with modders being paid for their work if the option is there), the modders take only 25%, and the other 75% is split between Valve (since they take a cut on pretty much any transaction, though not sure here if it just covers transaction like the cards, or the bigger 30% cut), and the publisher.Studio released games with bugs and issues, modder creates mod that fixes these issues, makes it more palatable to play and potentially generates more pennies for the studio, who then also take a cut from the mod as well. Kinda rewards bad behaviour on the studios part and with high profile issues of late in games it's all the more of a problem. I wonder how modding community will react on this, since for example TES games are popular with modders and known for thier bugs, but will folks continue to release mods that fix the game knowing that the studio that didn't release a completed product are getting a cut of the modders work too. I know it'd leave a sour taste in my mouth (though obviously you do still get the 25%, and with high enough profile games that's potentially a few hundred thousand that might throw $1 your way for a mod, so that's potentially several grand which is better than no-grand. But that's more a case of scale), but will be interesting to see how others react. Â Also anyone got word on say if you grabbed a mod off the Workshop while it was all free and now they can be charged for would you still have said mod in your subscriptions or would you need to pay for it, cos it'd suck if you are essentially ransomed for a working save file with now paid for mods in use on it. Â Â *I'll put that in air-quotes cos I know someone will bitch otherwise. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 From the FAQ: Â "Set your own price: As creator of your Workshop submission, you get to set the price. You can specify a set price or choose to sell as pay-what-you-want and let the customer decide how much to pay." Â From the T&Cs: Â "Setting Prices. The Publisher will have the ultimate discretion to determine the suggested retail price for your Contribution. In the case of Contributions distributed directly via the Steam Workshop, Valve and/or the Publisher may choose to offer you price categories from which you can choose a suggested retail price for your Contribution. In the case of in-Application distribution, the Valve and/or the Publisher may choose to distribute your Contribution for free, or to cease charging a fee for (or reduce the price for) a Contribution previously distributed for a fee. You will not be entitled to any compensation for Contributions distributed for free." Â That's not even a tiny bit contradictory. Oh no siree bob. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 Yeah, Valves legal team have been getting more n more creative with their T&Cs of late. Do wish they'd split off Valve n Steam into two companies, cos Valve make great games but Steam is getting more n more suspect as time goes on and it tarnishes the whole thing. e.g the whole EU returns policy stuff (which you might be bias on given Origin does provide a returns system where Valve have the whole "oh yeah once the game is in your library it counts as unreturnable" regardless of downloading it or not). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 The more I look at it, the more I dislike how they implemented this.  Q. Can I include someone else's mod in my mod? A. The Steam Workshop makes it easy to allocate and approve portions of your item’s revenue with other collaborators or co-authors.  This can go wrong really fast. Extensive mod scenes will typically congregate around and be based off of a handful or two "base mods" (for a lack of a better term). This chain can get quite long and complex. How the hell is this all going to get sorted out when the list of who did what and who depends on who turns into a spider web? Heaven forbid that a base mod backs out now or anytime in the future.  On a side note... Valve/Steam are waaaaaaaaaaaay too laissez faire. Be it with Greenlight, Early Access or pretty much anything else that deals with consumers. This monetized mod thing is going to be such a shit show. I expect raging fires when I come back from a long field trip early the following week. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 Pretty much the only okay thing they've done in recent years has been the cards/badges n workshop. Pretty much everything else tends to be ill thought out to the point I think they first few I mentioned were probably flukes. E.g when Greenlight first launched and all sorts of shit came through, and then solved with the $100 Greenlight fee which still locks out a fair few folks, especially from places where USD$100 is not a small sum of money). And the ongoing Early Access which still has nothing around it to protect consumers from half-baked games that get abandoned a few months in (or rushed to Version 1.0.0 despite not being finishedf-9) Â I guess this will provide a fun shit show to watch from the cheap seats though. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thursday Next Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 Yes Dean. The Great Game Guarantee is a vital part of the Players First ethos. Visit Origin to find out more. Â 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mister Jack Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 So we're all against this policy, right? Nobody actually thinks it's a good idea, right? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deanb Posted April 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 Just found out not only does Valve/publisher take a 75% cut of the sale (wellll above the regular 30%), the mod creator has to make $100 (which on a $1 mod would be 400 copies sold) before they can cash out. Â For most part, since atm it only applies to Skyrim, most mods are on Nexus anyway. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheMightyEthan Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 I'm okay with it in principle, but think the implementation is terrible. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mal Posted April 24, 2015 Report Share Posted April 24, 2015 (edited) ^ Same but the implications (e.g., potential crackdown on free mods, paid mods bandwagon) are quite terrible with regards to the modding scene. I'm curious how did the drama with paid Youtube channels evolved. As far as I know, it's the internet's closest analog to this drama.  Edit: Of course there is the case of DLC... it began with horse armor and look at where we are now.  http://www.reddit.com/r/modpiracy  Interesting... Edited April 24, 2015 by MaliciousH Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Faiblesse Des Sens Posted April 25, 2015 Report Share Posted April 25, 2015 I'm okay with it in principle, but think the implementation is terrible. Â Welcome to Steam. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
toxicitizen Posted April 25, 2015 Report Share Posted April 25, 2015 Welcome to Steam. Seriously. It's gotten to the point where I have to assume that whatever good implementations they've done in the past were flukes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.