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Steam is *required*!
Submitted by AlexV on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 16:20.

After choosing the Direct2Drive option for purchasing this game, I was extremely irritated to discover that the package downloaded from D2D then proceeds to install itself directly into Steam!

What's the point? If I had wanted it in Steam, I'd have bought it on Steam! I chose the alternative option because I didn't want to have to load up Steam just to play this game.

If Steam is the only option, you should *say so* clearly. Who actually gets the money (Steam or D2D) isn't really important. What is important is fact that the game has to be run under Steam.

I am not at all happy about this.

‹ Will the game be stand alone and not in steam only ? Laser turrets ›

Comments

New Non-Steam option

Submitted by jeff on Wed, 01/28/2009 - 19:34.

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

Thank You for Digital Download Option

Submitted by Darthmore on Mon, 01/26/2009 - 04:05.
If not for D2D or Steam I may never have seen or got this game, and it would have been a huge loss. I originally was sceptical of Steam or D2D services, but it is awesome, the ability to redownload a game, without having to have the Darn CD or DVD in the DRIVE, OMG that is a prayer answered. I think that an offline, not stat saving option should be available, something like how Diablo works for offline and online with Battlenet. I have been a gamer for 3 decades, yes I am old, but I think any game that provides this much entertainment for $20 is awesome, especially the competitive Ladder and replayability. Geez just to go to a single 2 hour movie costs $10, $5 for Popcorn, and $5 for a large drink. Sorry I digress, the electronic medium is great, the idea of a Latter, achievements, etc, give's me a great reason to strive to play thru this game. Now I do admit, when I bought the game from D2D, I was surprised to find that it was really a steam game, to be honest I actually prefer steam, because its easy to use, quick, the game downloaded and installed in about 10 minutes, and it provides a competitive medium. I am trying my best to get friends to try the game, many love the Tower Map's made popular on WarCraft III, and Hiddenpath has done a great job here. I think one feature that I would like to see added to this game is your Character representation as a General or Character in the game, that develops with Metals, and rank as you earn points and achievements. Anyways, I hope you guys prosper enough to add Multiplayer options, as well as a Map Editor. Thanks for reading.

Thanks for the warning.

Submitted by zeep on Fri, 01/23/2009 - 00:15.
Regretfully, I had wished to purchase this game. After seeing that steam is required I must reluctantly decline. I will not pay for a game that requires me to connect to the Internet, I am too often in areas where there is no connection or it is simply to expensive to be economical. Best of luck with your game, Jason

Will there be a steamless version?

Submitted by Bernd on Wed, 01/21/2009 - 11:52.
Before buying the game I had only seen STEAM mentioned with regard to achievements that may be published - seemed pretty optional to me. Unfortunately I did not investigate further, and am now unpleasantly surprised to see a STEAM client installation... I have seen STEAM in action at a friend's place (Half Life & Counterstrike) and I do not like it (update, find games, hang a couple of times in between...) and would not have purchased Defense Grid if I had known in advance. While I understand that developers and publishers are quite keen on DRM, they should also see that pirates will (usually quite soon) come up with a version that will circumvent the protection, giving pirates better handling of the software than the buying customers get for their money.

Thank you for the clear and

Submitted by AlexV on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 17:33.

Thank you for the clear and timely answer. I understand how the pressures of a release date can result in this sort of thing.

I still think you should add some sort of note next to the purchase links so that buyers are aware of the Steam requirement when choosing which system to buy from.

I'm sure you've heard all the arguments against including DRM at all before, so I won't bother mentioning those.


KillerPX: It isn't a resources issue, it's a internet-connection-required, 15-second-minimum-load-time-overhead, "Updating Steam Client", "Preparing List of Steam Games", "Preparing to Launch Game", sitting-in-the-system-tray-unnecessarily, running-in-the-background-and-providing-no-useful-functionality issue. OK, I'll grant you Achievements, as a borderline useful functionality. But apart from that, it just gets in the way.

It probably wouldn't have even been a deal-killer; after all, I submitted to Steam for the HL2 and Portal games when they required it. It would certainly have been a factor, though, and I'd have definitely bought it through Steam rather than involving a third party, if I'd have known in advance.


Just in case I'm sounding too negative here, I should point out that I'm really enjoying the actual game once I'm playing it! The graphics and voice acting make a pleasantly surprising amount of difference to the genre, and the gameplay has been well implemented.

While I agree that it should

Submitted by jrb531 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 17:19.
While I agree that it should have been stated "before" you bought it I just wanted to say that I love steam! I wish every game on the planet was available from steam. No need to save serial numbers, boxes, disks, docs or anything. Any computer on the planet (provided of course that it's running Windows LOL) and I can log in my password and play all the games I own! This is great and the stream client is small and does not slow your computer down. My only fault with steam is that on "some" new games they have the nerve to ask for full price vs store copies. If the game companies can same on distribution, production and whatnot... some of this savings should be passed on to us but often games that are a bit older are outright steals on steam. Yes I know we all would prefer to have a hard copy but it's just too sweet to be able to log in and have steam keep everything up to date and patched with nothing to lose. Not I will not say that this is "your" reason for hating steam but some people dislike it because they want to copy the games for friends without paying and it's hard to do that if you have to use Steam. Not saying or suggesting anything here but I find it interesting that some people do not care for Steam. You already purchased it online without a box so why is Steam evil and D2D ok? Just curious

Steam

Submitted by AlexV on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 17:44.

I don't want to copy the game for my friends.

I also don't particularly need a hard copy, so long as I can re-download it if necessary. The thing is, re-downloading is a very rare (usually non-existent) edge case, and running additional software every time I play the game just in case I need to re-download it is just backwards. If I lose the install file, and I want to re-download, then I'll log on to whatever online account or downloader software is required to get the file again.

This is getting a little off-topic for this forum, I guess. I don't like Steam. There are many who agree with me, but I also know that lots of people love Steam. I doubt either of us will persuade the others to change their mind.

I hope you never thought

Submitted by jrb531 on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 20:44.
I hope you never thought that I was suggesting that you wanted to do anything illegal. I also understand that we will not change each others mind but I'm still curious why you do not like steam? Yes it can take a few seconds to validate when you first enter the game but this seems no longer than the time it takes to dig out the DVD and put it in the drive... unless you only play one game and it's already in the drive. No system is perfect aside from one in which we had zero copy protection but it sure is sweet to never have to worry about updates and being able to invite friends to your game. I also do not have to worry about having the proper disks in the drive and you can back up the entire game directory to a backup drive. So in exchange for that 10-15 second delay you do get some nice advantages but an advantage is only such if "you" feel it is something of value. Sorry for getting sidetracked... I honestly was a bit shocked to hear someone pan Steam... now what happens if I lose my net connection? Does this mean that I cannot play any games that I paid for on Steam? If so then add me to the anti-steam list. If I can still play my games without a net connection that what's the problem? I think I'll disconnect my line tonight and see if I can still play my games.

While I do see your point,

Submitted by KillerPX on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 16:45.
While I do see your point, I'm curious as to why loading Steam is a big deal. Does it take forever on your computer? Low system resources? I was pretty happy to buy the game through Steam..

Hi AlexV,   Yes, Steam

Submitted by jeff on Tue, 12/09/2008 - 16:43.

Hi AlexV,

 

Yes, Steam is required to play the game.  We didn't start out that way and were working with Direct2Drive using their DRM up until last week, but unfortunately as we were testing the game with the D2D DRM, we had several problems.  They hadn't seen those problems before and neither had we, but the were clearly seen on our game.  At that time Steam was optional to enable leaderboards, stats and achievements only.

 

While I apologize that our solution of moving completely to a full Steam install at pretty much the last possible minute is not what you were looking for, we were very impressed with the D2D folks who agreed to let us do this because it was the best consumer experience we could provide with our game and the DRM solutions available to us.

 

I'm sorry that there was any confusion.  We have no intention to keep this a secret or hide this from people making a purchasing decision.  It was just a very late decision on the D2D version.

 

 Jeff

 

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