Add the game to steam

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wiki-me
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Add the game to steam

#1 Post by wiki-me »

See the discussion on the github isssue tracker

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Geoff the Medio
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Re: Add the game to steam

#2 Post by Geoff the Medio »

It apparently costs $100 USD to list a game on steam, so I'm not inclined to seriously consider it without a lot more convincing and general community consensus that it would be worthwhile.

I'm also not inclined to charge for it as that opens a lot of complicated organizational / legal / tax issues with regard to who gets and decides how to spend any (very hypothetical) money received from selling it, and since that would arguably be misleading.

Also, it's not just a matter of paying a fee and uploading a file. At least the limited info I've read suggests there are nontrivial expectations in terms of setting up a game steam page, as well as a review process to even be accepted. Perhaps the later is quite lenient given the low bar for game quality of steam, though it's not nothing.

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Vezzra
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Re: Add the game to steam

#3 Post by Vezzra »

I have to admit that I'm am quite averse to the idea of publishing on Steam. I don't deny the advantages and perks listed in the feature request, but aside from the points already made by Geoff I'm simply not fond of supporting the Steam platform.

GOG, itch.io etc. are all fine, but Steam is not. Their blatant disregard of their users privacy is what makes me resent them so much. E.g. it is not possible to prevent Steam from logging the amount of time you're playing your games - WTH? How much time I spend playing my games is no ones business. Business practices like that make me really mad... :evil:

That said, if a sufficiently big majority of our community wants it, and there is someone willing to do all the work needed to maintain all Steam related stuff (which includes code that might need to be incorporated into the codebase to provide builds that can be published on Steam), then my personal dislike should not prevent this from happening. I won't outright veto the idea if everyone else wants it.

I don't actually expect strong support for the idea though...

wiki-me
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Re: Add the game to steam

#4 Post by wiki-me »

Geoff the Medio wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 5:18 pm I'm also not inclined to charge for it as that opens a lot of complicated organizational / legal / tax issues with regard to who gets and decides how to spend any (very hypothetical) money received from selling it, and since that would arguably be misleading.

opencollective offers a few fiscal hosts that should take care of at least some of the tax and legal issues, Regarding with deciding how to spend the money, battle for wesnoth holds some kind of "election" for a project leader who has the final say, maybe freeorion can adopt a similar governance model (maybe with an option to "veto" decisions).

I think it will be easier to have this discussion on github, as this forum does not seem to have email notifications.

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Re: Add the game to steam

#5 Post by o01eg »

wiki-me wrote: Sat May 28, 2022 5:32 pm I think it will be easier to have this discussion on github, as this forum does not seem to have email notifications.
It has. Near "Post Reply" button there is "Topic Tools" with subscribe option.
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Re: Add the game to steam

#6 Post by Daybreak »

wiki-me wrote: Sat May 28, 2022 5:32 pm
Wiki-me, can I ask, are you just a gamer, or do you work for Steam,or something else?

I notice your last 3 posts in Github (includes this one), are all "Add this game to Steam", however out of 15 it is only these 3.

So just trying to get an idea of where you are coming from.

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Re: Add the game to steam

#7 Post by wiki-me »

Daybreak wrote: Sat May 28, 2022 7:37 pm
wiki-me wrote: Sat May 28, 2022 5:32 pm
Wiki-me, can I ask, are you just a gamer, or do you work for Steam,or something else?

I notice your last 3 posts in Github (includes this one), are all "Add this game to Steam", however out of 15 it is only these 3.

So just trying to get an idea of where you are coming from.
No i don't work for steam just someone who likes FOSS and FOSS gaming in particular.

I would like to get a decent amount of reviews before trying a game (Preferable high quality ones, after a decent amount of gameplay hours and recent ones), I tried pioneer space sim and he ended up being somewhat immature which was pretty disappointing to be honest and somewhat a waste of time so i would like to avoid this situation in the future, i will probably open a similar issue for other games i am interested in.

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Re: Add the game to steam

#8 Post by wiki-me »

Vezzra wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 1:01 pm GOG, itch.io etc. are all fine,
Putting it on gog is probably better then not putting it anyware , The benefits are not as great as those of steam because it appears it's not nearly as popular (So not as many feedback and potential developers). I does have the "recent reviews" functionality i talked about (I updated the issue to reflect that).

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Re: Add the game to steam

#9 Post by o01eg »

wiki-me wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:59 am I would like to get a decent amount of reviews before trying a game (Preferable high quality ones, after a decent amount of gameplay hours and recent ones), I tried pioneer space sim and he ended up being somewhat immature which was pretty disappointing to be honest and somewhat a waste of time so i would like to avoid this situation in the future, i will probably open a similar issue for other games i am interested in.
I suppose you can just watch "let's play" videos. They exist even about FreeOrion.
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Vezzra
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Re: Add the game to steam

#10 Post by Vezzra »

wiki-me wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 11:59 amI would like to get a decent amount of reviews before trying a game (Preferable high quality ones, after a decent amount of gameplay hours and recent ones), I tried pioneer space sim and he ended up being somewhat immature which was pretty disappointing to be honest and somewhat a waste of time so i would like to avoid this situation in the future, i will probably open a similar issue for other games i am interested in.
Hm, well, keep in mind that FO is a game which is still in alpha (regardless of how long it's already being developed and how well some aspects of the game already work), which means it's incomplete - meaning, essential stuff is missing.

If you are looking for a game that, while still under development, is already in a "complete" state (meaning, at least in beta), then FO will not live up to your expectations.

You are very welcome to take a look at our little game, and give your feedback. Just take the above into consideration when it comes to what you expect from the game as it is now. :wink:

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Re: Add the game to steam

#11 Post by wiki-me »

o01eg wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:14 pm
I suppose you can just watch "let's play" videos. They exist even about FreeOrion.
It's still a pretty small sample size, even the worst games on steam have a certain percentage of positive reviews.

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Re: Add the game to steam

#12 Post by wiki-me »

Vezzra wrote: Sun Jun 05, 2022 1:25 pm Hm, well, keep in mind that FO is a game which is still in alpha (regardless of how long it's already being developed and how well some aspects of the game already work), which means it's incomplete - meaning, essential stuff is missing.

If you are looking for a game that, while still under development, is already in a "complete" state (meaning, at least in beta), then FO will not live up to your expectations.

You are very welcome to take a look at our little game, and give your feedback. Just take the above into consideration when it comes to what you expect from the game as it is now. :wink:
Maybe you are just undervaluaing the quality of the game? supertux has a low version number, but i was surprised at how high was his rate of satisfaction is (95%). higher then some games that probably had millions invested in them, also the reviews on sourceforge seem very good, although almost all of them are relativley old because i think sourceforge is not what it used to be interm of popularity.

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Re: Add the game to steam

#13 Post by Vezzra »

wiki-me wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 11:33 amMaybe you are just undervaluaing the quality of the game?
No, that's not it. I just wanted to make sure you know what you can expect from the game in it's current state. It's perfectly playable, you just need to be aware that not everything you can expect from this kind of game is already in place (diplomacy, for example, is practically non-existent, only the most basic funtionality has been implemented so far).

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Re: Add the game to steam

#14 Post by defaultuser »

o01eg wrote: Sat Jun 04, 2022 1:14 pm I suppose you can just watch "let's play" videos. They exist even about FreeOrion.
The ones I've seen aren't very good. I mean, you can kind of get a bit of a feel, but of course almost all are not obsolete and people viewing will get an erroneous idea of the game.

I actually was toying with the idea of making some better tutorial videos, then you guys announced the plans for 0.50. There wasn't any point anymore.

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Re: Add the game to steam

#15 Post by Ophiuchus »

defaultuser wrote: Sat Jul 09, 2022 2:23 am I actually was toying with the idea of making some better tutorial videos, then you guys announced the plans for 0.50. There wasn't any point anymore.
there are a lot of things which are already stable for 0.5

To keep them non-obsolete, it makes more sense to do tutorials for specific topics. E.g. explaining how combat works by showing a combat log and ship designs.

If a tutorial explains progression and interaction of game contents, that might change quite often and become obsolete. But if the combat log explanation is disconnected, that tutorial would still be valild.

Also (probably) there will be a time in ramp down where it is (mostly) content freeze where only stringtables, graphics, AI gets upgraded.
Any code or patches in anything posted here is released under the CC and GPL licences in use for the FO project.

Look, ma... four combat bouts!

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