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Steam To Begin Hosting Game Mods
Valve made a brief announcement on Friday that they will be allowing the download of user-created game mods directly from Steam. "Once installed, these MODs will appear in your 'My Games' list and will receive automatic updates just like other games on Steam. Also, these MODs now take advantage of Steamworks, which provides stat tracking and tighter integration with the Steam community." Mods will be available for five different games to start, and more in the future.
It's about god damn time!
oogly boogly!
That should improve compatibility for some of these mods. Nothing more annoying than trying to connect to a server and having to wait to download the latest version. Ok well there are more annoying things, but I'm just sayin'
We figured out a long time ago that it's easier to elect seven judges than to elect 132 legislators.
I can see the benefit of free hosting to this, but I also sense it'll be a while before all the mods take advantage of this new system.
I'd like to think that Garry's Mod 10 counts as the first MOD to try this approach, and as long as I've been playing, it seemed to work pretty well.
"I'm a well-wisher, in that I don't wish you any specific harm."
It's about bloody time. When i bought Half-Life 2 i assumed that the popular MODs would make it on to Steam. I hardly play any of my Steam games anymore however being able to install and play MOD without having to search them out is just the ticket for a casual gamer like me...
For your poor moderation, you have been assessed a karma penalty.
I was playing the older versions of Counter Strike just so that I could do neat things like adjust gravity or ride RTD2 around like a Segway while shooting terrorists...
Valve Games sold through Steam are a good example of what can go right with PC gaming. I am sure they are going to do great things for the modding community as well. Oddly I initially hated Steam when they launched HL2 thanks to the bugs and speed of that product but since that time they have really improved the system. With companies like EA putting more and more DRM into games like Spore I am glad that Valve released Team Fortress with the same lax licensing that accompanied all their previous launches. I also look forward to what http://www.gog.com/ will be bringing to the table in terms of competition for Valve older release title bundles.
http://www.dystopia-game.com
Far far better than the other mods. Nuff said.
I am boiling some water now!
emt 377 emt 4
Well, good that some companies dare to try this. Most others are just encouraging modding but don't dare to distribute mods because they're too afraid of someone pulling a Limbo of the Lost on them (and modders have been, in rare cases, ripping off content from other games, so the fear is at least minimally justified). I hope they can just enact and enforce a strong enough policy that makes the whole thing work...
This is awesome news. I know in gamedev communities Valve have actually copped some shit for the lack of perceived support they've provided to mods since the release of HL2. I think that only recently mods for the Source engine reached a level of polish comparable to professional releases so it's an ideal time to introduce this feature. The top mods are the result of years of hard work, it's great to see them getting the attention they deserve. It's also in Valve's interest to continue to support and nurture the mod scene. Mods add to the longevity of an engine and provide an upcoming talent pool for the industry. Shameless plug of the Source mod I recently joined: http://www.enterprise-tcw.com/
If mod is short for game modification, why is everyone capitalizing it like it's an acronym?
Does valve hate linux? No, it's probably just a positive NPV business decision. Anyway has anyone had success running steam and valve games in VMware or should I just not bother?
Steam has hosted Gary's Mod for several years - in both a free and a paid version.
(Gary's Mod is a free-form mod based on the Half Life 2 engine, and is possibly the most creative mod ever).
I remember reading a while ago that Steam was going to also act as a repository for saved games, so you could in effect backup your saves automatically.
Did this ever get implemented? I cannot find anything about it on the Steam pages.
I have no sig yet I must scream.
I'll be damned if I'm going to buy three more copies just so the wife and kids can play together--privately.
You're feeling the effects of what I perceive to be the biggest downfall of PC gaming as of 2008: no support in most games for playing with one PC + one TV + multiple gamepads.
Steam doesn't prevent me from doing anything except using the same copy of the game on two computers at the same time, which is not something I legitimately want to do.
Imagine a household with four gamers, and none of the (non-massive) multiplayer PC games will let the owner of a store-bought copy run it on four PCs at once. Doesn't that make PC games cost twice to four times as much as console games, which are more likely to offer single-machine multiplayer?
I know they're talking user created, but the headline is misleading. HL had the other mods supported, even Sven Coop [which I didn't think was official, considering how many parts were broken and how many bugs it had] and I think a soccer mod for HL. I used to play it on Steam with friends. Action HL I don't think had any official backing either. Did I miss something here?
I mean on Steam that is. I remember playing them via Steam. I know mods have been around since the dawn of time.
Another cheap way to do this is to turn off the internet via Zone Alarm/firewall or whatever dialer you're using(if DSL). Most have an icon in the program tray that you can quickly click to disable your networking.
The thing will time out in about 20-30 seconds and ask you if you want to go into offline mode. You can then re-enable the internet after selecting this and the game will play without contacting Steam. This is great for games where you aren't playing online and want to keep your PC more secure. Or games where the CPU load is too high and you want to limit your background processes.(BioShock is a good example).
Easy, seamless, and it works. I like it that I no longer need to manually update games and download patches, have boxes cluttering my closet, or have to install. I just log in with a new computer and set it to download everything overnight. 30+ games in one big wad with no keys, inserting CDs, or other nonsense like Starforce and other system crippling copy protection - Steam games have that crud yanked out by default.
Plus, sometimes they have really good games for very little money. The new XCom pack is $15 and has 5 games. they used to be a total pain to get running at all(true of most DOS era games). Now they are simple to run and stable.
When HL2 came out I bought a copy at the store and attempted to play, and discovered I had to be online to play solo (freaking stoooopid).
So I went online and found that now I had to register an account, etc.
Which I did.
And then attempted to play HL2, and was instantly kicked & banned for using a "hacked" serial number.
I called support (extremely rude, long hold times) and was basically called a liar. I offered to mail them the box, disc, and my receipt which they declined. Basically they told me to go get fucked & buy a new copy.
I went back to the store but they wouldn't take it back since it was opened.
I asked a lawyer, and there's some fine print that basically says they can just can your account whenever & for any or no reason, so I was out of luck unless I wanted to spend a couple years in court fighting it out.
So the moral of the story is, Fuck Steam, Valve, and any other service like that.
Which is really too bad, because they have some decent games.
Steam does not prevent games from having a single-machine multiplayer mode. The fact that such a mode is not common on PCs is not Steam's fault.
I know, but whose fault is it? I want to know in order to fix the problem. Is it my fault for not developing and publishing such a game myself?
If you want to compare the cost of 4 PCs and 4 copies of the game to 1 console and 1 copy of the game, you also have to compare the experience of having the full screen and 100% of the CPU/GPU to having 1/4 of the screen and 1/4 of the CPU/GPU.
Some games, such as Chess and Reversi, have symmetric information. Other games, such as Scrabble and Stratego, have incomplete information. This is true of video games as well: compare Bomberman or Street Fighter or NBA Jam or Super Smash Bros. Brawl to Starcraft or Counter-Strike. For games in the former category, there isn't any advantage to giving each player his own view. So why are most games like this console-only?
Do you want to spend less money and sit next to a smelly homeless dude
In this recession, yes.
As an aside: Starcraft had "spawn" copies - you could install the game multiple times, but the spawn copies could only play locally with the master copy
And one of my complaints is that this practice of allowing one CD key to spawn copies is less common, and that is one of the forces driving gamers to the consoles and thus away from indie games.
No, that would be even worse when it comes to the FPS genre.
Then great-grandparent is feeling the effect of one of the causes of what I perceive to be the biggest downfall of PC gaming as of 2008: over-concentration on the FPS, RTS, and MMO genres. Whatever happened to non-first-person shooters like Raiden or Ikaruga or Zero Wing or even Contra? Why hasn't Bomberman for PC got an update since the Windows 95 days?
I remember long ago when games came with multiplayer only "spawn installs" for just this type of situation.
And like the lack of PC titles in genres amenable to a shared view, the lack of spawn installs has contributed to drive gamers to the consoles.
Some things do take advantage of multiple USB gamepads - MAME for example (not really a game itself, but whatever).
MAME only has fourteen games for it.
well, nobody is going to buy $20 + 4 x $xx for the controller.
There are if more than one title can use them.
And what if they buy the wrong controller - one with too few buttons, or no analog stick, etc. So you have to write your game to not require specific controllers
I'm a fan of reduced-button gaming. I'll start by requiring two buttons: L trigger and R trigger, or D-pad Left and button 2, or whatever anybody else can manage to press with whatever appendages he has. You don't need more than two buttons for pinball (L, R: flipper), racing (L, R: turn; L+R: brake), or platforming (L, R: run, L+R: jump).
At that point, controller support is an extra or nice-to-have, so often doesn't make it.
But why don't gaming magazines report that controller support ended up cut?
$10 or $15 for the indie game, or 2-3 players, would make it cheaper. :)
Not with the extra $1,500 for three more bargain-basement PCs and three more bargain-basement monitors.
PCs are for one person to sit and and play keyboard/mouse games, consoles are for the living room.
But in practice, your statement plays out like this: "Open platforms are for one person to sit and and play keyboard/mouse games, lockout chips are for the living room." Why is it possible (and even encouraged) for an individual to shoot, edit, and burn a movie that plays on a set-top player, but not possible (without jailbreaks of dubious legality) for an individual to develop and burn a game that plays on a set-top player?
don't forget a lot of people have 15" monitors and 30" TVs.
Then why don't more PCs come with a composite SDTV output like mine did? Or why don't people actually use the VGA jack on their $600 LCD HDTV?
Something that might change indie developer access to consoles is either more web-based games accessed from the console
One major problem with a web-based game is that most users aren't willing to become paying customers; they see "web based" and think "gratis".