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Sins rebellion + Steam

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Sins rebellion + Steam

from Sins Forums

Greetings

So i purchased the Sins Rebellion game in order to play the beta on steam, but now I've noticed there doesn't seem to be any transition away from steam. That is, I'm required to boot up steam in order to play my copy of Sins Rebellion. This strikes me as a clear violation of the Gamer Bill of Rights. Something Stardock introduced to the public.

"Gamers shall have the right to have their games not require a third party download manager installed in order for the game to function"

Now I appreciate that Stardock made Impulse, a great non-intrusive third party download manager, and then sold it to Gamespot because the small dev team couldn't make games and run a large manager. Gamespot proceeded to pollute this otherwise likeable manager with self promotion and obnoxiousness. Hence why Stardock would seek alternative methods of promotion, but really, I despise steam, it's been nothing but trouble for me since its inception and I don't typically purchase games if they require the platform.

I know the Stardock staff is rather active in the forums and I'm curious as to their response to why they would violate their own gamer bill of rights to sell their game. Also, do they have any intention of phasing out steam, because I and many other gamers would certainly appreciate that.

17,631 views 30 replies
Reply #26 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting TerribleNate, reply 25
First off when it comes to rebellion steam is not 3rd party it is 1st party because of steamworks rebellion would not function online without as the old system has been removed and for the record steamworks does a much better job than the old system.

 

Now on to steam itself WOW why the hate? Steam rocks, for many reasons its comunity system, its store, update, backup, its has offline, (althought I have never understood why someone would use that) tech support base, forums, a very effective security system (if you go to the trouble to understand how it works and use it). All in all it is an amazing system that does all that and reliably.

 

The big three evil letters DRM that so many people seem to fear don't really bother me under certain conditions.

1. There is a reasonable cost to results ratio.

2. The developers are willing to keep price of affected games down because they are comfortable with the perceived level of protection from said DRM.

3. Last but by no means least. The DRM does not get in the way of my game enjoyment.

 

Steam by itself accomplishes all three of these on its own, the fact that some of these publishers are sticking or leaving their own awefull forms of DRM in games on top of the steam system is another topic. BTW I am all for going after these companies that do such underhanded bs.
End of TerribleNate's quote

Not only can DRM get in the way of my gaming enjoyment(say i have a problem and need to reinstall the game, but cant, like in spore) but steam makes it difficult for me to play my games because 1: i spend a lot of time not connected to the internet and offline mode is downright awkward. and 2: My computer is in no way 'high end', and i believe that having steam run in the background is causing me additional lag in large games

Reply #27 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting BuddahG85, reply 26
...and i believe that having steam run in the background is causing me additional lag in large games.
End of BuddahG85's quote

That is not possible (unless you have a really old computer and Windows XP) because Steam uses 14 MB of RAM. Sins uses up to 2 GB of RAM, or in other words, 2048 MB, plus 14 MB: 2062 MB, about 2 Gigs of RAM.

 

Besides performance, I'm limited to 2 GB because 32 bit limits and stuff like that. (Waits hopefully for Sins 2)

Elemental: Reforged
Reply #28 from Stardock Forums Top

Thank you for this OP-this is a big humpin' problem for me.

I have played video games for years- offline. I enjoy the odd MP game, but generallly I use LAN to accomplish this. However, when I first bought Rebellion, I was shocked and appaled that another of my favourite franchises had sold out to those insidious bastards at steam. Despite the fact I had no intention of playing it online, I had to go the trouble of installing aa new decent internet connection to star the process of installing my game.

Well, inconvenient, but no real problem, right? WRONG. I start my attempt to install, only to be told my product key is invald by steam. this is a copy of a game that never got out of storage, was never displayed to the public. I sigh at the irritances that PC gaming throws us the hard-cored strategy lovers, and get a new copy the next day.

Well, after redoing the innstall, I am now told by the incompetent pricks that my product code is already in use. This should be impossible! Frustrated now, I call a friend who works in the game store local to me. I have her list off EVERY rebelloion product key by opening up the sealed cases only to find that the entire stock of rebellion copies has the same problem- I went through a lot of product keys. every one of them told me it was already in use.

I submitted a support ticket to Stardock, and I'm guessing they listened. After informing them that a large-scale recall of their game was now underway by the single largset game retailer in Australia, all because of Steam and it's stupid product activation requirement, I- hoping against hope that one might actually work- go outcity to buy another copy. This time on activation, lo and behold, there is no need for a product key. THANKYOU STARDOCK. Finally, I can play the game I spent a week and a small fortune acquiring and activating.

P.S. I hope there aren't too many annoyed Aussies out there wanting to play Sins Rebellion, the recall currently sending hundreds of copies back to America was kinda my fault. My bad. But this just proves the unworthiness of the damnable Steam system for running games that honestly worked fine without it. Steam lovers: I don't particularly care if you disagree. Steam sucks the proverbial big one.

Reply #29 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting nightraven1901, reply 28

Well, after redoing the innstall, I am now told by the incompetent pricks that my product code is already in use. This should be impossible! Frustrated now, I call a friend who works in the game store local to me. I have her list off EVERY rebelloion product key by opening up the sealed cases only to find that the entire stock of rebellion copies has the same problem- I went through a lot of product keys. every one of them told me it was already in use.
.
End of nightraven1901's quote

 

They're selling Rebellion retail? ;o

Reply #30 from Stardock Forums Top

I would not have bought Sins at all if it was not on Steam. And by the way you can run Steam games in offline mode. So this concern you have is a moot point. You have to log into steam once and change setting to offline mode. Then from that point on until you want to change it you can run offline.