I have been following this project for 5 years and backed it four years ago, and I am disheartened by the way the release was handled. There is no timetable besides a nebulous week for a DRM-free release, no mention of how it will be patched and what the time delay is vs. the steam patches, and no offer to give GOG keys to backers instead of steam when it is released.
I read the statement by Arthur and it hasn’t addressed the fact that the game is only released on ONE platform this month, Steam. I was annoyed to be denied Early Access, but I still believed that I would be treated fairly once the final product came out. I even wrote Arthur on Kickstarter in 2013 to ensure that DRM-free was going to be supported, and received assurance that it was.
Unless something changes with communication about this, I cannot picture myself supporting future projects by Crate, which pains me to do because I loved Titan Quest and have been looking forward to Grim Dawn immensely. This is yet another example of non-steam users getting shafted.
Medierra: “We do however want to make sure we wrap up any significant hotfixes so we don’t package up a DRM-free build that immediate needs to be updated… which would be a problem since there is no service, like Steam, that you can just connect to for automatic updates. In the future we’ll probably just have to distribute updates as full builds or set up some sort of patcher. I think we can have this out by the end of next week (March 4th), if not sooner.”
There is nothing nebulous about this. He gave DRM-free supporters a date and explained why its release is not simultaneous with the steam release. No one is being shafted or forgotten.
JCDenton, I would suggest removing your four year old pot of beans from above the gas cooktop as they appear to be finally boiling over.
Crate have been nothing but forthcoming and informative when it comes to providing backers and other community members alike with as much information as they could when appropriate.
You have waited four years for a game and you are going to remove the rabbits right leg in protest over potentially having to wait a further few weeks?
Come, come…
Take a seat in your favourite chair, turn a nearby lamp on (hopefully it is low wattage and consequently illuminates the immediate area in that warm, yellowy glow rather than a sterile white one), grab a good book - may I suggest the Grim Dawn game guide or perhaps the original Diablo II Manual and enjoy that pot of beans for a while.
“I was annoyed to be denied Early Access, but I still believed that I would be treated fairly once the final product came out. I even wrote Arthur on Kickstarter in 2013 to ensure that DRM-free was going to be supported, and received assurance that it was.”
and it is
and how difficult is this to understand
“We do however want to make sure we wrap up any significant hotfixes so we don’t package up a DRM-free build that immediate needs to be updated… which would be a problem since there is no service, like Steam, that you can just connect to for automatic updates.”
they want to make sure you get a playable, balanced, bug free version and that once you gt it you don’t have to sit around waiting a week to get a patch
“This is yet another example of non-steam users getting shafted.”
such a ridiculous statement
that’s like saying you get shafted when you buy a book through your local bookstore and wait 2 weeks for delivery instead of through Amazon and get it in two days
if you go with the old delivery system, then you have to wait
its not their fault
Unfortunately, my pot of beans won’t be ready to eat for another week if they are true to their word, while others have been eating for months with early access.
No. Crate chose to make it exclusive to steam, they could have released periodic builds via other channels, but chose not to. I backed a complete game, DRM-free and have been patient through delays and the Early Access, but this is utter BS and I won’t remain silent until I get the game I paid for.
I was a Steam hater for years and was actively boycotting it. So I can relate.
I raged at the increasingly ubiquitous Steamworks DRM addon and I really hated steam. I really did.
But I came to realize how in the end it helped make the PC gaming scene healthier than it ever was. And then I realized that the steam app was a better product that it was originally. I no longer saw it as a bloathed piece of spyware. The company improved by listening to gamers.
Furthermore Steam is giving a great chance to small companies like Crate to better promote their games and basically gives Free publicity to good games. Also helps them implement things like multiplayer matchmaking. Really I totally changed and now see Steam as being a benevolent thing.
Ok this might have been slightly off topic but all I wanted to say is, Give steam a chance.
To be fair to Crate given their extremely small team and capability (I assume) to manage distribution, using Steam was probably the best option for them to keep the game up to date, manage support and not have hassles managing distribution of the exes etc while getting the game done.
You may not like Steam, but I hope you could understand how it is certainly a benefit for Crate (and other indie teams) to do so until they can distribute a complete package (DRM-Free). Imagine them trying to manage everyone giving feedback on a multitude of different versions depending on how up to date they kept their game, not to mention issues trying to move from one version to the next outside Steam?
Well, technically you still chose to not participate in EA, or Steam, yourself — Crate didn’t made that decision for you.
But you know what? Fuck technicalities. You think you were wronged, let’s roll from that.
Now, I’m sure you understand why Crate did chose Steam in the first place — they have eliminated possibility of outdated build reports, got their hands on a handy statistics, et cetera. You’ve agreed to wait for full release, understanding that this way game will arrive sooner and be more polished. Ok. You’ve been on these forums for four years *. No doubt you’ve seen a fair share of Crate team member posts, seen how our ideas was incorporated into the game (even if only in reading patch notes), how it growth bigger and better with every build. Trust me — the game is good. Fucking awesome. Brilliantly amazing. This team, you’ve seen the way they worked till now, this team deserves to be cast in gold, and sent to every other dev team out there, to be a constant example of what is developing the game is all about.
But you think, that in the end they fucked it up, right? By moving the release date of DRM-free version one week (possibly less. possibly more) from Steam release. Please, I implore you, stop for a moment, take a nap or something, and ask yourself. Is this really such a big deal? On the scope of their past efforts combined — is it really? It’s not like Evil Medierra teared up a riftgate in your kitchen, and eat up all the food in your fridge. It’s a small delay.
I’m sorry you feel the way you do, but I hope that you’ll find the strength to hold out for a bit more.
Cheers.
— edit: sorry, actually, registered in 2016 as I see now. Here’s hoping that you were just lurking unregistered before, if not, the please do trust me, that team is as good as I described them. Probably even better
I really do appreciate you trying to understand my point of view instead of blindly defending steam like many others. Thank you.
I guess it’s my fault for actually trusting a developer nowadays really. I’ve lurked and read the misadventures, and I got excited with new roll-outs and updates. I also have had to raise hell before in a certain Kickstarter (shadowrun returns) when they tried to back out of DRM-free due to licensing nonsense that was eventually rectified after great outcry. I love to support promising projects and developers, but too often things like this happen, and this is just one time too many for this gamer.
I think the key here is though that Crate have explained their reasonings for why the DRM-Free version is not available concurrently with Steam and it appears it was not without trying significantly hard.
So saying that’s a betrayal of trust is blowing it up a bit given Crate’s track record so far and open explanation of the situation. You’ll get your DRM-Free version
Rather than arguing the merits of DRM-free and Steam’s purpose in life I’m just going to say that you clearly have no understanding of the development process and how long it actually takes to develop a game.
5+ years to make a game is to be expected when the game has the same scope as commercial releases but is only made by a fraction of the staff.
Crate is not a massive company pushing out blockbusters with their 200+ staff. They are very small by comparison, having less than a dozen members, and less than a handful of these are the designated programmers.
People get spoiled by the release schedules of commercial titles and are ignorant to the workings of the industry. Too many demand far too much of Early Access titles, forgetting that big companies like Blizzard or Ubisoft have a veritable fuckload of staff (and funds) to pool from. They don’t have but 4 programmers, they have much more.
It’s one thing to expect so much from developers worthliterallybillions but to generalize and expect the same thing of everyone is neither fair, reasonable, or at all practical.
