Glad I didn't buy the CD from their site during the sale. Then again, it had been rumored for a little while, someone saw these on the Steam registry.Originally Posted by Janek
Old Avernum probably won't be released, since he's rewriting those. The new versions will likely be released on Steam as they are released in the real world, one at a time.
Edit: Looks like the Windows version only? Odd.
Last edited by Kodeen; 02-11-2011 at 04:38 PM.
Ouch. Not completely unexpected, but another one bites the discount dust. I'm really not sure that every game being $5 is good for the industry, or for gamers. Vogel was one of the hold outs, it's a little sad to see him go this route. I certainly hope it works out for him, regardless.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
You can only buy them as a collection, so you still have to hand over a larger lump sum.
I'm not sure $15 is large for, what is it, 5 games? Granted, 5 older games, but he put Avadon up for $10. I don't know, this "cheap, disposable game" thing makes me uncomfortable on a fundamental level. Some games being that way is one thing, but it seems like the expectation, and increasingly the reality, is that they're all becoming that way.
Buying games you aren't going to play is a waste of money (no matter how cheap they are). Forcing yourself to play games you wish you hadn't bought is a waste of time. Both are best avoided.
Let's talk.
Yeah, but he was really skeptical and cautious about putting Avadon on steam. He flat out said at the time in a blog post that it was an experiment and that if it didn't pay off he wouldn't release any other games on steam.
Obviously, it must have payed off pretty well given that the Geneforge games are arguably the "crown jewel" of Spiderweb software and he's now releasing them on steam as well. No one was forcing him, so I doubt he'd have done it if he didn't think it would pay off (and spiderweb, moreso than any indie developer, probably doesn't really need steam given that they have been in business for nearly 20 years and have a small, but solid, base of loyal fans who will buy whatever they release regardless. All steam is doing for them is opening them up to a bunch more people who had never heard of them).
Plus, I'm guessing sales of the Geneforge games to his loyal fans have pretty leveled off by now. He's said in the past that they all have been profitable, so sticking them all on steam is a way of generating extra revenue without actually having to invest money in creating a new game. When you have as a big a back catalog of games as spiderweb does you can make quite a bit of money off them if you can find a way to sell them.
Last edited by Juan Carlo; 02-11-2011 at 08:32 PM.
Replying to myself, Vogel has explained this:
What are resource forks?Due to complicated technical reasons, we are unable to put the Mac Geneforge games on Steam. Sorry about that. We know it sucks.
(Short explanation for the tech-savvy: Their system cannot handle Macintosh files with resource forks, and our older games are full of those. It would take a ton of reworking to get them to work, and we don't have time.)
- Jeff Vogel
If you can put up with Dixons Downloads (maybe UK only?) Cities XL 2012 is currently £14.99 over there (or £9.99 to upgrade from 2011, but that's not such a great saving). I seem to remember some people were interested but didn't want to pay £30.
"Moronic cynicism is a kind of naïveté. It's naïveté turned inside-out. Naïveté wearing a sneer." -Momus
His argument against big discounts before is that those sales didn't actually level up. They kept coming in, at a slow rate, but at a rate that was basically his livelihood. He was concerned on cashing that in for a single big Steam payout.
Also interesting that his games are still the same price on his own website - he's mentioned before that different markets expect different prices, and some of his fans will still buy direct anyway.
I've been interested in the Geneforge games for a little while, so anyone want to tell me how they actually play. I don't mind the look of the graphics, but how's the UI?
And on top of that, how are the games in general? I've heard good things, but that was coming from people who would probably love any RPG just as long as it was isometric and turn-based.
weekendwarrio.rs - We've got more games than time...
@tailswallorer
I've only played through part of the first Geneforge and I like it a good deal so far. And I don't really consider myself an RPG purist or anything (I love the Witcher and Oblivion as much as anyone). Strangely, the interface seems exactly the same as Avadon (the only other Spiderweb game I've played)--so it seems Vogle hasn't changed much in the past 10 years. It's basically point and click intuitive (like any other RPG)--although with a few strange quirks (like, for example, you can click on chests and stuff with the mouse to open them and click on items in your inventory to move them around and stuff, but strangely, if an item is on the ground in the gameworld you have to press "g" to pick it up rather than just clicking on it. This takes some getting used to, but once you do it becomes second nature).
So yeah, the interface is OK. The artdirection is uglier than sin, though. And I don't mean graphics. A game can have low tech graphics and still look appealing, but spiderweb games have always been pretty ugly. They really don't have a cohesive aesthetic and just generally look like amateur hour (Which, I don't think is necessary despite their budget given that there are tons of indie games made for less than spiderweb games are, yet which look 1,000 times better). But the graphics are entirely functional, so once you get immersed in the game you really don't notice any longer how awful they are.
But demos of all the spiderweb games are readily available, so if you want to know I say just download and try before buying.
I disliked Geneforge 1 to 3. The setting did nothing for me, although I tried to like them (because I'm a huge fan of Spiderweb's Exile - and later Avernum - series).
However, Geneforge 5 is amazing. It is THE best story-branching RPG out there - extremely immersive, brilliant story-telling techniques, and after the first half an hour you will ALWAYS feel in total control of how you interact with any character. Basically, there's five factions (each one providing an entirely different main story line), and you can betray or assist everyone and everything at very nearly any point of the game. The insanely high replay-value means that I'd recommend that
The UI works rather well once you spent ten minutes to do the tutorial. It's functional and not cluttered.
My games-related Twitter: VexingVision
Currently playing: Gothic 2; Blood Bowl: Chaos Edition; Waking Mars; Anno Online
All five games have huge demos too if you want to give them a shot.
Gamersgate is having a total war weekend
Shogun 2 is 83% off and other sweet deals.
Shogun's great - whatta deal!
A question to anyone who has played Avadon and some/all of the Geneforge games. I really enjoyed Avadon, but the map structure (go to the desert, go to the woods, go back to the same desert, go back to the same woods ...) eventually got to me. The third time I was told to go to Kva I just quit.
So how is the map structure in the Geneforge games? Will I have the same motive for ragequitting?
Is anyone else seeing the original list price for Shogun 2 as $90, marked down to $15? That seems a little, insane, for the starting point.
Saints Row: The Third [Professor Genki Limited Edition], PC – £18.90 delivered
IL2 Cliffs of Dover is Cheap at both JustFlight and GetGamesGo:
http://www.getgamesgo.com/product/il...liffs-of-dover
£8.75
is Shogun 2 from GG redeemable on Steam?
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