General Discussion

This is a great interview, thanks for posting. I have been reading a lot of "ho hum" and opinions that seem to think this is a mistake Valve is making. I will put some of my chips firmly in the "this will be a game changer" bucket. I know, I should be cynical but I am not, this is what I want, so like Tungsten I am excited.

I didn't do much with Steam earlier, not because I thought Valve was evil, but because buying the physical pressed game disc was often cheaper. Now thats really not the case and I jumped pretty far into Valve's ecosystem since.

They are a pretty cool company that way. Thinking of customers above anything else is a great way to approach stuff. One could say much about Valve but they really give a shit about doing the right thing by people.

+1

I am running Steam on Linux and opened Tf2 and it seemed fine to me. I have a reasonably powerful Desktop with an Nvidia card. So far, I think the biggest detractor is the lack of available games but over the next bit that should change.

Since I do CG development on Linux I had to run Steam using Wine to chat with people while I was developing. So for my primary use on Linux, which is to talk to other people, it works great :D

Hoping for all the Bundle Linux ports to come to Steam for sure! L4D would be awesome and if companies like iD that have Linux ports would submit them would be awesome too. Lots of Linux ports just need to be added to Steam of existing titles.

Its beautiful. Plus has some really awesome hardware that comes with it. Looks to be on the expensive side now but ... that could come down as the mass produce them?

Regardless, this is awesome news!

I agree. Ill pick one up as soon as I can for anything around $300.

I think we are entering a zone where the current tech we have now is ridiculously powerful. I don't mean the PS3 or XBox, you can cram much more power in a smaller device.

But even if it were just a PS3 or perhaps 2X a PS3 it would be beefy enough to play all the games out now plus the games going forward. I think Carmack said in a recent Quakecon that they would make games for the current consoles for another generation or so. I think the current PS3 power scale has some legs on it yet even if it is pretty underpowered by the standard the PC I am using sets. Or my Macbook for that matter.

Hahahaha, double the RAM with all the style of fire engine red!

Ah, well then its good others are building versions of this. I imagine the first generation might not be as powerful as it could be. Then again, it doesn't take much to get to the point of the current gen consoles. That said, I would like to see a Steam Box that would do 1080p and do it well for most games.

It's the cereal aisle conundrum. I can never decide what cereal to buy. You walk into this massive aisle of delicious, grainy goodness, and there are so many choices, what do you pick?

I was faced with this recently with Steam. I finally broke down and started organizing things into categories: Currently playing, coming up next, waiting for DLC, stuff I'll never stop playing, Completed, Meh, etc. This is far less daunting. I put everything I have a currently open game in under "currently playing," and it almost immediately became far less daunting. Thinking about what I wanted to play soon and getting a small category makes me look forward to the next few months.

Coming home from work, wanting to unwind, and being greeted by a massive alphabetical list presents a decision you have to make, which takes away from the fun a bit.

I do think this was better when we were kids. One, NES games were generally short. I've cut SMB1 down to an under 7 minutes speedrun (certainly not worthy of the near sub-5 minute mark speedruns), and even the substantial SMB3 can be completed in a day without warping. Games these days are massive undertakings, which means you don't really play many of them more than once. Plus, there weren't Steam sales back in the day, and we weren't working for our money, so we had to depend on allowances or gifts for our games.

I'm beginning to ramble a bit, but I'll use an argument my history teacher used in high school to explain the efficiency of laws-- they're like tomatoes. When everyone around grows their own tomatoes, and the weather is perfect, nobody will pay more than a few cents for a tomato. When the weather is bad, crops aren't great, and fewer people grow them, their value increases. The same can be said for laws-- a few really good laws will be respected far more than a complex maelstrom of legal red tape and vague speech. The same can also be said for games-- if you have a few good games, you'll appreciate them far more than if you have your pick of whatever is available.

Also, I want that entire wall of games pictured. *drool*

Its really about if the platform gains traction enough to warrant attention for a developer or publisher. In reality, the PS3 is a low powered PC with Open GL etc and some Sony stuff included. It isn't too nuts to port that kind of game to Linux beyond how hard it would be to port it to the PS3 or XBox or whatever. I mean games now days are written with PC, PS3, Xbox & Mac in mind.

My bet is that the Steam box will gain traction because Steam is THE platform for PC games. Why not the console too? It makes a obligatory PSX or XBox 1080 less relevant if gamers have a PC and a Steam box. In a way, I wonder if Valve will obliterate the competition. I mean, it is a possibility I guess.

Anyways also consider making the game available on PC and Steam box might not mean Desktop Linux to a publisher. Especially if Valve ships a non x86 chip in the Steam box. But whatevs in most cases I bet a Linux port would come too. Or maybe I just hope :D

The next few years should be awesome and right now I am holding off on ANY console choices until I see what Valve does. Even if its just a way to get Portal 3 and music, it might be good enough for me.

This: http://cheerfulghost.com/panickedthumb/posts/881

But also: Starbound. Imagine Terraria with multiple planets to explore.

I forgot about Sir You Are Being Hunted. That looks like such a blast.

I've heard today that it may be news about a movie, not a new game. Don't know how I feel about that.

I am torn between 3 and New Vegas. I think whichever one I'm playing is my favorite of the two. The factions and plot are better in New Vegas (far better) but the world of Fallout 3 is so incredible. If Obsidian had set up all the quests and plot and such, and then Bethesda built the world around it, it would be perfect.

The only issue with the companions in New Vegas was that so many of their quests were buggy. I loved it but never being able to upgrade Raul in multiple games was really disappointing. I think if Obsidian had another 4 or 5 months to iron out some issues it would have been so much better.

But yeah, each of the companions is awesome in his/her/it's own way, and the quest lines are complex and interesting. I also like that, unless you're playing on Hardcore, the companions are marked as essential so they just get knocked out rather than dying. And the companion wheel adds so much more control. I was annoyed with the functionality of the companions in Fallout 3 so I never used them. I never go without companions in New Vegas (except in Casinos since they can permanently delete companions' default weapons).

One thing that got me about Dogmeat, Rex, and every dog in Skyrim (yes, it's been a problem for that long) is that they ALWAYS stand in doorways. I once had to reload a save in Skyrim because of a stupid dog.

Ooooh shiny. I like what I'm hearing there.

This game is totally strange. That said, if one was on some hardcore drugs on the way into a club I could see it playing out like this. Interesting mechanics and game.

I don't think you would see this from EA so its good Indie Games exist :D

That makes sense. The game is totally unique.

I sort of feel that way about stepping back to play FF2(US) this year. I kind of just have to do it again.

I wonder what kind of drugs the player was on? Acid or some such?

Quite enjoyable. It would be a bit pretentious to complain about paradoxes in this wouldn't it ;)

Yeah, Signal, be prepared for some slow moving at first, but the third episode (I think) it starts getting really good.