People on steam make me sad.

I read the forums there one time and that was all I needed.  My son says there are trolls on steam that never intend to buy the game and just like to see someone take their bait.  It feels like home here with the long time bonds.

Amen Ed.

Best to try to ignore it or stick to here... There have been some decent discussions there but as Edladner mentioned there are also a lot of people just interested in disrupting any posts for whatever reason.

There is a lot of anger directed towards any early access steam release at the moment. Most of those people do not realize that Stardock for many years has been providing betas for customers long before 'early access' on steam was a thing.

The Steam forums are pretty terrible. So many trolls, crybabies, and entitled jerks. lol

But yeah, I see a lot of people on Steam complaining endlessly about the $100 Elite Founder thing... um... nobody's making them buy it.

But they still rant about how Stardock is ripping them off and such.

What's funny is that these same people will happily toss $60+ to pre-order some big AAA title from companies that have proven themselves untrustworthy time and again (giving us crap like WatchDogs for example). But when a proven company like Stardock gives people an option to support an upcoming game, they go ballistic.

Yes, the Founder stuff is expensive. It's also never forced on anyone. And while it's a great way to support the company, you can also do so by simply buying the game once it's out.

There are the complaints that companies used to pay testers to alpha and beta test their games and that now most companies (and most indie devs) rely on Early Access for that. And there is some truth to that. But again, it's completely voluntary. If you want to wait for the game to be out... then just wait.

I bought the elite Founder pack for a couple of reasons. The first is simply because I want to support Stardock. They make some amazing games (admittedly I was very disappointed with Fallen Enchantress, but I know others love it). And more importantly, they're not DRM buttholes like most companies who design systems to punish legitimate buyers of their games while letting the pirates have a wonderful time of things (I'm looking at you Ubisoft).

I remember having a friend over and him trying out GalCiv II. He thought it was awesome. So I gave him a copy. He asked about what cracks and such he'd need to play the game. I told him all he had to do was put it in and play. He was floored by that. Naturally he later went out and bought the complete bundle, because if you treat customers with respect (and not like criminals which most companies do) then you get damn loyal customers who will gladly buy your games (even if they don't have to).

True, GalCiv III has Steam, which is DRM in itself. So that is a little disappointing. I'm hoping there will be a Steam-free version though. If nothing else just so that the pirates don't win again. lol

Of course the other reason I bought the thing was to get all the DLC/expansion stuff. Cause really $100 is a good deal for a game like this with all expansions and content. I figure we can expect at least 3 expansions for it. Hopefully many more (but not a ton of little crappy DLC like Civ V did).

I try to avoid Steam if possible. I don't like Steam. GalCiv 3 is one of the few things that have dragged me back (I really loved GalCiv 2). I would really like it if GalCiv 3 didn't need Steam, but that doesn't appear to be going to happen any time soon. Maybe it would be worth while to ask the question again, this time in the dev stream.

I don't know much about the Steam culture, as I don't hang out. However, the times I've read threads on other sites (like this one), I often hear from fanboys who can't seem to understand why some people would have a problem with it, or can't acknowledge that there are problems.

Unfortunately, Steam dominates so much that, if I recall correctly, that Brad has even said if you don't use Steam then you are not a PC gamer. A shame really, Stardock used to run Impulse, a short lived competitor to Steam. It had potential. From what I understand, Stardock couldn't manage it to their satisfaction and sold it off (to GameStop of all companies). Suffice to say, not many people were happy with that decision.

Impulse is still running strong under gamestop.  I still enjoy playing the earth 2150 games.

Steam forums is more your general forum like a Gamefaqs, where Stardock-type forums tend to get a little higher grade of individual.

That said, you find good people and trolls on both.

The anger at Early Access is due to the actions of other games, Stardock just happens to not have earned their trust yet.   You saw a similar reaction after War of Magic, where the longtime Stardock fans were willing to give Stardock a 2nd chance, and those who weren't just assumed Stardock was going to screw them because WoM was their 1st impression of Stardock.

I go on there for the LULZ and sometimes troll hunt.

More like "Hunt the Wumpus"

Manipulate them though chocolate.

Bull shit, I got watch dogs recently and its one of the best I've ever played. It's like person of interest...the game. I love it.

Not to say I didn't buy anno 2070 because I heard there DRM is the worst.

Impulse is dead, and why did you mention this...quit ranting DW!

And what's wrong with steam?!?!?

DARCA

I'll nitpick and disagree on this one point.  Not because I want to continue to beat a dead horse but because this is AT LEAST related to the the game and the preference of tactical combat is not by itself an internetz troll behavior (although it CAN devolve to that point)

Say it again

"tactical combat"

cue quick shudder and maniacal laughter

Okay now we just need a picture of Samuel L. Jackson and a suitable caption which I'm sure you can think of

While I like buying games on steam I have to say that the steam forums are seldom worthwhile for any game and certainly for this game you are much better off here. I just shrug over the critisisms on steam. You cant please all of the people all of the time.

One good thing about steam is the support for older games.  My son just got GC2 ultimate for 1.00.

Hey, if you enjoyed it, more power to you. Most people found it to be crap. So many promises not delivered. Not to mention the whole graphical downgrade fiasco. Plus countless people couldn't even play the game properly because of DRM issues (as well as general issues with system related bugs).

The main issue with games like WatchDogs and other big titles is that a lot of the time the companies promise big things, only to cut back on half of it by release time. They show these amazing videos which are NOT how the actual game ends up. They push graphics over all else, giving bland games with no innovation or replay value, hoping that graphics alone will make up for it (which they don't).

You get endless generic cover-based shooters, carbon copy sports games, and other trash, while companies like Stardock actually put out games which are new and different. Yes, Enchantress and GalCiv are strategy games, and they're similar to other such titles (because there's always going to be similarities). But they also do things differently, adding new mechanics, or changing how old systems work. So it's not just the same game over and over again with very slightly better graphics (seeing as we've basically hit the limit of what graphics can do).

I got Anno 2070. While UPlay is complete and utter garbage and the absolute worst way to implement DRM... Anno itself is an amazing game beyond words. lol