Why Steam?

[Kallocain]

Again, this is sounds suspiciously like blather. "Reduced certain (potential) technical issues? The "(potential)" bit is the most glaring indication that this is marketing talk -- never admit to problems! Plus, completely ignore the fact that it creates new technical issues. Testing patches is also fully possible outside of Steam.

As the tech support person at Paradox, I can tell you that this is absolutely true. That part of my job would be a lot easier if everyone used Steam. Patch and install issues, a ton of other problems and users errors would never occur. Some new problems, yes, but nowhere near the same amount.

The most important thing is what Susana said last though. If it is easier to see that the game will require Steam, then you can make an educated choice.

 

[safferli]

As the tech support person at Paradox, I can tell you that this is absolutely true. That part of my job would be a lot easier if everyone used Steam. Patch and install issues, a ton of other problems and users errors would never occur. Some new problems, yes, but nowhere near the same amount.

From my (casual) browsing of the Tech Support forums of EU3, Hoi3 and some Majesty forum browsing, I was under the impression that the opposite was true: most problems posted were due to something or another that Steam wasn't working. Interesting to hear the that's not the case, thanks!

 

[Seli]

Hi guys,

I'll try to answer some of your questions here:

1. Missing characters
For some reason some printed boxes seem to be missing a character. Highly unfortunate - I test installed some off the shelf here for instance and worked like a charm. As you'll see in other threads, Kallocain is working hard to solve the issues as they are reported.

2. Why Steam? Please note - you may or may not agree with this, I'm not posting this to persuade you either way. But since the Steam installer is not going to go away - you might be interested in knowing our thinking process:

- We don't micro manage everything our devs teams do. Taleworlds saw many advantages with the Steam installer and we agreed with them so the decision was made.

Other advantages we saw:
- It reduces lead times (print lead times are 6-8 weeks)
- Eliminates the need for physical discs
- Allows for flexibility in patching and automatic updates
- Reduces certain (potential) technical issues
- Testing of patches before going public

3. Could we have made it clearer that the Steam installer is included? Absolutely, currently the box has an information section about it but we'll look into how we can make it even clearer moving forward.

Kind regards
Susana Meza

Interesting, never thought about it this way and it makes perfect sense. I have no problems myself (I bought from Gamersgate) but please keep in mind that even now for a lot of people bandwidth might be limited and internet connections might be slow. Warband is of course marketed for the multiplayer, but the single player is probably still as interesting for many people as the original Mount&Blade.