Epic Games Storefront - A Good Incentive for Piracy

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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I think if the Epic store situation has taught me anything, it's just how much I took Steam's features for granted. I barely paid any of it a second thought and did more bitching about the faults than I did appreciating the positives. I didn't care about Origin or Uplay because they were publisher specific platforms, and Humble/GMG just sold Steam keys anyway, but now that a platform is trying to be a universal platform completely separate from Steam (Like GoG but without the DRM approach) the differences are night and day.

I really feel everyone in this thread is glossing over some massive shit here. Let's take a look see!
  • We (people on this forum/PC gamers in general) are invested in Steam because it has been the only game in town for so long that we have potentially hundreds of titles and thousands of dollars invested into our libraries. Steam is nearly 20 years old. Just ponder that a second.
    • PC Gamers of the younger generation have no such connection. They'll adopt a new platform and not give a shit.
  • Epic had no way of predicting that Fortnite BR would become the force of nature that it is. Their pet project taking the world by storm and pulling $3BN in a single year while being completely F2P... yeah nobody saw that shit coming.
  • Epic is being productive and understanding that they won't be king shit forever. Might as well use the momentum to move into the very lucrative distribution platform like Steam.
  • Yes they are behind in features compared to steam. For all intents and purposes they jumped gun too early OR they are just testing the water.
  • Fortnite, hate it or love it, is exactly how you want a game developer to act. They constantly introduce new shit, try radical things (live concert the fuck?) and keep it fresh.
    • Bet your ass they will be operating the same way to get their Launcher up to par.
 
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Kiki

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Until the features are there, it doesn't matter. Steam workshop alone kills anything else (from a development and a player standpoint).

If you want people to move to your platform, make it competitive and feature rich. Don't use exclusives to force us into it.
 
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TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Until the features are there, it doesn't matter. Steam workshop alone kills anything else (from a development and a player standpoint).

If you want people to move to your platform, make it competitive and feature rich. Don't use exclusives to force us into it.

Boo hoo. Ponying up cash for exclusivity is one of many ways to make shit happen.

You don't have to like it.
 

OU Ariakas

Diet Dr. Pepper Enjoyer
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"Couldn't get it to work, just crashed endlessly when I launched it, so I refunded it" is a valid review though.

I was thinking about this, but then why not have a metric about returns and make that transparent but limited to certain options.

That means it would say X% of the total game oweners returned their purchase for the following reason:

X%: Game breaking bugs/would not load
X%: Microtransactions required as core gameplay
X%: Too short
X%: Didn't enjoy
X%: Other

This also gets rid of the shitty drive by return reviews by not giving them the option of sharing their own reason why the returned it. And really, why should they if they got a full refund?
 
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Kiki

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Boo hoo. Ponying up cash for exclusivity is one of many ways to make shit happen.

You don't have to like it.

Cool? Let's just get forced into a shittier product and be happy about it. Just lol.

I'm all for competition, but compete because you are good, not because you can wave some capital around and buy steam games out from under them. The current backlash is to be expected. No need to white knight.
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Cool? Let's just get forced into a shittier product and be happy about it. Just lol.

I'm all for competition, but compete because you are good, not because you can wave some capital around and buy steam games out from under them. The current backlash is to be expected. No need to white knight.

I was never going to play this game to start with. The entire argument that all titles need cater to the platform I want or reeee is just fucking stupid though.
 

Tarrant

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Cool? Let's just get forced into a shittier product and be happy about it. Just lol.

I'm all for competition, but compete because you are good, not because you can wave some capital around and buy steam games out from under them. The current backlash is to be expected. No need to white knight.


Right I dont understand that line of thinking. Could Epics store at some point be much better and on level playing ground with Steam? Sure. But it's no where near now and acting like a knob about it to people who are simply expecting features that have been standard for years now to be in a new store that's trying to compete isn't exactly asking too much, and pointing out that from a user standpoint its so far behind that the comparison is even hard to make.

Once they get everything together and are near a level playing field then sure, lets reassess but for now it's fine to point out their many shortcomings and stay put until they decide to add to their services. Last time I knew Epic doesn't even plan on offering community forums that Steam has for each game and to me, thats enough to stay clear. Those forums have helped me more times than I can count.
 
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Delly

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Epic isn't doing anything wrong, except maybe the switch for Metro at the last minute which is on both parties.

This is just a cautionary tale for all consumers. We don't know what Epic will and won't do with their platform.

Personally, the slow downloads that I've experienced so far, especially Fortnite updates that I don't even play, are big issues for me. Not only that, but when Fortnite is taking forever to update, it seems to lag other games I may be playing. Games that aren't graphic intensive. Steam doesn't do that to me, though maybe it's because it downloads so fast. Will this get fixed? Maybe. I don't know.

Origin was unoptimized trash for a long time, maybe it still is, I barely use it. I only use it if I have to due to the BS I had to put up with when it came out. Epic Games Store may be the same thing.
 

a_skeleton_05

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If you're OK with forced exclusivity now when they're growing, then you better be ready to be OK with forced exclusivity after they're done growing too. If you're OK with it either way and don't care about any of it: Great, all the power to you. But don't try to fucking sell it as a pro-consumer thing because it's utter horseshit.

Some of you look at what they're doing with Fortnite and think that Epic is a good company. Some of us don't have short memories and remember how they wanted to throw PC gaming into the trash when it was "dying" for years. Now that it has long since been proven wrong and has been flourishing? Well surprise surprise!
 
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Tarrant

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Yeah the exclusivity thing with Metro was really a turn off for me. I don't even play it but that stuff scares me. Its one thing if a developer wants their games on their stores only...whatever. But something like that? Not a fan.
 
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Ravishing

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Cool? Let's just get forced into a shittier product and be happy about it. Just lol.

I'm all for competition, but compete because you are good, not because you can wave some capital around and buy steam games out from under them. The current backlash is to be expected. No need to white knight.

Stores aren't products. STFU with this crap.
The GAME is the product.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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This just in: The portion of your money that goes towards platform features, billing, and infrastructure is just a gift and is not a part of the product you're purchasing. You heard it here first folks, we're just giving stores our charity.
 
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Ravishing

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Do you consider big box stores "products" ?
When I go to Walmart I'm not claiming the building and aisles to be products.
Is Amazon a product?
Amazon even has comment sections!
Billing Infrastructure is a product?
When I use my Visa that's a product?

Jesus christ.
 
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a_skeleton_05

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Do you consider big box stores "products" ?
When I go to Walmart I'm not claiming the building and aisles to be products.
Is Amazon a product?
Amazon even has comment sections!
Billing Infrastructure is a product?
When I use my Visa that's a product?

Jesus christ.

The service you are buying the product from is a part of the product you're buying. How the fuck is this even in question?

You choose to shop at those places for specific reasons, reasons which are funded by your purchases which contributes to the products you are buying and the experience of buying them as a whole package which is the product of the sale.
 
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Ravishing

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The service you are buying the product from is a part of the product you're buying. How the fuck is this even in question?

You choose to shop at those places for specific reasons, reasons which are funded by your purchases which contributes to the products you are buying and the experience of buying them as a whole package which is the product of the sale.
The mental gymnastics you are using here to try and make "store" = "product" is astounding.
How can you be this stupid.
 
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Vorph

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The Epic launcher (I'd call it a client but that would imply it actually has any features besides the ability to launch another executable) is absolutely a product even if it is "free".
 

Kiki

Log Wizard
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Do you consider big box stores "products" ?
When I go to Walmart I'm not claiming the building and aisles to be products.
Is Amazon a product?
Amazon even has comment sections!
Billing Infrastructure is a product?
When I use my Visa that's a product?

Jesus christ.

Imagine that you must now go to the worst Walmart in existence to buy your toilet paper instead of buying it on Amazon and having it delivered to your door, because Walmart made a deal where they have exclusive rights on toilet paper. They don't have bathrooms in this Walmart, and they only have 1 checkout line with the slowest grandmother in existence. Everyone smells like farts and the floors are sticky. Are you happy about being forced to buy your toilet paper there?

How is that good for competition exactly? How is that good for consumers? Oh great, we have another store to go to that is worse than the one we already have and we are forced to use it. How great is that?!

If you want to do it right, open a bigger better store (like Bucees) and let your better features (again Steam workshop alone blows out anything for both consumers and developers) bring people in. Don't try to force them in with shady backroom deals and expect them to be happy about it.

EDIT: and if you don't think Amazon/Walmart is a product, then what are all the commercials advertising?
 
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