Frogboy

[quote who="mbaron888" reply="23" id="2622705"]I can see every one of your points, Frogboy. My wife has a netbook for checking email and web but the damn thing does everything you mentioned. Slow to boot, force feeding updates on every app (java, adobe, windows) when all you want to do is check something quick. It's far easier and quicker to use a Blackberry, iPhone, or even an iPod touch with wireless. I just bought an iPod touch for one of my kids and that thing is SLICK! <br

[quote who="RAWRRRR" reply="13" id="2622692"]pfft who's word should we take this time, another random guy linking another very accurate news article, or the insistence of a CEO?[/quote] Uh, the article and I are saying precisely the same thing. 25 million accounts, 10 million active. Quibble: I am defining "active" as someone who has a profile.

[quote who="Rebell44" reply="9" id="2622541"] Also its 25 million active accounts. Total number of accounts is 30+ million. Its hard for me to correctly judge impact of various things on PC gaming when we dont even know total revenue (per year) of Steam, Impulse D2D etc.[/quote] Valve claims 10 million active, about 25 million total. I'd guestimate that Steam is making about $200 million (gross) per year just on third party titles (not counting

[quote who="Boxxy_Koush" reply="4" id="2622535"]I was always wondering why Frogboy would always complement GPG on things, never raising complaints when updates were buggy as hell. But now I understand, Frogboy is to nice and is critical of nothing. iPad is for people with more money then thought processes. This article is just...Oh the Mac user mentality! I know this sounds like a troll piece, but the truth is Steve Jobs could release an overpriced

[quote]Most of us already have Steam accounts so I dont think it would hurt your future sales if you sold MW2, Civ5, ETW etc. This way I have to buy them from Steam (I hate buying from retail).[/quote] Steam claims to have 25 million accounts, of which 10 million are in use. If you think "most" PC gamers have Steam accounts and that 10 million people is enough people to be "most" then we might as well pack it in and move to consoles now because 10 million or even 25 million is piddly.

[quote quoting="post"] Hi, I would like to ask (if you can answer) why Impulse (and other DD services) dont publish their revenue, profit, sales numbers etc. Is it because of NDAs from publishers? Some other reason? Such info would make current situation on DD market much clearer. All current info about DD marketshare is just bunch of rumors, estimates etc. (for example Steams marketshare is estimated from 40% to 85% ). Few months ago I wr

[quote who="Hawawaa" reply="9" id="2620613"]I also second a youtube clip of this! Come on... ahhh.... [/quote] The tool doesn't look very impressive (to me anyway). That's why I kept pooping on it. The map editor and the tile editor "demo" a lot better whereas the effects editor just looked boring.

Just an FYi that we're reading this thread closely.

I didn't want to make a journal entry on this but would rather talk directly to you guys on what we have in mind. We don't like that players have to use so much essence to build up cities right now. Instead, the plan is to require essence to still revive land but the land will spread out more quickly (it'll become more apparent why in the full 3D engine). So while you will still need to spend essence if you want to spread across large swaths of the map, you won't need to

[quote who="sur17" reply="8" id="2619239"]It's counterintuitive to me to think that beta-entrants would be angry, if anything I'm extra-double-triple pleased that we get to see the game with its bells and whistles attached [/quote] Our worry is that when users see beta 2, it'll be pretty obvious how much we've been holding back on. But we are convinced that had all the goodies been made in beta 1, we might have ended up with a much poorer game. The beta testers can hope

[quote who="Chibiabos" reply="355" id="2619208"]Frogboy: Given your acknowledgement of Microsoft's anticompetitive behavior, using its deep pockets to under-price its product to eliminate competition (like OS/2) then, when they've destroyed competition, to then start dictating prices and terms ... I wonder why Stardock seems bent on helping it further this by using IE as a basis for Impulse instead of Firefox, Opera or another browser?[/quote] I am trying to get Impulse to switc

I don't think Valve did anything but make a good business case. As an evil (dangerously evil) greedy capitalist, I am a huge Valve fanboy. Don't think of Impulse as "good" and Steam as "evil". Think of them as both "good" or both as "evil". Or maybe one less evil than the other but still. Most people don't know this but Stardock makes millions a year from our technology being preloaded on various pieces of hardware and software. It's a big part of our business. So

[quote who="GreenIsles" reply="48" id="2619180"]Thanks for the answers Brad! I guess the only remaining question is this: WHEN will we get Beta 2??? [/quote] Hopefully soon. I have to go to San Francisco later this month to start doing the marketing thing (btw, just a tip for everyone else, the marketing people hate when I refer top media tours as marketing things). So it won't be out until after the week of the 24th when I'm visiting Gamespot, IGN, PC Gamer and so

Just one minor example. With the beta, it would never ever have occurred to us to have a global resource system. Every city having its own resource pool has always been how it's done. If not for the beta testers debating it we would never have considered something new and interesting like this which has led to a much "funner" game design. When the reviews of the final game come out, I think the importance of having beta testers involved as early as possible will become increasingly recognized

[quote who="DeCypher00" reply="339" id="2618387"] Quoting Frogboy, reply 338 Nice strawman. There's virtually no Valve bashing in this entire thread. Nearly all the ire is directed towards 2K. Don't get all Derek Smart on me. You know as well as I do that the majority of this thread is the bashing of the evil Steam future monopoly. If not, then simply bashing Steam.[/quote] Being worried about PC gaming become a closed platform is hardly "Steam bashing".

Thanks for the support. I just want to say, and I suspect others here feel the same, that Firaxis is a great game studio that makes great games.

[quote who="FutileEmotion" reply="27" id="2618973"] Quoting arstal, reply 24I wonder if the Civ 5= Steam announce had something to do with this. I doubt that they are changing their mind based on Civ 5. The best thing that Stardock can do for Elemental's sales and Impulse's distribution is to make Elemental the best game they can. I'd actually say that Elemental is competing more with one of Steam's inhouse games, albeit indirectly, than Civ 5.[/q

[quote who="GreenIsles" reply="19" id="2618945"]A few questions: 1) How long is Beta 2 expected to last (now that it's not merely a Multiplayer test)? 2) Will Beta 2 include a Tutorial mode, or is that technically a part of the Campaign? 3) Will said Campaign be available in any of the Betas, or only in the final release? Thanks![/quote] 1. Until we're happy with it. Though, likely not long since the tactical battles are already in int

[quote]Valve is also granting anyone who bought any Source game on Windows the Mac equivalent for free. Watch out, the evil Steam empire is coming for you by expanding into your market when other companies don't even bother to do so.[/quote] Nice strawman. There's virtually no Valve bashing in this entire thread. Nearly all the ire is directed towards 2K.

Just space really. We need 1024 pixels across to fit the UI.

[quote who="strager" reply="54" id="2618214"] Can I quote that to your investors? [/quote] If we had any, sure. :)

In tactical battles, there's no grid support at all. It's pixel based (still turns).

1024x600 is probably going to get supported. But 800x600 won't I'm afraid.

[quote who="TCores" reply="27" id="2618129"] Thanks, that is assuring news. I am looking forward to the cool multiplayer mods. Warcraft had some cool ones like tower defense and dota, I am sure elemental will get silly and fun mods like these as well. It would be neat if one coul make an RTS mod out of Elemental, but I think we'll be stuck with a turn-based system. Sadly, no towerdefense.[/quote] The Elemental engine is real-time already. We force it

[quote who="Tasunke" reply="45" id="2618000"]But the AI can't win if it has no one to play against ... and other AI don't count.[/quote] It counts for me. When I "play" Galactic Civilizations it's primarily to watch the computer players play against each other. With Elemental, I anticipate other freaks like me to do that since users can define their own AI personalities, assign them to players and then watch them fight it out. You humans, pah. Frankly, if I didn'