Jimquisition: The King of Crap Steam Publishers

[Demonchaser27]

Reminds me of what happened with Atari back in the 80's. Valve needs to set up some kind of publisher restrictions like Nintendo did with the NES.

I hear about those a lot, but am curious as to how useful were those restrictions when they were around? It didn't stop companies like LJN from releasing barely-playable garbage based on every licensed property in sight. It didn't stop Konami from setting up the shell corporation Ultra Games so that they could publish twice as many games. Having seen things like Cheetah Men, I suppose the market could have been much sloppier, but I feel like the market was plenty sloppy during the last few generations (I feel like I've seen Bible games for the DS and ridiculous amounts of junk like 50-Games-In-ONE!, all being sold at Gamestop, Walmart, etc...) and nothing went awry for the first-party releases on the GBA, DS, etc...

Usually the point isn't to stop it entirely. That's practically impossible without EXTREME measures taken to prosecute every single shit head, which would seem barbaric. The point is to reduce the amount of garbage that a particular outlet is getting/putting out so that the storefront isn't looked upon as garbage 90% of the time. Did NES and SNES have garbage titles? Absolutely. Did it have as many (percentage-wise) as the Atari/Commodore/etc. consoles of the 80's? Not even close.

 

[Abnaxis]

But...I actually like Space Empires V. When I hear "Strategy First," that's the first thing I think of. Before watching the video, my thought was "Surely it isn't the same company..." but sure enough...

The company's been around for two and a half decades. Are they actively manufacturing drivel, or are they just re-releasing old titles from yesteryear? Like GOG except not limited to "classics." If that's the case, it makes it seem a bit more palatable (and more understandable that they would release 3 different Ford driving games on the same day).

 

[shintakie10]

Who are you to say what is and isnt worth it?

Someone who doesn't like to be deceived, for one.

Dude, there is a thing called the internet, use it. How hard is it to make some basic research about a game before buying? This doesnt even apply just to games but basicly everything like cars, TVs, consoles, movies, eletronics, etc...

You shouldn't need to do research to find out if a game sold on a storefront like Steam actually works. It should just fuckin work. Knowingly selling a defective product is bad business and Steam/Valve do it a lot.

 

[Something Amyss]

Dude, there is a thing called the internet, use it. How hard is it to make some basic research about a game before buying? This doesnt even apply just to games but basicly everything like cars, TVs, consoles, movies, eletronics, etc...

How does that excuse lying? False advertising's illegal, dude.

 

[Something Amyss]

You shouldn't need to do research to find out if a game sold on a storefront like Steam actually works. It should just fuckin work. Knowingly selling a defective product is bad business and Steam/Valve do it a lot.

But...but...maybe I like to buy games that I can't play!

 

[shintakie10]

You shouldn't need to do research to find out if a game sold on a storefront like Steam actually works. It should just fuckin work. Knowingly selling a defective product is bad business and Steam/Valve do it a lot.

But...but...maybe I like to buy games that I can't play!

To be fair, some of my favorite games were horribly broken games. Granted they were fun because I played them with friends and we spent most of our time amusing ourselves since the game sucked and barely worked, but still!

 

[jackpipsam]

It's a shame because I remember back in the day buying Strategy First games in boxes from stores and you know what, they weren't bad.

But I guess the digital age makes putting shit out easy.

 

[josemlopes]

You shouldn't need to do research to find out if a game sold on a storefront like Steam actually works. It should just fuckin work. Knowingly selling a defective product is bad business and Steam/Valve do it a lot.

But...but...maybe I like to buy games that I can't play!

To be fair, some of my favorite games were horribly broken games. Granted they were fun because I played them with friends and we spent most of our time amusing ourselves since the game sucked and barely worked, but still!

Well, have fun having someone forcing you to not have that fun because apparently more options is bad because some people cant seem to be able to make their own choice and need a system that chooses for them.

You shouldn't need to do research to find out if a game sold on a storefront like Steam actually works. It should just fuckin work. Knowingly selling a defective product is bad business and Steam/Valve do it a lot.

But...but...maybe I like to buy games that I can't play!

Hell, even Saints Row 2 on the PC is a broken mess, should we take that one out?

I know a lot of people that would say that 7,62 High Calibre is a unplayable, I actually had a friend say "What? People used to pay for this?" when I told him that Receiver was for free during a certain time, EYE: Divine Cybermancy was also called a broken game by multiple reviewers. Those games I actually liked for what they were and I wouldnt be able to have some of those (especially 7,62 HC) on Steam because some people think its too unpolished. What about Postal 2, even at the time of release it was seen as a broken game for many?


Also, I still havent seen that many actually broken games that cant run with some tweaking, even the ones of Strategy First run well, they are just incredibly shitty but that isnt the same as broken, its simply a terrible game, something that the buyer should have known and could have known by doing one of multiple things:

A: See a video on Youtube
B: See the costumer reviews on the store page
C: See the Metacritic score that is on the store page

A minute is enough to know if its shit or not.


Also, Mountain is a game that might as well be called a screensaver, there are no controls and its just a camera rotating around a mountain while shit falls on top of it. Yet a lot of people seem to like it, it has almost 2000 positive reviews and 250 negative reviews. Go ahead and tell those 2000 costumers that they shouldnt be enjoying their game because it isnt even a game.

 

[AznaktaX]

4:09

Aaarrgghhh....I think someone just shot me right in the soul.

Christ, first time in my life I ever see a game that I can call so fast "1/10".

What is this company anyway?

The modern LJN?

 

[szaleniec1000]

Europa and heart of iron are published by paradox interactive.

SF published the early games in North America, from what I can gather.

 

[Slash2x]

In light of this video I know that none of these games will make his Curation page..... Let me repeat that

Jim Sterling has a curation page.....
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/6856736/
BEST IDEA EVER! You too can see what games are worthy of Jim.
*drops mic and walks out*

 

[girzwald]

Dude, there is a thing called the internet, use it. How hard is it to make some basic research about a game before buying? This doesnt even apply just to games but basicly everything like cars, TVs, consoles, movies, eletronics, etc...

How does that excuse lying? False advertising's illegal, dude.

Is there a requirement that games must be 100% working to be on green light? I doubt it since early access games are all the rage. Did they make any claims that the game works 100%? I doubt it, because that would be dumb.

Your argument is now invalid.

 

[girzwald]

Who are you to say what is and isnt worth it?

Someone who doesn't like to be deceived, for one.

Dude, there is a thing called the internet, use it. How hard is it to make some basic research about a game before buying? This doesnt even apply just to games but basicly everything like cars, TVs, consoles, movies, eletronics, etc...

You shouldn't need to do research to find out if a game sold on a storefront like Steam actually works. It should just fuckin work. Knowingly selling a defective product is bad business and Steam/Valve do it a lot.

No, you shouldn't have to, but hi, welcome to reality. Not researching any product you intend to buy is at best, risky. At worst, completely stupid.

 

[Schadrach]

Strategy First published Perimeter 2. That's how you know that game is shit.

They used to not be horrific as a publisher though, which is the sad thing.

Diggles, Disciples series, Europa Universalis, Etherlords and it's sequel, I of the Dragon, GalCiv, Culpa Innata and the Jagged Alliance series were all passable to good, depending on taste and published by Strategy First. It seems like after they went bankrupt and were bought that they started heading steadily downhill, with a sharp drop presumably once publishing contracts carried over from the purchase were finished.

Which is kind of sad because I used to consider their name on something to be a sign that it would at least be unique and of at least passable quality, but that was before the dust settled after they were bought out a decade ago.

 

[daxterx2005]

I remember back in the early 2000s I'd play games on addictinggames.com, and you know what? 90% of them look better than the shit Jim was just displaying.

 

[Lykosia_v1legacy]

Strategy First has really fallen down. They were the best RTS/TBS publisher in the 90s and early 2000s. Jagged Alliance, Galactic Civilizations, Kohan, Space Empire series, Hearts of Iron and Europa Universalis, tons of great games.