Impulse::Reactor

[Bluestrike]

Last week I was thinking how it would benefit gamers if there was a independant centralized system for achievements, regardless what digital distribution platform you use to play a game.

And just now I read Stardocks anouncement about their independant DRM/matchmaking/achievements/... service.

It doesn't require the impulse client but is free for dev's that also release the game (non exclusive) on Impulse.

Basicly the advantage of Steamworks without the limitation of a required steam client.

http://frogboy.impulsedriven.net/articl ... olutionary

Seems to sound great to me.

[Jetsetlemming]

I'm skeptical as my limited experiences with Impulse (bought Galciv 2 a couple months ago when it was on sale) were pretty negative.

[Bluestrike]

When it was at $2 or something?

Decided that was a cheap chance to check out how it works (working on a indie game and checking out where and how I could sell it)

I had no problems and a fast download, meanwhile I bought the 2 expansions and TA (even tough I have the orriginal , just out of dissapointment for SupCom2)

[Section_Ei8ht]

I'm all for it. I have high hopes for Impulse, although they do have some issues to work out. I've never had any problems with it: I bought Sins of a Solar Empire a while back, then Dragon Age, and the SupCom pack, no problems although my buddy who was sitting right next to me ordered the same SupCom pack at the same time, and for some reason he never got the games added to his account.

Things I love about Impulse:

- Client does not need to be running in order to play the game

- Updates are not forced

- Very lightweight interface

- You can make backups of the games you purchase.

Things I don't like about Impulse:

- Small catalog

- Lack of community (I've found myself appreciating the Steam Community more and more)

[Nineaxis]

Neat idea, but I'm still in favor of Steamworks. Does everything that needs to be done, and I'm not liking how many new services are popping up to do the same stuff. Steam is good, it has the community backing... no need to separate the gaming community on 80 different achievement and cloud platforms.

[Skjalg]

I disagree. I'd rather have 8 different platforms instead of one that has the monopoly.

Besides, theres NOTHING AT ALL that prevents valve from collaborating and sharing with the other big ones.

[robert.briscoe]

Does anyone on the PC really care that much about achievements?!

[Ginger Lord]

Only if you're under 15.

[Skjalg]

I guess you could ask this guy

[Bluestrike]

Neat idea, but I'm still in favor of Steamworks. Does everything that needs to be done, and I'm not liking how many new services are popping up to do the same stuff. Steam is good, it has the community backing... no need to separate the gaming community on 80 different achievement and cloud platforms.

Steamworks is separating the community.

As a dev I would rather have my achievements availeble for all players instead of seperate achievements for every distribution platform. (even if only 15 year old are really interested in it)

Same for matchmaking and dlc, I would not want to create separate versions for every distributor or be attached to only a specific one.

No matter how great steam might be, many people still don't trust it and refuse to use it, wich is a lost costumer.

That and I think competition is always better then a monopoly ;-)

[Sentura]

i don't get why people care so much about this? tell me, what cache of wealth or knowledge is hidden in the depths of achievement gathering?

[Skjalg]

It has to do with social and competitive stuff...

[Bluestrike]

And this is not only about achievements.

For me the most important part would be that steam/impulse/d2d etc players can all play against eatchother without the dev having to set up master servers etc of their own.

[Gloglebag]

How fair is it to demand people use the products of their competitors? One of the reasons I was afraid of steam was the idea that I would now have to have a separate background app start and running for every game from a different publisher, as it makes no sense to me for them to give money to a competitor when they can make their own, I mean they have the core competency and more resources then valve. This hasn't happened yet, which means valve is making it ridiculously cheap and convenient for them, but what kind of deal do small shitty indie devs get then, cause they do not have the bargening power of the big guys. At this point steam is being designed the same way that Itunes and apple producst are, to make it very difficult for competition to enter, which is great from a business standpoint but not so much for me.

[Skjalg]

I'm still waiting for google to make something cool with this, but they have been very quiet on this front.

They still haven't released Market with a pay-option