IDEEN FÜR RYZOM

Im ageanst using Valve's Steam. Try look into the critics of steam, before jumping to the conclusion that Steam is the solution to get this game distributed. Steam's goals is about making money, and not for Ryzom's owners but for Steam's.
The terms, and changing terms, theyve offered/done to small indipendent games in the past is a sad story when seen from the game-makers perspective. Whenever a company has tried to do distributions alongside Steam, it has to my knowledge never gone well in the long run.

While Ryzom being on Steam would be great in principle, I'd be concerned about the terms too. Steam has to make its money somehow, and it does not do so by advertising within the client, unless preferential treatment is given to Valve game ads (I wouldn't know). So, how do they make their money? I would expect a combination of charging developers to have their games hosted on Steam, and the adding of commission to purchases. Perhaps this is why Steam MMOs such as STO require that you pay a sub and buy the client - to save themselves from having to add commission to subs.

I'm not against putting Ryzom on Steam, but nor do I consider it an obvious step, without careful consideration of the costs involved.

A lot of games have that mechanic of "purchase the game, get 30 days free" plus "recurring subscription fee" pricing model. It gives publishers a way to sell boxes in stores. And since it works out to be about the same thing to the end-user, especially considering free trials, it can work to the advantage of the publisher wanting to put a boxed version in a store, or an electronic version online.

What I have rarely seen in other subscription-based games is "play for free for as long as you want, with some limitations", and definitely not on Steam. That right there could be a deal breaker for the terms that VALVe might require.

If terms suitable to both VALVe and Winch Gate can be worked out, and if Winch Gate wants the exposure and extra players/potential income, then Steam is a good way to achieve that. Contrasting the Apple Store, Steam markets primarily to gamers and people purchasing products for gamers, so the target audience is much more focused. That's all I've been saying =)

Just like with the overwhelming majority of other MMOs and games on Steam, however, you are not required to purchase your game from Steam just because it is available there. There is no need for prophecies of Doom and Gloom =)

While I have no clue about the terms Valve may have for letting a game be published on Steam, I think it should be mentioned that there is a section on Steam dedicated purely to free to play multiplayer games and MMOs. Which tells me that unlimited free trial or non-existence of the boxed version of the game/client probably wouldn't pose that big a problem.

I stil believe this is worth pursuing to boost game membership and enhancing the games visibility to the gaming community