Steam announcement countdown..


that he was only stating that in relation to "game controller evolution"
Which I also pointed out is not necessarily true either. Even if it fails, it shouldn't hurt anyone but Valve.
I would be interested in you rephrasing his statement so that his intention can't be interpreted otherwise.
That's just it, I don't know that I fully understand his intention. That's why I pointed out the poor word choice. If I knew exactly what he meant I wouldn't have needed to clarify. I can guess, but it's always better for understanding to get it direct.
 
Had he actually implied that ?
Implied nothing, that is literally what was said
I see this controller as more of a setback than improvement.
I'm saying it can't be a setback if there is nothing before it to set back, unless he meant "the entire industry is being setback" but that is silly as well, as I pointed out. Most likely he didn't think this deeply about it and what he actually wants to say requires a different word, but that's why I pointed out: I like learning about other people's opinions, I want to know exactly what he's thinking, but I won't get that if he's describing it with words that don't mean what he thinks they mean.
Sorry, I did not notice before that this thread had comments related to my post.

Setback may indeed be the wrong word, I meant it as in two things:

1.

They are trying to build a controller which can be used to control pretty much everything - for me that feels like exactly the wrong approach, because I love the idea of different controller types for different types of games, which I think has been the way we were headed.

Back in the 80's you had your keyboard, joystick and... well... wasn't that about it? Yea, mouse, yea lightgun... PowerGlove and other stuff that "passed by" but was never supported...

Now we got dance mats, we got konga/drum/guitar controllers, we got the Wii controllers, we got kinect, we got steering wheels, we got joysticks with accurate button placement for the F16... in fact we got "build your own cockpit" for simulation fans... all this in addition to the regular keyboard, mouse, joystick combo. And we got the upcoming omni and such.

Wonderfull stuff. And pretty well supported, thanks to USB standards and such.

Valve is not saying you cannot use those things, of course, but it could be that developers start to aim just for the lowest common denominator again on the PC - which happened with some games with regards to keyboard+mouse vs. XBox360 controller support years ago already... much less steering wheels...

2.

A lot of the stuff mentioned above, especially kinect and dance mats has encouraged people to move. Even the stuff that hasn't has been good for "work ergonomics", if you can call them that in this context. The downside is that there's more junk to store in your house, but...

Valve has a picture of a cat and a dog sitting on the couch, staring at the screen in semidarkness. Really, I just find even the picture here:

http://store.steampowered.com/livingroom/SteamController/

rather depressing, when I compare it with the sight of my kids playing Mario Dance...

Of course, people decide what kind of controllers they use, but I would like developers to try and get people to buy more stuff so they have to move to play... there are times when more cheap plastic in the corner of the living room can be beneficial ;) .

So, a "setback" (you can rephrase that, if neccessary, I'm not a native english speaker, so the words I choose are often wrong words that I've heard in a totally different context :rolleyes: ) in those senses. And of course, the "I see this..." was supposed to be another way of saying "IMO" anyways...

(I have to say, though: The steam controller is likely to be better than the mouse+keyboard as far as ergonomics go, though, because that combo is a wrist injury just waiting to happen...)

Edit: Anyone countering with "the cat and mouse are playing a strategy game, not a dance game" yeah, they are and for strategy games I'd hope for something like Tom Cruise has in the movie Minority report right in the beginning. That would not even be terribly difficult to add with a Wii or Kinect type controller + some new little gadget for added detailed accuracy. But it isn't going to happen, because the basic assumption is that people want to sit down and use two knobby (or now touchscreeny) things with their thumbs.

And one more thing that is somewhat unrelated: The touchscreen, or indeed anything with a touchscreen is, the way I see it, at odds with Rift and Riftlikes... which might (or might not once again) be a big thing... At least they're cooler now than the VirtualBoy was <_< .
 
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I like the idea of a controller that can do everything. I really don't like having different control schemes for different types of games. Especially for the living room, I'd like one controller and that's it. Hopefully this will be good across the genres I play. If not I hope the xbox one controller will work on linux at some point.
 
I like the idea of a controller that can do everything. I really don't like having different control schemes for different types of games. Especially for the living room, I'd like one controller and that's it. Hopefully this will be good across the genres I play. If not I hope the xbox one controller will work on linux at some point.
The xbox360 one works on linux, why do you need the xboxone's?
 
Mostly because the xbox 360 dpad is the most horrible thing ever, and my favorite genre is platformers and zelda style adventure games. The xboxone has an amazing nintendo style dpad as well as the proper analog stick placement.
 
Setback may indeed be the wrong word, I meant it as in two things
 
Ah, I see, yes yes.  Good points.  Setback is definitely not correct.  A "setback" is... a defeat, basically.  When something has gone wrong and you have lost something, that is a setback.  The phrase "turning a setback into victory" means starting at a disadvantage, and then winning despite (or because of) that disadvantage.  The Pandora has suffered many setbacks, but it hasn't really caused anything bad to happen in "the industry", so it itself is not a setback. Same with this controller.  If the controller does fail, it will be a loss (and therefore setback) to Valve.  If it succeeds then it was never a setback, but you can only know if that after the events have happened.

The word you're probably looking for is "regression".  They've intentionally moved backwards in some ways, but at the same time they are doing it in entirely new ways.  Sometimes you need to take a few steps back in order to see a different way forward.

Could be like you say, it could turn into a poorly supported mess, or maybe it fits itself into a specific niche and the "omnicontroller" becomes just an awesome FPS controller or something.

In either case, I'm glad they're at least trying something new.  It may be a regression to the "omnicontroller" trying to be everything, but even if it fails there's bound to be at least some good parts coming out of it that other companies can learn from.
 
^Agreed.

System alone I do like the PS3 over the 360.. Although personally I do like the 360 controller and it's staggered analogs.. the dpad is a bit wonky but I do like it over the PS3's dpad..

 
 
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Yeah the PS3 dpad is utter garbage as well. Nintendo had the patent for the best dpad design. But it's run out now, which is why MS can use it on the xbox one controller. Also the ps3 has the analog sticks in the wrong place.
 
Yeah but that doesn't actually matter, sliding your thumb across from one pad section to the other causes crazy blisters. They only did that design because they couldn't infringe on nintendos rights, they should change it now.
 
Could this be the first glimpse of the final part of the jigsaw?
Guess they'll have to wait a few days now, before they can register in the US. :D

But to be serious: If they just registered the trademark, it will probably take a few more years to release the game.
 
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The specs for the Steambox beta machines have been released.

Looks pleasantly powerful to me.

The Steambox should prove popular with those gamers who value graphical performance, backwards compatibility, low cost of ownership (compared to consoles).

Doubt I'd ever buy one as my PC is already in the living room with outputs to monitor and TV.
 
I will pass,

Already pre-ordered PS4, and I will continue to use my T510 for my steam games (CS:GO and Indies) for the next ~2.5 years. And then i will get myself some ThinkPad/Elittebook mobile workstation class laptop.

For sure I will get Steam Machine, if they release full cloud box in the next 2 to 3 years.
 
Those specs are really powerful. The question is: What for? Current Linux titles hardly need such power. Valve really must have some aces up its sleeve.
 
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