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STEAM announcements & updates 2011 Thread 3 | Buy now, play later.

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Aselith

Member
HP_Wuvcraft said:
They are hiring for a Data Mine Expert.

Actually, I take back my response to your PM. That position isn't evidence that they datamine customers. The duties that it describes seem to be more about developing systems to track trends on websites which would be more about looking at buying trends, search queries, etc. Not saying that it's not possible that they datamine customers, the hardware survey itself is somewhat of a voluntary datamining operation obviously though not what people were talking about EA doing however the positions existence isn't evidence of that. They need to be able to datamine themselves in order for their clients (publishers) to look at trending purchases and how sales effect their games movement and stuff such as that.

Sorry if I seem like an apologist, I was genuinely prepared to concede the point but at the same time this doesn't seem particularly definitive to me although I'm sure they're not going to state intentions to datamine customers in a job announcement.

I present as counterevidence that EA was caught out on this less than a year after Origin's release and that Steam has been around for years and years with no one accusing them of scraping hardrives to gather customer information and things of that nature as far as I'm aware. Am I wrong?


Here's the job announcement if anyone is curious:

Steam Data Mining Engineer

We believe that good information makes for good decisions. We need help mining the data we collect from our online systems and games to improve game design, pricing, sales, security, and operations. If you relish the idea of poring through millions of rows of data each day to find clues and trends, then you might be the engineer we're looking for.
Steam is one of the fastest growing multimedia digital distribution platforms in the industry today, and we want Software Engineers who bring a variety of experience with databases and data management. Growth and diversity of products mean that we’re looking for people with expertise in multiple disciplines, and the ability to rapidly incorporate new business insights into the Steam Platform.
We need engineers who can deal with all aspects of data management strategy:


Duties:
Collect and analyze requirements company-wide for data needs.
Develop front-end systems to allow users access to perform ad-hoc queries, manage and customize reports, and track operational data over multiple products and sites.
Develop back-end systems to facilitate ETL, collection, and replication as input to data warehouse and data marts.
Manage security, disaster recovery, and availability for business-critical systems.
Develop enterprise-wide data models, data dictionaries, and promote secure data accessibility.
Monitor performance and perform tuning and troubleshooting, plus capacity planning, purchasing, and upgrades as necessary.


Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in computer engineering or applied mathematics (or equivalent)
Five years experience with many or all of these aspects of database implementation in Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Analysis Services, MySQL, or both:
Database application development in PHP, ASP, C#, or C++
Database administration on high-availability, large-scale systems
Design and management of disk storage systems
Experience with one or more visualization packages such as Tableau, Spotfire, QlikView, PowerPivot
Significant experience with one of more business intelligence packages such as Microsoft Analysis Services, Oracle Business Intelligence Suite, SAS Business Intelligence
 

MRORANGE

Member
NBtoaster said:
I forgot that the TF2 hat for preordering Skyrim was a limited time dealy at quakecon. Am disappoint.


people in the uk could not even buy the game to get the item, since it was not on sale due to some Game UK store agreement.
 

svegis

Member
amdnv said:

I agree, I'm quite in favour of that sort of data mining, it's interesting to see how many have gotten to which point and in what time and so forth. I don't know about anyone else, but every time I see a stats page like that I usually compare it to my own, just because.
More often than not it's the stats for Single Player I care most about, and not my collected k:d ratio in Multi over a hundred sessions, if that makes sense.
 

Blizzard

Banned
For anyone who bought Fortix 2, if the game is too short, you can click the little circle on the world map to play (all of the?) classic maps as well.
 
3chopl0x said:
Any impressions? I loved Tales of Monkey Island but never checked out there other stuff.
I liked it. They did well recreating the Wallace and Gromit world and feel. You play mostly as Gromit, and the new characters they introduce feel like natural additions. It's good stuff. Episode 3 is probably the best. 3>2>4>1. Great artstyle too.
 
Blizzard said:
For anyone who bought Fortix 2, if the game is too short, you can click the little circle on the world map to play (all of the?) classic maps as well.

And if you rapidly mouseover the ... thing (I forgot what it is) on the main menu that makes noise, you'll unlock zombie mode which can be played on all the levels.
 

Anilusion

Member
Does anybody have a spare BF3 key or two from yesterday? My cousin and a friend of mine doesn't have the game and would love a copy each!
 

Gvaz

Banned
If you want to know why someone's banned, PM a mod instead of posting it here. Stumpy already said that earlier in the thread. Just sayin
 
Sonic Generations is lots of fun, but I must admit that I prefer the 2D sections in the 3D levels to the straight 2D or 3D bits. The straight 2D bits seem a little too limited because of the smaller move-set you get with classic Sonic, and the straight 3D bits feel like they're on-rails. I haven't tried the challenges yet, I'm assuming that's a pretty big part of the game.
 

Skilletor

Member
jim-jam bongs said:
Sonic Generations is lots of fun, but I must admit that I prefer the 2D sections in the 3D levels to the straight 2D or 3D bits. The straight 2D bits seem a little too limited because of the smaller move-set you get with classic Sonic, and the straight 3D bits feel like they're on-rails. I haven't tried the challenges yet, I'm assuming that's a pretty big part of the game.

This is part of the reason that I really enjoy the modern sonic bits. I agree that the 2D sections in modern sonic are much better than the classic sonic parts. They're my favorite moments in the game.
 

Oreoleo

Member
jaundicejuice said:
Sonic Generations is fucking amazing. I broke free from the Sonic Cycle years ago and am glad I caved on this one.
Same. The last Sonic game I owned was Adventure 2. Don't know what exactly made me preorder but it is really good. I grew up on Mario so I don't have too much of a preference between classic and modern Sonic which lets me enjoy the game more than some of the people hung up on the Genesis games. Calling it platformer of the year seems fair; it is a lot of fun.
 
Skilletor said:
This is part of the reason that I really enjoy the modern sonic bits. I agree that the 2D sections in modern sonic are much better than the classic sonic parts. They're my favorite moments in the game.

Yeah even just having the double-jump makes things feel a lot more "complete". It could be because it's pretty standard in platformers these days, and I play a lot more Mario than Sonic in general, but I just find not having a double-jump really disconcerting.
 

Archie

Second-rate Anihawk
crimsonheadGCN said:
Steam's going to hit 4.5 million concurrent users soon. That's fast.

I'm guessing that it'll hit over 5 million by the beginning of January.

And then 6 million shortly after Dota 2 officially releases. :p
 
Was wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion on which next game I should knock out of my backlog next

Mirrors Edge
Alien Vs. Predator
The Chronicle of Riddick
Metro 2033

I would prefer something short to beat
 
It's probably just because I grew up playing the older, 2D Sonic games but those are the parts I like the most in Generations based off of what I have played. I think the modern levels are slickly done compared to the few I played (Adventure 1 and 2, a bit of Secret Rings) but they feel too automated.

Overall though, it's just a really fun game. I'm kind of killing time waiting for L.A. Noire and Skyrim and this will bridge that gap nicely.
 
ohhthegore said:
Was wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion on which next game I should knock out of my backlog next

Mirrors Edge
Alien Vs. Predator
The Chronicle of Riddick
Metro 2033

I would prefer something short to beat
.
 

Snuggles

erotic butter maelstrom
angular graphics said:

^ This guy gets it. Mirror's Edge is a must play, the first-person platforming is generally good but the visuals and OST are worth the price of admission alone. Shit is nuts on PC, bro. Plus, it's only like six hours long so it's an ideal backlog game.
 

Lime

Member
ohhthegore said:
Was wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion on which next game I should knock out of my backlog next

Mirrors Edge
Alien Vs. Predator
The Chronicle of Riddick
Metro 2033

I would prefer something short to beat

Definitely Mirror's Edge. It's a quick game (4-8 hours at most). Skip the story sequences though - they're terrible.
 

confused

Banned
ohhthegore said:
Was wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion on which next game I should knock out of my backlog next

Mirrors Edge
Alien Vs. Predator
The Chronicle of Riddick
Metro 2033

I would prefer something short to beat

Mirror's edge is like 6 hours long if you shoot the badguys.
 

MNC

Member
ohhthegore said:
Was wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion on which next game I should knock out of my backlog next

Mirrors Edge
Alien Vs. Predator
The Chronicle of Riddick
Metro 2033

I would prefer something short to beat
Mirror's Edge.
 
ohhthegore said:
Was wondering if anyone can give me a suggestion on which next game I should knock out of my backlog next

Mirrors Edge
Alien Vs. Predator
The Chronicle of Riddick
Metro 2033

I would prefer something short to beat
Mirrors Edge
 
jaundicejuice said:
It's probably just because I grew up playing the older, 2D Sonic games but those are the parts I like the most in Generations based off of what I have played. I think the modern levels are slickly done compared to the few I played (Adventure 1 and 2, a bit of Secret Rings) but they feel too automated.

Overall though, it's just a really fun game. I'm kind of killing time waiting for L.A. Noire and Skyrim and this will bridge that gap nicely.

That makes sense, I never owned a Sega console so the classic bits don't resonate with me much. The 3D parts are really unusual, they're quite hard to describe. I'd hesitate to even describe them as platforming, they're more like on-rails sections with QTEs where you can step off the rail every now and then.
 

amdnv

Member
So, I just beat Half-Life Blue Shift for the first time. A couple months after re-playing the main game and Opposing Force (original playthroughs were 10+ years ago). These games are still so damn good.
Granted, Blue Shift is a bit forgettable compared to the first two, but it still feels like a valid entry in the Half-Life 1 saga.
 

ArjanN

Member
crimsonheadGCN said:
Steam's going to hit 4.5 million concurrent users soon. That's fast.

I'm guessing that it'll hit over 5 million by the beginning of January.

I think they might break 5 million during the christmas sale.
 

jediyoshi

Member
New peak users count, 4,411,148 ? I imagine the new people playing DCU through Steam are contributing a bit, it's been edging it's way into the top 10.

amdnv said:
So, I just beat Half-Life Blue Shift for the first time.
I went through this a bit ago too. Shame about the elevator glitch, seems weird they wouldn't patch out something that breaks the game like that.
 

Laekon

Member
L.A. Noire, Yay or Nay? The 360 version is $30 new and under $16 used so it doesn't look like its really worth the Steam price.
 

Lime

Member
Laekon said:
L.A. Noire, Yay or Nay? The 360 version is $30 new and under $16 used so it doesn't look like its really worth the Steam price.

Nay. There are better games out there. LA:Noire is repetitive, uncreative, illogical and too flawed to be worthy of either the time or money.
 

iNvid02

Member
Lime said:
Nay. There are better games out there. LA:Noire is repetitive, uncreative, illogical and too flawed to be worthy of either the time or money.

also it will take forever to download and the higher res on pc wont affect the faces - i dont think anyway
 
Laekon said:
L.A. Noire, Yay or Nay? The 360 version is $30 new and under $16 used so it doesn't look like its really worth the Steam price.
I'd wait for a steam sale. The game isn't bad but it gets repetitive after homicide.
 
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