[Tacops] TacOps v4 Online Sales ?

[Martin Cracauer]

I have no experience hosting a game on Steam.  I see an increasing
number of 2D and 3D wargames pop up on Steam, many exclusively.  So I
guess it can't be all bad.

Steam gives you more than just game sales.  They always include forums
that you probably need to zookeep.  People expect regular blog-like
updates or notes on software updates, which is all integrated into the
client.

Life on Steam is review-driven, and reviews are partially driven by
price.  There is a strong hierarchy what kind of game in what state
can command what kind of price.  Anything over gets negative reviews
just because of the price.  The old $25 for TacOps seem about right to
me.

People can edit reviews later.  There is a culture of "in doubt
negative" and remark inside the review that it will be edited to a
positive one if xyz gets fixed, or the developer attitude changes, or
whatever the matter is.  Outright review bombing due to unpopular
turns of direction can be devastating and are common enough that Steam
summarizes such periods differently.  As a result, hosting on Steam
naively without having all ducks in a row can be a hard to recover
from mess.

I estimate that TacOps would do well because it works and the price
is/was right.  TacOps has some flexibility issues that could attract
negative reviews but I think those can be partially avoided by stating
them clearly enough pre-sales.

As mentioned Steam is also implicit copy protection.  If Steam shuts
down people can't play your games anymore.  Other developers probably
like it because then they don't have to worry about copy protection.
I dislike that I can only run one instance of steam with a game up at
a time, no matter how many computers I have.  I moved my DCS install
out of Steam because of that.  Can't leave the DCS editor up on the
screen for later and play Scramble on another computer.

Martin

Major H wrote on Sat, Aug 16, 2025 at 06:33:56PM -0500: 
> Anyone very familiar with Steam, Epic Games, or other online distributors ?
> 
> I am financially good right now, without selling anything.  But I wonder
> once in a while if I am leaving money on the table that could buy more
> trinkets for the grandkids and polish the old lake cabin a bit.
> 
> TacOps v4 is somewhat dated/retro, but it is stable, and I get a few emails
> weekly asking where it can be bought.
> 
> Thoughts, suggestions, pros and cons  ?
> 
> Best regards, Major H
> 
> 
> 
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Martin Cracauer <cracauer at cons.org>   http://www.cons.org/cracauer/