Your opinion on Steam

Technology and Gaming
#1

NOTE: This is NOT a dig at Steam, nor a thread to dump your complaints into, unless relevant to the discussion. Neither is it an excuse to rag on Steam, nor somewhere to vent hate for Steam/me/anyone/anything else you feel like. Keep that shit out and keep the topic friendly. This is a discussion thread, nothing more, nothing less. Apologies if this is in the wrong place, seemed most appropriate here.

What is your opinion on the Steam platform as a whole? My opinion of it is, that as software, it is an excellent platform and does what it sets out to do pretty well. I.e. One handy place to buy and manage your games. But my father has pointed out two main problems with it, both of which I agree with him on.

  1. If you buy a Steam integrated game, you cannot install and play on an offline machine. What happens if your gaming PC isn’t connected to the internet? What if you have no internet (by whatever happenstance)? You are then denied the game you rightfully own and paid money for in good faith. You are also forced to register with Steam and (assuming you make further purchases with Steam) divulge personal information.

  2. Game licences are linked by account, meaning that if two people on the same machine want to play the same game, they either have to use the same account (not ideal), or, in the case of my household, the same person has to buy something again that they’ve already paid for. This is, quite frankly, a shady business practice and I do wonder if the EU trading standards board are entirely aware of it. My dad actually tried to bring this up with Steam Support recently. The conversation went like this:

Dad: Posed above problem, asked if this is in fact, correct.
Steam: Canned response 101.
Dad: Pursues the issue politely, asking for more information.
Steam: Closes thread without another reply.

Now, my dad’s job is basically glorified tech support, and if he handled a support call like that, he’d get the sack pretty damned quick.

Now I’m not saying that Valve engage in dodgy business practices, but all it takes is one greedy fucker on the board of directors to chance their arm, and it’s not like large corporations are exactly unknown to dally on the fringes of the law (or engage in outright illegal activities).

Another point that I just thought of: If you buy a non-Steam game through Steam, say for the sake of argument, Unreal Tourney 99, you can’t launch the game without first logging into Steam, meaning you are tied into Steam and the platform, something which not everyone wants to do. Now, admittedly, yes you can go download a non-Steam launcher, but most people wouldn’t know those things existed, and it quite frankly is a pain in the arse waiting for Steam to load, before I can play a game that only ever required a CD before.

Thoughts and opinions pl0x.

#2

Yeah… There are some positives and negatives even to the most “admired” Developers. I lost my internet because of a maintenance. I couldn’t play any of my games for 3 weeks. Whenever I log in, steam asks if I would like it to start offline. I click the “start offline” button and steam says connection problem and exits. I rented a computer and went to the steam forums… I found out it was already discussed over and over. The problem never seems to be solved by Valve which I know they can.

Now… before I exit steam I go “offline” and exit steam. So if lose my internet again, I can launch steam and play my games without a problem. The thing is… going offline takes about 10 seconds and 10 seconds is already too long for gamers, and that you have to go online again when you log in to get updates.

I agree with the loading. It really takes long, BUT I really feel a lot safer with steam. My games on cd’s… they are exposed to a lot of different hazards. I think losing time about 2-3 mins before I can play my game is enough sacrifice to be safe. Hackers? I think the steam officials can handle that… :slight_smile:

#3

I remember back in 2006 when a friend of mine keylogged a few internet cafe steam accounts (all games unlocked) and I had every game on steam for a while until valve changed them from normal accounts to special accounts that only run on specific computers.

#4

I would have to agree to the above post about problems in offline steam. It is a pain having to set Steam in offline mode every time I want to exit, but it least it saves me the trouble of having to drive to the nearest store to buy a game. I also have a tendency to lose track of my discs.

#5

The platform is very good, but they could finnally fix issues with buying games (non-stop errors and no support at all if you ask for it). It’s not only me, a lot of people have these issues (there’s huuuuge topic on steam forums). I remember buying Crysis 2 on Steam took me two days due to these issues…

Regarding requiring internet to play… I think you have to go offline mode before the connection to internet is lost - then it works perfect. All in all, I think you can acces single player games just from /steamapps (not sure) not even starting Steam. Keep in mind internet is becoming standard nowadays and in some countries (Norway or Sweden?) it’s a human right to have acces to internet or something similar to that.

Regarding licences… Well, if you buy a retail game, you’re not allowed to play it on multiple machines at once as it is illegal. I can’t see any problem with Steam licenses.

#6

I’ve been slowly changing my mind about Steam, going from the Valve-fanboy holy shit this is awesome all my games!!1! to a more disgruntled user. Basically, Steam is the dream platform for everyone: Developers have a streamlined way for distributing content (even bypassing publishers in some cases), a large user base, forums and integrated DRM, clever marketing and holiday offers that still can’t be beaten, statistics and usage gathering and a lesser cost ; Users have a way to keep track of their games, play them anywhere with a net access, no losing/scratching physical media, no hassle with heavy and unknown DRM (when online), stats, friends, chat, anti-cheat, streamlined updating and -sometimes- interesting prices ; Valve make a shitload of money.

The thing is, I like the cloud as a general idea but it must not destroy all other possibilities. I’m not going to the idiotic extreme of “what if Valve closes and you lose all your games?”. Yet games are like movies and music, even if they are not legally personal, morally if you like a game you always feel like you own it. You have to be able to play it on a deserted island. And as time passes, I feel Steam takes away that lasting, content feeling of ownership from me, trying to replace it with instant satisfaction and consumer drives.
Steam has been taking a more and more social turn and ran along with gaming trends: achievements, DLC, meta features. Last time I bought a game there, I saw all those perfectly calculated offers all over the store, all those DLC just expensive enough, that vast difference of prices between regions, those bonus TF2 hats for buying another game and thought I AM A CONSUMER WHORE, take me now Valve.

This dirty feeling aside and although I’m a bit scared about what it’s going to become, there is only one thing I can ask from Steam right now: a true offline mode.
Tie a Steam account to a computer, allow to backup the games you download and reinstall them on that computer without ever having to access the net again. Ever. If I want to leave for Cambodia and play Portal 2, you should allow it because it will make me feel good about you. Simple.
Pirates will pirate anyway.

#7

This is possibly THE biggest argument against Steam, and the only one I can’t argue against. Valve has said they’d unlock all games from their DRM, but how would they even do that? I’m sure Activision wouldn’t appreciate that, let alone, if the company doesn’t exist how can they give us our games back?

#8

Best thing since sliced bread for me.

#9

I enjoy steam a lot. I’ve used it since won HL was still up and running, and it has added a lot of great features.

As for gripes I have with steam, this isn’t really valves fault though as it is the game developers themselves: third party games sometimes need a lot of tinkering to get to a playable position. Bioshock I needed to install special audio drivers etc, yesterday I had to help a friend of mine get dead rising 2 to work, and that was a bitch. This shit should work out of the download.

Another thing is the whole tf2 mannco thing and exclusive items, but that is actually valve and the tf2 people being fags and accepting it.

I also really wish that valve at least for their own games, if not all games, would add the feature of gaming in a window, but with no border for every game. Would be incredibly useful for dual screen gamers like me.

Also tabbed chat could be much better, with icons instead of names when it gets too crowded, and colored so you can tell who is online.

As for updating, buying, running games, it’s pretty great. Only problem there is when they do maintenance and you can’t use steam friends etc.

Also for the steam program itself, I personally think the new steam skin is ugly as fuck and could be streamlined and consolidated much more, and I was sad that they didn’t have any official alternate skins, but there are plenty of pretty decent user made ones out there.

#10

What exactly is wrong with it? It is completely voluntary, you don’t have to buy a thing if you don’t want to.

#11

And it doesn’t affect gameplay, so who cares? If people want to waste money, so be it.

#12

^This.

Valve don’t force you to buy anything from the store, and even if you get a crate, just delete it or trade it to someone who wants it. No biggie.

#13

I said people being fags and using it was part of the problem.

Also I have like 2 dozen crates that are sitting in my backpack staring at me every time I open the game advertising the mannco store and a new crate every time I play.

One of my own friends got me holiday keys for my birthday. How gay is that?

#14

So trade 'em or delete 'em. Problem solved.

#15

And start ignoring him.

#16

I’ve read somewhere, that they have a possibility to unlock them from the DRM. And it works. But I can’t remember where I’ve read it.

#17

They’ve said on numerous occasions that if they were to become bankrupt and Steam would become defunct; they would release one last patch for Steam to remove the need for an internet connection at launch.
While this would be ideal from a consumer perspective, they’ve remained reserved about this and rightly so; they’re making tonnes of money and not really anywhere near bankruptcy.

My opinion on Steam is that for all of it’s flaws, I’ve grown to like it; it has community features that I use to quite an extent, and it’s a central hub for my games library. If the internet is out I just play something like TTD if Steam decides that I’m not allowed to play my games.
While the above is frustrating, it’s also a godsend; I’d merely launch that game to be bored with it on the occasions that it has happened.

#18

So basically what you’re saying is if Valve becomes no more, then they make Steam to where you can easily pirate the games?

#19

If valve goes under Steam would be sold to EA or one of those real developers

#20

thats wrong if you already installed the software you can play in offline mode this is what happens

Steam tryes to detect internet connection but when it fails there is 2 options

  1. retry connection
  2. play in offline mode

if you chosse offline mode you will be directed to the account you where logged in to last time (unless you chose the logout option then steam cant remember your acc you have to choose the exit option right away if you wanna use offline mode) in offline mode you will be able to play singleplayer games and multiplayer (not servers in the internet but your own hosted games) you will not be able to buy anything getting contact to friends through steam buying games or installing games

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