Steam offered me a game I didn’t like, so therefore Steam = shit.
But seriously, I have never had a problem with Steam… I wish I had something more to add. Why did I even make this post?
I like Steam, it’s a great way of chatting, playing and buying games. Only flaw is that it runs really bad on a bit old computers, for example my laptop.
When I first installed HL2 from retail in like 2005, my first impression was “What is this piece of shit I need to install with the game?”
At first glance, it had limited function, it used up my memory, and it seemed like spyware. I didn’t like it.
Now I can’t imagine life without it. You wanna see the evolution of software? Look at Steam. It evolved into something almost essential for the PC gamer, as well as the PC industry.
Steam rules.
You suck.
Questions?
P.S. hey Soup I made a haiku
Yeah, we get it already. You don’t like games.
You can call me a steam fanboy on everything except on four damn things:
- $-prices = €-prices, was better a few years ago
- in Germany you only get cut-versions of your games (no age verification)
- old games are not optimized to run properly on faster machines (e.g. commandos: behind enemy lines is unplayably fast, no cpu-tweaking could help sort that out)
- savegames are still saved locally - would be cool if my saves where available everywhere I play
What about Steam Cloud? At least for some games…
Never really checked out the possibilities of that, thanks for pointing me to it. But it doesn’t seem to help in some occasions.
Steam cloud only work for select games. It’s not a system wide feature.
I’m not talking about previously installed games, I’m talking about brand new ones. Read again.
Steam is a great platform, but there are some problems with it.
It´s unstable and slow, and tends to freeze up all the time. Happens on every computer I´ve used it on.
Only for you.
Those must’ve been hella slow computers then.
It’s a digital service, of course if there isn’t an Internet connection you won’t be able to get the game. That’s not Valve’s fault.
That’s like signing up for streaming online radio and then complaining to the site when you tell them you don’t have an Internet connection.
Yeah, but it’s a bs “feature” and completely unfair to the consumer. You may have your gaming PC not connected to the net to try and keep it free from viruses, or you may not be interested in multiplayer, so don’t see a point to connecting it in the first place, yet you are forced to have to download and install Steam to play single player games like HL2 which could just as easily run off the disk.
Take the Orange Box for example. 4 out of those 5 games are offline only games, yet you are still forced to use Steam to play them, even if you don’t install TF2. All the content for those games is on the disc, so why should the consumer be forced to download a piece of software they neither need, nor probably want?
Its an online service. It requires internet. Deal with it. Valve wants to centralize, get more steam users and thus grow. Its only reasonable.
Also, it is in no way unfair to the consumer. Unfair is if you payed for something and then without warning discovered you needed internet. Telling you “you need internet to play this”, and then requiring it is in no way unfair.
EDIT: Just read the point about steam requiring purchasing two games. What? If you are on one computer, you need only one game. If someone moves away, you’d have to buy it again anyway. There is nothing problematic about that, and certainly nothing against trade agreements there. Again, its all in the not so fine print, nothing shady, and not even debatably unethical.
However, this is an age where almost everyone in modern countries have an internet connection, so Steam is not generally frowned upon for it’s internet only service.
I don’t mean to sound like a hippy here, but no discs means saving on natural resources, albeit a little.
Also, if you’re not connecting to the internet in fear of viruses then you must not be smart enough to figure out what’s a damned virus and what’s not. Hell, I’ve been downloading torrents since I’ve figured out how and I haven’t received a single virus from it, why? Because I’m actually smart enough to figure out what’s safe and what’s not.
Steam is the best piece of software I have on my computer, second best only to Windows.
the only thing i don’t like is every time i install non-valve software via steam i have to install C++ 2005 redistributable. i swear at one point i had like 8 of them installed at once. five of which were the same version too. I just want this issue addressed.
I love steam.
I’m in the Philippines and I’m telling you now that there are no local game store even in our largest MALL. I found no Gamestop even in our Wallmart. NOBODY EVER TRIED TO SELL GAMES BECAUSE THERE WERE NO CUSTOMERS. Most Filipino gamers are poor. They can’t buy games $30+. I remember a game store (where I usually buy) closing down because of lack of customers. Most Filipinos complained that the games are not worth it and will pollute your mind. (bullshit?) I interviewed Filipino gamers with internet connection. VERY FEW of them have steam. We all agreed that steam was the best thing that happened to us.
I didn’t even discovered HL2 until 2007 when we got internet connection. I discovered steam and used it to buy my games. I didn’t have to spend money on transportation to get my game. Also… my dvd rom got busted but since I only have to download… a dvd rom wasn’t needed. The time of the downloads are just about the same as traveling back and forth and installing it to my computer.
BTW… Philippines is not listed under the countries with xbox live. WE ARE MISSING OUT!!! We steam owners know about other services other countries have that we don’t. We never played Halo, Call of Duty or any other great xbox multiplayer games online. We can only wait for it to come to PC. I’m still waiting for Halo 3 to come to PC so I can stop playing the campaign and have some real fun with multiplayer. LAN? like 1 house can own 8 xbox and 8 discs and 8 TVs and 8 people who knows how to play, interested, or even knows halo at all.
Steam offers free service, unlike xbox live which is 50$ a year? excluding the internet with that $50. Xbox live and steam are different platforms but still… we want to experience both.
When Steam first launched oh man was that program buggy. I didn’t care much for it at the time. As a matter of fact the only thing it had going for it was I didn’t have to play TFC on WON.net anymore.
Over time it got better and I seriously hate to think what the PC gaming industry would look like today if Steam didn’t exist. It has benefited Valve to work on their games without pressure by a publisher to release the game and “Patch it later”, it has allowed small time developers to do well for themselves who would have otherwise been ignored by big corporate publishers, It has grown into a community tool for gamers, ect there are other things it has done to change the eroding landscape of PC gaming.
Just the other week I was looking at some games on my Steam account I have paid money for and haven’t installed yet (due to the great deals they have time to time). WTF. Dunno if that is a pro or a con. A Pro for the Dev for sure, they got free money so to speak.
My biggest con is different accounts on the same computer. One person’s Steam account “sees” the other games on a different account and it’s annoying. For example L4D2 was in my favorites so when my 7 year old logs into his steam account my L4D2 game is also in his favorites. Also I see his “Plants Vs Zombies” in my favorites even though I don’t own the game. Valve bandaided this issue with allowing users to set categories. So I worked out a back ally solution so I don’t see my kids games and they don’t see mine using categories.
And if Valve closed their doors tomorrow and shut steam down? There would be a crack out in 2 days so I am not worried about that. I would be more worried about my account info being hacked and stolen before that happened.
What is this, 1995? If you don’t have a internet connection or one you can rely on, get a fucking console you dunce.