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HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY STEAM! (12/9/13)

R

Rickenslacker

Banned
I don't know when I originally got Steam, definitely not on release but maybe a few months after to try out 1.6 with some friends, but then I remembered Counter-Strike sucks so I uninstalled the whole thing after a few matches. Made another account about a month prior to HL2's release when I couldn't for the life of me remember what my original credentials were and I stuck with it since then. Friends list didn't work for such a long time.

I kind of miss the old puke green theme.
 
legacyzero

legacyzero

Banned
The other half of the reason I've gone almost ENTIRELY PC exclusive. Steam is amazing. Anybody trying to take it on is just fooling themselves. Just quit now, Origin.
 
S

smokeandmirrors

Banned
Got an account in February 2010 and only really started in June 2010 when I bought me a gaming PC for a graduation present to myself.

Now I'm a strict PC only gamer and it feels so right.

Thanks Steam!
Valve
 
M

Mindsnare

Neo Member
God, I'll be so screwed if Valve ever shuts it down. ~300 games.

The client is still clunky as hell though, cmon people. The community/activity browser is just so damn slow.
 
J

jerry113

Banned
Mindsnare said:
God, I'll be so screwed if Valve ever shuts it down. ~300 games.

The client is still clunky as hell though, cmon people. The community/activity browser is just so damn slow.
Click to expand...

Gabe Newell has said that in the event Valve/Steam ever goes under, they would unlock the DRM so everyone who has purchased games on Steam could keep their game files. That's like a last resort though.
 
E

epmode

Member
iluSteam
jerry113 said:
Gabe Newell has said that in the event Valve/Steam ever goes under, they would unlock the DRM so everyone who has purchased games on Steam could keep their game files.
Click to expand...

Link pls.

This will never happen for non-Valve games. At least Valve isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
Steam basically rescued the mid-tier game. In an industry where everyone is going under and only the AAA major studios are existing, new tech and services like Steam allow small guys to compete. Many of the games releasing for 20$ on Steam these days are the equivalent of many of the retail releases from the PSOne days and even the PS2 days. "Indie" games are actually becoming the new majority.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
epmode said:
iluSteam

Link pls.

This will never happen for non-Valve games. At least Valve isn't going anywhere anytime soon.
Click to expand...
JaseC said:
Gabe's long-gone SPUF post about this was actually made before Steam began selling third-party games. It was never intended as a general policy, which is why Valve hasn't said anything of it since. That said, I don't doubt that Valve would remove CEG from its own games should the company find itself knocking on death's door -- other publishers, however...
Click to expand...

.
 
K

~Kinggi~

Banned
Might as well nuke digital distro from orbit if Steam ever goes under and people lose their games. God help the internet if that happens. Hell, 4chan alone will probably put hits on everyone involved.
 
T

toddhunter

Member
Great thread Mr Orange. Quite a nostalgia hit with how much I hated being "forced" onto the platform way back when.

I don't want to be the guy to bang on about it, but under "The future" and parental controls, I'd still raise questions about the direction of certain features such as the unlocking of weapon cases for real money.
 
T

TGMIII

Member
I still remember installing steam when it launched and during the installation there was a little animation of the Valve logo rotating in and out of some guys butt.

Good times.
 
Z

Zoned

Actively hates charity
Steam has been the main reason why I switched from console to PC gaming.

All hail Valve, and Gaben Sir..
 
M

MasterOfPastures

Banned
Steam saved PC gaming - real talk. Publishers were dumping their efforts due to "piracy". The "Great Dumbing Down" of all mainstream games caused by this shift might never be reverted. But indies on PC are still the spear-point of innovation, vision and creativity. And through them and PC, Gaming as a whole will never die.
 
J

Josh7289

Member
Love Steam, but during the sales I'm always so torn between getting the Steam version of a game (so cheap) or the GOG or other DRM-free version of that same game (when I have a choice)...
 
G

Grief.exe

Member
Josh7289 said:
Love Steam, but during the sales I'm always so torn between getting the Steam version of a game (so cheap) or the GOG or other DRM-free version of that same game (when I have a choice)...
Click to expand...

Its good to have competition.

Its interesting because Valve really fostered competition in the PC market via Steamworks. Allowing other retailers to sell Steam keys without having to share a percentage with Valve is borderline genius. That is how places like GMG and Amazon can provide games at lower prices than Steam.
 
J

Josh7289

Member
Grief.exe said:
Its good to have competition.
Click to expand...

I agree. I'm not complaining, just remarking... in fact, what I said could be read as a statement of how good Steam actually is, that I'm willing to accept DRM for all the other benefits Steam offers, not the least of which is the prices of games during those sales.

Grief.exe said:
Its interesting because Valve really fostered competition in the PC market via Steamworks. Allowing other retailers to sell Steam keys without having to share a percentage with Valve is borderline genius. That is how places like GMG and Amazon can provide games at lower prices than Steam.
Click to expand...

I guess they buy the keys at wholesale prices?
 
graywolf323

graywolf323

Member
JaseC said:
I appreciate the sentiment but I don't think that's how it works. :p

Edit: The best feature of Old Steam was Friends having in-built games:
zlBJq8V.png
Click to expand...

I miss Steam Chess :(
 
F

Fitrix

Neo Member
A massive Steam sale on Steam's birthday.All games 90% off.

Thats all that matters to me hahaha,

Anyway,happy birthday Steam.
 
K

kuYuri

Member
Can't believe I've been using the service since 07.

At the time, I only played like one game on it, Half Life 1. I didn't start to use it as much as I did until I got my real gaming PC in 2009.
 
C

chadskin

Member
Happy Birthday, dear Steam. Been a member of you since 12/9/2003.

Do you think we'll get a little gift for our loyalty on Thursday? :)
 
R

Rawket Lawnchair

Member
Been a member for 4 years now. It's a great service that nowadays sits comfortably on the "omfg what awesome sales" mythos it created between Summer of 2010 and Winter of 2011, when the sales were truly extraordinary - that's also a time when games on Steam were roughly 25-30% more expensive than their retail versions.

It rejuvenated PC gaming apparently, which suffered during the start of this gen, and some indie producers managed to release their games, so it did some good. But it's still a sugar-coated DRM turd, with less than honorable practices (like the one with the new TOS last year), that sells subscriptions and can take away your games withoutnotice, if it ever goes under.

So yeah, take from that what you will. I generally don't like panegyrics and I wanted to contribute something worth thinking about instead of Gaben gifs.
 
Z

Zelenogorsk

Banned
I was a gamer when I was a kid but then I stopped around high school. When I went to college my roommate had Steam and he convinced me to get it. I got all the Half-life games on a sale and before i knew it I had bought over 30 games. After that I got a PS3 and a 3DS and I really started gaming again as my main hobby.

Steam is the reason I play games today.
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
10 years, and still has a long way to go.

Also, thank fuck hats came around. I used to get constant spam while playing TF2 and had to stop playing because people were always checking SteamIDs and kept spamming my chatbox with offers to trade their account because my SteamID is 4 digits long. Was so annoying I stopped playing Source engine multiplayer games altogether for a while.

Now nobody gives a crap about your SteamID, because they'd rather have a 100$ hat
 
N

Nekofrog

Banned
Steam was an absolute NIGHTMARE when it first came out and for a few years after that. Really soured me on Valve for a long time.

Good thing I came around.
 
N

Noogy

Member
Thank you, Steam. Not only have you given me untold hours of entertainment (at amazing prices), you've been very good to me as a developer. That's not something I expected when I first preloaded Half-Life 2 all those years ago.
 
D

Dot50Cal

Banned
FyreWulff said:
10 years, and still has a long way to go.

Also, thank fuck hats came around. I used to get constant spam while playing TF2 and had to stop playing because people were always checking SteamIDs and kept spamming my chatbox with offers to trade their account because my SteamID is 4 digits long. Was so annoying I stopped playing Source engine multiplayer games altogether for a while.

Now nobody gives a crap about your SteamID, because they'd rather have a 100$ hat
Click to expand...
Im right there with you, in the 6xxx range, haha. There when the service launched, fought through multiple crashes/pages not loading. Was within the first 5 minutes, the numbers were so crazy.
 
R

Rapstah

Member
awwyeahgurrl said:
I still remember installing steam when it launched and during the installation there was a little animation of the Valve logo rotating in and out of some guys butt.

Good times.
Click to expand...
I thought this was an anti-Steam joke people would use in forum signatures to mock its slow updates at the time.
 
C

Cody_D165

Banned
I haven't really gotten much into PC gaming over the years. I have never owned an Xbox 360 and as a result I hated missing out of some of XBLA's indie games. But after awhile I downloaded Steam onto my old laptop I was using at the time to play the wonderful Super Meat Boy. I liked the Steam interface and from time to time I'd buy games that my subpar laptop could run.

Recently I got a better desktop and as a result I find myself buying more and more games on Steam. I'll admit, I still mainly use it to play indie titles, but it's allowed me to play all of the indie titles I ever wanted to play from XBLA, and then a shitload more born from the minds of devs worldwide. Steam is awesome. I love everything about it (except the pain it puts on my wallet!)
 
F

FyreWulff

Member
Dot50Cal said:
Im right there with you, in the 6xxx range, haha. There when the service launched, fought through multiple crashes/pages not loading. Was within the first 5 minutes, the numbers were so crazy.
Click to expand...

People can look it up directly, by the way. There's no benefit to hiding your Steam id

http://steamidfinder.com/

6632 is mine. Back then, people were offering me games I couldn't even run :V

Fucking GeForce MX 440
 
M

michaelius

Banned
I still remember the rage we felt when Valve forced us to play CS 1.6 on some shitty unnecessary client.

How the things have changed since then :D
 
F

Firestorm

Member
I wish I had my first account but I think my friend got it VAC-banned so I had to make a new one when TF2 came out.

PEqWuot.jpg


Here's to decades more!
 
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