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Is Steam Really That Bad?

H

Hurricane_Chris

DDK
Gabe seems to be catching alot of heat lately. From people bashing the Source engine to calling him a whiner to weight jokes -- he can't seem to catch a break these days.

I don't agree with everything he says but the one thing that Valve offers and that Gabe seems to honestly believe in is Steam. Steam also seems to be very hated. For every positive Steam related post I see there are like 20 negative ones and I just want to ask: "Is Steam really that bad?".

I am not a heavy user of Steam. I purchased the premium package through Steam and got HL2 as well as the extra goodies without any delays. I went through the HL2 pre-loading and was able to get the actual game and play it on launch day without any problems. The periodic updates don't really give me any trouble and I like being able to get to my Valve game collection from any computer that I happen to be on at the time. The other Steam stuff I don't really use but it seems to be a definite step up from the normal sort of detached PC game experience.

I dunno, to me, a mix between X-box Live and Steam seem like it'd be a good thing..and probably where gaming is headed....

What do GAFers thing about Steam? What are the good and bad things you've noticed about it and what would it take for you to fully support Steam if you don't now? I guess for me the only thing that would make it perfect would be if Valve shipped me something tangible (even if it was a burned DVD-R and a manual) if I did an online purchase of a game..just to make me feel like I got something out of my $50.
 
i didn't have any problems during launch but i know a few people who did.

steam is rock solid now and i really can't see anyone complaning.
 
Only thing that bothers me is the broken friends list. Other then that, I don't mind Steam one bit and would buy more games through it if they were good.

I like not having to dig around for a Half Life 2 cd key. I had to wait a week to reinstall Unreal Tournament 2004 after I moved to my new home because I couldn't find the CD key.
 
There are 3 people.


1) Those who suffered with HL mods pre-Steam.

2) Those whose first experiences with Steam were a HL2 installation.

3) Those who have only READ about Steam.


Group 1 likes Steam. Groups 2 and 3 hate Steam.
 
It's nice. But if more companies are going to adapt this model than they really need to lower the pricing. Since you're not going through the retailer markup, games through a Steam-like service should be $10-20 cheaper than the $50-60 games in the stores.
 
Love it. I wouldn't mind all games came thru Steam. I honestly could care less about CDs packaging.
 
I'm in the middle of a clean install, so for me, if I bought it on steam, it'd suck. I have the store bought version so I need to reinstall it tonight
 
i never used it. But my friend bought HL2 on release day and couldn't play it because of Steam. That must have sucked.
 
Agent Icebeezy said:
I'm in the middle of a clean install, so for me, if I bought it on steam, it'd suck. I have the store bought version so I need to reinstall it tonight
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You can backup your steam files.
 
Steam rocks, I have never had any problems with it. The only people who hate Steam and bitch about it are PC pirates who have a habit of downloading all game via bit torrent.
 
Steam is excellent. I haven't had a single problem with it, I bought HL2 and I was playing it within 5 minutes after they unlocked it for full download on Steam.
 
If you got a boxed copy of HL2 on launch day, and tried to install it - you would most likely hate Steam.

I reinstalled HL2 recently. The install was very smooth. The reason why was because their servers weren't being overwhelmed.

I knew those clods weren't prepared come launch, and lo and behold - I was right. I wasn't happy about being right, because it took me about 1 1/2 hours to get into the farking game.
 
Had steam since HL2 launched or was "opened" through Steam. Love it. Probably one of the coolest ways to implanment updates/patches. It'll be interesting to see Blizzard do something like this for WoW 2.
 
I was playing HL2 within 30 minutes of it going live and have had no problems since. Aside from a shaky offline mode and a perpetually broken friends list, I heart Steam.
 
Steam is a great program. I used to pre-HL2 and didn't have a problem with it at all.

Playing HL2 minutes after it was unlocked was awesome.
 
I downloaded HL2 from Steam using the Free ATI coupon so I was up and playing the game immediately on launch day.

Every single PC developer on the planet should use Steam to distribute their games.
 
I wanted to try the demo for Half-Life 2 but it appears even the demo requires Steam. It may be nice for those who buy in to the game, but I just wanted a no-strings-attached demo.
 
BuckRobotron said:
I wanted to try the demo for Half-Life 2 but it appears even the demo requires Steam. It may be nice for those who buy in to the game, but I just wanted a no-strings-attached demo.
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Huh?

"OMG DON'T DOWNLOAD TEH STEAM! THE US GOVERNMENT WILL HAVE YOUR INFORMATION AND THEY'LL USE IT TO DRAFT YOU!!!!"
 
:lol Where's that nonsense come from? I just don't want an extra program on my hard-drive or to sign up for anything I ultimately don't need. Such as when downloading the latest Quicktime and it initially forced iTunes on me. Bah, give me only what I asked for, no bullshit.

Here, you earned a full second :lol for that.
 
Just don't buy HL2 thinking later on down the road you can sell it used.

Because you can't. Not without getting Valve involved to "transfer" the license for $10.

That's complete bullshit.
 
Steam has been just fine for me since HL2 launched. I remember having a lot more problems with Steam back when Valve started using it for regular Counter-Strike (version 1.5, iirc).
 
Y2Kevbug11 said:
Digital distribution is great. My 56k friends HATE it though.
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Is Valve still forcing updates on users before they can play? I remember there being a lot of hatred on the Valve forums about that. Or was that not the case and they were just mistaken?
 
Doom_Bringer said:
Steam rocks, I have never had any problems with it. The only people who hate Steam and bitch about it are PC pirates who have a habit of downloading all game via bit torrent.
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And the only people stupid enough to make such an ignorant statement, are immature trolling virgins living in their mommy's basement. Yeah, generalizing and assuming sucks don't it.

I don't mind the concept of steam. It's the implementation I have issues with. I didn't appreciate it being forced on the retail version and didn't like having to go through all the extra steps in order to get "permission" to play the gaddamn game I just spent $70 bucks for. Steam should've started off as an option to see how well it would be accepted as opposed to being pushed on us with no other means to play HL2. And the cost of the game(s) being offered on Steam is a fucking joke and justs wreaks of greed. In working in the VG biz, I know how much the average cost of goods is and how much publishers charge retailers. At $30, Valve would be making more profit per unit sold than any retail unit and it would ALL be reaching them and not having to be split between VU. The prices Valve charges through Steam nets NO saving to the consumers even though Valve sees a TON more profit. I don't agree with this way of doing business and don't think Valve honestly has the consumers in their best interest, it's themselves. Of course Valve wants to make money and of course they want to stay in business. That's why they're doing what they're doing but they are also taking advantage of their new policeware knowing that there is no other (current) option to play HL2. And knowing how highly anticipated their game was they took the opportunity to force Steam onto the market. But at the end of the day, it's Valve's game and it's Valve's Steam service so whatever. I just know that HL1 gained me a lot of respect for Gabe and Valve and with one fell swoop, they lost it with how they handled the introduction of Steam.
 
ManaByte said:
You ever hear of uninstall?
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If only it was always so simple.

Anyway, months ago the last demo I downloaded was Project Snowblind and had some problems with a file it apparently left on the computer after uninstall, UAService7.

http://forums.eidosgames.com/archive/index.php/t-49648.html

Wary of bothering with PC demos since (and I also never like signing up for things I don't need), but then this is largely moot anyway since all I'd end up doing is finding my system can't handle the game well anyway.
 
Mr_Furious said:
I didn't appreciate it being forced on the retail version and didn't like having to go through all the extra steps in order to get "permission" to play the gaddamn game I just spent $70 bucks for.
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Amen!
 
Mr_Furious said:
Steam should've started off as an option to see how well it would be accepted as opposed to being pushed on us with no other means to play HL2.
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Well a few years ago you could've played CS over the old client or Steam, maybe the number of satisfied Steam users far outweighed the complaints, or at least enough for them to stick with it pretty much unchanged.

I love steam but the friends list needs to be fixed.
 
Shinoobi said:
I love steam but the friends list needs to be fixed.
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Shit I remember when the Friends List used to work during the early CS 1.6 days. It rocked man, you see what servers your friends were in and then you just jump right on in by clicking on their name. And you could privately chat while playing CS as well and tell them were campers were . :)
 
Shinoobi said:
Well a few years ago you could've played CS over the old client or Steam, maybe the number of satisfied Steam users far outweighed the complaints, or at least enough for them to stick with it pretty much unchanged.
Click to expand...
Utilizing Steam for a free mod is an entirely different scenario than requiring steam for a paid retail product.
 
Steam rarely gives me trouble. Even at HL2 launch I had it unlocked within minutes of it going live on Steam. I like it.
 
Dr_Cogent said:
For as long as it's been broken, I don't see it ever getting fixed.
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Gabe just mentioned in the 1UP/CGW video interview that they've reworked some of the Steam infrastructure, expecting to have solid Friends support "soon". After talking about how multiple Steam versions were running in parallel on users systems he said:

One of the problems we had were that there were architectural problems that made Friends unreliable, and so, the new version of Steam...its approach to connections and how it manages connections should make Friends alot more reliable.
Click to expand...
 
Wait.

With all of this authorization stuff, I don't even remember it. Are you complaining for having to submit a CD-Key to Valve or something? Just how many steps were there?
 
I bought half-life 2 over steam a day before release time, and was able to play around midnight the day it was released. In that respect I am happy with it, as the experience went relatively smoothly. I am also fond of the fact that I can use any computer with steam, log into my account, and start redownloading games.

What I am not happy with are the (so far, brief) periods where something goes wrong and blocks me out from playing a Steam game. I am also worried about being able to play Steam games numerous years into the future (Like say, if Steam was ever shut down). As many other people here have noted, the friends list has never worked for me.

Overall, I don't see steam as a problem yet. I only open it when I want to play Half-Life 2, so I don't really worry about cluttering up my system tray or wasting system resources.
 
U K Narayan said:
I don't have any problems with Steam, I think the biggest gripe for people is that their games are intangible when purchased off the service.
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You have the option to burn the games you get off of steam to disc.
 
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