Oh come on, stop trolling. I'll address each point on a new line that's easy for you to read.
Resource hogging: Steam uses 40mb of System RAM, less than 1\4th of what Firefox uses.
System crashing: Excuse me? Steam cannot crash your system, it's not possible. The games on it can, but not the platform itself.
DRM Laden Bloatware: Steam is barebones and uses completely non-intrusive DRM that features an offline mode if you so desire.
Spyware: Valve is a video game company, not market research -- no spyware in Steam.
You're just being ignorant and trolling because you are living in the past, please stop.
I have my own concerns about using Steam. So I went to their site to learn how founded my concerns were.
Here's what they have to say in their "
About Steam" info....
System Requirements
Windows XP, Vista, or 7
512 MB RAM
1 Ghz or faster processor
1GB HD space (recommended)
Internet connection (broadband recommended)
Resource hogging:
Going by my experience with Civ4's understated system reqs (
to mention just one example).... I'm tending towards doubting that Steam has overstated theirs. 512 MB of RAM is much higher than your stated 40 MB. Why do they list it at 512 if only 40 is used? Will Steam be using a little RAM even in offline mode? Other programs run/monitor silently. Will Steam be eating up system resources everytime Civ is played? And 1 GB of memory??? Are you kidding me? Why must I tack that gig onto what I already need for Civ? I've a 60GB HD on the machine I would have used for Civ5. I'm not buying a bigger HD. I've an Optiplex Small Form Factor which suits me fine. Steam taking up 1/60th of that drive is ridiculous. Am I missing something, or is that really ridiculous?
System crashing:
Of course Steam can cause a system crash! It's software isn't it? It's one more level of complication. One more thing to go wrong. One more way to encounter system incompatibilities. For some reason windows defender comes to mind (running silent, competing for resources, until it runs into a system incompatibility and totally hangs my machine).
DRM Laden Bloatware:
Like the poster you quoted, I also don't like DRM and passed on Spore for it. Its something on my system which I have no power over. It sits there taking up storage space and competing for proccesing power. And if I should decide to delete the game, there is nothing short of reformating my harddrive that I can do to get rid of the DRM. And if Steam should go out of business, or I should stop paying comcast for the
sporadically worse than dial-up broadband they offer me (
the only broadband provider in my region).... then what happens? I lose the right to play the game I paid for. What if I reformat the drive? I could lose some purchased music this way. Company is out of business so no option to move it off this computer. Can't even reformat the harddrive after a nasty virus infection without losing the music. It's been paid for, but its not owned. I want to outright own the stuff I buy. And I don't want to be hassled to prove that I own what I bought. Next PC I get will likely be a Mac due in part to dealing with windows validation garbage.
Spyware:
Steam does have motivation to monitor gamers habits. Not saying they do, just saying their is motivation because there is something to gain. But for me personally it's not a spy concern, but rather a privacy concern. And not a concern about Steam per se, but about those who would
game the Steam system to gain access to my personal information, or gain access to my system via Steams doorway. From what I gather from incidents like the recent facebook fiascoS and other incidents, I think my concerns are founded.
These things and others make me unhappy that firaxis has chosen this route. I don't know how offline play works, but from what I gather, one must have internet access (broadband recomended) to be able to register for the right to play the game. That alone irks me. I will learn more before I make a lasting judgement on this. But one thing for certain, I am considering waiting a month or more past release date before deciding if I will buy the game. And I see potential that I will pass on this game like I did with Colonization. This from a Civ fanatic who plays few games outside of Civ. Civ fits me (patch frustration etc aside). I was set to pre-order it and have begun setting aside the money for its purchase. I liked the silly, yet still somehow cool, bonus paraphernalia that I got with Civ4's pre-order package. I liked the idea of liking something so much that it made me happy to reserve my copy before release. Now not so much.