Steam - love or hate?
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Lord Tirian
Erratic Poster
...because he knows where to find it and hence stopped being a casual pirate.
It's not against those who already know to get pirated games. Its against average joe getting a copied DVD from his buddy/class mate/room mate/etc. Or who quickly googles the game's name plus "crack" (which will inevitably throw up malware and frustration and unhappiness, unless you *know* what to look for... because you familiarised yourself with the matter, hence transcending the "casual" criterion), because he saw the game in the store today. It's against that impulsive, casual piracy by making it an effort/time-sink to get a cracked version up and running.
And since the first couple of days of sales is the most important, that's when the DRM is mainly required (and cracks rarely turn up perfectly working 0-day).
Cheers, LT.
From the morale and recreation room.
duxup
Prince
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Can't hook the laptop up there in any way?
What about your laptop's morale?
nah I wish but they're pretty strict about that stuff. Maybe I could sneak in there at night...hmmm
Given the option, I would prefer to purchase my digital downloads from another site, simply because I prefer to not have other software running on my computer when I game.
That said, I've purchased a number of games through Steam in the past year (they do have some awesome sales), and I've sort of grown use to them, and I at least appreciate that they offer an offline mode.
Again, I'll use a digital distributor like Gamersgate any day over Steam. But really, Steam is not all that bad.
That said, I've purchased a number of games through Steam in the past year (they do have some awesome sales), and I've sort of grown use to them, and I at least appreciate that they offer an offline mode.
Again, I'll use a digital distributor like Gamersgate any day over Steam. But really, Steam is not all that bad.
Senethro
Overlord
Everyone ignored you because you were the last post on the page, but I see all!
Try using Offline Mode? Save your user/password and put Steam into offline mode, second option down under File. Although I'm surprised that you're having problems as Steam shouldn't need a constant connection. Thats ubisoft's territory.
It's not that he can't play. It's that he can't play multiplayer and stay connected. He is losing his connection to the steam network for chat and friends list which disconnects him in game because the game needs to be able to communicate with the other players (obviously).
I'm not sure if anyone is going to be able to help you. It sounds like a flaky internet connection as opposed to steam.
EDIT: but every problem is naturally steams fault right?
Your problem was in buying a product from a company that was imminently going out of business. Did you order before August 17th? If not, then you should have been aware of their problems and gone a different route:
It’s like buying a plane ticket and showing up to the airport to get on your plane and finding the airline out of business. Unfortunately you can’t ask the airport for your money back.
Consider the $100 bucks you are out the cost of learning the lesson to not to buy a product from a company that may not be able to deliver…
I don't know american law, maybe it has no customer security regulations, but in Europe, such situation won't stand. Come on it's crazy ... few remarks to what you stated:
1) Sorry, but responsibility of the product is always on the seller. If you buy a refrigerator and it doesn't work, you don't use your guarantee, which is something completely different, but you point out that product you received is against the agreement you made. The sellers need to solve your problem and it is their business how they will handle that with the producer. Mjamie14 legally bought the game, he has the right to get what he bought.
2) You wrote it is not Steam selling the software but the RTW using Steam tools. It's wrong again. As far you pay your money to Valve, they are the seller. BTW: why do you think they were so unhappy to not get paid? They should be cool with that if this was RTW to not receive the money, not them. Sorry, but it is obvious that Stem gets the money, Steam is the seller and it is their responsibility to satisfy the final customer.
3) Mjamie14 did the best thing he could, no product = no payment, especially if all other methods to make the sale agreement to be in force failed. What Steam done, was then something against the law and a good taste. Blocking all other legally purchased games is simply a theft. On place of Mjamie14, I would report this fact to police, as a theft and demand to give my property back.
Yes, they stole his property rights. I could imagine, they blocked only the mentioned title, but all?
Besides... again if Steam is not a seller, how they dared to cancel legal sales agreements between Mjamie14 and other game publishers, huh?
I didn't have problems with Steam so far as I didn't use it yet. So far I also didn't have any opinion about Valve and Steam platform, but this situation just changed my perception 180 degrees.
Kruelgor
Emperor
I think of Steam as like a cable tv provider, but instead of providing you with tv channels Steam provides you with games. It's fine.
Wrong example... again.
If you would buy the plane ticket directly from the airlines, ie on their website and they won't deliever, indeed it's your problem and your risk to try to get back your money from them.
However... if you don't buy the ticket directly but from re-seller, ie. a turist agency. If airlines, won't deliever your tickets, responsibility to give you either tickets or money back is on the re-seller and later they can try to get money back from the airline.
Here Steam is re-seller and this is out of any doubts, so again, I would not let Steam to steal that 100$, well... even more with those few other games.
Well, except that if I also choose to buy Season X of whatever show on DVD --- and then the cable goes out, cable tv doesn't force me to find some way to get cable tv back on just so I can tell it that I would now prefer to watch my DVDs without cable...
Cable tv also doesn't automatically change the channel to Law & Order: Los Angeles, if I'd prefer to just watch the old classic Jerry Orbach/Sam Waterson L&Os on TNT.
Cable tv also doesn't pepper me with ads for VH1 if I'm watching HBO, finish watching Boardwalk, then turn off the tv.
Maniacal
the green Napoleon
NO refunds are being given for APB, as there is no money. You can, however, e-mail EA and they have given people free games or, as in one case, 4000 Bioware points. Steam also has a no refunds policy, retail stores also have a no refund policy especially on PC games unless something is completely wrong with the product itself.
Steam doesn't pepper you with ads, it does inform you of new products, sales etc but you can easily turn that off with the click of a button (check the options, a basic and common sense thing to do). Most cable channels have advertisement breaks anyways. They also charge a lot for packages and extra for the channels you actually want. With Cable you have to wait until they show something you want to watch, but can only watch it if you aren't busy at the time.
Steam doesn't change that game you are playing, and lots of games have automatic patching (mmorpgs, Bad Company 2, etc, and these are the non-steam versions!). If the patch screws up your game, that isn't steam's fault, that is the developer's fault for releasing a faulty patch. You can also TURN OFF AUTOUPDATING!
Steam doesn't pepper you with ads, it does inform you of new products, sales etc but you can easily turn that off with the click of a button (check the options, a basic and common sense thing to do). Most cable channels have advertisement breaks anyways. They also charge a lot for packages and extra for the channels you actually want. With Cable you have to wait until they show something you want to watch, but can only watch it if you aren't busy at the time.
Steam doesn't change that game you are playing, and lots of games have automatic patching (mmorpgs, Bad Company 2, etc, and these are the non-steam versions!). If the patch screws up your game, that isn't steam's fault, that is the developer's fault for releasing a faulty patch. You can also TURN OFF AUTOUPDATING!
The purchases were on 6/24. They locked my account on 8/28. The chargeback was initiated about 6 weeks after the purchase. The bank finalized the chargeback a week ago. I bought the game before it launched. Again, I wasn't trying to get a refund for a game that is no longer supported, but rather, a game I bought and didn't get the right keys for. Had they given me the correct keys, I would have played for the 3 months. Granted, I would have been bummed when the game went offline, but that's a risk with all mmo's. I was absolutely not trying to get a refund for a game because it went offline.
Well, the EULA essentially makes it legal...
But I agree with the fundamental point "turn off this, turn off that" -- for something that I still insist is nothing more than a digital cardboard box (a delivery mechanism for what I actually bought -- the game itself) -- I shouldn't NEED help pages, support pages, reference materials, etc. It ought to be eye-poppingly apparent and accessibly easy. It shouldn't require me to go online.
I don't think it really requires any knowledge to go to piratebay. It is so often mentioned everywhere.
That has not been possible for years. There are several very easy ways to stop it.
I believe that requires more knowledge than googling game name plus "pirate" which works.
I bet copy protection only reduces sales on those first couple days. Everyone who really wants to buy game from day one buys it since they know it will require patches before it is playable and pirates are sometimes slow with patches.
DaviddesJ
Deity
Many publishers have done experiments with different types of DRM (or not) for different titles. They don't release that data publicly but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
How would you prove that DRM doesn't reduce piracy?
DaviddesJ
Deity
No, you're just wrong. In the US, at least, if you buy with a credit card and you don't get the product you purchased, you can just tell your credit card company to refuse to pay on your behalf, and they will credit your account and debit the vendor's account. This is the "chargeback" that people are talking about.
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