Steam

[Senethro]

It was obvious fairly early on that Steam was the lesser evil compared with many other download services and particularly most other DRM methods. But even I'm surprised by the extent to which it has become a force for good in indie game mass distribution and promotion. Who saw that coming, huh?

I'd hate to imagine a market where Origin or Uplay or something similar was the dominant player and am glad that all the grumpy boycotters of 2010 achieved nothing.

 

[NBAfan]

^ That says it all for me.

I never accept hard DRM of any kind. The whole Workshop thing is even worse, with the fact Steam even controls mods and installs them so you can't even touch them.
Ridiculous, failed way to make people stop pirating - it just makes it harder for honest players to get their own game to work how they want.

Actually, Steam Workshop is great, it's that Firaxis messed it up.

What's wrong with DRM that isn't intrusive like Steam's?

I hate it to the point that I will never again buy another game where I have to use steam. My SDK has not worked in months, and constantly, I cannot restart games that I was in the middle of because something got changed. The convenience of not going to the store to purchase is a non factor to me since I want the physical disc to hold in my hand. It just causes far more problems than benefits.

Discs are going the way of the floppy disk

 

[BluegrassGeek]

It was obvious fairly early on that Steam was the lesser evil compared with many other download services and particularly most other DRM methods. But even I'm surprised by the extent to which it has become a force for good in indie game mass distribution and promotion. Who saw that coming, huh?

Yeah, really. I only grudgingly started using Steam because a game I wanted used it. However, the sales and Valve's good relationship with indie developers really won me over.

I'd hate to imagine a market where Origin or Uplay or something similar was the dominant player and am glad that all the grumpy boycotters of 2010 achieved nothing.

Ugh, yeah. Origin is a bit of a pain, and Uplay is just unpleasant. Though they're both better than Microsoft's "Windows Live Games" or whatever it was called.

 

[scheva007]

Origin....A piece of software made by a dyslectic 13y old.... Uplay isnt bad, but it has far fewer options than steam.

 

[Socratatus]

It`s only going to get worse and I predict that even those who love it now will grow to hate it. mark my words.

Steam started off Origin and Uplay and the rest. They all keep changing their contracts. They will get more draconian in their attempts to hold and keep us forever. Once they all get going, say goodbye to any kind of gameplay or choice freedom.

 

[darkskies]

The problem with Steam is that if you don't have a good internet connection or you live where it is limited in how much you can use per month steam limits you badly and there are no other options. If you are pay a lot to get a 5GB/mo connection and use that up every month and then want to get a game like Civ5 you are out of luck unless you want to pay a huge overage fee. Then there are the constant updates to steam itself, the fact that you can't keep playing a game if an update comes out (yes you can turn this off, but eventually you have to connect to refresh steam and than it wants you to update to keep playing) all this is a problem to people who live in areas with limited or monopoly internet connections. I'm lucky I have a grandfathered unlimited internet connection but most people around here don't. They pay large amounts for very limited connections so Steam is out for them. Probably not enough missed sales for the game makers to care, but that is really the biggest complaint I know of around here people would like to play the games but if the game even comes on a disk it is outdated and it won't even play until the entire thing gets downloaded. I keep hearing people say just play in offline mode, but every once in a while, a few days to a few weeks it's random, you need to connect to renew it

For those like me with good unlimited fast connections Steam is OK even has some pluses like easy updates (wish they were truly optional) though overall I'd be happy to have the *option* of not needing Steam...if our one tower that gives us internet falls over, it could be many months before it gets rebuilt this is not a high priority area. Only problem is sometimes the connection is down for a few hours for maintaince and I find I'll have forgotton to put the game back in offline mode after say an update which is annoying but not the end of the world, still without Steam that would not be a problem be nice to play the games when I can't access the internet. Too bad Steam can't be like Netflix...'have good fast internet? we have a service for you...don't? well we'll mail you the DVDs' (and yes I know that is going eventually too but maybe by then we will have some policies in effect to eliminate the digital divide in at least the U.S. and yes you have to at least have internet to order a DVD but still it makes it available to more people).

 

[BluegrassGeek]

Origin....A piece of software made by a dyslectic 13y old.... Uplay isnt bad, but it has far fewer options than steam.

Uplay is rage-inducing for me, because I still have to log into it to play games that I bought on Steam! If I'd bought it straight from Ubisoft or a CD install, I could understand... but adding more DRM on top of Steam is asinine.

 

[NBAfan]

It`s only going to get worse and I predict that even those who love it now will grow to hate it. mark my words.

Steam started off Origin and Uplay and the rest. They all keep changing their contracts. They will get more draconian in their attempts to hold and keep us forever. Once they all get going, say goodbye to any kind of gameplay or choice freedom.

Then someone else will take their place.

 

[scheva007]

Uplay is rage-inducing for me, because I still have to log into it to play games that I bought on Steam! If I'd bought it straight from Ubisoft or a CD install, I could understand... but adding more DRM on top of Steam is asinine.

I know, i bought Anno 2070 through Steam. But untill now its been quite stable. And i use Uplay frequently since i also play AC (which i dont buy on steam). But ive heard of bad overlap stories. And compared with steam, the friendlist and chat are just prehistoricly. But i dont mind that much.


In fact, when i bought Grand ages Rome from Gamersgate few days ago, i was actually annoyed that it wasnt a steam key. No easy way of making screens and sharing them, menwhile chatting to other people. And most importantly of al, knowing that i cant lose a cd-key.

 

[civvver]

^ That says it all for me.

I never accept hard DRM of any kind. The whole Workshop thing is even worse, with the fact Steam even controls mods and installs them so you can't even touch them.
Ridiculous, failed way to make people stop pirating - it just makes it harder for honest players to get their own game to work how they want.

I disagree. It was confusing to get mods to work on civ4 with windows 7 since there's like 4 places you can load them from. Steam workshop makes mods pretty easy.

I've never had any issues with losing my internet connection and games crashing and it has happened. I don't get what you guys are saying, I'll do a test tonight, disconnect my wireless card mid game and see, but I think you're overstating it. It's not persistent online DRM. And I'm pretty sure you can boot up with steam in online mode but no internet and it'll ask if you want to do offline mode. Again I'll check.

 

[civvver]

The problem with Steam is that if you don't have a good internet connection or you live where it is limited in how much you can use per month steam limits you badly and there are no other options. If you are pay a lot to get a 5GB/mo connection and use that up every month and then want to get a game like Civ5 you are out of luck unless you want to pay a huge overage fee. Then there are the constant updates to steam itself, the fact that you can't keep playing a game if an update comes out (yes you can turn this off, but eventually you have to connect to refresh steam and than it wants you to update to keep playing) all this is a problem to people who live in areas with limited or monopoly internet connections. I'm lucky I have a grandfathered unlimited internet connection but most people around here don't. They pay large amounts for very limited connections so Steam is out for them. Probably not enough missed sales for the game makers to care, but that is really the biggest complaint I know of around here people would like to play the games but if the game even comes on a disk it is outdated and it won't even play until the entire thing gets downloaded. I keep hearing people say just play in offline mode, but every once in a while, a few days to a few weeks it's random, you need to connect to renew it

For those like me with good unlimited fast connections Steam is OK even has some pluses like easy updates (wish they were truly optional) though overall I'd be happy to have the *option* of not needing Steam...if our one tower that gives us internet falls over, it could be many months before it gets rebuilt this is not a high priority area. Only problem is sometimes the connection is down for a few hours for maintaince and I find I'll have forgotton to put the game back in offline mode after say an update which is annoying but not the end of the world, still without Steam that would not be a problem be nice to play the games when I can't access the internet. Too bad Steam can't be like Netflix...'have good fast internet? we have a service for you...don't? well we'll mail you the DVDs' (and yes I know that is going eventually too but maybe by then we will have some policies in effect to eliminate the digital divide in at least the U.S. and yes you have to at least have internet to order a DVD but still it makes it available to more people).

That's an issue with your isp, not steam. I sympathize because I too once had crappy internet but unfortunately that's life. If good internet is that important to you move to a city that has it for cheap.

 

[Galgus]

I prefer my games to be on Steam if can because it makes just about everything more convenient.

Pros:

+ Never worry about losing a disk.
+ Never worry about a disk or console wearing down.
+ No stress reinstalling on a new computer.
+ Steam Workshop mods are easy to use.
+ Convenient list of most of your games.
+ Alt tab to chat.
+ Greenlight.
+ Steam sales.
+ TF2 hats.

Negatives:

- No resale of games. (I don't want to sell my games and Steam Sales give great deals anyway.)

 

[black213]

I was a gamer even before Steam. I've had my Steam account since 2004. I thought it was a great invention back then!
And still do. Much better than Origin anyways... (only have an Origin account for Battlefield 3 and later Battlefield 4 ).

 

[Socratatus]

That's an issue with your isp, not steam. I sympathize because I too once had crappy internet but unfortunately that's life. If good internet is that important to you move to a city that has it for cheap.

Of course, just move to another city. how simple!

And it is a Steam issue because if Steam didn`t demand so much downloading forced on us, by, let me see, making it OPTIONAL, there wouldn`t be a problem.

The point is a utility should not hijack a games program and cause us to have jump through hoops for it and certainly not moving city!

 

[darkskies]

That's an issue with your isp, not steam. I sympathize because I too once had crappy internet but unfortunately that's life. If good internet is that important to you move to a city that has it for cheap.

If everybody in rural areas moved to the city where would they live? Who would grow your food? And who will buy the houses they have lived in and owned for years (the only interernet around when I bought mine was dialup city/county/top of a mountain it was all the same except for big businesses)? And if they need help finding jobs will you provide them and help them with the extra costs until they can find jobs? Of course it's an "ISP issue," there aren't any in some areas but going to Steam is causing the problem for these people as well as unregulated ISP's that are allowed to charge huge amounts for limited download amounts. Telling people to move is really not very nice and not a sensible solution.
Edit: I don't think anybody has mentioned some of the little things too like if you want achievments you can't get them in off-line mode.