To people who disliked Steam.

How do you feel about Steam now?

  • I like it.

    Votes: 104 47.5%
  • I don't like it.

    Votes: 83 37.9%
  • I like Skwink.

    Votes: 4 1.8%
  • like voting in polls lols

    Votes: 28 12.8%

  • Total voters
    219
Status
Not open for further replies.

Skwink

FRIIIIIIIIIITZ
Joined
May 14, 2010
Messages
5,683
This is to all the people who started out hating Steam: Do you still hate it? I disliked it at first, but after my friends got on it, and I got games like Team Fortress 2, I started to love it. After all this time, how do you feel about Steam now?

EDIT: Danke Camikaze!
 
I like it. Mostly, if not entirely because of what you said: my friends are on it.
 
Moderator Action: Preemptive warning. Steam discussions have been contentious in the past, please keep this one civil. Remember, you are discussing Steam and the arguments for and against, and what you think of it, NOT other posters (outside of refuting or expanding on the points they make). Disagree, but disagree in a way that doesn't make things personal.
 
Dislike it. It's still a background program that's unnecessary for my games running that DEMANDS it be there for my games to run. Initially it requires that I have net operational to get the game going, and I'd better hope that before I bring my laptop to a place where I can't get internet I set my games to play in offline mode - because if I don't, I'm out of luck until I get back into a place with net (happened to me a few weeks ago with Civ). What's more, I can't see which of my friends are online unless I show I'm online, and unless I'm offline, they can always see exactly what I'm playing so I can't keep my friends list up and play Civ without being pestered by people.

That's not to say it doesn't have it perks, but then again, so does getting swine flu. I get to skip work, eat lots of comfort foods, relax all day... With perks like that, you'd think I'd enjoy getting swine flu all the time.

Yeah, not a fan. If Steam were to somehow fade off the net this instant, I'd do nothing but smile.
 
Plenty of times I've taken my laptop out to friend's house in the woods, where there is no internet, and I could play my Civ V saves. I see no problem there.
 
Plenty of times I've taken my laptop out to friend's house in the woods, where there is no internet, and I could play my Civ V saves. I see no problem there.

That's good for you, but take a gander at this:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

According to my experience and Steam support, you essentially have to pre-prep your game to play it offline. If you happen to forget to do so before you go away from net range, you're up the creek.

Unless they've made recent changes, this is still a fact of steam:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26829427

As stated there "There is currently no way to play official steam games without internet. And most probably there won't be in a future.. You have to watch weather forecasts, forsee the geological disruptions, watch closely constrution yards in area where are cables/signal to your provider, also check how your provider is routing you to the internet so you can turn into and offline mode in advance.."
 
As far as I can tell, none of the reasons that caused me to stay clear of Steam have changed, so there's no reason from me to suddenly like it. I know that Steam has its nice sides, and I knew that months ago. But as long as the bad aspects (mandatory patching, selling revokable licenses instead of products, complete control over user accounts, severe limitation of customer rights, no reliable safeguard in case they go out of business) aren't fixed, I see no reason to change my opinion.
 
http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26829427[/url]

As stated there "There is currently no way to play official steam games without internet. And most probably there won't be in a future.. You have to watch weather forecasts, forsee the geological disruptions, watch closely constrution yards in area where are cables/signal to your provider, also check how your provider is routing you to the internet so you can turn into and offline mode in advance.."

You're using a post on a gamefaqs thread as evidence for an argument? Really? No, I mean really?

Like Skwink, I have not experienced problems getting Steam to run in offline though it really could use streamlining.

selling revokable licenses instead of products
EVERY videogame EULA states that regardless of where you purchased it from. It just usually isn't enforceable except through digital distributors or online DRMs.
 
That's good for you, but take a gander at this:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

According to my experience and Steam support, you essentially have to pre-prep your game to play it offline. If you happen to forget to do so before you go away from net range, you're up the creek.

Unless they've made recent changes, this is still a fact of steam:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26829427

As stated there "There is currently no way to play official steam games without internet. And most probably there won't be in a future.. You have to watch weather forecasts, forsee the geological disruptions, watch closely constrution yards in area where are cables/signal to your provider, also check how your provider is routing you to the internet so you can turn into and offline mode in advance.."

As far as I know, it requires only 1 launch per machine to store the user license into the disk so that you could play offline without any penalty thereafter besides steam achievement, steam cloud etc. If the option to store user data in the machine is turned off it will require online mode though.
 
I don't like it, ad I doubt my opinion of steam will ever change.

When half-life 2 came out it used steam. It gave me a randomly-generated password which it always remembered I didn't realize it's importance until the harddrive fried. Much to my surprise the account was unrecoverable, and the cd-key was useless. My friend rubbed it in my face that his pirated game not only lacked this problem, but could also be played offline. Too ridiculous for me.I run a pirated version of that despite legally owning the game!

Steam makes a retail game less attractive then its pirated counterpart. I don't need some side process running all the time, I don't need internet access, I don't have more useless steam crap forced down my throat every time I want to play my freaking game. What if I wanted to play my game on linux? steam would be another hoop to jump through, I would have to get a pirated version. Many companies falsely think steam is an anti-piracy measure. It's the exact opposite. The warez are all out, and guess what they don't even need steam to run. Why would I pay? Seriously?

Steam remakes abandonware, and sells it at a cost. Maybe it's because I'm Greek, but $5 dollars is $5 that I could have used for something better then paying for a game that is FREE on the internet. And I can actually buy licenses to games through steam. Call me old fashioned but I prefer a nice hard copy. Hard copies make it easy for me to prove I legally own the game. What do I get from steam? A promise at the same price? Also take your advertising, and shove it steam. it's like watching commercials at the theaters.

And what about security? This program can access my internet, tracks me playing all my games? Not cool. Am I supposed to trust them because they are popular? Who knows what demographic information they are (or will) track. If they could pull a profit maybe I'll get a free trial of some anti-virus automatically downloaded with my next patch.

They keep tightening to noose around our necks. Forcing us to pirate patches, and use steam to play multiplayer. It will end in lawsuits. I didn't pay for this crap, and I think the gaming companies will know when to jump off the bandwagon. In the meantime I will download Civ5 once the patches stabilize, and just own the hard copies for proof of ownership.

STEAM!!!!:mad::mad::mad:
 
You're using a post on a gamefaqs thread as evidence for an argument? Really? No, I mean really?

Actually, I was using it as supporting evidence for a post from the official Steam support. You know, the part you edited out?...

But hey, feel free to ridicule my tertiary source while ignoring my primary official source, and not, say, googling a phrase like "Steam play offline without internet." If you'd done that, you'd find loads of people complaining about exactly what I'm describing and see that it's quite a legitimate problem.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1251836

http://community.sigames.com/showth...How-can-I-play-without-an-internet-connection

Do you think we're making this up?

Anyways, if you like Steam, great for you - I'm not going to get on your case about it. But, I was asked a question in this thread and I answered. You cutting out half of my post and then incredulously saying "Really? No, I mean, really?" is pretty much just poking the bear and it seems like trying to get a reaction. If you have a response that's relevant to what I posted, say it - that I'm wrong, or that my information was incorrect because ..., but please don't make little unsubstantive comments that really serve no purpose but to get people riled up. Makes you seem like a creature that dwells under bridges - perhaps some sort of bat.

As far as I know, it requires only 1 launch per machine to store the user license into the disk so that you could play offline without any penalty thereafter besides steam achievement, steam cloud etc. If the option to store user data in the machine is turned off it will require online mode though.

Perhaps in theory, but I got Plants VS Zombies shortly after release on Steam and tried it from offline mode while away from the internet and couldn't play. That problem persist for me to this day with at *least* a year of Steam updates, a new computer, and a new game, so I tend to avoid Steam since I put in the extra money for a gaming laptop because I often play while traveling to places. Either google the phrase I suggested the above poster did or look at some of my provided links - if what you described is what Valve intended, they have utterly failed to implement it for a lot of people. And go figure, some of us do not being able to play games we bought offline in Steam's supposed "offline mode."

Small world... Just noticed our very own protector of protective PieceOfMind was posting in one of those threads.
 
Steam is a blessing for me and PC gaming in general.I have only 2 complaints:
1)You can't sell games that you own.
2)Region restrictions.When some ******ed a-hole local publisher gets a contract with game developers and can only publish their games in that region via retail.No digital sales.Example:1C in Russia.They have a contract with 2K.I want to get Pirates!(remake) on steam.Because of them i can't.And they don't print new copies of old games.They didn't even localize the final patch for that game!!!That's one a-hole publisher.
 
That's good for you, but take a gander at this:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

According to my experience and Steam support, you essentially have to pre-prep your game to play it offline. If you happen to forget to do so before you go away from net range, you're up the creek.

Unless they've made recent changes, this is still a fact of steam:

http://www.gamespot.com/forums/topic/26829427

As stated there "There is currently no way to play official steam games without internet. And most probably there won't be in a future.. You have to watch weather forecasts, forsee the geological disruptions, watch closely constrution yards in area where are cables/signal to your provider, also check how your provider is routing you to the internet so you can turn into and offline mode in advance.."

That info is out of date (for several years).
 
Perhaps in theory, but I got Plants VS Zombies shortly after release on Steam and tried it from offline mode while away from the internet and couldn't play. That problem persist for me to this day with at *least* a year of Steam updates, a new computer, and a new game, so I tend to avoid Steam since I put in the extra money for a gaming laptop because I often play while traveling to places. Either google the phrase I suggested the above poster did or look at some of my provided links - if what you described is what Valve intended, they have utterly failed to implement it for a lot of people. And go figure, some of us do not being able to play games we bought offline in Steam's supposed "offline mode."

Small world... Just noticed our very own protector of protective PieceOfMind was posting in one of those threads.

Hmm it worked always fine for me. I'm not using wireless network though. It seems like to me there's a bug when internet connection is practically lost but there's a tiny bits of traffic flowing (most likely on wireless network) and steam tries hard to connect through it. Just my guess though. It seems PieceOfMind's solution of disabling network adapter works.
 
Steam is a blessing for me and PC gaming in general.I have only 2 complaints:
1)You can't sell games that you own.
2)Region restrictions.When some ******ed a-hole local publisher gets a contract with game developers and can only publish their games in that region via retail.No digital sales.Example:1C in Russia.They have a contract with 2K.I want to get Pirates!(remake) on steam.Because of them i can't.And they don't print new copies of old games.They didn't even localize the final patch for that game!!!That's one a-hole publisher.

Ask someone who lives on country where its available to gift it to your Steam account.
 
About one-and-a-half years ago I disliked Steam. Why should I get a third-party-program to play my games?

But after a while I gave it the benefit of the doubt and tried it.
And now I like Steam a lot, it's easy, works good, not too intrusive and as a DRM-measure I think it's waaay better than Securom, Starforce, etc.

I also like to have all my games and game-buddies in a central hub. It's nice and tidy, easy for (re)installs and updates, etc.

At the moment most of my games are on Steam (I started using Steam about a year ago, but bought quite some games in sales.).
When games have Steamworks (eg Civ5, Fallout New Vegas, Shogun 2, etc) I buy them retail. Then you have best of both worlds. A nice box on the shelf, the lowest retail price, and it's in Steam.
Steam is a blessing for me and PC gaming in general.I have only 2 complaints:
1)You can't sell games that you own.
2)Region restrictions.When some ******ed a-hole local publisher gets a contract with game developers and can only publish their games in that region via retail.No digital sales.Example:1C in Russia.They have a contract with 2K.I want to get Pirates!(remake) on steam.Because of them i can't.And they don't print new copies of old games.They didn't even localize the final patch for that game!!!That's one a-hole publisher.
I agree.
Also the price differences between EU/UK/US is sometimes very frustrating.

Edit:
Oh, never had any problems playing offline and on my laptop I always play offline (broken wifi). Works like a charm.
Once every month or so I hook it up on cable to update it and (de)install games.
The only gripe I have about playing offline is that it doesn't register the hours played or any achievements. But that's minor.
 
Actually, I was using it as supporting evidence for a post from the official Steam support. You know, the part you edited out?...
I cut that out because I didn't have a reply to it because its true that Steam does need you to "set it up" for offline, by UNchecking the box in Settings that says Don't save acconut credentials to this computer. Also offline mode isn't exactly Valve's biggest focus or care when it comes to Steam, though as I said I do wish they would improve it.

But hey, feel free to ridicule my tertiary source while ignoring my primary official source,
I ridiculed it because its as useful as a source as youtube comments and is a satirical (or something) post and doesn't contribute anything constructive to your post. I didn't dispute your primary point.

and not, say, googling a phrase like "Steam play offline without internet." If you'd done that, you'd find loads of people complaining about exactly what I'm describing and see that it's quite a legitimate problem.
There are over 30,000,000 Steam accounts, if even only 1% of users encountered this problem that is still 300,000 people who would have that problem. Nor did I ever say this was never a problem for some users (no one has any idea how many, except maybe Valve).

Do you think we're making this up?
Um, no? I never indicated that, stop jumping to conclusions.

Anyways, if you like Steam, great for you - I'm not going to get on your case about it.
And vice versa, I don't really care whether or not you like Steam and I didn't intend to get on your case about anything.

But, I was asked a question in this thread and I answered. You cutting out half of my post and then incredulously saying "Really? No, I mean, really?" is pretty much just poking the bear and it seems like trying to get a reaction. If you have a response that's relevant to what I posted, say it - that I'm wrong, or that my information was incorrect because ..., but please don't make little unsubstantive comments that really serve no purpose but to get people riled up. Makes you seem like a creature that dwells under bridges - perhaps some sort of bat.
It was by no means intended to rile you up (if I had intended to do so there are plenty of better ways to do so) although in hindsight I should have said why its a lousy quote to use instead of a second really. I was pointing out that it was a pretty lousy post to use to prove your point, there is no need to be so riled up about nor to make unsubstantiated comments, claims and/or about me.
 
I love it. It keeps all my games patched up to date without me having to trawl the internet looking for patches, or even finding out that there is a patch available. Timesaver.

I also like the store they have, as they have most games on there. They are also very active regarding %-deals, and there is always some sort of bargain. Moneysaver.

It also has achievements, which I initially though of as pointless - but eventually I liked how it keeps track of competition with my friends. Bragging-rights enabler.

I also like how I can send messages to my pals through steam, because when people are inside a game/program they usually don't see the msn. Actually useful messenger.

And I like how people are irrationally angry with steam. Hilarious pisser-offer.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom