Why Steam is bad for you

I have a hard idea even imagining why someone would even have 200 games. And have you considered that some of us don't want the social features? Gaming is a solo activity for most of us. And some of us don't have an internet connection fast enough that downloading games makes sense.

I think you're wrong when you say gaming is a solo activity for most people. Online gaming is huge nowadays. You're a very casual gamer. I have 93 games on steam myself and I have a lot of games that I didn't buy from steam. And I have a lot of friends online that I've never met IRL that I play games with. Steam is great.
 
I've used Steam for 5 years and have NEVER had any problems anyone in this thread have shown. It's like some people are just prone to problems no matter what and then blame the software.

So for those people, you'll need to hide your wife, hide your kids, and hide your husband, because Valve is BSODing errybody' out here.
 
I love Steam.
I don't understand why people do not like steam, I honestly believe it purely ignorance and fear.

You nailed it. Gamers, especially the stereo-typical angst-ridden loner types, live their lives afraid of a series of slippery slopes that never materialize. They get their social agenda from movies like "The Matrix" and "Fight Club", and think it is edgy and cool to distrust anything "mainstream" or sponsored by "the man".
 
I've used Steam for 5 years and have NEVER had any problems anyone in this thread have shown. It's like some people are just prone to problems no matter what and then blame the software.

So for those people, you'll need to hide your wife, hide your kids, and hide your husband, because Valve is BSODing errybody' out here.

Wait, some people have both a wife and a husband? Steam is the least of our problems...
 
a lot of the complaints about steam are based on heresy or outdated information or simple paranoia. Its not perfect, nothing is, but it certainly is not a demon.

wow... steam really is a religion for some... anything that is not pro-steam is HERESY. :lol:
 
wow... steam really is a religion for some... anything that is not pro-steam is HERESY. :lol:

Heresy:
a : dissent or deviation from a dominant theory, opinion, or practice
b : an opinion, doctrine, or practice contrary to the truth or to generally accepted beliefs or standards
 
I have Steam in offline mode, only reason was there a pop up advert for some game showed up, otherwise I would have left it alone. I don't care at all about MP, only interested in SP. don't care for any of the steam interactions, only interested in updates and that their DRM lets me play civ. There is no option for doing that without enabling all the other BS I am not interested in. Does anyone know a way to setup shortcuts in windows that will load up Civ V with the specific mod and DX mode I want? In Civ V I like the way they have setup and play.

I count the number of clicks required to get into my game and play. It is just like the stupid Blu/Ray and DVD's of today. They load all sorts of crap I could care less about I just want to put in a disc and see my movie, not press through a dozen menus before I can see my movie. Civ V seems to have it right except for the entry point through Steam. When mods are available I want to have an icon on my desktop I can double click and launch Civ V with my mod and settings. I do not want to load Civ V, and then progress through a bunch of menus to select and load a mod every time I play the game. As it is it is barely tolerable that it asks 2 times about DX on loading.
 
I have Steam in offline mode, only reason was there a pop up advert for some game showed up, *snip*

Maybe it's because I'm a computer geek, but I find it really weird that no one is at all curious about checking out the settings and preferences (ESPECIALLY when they have some gripes about the software):

 
Was reluctant about Steam a year ago, but nowadays I'm a fan. I can understand that some people don't like communicating with other humans while playing, or having the possibility to see what your alleged friends are doing, but I like it. Just as I like Live on my Xbox. If you turn everything off, it's just one extra click right? Meh. Big deal.
 
The problem lies with Firaxis' patch, clearly.

But Steam SHOULD allow for reverting to a previous state. I'm not really blaming Steam as much as I am wishing they had that feature.

Man, it totally bites no one thought patches would ever break anything and that there should be a way to revert patches since Steam can't do that.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=9233309&postcount=75

*is tired of seeing problems no one wants to fix and then having people run into them*

Maybe it's because I'm a computer geek, but I find it really weird that no one is at all curious about checking out the settings and preferences (ESPECIALLY when they have some gripes about the software):

image...

That matters in offline mode?

Wait, that wasn't quippy enough... Has Steam gone and figured out how to create a non-deterministic Turing machine of some usability? Because I have many practical applications for such a device and would be interested in purchasing said technology.
 
Man, it totally bites no one thought patches would ever break anything and that there should be a way to revert patches since Steam can't do that.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=9233309&postcount=75

*is tired of seeing problems no one wants to fix and then having people run into them*



That matters in offline mode?

Wait, that wasn't quippy enough... Has Steam gone and figured out how to create a non-deterministic Turing machine of some usability? Because I have many practical applications for such a device and would be interested in purchasing said technology.

Did you completely miss the quote and the poster to whom I was replying?

I have Steam in offline mode, only reason was there a pop up advert for some game showed up, otherwise I would have left it alone.

He switched on offline mode due to advertisement, advertisement that can be easily turned off.
 
Steam sucks, enough said. All it does is hinder the unattached experience that gamers should get for their dollar.
 
Many of the complaints on here really reek of trying to find the "Any" key, don't they?

It's quite remarkable, really.

I had to delete stuff I didn't want to delete, in order to make space on my C drive for Civ5, since Steam wouldn't allow it to be installed elsewhere. Or since I cannot figure out how to change the game directory to another drive.

Games install where you installed steam. I could understand not knowing that from not using steam before, though. However, you can just drag and drop the steam folder and all it's contents to any location you want. Cool side trick with that: reinstalling your OS? save the steam folder and put it wherever you want after the new install. All games exist and you are 95% ready to play. Just install the steam service by running the steam.exe and saying 'yes i want to install the service.' After that you just run the games! It's quite handy not having to ever reinstall games from steam.

Steam is bad for me because the last patch broke my game I can't play anymore. There's no way I can go back to the previous version, because even if I re-install from disc, Steam takes over and ends up dowloading the last version no matter what I do. There's no way around it.

Check the support forum for the game. Something in there can surely help you: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1440616

I have a hard idea even imagining why someone would even have 200 games. And have you considered that some of us don't want the social features? Gaming is a solo activity for most of us. And some of us don't have an internet connection fast enough that downloading games makes sense.

Only correction I have there is that gaming is a solo activity for a VERY small minority nowadays. Advances in technology has allowed people to interact in games leaps and bounds more than even ten years ago. As far as not having a connection goes...it's hard to believe for the most part, but I have a buddy who used to live in the middle of nowhere and he was stuck on satellite internet. Suffice it to say, it was garbage and barely playable, let alone able to download things on. But that was an isolated case and most people aren't stranded away from society.



Steam is climbing in your windows, snatching your people up.

Hide yo' kids and hide yo' wife cuz he's rapin' e'rbody out there.

Cão;9670434 said:
I like Steam.... used to.... but I must agree they are going too far....

Steam is evil. Period

I wish more people were critical of what Valve are doing with Steam, because right now they're quite powerful.

Steam sucks, enough said. All it does is hinder the unattached experience that gamers should get for their dollar.

One word: Uninformed.

Every single one of you need to take a step back and turn down your paranoia - Seriously. look at yourselves. You sound like the crazy people who sit on the corners of streets and preach about the end of the world being imminent. Stop being crazy and stop trying to spread disinformation about something you know very little about.
 
Cool side trick with that: reinstalling your OS? save the steam folder and put it wherever you want after the new install. All games exist and you are 95% ready to play. Just install the steam service by running the steam.exe and saying 'yes i want to install the service.' After that you just run the games! It's quite handy not having to ever reinstall games from steam.

That's absolutely awesome. I put it on an external disk (a fast one, and I don't play games that need *really* fast disks, but still) and now I can just hook it up to any computer I want and be ready to play in less than a minute.
 
Ive used steam since it came out, I was big into the Half-Life and its mods back in college so thats when I started using it, I like it, never have problems with it, I run over a dozen games on it. The overlay is sweet, I even add shortcuts for non steam games to it so I can use the overlay and talk to my friends.
Yes, me too. I would never want to live without Steam again, it's become an integral part of my PC gaming experience. I talk to my friends every day via Steam. I learn about the latest games via Steam. I check GAMEFAQS via the overlay browser, so I don't have to drop to desktop, potentially crashing the game.

But I guess there will always be haters, people who refuse to live in the 21th century.
 
Yet another thread about Steam hate/love!!!
OMG... I've been pretty active in the previous topics, but I don't feel I've the energy or the time for it again. :)
A pity because sometime it was fun, and led to some interesting discussion.

What I hate of Steam is the same problem I have with many modern online services where the user has no right to anything, the service provider can act any policy on a whim, no compensation to users for changes of policies or problems, and that users must accept really evil EULAs (that the service provider can de-facto impose without any legal oversight).

If Steam was only a marketplace, and you could run your purchased items independently from it, then I would appreciate it more (e.g. would be really nice for market competition if you could buy the game from steam and mods from others).


For the rest Steam is OK: a very good marketplace for games, and a decent (but not perfect) DRM compromise.
 
You can set it to offline mode, effectively achieving that.
Not really... One has to start Steam anyway to play the game, it's not completely independent, and with offline mode you miss the value of Steam as marketplace and update system.
When marketplace and DRM get binded together this is what you get.

It's a bit like iTune if you have an iPhone or similar device: without tricks (legally forbidden by the EULA one has to accept) you are locked to it.
Steam is much more liberal that Apple's system but it looks like going into a similar direction.
 
I like Steam for all the reasons given above.

Steam has only one thing that I really dislike: I cannot sell or give my old games. Too bad for Ebay!
 
Steam is only bad for me for one thing: They have so many fantastic sales that I end up with more games than I have time to play. They should really have fewer offers! ;)
 
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