Why Steam is bad for you

[Eejit]

You could do that by selling a cd-key number instead.

That's essentially what Steam does, with added features.

 

[CivFanMUC]

Only to people that are resistant to change. I've had steam ever since it was launched by Valve. It's a good platform that has made purchasing/downloading/installing games much easier than it's been before.

You don't like it? That's your right. But it is what it is and it's not going anywhere.

Here a list of pros and cons (not from me, just found it in another forum).

If you can live with all the cons, good for you. I (and many others) cannot.

• pro
  • chat
  • autoupdate
  • mp-friendly
  • cheap game offers
  • DLC-hub
  • no more searching for mirrors of patches
  • doesn't matter if you lose the DVD - just install again via download
  • achievements
  • DRM, not as bad as Securom
  • no DVD in drive
  • savegames online
  • free Mac-version
• cons
  • forced to register the game
  • forced to activate the game
  • collects usage-data
  • needs your personal data to pay for DLC in most cases (not sure if there's an anonymous way to pay)
  • no transparency regarding which data is collected and submitted
  • if your account gets closed you lose all your games
  • another software who may cause problems on your pc
  • sends data to Valve - even in offline-mode
  • no reselling of the game
  • US-EULA which may be against EU-rights

 

[Eejit]

• pro
  • DRM, not as bad as Securom
    
• cons
  • forced to register the game
  • forced to activate the game
    

Same thing?

Also I think while "many" may not be able to live with those oh-so-awful cons, many more can.

 

[Bad Brett]

That's essentially what Steam does, with added features.

So why should we be forced to install it?

As I've said so many times:

Steam is not about preventing piracy.

It's about control. The software companies know that they won't sell more games by adding DRM's. Pirates won't start buying the games because of this.

What they do know is:

1) If you have to download the game from Steam, the point of buying things in the local store will be gone. In the long run, this means heavily decreased distribution costs.

2) Since Steam automatically connects to the Internet and automatically patch the game by default, the software companies may rush their releases and fix bugs before the customers even realise that they exist. When people install games from a CD, they expect it to be ready to play. But since Steam is required to activate the game, the game will always be patched to moment you install it.

3) Steam collects tons of information about your system. The companies get real-time information about how you play the game, at what settings you play the game, which mods you play, which leaders you use the most etc. Imagine the costs of doing market surveys instead. Again, this makes it possible for the companies to save a lot of money and they know beforehand exactly what DLC's that will be popular.

Conclusion: Steam is not about preventing piracy, it's about taking advantage of the people that are too law-abiding to download the game. And if people actually like the program, it's fine. I'm happy for you. But please don't pretend that it is about preventing piracy or to actually improve the gaming experience. It's about two things: Control and money.

 

[Mathochism]

It's definitely about money, but, not necessarily for the reasons you stated. Basically, Valve got fed up with having to work through publishers and making only a marginal profit on those games and so they made Steam as a means of cutting out the publisher and retaining all of the profit for themselves.

Regardless, it doesn't bother me in the slightest, since the primary function of a business is to, you know, make money.

 

[Eejit]

It prevents piracy as much as any other DRM, while also doing other stuff. It isn't "about" any ONE thing, why would it be? It's the sum of its parts.

 

[dannythefool]

Most of the "con" items are undeniably true.

I do think they're also a bit of a non sequitur because the absence of Steam - with another DRM system taking its place - wouldn't improve things. For example, "another software that can cause problems": Civ IV's SafeDisc grants ring 0 access to about everybody who asks nicely. Steam does no such thing.

In the end, it boils down to how much DRM you are willing to accept. I think Steam is a reasonably good compromise and the only one so far that actually offers any benefits to customers.

If you disagree then you can't buy Civ V, but you also shouldn't have bought Civ IV.

 

[Namel]

Actually since Steamworks is integrated it prevents people who want to play multiplayer with the rest of the non-pirating community from pirating and it prevents those who want access to the built-in online mod DB from pirating.
Singleplayer-only always has been and always will be much easier to pirate when it comes to gaming.

Like I said multiplayer is good way to reduce pirating. Forced DRM only encourages pirates.

Steam has good parts. Problem is that it has lot of bad parts (DRM, control of too many of my games, too big market share.) which only encourage me to pirate instead of buying.

 

[Eejit]

Sounds like someone is making up excuses for avoiding paying for games.

 

[Senethro]

Sounds like someone is making up excuses for avoiding paying for games.

This is the flipside of it being all about the money. Consumers are out to screw creators at least as hard as the corporate masters are.

 

[CivFanMUC]

If you disagree then you can't buy Civ V, but you also shouldn't have bought Civ IV.

I never installed Civ IV from the DVD. I played it a lot and bought it about a week later for ~€50
And I could play Civ V if I wanted to... but since years I usually buy all the games I play.

Like I said multiplayer is good way to reduce pirating. Forced DRM only encourages pirates.

Not in this case.
It's already possible to play MP with pirated Versions of Civ5.
And you cannot prevent ppl to play HotSeat/PBEM (that may be the reason it's not implemented yet)

 

[Xiao Xiong]

I (think I) do now understand offline-mode. I need to keep my login-data saved in the client or have to be online to enable it, so far so good (or bad).

Yup, and while strictly not required, you should probably also disable auto-updating of the game if you plan to be offline a lot. If you go offline half way through an update it won't work. You can do that by right clicking the application in the library, selecting the updates tab, and turning it off. That allows you to control when it updates so you can be sure it's not trying to do an update at a time you're likely to want to go offline.

But I try to look on it of the perspective of newbies.

To be fair the default behavior for steam is fine for 95% of the people who play the game--they run it on a machine with a reliable internet connection and don't mind leaving it running all the time. Steam takes care of updating the game in the background and they just leave it that way. That works for most people, and most people are quite pleased that they don't have to spend any brain cells at all fritzing around checking for and manually downloading updates--it just works.

It's a few people, like you apparently, who have special needs, who have to spend some time learning how to shift steam from its default behavior, to behavior that suits you better. Steam is capable of supporting you, but it's not its default mode, and that's because you are unlike most users and have different needs.

I would say that defaults that work for almost everybody, while enabling the special needs cases to get what they want for an investment of a few minutes of their time, is a pretty good solution overall.

 

[Xiao Xiong]

So why should we be forced to install it?

I think you just answered your own question:

1) If you have to download the game from Steam, the point of buying things in the local store will be gone. In the long run, this means heavily decreased distribution costs.

So more of your money goes to the game developer, and they can spend more of it developing the game. Who would you rather support with your dollars, Firaxis, so they can make more and better Civ games? Or Best Buy, so they can open more and better box stores? If I'm going to spend my money on a game, I for one want the game developer to get as much of that money as possible.

Seems like a plus.

2) Since Steam automatically connects to the Internet and automatically patch the game by default, the software companies may rush their releases and fix bugs before the customers even realise that they exist. When people install games from a CD, they expect it to be ready to play. But since Steam is required to activate the game, the game will always be patched to moment you install it.

So the game developer can guarantee you a better gaming experience. Sounds like a plus.

3) Steam collects tons of information about your system. The companies get real-time information about how you play the game, at what settings you play the game, which mods you play, which leaders you use the most etc. Imagine the costs of doing market surveys instead. Again, this makes it possible for the companies to save a lot of money and they know beforehand exactly what DLC's that will be popular.

I'm not really sure that's true. If you install a local mod I really doubt steam knows about it and I sincerely doubt it sends anything back like what leaders you play. If it does that's something that Firaxis implemented, not steam, and if that's what Firaxis wants to do they could implement that via any conduit, steam isn't the issue here--they could have had that info uploaded to a website, say.

 

[Xiao Xiong]

Steam has good parts. Problem is that it has lot of bad parts (DRM, control of too many of my games, too big market share.) which only encourage me to pirate instead of buying.

So you admit to being a pirate.

Good bye.

 

[Venereus]

So you admit to being a pirate.

Good bye.

No, he just said he's being encouraged to become one.

 

[Stoney the I]

I hate stuff checking out what I do when.
I hate having to connect to the internet to play a single player game.
I hate when internet is not available this game tries to find it for a few minutes before starting up. Just start up!

So i hate steam.

Specially since i want to sell this game and now I cant.

 

[Maniacal]

I hate stuff checking out what I do when.

Don't we all, however Steam only keeps track of Civilization V's achievements and playtime, when you are on the net. It does NOT spy on your computer or scan your system without permission (there is an annual hardware software survey that is entirely optional).

I hate having to connect to the internet to play a single player game.

There is an offline mode.

I hate when internet is not available this game tries to find it for a few minutes before starting up. Just start up!

I do agree it takes too long. However, in the end is a few seconds. Take deep breaths and remain calm, its a minor annoyance at worst.