Page 2: Why steam sucks

mmmm, but at the same time, a box is always nice to have.

So you're saying that you want a perfect DRM and digital distribution system that caters for all of your demands, is cheap and never stuffs up?

OK, Utopia time is long past gone. Steam is god-damn close enough.

If the game is unavailable, log off and on and try again (shuts steam down then reopens it). As for games updating, SET THEM TO "DON'T AUTO-UPDATE", too easy.

Oh, and CD-keys suck to high heaven. I have Rollercoaster Tycoon 3, disc, manual, everything. Unfortunately, I lost the case for said manual, which had the CD-key on it. Now the then-$50 game is useless, and I have to buy that game again if I want to play it again. Don't really have that problem anymore with Steam.

Stop crying and deal with it - it's not that bad.

Boxes are useless pieces of shit.

Meh, Steam as a DRM is as effective as any other system out there, ie. It means diddly squat to hackers. A friend of mine play CSS on private server, so if you think it's an effective DRM, well... you're wrong.

Did you guys forget about COD4 Steam pricing compared to retailers when it was just released?


Why do they have to lump all of it into one? as a DRM, fine... I can live with it. But I don't need no stinkin digital distribution, multiplayer and communication platform. If only they separate them and allow me to play my games without installing and running the rest of the function, I would've been fine with it.

I don't think using an example of Steam not working 5 years ago makes for a particularly strong argument.

The only things I don't like about Steam are region restrictions and higher pricing in non-US areas, but that's not really Valve's doing.

That said, if you buy a physical copy of a game I don't think it should require Steam to play. Just like you shouldn't need to log in to GfW Live when you want to play a game.

Amen brudda!!

That's exactly my gripe with these two systems. Dawn of War 2 even has both of them that I have to run in order to play... It was damn annoying.

Ya'll be posting in a troll thread ya hear?

Oh noes! It's the foram police!

I'm sorry my posts aren't up to the standard expected within the TF2 threads. I feel sorta creeped out knowing that you're lurking around the forums, trying to muster the courage to have a dig at me. It's sorta weird.

EDIT: To clarify, my problem with Steam is as mentioned above: Buying retail boxed copies of a game and being forced to install third party software on my PC that I neither want or need. Steam is especially annoying for me as I only buy boxed copies of games, rather than Digital copies (with the rare exception of so GoG releases). For my needs, the program is beyond useless.

Which has been said countless times that it has nothing to do with steam and everything to do with Activision being a bunch of greedy dickwads.

Valve only set prices for Valve games, everythign else is determined by the games respective publisher, when the hell will people get this into their heads.

This what I think happened in the Valve meeting rooms when games started to NEED Steam installed.

"Hey, Valve Employee #1, you know what was really annoying? Those damn games that always ask you to install Gamespy Arcade!"

"Hell yeah, Valve Employee #2, that was annoying, no one ever installed it anyway."

"Exactly, which brings me to my next point, what if we did that with Steam... but then gave them no choice whatsoever! Even if we didn't make the game!"

"But what Valve Employee #2, wouldn't that annoy heaps of people?"

"Of course it will! But we'll make a fluff-load of money!"

"Oh yer"

*high fives*

This. Steam is brilliant. fluff the haters.

CD-Keys are balls. I've had many times over the years where it has been either unreadable, plain WRONG or just not attached anywhere. Plus having to keep the DVD case/manual handy when I want to reinstall is annoying. Right clicking an icon and going install is easy. All but a few of my games I leave Steam running when I go to work and it's done when I get back. People who whinge about having small caps have no excuse as they can stop games from updating, those who whinge about having to update multiplayer games are especially ******ed.

Those who don't want a "useles 3rd part program" running in the background need to stop crying.
1) On startup Steam used 50Mb of RAM, now idling it's using 5. It's not a system hog.
2) You can't lose discs CD keys. Steam keeps track of it all.
3) Updates. No need to hunt for that latest patch. Withis hours of it being released Steam will be downloading it. You don;t have to worry about finding somene who either has/hasn't installed the latest patch when playing on-line.

I could go on.

Idiots need to stop living 10 years in the past when Steam had actual problems.

It's because they've lumped them together that Steam has become such an accepted and successful method of DRM. It's non-intrusive because you can shut it down any time you like (unlike other DRM software). It's also a game updater and communications program which encourages people to continue running it even if they aren't playing a game. And because it's always running it's just a couple of clicks to get to the Steam store and spend some money. It's gotten to the point where I don't even consider Steam to be DRM at all. I just think of it as an instant messaging program that I can buy games with, that also has shortcuts to all my games (including non-Steam games). It's DRM with actual benefits.

Boxes and manuals stopped being worth getting about 10 years ago. These days they're just places to put the CD key sticker, so that argument is pretty moot. Though the metallic CD cases like BioShock and Jade Empire SE are particularly awesome. CD keys are the worst kind of DRM in my opinion. I've never liked entering stupidly long character strings, not knowing if it's an O or a 0, an I or a 1. Having to try every combination separately until it worked. Then hoping like hell I didn't lose the key. DRM software is the way, and Valve have the trump card.

As for Valve monopolising the digital distribution industry? More power to them I say. They've been through hell (HL2 on release) to get this far. They're probably one of the only companies that I would actually trust with a market share. They've proven themselves for over a decade to be as much about the consumer as they are about their own bottom line.

You're *insert words mods don't like*, steam gives countless advantages over other install to play services that it isn't even worth comparing them. One of the main reasons I don't have impulse runing 24/7 is because it lacks the social tools that are very well implemented into Steam. Then there's the achievement system which over the last few months steam has been bring into other games, the weekend and now mid week specials, free full version weekend trials of games with preloading for those on slower connections. They allow non-steam companies to host their content on local servers for the convinence of the consumer, Clan support, cheaper games, automatic updates, unlimited installs on purchased games *begins panting*.

Yeah steam is really annoying.

Face it, DRM of some kind is enivtable in the gamesindusrty, Valve has just found a way that gives something back to the consumer as well as protecting their property.

Steam also makes installing games incredibly easy. No messing around changing disks or being unable to use your computer, you just leave it running in the background while you do something else (or overnight) and bam you new game is ready to run.