Let's bitch about STEAM! - The Thread!

[DwarvenFood]

I got a better question: What's a fucking FREE Steam account? o_O

You mean you don't have the GOLD account????

Gold account..are you saying you haven't upgraded from Gold to Platinum yet?

 

[RK47]

Hahah yeah. I don't find steam a problem as long as it works and I get what I paid for.
Now marriage, that's another DRM I don't want to ever undertake.

 

[FeelTheRads]

Steam DRM

-requires online activation
-activation requires signing up for an account (unnecessary waste of time)
-activation requires downloading and running steam client
-playing game once activated requires running steam client
-signing up for an account requires divulging e-mail adress (you can make a junk e-mail, but that's just another time waste)
-unable to play games when not connected to the internet unless steam's offline mode is activated
-aforementioned offline mode can only be activated while connected to the internet

Steam DRM is not intrusive if you already use steam, but it is very intrusive if you do not. And the offline mode thing is just terrible.

But.. but.. you can play wherever you want, didn't you hear? Downloading and installing dozens of gigabytes is more convenient than just installing them.
Also, broadband internet access is available everywhere at anytime to anybody.
Brb, let me check with GABEN'S cock to see what else is awesome about Stream.

 

[DwarvenFood]

Gaben informed me to summon his lackey Multi-headed Cow

 

[FeelTheRads]

You people must have no money at all.

What the hell does that have to do with anything?

Ah, I know. You don't like Macs? That's because you're poor and can't afford them. DERP.

Not sure why you bitch about it.

OK, what's with the cocksucking then? As long as there are people fapping over how awesome steam is (with no arguments except Valve's own retarded advertisements) then why can't there be people bitching about it? Yet another case of ?

 

[Morkar Left]

You people must have no money at all. Steam is strictly a convenience. You either accept DRM for its nice selection and pricing or you do not. Not sure why you bitch about it. Go buy GOG games or something.

That said, obviously the pre-order should be purchasable on different vendors to give the consumers options.

Also, 60$? Is this some very special collectors edition or what? No way I am spending 60$ on South Park.

What does it have to do with not having money? It's more the opposite; people like Steam because games are cheap there. For me Steam is an inconvenience and I rather don't buy a game on it if there's no alternative around. I want to be full in charge when and where I can play a game and Steam is another hindrance (even if a small one) in the way to do it. And I'm in fact willing to pay more for a game (means no bargain price) and being able to fully "own" it instead of renting it on Steam.

 

[Spectacle]

"Free Steam account" is just boilerplate to inform any gamers who have been living under a rock and have never heard of steam that they don't need to pay any extra for this required "steam" account.

 

[Nattvardsvin]

"Free Steam account" is just boilerplate to inform any gamers who have been living under a rock and have never heard of steam that they don't need to pay any extra for this required "steam" account.

This.

 

[Jaesun]

Splitting this into a single thread.

 

[Menckenstein]

I don't like the offline limitations of steam, their game catalog is poorly organized, their sales are almost always some shit nobody will buy anyway and they use PRO-REVIEWER metacritic scores vs user review scores.

 

[Outlander]

You guys don't remember the beginnings of Steam?

Needless to say, my system's free of that shit.

I didn't knew this one:

 

[Dexter]

Ah, fuck you guys xD

Valve/Steam is also rather well known for being a company that willingly stays away from the stock market because

"All [companies that float] end up getting their customers changed," Valve's Erik Johnson told the latest issue of PC Gamer."Any bad decision I ever see out there is because somebody created this different customer that was whoever funds them, and not the consumer of the product." Gabe Newell added: "You end up with a totally different set of decisions, and the person who's trying to design the experience is like' Okay, I guess we'll put Christopher Walken in our game.

They're known for taking a risk or two and for instance allowing several inexperienced Indie developers full access to one of their most valuable IPs and helping them sell their games off the popularity cultivated by it.
http://www.next-gen.biz/news/potato-sack-developers-helped-design-portal-2-arg

Also for cultivating a modding culture and even often hiring out of it and making commercial high-budget games out of them. They're known for supporting, sometimes even without expecting anything in return and in several cases even saving Indie studios with their sales, like in the case of Introversion or Frictional Games or Tripwire.


Steam/Valve doesn't stipulate any publishers or developers to use Steam only as the many Kickstarters that are DRM free or Steam as well as the many games that handle similarly (even with Achievements and other features) like Witcher 2, Torchlight, Rayman Origins etc. would attest to. They're quite open about that and devs can usually offer their games in other places.
In most cases either the publishers or developers mandated it out of some sort of necessity or belief, either as DRM, for Realtime Stats or for instance if it uses the Steam API for Multiplayer features and other stuff (like Skyrim with Mods) it might require to be bound to an Account or similar.
I remember in the case of Magicka the developers specifically requiring Paradox for every copy to require Steam as they deemed it an important part of the Patching process even though Paradox usually doesn't make it a requirement: http://news.softpedia.com/news/Magi...-Important-for-Constant-Patching-186590.shtml
If that's your issue, it isn't with Steam (well maybe with Valve titles, but it's understandable that they would want to push their own titles/platform) but with third parties in this case :p

Without Steam stepping up with Digital Distribution when they did, gaming would have declined even more and developers like Paradox Interactive wouldn't be where they are today: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/magicka/1216907p1.html

GameSpy: How big of a chunk of your business right now is PC gaming?

Fred Wester: It’s an overwhelming majority is PC. Over 95% is PC. And 97% of that is digital download. So we’re pretty much all-in on the digital side, and there’s been a transition in the past four to five years. It’s been very quick. I think people underestimate how willing customers are to change if the service is right. If you take what Steam’s doing for example, they’ve been the pioneers of PC gaming for the past years, and really shown that you can do some great services, and that people are willing to pay if the service is good. And that’s something that we’ve been sort of piggybacking on that as well.

They help smaller/Indie devs circumventing publishers and making a fortune with higher profit margins:

Profit margins for developers are a major selling point for digital distribution, and Steam does not let the side down. I’m pleased to say that there are now figures as accurate as possible for each margin: 10%-20% for traditional retail/publisher deals; roughly 60%-70% for Steam developers; and an incredible 86% for Valve themselves. Add to that the fact that Valve doesn’t take the developer’s IP and the effective margin becomes wider still.

There's also loads of cheap games (and stuff like free weekends), automatic updates and proper game management and nobody else gifted me the Valve Complete Pack and 10 Games of my Choice for free before so there's that...

And have you read their "new employee manual"? Tell me you wouldn't want to work at a place like that xD
http://cdn.flamehaus.com/Valve_Handbook_LowRes.pdf

I'm also pissed about the retarded Offline Mode, which they should turn into a proper Offline Mode for people that need/want it and there's still the "ownership" and legality issue that bothers me the most: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/02/01/thought-do-we-own-our-steam-games/ but lets not overdramatize the whole fucking issue...
Would you rather GFWL or Origin lead the market or god forbid consoles with their motion control crap and Call of Doody audiences take over completely?

 

[Spectacle]

Why would Valve even consider going on the stock market? They have no need to raise capital, steam brings in all the money they need to run the company, and more!

 

[Jaesun]

Agreed. The second Valve has to answer to Share Holders, it will be GAME OVER.

 

[TripJack]

Why would they consider going to the stock market? ... because it would it would let the big boys sell their stakes in the company to become obscenely rich overnight? What's so hard to understand about that?

It's only a matter of time. All the stuff gabe and the other guy may spout about not wanting share holders to interfere in their game development is total bullshit. They are just biding their time so they can make more money when the time comes.

 

[Infinitron]

Why would they consider going to the stock market? ... because it would it would let the big boys sell their stakes in the company to become obscenely rich overnight? What's so hard to understand about that?

It's only a matter of time.

Gabe's already a billionaire. Is he the sole owner?

 

[TripJack]

He's not the sole owner. And sure he's a billionaire. But why have your billion dollars in the form of a major stake in a video game company when you can have it in gold ingots instead? Hookers fucking love gold ingots.

 

[Jasede]

There is absolutely nothing good that came out of Valve and their DRM shit. They only helped the decline with a crapload of indie shovelware and made DRM into a standard for the rest to follow suit. If you don't mind it ok but don't go around like a bunch of unpaid PR dumbfucks.

Holiday sales, holiday sales, holiday sales.

Yes, handing out games almost for free generates a lot of fan loyalty. Why wouldn't it? It's probably the best reason to be a fanboy.

And btw, by that same logic, PirateBay has lots of fans because it gives the people shit for free. Not because of its ideological anti-IP political stance or whatever. People like you if you give them good stuff, it's pretty simple.

I don't understand what's wrong with DRM. I mean, don't you think artists deserve to be paid for their work? Or are you one of these "all games should be free, just like every book ever written, every music, every song"?


Because I am telling you, that would be a nightmare world. If they don't get paid for it they don't try hard; just look at Linux for proof.

 

[LordDenton]

Another example that goes in line with Steam's weaselly nature is the blatant lie and misleading when you go to download Steam on their website. It says "Free 1.5MB download", when in reality that's just the downloader, and the real download is much, MUCH larger than that.

 

[Cassidy]

I don't understand what's wrong with DRM. I mean, don't you think artists deserve to be paid for their work? Or are you one of these "all games should be free, just like every book ever written, every music, every song"?


Because I am telling you, that would be a nightmare world. If they don't get paid for it they don't try hard; just look at Linux for proof.

That is such an idiotic "argument" I will not bother replying to it other than mentioning GoG and Gamersgate

Are the sheeple feeling such a post-purchase regret to the point they must defend their shit DRM?

It seems like bashing Steam is as effective as a means of getting all sort of stupidity to flow from its fanboys as is bashing Skyrimjob and Dark Souls.

 

[Sordid Jester]

My favourite thing about Steam is how it likes to randomly rip up every piece of audio currently playing on my computer and replace it with a electronic screaming/scratching and static, before breaking the sound until whenever it wants to fix itself.

 

[Infinitron]

Another example that goes in line with Steam's weaselly nature is the blatant lie and misleading when you go to download Steam on their website. It says "Free 1.5MB download", when in reality that's just the downloader, and the real download is much, MUCH larger than that.

I don't understand what's wrong with DRM. I mean, don't you think artists deserve to be paid for their work? Or are you one of these "all games should be free, just like every book ever written, every music, every song"?


Because I am telling you, that would be a nightmare world. If they don't get paid for it they don't try hard; just look at Linux for proof.

That is such an idiotic "argument" I will not bother replying to it other than mentioning GoG and Gamersgate

Are the sheeple feeling such a post-purchase regret to the point they must defend their shit DRM?

It seems like bashing Steam is as effective as a means of getting all sort of stupidity to flow from its fanboys as is bashing Skyrimjob and Dark Souls.

lol, Jasede was trying to troll me but you got trolled instead.

 

[Excidium]

If it wasn't for steam sales I'd only buy a game or two every year. Haters gonna hate.

 

[Infinitron]

Thread Killer:
Troika and Looking Glass might very well still exist today if Steam was around (in full force) during their time.

 

[LordDenton]

Thread Killer:
Troika and Looking Glass might very well still exist today if Steam was around (in full force) during their time.

Oh they might? Please tell me again how the recent PC RPG developer, Radon Labs, is doing. You must also be really looking forward to the upcoming STALKER 2 game.