Let's bitch about STEAM! - The Thread!

[ScottishMartialArts]

So yet again, Steam serves no purpose.

Two things Steam offers that TPB doesn't:
1. The satisfaction that I have legally purchased my games.
2. The knowledge that I have rewarded the makers of the game financially.

That may not be much, but it's why I only pirate games that I know I'm going to buy anyway but can't afford until the next paycheck, or that are simply out of print and unavailable for purchase.

 

[Infinitron]

In real life, people don't judge the quality of things purely according to how "indispensable" they are. They go with what's already working well for them.

See also: Google (what's so great about it, there is Bing and Yahoo!), Facebook (what's so great about it, there is Google+!)

 

[Clockwork Knight]

"I hide the fact that I'm gigantic fanboy faggot by mockingly imitating one"

Whaaaaaaat? I never hid it. I sometimes exaggerate it to be silly but it should still be obvious I love Gaben.

FeelTheMads is permanently stuck into ragemode, I don't think he'll understand that

New verb - 'Gabeing'.

"I gabed this couch from the furniture store for $400 last year, but they just sent a repo van to take it back because I added a cupholder to the arm without authorization."

 

[Jigawatt]

If you have dial-up somehow I doubt digital distribution is the thing for you. And if you happen to be uneducated about Internet connection speeds... well, now you'll learn, about 15 years late I might add.

Joke's on you if you bought the physical medium and need a 'free steam account' to play.

And I'll bet the save you the hassle of downloading the client by providing the 1.5mb installer on disc for you

 

[FeelTheRads]

1. The satisfaction that I have legally purchased my games.
2. The knowledge that I have rewarded the makers of the game financially.

Buy game -> Install crack.

Satisfaction.

Knowledge.

Steam?

No.

Also, I highly doubt Valve could ever keep their "promise". I don't see every company selling there being happy with their games suddenly becoming essentially free.

In real life, people don't judge the quality of things purely according to how "indispensable" they are. They go with what's already working well for them.

Feels like there must be more than that when you see the butthurt over any bad remark about Steam.


P.S.: Clockwork Knight, eat a dick. Kthx.

 

[Jigawatt]

I was suspicious of Steam until 2004, when I was able to compare two separate releases: Doom 3 and Half-Life 2. With Doom 3, I was dying to have the game, so I spent the weekend before release trying to hunt down an early copy. Every rumor I read online of store x has received y copies, I followed up on. In the end, I drove out to several different stores only to come back empty handed. Eventually I just picked up my preordered copy on release day at the local EB (which in those days still had a decent PC selection). With Half-Life 2, there was no following up on rumors, no driving out to different stores to try to snag an advance copy. Instead, I had my preload, and the moment that the game became available, I was able to unlock and start playing. That converted me to digital distribution, and since then I have bought very few physical copies of games.

`Steam saved me from my own retarded self, therefore it is awesome`

 

[Clockwork Knight]

P.S.: Clockwork Knight, eat a dick. Kthx.

Wait, no Cockwork?

 

[TripJack]

you guys take this too seriously

let's just all agree that steam is crap and move on with our lives

 

[Regvard]

Ok, give me a word for "I've bought it, but it's not really mine."

I'm not sure there is such a word in the English language. Renting specifically refers to paying for temporary use on a renewable basis. Something you have permanent ownership of, in this case a software license, isn't something you rent. You're right that you can't resell the license, but then strictly speaking many EULA's for proprietary software forbid that practice anyway. Doesn't mean it's right, just that this is common practice in the proprietary software industry.

New verb - 'Gabeing'.

"I gabed this couch from the furniture store for $400 last year, but they just sent a repo van to take it back because I added a cupholder to the arm without authorization."

This.

 

[LordDenton]

My original question was: Can you provide details of this "malicious DRM platform"?

Still waiting....

Why are you still waiting? The answers were posted shortly after you laid out your question:

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.

No reselling your game. You rent, you don't buy.
Valve can arbitrarily shut down your access if they feel you've violated their EULA (which you didn't sign at purchase but at installation, which makes it void even before the retarded nonsense in it makes it void). Hell, I've even had a discussion with a steam-apologist who was afraid to say anything bad about Valve on the codex for fear they'd shut down his ability to play his games.
Single player games require internet access.
Any problem server-side is directly transferred to client-side (Changing default settings only mitigates that).
When Valve has crashed and burned, so have your games. All your DVDs are worthless.
It's bloatware.
It's spyware.
And with the threat of you not being able to play the games you paid for, I also consider it malware.
Probably more that I'm forgetting or do not care about.

All those spiky sticks up the legal purchaser's ass don't bother the pirate one whit. He simply sails happily by.
We've had all these discussions a thousand times. Are you apologists trolling or just dense? Use Steam, if don't feel bothered by that stuff, but stop pretending it's not there, ffs...

Unless, of course, you don't consider any of that malicious.

 

[Average Manatee]

There is 100% certainty that steam will NOT exist at some point in the future. Statistically 95% of businesses will not last more than 20 years. Even the most robust ones have no guarantee of being still alive 5 years from now, let alone 10. This is assuming Valve is 100% trustworthy in the future and doesn't intentionally cut you off first, which is also impossible to predict in advance (how many other companies have turned to shit far quicker?)

When you buy a book, even one that you want to always have a copy of, do you really expect, with 100% certainty, that that individual book will last you for the rest of your life? Or do you expect that someday the binding will break, or it will get lost, or you'll spill coffee on it, or you'll lend it to someone and never get it back? No, there is no guarantee that I will have access to a Steam-purchased game for the rest of my life, but then neither is there such a guarantee for anything else I've ever bought.

We have these things called scanners. We can make copies of what we own if it is important.

Valve has stated repeatedly that in the event that they were about to go under, they would unlock the DRM so you could still have access to your games. You'd almost certainly need to back up your games on physical media before the distribution servers went down, but at least you'd still have access.

No, this is 100% pure bullshit. Aside from the legal issues, everyone downloading their games at once would kill the servers, and a company in its own death throes doesn't have the money to start setting up more servers.

Allow me to state that if I go bankrupt I will personally write everyone on the codex a check for $100.

Even if Valve wasn't able to fulfill this promise, I'll still have TPB, so what's the problem?

You had TPB before you bought something on Steam. Why are you using piracy to justify your purchase of steam games?

 

[ScottishMartialArts]

We have these things called scanners. We can make copies of what we own if it is important.

Have you ever actually scanned in a book by hand? You'd be the first person I've ever met who'd rather go through that labor intensive process than just buy another copy of the fucking book.

No, this is 100% pure bullshit. Aside from the legal issues, everyone downloading their games at once would kill the servers, and a company in its own death throes doesn't have the money to start setting up more servers.

Even if it is, it still doesn't change the fact that your primary argument against Steam is a hypothetical. Yes, Steam will eventually cease to exist. By the time that happens though, I doubt I'll be in a position where I really care that I'm losing access to a game I bought on sale for 10 bucks, 25 years previously.

You had TPB before you bought something on Steam. Why are you using piracy to justify your purchase of steam games?

I'm not using it to justify my purchases. I'm using it to show that even if you're retarded hypotheticals come true they won't matter.

 

[Spectacle]

I can understand why many people don't want to use steam, but I don't understand why some persist in using completely ridiculous arguments to try and convince others who are happy with the service that it's shit. Why do they care so much about a service they don't like?

 

[Lunac]

Steam offline mode is buggy as fuk! A well known fact by now. As in, it often stops working the way it is supposedly designed to work and randomly requires you to "go online" to access your games. Just Google these keyboards: "steam", "offline", "problem". This has been a problem for years now. Sometimes it takes weeks to manifest itself, sometimes it takes days, but it happens. So, their offline mode can be only be called "semi-offline" mode.

Also, for a "lightweight" client, Steam is anything but lightweight. It takes ages to start and load and eats up more resources than anything like it ever should. Horrible shit. Horrible! If you are over the age of, say 25, you can't defend this shit platform. You really can't. It ain't fly, it ain't cool. Somebody on a different forum once said it was a perfect platform for transients and children, and that's really who it's aimed at. I would only add shut-ins to that list.



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[Lunac]

Also, I noticed this comes up a lot, the whole "Dey wIll UNLOCK all gaems!!! in case of they go bankrupt or some such. Unless you are some dewb teen twitch-shooter popamole playing kiddo, you really can't be this naive. I mean, really? Who can be that naive?


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[Infinitron]

Also, I noticed this comes up a lot, the whole "Dey wIll UNLOCK all gaems!!! in case of they go bankrupt or some such. Unless you are some dewb teen twitch-shooter popamole playing kiddo, you really can't be this naive. I mean, really? Who can be that naive?


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I don't know, is it any more naive than believing CDPR would remove DRM from their .exes against publishers' wishes?

 

[Clockwork Knight]

If you are over the age of, say 25, you can't defend this shit platform. You really can't.

I think older people would be less likely to give a shit about Steams's cons since they are the ones who like the convenience the most.

Also, I noticed this comes up a lot, the whole "Dey wIll UNLOCK all gaems!!! in case of they go bankrupt or some such. Unless you are some dewb teen twitch-shooter popamole playing kiddo, you really can't be this naive. I mean, really? Who can be that naive?

They don't mean the games will be given for free ... but that Steam will remove the "you need steam running to play this game" requirement from the games you bought, which doesn't sound that absurd or hard to do...and they don't really have any reason to refuse unless Gaben just feels like trolling everyone for the lulz.

 

[LordDenton]

I can understand why many people don't want to use steam, but I don't understand why some persist in using completely ridiculous arguments to try and convince others who are happy with the service that it's shit. Why do they care so much about a service they don't like?

I wouldn't give a flying fuck about Steam, if they didn't try to shove it down my throat as DRM on physical products. For example, I wanted to buy Risen 2, but now I can't because it's infected with Steam. I really really wanted to support Piranha Bytes, but now I have to pirate the game. That's why I care about the abomination that is Steam.

Do you see me bitching about Impulse? Nope. That's because Stardock or Gamestop (or whoever owns it now) didn't try to shove it down my throat via my physical edition purchases.

 

[Infinitron]

I can understand why many people don't want to use steam, but I don't understand why some persist in using completely ridiculous arguments to try and convince others who are happy with the service that it's shit. Why do they care so much about a service they don't like?

I wouldn't give a flying fuck about Steam, if they didn't try to shove it down my throat as DRM on physical products. For example, I wanted to buy Risen 2, but now I can't because it's infected with Steam. I really really wanted to support Piranha Bytes, but now I have to pirate the game. That's why I care about the abomination that is Steam.

Do you see me bitching about Impulse? Nope. That's because Stardock or Gamestop (or whoever owns it now) didn't try to shove it down my throat via my physical edition purchases.

Excuses. You can buy the game and still just download a Steam removing crack, or a Steamless version from TPB.

 

[LordDenton]

I can understand why many people don't want to use steam, but I don't understand why some persist in using completely ridiculous arguments to try and convince others who are happy with the service that it's shit. Why do they care so much about a service they don't like?

I wouldn't give a flying fuck about Steam, if they didn't try to shove it down my throat as DRM on physical products. For example, I wanted to buy Risen 2, but now I can't because it's infected with Steam. I really really wanted to support Piranha Bytes, but now I have to pirate the game. That's why I care about the abomination that is Steam.

Do you see me bitching about Impulse? Nope. That's because Stardock or Gamestop (or whoever owns it now) didn't try to shove it down my throat via my physical edition purchases.

Excuses. You can buy the game and still just download a Steam removing crack, or a Steamless version from TPB.

Which would in turn support Valve (and the publisher's decision to use Steam). No thanks.

 

[Clockwork Knight]

Or you could pirate the game and send PB some money

 

[Infinitron]

Which would in turn support Valve (and the publisher's decision to use Steam). No thanks.

So you hate Steam so much you'd "steal" from a company you like because of it. Who's the extremist here?

 

[LordDenton]

Or you could pirate the game and send PB some money

Yeah, I have thought about doing that. Though I remember reading somewhere that it's a breach of contract for a developer to accept money without the publisher getting their cut.

 

[LordDenton]

Which would in turn support Valve (and the publisher's decision to use Steam). No thanks.

So you hate Steam so much you'd "steal" from a company you like because of it. Who's the extremist here?

Whether I choose to simply not buy or pirate the game makes zero difference to Piranha Bytes. Piracy isn't stealing, but that's beyond the scope of this thread.

 

[PorkaMorka]

Why do they care so much about a service they don't like?

Because developers like to try and force it on us.

And that can be irritating/inconvenient.

For example I had to wait months for a STEAM free version of Dungeons of Dredmor, since I didn't want to pirate it.

(Worst $3.50 I ever spent by the way.)

But seriously, what a dumb business model those guys had. The developers believed their game was only worth $3.50 cents.

But they wouldn't let me pay for it unless I installed a DRM scheme that requires online activation, requires signing up for an account, requires downloading and running a client, requires running a client to play the game, requires divulging my e-mail address, requires me to be connected to the internet unless I activate offline mode (which I can't activate if I can't connect to the internet).

All this to protect their product which is only worth $3.50? I'm not going to make those kind of changes to my computing habits for a game that provides $3.50 worth of value.

So they made me wait months to give them their $3.50. A lot of impulse buy potential was lost there, they could easily have lost a sale. And of course the DRM didn't stop pirates, the only reason I didn't pirate it was that I didn't want to pirate what was technically an "indie RPG".