Let's bitch about STEAM! - The Thread!

[dibens]

More like STEAMING PILE OF SHIT, HAHAHA am I right guys?

...guys?

...where's everyone going?

 

[LordDenton]

If a game is Steam exclusive (and this includes boxed copies that require Steam), it's more than OK to pirate it.

After all, the publisher doesn't want you to pay money the game. If they did, they wouldn't infect it with Steam cancer.

 

[evdk]

Uplay and origin are fine though.

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Approaching?

 

[Wilian]

I'm actually a bit surprised so few people raise a fuss over having to register a game with Steam/Steamworks, even if you bought it, legally, at a store, or on another service.

If that surprises you then you probably fucking flip it when you hear that there are people whom actively boycott games if they have no Steam attached.

 

[Spectacle]

I know that one of the reasons that developers like to tie their games to steam is that steam comes with automatic and mandatory patching, which means significantly less resources wasted on technical support for retards who don't think to patch before asking for help.

 

[DeepOcean]

Monopoly is what happens when your competitors are morons who don't even know how to tie their shoes ( EA and Ubishit)

 

[AgentBJ09]

It is pretty close to a monopoly, yeah. Seems GMG is trying to move in though, they used to stick to only selling Steam keys before, but now they seem to have games that go exclusively to their account and run either without extra DRM or have things like Ubi Launcher (for Ubisoft games).

That I noticed with Two Worlds 2 and a handful of others. It's good to see, but I guess it'll fall to the publishers if they even want to offer us more choices, though. Kalypso and Devolver Digital already put their newest games, Hotline Miami and Omerta, on GOG.com, so there's hope.

Like I mentioned in another thread:
While GamersGate sell many DRM free games, some are needlessly tied to Steam. I checked out Thief 2, and for some reason this 10 year old game has to be activated on Steam. Why can't GamersGate sell it DRM free when GOG can? And why do they lead their customers to Steam this way? If you have to sign up to Steam to activate/play a game, you may as well buy the game at Steam!
I just don't understand this. How can it possibly be in GG's interest to tie their games to Steam, when they don't have to? I would think Steam is their main competitor.

I could say the same of Gamestop/Impulse, among others. They are supposed to be offering competing products/versions of them, versus ones you pay for in one place, then have to be used somewhere else. Still, if what I've heard is correct, the publishers make these final choices. So, we should be directing the complaints at them if there is little choice on this matter.

But, I think I know one reason why that is. Once you use Steam, and get used to it, you start getting dependent on it. For sales, community features, and other such things. So, you gravitate towards using it. Humans are hard wired to want convenience over effort, after all.

But, that also leads to another problem: Steam sales. Since games are luxuries, if there are so many in one place and a sale occurs, like the Winter ones, it's very hard to fight the urge to buy them. And I think that's what's really going on. Making you use a service that encourages you to spend more money when it's not needed. Versus letting the market decide what succeeds or fails.

If these other sites have to sell Steam keys in order to sell the products, then I would go one step further and say the practice is anti-consumer and needs to be looked into by, say, the BBB.

Approaching?

Yes. With how popular Steam is right now, when dig. dist. gets even bigger, if most of what you own can only be run with some kind of Steam service working, like Steamworks, we very well could witness a virtual monopoly on digital games.

However, I'm of the opinion that no company, no matter their reputation, should be selling air for $60 or more. Let alone a price equal to their physical copies.

I'm actually a bit surprised so few people raise a fuss over having to register a game with Steam/Steamworks, even if you bought it, legally, at a store, or on another service.

If that surprises you then you probably fucking flip it when you hear that there are people whom actively boycott games if they have no Steam attached.

I know about those folks, and they only prove that Steam is encouraging a kind of dependence within them. I feel for those folks, because later on, when Steam is no longer around, they'll be left out of thousands of dollars in digital media, if not more.

 

[Infinitron]

I feel for those folks, because later on, when Steam is no longer around, they'll be left out of thousands of dollars in digital media, if not more.

When will that happen? When they're 70?

Also, PirateBay says hello.

 

[Johannes]

Because the reason to buy games is that your friends can browse your collection on Steam.

 

[felipepepe]

PC Gamers should be happy with Steam, it made PC gaming attractive for console gamers without dumbing things down, it only made them more confortable. They can buy, download, install and patch automatially,and even mods are intefrated now. That was vital to make pc games a very profitable area again, even with PB around, especially now, where the Xbawks and PS3 are like zombies begging for deaths sweet release, and the PC appears as a interesting alternative.

Even more important, while it IS a DRM service, it's among the least invasive out there... I really doubt that publishers could be persuaded NOT to release DRM-heavy games, and among the possibilities Steam was probably the best one... shit like windows live, uPlay, Origin and the likes are a good show of how worse out situation could be.

Also, PirateBay says hello.

Yeah, if Steam fails, you can be it will take PC gaming with it. Most people will grab a "backup copy" on PB, and they can easily fuck things up in court, since they already paid for the goddam game. Then again, if Steam reaches the poiint of crashing, there probably won't much of a pc market anymore...

 

[Infinitron]

Yeah, if Steam fails, you can be it will take PC gaming with it. Most people will grab a "backup copy" on PB, and they can easily fuck things up in court, since they already paid for the goddam game. Then again, if Steam reaches the poiint of crashing, there probably won't much of a pc market anymore...

Yep. It's TOO BIG TO FAIL.

You might as well warn people about the stocks they're invested in on Wall Street. Yes, the stock market could crash some day. Apparently, that knowledge is not enough to halt the global economy.

 

[garren]

Well since there are no physical copies (CDs etc.) in digital distribution there needs to be a way to verify users that bought a game, and so they can re-download it later if needed. Hence registration.

And steam is so popular because it kicks ass in many ways no competitor has reached. I'm not gonna start listing reasons because I'm lazy and people can use their brains.

However improvements to the model are always welcome. I think gog-like DRM-free products should be mandatory in stores like steam too, installer and all. That way you can backup stuff yourself, in case the shop comes crashing down or something. I think some games in steam are already DRM-free (can be copied anywhere) once installed so it's a start.

Also, I think there was some court order passed in Europe where you can resell/give your digital product licence to someone else without the original seller being able to do jack shit about it. Would be cool if you could gift/sell your games from your games list to someone else, removing them from you and enabling them to someone else's account. Of course this sort of functionality is not implemented in Steam or anywhere else as far as I know, but it's an idea. Idea that distributors will nuke from orbit first chance they get

 

[Crispy]

While I'm still and always will be the kind of guy who prefers to purchase his games on physical disc, I will admit that Steam has grown on me a bit. It's clear a lot of work has gone into its general improvement, and as connection speeds continue to improve the usefullness of Steam will also continue to improve. A lot can also be said about its Green Light segment and its apparent intention to reach out to indy developers and to provide them an avenue to success like no other could right now.

But that's actually where it makes me nervous. I'm worried that Steam is going to indeed turn into a monopoly, taking away my option to remove something from an inventory, and I don't like that prospect. So I continue to look at Steam with a careful eye, but then again as the years go by I guess I continue to allow myself to slip quietly into their web. It's a lot like cloud-based computing or even just paying taxes for that matter...

...zzzzzz......

 

[Harg Harfardarssen]

If steam fails, it will just make steam cracks really popular downloads for a while. Always on DRM from diverse entities is more of a problem - if mid-size Studio X fails, there may not be the same availability of cracks for their DRM.

 

[sea]

Like I mentioned in another thread:
While GamersGate sell many DRM free games, some are needlessly tied to Steam. I checked out Thief 2, and for some reason this 10 year old game has to be activated on Steam. Why can't GamersGate sell it DRM free when GOG can? And why do they lead their customers to Steam this way? If you have to sign up to Steam to activate/play a game, you may as well buy the game at Steam!
I just don't understand this. How can it possibly be in GG's interest to tie their games to Steam, when they don't have to? I would think Steam is their main competitor.

Ultimately they have to agree with what the publisher wants. If the publisher says "this game has Steam, use it" then either they agree or don't sell the game at all.

Publishers see Steam less as a store and more as DRM that users actually accept. For them it's basically perfect, because it lets them think they're fighting piracy while users see it as a value-added feature.

 

[tuluse]

What is the point of this thread? Did I just go back in time to 2008?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I hate life.

 

[Konjad]

I hate life.

because of steam?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

because of steam?

Yes, this too.

 

[Konjad]

because of steam?

Yes, this too.

Why?

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

Why?

Because... it's all so alien. There's always the other, the alien, snarling in the shadows. Everything is so other.

 

[Metro]

Legally speaking it isn't a monopoly. Not even that close to it, either. As for the other discussion it's been done half a dozen times or more on the Codex and there's no need to debate it further because Johnny Registered Last Month makes a new thread about it. Use the search feature. Hell I'm pretty sure there was a similar thread not more than two weeks ago.

 

[Castanova]

If they're a monopoly then why do they sell games at huge discounts?

 

[Black_Willow]

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

 

[Crispy]