Fallout: New Vegas uses STEAM, but why...?

[Gracinfields]

@DarkZerker steam is how they plan on handling the DLC's instead of using GFWL which has been reported to be causing more problems for more people then steam. GFWLs failed big time for me with Section 8, couldn't play multiplayer due to its inablity to log in to GTWL couldn't even play single player till I found an INI tweak in the GFWL Section 8 plug in which would allow sinple player to be played offline. So people lost access to their DLC because the files where kept in another folder and GFWL got currupted and no warning if it was, and no self repair system/repatch system was never implamented. Steam has a system set up to warn players if it is having trouble and will even attempt to repatch itself to repair the corrupted files, also should a file get corrupted it has a system to verrify and fix if nessary. This is what Obsidean is looking at as well.

[SupermassiveBlackHole]

I think the Bethesda chose STEAM as they wanted their game to be more secure from piracy, just a thought, I haven't really looked into NV yet though.

[galient5]

What is people problem with steam? It adds the right kind of DRM, the one where people have a very hard time stealing the game but it does not intude on the player that bought it. Along with that valve has done nothing but please its customers (although I don't like that they are bringing it to the playstation 3 (let's hope that they dont link the two version!)). Steam cloud lets you access your saves on any computer (not sure if F:NV will support steam cloud, heres hoping). And you can download the games you bought any where in the world with an internet connection. The people that are bitching about steam are probably those that where planning on pirating the game.

[galient5]

We are all excited about Fallout and can't wait for it.

 

But what we all dreading is Steam...

I still think it's going to be a pain.

So I'm going to wait and look at all the problems before purchasing

 

(Sorry guys who buy on release day and have problems, But your struggle will be my education) ;) haha...

 

I'd be happy to be your education, You'll learn how steam actually works and that it is in no way a pain. Also valve and bethesda are both know for their lack of launch (the ones that kill the game not the ones that are like "oh noes! her mouth is move in a different way than how she is talking!") bugs. There is absolutely no reason to "dread steam". So rather than calling it your education lets call it your reducation.

[WrathOfDeadguy]

Steam has had a very, very long time in gaming terms to get sorted out. It was absolutely terrible when it first released. I'm not overly fond of the new version, either- IMHO the last 'upgrade' before this one was just about spot on for functionality, but there are still major issues with the platform. Among other things, when run in offline mode for a long period of time Steam can occasionally decide that a game needs updating before you play it, even if it has no way of knowing whether or not there's an update available- this has the effect of making any affected game unplayable until you get online and check for updates. If you anticipate going a long time without internet access, Steam is definitely not ideal.

 

Then there was that fiasco, either last year or the year before, where the entire service refused to work for several days in a row- during that time, if you happened to boot up Steam while your internet connection was active, it would fail to connect then refuse to connect again even if it was then used only in offline mode. This is because the offline mode option is not presented on startup unless the program has first checked and failed to find an active connection; there is still no way of simply starting the program in offline mode without running that check.

 

So... yeah. I don't hate Steam. It is good for what it is; it is definitely the best digital distribution platform out there... but it is still not as good as it could be, and is still occasionally a pain in the posterior when playing singleplayer-only games thanks to its dependence on having an active internet connection (offline boot takes quite a bit longer), and there is still no way to start a game directly- even if you have a shortcut to a specific game on your desktop, when you click on it Steam will still load before the game does.

 

On the other hand, anyone making Steam out to be the root of all evil are full of crap. The platform is pretty much the best thing that's ever happened to indie game developers, and larger developers often re-release classic titles for chump change... which saves nostalgia-freaks the trouble of hunting down either a hard copy in good condition or a malware-free torrent somewhere. Steam also has the virtue of not having ever torn the guts out of anyone's system for daring to uninstall it, and doesn't run any hidden processes even when the program itself isn't running. As far as DRM goes, that makes it pretty mild- again, not ideal, but better than most of the alternatives. It's also bloody unlikely to have a sudden critical existence failure and stop working overnight, so there's that too I suppose.

 

I do miss the days of trading discs with friends so they could try 'em out, though. Things were definitely better before the copy protection revolution... :/

[XSoldier]

Steam cloud lets you access your saves on any computer (not sure if F:NV will support steam cloud, heres hoping). And you can download the games you bought any where in the world with an internet connection.

 

If you read my latest post, you'd see that, even if you can do that, not everyone has the luxury of excellent download speeds. Like I stated, I'm only lucky I'm getting 'decent' speeds with my ISP combined with the freezone benefits, but others like Vindekarr don't have such speeds.

 

Would you seriously bother attempting to download a legitimate full version game at slow download speeds? If i was unable to download fast on Steam, I wouldn't have bothered with the Service in the first place, but since I have no severe problems with it so far, I'm happy with it.

 

The people that are bitching about steam are probably those that where planning on pirating the game.

 

Please don't attempt to accuse anyone here for Piracy. It doesn't make you look any better.

[Vindekarr]

The people that are bitching about steam are probably those that where planning on pirating the game.

 

Watch what you say boy.

 

The people "bitching" about steam are the ones with genuine reason to!

DID YOU EVER ACTUALY READ WHAT I SAID? I am no pirate, what I want is the best out of my dollar possible, if that means direct 2 drive, fine. if that means buying a dvd, fine. But no, not steam, never.

Since you obviously didnt read my post I'm going to give you the highlights, call it your re education. because you really made me angry with that post.

 

FIRST: This... DRM is not the right kind. The right kind of DRM is no piracy at all, steam's DRM is restrictive and has caused me, a legitimate purchaser, no end of giref and trouble.

 

SECOND: How dare you accuse me of piracy? That's not your place, or your right.

 

THIRD: Steam's games are the most hacked I've ever seen. Left 4 dead. Call of Duty. Alien Vs Predator. Total War. Just because you dont let yourself see this, doesnt mean the lack of moderation means these games are absolute nightmares to play online.

 

AND FINALY: Just because you have had no problems with steam, DOESNT MEAN NOBODY ELSE HAS EITHER. Ask around, I'd wager a good quater of the people here have dozens of horror stories. So before you accuse me of being a criminal, before you insult my integrity and pride, THINK! and actualy do some research.

[leetgamer]

The people that are bitching about steam are probably those that where planning on pirating the game.

 

'Bitching' is an overstatement, and an insult. I think it would've been better for you to leave that part out. This thread contains 4 pages of steam rant, accusing all of us of piracy is rather foolish of you.

[DELiSH]

Steam is a good distribution platform. Using it for authentication and cloud storage for a single player game is a failure. People shouldn't have to connect to an online service when there is no multi player involved. It's treating people less like customers and more like statistics. Also, the more they can make you depend on them, the more power they have - and the less you have.

 

As for Steam somehow making it harder to pirate a game, that's simply not true. There are people who live and breathe for defeating copy protections and so far Steam has not prevented any game I know of from being copied. Using it as a copy protection is just as much a failure as it is making it mandatory in the first place. If the game is pirated, the steam requirements will be ripped away and pirates will be able to play in peace, never needing to go online at any time. It's only the paying customer who is inconvenienced.

 

Contrary to what some people think, not everyone is happy to install Steam on their system, especially for trivial things like authentication and achievements.

 

If they used Steam only to manage DLC, then perhaps it would be acceptable. That's an area where a distribution platform like Steam can come in handy. It should be an addition to traditional distribution, however. An option for those that don't wish to manually download and install.

 

It could also be a great way to manage and even authenticate online games. Since they require you to be online anyway in order to play against friends or strangers - the authentication/info storage can happen seamlessly. This is assuming that Steam itself isn't causing any software/hardware problems, which it has a history of doing to some people. Basically, the customer should be inconvenienced as little as possible. Otherwise even legitimate customers may resort to pirating a game, simply to get rid of invasive or cumbersome copy protections. Developers should take a heavy cue from Star Dock in that area and develop for customers rather than for pirates.

[evilneko]

Steam doesn't protect a game from piracy, at all.

 

This...

@DarkZerker steam is how they plan on handling the DLC's instead of using GFWL which has been reported to be causing more problems for more people then steam.

...is likely the real reason for using Steam.

 

After weighing all their options, including distributing DLC only on physical media (which kinda defeats the DLC acronym), distributing via direct download, and via bittorrent, they probably decided Steam was the most cost-effective way to do it. And here's why: distributing only on physical media is fine and dandy, and they did this (albeit not exclusively) with Fallout 3, but this incurs cost (however) for every unit produced, whether or not it's sold. Having the data from the Fallout 3 expansions, making a decision on this channel would be simplified.

 

Direct download is somewhat more appealing, as only units sold incur any cost. However, they'd need to purchase bandwidth, which granted, is pretty cheap. They'd also have to deal with any problems arising from outages, depending on how they went about it.

 

Torrents are great for people who are used to them and have already configured their client and firewall for optimal torrenting. They are however quite unfriendly for most people, remember, users are idiots, making torrents likely to be rejected on the basis of not wanting to deal with the support issues, or not wanting to create from scratch a custom client that does everything automatically, which some users wouldn't want to use anyway. (see also Mektek's MTX client, ugh)

 

GFWL, well, we saw how well that went over.

 

And finally we come to Steam, a proven distribution platform built, maintained, and supported by Valve. It's been around a while, and it's not going anywhere. It already does everything automatically. Many gamers will already have it. It's a turnkey solution for marketing, sales, distribution, and support. That a minority (and it is a minority) of users have problems with it was likely immaterial, and probably forecasted (or even outright shown) to be less than with GFWL. For the vast majority, it will Just Work. It was probably even cheaper than GFWL. It must've been a no-brainer.

 

There you have it: the Why of Steam.