What's the beef with Steam?

[Zephyr102]

Ever since F:NV came out, I've been hearin' a lotta mixed feelings about Steam. Having played HL2, and thus having utilized Steam, for several years before NV's debut, I had personally come to like it- stable and reasonably fast game purchasing and downloads, easy and free updates, launch management and in-game overlay. And best of all, it's a free, tiny download.

 

Then came along NV. Mind you, I'm still waiting for the price to come down and some bugs to be fixed, but I still follow the game's progress to an extent. I wasn't too surprised there would be a Steam version- both Oblivion and FO3 have them, if I recall. I was somewhat surprised to learn that Steam was a requirement, tho not really disappointed, given my good experience with Steam in the past.

 

Which is why the furor over Steam has me confused. It seems the FOMM and OBSE guys have adapted well enough to the new platform, as well as the rest of the mod community. And I haven't heard of any legitimate in-game issues arising as a direct result of Steam- it seems a rushed release and a naturally-unstable engine (at least in my experience- Morrowind, Oblivion, and FO3 are the games that taught me to quicksave early and often) are mostly to blame.

 

So what's all the commotion about? I dun mean to start any fights, and I ain't aimin' at anyone in particular. Just wanted to pose the question that's on my mind.

Edited November 30, 2010 by DJZephyr

[ub3rman123]

Most people just don't want it because it's unnecessary. A single-player game doesn't need a massive multiplayer platform like Steam, nor does it need the extra copy protection needed.

[JimboUK]

Steam is still suffering from the HL2 debacle where people couldn't play the game they paid for, a lot of users don't seem to realise how much Steam has changed. Some of the complaints are laughable, when someone gets a disk based game that doesn't work they blame the developers, when a Steam game won't work they blame Steam. They blame Steam for pricing when it's not them who set the prices. As a DRM system it is one of the least intrusive, unlike other systems it also offers something useful to the paying customer. It uses 15-20Mb when minimised, if someone considers that a resource hog then I suggest they increase their resources, that amount of memory is nothing on a gaming spec PC.

 

Steam supported PC games when retailers lost interest, they support modding and they are very supportive of indie games.

[Zephyr102]

@ Ub3r

True enough- in the past, if my computer's connection was down for whatever reason *cough*PARENTS*cough*, it made it a pain to install stuff like Mass Effect or Prince of Persia (SP-only, but with online activation). Steam and its various games can run offline, tho it's somewhat stubborn about it at times. I dun see why a CD key shouldn't suffice for store-bought copies, and I do disagree with Steam being required for NV (a non-Valve game, which is why I was a bit surprise as mentioned above).

 

As for DRM/copy protection, it seems to me, the only people who hafta worry about it are the same people who inspired it- pirates. They're also why the game industry leans so hard towards consoles. My entire library is legit- I refuse to be part of the problem.

 

@ Jim

Indeed, no noticable performance hit- I use it with several non-Steam games for the overlay/browser. Keeps my desktop nice 'n clean, since I have 'em all in a menu. And I hopped on the HL2 bandwagon a bit late, so I didn't experience that particular debacle. Haven't had many issues at all, come to think, unless I forget my password. :|

 

And I'da never found the indie awesomeness that is AudioSurf if it weren't for Steam.

Edited November 30, 2010 by DJZephyr

[ginnyfizz]

Well I hate to disappoint you, but I have ALWAYS bought my games legitimately and I STILL hate Steam. It installs my games in places that I don't want it to and you can't change it. I like my games in C:\Games, if you please, not buried in the Steam directory. It updates games even if you have told it NOT to auto-update (switches auto-update back on...grrrr....)and thus you have no way of avoiding the inevitably game breaking patches from Bethesda. It is a royal pain in the rear with modded games, with all due respect to jim_uk.

 

And in my case, as I have said elsewhere, Steam ripped me off for £35 for Arcania, plus the game guide, and the game will not run. Their customer service is rubbish as they have never replied to the ticket I put in.

[Pitchguest]

@ Ub3r

True enough- in the past, if my computer's connection was down for whatever reason *cough*PARENTS*cough*, it made it a pain to install stuff like Mass Effect or Prince of Persia (SP-only, but with online activation). Steam and its various games can run offline, tho it's somewhat stubborn about it at times. I dun see why a CD key shouldn't suffice for store-bought copies, and I do disagree with Steam being required for NV (a non-Valve game, which is why I was a bit surprise as mentioned above).

 

As for DRM/copy protection, it seems to me, the only people who hafta worry about it are the same people who inspired it- pirates. They're also why the game industry leans so hard towards consoles. My entire library is legit- I refuse to be part of the problem.

To be honest, ever since the inception of copy-protection, pirates have been about. The idea that pirates are somehow responsible for the gaming industry preferring consoles now is a myth. They've been around for decades, even during the era (early to mid 90's) when PC games were on the uprise. The games sold as well then as now, then even more so. Sure, the games may have received less revenue then they could've gotten due to piracy, but hardly as little to be on the breaking point. As you even yourself stated, you buy your games. Well, most people do. Pirates are not in the majority.

 

That the industry leans more towards consoles is not due to piracy. Not really. The pirates are just scapegoats in this regard. It's because consoles have more drive now than ever. PC games are on the backburner, while consoles like Xbox360, PS3 and the Wii are at the front. They're the ones most advertised and so will likely bring more revenue. Nothing to do with piracy. Just like that old question about which computer are more likely to get viruses, on a PC or a MAC. Answer: The PC. Why? Because most people use PC's and Windows is the most utilized operative system in the world. Here MAC's are on the backburner. If more people started to use MAC's, or in fact took over where PC's used to be the norm, you can expect viruses. A lot more viruses.

 

Finally on DRM, all you have to do is browse through the forums of Bioware, Microsoft or Valve and you'll see how well that works - and how well people feel about it!

Edited December 1, 2010 by Pitchguest

[WrathOfDeadguy]

As a distribution platform, I really, really like Steam. I like being able to install a game before official release if I've pre-ordered it (yeah, it'd be nice to be able to play right away, but being able to play within a few minutes of release is the next best thing). I like that games and the platform itself stay up to date without any effort on my part. I like that I can install and play pretty much anything on pretty much any computer provided I've got my login info handy. I also like the addition of the in-game Steam Cloud overlay for organizing games with friends with a bit less hassle ("Oy! Get on Steam you lazy dope!" *send invite, start game*).

 

It's missing a few things yet, and still has the occasional crippling hiccup:

 

1. Needs a true offline mode. At present, offline mode cannot be activated while there is an active internet connection; it only pops up with the option after it checks for a connection and fails to find one. The online/offline choice should be presented every time at startup unless otherwise specified in options.

 

2. The ability to "decouple" a game from Steam. Wouldn't it be grand if you could buy a game, download it via Steam, then bump it over to another directory and not have to be running Steam to play it? Especially with singleplayer games? Yeah, that's what I thought.

 

3. Forced default to offline mode if Steam detects an active internet connection but fails to contact the Steam servers. Right now, when this happens, you get booted to the login screen and have your password cleared, which effectively disables offline mode until the server connection is re-established (IIRC offline mode won't accept your pass unless it is saved). If the servers are down for an extended period (as has happened on occasion, once for about a week), anyone who isn't aware of the problem before trying to log on can be denied access to their games until the problem is fixed, even though everything would have worked just fine if they hadn't been online when they started Steam. Steam reverts to offline mode when the servers are lost and the program is already running, so why can't it just do so at startup too?

 

4. The blasted glitch that occasionally causes Steam to 'forget' the validation/download status of games that have already been installed and validated. I've had this happen more than I'd like even in offline mode, and occasionally when I was unable to establish a connection and fix the problem. It's irritating and shouldn't still be happening six years after the platform came out.

 

5. Ability to "gift" any game on an account, not just duplicates or games bought specifically as gifts. Say you've had your fill of a particular game but your friend wants to try it... why can't you just give it to them? We're talking about games that couldn't be sold as used even if retail stores still accepted used PC games; they're 100% digital content. Since the precedent exists for buying additional licenses then transferring them to other accounts free of charge, no argument against the feature holds water. If you can transfer any duplicate license, why not any original as well?

[JimboUK]

As a distribution platform, I really, really like Steam. I like being able to install a game before official release if I've pre-ordered it (yeah, it'd be nice to be able to play right away, but being able to play within a few minutes of release is the next best thing). I like that games and the platform itself stay up to date without any effort on my part. I like that I can install and play pretty much anything on pretty much any computer provided I've got my login info handy. I also like the addition of the in-game Steam Cloud overlay for organizing games with friends with a bit less hassle ("Oy! Get on Steam you lazy dope!" *send invite, start game*).

 

It's missing a few things yet, and still has the occasional crippling hiccup:

 

1. Needs a true offline mode. At present, offline mode cannot be activated while there is an active internet connection; it only pops up with the option after it checks for a connection and fails to find one. The online/offline choice should be presented every time at startup unless otherwise specified in options.

 

2. The ability to "decouple" a game from Steam. Wouldn't it be grand if you could buy a game, download it via Steam, then bump it over to another directory and not have to be running Steam to play it? Especially with singleplayer games? Yeah, that's what I thought.

 

3. Forced default to offline mode if Steam detects an active internet connection but fails to contact the Steam servers. Right now, when this happens, you get booted to the login screen and have your password cleared, which effectively disables offline mode until the server connection is re-established (IIRC offline mode won't accept your pass unless it is saved). If the servers are down for an extended period (as has happened on occasion, once for about a week), anyone who isn't aware of the problem before trying to log on can be denied access to their games until the problem is fixed, even though everything would have worked just fine if they hadn't been online when they started Steam. Steam reverts to offline mode when the servers are lost and the program is already running, so why can't it just do so at startup too?

 

4. The blasted glitch that occasionally causes Steam to 'forget' the validation/download status of games that have already been installed and validated. I've had this happen more than I'd like even in offline mode, and occasionally when I was unable to establish a connection and fix the problem. It's irritating and shouldn't still be happening six years after the platform came out.

 

5. Ability to "gift" any game on an account, not just duplicates or games bought specifically as gifts. Say you've had your fill of a particular game but your friend wants to try it... why can't you just give it to them? We're talking about games that couldn't be sold as used even if retail stores still accepted used PC games; they're 100% digital content. Since the precedent exists for buying additional licenses then transferring them to other accounts free of charge, no argument against the feature holds water. If you can transfer any duplicate license, why not any original as well?

 

Click "Steam" then "Go offline"

[geoffcd]

jim, pls re-read points no. 1 & 3......if you were connected & lose the net, or if steam itself stalls which is becoming more common every day, clicking "Steam" then "Offline" doesn't work. So,it means you can't play the game as steam is still so-called connected even tho it's not !!! This problem is happening regularly to many users & steam doesn't really seem interested in fixing it .

[nosisab]

Few realize the real word here is "control", consumer's limits are being tested ... to the limit.