Steam

[risingaboveu]

would anyone like to start a coalition to destroy 'STEAM' as it is in fact the pinnacle of all evil?

 

nothing but a troublemaker :P

[frank lee]

All the big talent is currently riffing in the key of Wikileaks, also I'm not convinced 'attacking' it would be the right approach.

 

Many years ago a friend bought a newly invented answering machine, he was extremely proud of being cutting edge so we thought we would bring him down a peg. We called him repeatedly with messages that went something like this:

 

Dave, Hi there, Hi there, there, there, there, Dave Hi there, Dave I think, Dave I think, I think there's, think there's, think there's something wrong, wrong with, wrong with, wrong with your machine, Dave Hi there. . . .

He took it back to the shop four times!

 

 

I was 'consulted' some time ago about 'fixing' a companies vehicle tracking system which the employees felt was intrusive and an invasion of privacy and the company had clearly abused. My advice was not to break the system, leaving people vulnerable to the repercussions but to discredit it. I put them in touch with someone who 'theoretically' could clone some of the vehicles. Then mask the real vehicle's signal and attach the clone to heavy goods transports bound for Murmansk or other unlikely destinations. This would produced the effect of seeing a car parked outside the offices while the tracking software said it was on the Paris ring-road!

 

The destruction of STEAM would be best accomplished in the minds of those that believe in the idea!

[bcrankshaw]

Hi

I absolutely support Steam and its endeavors to try to enforece some semblance of DRP

Its not perfect but it does at least try to protect PC development companies from having there products ,which can take years to develop ,from being pirated

 

Im not sure if some people on these forums are annoyed with Steam because the latest patch has broken some Mods ?

[frank lee]

 

Im not sure if some people on these forums are annoyed with Steam because the latest patch has broken some Mods ?

 

If you look up some of the other threads that touch on the subject (an it's amazing how many topics it get brought up in!) You'll see that people are concerned about;

 

Effectively not owning something they have paid for,

The bandwidth cost of the system,

The arbitrary exclusion of everyone without internet, Period!

Not having control of what installed in THEIR machine,

The implications for the future of PC games, and last but not least;

It doesn't f**king work for many people!

 

Oh yea, and the latest patch has broken some mods. . .

[minngarm]

Having recently gone without my internet after being a avid steam gamer for over 3 years I can agree it has some serious faults. However I like having exclusive price discounts on games that other stores do not, and infact, can not offer. I like being able to login anywhere and download my games, and then when setup properly play them in offline mode. Steam also is the largest supporter of indie games, getting unkown companies and individuals/groups out there for all of us to experience, and as such helping to swell the programing ranks with talented individuals so we dont end up with s*** like Halo 32: back to that beach with the alien towers shooting blue energy balls into the atmosphere so you can fight psuedo-zombies again.

 

However I have been highly annoyed at the difficulty of accessing steam games without a internet connection. Not having a disk is fine with me however as they only serve as physical clutter to take up space and get damaged to the point where I have to go download a ISO so I can play the game I paid for, and then get called a pirate because i grabbed a digital image of my own property.

[wardminator]

I like having exclusive price discounts on games that other stores do not, and infact, can not offer.

 

No discount is worth losing exclusive control over a computer system that cost me 50 times what this game cost.

[JimboUK]

 

Im not sure if some people on these forums are annoyed with Steam because the latest patch has broken some Mods ?

 

If you look up some of the other threads that touch on the subject (an it's amazing how many topics it get brought up in!) You'll see that people are concerned about;

 

Effectively not owning something they have paid for,

The bandwidth cost of the system,

The arbitrary exclusion of everyone without internet, Period!

Not having control of what installed in THEIR machine,

The implications for the future of PC games, and last but not least;

It doesn't f**king work for many people!

 

Oh yea, and the latest patch has broken some mods. . .

 

If you leave the future of PC gaming to high street retailers there won't be one, they gave up on the PC a long time ago.

[WizardOfAtlantis]

Im not sure if some people on these forums are annoyed with Steam because the latest patch has broken some Mods ?

 

Yeah, maybe permanently in one rather large case that leaps to mind: Arwen's Realism Tweaks, of which I am a huge fan.

 

Somewhat summing up what I've read here and there, Arwen has been *locked out* of playing her game for the last day and a half after trying this, that, and the kitchen sink, and in the end getting so infuriated that her last post in her mod comments says she'll never buy another steam game again.

 

So where does that leave her mod? And the people who love to play it? And the mods, if she continues down this road and Bethesda continues down their Steamy road, that she won't make in the future for the next TES or Fallout or whatever?

 

How much does it cost us gamers in the end when important modders like her are "turned away" by deaf-eared companies?

[secksegai]

Steam was great - in the beginning. Being able to download games you purchased was very nice, as even if you misplaced/lost your original install discs, you didn't have to replace them.

 

Things have changed quite a bit since those days though. Can't remember for sure which game it was, (probably FO3) that users who bought on Steam were now limited to 5 total installs EVER. With games that problematic often requiring several reinstalls during troubleshooting, not even taking into account data loss or hardware failure, it ended up punishing users instead of rewarding them for purchasing through them (as opposed to retail box).

 

While Valve releases have been much less problematic, not everything released on Steam is. While all companies are entitled to protecting their work, as I've seen it the DRM that's been implemented does more harm than good. It doesn't prevent piracy, and while it acts as a deterrent, its far more likely to cause problems for the general consumer. Troubleshooting certain games is difficult enough as is, then compiling them with DRM issues lead to poor if not painful experiences for the customer. For anyone who's ever spent time doing actual tech support, its hard enough to help customers who are "technology-challenged". While I've never felt guilty explaining that someone didn't fulfill the system requirements, having to tell them their game no longer works and must be replaced (for whatever reason)... you already know the customer is very unlikely to ever buy a product from the company again.

 

I hate buggy games. While its fun to be a beta tester, a lot of that is because you're getting access to a product that has yet to be released. When you feel like you're beta testing a "finished product", that fun is only replaced with frustration. Tack on DRM issues on top of that, if the customer wasn't pushed to his/her limits already, they have been now.

 

Basic DRM (ie secure-lok, securedisc) seemed to be far more practical. The majority of folks would simply lack the technical understanding to break it or know what is needed to break it. Those who manage to bypass the security measures will have the knowledge to bypass the security regardless. By preventing the average user from simply burning a copy to give to a friend, you've salvaged a possible sale. On the other hand, if you had a frustrating time just getting the software to install because of DRM, let alone play the game.... instead of salvaging a possible sale, the result is a negative experience. Considering the popularity of social networking sites, that one bad experience is shared again - when other folks chime in with similar bad experiences, the piracy that may have been prevented is overshadowed by honest customers refusing to buy product or future products.

 

You'd think a business model would desire a loyal customer base. Then again, I used to think greed would also keep the financial industry from doing anything to risk its collapse.

[WizardOfAtlantis]

Can't remember for sure which game it was, (probably FO3) that users who bought on Steam were now limited to 5 total installs EVER.

 

Really? I thought your downloads were unlimited. That's what I've read everywhere.