Skyrim and Steam WT?

Gribbleshnibit8 · November 14, 2011

I don't quite understand posts like this. I think everyone has had at least one bad experience with Steam. I remember years ago, before the offline feature was revamped, that you had to log in periodically in order to play your games. For me, at the time, that was impossible. So I could no longer play my games (Half Life 2) despite having bought them.

That was pretty annoying, and for quite a while did turn me off to Steam. I came back around after a while though. Why? Because of the convenience. It's just too convenient to be able to buy games in this form. I never have to worry about a store not having the game I want, I don't have to waste gas, I don't even have to stand in a line at the checkout. Sure, I kind of miss those experiences, as that was part of the fun of getting a new game, but the convenience of this method is just too great for me to care.

I certainly understand that it's not so much a convenience for those who have bandwidth caps, though, if you bought a disc copy of the game, I can't see how installing that causes an issue. Steam itself is a very small download (~1.5Mb), so if you can't handle that, then loading web pages should be way beyond your capability (not being mean, just pointing out a fact). As for updates, you can turn those off. Steam has an offline mode, IIRC once a game is activated on Steam, you can go offline and don't have to get back on again. Ever (so long as you don't want updates).

I too enjoy physical copies of my games, and in fact bought the disc copy of Fallout: New Vegas despite (I also got a discount on Amazon, so that helped). If you like a physical copy, nothing is stopping you from going to your local store and buying a copy, or getting a copy online.

Or Securom, Uplay, Starforce, Tages, GFWL, in fact as DRM goes Steam is one of the best.

All too true here. Remember Spore? How many people couldn't play it at all because the Securom borked on them? The others are all the same. I personally don't begrudge a game company who tries to secure their product. You certainly don't get mad at Wal-Mart for having anti-theft devices by the door, or the airport for x-rays and metal detectors to keep you from being blown up (not entirely true, people get mad about that). The point is that they're doing what everyone else tries to do, keep their property safe and secure so they can make money on it and make more games.

As far as your whole "Big Brother" aspect of Steam. Who. Cares. I'm willing to bet you have an email account, that you've probably used an online store of some kind at least once. Do you have a Google account? You're being tracked in everything you do. If you have an iPhone, you're being tracked. If you do a simple Google search, you're being tracked. Everything you do online is tracked. Your IP address is given to every single website you go to. Every server you touch gets your info. Check out my signature and you'll see exactly what the internet knows about you. And that's just the basics. So who cares if Steam knows how long you've played Cthulhu Saves the World, what in the world good could that possibly do someone except to know what games you do and don't like to play?

And here's the biggest one. If you have a Facebook account, then every single website you've ever been to that has the little http://www.wordsquirt.com/App_Themes/Main/images/buttons/facebook-like-demo.gif button, Facebook knows.

There is no privacy these days. Stores have cameras, every time you buy something with a credit card, anywhere, the credit card company knows exactly where you are to the street address. On top of that, with the ubiquity of smart phones, anyone can take your picture and nearly instantly upload it online. You can't stop them, probably will never even know about it.

Furthermore, online retailers aren't the only ones who have had their credit card databases cracked and stolen. There have been plenty of data breeches at all kinds of other companies. Both PSN and XBOX have been hacked before. It's nothing new, and it'll keep happening.

So quite b***hing about game developers protecting their interests, and instead maybe b***ch about them releasing half-a**ed, buggy, games with a UI that's only usable if you're sitting 10 feet from your screen and playing with a controller.

TL;DR version

Quite complaining about Steam. Privacy is dead. Get over it. Move on.

[EDIT]: I'll have you know I don't normally go on like this, however, I'm sick and tired of people complaining about Steam, when it hasn't done a thing to you. It's not being "forced" upon you. Did someone hold a gun to your head and make you buy Skyrim? Highly doubtful. You weren't 'forced' to do anything. Probably ever. In your life.

shinyspoons · November 14, 2011

I was going to write something angry and incomprehensible to all the whining drivel directed at Steam but Gribbleshnibit8 pretty much has it on the bag.