Steam - Do people still hate it?

[peetee]

So this wonderful thing that means you don't need a cd, instead needs me to write down login details and store them with the cd? Wow, I can totally see how that works now.

You're telling me that I shouldn't be allowed to play a game I wanted to play, just because I don't see a point in having an account? Well that's really productive, I must be the only person in the world who doesn't only care about CS, and actually wants to play a single player game.

EDIT: I believe the whole needing steam idea was introduced when HL2 came out, and I pre-ordered the game.

it was actually already the case if you wanted to play hl1 single player offline.
You dont have to store the cd, or the login details, but its often good practice to store logins, especially if they are ones that could be hard to remember, you could store them in your emails, its not very difficult. a lot easier than storing CDs for me, and a lot of other people for that matter, since cds take up physical space, plus cds have a chance of breaking.
I dont really care about cs, but i like the whole steam system, especially with free weekends to trial games etc.. And i like playing my single player games, what i dont appreciate is having to muck about swapping the cds, hunting the updates down, especially when theres no FULL latest patch install.

 

[Vixen]

it was actually already the case if you wanted to play hl1 single player offline.
You dont have to store the cd, or the login details, but its often good practice to store logins, especially if they are ones that could be hard to remember, you could store them in your emails, its not very difficult. a lot easier than storing CDs for me, and a lot of other people for that matter, since cds take up physical space, plus cds have a chance of breaking.
I dont really care about cs, but i like the whole steam system, especially with free weekends to trial games etc.. And i like playing my single player games, what i dont appreciate is having to muck about swapping the cds, hunting the updates down, especially when theres no FULL latest patch install.

Perhaps more recently, but I've played the original HL without steam. Perhaps it is easier for YOU to mess about with old emails, or text files, but for ME it's much easier to just put a disc in.

 

[SB118]

I think it's kak.

After seeing this thread i thought i'd give CS another blast, been waiting 3 hours for my account details to be sent to me.

 

[Hedge]

Half Life 2 was worth it for me, i dont mind steam because half life games have been the best most polished games ive ever played. i adore them

 

[peetee]

Perhaps more recently, but I've played the original HL without steam. Perhaps it is easier for YOU to mess about with old emails, or text files, but for ME it's much easier to just put a disc in.

The point about the origional HL was that the single player/offline things had been established before HL2 came out, so there was an understanding that it would work the same way for HL2.

Old emails, well you could always make a folder, and save the email in there, its not too difficult, a lot easier than lugging around all your cds.
Either way I do accept your point, but as iv said, its a minority complaint, and the bennefits for the majority far outweight the drawbacks of the system.

P.S. You'll have to find your cd key aswell as put the disc in =) Which can become hell after a few years, and a few changes of addresses

 

[Vixen]

The point about the origional HL was that the single player/offline things had been established before HL2 came out, so there was an understanding that it would work the same way for HL2.

Old emails, well you could always make a folder, and save the email in there, its not too difficult, a lot easier than lugging around all your cds.
Either way I do accept your point, but as iv said, its a minority complaint, and the bennefits for the majority far outweight the drawbacks of the system.

P.S. You'll have to find your cd key aswell as put the disc in =) Which can become hell after a few years, and a few changes of addresses

Why would I be "lugging around" my cds? Why would my cd key not be with the disc? Again, you assume that I am the same as you.

It's a hassle to keep emails when reformatting, it's not something I've ever cared about. I also use multiple pcs, so have no idea what emails are on which pc.

 

[peetee]

Why would I be "lugging around" my cds? Why would my cd key not be with the disc? Again, you assume that I am the same as you.

It's a hassle to keep emails when reformatting, it's not something I've ever cared about. I also use multiple pcs, so have no idea what emails are on which pc.

Sorry about my wording, i just assumed a vast majority of users do change addresses etc, and use multiple pcs, like yourself.
I meant use an online inbox, then its no problem.

 

[dbmzk1]

Nope, I don't mind Microsoft personally.

Fair enough

It's 30MB or "something stupid" that could be better used if you weren't forced to install the stupid thing.

Come off it. 30mb is NOTHING. You won't even notice its being used. The last time I was even remotely worried about 30mb was in about 1995!

Still goes back to what I said above. It's resources that are unnecessarily used. What if you don't use the functions of Steam?

It is when it's 30MB and resources for a program like Steam.

I can maybe concede that it's useful a tiny tiny bit if you play predominantly multiplayer.

But for single player gamers it's just useless and unnecessary. Bloatware in fact.

Once again I just fail to see how you can use this against it. It does not make any noticeable difference to the performance of any PC. The resources are there to be used anyway. Pointless just sitting there doing nothing.

It's no easier than if you patch manually. Plus when you patch manually, you can choose when to patch. Steam forces you to update to play the game.

It is a hell of a lot easier. You don't have to do anything. It does it all for you. I can go make a cup of coffee and when I come back all my games are patched. How is that not easier? Also, apart from maybe a very few single player games (which I agree Steam is currently not great at) I can't see why you wouldn't want to patch a game.

If you don't want to use CDs, crack the game. It's what I do to ALL my games. I don't use a single CD either.

You can't crack a lot of online games with out going to some pretty extreme methods that could potentially get you banned. Not only that but it makes it a lot harder to patch the game.

And about the download feature, if you don't want to wait, go into town and buy it yourself. Of course this depends how far you live from town but i'd go as far as to bet it would take you just as long to buy the game and install it as it would to download and install.

Sometimes that is true. Other times it is not. But at least it gives you the option. If you want to go buy it then fine, go buy it. If not then I can download it easily with no fuss. How is that a negative point?

VAC2, like all anti-cheats, is tremendously flawed. And guess what, if Valve think you "might" be cheating, they can render, in some cases, hundreds of pounds of games useless. It's no more than glorified theft.

Oh yes you will. No offence, but have you been living under a rock or something?

Yes, VAC2 is not perfect and cheats do get past it. But if it bans you then you WERE cheating. End of story. It will not ban you for something you have not done. Find one case of solid proof suggesting otherwise and I'll change my opinion. It won't ban you from all games either, it bans you from the one you got caught cheating in. At least it used too, not checked recently.

It's not just that.

It's the way it seems to have a mind of it's own, and wanders off aimlessly to download stuff, update stuff, and generally stuff around with your computer.

And if you try to stop it, it has a hissy fit like a 3 year old and refuses to let you play any of your games.

How exactly does it have a mind of its own? Wander off aimlessly and stuffs around with my PC? Erm, no. It downloads updates for my games and that is that. Throws a hissy fit? rofl!

In theory I like Steam. Being able to get games on demand is great and you don't have to worry about losing discs.

But it's hard to stick up for a system when you've been so badly stung by it. I had my account stolen, and then completely disabled because of what they did with it. £50-£60 of games lost, with no hope of getting them back.

I probably will still get HL2ep2 but I doubt I'll buy back the games I lost. And I think I'll avoid buying on steam whenever possible.

Then someone directly or indirectly guessed your password. Pick a more secure one next time. Also that is not a Steam problem, I know people from WoW, EQ2 and BF2 who have had their accounts compromised then banned because of what the thiefs did.


To me at least the only downsides I can see to Steam are listed in my first post in the thread. Mainly relating to its dodgy offline mode and the inability to resell games on it. Apart from that I don't understand why anyone has a problem with it.

 

[Tute]

Come off it. 30mb is NOTHING. You won't even notice its being used. The last time I was even remotely worried about 30mb was in about 1995!

But that's my point. I don't want to install Steam. So to me, that 30MB is a problem.

It is a hell of a lot easier. You don't have to do anything. It does it all for you. I can go make a cup of coffee and when I come back all my games are patched. How is that not easier? Also, apart from maybe a very few single player games (which I agree Steam is currently not great at) I can't see why you wouldn't want to patch a game.

Say I just want to install HL2, install Steam, and play the game. I can't. It has to decrypt files (fair enough) and then it insists you install updates. But what if I don't want to install updates? Well tough. Steam throws a fit until you do.

What happened to being able to update when I want to? Last I checked, it's my internet connection, that I pay for. What if it's not convenient to use it right now?

You can't crack a lot of online games with out going to some pretty extreme methods that could potentially get you banned. Not only that but it makes it a lot harder to patch the game.

I can't say i've ever had a problem with this method. I just install the game, patch it, pop over to Megagames, and pick up the crack that matches my version. Install it, and the CD never comes out of the case again, unless I need to reinstall.

Sometimes that is true. Other times it is not. But at least it gives you the option. If you want to go buy it then fine, go buy it. If not then I can download it easily with no fuss. How is that a negative point?

Because when it comes to installing a game, download speeds are never going to get close to the speed of a drive. I don't accept the "what if I lose my CD" as a valid reason because I can't comprehend how anyone can be so silly as to lose all their CDs.

Yes, VAC2 is not perfect and cheats do get past it. But if it bans you then you WERE cheating. End of story. It will not ban you for something you have not done. Find one case of solid proof suggesting otherwise and I'll change my opinion. It won't ban you from all games either, it bans you from the one you got caught cheating in. At least it used too, not checked recently.

Trouble is, it's like every anti-cheat program. The people who want to get around it, will. And people who are legit still get banned.

How exactly does it have a mind of its own? Wander off aimlessly and stuffs around with my PC? Erm, no. It downloads updates for my games and that is that. Throws a hissy fit? rofl!

Exactly like what I said above. If Steam wants to update, you either do it, or wait until you're ready to. It doesn't matter if it's inconvenient, or if you don't want to update and just want to play, you have no choice whatsoever. Steam just clams up if it doesn't get it's own way.

To me at least the only downsides I can see to Steam are listed in my first post in the thread. Mainly relating to its dodgy offline mode and the inability to resell games on it. Apart from that I don't understand why anyone has a problem with it.

Well I hate the thing. I hope that Valve go bust, I really do, for forcing something like this on people. To people who don't want it, it's just spyware.

I mean would it have been that hard to make it optional? Why force it on people?

 

[Hedge]

I suppose buying half life 2 is optional though, but if you want the experience they worked hard for, then i think Steam is a sacrifice you need to take.

So, personally i hope Valve continue to grow so we get good games and good service.

 

[Tute]

I suppose buying half life 2 is optional though, but if you want the experience they worked hard for, then i think Steam is a sacrifice you need to take.

So, personally i hope Valve continue to grow so we get good games and good service.

Why though? This is the one thing i've never understood about Steam.

Why force people to install it? It's a utility.

I don't get what Valve's motives are.

 

[peetee]

Why though? This is the one thing i've never understood about Steam.

Why force people to install it? It's a utility.

I don't get what Valve's motives are.

valves motives are promote their own products and suceed as a business making the most profits possible.
I know id rather them have my money than buying games on the shelves that they have EA publish for them.

Steam is a utility yes, but it happens to be the utility they wish to be a hub for all their games, i cant see anything wrong with that, as a business they have done it as they feel its the best for them, and suprise, its not exactly bad for the majority of the users either. hence its popularity.

 

[knowledge123]

I'm split when it comes to this, tbh. I have recently installed vista hp 32 bit, and I was able to run Steam straight away with no problems, i didn't have to reinstall it, I just copied the main 'Valve' folder onto my HDD and I was up and away, with no problems whatsoever.
I believe the problem will be if/when I come to format that HDD, I will either have to copy it again or put it onto a DVD, the latter of which is impossible due to its huge size.
i understand both sides of this argument, and I have no-cd keys for all of my games, again, with Hitman: Blood Money, a straight copy over with a no-cd crack, and I was up and running again.
Lately, I've found more and more games developers are enabling no-cd cracks through their own patches, which is good.
All in all, Steam is good, imho, except if you don't have the net, and who doesn't these days?

 

[Elrein]

Got steam when i pre ordered HL2, never had an issue with it

 

[FirebarUK]

I believe the problem will be if/when I come to format that HDD, I will either have to copy it again or put it onto a DVD, the latter of which is impossible due to its huge size.

Use the inbuilt Steam backup feature? It will span game files across multiple DVD's etc.

 

[Tute]

valves motives are promote their own products and suceed as a business making the most profits possible.
I know id rather them have my money than buying games on the shelves that they have EA publish for them.

Steam is a utility yes, but it happens to be the utility they wish to be a hub for all their games, i cant see anything wrong with that, as a business they have done it as they feel its the best for them, and suprise, its not exactly bad for the majority of the users either. hence its popularity.

But I play single player only. I patch my games when I want to. And I have the CDs to hand.

Steam is useless to me. So why are Valve forcing me to install it?

I could link you to some other programs that install themselves without my permission.

 

[Columbo]

It's disgusting to be honest. Needs killing asap. Ive lost my login info for it and it has an old e-mail address registered to it (ok thats my fault). But I still have a great game that I cant play any longer and can't use it for anything.

With all the hassle of work and family games are supposed to be a release from that. yet all these type of "login" systems seem to cause is stress and computer resources. Any wonder why some people delve into the piracy market?

 

[knowledge123]

Use the inbuilt Steam backup feature? It will span game files across multiple DVD's etc.

Will it back up all the mods as well?

 

[Psyk]

Then someone directly or indirectly guessed your password. Pick a more secure one next time. Also that is not a Steam problem, I know people from WoW, EQ2 and BF2 who have had their accounts compromised then banned because of what the thiefs did.

Yeah I know it's ultimately my fault someone got my password. There's no way they guessed it (it was random letters and numbers) but I think I used the same password/email combo on other sites, so I guess one of them was hacked and someone for some reason thought to try those login details with Steam.

Not really Steam's fault but their support guys didn't have to be complete ****ers about it. Took me ages to get them to explain why my account was disabled. They just assumed I already knew because they thought I did it myself.