Steam - Do people still hate it?

taz488 · 10 Jun 2007 at 20:50

at the end of the day its just a piece of software that isnt needed, and causes unnecessary problems.everything usefull that it does can be done without having a program running to manage and control how you do it.

mortals · 10 Jun 2007 at 20:57

I've never bought anything thru steam as I always buy games from shops so I have a CD/DVD etc.

The one problem I had with steam was when I tried to play halflife2 offline and it wouldn't load because there were updates or something :confused:

It is ok for online games I guess as I have it for CS:S, there are quite a lot of problems with it tho

also it's not good to hear about the security problems they've had.

I don't hate it, but I guess it's not brilliant for all cases

weringo · 10 Jun 2007 at 21:18

Duff-Man said:
What an intelligent, insightful and well argued comment. You're a credit to the forums.

Theres been ample topics about Steam, I've given my opinion and given my reasons for them before, I can't be bothered to do it again.

regimentaldj · 10 Jun 2007 at 23:39

weringo said:
Its a piece of crap

he speaks the truth

Vixen · 11 Jun 2007 at 06:39

It may be ok for people who play online games such as CS frequently, but for a casual offline player it's completely pointless and annoying. I got HL2 when it came out, and to even be able to play the game, I had to sign up for a steam account and register my cd key. I couldn't get an account name I regularly use (eg Vixen), so I had to make up something else. I now have no idea what the account name was, and can probably only guess at the password.

I removed Steam from my pc a long time ago, as it is a waste of system resources for someone who isn't actually using it to play games. On start-up, it is always the first program to load and connect to the internet (and update itself), which lags out everything else.

I know exactly where the HL2 box is, and the disc is in perfect condition, but if I want to actually play the game I've paid for, I have to try and get my account back.

Johnz0r · 11 Jun 2007 at 09:40

When it was first introduced I wasn't impressed, however with interim updates to the system it has no doubt come on leaps and bounds. However, saying that as Vixen rightly pointed out it is quite a large system resource hog and has been known to give a lot of users grief.

I think the downloading system is great mind.

mnet674 · 11 Jun 2007 at 12:06

I can't believe people keep saying it's a system resource hog, it uses 8MB of ram when running. Anybody would think all you complainers still run with 64MB of system ram or something :rolleyes:

Tute · 11 Jun 2007 at 12:31

mnet674 said:
I can't believe people keep saying it's a system resource hog, it uses 8MB of ram when running. Anybody would think all you complainers still run with 64MB of system ram or something

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.

MoNkeE · 11 Jun 2007 at 12:32

Vixen said:
It may be ok for people who play online games such as CS frequently, but for a casual offline player it's completely pointless and annoying. I got HL2 when it came out, and to even be able to play the game, I had to sign up for a steam account and register my cd key. I couldn't get an account name I regularly use (eg Vixen), so I had to make up something else. I now have no idea what the account name was, and can probably only guess at the password.

I removed Steam from my pc a long time ago, as it is a waste of system resources for someone who isn't actually using it to play games. On start-up, it is always the first program to load and connect to the internet (and update itself), which lags out everything else.

I know exactly where the HL2 box is, and the disc is in perfect condition, but if I want to actually play the game I've paid for, I have to try and get my account back.

Sorry, but how is that anything but user error? The idea of a user name and password is that it's memorable to you! Choose something you'll remember! I may want to use MoNkeE for World of Warcraft, but if it's not available, MoNkeE_1988 isn't exactly hard to remember!

And you can also stop it from starting up when Windows loads, so I can't see why you'd complain about that...

-RaZ

hyper_piper45 · 11 Jun 2007 at 12:34

I have never had a problem with steam. I do find it useful to be able to download the games when i need therefore it gets a thumbs up from me.

FirebarUK · 11 Jun 2007 at 12:40

I love it. Steam is the way forward!

Pottsey · 11 Jun 2007 at 12:55

My biggest problem is fast forward 10, 20 or even 30years and you want to dig out and play some old classic games. Only you cannot as Steams is no longer active.

What happen after Steam shuts down? Just yesterday I dug out an old Dos game to play again after a 10year break. If I get Steam I cannot do that.

krisboats · 11 Jun 2007 at 13:38

Tute said:
Where do I start?

It takes up hard drive space, it takes up memory, it serves no real useful function that can't be done otherwise (and quite easily I might add).

It also gives Valve total power over the games you have on it - they can simply stop you playing them, even if you've done nothing wrong.

And it's so plain stupid to use, i've tried really hard to get to grips with it. But 99% of the time it simply wanders off and does pretty much whatever it wants.

It's a pity, as i've wanted to play HL2, so i've spent the past month or two trawling the web for a non-Steam crack, not much luck yet though (I did make a thread on it too).

Sorry but if you find it "hard to get to grips with it" then your an idiot. You open it, click a game and its playing. Close a game, then choose another and its playing. It has obvious menus and is easy to navigate. It also gives you the options to check the games integrity on your hard drive and to defrag the game files to keep them running quickly. NONE OF IT IS REMOTELY HARD TO USE!

Yeah okay, maybe theres an update every now and again when you go to play something, only usually takes a couple of minutes, and the majority of the time you can play before its finished downloading.

It doesn't wander off anywhere, it updates if necessary and displays update news MINIMISED when you first open it. Those are the only two things it will do.

If people are classing this as a system hog then you need to upgrade your pc's.

The only negative aspect i can see is valves ability to suspend and ban your account. But i've heard numerous stories telling of how valve have both given back accounts and taken them completely. In the majority of cases the users were doing something wrong to begin with.

Psyk · 11 Jun 2007 at 15:24

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.

Killerkebab · 11 Jun 2007 at 15:49

Pottsey said:
My biggest problem is fast forward 10, 20 or even 30years and you want to dig out and play some old classic games. Only you cannot as Steams is no longer active.

What happen after Steam shuts down? Just yesterday I dug out an old Dos game to play again after a 10year break. If I get Steam I cannot do that.

On the same token, I had lost all hope of playing CS and HL unless I buy them again - installed Steam and used my CDKey (I used to keep records of them) and BAM!

Back into Black Mesa

peetee · 11 Jun 2007 at 16:08

Pottsey said:
My biggest problem is fast forward 10, 20 or even 30years and you want to dig out and play some old classic games. Only you cannot as Steams is no longer active.

What happen after Steam shuts down? Just yesterday I dug out an old Dos game to play again after a 10year break. If I get Steam I cannot do that.

what happens if it doesnt shut down, in that amount of time source codes will be available will they not? And if steam shut down there would be a hell of a lot of fuss about it, since we'v bought these games but cant play them because the company we'v give our money to wont let us anymore, they would have to release some kind of patch to allow us to play offline or whatever still, or over lan. And even if they didnt, someone would.

This is ofcourse assuming steam is shut down, which i cant really see happening, valve are a pretty well established developer, and now they're making profits from being a publisher too.

mortals · 11 Jun 2007 at 16:49

Tute said:
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.

I sort of agree with this

On CS:S a while ago steam installed the same update 3times in 1 weekend and then installed that same update 5 times over the course of the month.
Also 7/10 times when I've had an update, steam has removed my custom HUD files from CS:S

Vixen · 11 Jun 2007 at 18:46

MoNkeE said:
Sorry, but how is that anything but user error? The idea of a user name and password is that it's memorable to you! Choose something you'll remember! I may want to use MoNkeE for World of Warcraft, but if it's not available, MoNkeE_1988 isn't exactly hard to remember!

And you can also stop it from starting up when Windows loads, so I can't see why you'd complain about that...

-RaZ

User error? I already said that I couldn't get a login that I would easily remember. I couldn't get Vixen when I signed up for WoW, but since I log in every day, yes, my WoW account name is easy to remember. If I didn't play frequently, however, there's a good chance I would forget it, as I don't use my WoW login for anything else. Do you have any idea how many logins and passwords most people have for various things? At the time I signed up to Steam, I had 3 logins and two different passwords every month just at work, never mind all the online things I use.

I shouldn't need to have a login ID and password to play an offline game. For something like WoW, where your account isn't stored locally, it makes sense, but not for a game like HL2.

Regarding system resources, I said it takes up a huge chunk when I turned on my pc, and again whenever it wanted to download stuff. I don't have a great amount of resources to give away - my pc doesn't like being overrun by various programs, so anything extra at all is a nuisance.

peetee · 11 Jun 2007 at 19:40

Vixen said:
User error? I already said that I couldn't get a login that I would easily remember. I couldn't get Vixen when I signed up for WoW, but since I log in every day, yes, my WoW account name is easy to remember. If I didn't play frequently, however, there's a good chance I would forget it, as I don't use my WoW login for anything else. Do you have any idea how many logins and passwords most people have for various things? At the time I signed up to Steam, I had 3 logins and two different passwords every month just at work, never mind all the online things I use.

I shouldn't need to have a login ID and password to play an offline game. For something like WoW, where your account isn't stored locally, it makes sense, but not for a game like HL2.

Regarding system resources, I said it takes up a huge chunk when I turned on my pc, and again whenever it wanted to download stuff. I don't have a great amount of resources to give away - my pc doesn't like being overrun by various programs, so anything extra at all is a nuisance.

Sure you're always told to write down logins.. good practice to store it somewhere safe if its difficult to remember, just like it is to store cd-keys.
Sure it also says somewhere about hl2 requiring steam, you shouldnt have bought hl2 if you didnt want steam, even if it was just to play offline.

It only takes up a huge chunk when you turn on your pc because you have it set to start automatically, maybe turn that off and only launch steam when you actually want to play something using it?

Most of these arguements against steam are somewhat, cynical?
Only applying to an extreme minority, a number being partially down to user fault, or problems with most systems for games.
In the whole steam is a great system, replacing WON, adding new features that the users wanted, friendslist etc. Other handy functions - auto updating etc.
Lets compare steam to EA's Login server for 2142, steam gives valve a big control over their games, and who can play etc yes. But so does EAs login server, yes valve retain control over offline play, whereas EA allow it without taking an active roll in it, but valve have opted to retain this control, and as far as i see it, this isnt an abuse of their position, they didnt make you buy it, or change the rules after you'd bought it. Its been that way since release, if you didnt like it, you should have bought another game, that way you may actually have a chance at making valve fix what you seem to think is a massive problem.

Vixen · 11 Jun 2007 at 20:52

peetee said:
Sure you're always told to write down logins.. good practice to store it somewhere safe if its difficult to remember, just like it is to store cd-keys.
Sure it also says somewhere about hl2 requiring steam, you shouldnt have bought hl2 if you didnt want steam, even if it was just to play offline.

It only takes up a huge chunk when you turn on your pc because you have it set to start automatically, maybe turn that off and only launch steam when you actually want to play something using it?

Most of these arguements against steam are somewhat, cynical?
Only applying to an extreme minority, a number being partially down to user fault, or problems with most systems for games.
In the whole steam is a great system, replacing WON, adding new features that the users wanted, friendslist etc. Other handy functions - auto updating etc.

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? :confused:

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.