Poll: Educational debate about Steam

[Mar451]

Recently I saw a post here that said Steam ripped people off. And I was ready to go all troll mode. Then I thought about Extra Credits, probably some of the best discussion on videogames out there.

So my fellow Escapists, let us have an educational debate about Steam. No dick measuring contests, no PC sucks. Let us just discuss it.

Me, I like it because I think that is an easy way for users to get connected through a large library of games and is also easy for people to find games that can be difficult to find nowadays. Examples being Deus Ex and Psychonauts. I never found the prices to be too outragous considering the deals they have going on and have never encountered a situation where I felt ripped off.

Save for one time when I purchased Left 4 Dead for $20 just before Crash Course DLC came out and saw that in honor of it they dropped the price 50% fantastic. But that was an error on my part, not Valve's. So lets keep all the I hate Valve and what not out of the discussion. I want to hear what people hate about Steam, or just do not agree with. And most of all people, there is no right or wrong point of view here. These are opinions. I love Steam, you may not, no ones intelligence level is superior based on if they like it or not.

And for the TL;DR crowd, the jist is, Steam, why do you love it, why do you hate it?

 

[Steppin Razor]

I like buying games from Steam when they have sales on, and I like the Steam overlay that allows me to chat with friends while I'm playing games. That being said, I don't like buying retail games and being forced to play them through Steam. DRM is still DRM regardless of all the shiny bells and whistles that come with it.

And for why I hate Steam, unless there's a sale on, it's rarely. fucking. cheaper. It is beyond ridiculous when I can buy discs, with cases and manuals, for cheaper than I can get a goddamn digital download.

Spoiler

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

 

[Lost In The Void]

I like buying games from Steam when they have sales on, and I like the Steam overlay that allows me to chat with friends while I'm playing games. That being said, I don't like buying retail games and being forced to play them through Steam. DRM is still DRM regardless of all the shiny bells and whistles that come with it.

And for why I hate Steam, unless there's a sale on, it's rarely. fucking. cheaper. It is beyond ridiculous when I can buy discs, with cases and manuals, for cheaper than I can get a goddamn digital download.

Spoiler

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

Wait, is it standard to pay almost 50 dollars more for games than North America does?

 

[Steppin Razor]

Wait, is it standard to pay almost 50 dollars more for games than North America does?

Something like that. PC games are in the $70-90 range over here when they first release, so big name games are usually $90 on PC. And PS3/360 games are usually $110 on release/are still at $110 if its name is Modern Warfare 2.

It's even worse in the UK.

 

[Mar451]

I do have to agree with you on the retail games part. I recently bought Metro 2033 and bought it retail installed it and then saw I had to play it through Steam. I thought, well thats not bad, I can talk to people and keep the window at max resolution, but then it had to install into Steam. Which took a long time, so that annoyed me. But in terms of cheaper games, I mean more along the lines of older games that normally cost a lot more and are harder to find.

Thank you for keeping it adult though! This is exactly what I want!

 

[Insane_Foxx]

I like buying games from Steam when they have sales on, and I like the Steam overlay that allows me to chat with friends while I'm playing games. That being said, I don't like buying retail games and being forced to play them through Steam. DRM is still DRM regardless of all the shiny bells and whistles that come with it.

And for why I hate Steam, unless there's a sale on, it's rarely. fucking. cheaper. It is beyond ridiculous when I can buy discs, with cases and manuals, for cheaper than I can get a goddamn digital download.

Spoiler

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

I don't think i ever saw the price of that game at $90 when did this happen?

 

[Lost In The Void]

Wait, is it standard to pay almost 50 dollars more for games than North America does?

Something like that. PC games are in the $70-90 range over here when they first release, so big name games are usually $90 on PC. And PS3/360 games are usually $110 on release/are still at $110 if its name is Modern Warfare 2.

It's even worse in the UK.

Fucking Christ; and I ***** when a 360 game gets up to 65 bucks...well thats perspective for you
[sub]Also on another note add me on Steam you slippery bastard[/sub]

 

[linwolf]

I newer buy game on steam unless they are on sale, Steam is for me strict DRM and the game has to be cheap before I will put up with it.

 

[Mar451]

Wait, is it standard to pay almost 50 dollars more for games than North America does?

Something like that. PC games are in the $70-90 range over here when they first release, so big name games are usually $90 on PC. And PS3/360 games are usually $110 on release/are still at $110 if its name is Modern Warfare 2.

It's even worse in the UK.

Ouch, that sucks man, over here in US its only $60 usually and PC tends to be ten cheaper. Also, I absolutely love your username. Only about 5 people on here will actually know what its from.

 

[Irridium]

I like buying games from Steam when they have sales on, and I like the Steam overlay that allows me to chat with friends while I'm playing games. That being said, I don't like buying retail games and being forced to play them through Steam. DRM is still DRM regardless of all the shiny bells and whistles that come with it.

And for why I hate Steam, unless there's a sale on, it's rarely. fucking. cheaper. It is beyond ridiculous when I can buy discs, with cases and manuals, for cheaper than I can get a goddamn digital download.

Spoiler

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

I don't think i ever saw the price of that game at $90 when did this happen?

When Publishers realized they could charge the same amount for digital products then physical even though digital is supposed to be cheaper. Cheaper for them I guess, not for us.

Fucking pricks.

 

[Steppin Razor]

-snip-

Oh, well it is invaluable for finding older games at a cheap price, I'll give it that. It's just that in certain regions they've gone and shot themselves in the foot by charging virtually the same price as retail for new release games.

-snip-

It's always been $90 in Australia. When the Christmas sale was on they dropped it to the low, low price of $67 USD for us, though. Thanks Bethesda, you're truly saving us some money there when we can still get it cheaper at retail >.>

Fucking Christ; and I ***** when a 360 game gets up to 65 bucks...well thats perspective for you
[sub]Also on another note add me on Steam you slippery bastard[/sub]

That's alright, you are well-known as a whiny little *****.
[small]Yes, yes, give me a minute to do it[/small]

 

[Blue_vision]

Steam is good:
-Epic Sales
-Well integrated and ergonomic system for communities, chats, game library, and multiplayer games
-Is free
-Is convenient to purchase from, not only helping online purchasers, but also taking laziness and games being out of stock/production as excuses for pirating games, meaning devs get more money, meaning we get more games (possibly) at a lower price (meaning better chance of getting/continuing to get good ones.)

Steam is bad? It's not a monopoly so you can't really complain
-If you miss the communities and chat, get a steam count, put no games on it, put all your copies as non-steam games on steam and use steam normally
-If you don't like the DRM that comes with like 3 games, then complain to the publishers, as it isn't steam's fault
-You can complain about the prices, but if you really hate it, you don't have to buy the game off steam

Sorry for the point form, I just endured 2 debates (the mouth-frothing debate about the guy getting the banhammer, and a more civilized one with a friend over classical criminology,) it's 2:35 in the morning, and I haven't drunken anything in 5 hours. Generally, if you don't like Steam, you have no right to ***** about it, as it as an entity is not intruding on you (one of the prevailing topics in the other thread.)

As for whether Steam's better than other methods (stores, amazon, other electronic retailers,) I'm not sure and I don't really care to argue for. I use steam for its convenient mac games section, and that's it.

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I love it, but I hate how some games are way over-priced or region locked, but that's not their fault, but that of the publishers.

I like buying games from Steam when they have sales on, and I like the Steam overlay that allows me to chat with friends while I'm playing games. That being said, I don't like buying retail games and being forced to play them through Steam. DRM is still DRM regardless of all the shiny bells and whistles that come with it.

And for why I hate Steam, unless there's a sale on, it's rarely. fucking. cheaper. It is beyond ridiculous when I can buy discs, with cases and manuals, for cheaper than I can get a goddamn digital download.

Spoiler

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

I don't think i ever saw the price of that game at $90 when did this happen?

Not when, but where. You'll find that almost all games cost that much in Australia, despite our currency being basically the same as yours.

 

[Vanaron]

I love it. I'm brazilian and PC games are hard to find on my town (not really, but I hate going to the mall) so instead of ordering through some website and waiting a couple of days to get the game I can just buy it through steam, pay less than I normally would (since the dollar is getting soooo cheap) and get it right away (after a couple hours of downloading). Not to mention the sales where games go for 10-50% of the original price.

So honestly, I see no downside to it...

Edit:

-Is convenient to purchase from, not only helping online purchasers, but also taking laziness and games being out of stock/production as excuses for pirating games, meaning devs get more money, meaning we get more games (possibly) at a lower price (meaning better chance of getting/continuing to get good ones.)

Word... I love the "click, click... I've got the game" sales method. Seriously, with steam I see no reason to ever pirate a game since buying it is easier (faster and safer too) than pirating.

 

[Insane_Foxx]

I like buying games from Steam when they have sales on, and I like the Steam overlay that allows me to chat with friends while I'm playing games. That being said, I don't like buying retail games and being forced to play them through Steam. DRM is still DRM regardless of all the shiny bells and whistles that come with it.

And for why I hate Steam, unless there's a sale on, it's rarely. fucking. cheaper. It is beyond ridiculous when I can buy discs, with cases and manuals, for cheaper than I can get a goddamn digital download.

Spoiler

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

I don't think i ever saw the price of that game at $90 when did this happen?

When Publishers realized they could charge the same amount for digital products then physical even though digital is supposed to be cheaper. Cheaper for them I guess, not for us.

Fucking pricks.

Can only talk for myself, but at least i've never come across more expensive online then from the store.

Although,

-snip-

It's always been $90 in Australia. When the Christmas sale was on they dropped it to the low, low price of $67 USD for us, though. Thanks Bethesda, you're truly saving us some money there when we can still get it cheaper at retail >.>

That makes sense. But if i understand that situation correctly, it's the same price as at the store, in which case, it's less Steam, and more Aussie ghetoization prices.

 

[Steppin Razor]

That makes sense. But if i understand that situation correctly, it's the same price as at the store, in which case, it's less Steam, and more Aussie ghetoization prices.

Yes and no. Whilst the increased prices are due to us paying more for stuff in general, there is no reason that a digital download should cost as much as a physical copy. That's really the only issue I have with Steam. Digital downloading sells itself on being cheaper, and yet there are so many cases where it simply is not cheaper.

 

[Anarchemitis]

Steam is the conflagration of Valve's regard for their customers and business practices: Gabe Newell administrates Valve in maintaining that Games and the means of their distribution and usage are services, not products, and development should be heavily influenced by the input and options of the community whom are interested.

 

[EHKOS]

Everything works fine, I just don't agree with the key thing for TF2. Otherwise I have never felt ripped off. I actually copped alot of deals that would have been impossible otherwise. Thank you Steam.

 

[Merkavar]

i have not found a single thing to complain about steam. its competively priced, open 24 hours a day as far as i know, delievers right to my house.

If you could say those things about other stores then they would be seen as awesome too.

 

[Asehujiko]

Fuck you Steam, I bought that for $49 in a retail store.

Welcome to "fair trade laws" where retailers can force DD to ludicrously jack up their prices to offset their convenience in order to avoid "unfair competition".