Poll: Steam, how do you feel about it?

[RowdyRodimus]

I don't care either way. I hate digital distribution and I don't like Valve, so I'm not going to use it. But hey, good for all you folks that like it. Everyone has different tastes but as long as we can all get our favorite flavor I have no problem with it.

 

[Pielikey]

Best digital distribution platform / instant messaging application ever.

 

[Cryo84R]

Steam let's me game on the best computer ive ever owned. My iMac!

..and without Steam you couldn't?

Not team fortress 2 and left 4 dead

 

[ProfessorLayton]

As a massive Valve fanboy, I love Steam. Not only does it have great deals, it's extremely convenient and organized. As long as I'm signed in, I can install any game I own on Steam on any computer I want. It also tracks your time and sometimes stats for your games and organizes your friends and lets you see what they're playing and even lets you join their servers with just a couple clicks, and you can even browse the internet in game... I sound like an advertisement, but I love Steam. The only problem I have is that sometimes when Steam is busy the downloads can take forever. But pretty much everything else is perfect and I love Steam and everything about it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Yes, the PC game used market is dead, thanks to DRM! DD is DRM and soon the console used games market will be dead.

Umm enlighten me if you will, was there ever a time when the PC had a large used games market, like seriously iv seen like 2 pre owned PC games in my life.
And to be fair if the pre owned market dries up in your prediction then people will just wait for the prices to drop. Its hardly going to be a big problem.

Actually, yes, there was once a large used PC game market -- and not that long ago, either. Up until around 2004 or 2005, EB games had an entire wall of PC games, most of which were used and went for under -- in many cases, well under -- $10. There were a couple of things going on at the time that led to the change you see today. Specifically, DRM was getting more restrictive, making second hand sales a bit risky, and at the same time, Gamestop was in the process of buying out EB games. Gamestop was as much of an evil corporation then as they are now, except they had competition from EB up until that point. With their main competitor out of the way, they jacked up prices and cut out pretty much everything that made shopping for used games good.

OT: I like some things about steam, but hate that it's digital distribution. I love the sales, and the community aspect, but I dislike the fact that I own nothing I pay for. The one good thing I can say about the licensing system they have is that it is treated as a license all the time, instead of as a license when it suits the publisher, and a product when it doesn't -- screwing over the customer either way.

 

[smeghead25]

I love Steam.

I love Steam because I can pause downloads indefinitely.
I love Steam because I can resume my downloads at my uni. FREE.
I love Steam because you can download as many times as you need.
I love Steam because I live in Australia and Steam's base prices are cheaper than any store.
I love Steam because the sales are mind-bogglingly cheap compared to any store.
I love Steam because it's simple to use and very easy to organise.
I love Steam because now I don't have to have an abominable amount of cases lying around.
I love Steam because of auto-updates.
I love Steam because it really does come down to buy, download, play.

Steam annoys me when it auto updates at home and uses my internet cap...
Steam annoys me when it has to perform that 'first-time start-up'. And takes forever...
Steam annoys me because I like cases and manuals...

But those are very minor gripes. For me Steam is Epic Win. Though GOG is a very close second because of the no-DRM...

 

[MazeMinion]

Steam is awesome!

Read forums while playing Counter-Strike without Alt-Tabbing? SWEET!

Free updates? SWEET!

Not having to look around the internet for the right patches? SWEET!

 

[Nikolaz72]

Apart from the good deals now and then its a good way to meet people with the same interrests. Valve are really doing something for the community part of steam <_<.

*reads other posts*

WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT... WAIT WAIT. Wait...wait.

You people are complaining about getting free stuff through updates and bugfixes worth gigabytes that the companies must have spend thousands of hours making? Wow... simply..wow. -Nikolaz think worlds is getting dumber every day-

Yeah, it'd be better if all that free stuff and bugfixes meant that I could actually play the fucking game when I wasn't connected to the internet. I couldn't play goddamn Half-Life 2 because it wanted to update. Update? It's a single player fucking game, I haven't even started the process and I have no internet connection, LET ME PLAY THE GAME I BOUGHT GOD DAMNITT.

You cannot do that unless you have the complete original 4 CD Half Life 2. And even then if you add it to steam its still gotta require internet to remove the bugs it might have. We are in 1998's CDPatchbyGamertabloid anymore.

 

[xxcloud417xx]

44 bucks for the Rockstar complete collection
6 bucks for L4D2
4.99 for Torchlight at some point

lol yeah I love it.

 

[Delusibeta]

Steam works is forcing the same exclusivity nonsense that consoles do and it pisses me off. If you want to use steam works you can only publish your game digitally on steam, yeah all hale the might steam, fucking over everyone else and being lauded for it.

I'm just going to point out that this point is wrong. [http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/9895/product/Buy-Fallout-New-Vegas-Digital-Collector%27s-Edition-Download] It's just that some DD services [http://www.direct2drive.co.uk/9611/product/Buy-Sid-Meier%E2%80%99s-Civilization-V-Download] think that if they sell Steam games, they'll lose customers. [http://www.getgamesgo.com/catalogue/game/napoleon-total-war-the-imperial-edition] They're probably wrong. [http://www.getgamesgo.com/catalogue/game/napoleon-total-war-the-imperial-edition]

 

[lasherman]

I think it may be the best service of its kind, but its by no means perfect. I find it infuriating to have to deal with it whenever I want to play a game I have already downloaded.

 

[fgdfgdgd]

A programe that lets companies control how i play a game...*puts on best Zap Brannigan voice* sounds like communism to me.

 

[Daffy F]

I just said that people only seem to complain when stuff is PC or Steam exclusive. Not when it is exclusive to a console. I didnt emply that you had one or would play worms on it. I only played up to worms 2 myself.

Yeah, well I've been thinking about getting steam anyways... Thing is, I wanted to just wander into town and buy it, so you know... I guess it'll be more convenient in the long run...

 

[Tinneh]

I like it, it's cheap and convenient, that's all I have to say.

 

[Gudrests]

Love steam, and if you have problems with space stick all your games on a external hardive it's worth the investment.

I have crap Internet so it takes awhile to download but the deals on there make it worth it. I also live 2 hours form the nearest games store and even then the games there are limited so steam becomes even more useful.

To be honest...my Harddrive is HUGE....i just delete games i dont want to play in the next few weeks and the rest i keep on there...i have 15-17 "owned" games (1 is a demo for a day or so more) and i only have like...half of them downloaded....then again i can dl at up to like 3.0 MB/s soooo nothing takes 2 long

 

[Th37thTrump3t]

Steam is great. The games are cheap as hell. Especially when there is a sale going on. And there's ALWAYS a sale going on. They keep all of the games up to date and it gets rid of having to have a shit-ton of disks.

 

[binvjoh]

Absolutely love it!

 

[Woodsey]

Well, I am glad everyone is loving renting instead of owning their games cause it's coming. I just hope that I adapt when the time comes, would hate to give up gaming.

I would ask what you're talking about, but I fear the answer is going to be the product of many incorrect assumptions.

 

[Ken Sapp]

Don't really love it, don't really hate it.

Though I did find the installation of Orange box interesting. I recently bought it to play TF2 on pc. There are 2 cds in the package. You use one of them to verify the shit, and the rest of it downloads for 5 or 6 hours. I'm not sure about this, but wouldn't installation from a disc be faster?

Funny, I have the Orange Box and one of those discs has the games on it for local installation. If you had to wait for a download then I would guess that somehow you skipped the local install and only added the keys to the account you created.

 

[Woodsey]

Well, I am glad everyone is loving renting instead of owning their games cause it's coming. I just hope that I adapt when the time comes, would hate to give up gaming.

I would ask what you're talking about, but I fear the answer is going to be the product of many incorrect assumptions.

You are renting the game. You don't own it. You have a license to play it, nothing more. What is coming is that eventually there will be no discs or the discs will only be for those with slow internet (like the games that require Steam now).

What do you think will happen if Steam and Valve ever have to shut down?