Poll: Steam only gamers?

[KungFuJazzHands]

I was Steam-only for a loooong time until I had to deal with their draconian refund policies while attempting to get my money back on a purchase that was incorrectly advertised in the Steam Store. To be fair, they've gotten better since then and have cooperated with me on three other refund requests, although it's still disappointing that Valve only offer credit instead of straight payment refunds.

I actually went through a lengthy period where I flat-out refused to buy anything directly through Steam, instead shopping exclusively with their competitors. As it is now, I avoid Steam whenever possible, which isn't actually that hard these days -- any game they sell is virtually guaranteed to be cheaper someplace else, what with heavy discounts at Green Man and price matching at Amazon. Bundle sites have also lessened consumer dependency on Steam, so as far as I'm concerned anyone who only buys from Steam is getting ripped off.

The less power that Steam have over the marketplace, the better. Having to deal with smart competition forces them to consider better prices and better customer service.

 

[Wharrgarble]

If it's on Steam and I want it, I'll buy it.

If it's not on Steam and I want it, I'll buy it wherever I can.

 

[Ebonrul]

100 percent Steam.

The reason is simple. I want to keep the developers who are making the games I like in business.

Are you really "wondering" how GMG is able to sell steam codes so cheaply? It's because they've cut the actual developer right out of the equation. It astonishes me that anyone can claim to love indie games and then screw those developers out of their hard-earned money. We're not even talking about sixty dollar roster changes here, but more commonly ten to fifteen dollar labors of love.

Then, these same people say that they will buy a console and shell out 60 bucks for eighteen hours of gameplay without batting an eyelash if it's a AAA game they like.

It's called the "total cost of ownership", something console gamers have only just recently become aware of after theirs went sky high. I'll give Valve my money to avoid the same thing happening to the PC.

 

[Kathinka]

never on steam. ever. keystores are just SO much cheaper with the same level of convenience.
if you will excuse me now, i have to play my 25-euro collectors edition of company of heroes 2.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Why? I always see a one liner but never a reason... and "coz EA" doesn't count.

First, the game library is really small compared to Steam. They do have a good amount of games, but there's absolutely no Indie games, and none of the big game series that you stick to Steam for(I could go for a low blow and say the price of Origin games is high compared to Steam, but Steam is hard to beat when it comes to price, and I got Battlefield 3 for $5 because of Origin, so they have a good note)

Second is that Steam has more bells and whistles -- mostly the community hub. All Origin has is a friend's list, small profile pages, and chat with friends -- Steam has Usergroups, Marketplaces, Trading, Chat Rooms, Screenshot libraries, Workshops,

Third is that Origin locks out custom content. If I remember, custom content on certain games is an instant ban on Origin. Humongous nail in the coffin for me, because half the reason I play on the PC is for user-made mods and models. There is no downloading a game save to skip playing for five hours to get to your preferred spot, there is no player-made balancing and AI rewriting to make a game more difficult, there are no beautiful stand-alone mods.

Fourth -- and this is for Battlefield 3, might not be in all Origin games, but thank Battlefield 3 for making me blame Origin on this -- it has that constant Internet connection bullshit. The only way to play a game (or Battlefield 3, again, might not apply to other games) is by launching the game in your web browser and playing from there. First of all, that is enormously stupid -- not the Internet connection needed part, but that Origin needs you to keep a web browser open to work: it says to me that Origin doesn't know how to host a game without using Chrome or Firefox as a crutch, and that the opened browser saps processing power while you play the game (and if you think this isn't a real con: it isn't, but it might be for people with slower computers). Second, the constant Internet connection is stupidjunk when it locks you out of playing singleplayer, because of 'DRM hurting the buyers more than the stealers' reasons you already heard.

Fifth: Why does it need to exist? There's no real answer beside EA saying "I'm going to another sandbox and taking all my toys with me."

Sixth -- another problem that might be limited to Battlefield 3 -- why is there no voice communication?. Why is it that one of the most complimented military team shooters has no means of built-in communication? That is a basic service that has been in every game since the later 90's, why can't Battlefield 3 have it? (Typing chat is NOT an excuse or an alternative, because typing blows)

...

But Origin could be a lot worse. It looks nice, it has a decent library, they have usually have a sale or two, it runs fast, I haven't had problems running the games besides reason #4, and I haven't needed to run into EA's infamous support team. But refer to reason #5: Why does it need to exist?

 

[MindFragged]

Pretty much all of my gaming starts with steam nowadays. I do use gog from time to time though.

 

[Souplex]

I haven't gamed on PC since 2009.
I got out just in time it seems, because that was the last year PC games had any retail presence.

 

[Zoomy]

I buy retail, but often that gets landed on my Steam account. I only buy from Steam if it's unavailable in the shops, even if the retail version is more expensive. That way, when Steam falls apart (as all empires must), I've got a big pile of boxes that show I bought it, in case I feel like playing what will be the classics in the future.

 

[thesilentman]

Steam only? I've been doing that for a while now, but I have occasionally gone retail for my games (Dark Souls is one that comes to mind). I guess a huge incentive for having games on Steam is the appeal of having all of my games in one place and able to be redownloaded as many times as is needed. Also, a lot of games have Steam activation, so some people cut the middleman and just bay direct from Steam.