So I just installed Steam once again.

[Dr.Awkward]

Flash is another big offender.

Flash is, without a doubt, the strongest offender. It's very much the reason Firefox, Steam, and a few other browser-style apps are noted as resource hogs, and Adobe doesn't seem to think that perhaps at this point it's better just to rebuild the engine from the ground up so that it's much more efficient.

 

[TehCookie]

First of all how do you know I'm wrong where you don't know where I shop? Due to the economic depression and being in a shithole city the shops around here are as cheap as eBay, and Condemned goes for like $2 all year round and you get a case and CD. Also why do you even bother bringing up the humble bundle or games that work outside of Steam? They're irrelevant.

1. What shithole do you live in that sells tons of legit used PC games in conditions that are worth buying? I haven't seen that in over a decade anywhere
2. Many games downloaded through steam client work outside of steam, meaning you can just make a backup of that and do whatever with it.
3. Humble bundles have had steam games for a while. I think I got Dead Island, the entire Saint's Row 3 package plus Saint's Row 2, both Sup Coms, Metro 2033, and a bunch of other games I like for a total under $20.

1. Did you even read the thread? I have more than once platform and go for the best deal. It's on the first page!
2. If you crack it which is questionably legal, but if I'm going to do something illegal anyways why would I pay them money? Unless there's some other way you know I don't.
3. Humble Bundles also have them DRM free as well as the Steam keys. Unless it's from crappy publishers, but I haven't seen many forced DRM games on there.

Though I have an unrelated question? Why are Steam fanboys so rabid? It's always like how dare someone not enjoy what they like.

 

[Best of the 3]

Valve is the only software distribution company I've heard of that hires psychologists. I think there's some Skinner Box going on with Steam. I personally don't buy from Steam because I don't want an omnipresent sentient gatekeeper between me and my games.

Think? It's pretty obvious, even more so with those new game card things that you can now randomly unlock. I think that comes under more of Skinner/behaviourism with reward schemas. Interesting if you want to look it up. Me and a friend of mine were talking about the psychology behind what Steam has done recently with all their changes with levels and unlockables. It's very weird yet it works.

OT: I like steam. I buy some games from it, I use it when I play other games to talk to friends. It's handy for me so I have no problems with it.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Does Windows 8 also insist on updating your graphics card drivers, randomly presenting everything in gloriously unwanted 3D?

I've been using Windows 8 and 8.1 since they came out, respectively, and I really wonder what you could possibly be talking about...?

This [http://i.imgur.com/UEMw4gA.png] maybe?

I have been sitting on a stack of Windows 8 licenses from day one, but I only kept the RC installed in its own, well secured virtual box. The annoyances I identified were still in the final product, so I held off updating any machine with Windows 8. Now that I could no longer enjoy my freedom, I made this week Windows 8.1 week. Windows 8.1 is a 3 GB download once one has installed Windows 8. I think that sucks. I still think Metro sucks. I still think a lot of the changes in Windows 8 suck, as in huge, hairy moose balls. And yes, I do think that the vanilla experience of Windows 8 updating drivers by itself is bound to give a lot of people severe headaches. I've been working on Windows for 20 years straight, and there were several iterations that, for various reasons, sucked. Windows 8, to me, is one of those iterations. I like the sleekness of things under the hood. The return of the magic button in 8.1 is very welcome, especially with its right-click usefulness.

And yet, left to its own devices, after just half an hour any and all games presented themselves in nothing but 3D with the 3D settings section being wiped from the video preferences. Why? Because Windows 8 silently installed the most recent driver. While I know what to do, I know and have to work with a lot of people that don't. It's little stunts like this one that put a dent in people's experiences with the product... and, in the end, it costs early adopters money by messing with their productivity. And even if it is just for games, it's not all fun and games, as a quick browse over to the Steam (and other) forums suggests. People blame everything and everyone before they realize it's the default settings of their fancy new OS. I find it difficult to just accept that. In fact, I am entirely unwilling to accept that.

Thanks for the help, though.

 

[Mycroft Holmes]

I dont like having advertisements dropped on to myscreen uninvited.

Settings ---> Interface ---> uncheck the notify me about new deals box.
set favorite window library

Was that so hard?

I dont use the community functions

And you can't intellectually deal with the the fact that those features take up a grand total of 2-3% of an interface screen during the half second it takes to launch a game?

and have no interest in the cards

Then you're a fool. I made 14$ selling those dumb cards. It's extra money to buy new games, given to you for playing games.

 

[WeepingAngels]

My only problem with Steam is that extreme paranoia that one day, perhaps by some freak accident, Valve can't continue to support Steam, and they have to shut down, taking my games with them. Other than that, I love Steam. It takes up almost no noticeable power from any decent computer, all my games can be downloaded at any time, and I don't have to worry about any game cases taking up space on a shelf or drawer (as much as I'd sometimes love to). Also there are deals on new games that even the console versions don't have, patches download automatically, and it's an easy way to keep friends on and see what games they are playing.

Also, can someone tell me, if I upgrade to Windows 8.1 from the free upgrade on the Microsoft store page (I have windows 8), does it wipe all my games and drivers and such? Or would at least most of them still work since it's still technically Windows 8?

Gabe Newell has said several times that if Valve has to shut down for any reason, they will patch all their own games so you can still run them without Steam.

Seen people make this claim many times, never seen the actual quote though. Do you have the actual quote?

 

[loc978]

Back when I bought Portal to see what all the fuss was about (and I did see. Love the Portal series... and only the Portal series among Valve's games), I balked at Steam... with good reason. It was a bug-ridden mess full of advertisements you couldn't shut off (back then). I considered it malware (due to relatively recent improvements, I no longer do).

However, even back then...

I tend to very much dislike any non-productive program that wants to run 24/7 without any proper benefit or justification I can get behind.

...that has never been true. Steam has always had a very clearly labeled option to not start up with your computer. It defaults to "on" the same as every other program with an instant messaging component since about 1998... the ability and sense to turn those off is what separates average baby-boomer computer literacy from the world war 2 generation's average computer literacy.

My experience with Steam lately has been all positive. Gaming under Linux (both native and through an emulation layer) has been easier than I ever thought it could be, back before I used Linux. It's also been more stable than any gaming I've done since XP SP2. Can't wait for the rest of 'em to kick Microsoft to the curb.

 

[Combustion Kevin]

I have but one warning, my friend:

Christmas sales are coming...

 

[Vigormortis]

Settings ---> Interface ---> uncheck the notify me about new deals box.
set favorite window library

Was that so hard?

I've found that the vast majority of the complaints I hear regarding Steam can be solved by getting the complainer to simply open the damn options menu.

Seriously....when did the ability to navigate a basic drop-down menu become something that's considered "tech savvy"?

And you can't intellectually deal with the the fact that those features take up a grand total of 2-3% of an interface screen during the half second it takes to launch a game?

Not even 2-3% if you leave yourself offline in Friends, leave Steam in offline mode, or change the skin Steam uses.

Then you're a fool. I made 14$ selling those dumb cards. It's extra money to buy new games, given to you for playing games.

Exactly.

For those that are so inclined, the trading cards and other meta-gaming features Valve added in the past year are a fun and engaging bit of challenges.

For those that aren't, they're a source of free money. Money earned by simply playing the games you want to play.

I still can't fathom why people are bitching about the trading cards. I really can't.

 

[Vigormortis]

Seen people make this claim many times, never seen the actual quote though. Do you have the actual quote?

Even if it weren't true, it doesn't matter.

When you buy a game off Steam, you own the game. At least, in the same fashion you "owned" those games going as far back as the 90's.

See, here's the thing:
If you're buying software via digital distribution, and you're not downloading and backing-up those games onto a hard-drive, DVDs, or other storage medium, than you are being incredibly irresponsible with your purchases.

Not doing so is the equivalent of going to Gamestop, paying for a game, and asking them to keep the disk behind the counter until some unknown future date when you may or may not return to pick it up.

Or, if you don't keep back-up copies stored locally (as in, solely relying on downloading from Steam after the initial install), then that's the equivalent of buying your game from Gamestop, taking it home for a bit, then returning to the store and asking them to keep it for you until you want to play it again.

Sure, they may be obliged to keep that copy available to you, but if they go belly-up and your copy goes with them, then that's on you.

Every time I purchase a game from Steam, I immediately download it and create a back-up of the game to one of my external hard-drives. That way, even if Valve magically "goes away" in the near future, I still have all of my games.

I really wish more people would realize this. I really get sick of hearing the "but they can take away all my games at any time!" bullshit.

 

[CardinalPiggles]

I've personally never had a single problem with Steam itself, after about 3 years of use.

Can't connect to the internet? Play offline. Yes Steam still has to run, but it's not much of a memory hog anyway.

Then you get a reasonable amount of games exposed to you (not so many that it all becomes a blur), on top of that getting the games themselves and any DLC for your games is an absolute piece of cake, and to put the cherry on top your games will always be updated (if you choose for them to be).

I know that Steam has it's share of problems for a lot of people, and I do sympathise, but for me it's perfectly fine.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Seen people make this claim many times, never seen the actual quote though. Do you have the actual quote?

Even if it weren't true, it doesn't matter.

When you buy a game off Steam, you own the game. At least, in the same fashion you "owned" those games going as far back as the 90's.

See, here's the thing:
If you're buying software via digital distribution, and you're not downloading and backing-up those games onto a hard-drive, DVDs, or other storage medium, than you are being incredibly irresponsible with your purchases.

Not doing so is the equivalent of going to Gamestop, paying for a game, and asking them to keep the disk behind the counter until some unknown future date when you may or may not return to pick it up.

Or, if you don't keep back-up copies stored locally (as in, solely relying on downloading from Steam after the initial install), then that's the equivalent of buying your game from Gamestop, taking it home for a bit, then returning to the store and asking them to keep it for you until you want to play it again.

Sure, they may be obliged to keep that copy available to you, but if they go belly-up and your copy goes with them, then that's on you.

Every time I purchase a game from Steam, I immediately download it and create a back-up of the game to one of my external hard-drives. That way, even if Valve magically "goes away" in the near future, I still have all of my games.

I really wish more people would realize this. I really get sick of hearing the "but they can take away all my games at any time!" bullshit.

I was under the impression that most Steam games need to check in the first time they run (at the minimum). If that is true then wasting space on your external hard drive is for nothing if Steam goes under.

The question I asked does matter. People keep quoting that but so far NO ONE has been able to produce the quote. I just want to see the quote.

 

[Headdrivehardscrew]

Back when I bought Portal to see what all the fuss was about (and I did see. Love the Portal series... and only the Portal series among Valve's games), I balked at Steam... with good reason. It was a bug-ridden mess full of advertisements you couldn't shut off (back then). I considered it malware (due to relatively recent improvements, I no longer do).

However, even back then...

I tend to very much dislike any non-productive program that wants to run 24/7 without any proper benefit or justification I can get behind.

...that has never been true. Steam has always had a very clearly labeled option to not start up with your computer. It defaults to "on" the same as every other program with an instant messaging component since about 1998... the ability and sense to turn those off is what separates average baby-boomer computer literacy from the world war 2 generation's average computer literacy.

My experience with Steam lately has been all positive. Gaming under Linux (both native and through an emulation layer) has been easier than I ever thought it could be, back before I used Linux. It's also been more stable than any gaming I've done since XP SP2. Can't wait for the rest of 'em to kick Microsoft to the curb.

Maybe there's a black hole or yet another tear in reality, but what I feel and what I see and what I perceive to be truth usually is, as said before.

I use Steam, so I like it enough to not burn it down and torch the house. Yes, gaming on Linux has come a long way, as did Steam. And yet I can't be arsed to spend any more time with Linux in my spare time than I absolutely have/want to. It's like having to go for a wee. Sometimes I just got to do it. And then I'm good for a week, a month or half a year.

Steam, as a lot of other programs like to start automagically by default. I never said that turning that off wasn't possible. With Steam, it is. It's also perfectly possible to turn off auto-updating in Windows 8. However, as said before, if a program defaults to this behaviour, it forces me to actively seek out the option to disable it to keep it from doing that.

I don't like that. That's the truth. I really, really don't like that. I like my system clean, be it for work or be it for gaming fun. That has become somewhat harder lately. I still like Steam, else I wouldn't use it. I despise EA, so there's no Origin for me. I don't have strong emotions about Ubisoft, but I still could never be bothered with UPlay. When I go download something, I prefer to just download the goods I want and paid for, no 'download manager' or any of that crap. Label me what you want, it's not bound to change my views or practices a bit. Good luck.

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

I think TehCookie and some other users here have highlighted a critical flaw here in Steam: It's not user-friendly for non-technical people. In other words, if someone without the technical skills runs into a problem with a Steam game, they have no idea on how to fix it and instead blame Steam for the complications. The usual fixes are hidden behind one too many clicks, or Steam does not inform them of the options they could take to attempt to fix it. Best way to fix the non-technical user problem? Make a one-click Auto-troubleshoot that runs the game through a series of known fixes and workarounds for common and specific problems.

Also, TehCookie: You probably need to do an integrity check on your DMC4 content. Right-click the game in your Library, go to Properties, move to the Local Files tab, and click "Verify integrity of game cache..." It will do some checks on your file to see if there is any corruption, and if any files are corrupt it will re-download those files.

Alternatively, also click on "Browse local files" and find the executable in the file browser that pops up (it may be in one of the folders). Right-click it, select "Properties", go to the Compatibility tab, and check "Run this program as Administrator". Hit OK, and try the game again.

(Above is the sort of thing I'm talking about - How would a non-technical person know to do that?)

I kinda have to agree here, every issue a steam game has given me was fixed within a hour for me. And it seems most issues are just people not looking for a fix and just whining about it. Also I don't know what other people are running but steam is taking less resources then the desktop at the moment on my machine (I'm chatting with friends on it right now). And for the complaints about patches let me ask you this "Why should we be so passive and just roll back a patch?" If a studio pushes out a crappy patch then they should fix it, why do we have to "roll back".

 

[Vigormortis]

I was under the impression that most Steam games need to check in the first time they run (at the minimum). If that is true then wasting space on your external hard drive is for nothing if Steam goes under.

They need to "check in" upon the first, initial install. If installed from a back-up they generally do not need to do so. You can even (most of the time) install a back-up while in offline mode. Provided your account credentials are accurate.

Besides, that "check in" is something that can easily be patched out. A simple update to the Steam platform would remove that necessity.

The question I asked does matter. People keep quoting that but so far NO ONE has been able to produce the quote. I just want to see the quote.

Thing is, you don't have to go looking for a quote from Mr. Newell. Simply pose your question to Steam Support directly and you're likely to get this in response:

 

[WeepingAngels]

Well, that's not really a public quote. It's a private message and I don't think it has legal backing. Do you really think they would be able to remove the DRM from third party games without legal consequences?

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Back when I bought Portal to see what all the fuss was about (and I did see. Love the Portal series... and only the Portal series among Valve's games), I balked at Steam... with good reason. It was a bug-ridden mess full of advertisements you couldn't shut off (back then). I considered it malware (due to relatively recent improvements, I no longer do).

However, even back then...

I tend to very much dislike any non-productive program that wants to run 24/7 without any proper benefit or justification I can get behind.

...that has never been true. Steam has always had a very clearly labeled option to not start up with your computer. It defaults to "on" the same as every other program with an instant messaging component since about 1998... the ability and sense to turn those off is what separates average baby-boomer computer literacy from the world war 2 generation's average computer literacy.

My experience with Steam lately has been all positive. Gaming under Linux (both native and through an emulation layer) has been easier than I ever thought it could be, back before I used Linux. It's also been more stable than any gaming I've done since XP SP2. Can't wait for the rest of 'em to kick Microsoft to the curb.

Maybe there's a black hole or another tear in reality, but what I feel and what I see and what I perceive to be truth usually is, as said before.

Steam, as a lot of other programs like to start automagically by default. I never said that turning that off wasn't possible. With Steam, it is. It's also perfectly possible to turn off auto-updating in Windows 8. However, as said before, if a program defaults to this behaviour, it forces me to actively seek out the option to disable it to keep it from doing that.

I don't like that. That's the truth. I really, really don't like that. I like my system clean, be it for work or be it for gaming fun. That has become somewhat harder lately. I still like Steam, else I wouldn't use it. I despise EA, so there's no Origin for me. I don't have strong emotions about Ubisoft, but I still could never be bothered with UPlay. When I go download something, I prefer to just download the goods I want and paid for, no 'download manager' or any of that crap. Label me what you want, it's not bound to change my views or practices a bit. Good luck.

Not to be rude dude but you honestly sound kinda lazy if turning off a option is to much work :/. I mean having to do stuff like that is kinda part of maintaining a computer anyway. I get the idea of wanting your system clean, I mean my Raspberry Pi that is for steaming media does just that. THAT said if I need a config file or program to do what I need it to do I'll install it. And you wanna talk about having to seek out and change settings that is a pain to set up if my SD card corrupts (which has happened during a power outage).

 

[BoredRolePlayer]

Well, that's not really a public quote. It's a private message and I don't think it has legal backing. Do you really think they would be able to remove the DRM from third party games without legal consequences?

Games for Windows Live is being removed from games on steam, and if crackers can remove DRM by modding the executable file I don't see why the creators themselves can't.

 

[Pebblig]

I've always been a Steam fan since about 3 years back, now I have about 500 games =D

This is mainly down to indie bundles, and the fact I can pick up so many dirt cheap games...which has also lead to me experiencing and being a massive fan of certain indie games that I would have never played otherwise.

 

[WeepingAngels]

Well, that's not really a public quote. It's a private message and I don't think it has legal backing. Do you really think they would be able to remove the DRM from third party games without legal consequences?

Games for Windows Live is being removed from games on steam, and if crackers can remove DRM by modding the executable file I don't see why the creators themselves can't.

We aren't talking about the creators are we? We are talking about Steam, the distribution service, going down. Valve can't remove the DRM from third party games.