Then how did I play at school when the Steam servers were blocked? Also they have really cheap games...tmujir955 said:You can't play Steam games when Steam is down.
I don't quite understand what you mean by integrated DRM - steam itself IS the DRM, but me and friends can still play men of war together with my account, so it's one of the most lax and gamer friendly DRM's I've ever seen. For that, I think it's great. It gets the job done, and doesn't hinder the customer - like ye old days of Age of (X)manaman said:I haven't had a problem using steam either, well not a real problem. Steam is the enemy for other reasons. Reasons like integrated DRM, restrictive licensing, the fact that the steam program always has to be running on your computer or you cannot play the games you paid for. That the removal of this program running in the background removes all your games as well.The Amazing Tea Alligator said:How? People claim to be having all these problems, and I never have. My inclination is that people are incompetent. I like your avatar btw.manaman said:Steam is not awesome. Steam is the enemy almost as much as Onlive is.The Amazing Tea Alligator said:Steam is awsome - how dare you give it negative connotations. Also ya, as said above you can play stam games forever... and it's beautiful.
TOGSolid said:OP is exaggerating to a massive degree and is full of shit.
I am a sailor and spend most of the year on a boat. I own a shitpile of Steam games and guess what, I can play all of them when I'm out there with no internet.
When Steam is offline and you do have internet, you can still play the majority of your games online because they don't use Valve's servers. Case in point: I was updating Steam and some games on my work laptop yesterday while playing Bad Company 2 online via Steam's offline mode on my desktop.
Shamus Young who might be the original OP in this case ran into a bad case of forced update and server overload this time. That said, Steam is not perfect.TOGSolid said:OP is exaggerating to a massive degree and is full of shit.
I am a sailor and spend most of the year on a boat. I own a shitpile of Steam games and guess what, I can play all of them when I'm out there with no internet.
When Steam is offline and you do have internet, you can still play the majority of your games online because they don't use Valve's servers. Case in point: I was updating Steam and some games on my work laptop yesterday while playing Bad Company 2 online via Steam's offline mode on my desktop.
Best case scenario for him when I get ahold of him.Rakkana said:He just bad mouthed steam. I shall call the armies. He will be dead by sun rise.
You're only buying the license when you purchase a retail game as well. There are authorities allowed to take away your games.That DRM that would force you to be online applies to if you bought it retail as well. It's not preference, it's a false comparison.Uber Waddles said:Erherm.
I would like to point out that when purchasing a game through Steam, you're not purchasing the game. You're purchasing a license to use the data for the game. So you actually never BUY the game, like you would if you purchased the game in person.
Not only that, but if you would read the ToS/EULA (ya know, the big thing you always skip), Valve has the right to take that license away. For WHATEVER reason it feels like. If it doesnt want to continue that game, they can stop the service for it, and you lost all the money you payed for it. The same applies for ANY digital distribution: You dont own ANY of it. Xbox Live, PSN, OnLive, Steam, etc.
Has this ever been done? No. Doesnt mean it wont. Steam allows you to play most games offline, unless a certain DRM exists that forces all players to stay online. Or its an Online game. OnLive is a little more upfront, they arent Koi about dropping games if they cant profit from it, or if you are inactive for some time. Its a preference, really.
There's an offline mode. It glitched for one person, but it's there.tmujir955 said:Recently I've been seeing lots of people complain about how OnLive is terrible because you are "renting the games at full price", and you are not really owning the game.
But doesn't Steam work the same way?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/7827-Stolen-Pixels-211-This-is-Not-Funny
You can't play Steam games when Steam is down. Yo can't play OnLive games if OnLive is down.
So whats the big problem?
Note: I'm not trying to advertise, but my experience with OnLive has been really awesome, and it's a shame to see so many people decide it is not worth it before even trying it.
I actually understood that...I blame my English teacher.Kollega said:Let me put that in perspective: Steam is like Brave New World, and OnLive is like 1984. Neither is perfect, but the former gives away free drugs and sex and whatnot.
Ridiculous comparsion, but pretty funny - don't you think?
Someone at least is thinking straight.manaman said:Steam is not awesome. Steam is the enemy almost as much as Onlive is.The Amazing Tea Alligator said:Steam is awsome - how dare you give it negative connotations. Also ya, as said above you can play stam games forever... and it's beautiful.
When I can't get online to start steam it asks me if I want to start up in offline mode.Get_A_Grip_ said:But you have to go online before you can go offline.
...because it is different. ¬_¬manaman said:Steam is not awesome. Steam is the enemy almost as much as Onlive is.The Amazing Tea Alligator said:Steam is awsome - how dare you give it negative connotations. Also ya, as said above you can play stam games forever... and it's beautiful.
...I'm sorry..what?...If I buy a game at the store, I'm allowed to play it whenever I want, and do with it whatever I want. Thus, I own it.Hiphophippo said:OP is confused. OP seems to think that buying a game at a retail store means you own it.
OP is wrong.
What's the difference? You don't pay very much attention, do you? The difference is quite substantial - for one, Steam isn't running games, they're sitting on your hard drive; only the DRM and things like Steamworks are operating through the Steam client itself. Steam is just a content delivery service with some added features and great sales, OnLive is cloud-based rendering, absolutely reliant on your network connection.tmujir955 said:Recently I've been seeing lots of people complain about how OnLive is terrible because you are "renting the games at full price", and you are not really owning the game.
But doesn't Steam work the same way?
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comics/stolen-pixels/7827-Stolen-Pixels-211-This-is-Not-Funny
You can't play Steam games when Steam is down. Yo can't play OnLive games if OnLive is down.
So whats the big problem?
Note: I'm not trying to advertise, but my experience with OnLive has been really awesome, and it's a shame to see so many people decide it is not worth it before even trying it.