Steam problems - worth getting worked up about?

[CrazyMedic]

um do you know how many pc games I have been locked out of FOREVER because something happens to the cd key, honestly I would rather wait afew days to play my game then have to buy a new copy of a really old rare game. also how do you know they knew they were out of keys also I think it would take a fair bit of work to remove a game from steam but I know nothing about the guys of steam, personally all the times I have been locked out of buying a game because I accidently screwed up one digit in my credit card number and them running out of cd keys of APB I still consider steam my dream platform because one it lets me keep in touch with all my friends and I get kick ass sales and just the fact that I get to support valve with every purchase.

Yeah but losing the CD key is, in essence, your fault.

To phrase it differently, once you have the box with the CD key and the disc then all of that is your responsibility. Obviously it's not your fault if a bulldozer happens to crush your disc and somehow incinerate your CD key... but in the realms of general reality a CD key is not difficult to keep safe.

If Valve are selling a game without enough CD keys that's like buying a disc based game, without a CD key in it and being told you have to pick it up at an undetermined date.

Would that really fly if this wasn't Valve?

I still consider steam my dream platform because one it lets me keep in touch with all my friends and I get kick ass sales and just the fact that I get to support valve with every purchase.

Evidently not... I feel no affiliation to Valve or Steam, I prefer GFWL, but if Microsoft did the same thing I'd still be damn pissed off and not brush it off with blatant fanboyism... it's inexcusable, no matter what your public image.

you have a good point but when you move around and have siblings I had a copy of age of nations but when we moved the cd code had been lost by the movers despite the fact that I kept my gaint dufflebag of old cd keys and when he moved cross country the airline lost it so now all my favorite old games are gone, my steam games on the other hand are all fine. and as for the fanboy part of it, I wouldn't call if fanboyism I just want to support people who still support the pc rather than consoles. Also you guys keep saying that valve knew the cd keys weren't working and if they knew that they were out of cd keys what if they just stopped the sale and stopped selling the game"oh i'm sorry we ran out of keys hope you enjoying buying it at full price"

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

I don't see how Valve can even be compared to Activision.. In addition, really Steam is meant for multiplayer gaming and people who play single player games all day long can get their games from other sources without having to download them and have a "constant" internet connection..

Pray tell what are these other sources? I have no intention of ever playing Empire: Total War online yet Steam refuses to let me run it without Steam support... and the offline mode is disgracefully bad.

you have a good point but when you move around and have siblings I had a copy of age of nations but when we moved the cd code had been lost by the movers despite the fact that I kept my gaint dufflebag of old cd keys and when he moved cross country the airline lost it so now all my favorite old games are gone, my steam games on the other hand are all fine. and as for the fanboy part of it, I wouldn't call if fanboyism I just want to support people who still support the pc rather than consoles. Also you guys keep saying that valve knew the cd keys weren't working and if they knew that they were out of cd keys what if they just stopped the sale and stopped selling the game"oh i'm sorry we ran out of keys hope you enjoying buying it at full price"

Yeah I can see that would suck -.- I have lost my own fair share of CD keys, but I've always preferred them anyway. Old games are cheap to pick up a new disc and new games I generally have the CD key written down somewhere, or if I was moving I'd put them in a word document and email them to myself.

And it becomes fanboyism when people start brushing off big mistakes just because 'it's Valve'. Valve is useful for those who use it... unfortunately I am not one of those people, making it a massive annoyance for me. Valve need the bad points pointed out just like every other company... I really don't want to end up having to use Steam on every PC game ever.

 

[BRMXJzjsoawk321]

I don't see how Valve can even be compared to Activision.. In addition, really Steam is meant for multiplayer gaming and people who play single player games all day long can get their games from other sources without having to download them and have a "constant" internet connection..

Pray tell what are these other sources? I have no intention of ever playing Empire: Total War online yet Steam refuses to let me run it without Steam support... and the offline mode is disgracefully bad.

Normally when I'm logged into Steam sometimes during the day my internet will die and I can still launch my games.. Maybe it's because they're mostly Valve titles.. (Left 4 Dead, Half Life, hell I launched TF2 when I didn't realize my internet was down..)

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Normally when I'm logged into Steam sometimes during the day my internet will die and I can still launch my games.. Maybe it's because they're mostly Valve titles.. (Left 4 Dead, Half Life, hell I launched TF2 when I didn't realize my internet was down..)

While I'm quite sure that's wonderful for you, my Steam is not so forgiving, offline mode is a joke.

 

[milotheshort]

Honestly this seems like a classic case of Butthurt.
I love steam personally, as a majority of games are online exclusive or support multiplayer on PC anymore, the argument "cannot verify in offline" seems like a fallacy. Steam is not the only one's that demand that you update your software with there servers, ever heard of windows Live?
Which brings me to my second point, "I can buy it at the store for the same price and play it at home." Welcome to fantasy land. If you buy this on a weekend deal like OP, you are going to be hard-pressed to find a much better price anywhere. Point three: "Why would a company oversell something they don't have enough of?" Simple business practicality here folks, stagnate product yields no profit, they probably hired some analyst to run a model based on previous sales of the unit on how much they should stock. If it over sells, they more than likely predicted how much in damages they would incur and compared that to the cost of holding onto stagnant licenses, for (lets be frank) a dusty old game everyone has already played and tossed.

If you don't like the services and deals steam offers don't use the service. I think the pros far out weigh the cons, but this is based on a person to person occurrence. Steam affords me access to my software anywhere where i have internet and admin on a machine, the patches and software are automatically updated if the client is running, pretty decent software price breaks and bundling, and a fairly large community for PC gamers. Additionally i no longer have to worry about shotty quality in CD and DVD media and it becoming scratched and inoperable. No CD binders. I mean honestly have u even considered the fact that they only require you to verify online, there is an offline mode, you can backup your media too.

 

[CrazyMedic]

I don't see how Valve can even be compared to Activision.. In addition, really Steam is meant for multiplayer gaming and people who play single player games all day long can get their games from other sources without having to download them and have a "constant" internet connection..

Pray tell what are these other sources? I have no intention of ever playing Empire: Total War online yet Steam refuses to let me run it without Steam support... and the offline mode is disgracefully bad.

you have a good point but when you move around and have siblings I had a copy of age of nations but when we moved the cd code had been lost by the movers despite the fact that I kept my gaint dufflebag of old cd keys and when he moved cross country the airline lost it so now all my favorite old games are gone, my steam games on the other hand are all fine. and as for the fanboy part of it, I wouldn't call if fanboyism I just want to support people who still support the pc rather than consoles. Also you guys keep saying that valve knew the cd keys weren't working and if they knew that they were out of cd keys what if they just stopped the sale and stopped selling the game"oh i'm sorry we ran out of keys hope you enjoying buying it at full price"

Yeah I can see that would suck -.- I have lost my own fair share of CD keys, but I've always preferred them anyway. Old games are cheap to pick up a new disc and new games I generally have the CD key written down somewhere, or if I was moving I'd put them in a word document and email them to myself.

And it becomes fanboyism when people start brushing off big mistakes just because 'it's Valve'. Valve is useful for those who use it... unfortunately I am not one of those people, making it a massive annoyance for me. Valve need the bad points pointed out just like every other company... I really don't want to end up having to use Steam on every PC game ever.

why wouldn't you, your problem with steam stems from the fact that they screw up from time to time but if every game contained steam you could download it once still get your phsyical copies still have normal icons all that would happen is when you load a game up a little tab would pop up, I mean my friend hates steam but when civ 5 came out he downloaded steam deleted the icon and I just recently reminded him he even had it on his computer, so unless you have another grievance wouldn't it be better if every company would use steam for it's drm rather then the other god awful systems?

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

why wouldn't you, your problem with steam stems from the fact that they screw up from time to time but if every game contained steam you could download it once still get your phsyical copies still have normal icons all that would happen is when you load a game up a little tab would pop up, I mean my friend hates steam but when civ 5 came out he downloaded steam deleted the icon and I just recently reminded him he even had it on his computer, so unless you have another grievance wouldn't it be better if every company would use steam for it's drm rather then the other god awful systems?

It's that tab that initially pisses me off... when I click a games icon I want the game to actually run. Not start up another program first to give it the okay, it annoys the hell out of me.

And all of this is on the assumption that Steam is the best for everyone. However the best PC platform DRM for me is GFWL. I'd much rather all my PC games use that as it's never screwed me over and it allows me to connect with my friends who don't own a gaming PC.

Xbox 360 friends - 97
Steam friends - 3

Also, it's a small thing, but when I run a GFWL game. The game actually starts up. GFWL boots up afterwards, so it doesn't seem like I'm waiting for some other program to give me the okay. It's a psychological thing that I prefer.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

pro-tip, email yourself the CD keys, never worry about losing them again

I think you meant to quote the other guy.

I do that anyway.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

While I know this will further polarise people's views, it's probably not Steam's fault.

The original DRM needs the CD keys to unlock; and the original owners probably didn't create enough CD keys - so will have to run their algorithm to create new ones and post them onto Steam. Something that I doubt they're getting paid for, so they'll be doing it as fast as they want to.

Yes, Steam should have seen this, but it you're going to start raging as soon as they do one thing wrong, then you are THAT GUY.

But then, defending Steam seems to make me a Valve fanboy now, so continue your hate-spewing.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

If you don't like the services and deals steam offers don't use the service. I think the pros far out weigh the cons, but this is based on a person to person occurrence. Steam affords me access to my software anywhere where i have internet and admin on a machine, the patches and software are automatically updated if the client is running, pretty decent software price breaks and bundling, and a fairly large community for PC gamers. Additionally i no longer have to worry about shotty quality in CD and DVD media and it becoming scratched and inoperable. No CD binders.

Well that's one of the problems for me.

I don't want to use Steam, but I have to to play Empire: Total War.

The pros only outweigh the cons for people who use Steam services, for those of us who just want to play games and have no intention of buying from Steam then the cons massively outweigh the pros.

Normally I try and take care of my games and in the unlikely event of a CD becoming inoperable I use a No Disc Crack so I can continue playing.

I mean honestly have u even considered the fact that they only require you to verify online, there is an offline mode, you can backup your media too.

I don't understand what you're trying to say here... so I'll ignore the first bit. Now about offline mode, it's a joke and is glitchy as fuck. Does not work correctly for me and just complains I'm not connected.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Well I'm sure they're aware of the problem. But how is this any different than WoW's servers having extra or unexpected downtime? I mean, people pay to play the game, yet sometimes things don't quite go according to plan.

Answer: I am willing to put up with things from an MMO that I am not willing to put up with from a single player game simply because such issues are inherent to MMO design. It's a trade-off that can't be avoided.

 

[Super Toast]

PC gaming in general is becoming more and more ridiculous. It seems like we can't have a single day where some bullshit doesn't pop up.

 

[Sud0_x]

On topic: No, I don't think it's worth getting worked up about, Steam has its ways of proving you own a game, you will always be entitled to it. Until Steam goes under
Also this particular issue piqued my interest, never before have I heard of such an occurrence

Anyway the piece I came here to say and I've said it here before:
I can accept that it's not always fanboyism in these cases but, please, please stop ignoring the grievances of others simply because they don't affect you. If you are one to sing praises about the software; at least recognise its limitations. And I don't mean that in the sense of being a pretentious wank who just says they do in an attempt to balance out their unwaveringly ignorant stance, I mean accept the fact that Steam needs improvement and it seriously fucks with a lot of people's day to day. Before you defend it unquestioningly, why don't you spend 10 minutes actively seeking out other users' problems and actually taking them in. Valve isn't a godsend to PC gaming. You just want it to be.

 

[rsvp42]

Well I'm sure they're aware of the problem. But how is this any different than WoW's servers having extra or unexpected downtime? I mean, people pay to play the game, yet sometimes things don't quite go according to plan.

Answer: I am willing to put up with things from an MMO that I am not willing to put up with from a single player game simply because such issues are inherent to MMO design. It's a trade-off that can't be avoided.

Right, but mess-ups like this are inherent in the design of digital distribution. Not informing buyers of the problem was a major misstep on Steam's part and for that they deserve backlash, but the fact that it happened is one of those unfortunate peculiarities of the platform.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

Right, but mess-ups like this are inherent in the design of digital distribution. Not informing buyers of the problem was a major misstep on Steam's part and for that they deserve backlash, but the fact that it happened is one of those unfortunate peculiarities of the platform.

Almost correct: They are inherent in the design of online-based DRM, which Steam is and is being used for even with games that aren't being distributed digitally.

The difference is that the MMO itself is something that I want. DRM is not, and is not an inherent part of single-player games.

 

[rsvp42]

Right, but mess-ups like this are inherent in the design of digital distribution. Not informing buyers of the problem was a major misstep on Steam's part and for that they deserve backlash, but the fact that it happened is one of those unfortunate peculiarities of the platform.

Almost correct: They are inherent in the design of online-based DRM, which Steam is and is being used for even with games that aren't being distributed digitally.

The difference is that the MMO itself is something that I want. DRM is not, and is not an inherent part of single-player games.

True, but publishers shoehorning in DRM is sort of a separate issue. I think the overall problem of DRM is definitely implied in this thread, but I was mostly addressing the main question of whether this Steam problem was worth getting worked up about. I agree that DRM overall is worth getting worked up about, but this particular problem of the missing CD keys seems like par for the course when dealing with a service like Steam. That Steam didn't inform buyers beforehand is what makes this noteworthy.

 

[BloodSquirrel]

True, but publishers shoehorning in DRM is sort of a separate issue. I think the overall problem of DRM is definitely implied in this thread, but I was mostly addressing the main question of whether this Steam problem was worth getting worked up about. I agree that DRM overall is worth getting worked up about, but this particular problem of the missing CD keys seems like par for the course when dealing with a service like Steam. That Steam didn't inform buyers beforehand is what makes this noteworthy.

How is it a separate issue? DRM is what caused the problem here, specifically online-activated DRM.

 

[Swarley]

Funny thread.
I agree they really should let people know there is an issue with the cd keys, but is it really surprising to anyone that a business is more interested in making money?

The only real issue here is that it's steam, and since there's a very vocal minority on here who have a strong distaste for it, it seems this thread is more of a "steam is bad and anyone who doesn't think so is a fan boy"

Like this guy.

steam sux. it made me quit PC gaming.

 

[rsvp42]

True, but publishers shoehorning in DRM is sort of a separate issue. I think the overall problem of DRM is definitely implied in this thread, but I was mostly addressing the main question of whether this Steam problem was worth getting worked up about. I agree that DRM overall is worth getting worked up about, but this particular problem of the missing CD keys seems like par for the course when dealing with a service like Steam. That Steam didn't inform buyers beforehand is what makes this noteworthy.

How is it a separate issue? DRM is what caused the problem here, specifically online-activated DRM.

I'm saying it's a separate issue from the question in the title: "worth getting worked up about?" The specific issue mentioned was the lack of CD keys (the fault of the publisher) and the lack of information about it (the fault of Steam). It's true that this issue falls under the umbrella of the DRM debate, but I wasn't looking to have that debate.

Unfortunately, when it comes to DRM and services like Steam, these kinds of issues are bound to crop up. It's why people hate DRM. To me, this problem comes as no surprise. It's like complaining about long lines at the DMV. The problem isn't the lines, it's way in which the whole system is handled, but we still need it. Same thing with this CD key issue. The real problem is DRM implementation, which is just too huge of a debate right now, but Steam is still so useful. So no, I won't get worked up about yet another fault with DRM. I'll keep using Steam until something makes it not convenient or not worth it and I'll take a stand in the larger DRM issue when necessary.

 

[Theron Julius]

I've had very few issues with Steam and I find it extremely convenient. Personally I think anyone who really whines about their issues are just looking for something to complain about. None of the issues I've heard are all too terrible and likely were just bad luck.