STEAM SELLS BROKEN GAMES!

[Tharwen]

I'm pretty sure his point is that Valve shouldn't be selling the games for Windows 7 at all if they don't run on them (At least they could show a warning or something). They should either make efforts to distribute them in an environment that works (like how they package old Doom games with DOSBox) or talk to the developer about getting them fixed.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

Steam is a distribution service, what content gets put on it is completely up to the publisher/developers and if something is broken that is on them, not VALVe.

Sure VALVe could be more thorough in checking that stuff works, but the thing is that computers are vastly different from one another. You have different operating systems, graphics cards, CPUs, motherboards, sound cards, and drivers. They can't account for every single possible setup there is and more times than not it is going to be something from that causing the issue.

If there is a widespread issue with a product and it is known, Steam customer service has given refunds on games before, I don't see why they wouldn't now.

 

[Something Amyss]

Who cares? It's STEEEEEEEAM! It could knee me in the groin, steal my wallet, and cut off my arms, and I would thank it!

This is all forgivable, if they put a disclaimer with the problem (once someone has made them aware).

Solution. Forward these details onto them, and tell them that they must put these bugs as a disclaimer on selling the software. It is likely you've put 2+2 together, they are so cheap; because of these issues, but they chose to lower the price and sweep the problems under the rug.

Otherwise, its just a co-incidence.

Coincidence.

Anyway, Valve has an F with the BBB for a reason. They don't give a damn about customer service issues.

Most people don't care, because they have sweet deals and don't have a technical problem, but contacting them and expecting any change is like pissing into the wind and expecting not to get wet.

 

[Mad1Cow]

Gamestation sold me a broken game for the xbox, does that mean they should take a good look at themselves or should I take this up with someone who can fix it like, I dunno, the developers?

 

[Clarity112]

Sure smells like troll in here. Or a very very very very misinformed man.

 

[babinro]

While people here are blaming developers and correctly doing so...this does not make Steam free from blame in the least.

Assuming the OP is correct and these are problems without fixes...steam is knowingly selling products that are broken without informing their customer base or giving a chance to trade in/get a refund. At the very least they should inform the user on the details page that the product does not function properly as is on Windows 7 operating system or newer. Steam is not legally obligated to do this, but by not doing so they take part in extremely shady sales practice.

Advice to the OP - Check a video games steam forum before purchase. Many that need additional fixes have several posts explaining how to do them and will give you the information you need prior to purchase. If you don't see solutions posted that match your machine...assume there are none and decide whether it is worth the risk to still buy the game.

 

[DasDestroyer]

I heartily agree! I recently bought a couple of books at the bookstore which turned out to be absolutely sub-par!

Examples:
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment - unreadably boring
Shakespeare's Hamlet - It seems that the printer was running out of ink on pages 35-38, as a result the text on these pages is more difficult to read
The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Kubla Khan didn't even come close to making sense, feels like he was high when he wrote it -_-
The works of Edgar Allan Poe and many more...

These books are being sold in modern bookstores, and they are unreadable right off the shelf. Is that fair to readers? I know these are older titles, but it is absolutely the bookstore's responsibility to fix books to be readable by modern people, who are often very much not into classic literature, BEFORE selling them.

I love the concept of a bookstore, and that is what makes me so mad about this. A bookstore is supposed to be representing literature, and their magic 'open it' service delivers you an unreadable book? Bookstore, this is a SERIOUS PROBLEM. FIX THIS NOW, or give us our refunds.

 

[viranimus]

wELL I am not going to entirely agree with the OP, but I do understand at least a portion of the position. Steam as an added layer has the ability to inhibit and out right prevent the end user from applying fixes that can allow a game to work. So yes there are times when Steam as a distributor has a hand in perpetuating the inability to play certain titles. There are literally situations where the only thing preventing you from playing a game is the fact its a steam version that will not allow/accept modifications required.

Now.. that essentially does get canceled out when consumer fails to read the system requirements of the game before purchase. If you know that there are certain games steam will not allow you to modify to a working state, and dont check the system requirements to see if its going to work without modification, then the only responsible party is you.

 

[Conza]

Who cares? It's STEEEEEEEAM! It could knee me in the groin, steal my wallet, and cut off my arms, and I would thank it!

This is all forgivable, if they put a disclaimer with the problem (once someone has made them aware).

Solution. Forward these details onto them, and tell them that they must put these bugs as a disclaimer on selling the software. It is likely you've put 2+2 together, they are so cheap; because of these issues, but they chose to lower the price and sweep the problems under the rug.

Otherwise, its just a co-incidence.

Coincidence.

Anyway, Valve has an F with the BBB for a reason. They don't give a damn about customer service issues.

Most people don't care, because they have sweet deals and don't have a technical problem, but contacting them and expecting any change is like pissing into the wind and expecting not to get wet.

If done correctly, you can piss into the wind, and not only keep yourself dry, but wet another target without even facing it.

Needless to say, one customer complaint is more than none, and the degree to which they take it seriously is for them to decide and for us to only speculate. They may contact the developers and let them know of the fault, resulting in a patch or two to a couple of the games, if its worth it to the consumers.

You're right, they could just take the money and run, but that nearly never works more than once now does it?

 

[Febel]

This is great. Like 2 pages of people correcting one foolish mistake. Makes me happy...

 

[Aurgelmir]

Sounds to me that your computer might have an Audio problem, considering how manye issues you have with audio.

 

[Zay-el]

I heartily agree! I recently bought a couple of books at the books store which turned out to be absolutely sub-par!

Examples:
Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment - unreadably boring
Shakespeare's Hamlet - It seems that the printer was running out of ink on pages 35-38, as a result the text on these pages is more difficult to read
The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge - Kubla Khan didn't even come close to making sense, feels like he haw high when he wrote it -_-
The works of Edgar Allan Poe and many more...

These books are being sold in modern bookstores, and they are unreadable right off the shelf. Is that fair to readers? I know these are older titles, but it is absolutely the bookstore's responsibility to fix books to be readable by modern people, who are often very much not into classic literature, BEFORE selling them.

I love the concept of a bookstore, and that is what makes me so mad about this. A bookstore is supposed to be representing literature, and their magic 'open it' service delivers you an unreadable book? Bookstore, this is a SERIOUS PROBLEM. FIX THIS NOW, or give us our refunds.

You win today's internetz.

And yeah, as most others have said as well, this is not Steam's fault. It's a distributing platform, which has absolutely no input as to how the game has actually been designed. Also, it's very nice of you to point out games of several generations ago, especially ones that are notorious for not working well. Stubbs the Zombie refuses to work on anything XP+, for instance. If you already know you wish to buy a reportedly old game though, usually you should have enough marbles to check whether there would be any conflicts along the way. Google isn't really that difficult to use.

As a responsible customer, you should do at least a little bit of research, before making a purchase like this.

 

[Sgt. Dante]

I've never had any of those problems. But at the end of the line Steam is a distributor. You wouldn't complain to Game stop because you have compability issues, much less ask them to FIX the game instead of the developer. I think you got your priorities way wrong.

Basically this;

However I might suggest looking into a new soundcard. sounds like yours is pretty rubbish tbh.

As for rockstar games, they're almost as well known as bethesda for their buggy releases. So that's nothing to do with steam.


You can complain all you like but as was said before, it's daft to think that gamestop should be responsible for fixing broken games, it only sells the product in the version it's given to them.

 

[Zantos]

My copy of Oblivion that I bought from Steam wouldn't work without the disk. If I'd known I'd need a disk anyway I'd have just bought the bloody boxed version.

 

[JediMB]

You should be reporting these issues to Steam's support, and not bitching about them on forums... which accomplishes nothing.

If it's a problem with the game, it might just get fixed. If it's a compatibility problem with your configuration, you could very well get a refund for the affected titles.

 

[JediMB]

My copy of Oblivion that I bought from Steam wouldn't work without the disk. If I'd known I'd need a disk anyway I'd have just bought the bloody boxed version.

I bought my brother and a friend Oblivion on Steam, and neither of them had any issues with running the game.

 

[snagli]

After this many replies that don't exactly agree with what he says, I doubt Mr McLeod will ever dare to post on these forums again.