Your opinion on Steam.

[SergeantAnt]

i know exactly what you mean. i never understood why you wouldnt want to physically own a game o.o.

personally i can't stand steam. if i can i usually will get games on ps3 or my 360. yet some games i will get for my comp (witcher 2, DA, FEAR series)
and nothing makes me more frustrated then getting home after driving around to get a game, sitting down to play it, then having to wait 2 hours for it to download through steam. its complete bullshit if you ask me.

i can see how you'd like steam if you don't want physical copies. but if you buy a copy in the store it shouldnt force you to then download it through steam -.-

 

[FreakSheet]

My problem? Its attempting to make me poor through its incredible deals...

 

[Valthek]

The reasons why I personally like steam are simple.
1) All my games in the same place. Just boot up steam, scroll trough my list and presto. Not that all my games are steam-based, but the list is getting nice and long.
2) Deals. Oh sweet [your deity of preference] the deals. Steam summer deals usually take a rather huge chomp out of my budget, but the sweet deals you get. Awesome stuff!
3) Steam is significantly less of a dick than some other DRM methods. Sure, it's slow, more than a little obnoxious, but compared to that shit that came with Spore, it's like an oasis of peace and niceness.

Only thing that bothers me is that I like to own physical copies. I really like to have a nice hefty box with a pretty manual that smells like freshly printed paper and such.

 

[OverweightWhale]

I love steam, but the only problem I have with it is that I feel like I'm only leasing the games I buy. So if you lose your account some how then all your games are gone... So I've taken every pre caution to keep my account safe.

 

[FortheLegion]

I love Steam. It knows just how to squeeze all my money out of my wallet. Damn those amazing sales.

 

[psicat]

Steam is an unreliable annoyance that I try to avoid as much as possible.

 

[C95J]

I love Steam. I get loads of great deals, and have never had any problems with it whatsoever

 

[muller93]

JIHAD! vs steam

 

[monkey_man]

If the CD key thing comes up. send Steam a nice message with your proof of purchase with it. They'll settly it in a matter of days! (incidentally, I bought 10 games online without real problems, but second retail had the cd key error. They fixed it, but I was surely mad for a while (about 2 days)).

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I like Steam but more so for the accessibility it provides me. I don't usually buy hard copies anymore so it works for me, but back when I was younger my friends and I would trade game CDs all the time so we could try something new.

If you own the physical copy - at least in my opinion - you should in no way be restricted to when or how you can play it. What about games you try to install without an internet connection? How does Steam handle that?

I honestly would like to see it be optional; I love the news and updates Steam provides when you have one of your games linked to it, but if you have a hard copy you should be provided with the choice to simply insert the disc and play.

 

[Scizophrenic Llama]

The only true issue I've had with Steam is that sales always seem to show up when I need all of my funds at the moment.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

Another Stream thread? Anyway, I use it for every game I own except two because they aren't offered on Steam. I love Steam and don't see any cons to using their system.

 

[JackyG]

amazing. but way way WAAAYYYYY to expensive.

£40 for Deus Ex 3? I got the augmented edition for for 25 on amazon.

 

[thelastmccabe]

I don't use steam because there haven't been any games I want bad enough that use it, and my computer can't really run anything new and fancy anyway. I had it a long time ago for HL2 but got rid of it. I don't want to put up with always on DRM and having an extra program running in the background if I don't have to. I'd would almost always rather have a physical copy, and I'll pay extra for it unless I can get a really sweet deal through Direct2Drive or GOG (obviously). Getting it from Gog is almost the same as a physical copy because I can just put the exe on a couple hard drives, and I'm very unlikely to lose it. The reason I prefer physical copies is that I don't want to have to rely on some company staying in business, their cloud working, their 3rd party program working, etc. I don't want to have to deal with it at all if I can avoid it.

I've never understood why Steam uses always on DRM but gets a free pass but nobody else does. I think Valve may actually have pioneered always on DRM.

Also, I've never understood what people mean when they say how Steam is great because it lists all your games right there. This is different from the start menu how? Or if you don't like the start menu you could just make a folder on your desktop with shortcuts to all your games. You don't need Steam to get a list of games you can click on and play. Your computer already does that.

 

[aegix drakan_v1legacy]

Steam has always been good to me.

Good sales, good service, convenient. And the time that I was locked out my account (my validation email locked me out for some stupid reason. I either forgot the new password, or someone hacked it), Steam's tech support people got me back up and running with my main email in just over a day (whereas microsoft refused to believe that it was my account, no matter how much information I sent them about it).

So yeah, my only issue with Steam is how the non-stop sales tend to make me impulse buy shit I don't need or want, like section 8 prejudice.

In short, I really like steam.

 

[Mr. Underson]

This is why I love Steam, it saves me having to import games.

With the recent exceptions of Space Marine and MW3. I'll be damned if I'm going to pay 90 and 100 USD for those.

 

[Sammyjb17]

I like Steam. It may be (or may be becoming) a monopoly for online downloads, but at least they aren't cocks about it. Like Netflix. Steam seems to be good to developers, and is humble enough to publicly ask for EA games back. You would NEVER see Microsoft ask Sony for Uncharted. EVER.

 

[Phisi]

Excellent. I use it for buying and playing my games, talking to friends and organising events (LAN PARTIES ) Very useful to someone who doesn't like using FaceBook or MSN and plays lot of games. Oh and to the person who asked, steam does not use an always on DRM, you can go to offline mode but some games require you to be online. As for not having physical copies in case something goes wrong, I trust Valve enough not to care. Steam has also made it available for indie developers to publish their games. They no longer have to make bad deals with publishers.

 

[martin's a madman]

I've only had one issue and that was with DOOM 3 and CD key nonsense. But other than that, it's been pretty great.

Hello there, fellow Escapists.

I am currently very pissed of, see. I bought Dawn of War 2: Retribution, and I was so excited. I tried it at a friend's and I loved it, so I thought I´d get it myself. I go home, I insert the CD, Steam tells me "Enter CD-Key", after which an error comes out and says that my CD is duplicated. Now of course you can imagine my frustration (My desk took the most of my rage). This is NOT my first problem with Steam. I was unable to install Red Faction Armageddon too, because of a similar problem (Unavailable at my region). Anyway, enough of my ranting ... okay, just a little more: I HATE online activation, because of shit like this I'm forced to resort to piracy (I paid for a retail copy, so shut up!). I remember when all you needed was your disk and a CD Key, simple as that. I despise the fact that EVERY GAME today requires Steam to be activated. Okay, rant over.

So, what do you think of Steam? Do you like it? Why(Not)?

P.S: I have another question. Why doesn't the game install itself from the disk, but has to download itself from Steam? I HAVE THE DISK IN MY COMPUTER, WHY DON'T I USE THAT INSTEAD???

Right click the game in your steam list and verify the integrity of the cache.

Should fix your problem friend.

 

[octafish]

I love Steam since upgrading my internet connection to cheap reliable ADSL2. Before that I didn't much care for it, especially after the Half Life 2 debacle. On my Dial Up connection the constant updates were very frustrating to say the least. Often Steam prices beat Australian retail prices unless it is an EA game.