Because of the Sterling Pound to US Dollar, UK people get decent deals
No rootkits
No CD checks
Convenience of being able to download and play your games anywhere (well, good if you have a net connection anyway)
Bad:
Because of the Sterling Pound to US Dollar if the Dollar ever makes any gains against the Pound we're screwed.
DRM
You're in for a world of hassle if you forget your username & password
The games on Steam stay priced high for too long (for example I can now pick up X3 Reunion in the shops retail for massively less than I can buy it on Steam)
When Half-Life 2 was released I spent a good couple of days twiddling my thumbs just to get the damn thing to fully authenticate just so I could play my damn game i'd bought
If Valve ever goes tits up you can forget about keeping those games you purchased on Steam (Valve games maybe, but third party games very doubtful)
GrimReaper on
PSN | Steam
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Who here would pay Valve the share of the profit they get, if they allowed us to enter the CD key of whatever retail game we purchased that is available to purchase in Steam?
I know I would.
Can't you do that?
I mean it doesn't work with every single game, but there is an "activate a product on steam" and also a "add a nonsteam game to my steam list" button under "games" in the big steam window you get when you double click your tray steam icon.
Pretty sure you can do it that way, though I may be wrong.
Orange Box is a great deal at £23 or £24. The point is that it is the biggest release on Steam by the platform holder since launch, and retail is still cheaper, that is a significant point.
It's not that there isn't good reason for it, but it does undermine steam a little.
Retail you get alot of the benefits of steam (stored on your account so no worries if you loose the disc, pre-loading for instant playing), a hard copy of your game, and nice packaging, and all at £1 cheaper.
Yeah I preordered the Orange box for $49.95 (no tax) and got the chance to play TF2 early. At retail it will cost $50+ tax so about $55 and 360 owners get to pay about $65 for the advantage of playing with two sticks.
There are plenty of better then retail prices on Steam. Especially for Valve games. Now Bioshock had to be 49.95 at release because otherwise retailers would refuse to carry 2k's future games. Retailers are dicks, but Steam is making inroads with their specials and early purchases.
I love steam. I have bought a lot of games that I never would have because of it, like Jade Empire, Pirates! and the iD collection. Now with the whole community thing, it's basically Live for PCs, except better.
I think that one of the reasons Steam has been so successful is because they were one of the first to try digital distribution. And it was pretty bad when they started out, but they learned from their early mistakes and were able to slowly make it better and better because of the insane popularity of Half-Life 2. What better way to launch a platform like that than have it be required by one of the most popular PC games of all time?
Shit. If you live 15 minutes from your closest game store, you just saved 5 dollars in gas. Not to mention the convenience of not having to put pants on.
You should trade in your Sherman Tank for something slightly more fuel efficient. Sure, you won't find a 75mm cannon in modern compact cars, but the savings on gas will be astronomical.
Dear British/Canadian/foreign/New Yorker guy:
Fuck.
You.
15 minutes of driving in the real world:
involves nine dollars worth of gas, one fuckwit nearly killing you, stupid fucking nephews who never shut the fuck up, and, having this fuckwit who lost his legs because some dick fucked up installing the brakes replace your perfectly normal breaks that just had a screw loose on the left tire with sandpaper.
I love steam. I'm Brazilian, and so I actually get excellent deals buying stuff on Steam. Not to mention that several games were not even released here (like Dark Crusade or Company of Heroes).
Shit. If you live 15 minutes from your closest game store, you just saved 5 dollars in gas. Not to mention the convenience of not having to put pants on.
You should trade in your Sherman Tank for something slightly more fuel efficient. Sure, you won't find a 75mm cannon in modern compact cars, but the savings on gas will be astronomical.
Who here would pay Valve the share of the profit they get, if they allowed us to enter the CD key of whatever retail game we purchased that is available to purchase in Steam?
I know I would.
Can't you do that?
I mean it doesn't work with every single game, but there is an "activate a product on steam" and also a "add a nonsteam game to my steam list" button under "games" in the big steam window you get when you double click your tray steam icon.
Pretty sure you can do it that way, though I may be wrong.
You can do that with some games available on Steam, but not all.
I'm talking about having that as an option for all games on Steam, if you already bought a physical copy of the game. And having the option to give Valve their share of the profit, so you can download it through Steam anytime you'd like, just in case.
victor_c26 on
It's been so long since I've posted here, I've removed my signature since most of what I had here were broken links. Shows over, you can carry on to the next post.
Who here would pay Valve the share of the profit they get, if they allowed us to enter the CD key of whatever retail game we purchased that is available to purchase in Steam?
I know I would.
Can't you do that?
I mean it doesn't work with every single game, but there is an "activate a product on steam" and also a "add a nonsteam game to my steam list" button under "games" in the big steam window you get when you double click your tray steam icon.
Pretty sure you can do it that way, though I may be wrong.
You can do that with some games available on Steam, but not all.
I'm talking about having that as an option for all games on Steam, if you already bought a physical copy of the game. And having the option to give Valve their share of the profit, so you can download it through Steam anytime you'd like, just in case.
Not every game available on Steam and retail had a CD-key in the retail version. Psychonauts, for instance, just had the manual and discs in the retail box; no codes to speak of.
Who here would pay Valve the share of the profit they get, if they allowed us to enter the CD key of whatever retail game we purchased that is available to purchase in Steam?
I know I would.
Can't you do that?
I mean it doesn't work with every single game, but there is an "activate a product on steam" and also a "add a nonsteam game to my steam list" button under "games" in the big steam window you get when you double click your tray steam icon.
Pretty sure you can do it that way, though I may be wrong.
You can do that with some games available on Steam, but not all.
I'm talking about having that as an option for all games on Steam, if you already bought a physical copy of the game. And having the option to give Valve their share of the profit, so you can download it through Steam anytime you'd like, just in case.
Not every game available on Steam and retail had a CD-key in the retail version. Psychonauts, for instance, just had the manual and discs in the retail box; no codes to speak of.
Even games that do have codes can't necessarily be unlocked through Steam. Maybe it has to do with keygen prevalence or something.
Who here would pay Valve the share of the profit they get, if they allowed us to enter the CD key of whatever retail game we purchased that is available to purchase in Steam?
I know I would.
Can't you do that?
I mean it doesn't work with every single game, but there is an "activate a product on steam" and also a "add a nonsteam game to my steam list" button under "games" in the big steam window you get when you double click your tray steam icon.
Pretty sure you can do it that way, though I may be wrong.
You can do that with some games available on Steam, but not all.
I'm talking about having that as an option for all games on Steam, if you already bought a physical copy of the game. And having the option to give Valve their share of the profit, so you can download it through Steam anytime you'd like, just in case.
Not every game available on Steam and retail had a CD-key in the retail version. Psychonauts, for instance, just had the manual and discs in the retail box; no codes to speak of.
Even games that do have codes can't necessarily be unlocked through Steam. Maybe it has to do with keygen prevalence or something.
The code system needs to be built with digital distribution in mind or else it's too easy to fake one. This is why Prey's codes were able to be worked in, but others are not (unless Valve co-publishes, like they did with Dark Messiah).
Daedalus on
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thorgotthere is special providencein the fall of a sparrowRegistered Userregular
I didn't want to derail the main Steam thread, so I'm making this one separate.
I'm currently writing a paper for class about digital distribution, and one of the cases I want to use is Steam. Now, I'm personally of the opinion that Steam is a great idea, and a good service with potential, but at the same time I still remember how frustrating the Half-Life 2 launch was because of it.
That's where you come in. I'm primarily looking for a few first-hand accounts of the launch experience. Did you have issues with it? Perhaps it was smooth sailing for you and you think talk of it's problems are over-hyped?
While that's what I'm primarily looking for, I welcome any other discussion on the subject, such as Steam in it's current or possible future forms, or even on the subject of digital distribution as a whole.
The HL2 launch was somewhat frustrating, but nowhere near as bad as Steam when it was first released. It was a horrid program back then, and people were understandably reluctant to switch from WON servers to Steam. When Valve finally made the switch official and shut off WON authentication, lots of people said they would stop playing CS 1.6. But CS 1.6 rolled on, and on, and begat CS:S, which Steam delivered as a beta.
There are very few non-Valve games that can be unlocked in Steam. They are even mentioned as a special case in their support section. The "Add non-Steam game" thing just adds a shortcut in Steam.
So far with Steam I've had good experiences. Maybe I won't have a box, but in the end they're not that important. The best thing is not having to worry about losing CD Keys. With Company of Heroes I don't think I even paid attention to my key (it gets imputed automatically when creating your account). With Dawn of War (I bought all 3 of them at release. Physical copies) I have to keep them safe (and maybe I should find a better way to keep my CD Keys somewhere). Also I can start downloading the games on any machine I want, so I don't have to bring my CDs with me in the case I feel like replaying a game later on in my Laptop or wherever. You're really paying for convenience. The XBox Live style Steam Community is just a great addition on top of it all. To think Microsoft attempted to charge for something like it...
The only thing I would not use Steam for is if the Limited/Collector's Edition has something I just need, but lately that's not been the case with any game really.
Steam was /horrendously/ bad when it first came out. It broke functionality from WON(Steam voice muting is still not as good as the one-click muting in WON), adding nothing of value, and tacked on major crash and memory leakage issues. It has been considerably improved since then and I now prefer that all my games come via digital distribution because I hate packaging. I'm not a big fan of disks either but at least they're not that hard to stow in a closet. I'd rather just re-download something than install off a disk though and if a download is available that's what I end up using instead of rifling through storage to get a disk out.
I've had preorder issues on launch day for DOD but it was resolved and no other problems since. I prefer digital distribution and loathe manipulating physical media.
Steam had a rocky start, but has grown considerably and I'm not above modifying my opinions when past performance is not reflected by current performance.
Yumcake on
Cake is yum, is yum cake? I think, therefore I am. I am... Yumcake.
I had no trouble on launch day, but the store I pre-ordered HL2 from called me nearly a week ahead of time to announce the arrival of my copy and that I could come pick it up whenever. I did and installed the game, only to get an email from valve asking what was up with all the "getting their blockbuster game before release date" stuff.
I had a short conversation explaining things and never got anything else from it. I spent the remaining time until launch looking over my shoulder for the valve ninjas that I was sure were following me, though. In retrospect it would have been easier and less frightening to just buy the thing through steam in the first place.
I, as well as several other people, prefer to have hard copies of games. As ridiculous and superficial as it sounds, there is something that feels good about walking into a room and seeing games lined up on a shelf.
If my computer gets stolen, well, I don't want to deal with that. If I'm reinstalling games for whatever reason, I'd rather have the option of using a CD instead of HAVING to deal with Steam. It's there if I want it, but I also get hard copies of games, and friends can come to my house and see what I have.
I, as well as several other people, prefer to have hard copies of games. As ridiculous and superficial as it sounds, there is something that feels good about walking into a room and seeing games lined up on a shelf.
If my computer gets stolen, well, I don't want to deal with that. If I'm reinstalling games for whatever reason, I'd rather have the option of using a CD instead of HAVING to deal with Steam. It's there if I want it, but I also get hard copies of games, and friends can come to my house and see what I have.
If your computer gets stolen, and you get a new computer, you just install Steam and it downloads your games.
Then, the next time the stolen computer starts Steam, it will prompt for your password, which (presumably) the thief doesn't know, and that's that.
Daedalus on
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augustwhere you come from is goneRegistered Userregular
Yeah, I'm a firm supporter of Steam because of the convenience of it all. It's a heckuvalot easier to click the "install" button in my list of games than it is to dig out a CD and input a 12+ character CD key, possibly with more than one CD to swap when it comes time. Sure, it takes longer but to me, that's fine because I'm a pretty patient guy to begin with. Don't even get me started on losing CD keys and how annoying and more expensive that is, because I lost (got stolen more than likely) multiple Diablo 2 games over the span of 4 years.
Also, yeah, you do save yourself hassle by not having to go deal with retail monkeys at your local brick and mortar store, saving yourself the trip there/back, and also being able to purchase X game on release day without having to worry about the game's availability or late shipments etc.
One thing Steam should do from now on is to give a specific time for when they will "activate" a game so that people who really must play ASAP can decide between brick and mortar or digital distribution.
Also, I hate myself when I do it but I kinda impulse buy sometimes on Steam and later do NOT regret my purchases.
There are very few non-Valve games that can be unlocked in Steam. They are even mentioned as a special case in their support section. The "Add non-Steam game" thing just adds a shortcut in Steam.
I've found the major advantage of doing this with games, is that it allows me to talk to people on the steam community through it.
Not having to have a CD in your drive. Or hunting down a no-cd crack every patch is a pretty good selling point too, for me at least. I moved recently and I would have loved it if ALL my games were on steam, rather than trying to trim down space by putting cds in a big wallet and making a word doc. with all my keys.
I kind of wish I had STALKER or Company of Heroes through steam, but they both showed up well after I bought them.
I'm even one of those few people who had almost(had a weird problem with a scene not loading) zero problems with steam or HL2 on launch night/day.
Since we arent talking about digital distribution in general (which is great for developers to get a bigger cut per sale) here are the things I really like about steam
1) PreLoading - A game set to release at midnight. I have all the game but 1 bit left. I'm playing right at midnight
2) Patching - Total PITA with retail. Install, patch patch patch. Might as well just have d/l the whole thing to begin with
2a) Auto Patching - I hate it when game versions get out of sync because the server or your friend hasn't updated etc..
3) Unified Friends system - This is a newer feature of Steam but I love it. My friends playing TF2 on so and so server. I can hop right in and join them.
****
The Steam Launch sucked ass, back before HL2 released. But thats mostly a technology problem that fixed itself up. Steam took up alot of resources, when HL1 / CS was taking up alot on most people's computers to begin with on top of significant bandwidth uses. There was really no brightside to steam until HL2 finally launched and steam started offering alot more then the few Valve games and HL mods.
The current steam platform is a fine example of Digital Distribution done right. We (unfortunetly) don't know any numbers but I'd say Valve is making money hand over fist by cutting out the (huge) costs of publishing retail.
I am a huge fan of digital distrobution simply because of no CD checks. I hate CD checks. I will gladly put in a user/pass that can be remembered in the manager app (steam) to play as opposed to digging out a CD. It also somewhat fixes the problem I have with multiple installs on systems I own, all I have to do is just log out of the other system and voila, I can move my license. Other digital distrobution systems use the XP style of activation which locks the copy to the system it has been first installed on. Games software should be licensed per user and not per machine.
I do miss nice printed manuals, I always read them to learn the game systems and the flavor text they oftentimes put into them. Homeworld had a huge tome that read more like a history book and technical journal than as a game manual. I still have a drawer in my desk full of the printed manuals I kept after I ended up recycling alot of the nice boxes I had for them. I still do have quite few on my shelf from more recent purchases.
Recalling the HL2 launch, I did not have any auth issues. I bought my copy through steam, it was easily authenticated and played HL2 from start to finish in one sitting. I remember reading stories about people who purchased the retail box copies having authentication issues over steam, and still even needing to put in the disk to play.
With pricing however, digital distrobution should be cheaper. Servers and bandwidth I'm pretty sure do not cost nearly as much as the infrastructure required for the manufacturing and distrobution of the physical media, nor do they have to negotiate for shelf space in meatspace stores.
Steam in particular, as has been mentioned before, has a really solid Buddy system, and has had it ever since the earilest public betas. Even if it did take them a long time to iron out the bugs and stability of thier Friend's network servers. Now that they have added the Community feature, I like thier system even more.
I would like to see the program itself optimized a bit. It's still pretty clunky and crawly, and I really can't tell what makes it move so slowly. I would gladly cut out some of the flash if it just ran at a closer to normal speed when I have other programs open.
ok so I don't remember my email addy used when I registered HL2....4 years ago, but I know the account name and what I used for a password as well as I own the CD key. Now, last night I was logged into Steam just fine, but after a reboot from a game freezing (non steam or valve related) then when steam popped up it asked me to enter my password, which was unusual. It auto saved it and never asked before. so I put it in and then it tells me my password was wrong. No, no it's not wrong, it was working just moment previous and I only ever use 1 password for things like that anyways so I know exactly what it is. ok so at this point I go to retrieve the pass and I tell the dialogue box that I know the login name and have the CD key, but I do not remember the email I used when I registered. so, what does it do? it sends an email to me with the info and verification code....yeah alot of good that does me since I don't remember the email I used. any suggestions?
Although I am generally happy with Steam, I have had some frustrations with it.
I bought HL2 at retail, and it took forever to install and decrypt (including causing the computer to reboot halfway through).
Since then I have purchased quite a few games directly through Steam, most have worked fine (Half Life 2 Episode 1, Darwinia, Defcon...) while others where a nightmare to get working (Company of Heroes would not run at all unless I ran Steam in Administator mode - I have Vista; I had to download Bioshock again because I ran into a problem where two files did not decrypt properly and the game would not run). I have never experienced these sorts of issues when purchasing at retail. I have no doubt many people have no issues, but I still run into enough of these hiccups to think the service is not quite 'there' yet.
On the flip side though, it's generally much cheaper to purchase games through Steam in Australia than retail. Orange Box? About $55 Aussie, while in the shops it will be at least $90. I'll agree with the comment that game prices don't appear to come down quickly enough though compared to brick and mortar stores.
Although I haven't played around with the community features much, it looks like what 'Games for Windows Live' should have been on the PC.
Overall Steam is good, as long as you can deal with a few of the annoyances.
Shit. If you live 15 minutes from your closest game store, you just saved 5 dollars in gas. Not to mention the convenience of not having to put pants on.
You should trade in your Sherman Tank for something slightly more fuel efficient. Sure, you won't find a 75mm cannon in modern compact cars, but the savings on gas will be astronomical.
Dear British/Canadian/foreign/New Yorker guy:
Fuck.
You.
15 minutes of driving in the real world:
involves nine dollars worth of gas, one fuckwit nearly killing you, stupid fucking nephews who never shut the fuck up, and, having this fuckwit who lost his legs because some dick fucked up installing the brakes replace your perfectly normal breaks that just had a screw loose on the left tire with sandpaper.
You sir, need to learn how to drive and get a new fucking car. And when they fuck up your repairs you take it back and make them fix it.
You want to talk about driving being hazardous and annoying? Fuck I ride a motorcycle and have to deal with people like you who are so irate while they drive they can't watch the fuck out for me and start pulling over ON TOP OF ME at the ENTRANCE RAMP until I honk my horn at them.
Anyway, buy a new car and stop wasting all of our gas!
Oh, maybe you need a good sized vehicle? Well a Saturn Vue gets 26 miles per gallon, and a Suburu Forester gets about the same. Heck, even a 91 Pontiac Grand Am can pull 20-23 (I used to own one) so I'm not sure what the hell you're driving.
To be on topic, Steam is good in theory, but issues like getting accounts moved, having backup copies, authentications, etc... well at the end of the day you're going to get fucked. All it REALLY takes is for Valve to change the service, or get bought out and change the service, years down the line and decide not to support previously available software that they've taken off their servers. Do you trust at that point that they will ALWAYS release a "fix" for every piece of software? And even assuming they did, what happens if you got a new computer and had internet trouble, or had to downgrade your internet and didn't have those games installed (new HDD)? If you've got a disc it's no problem but in the case of Steam you're out of luck.
I've got a few things to say about Steam. Currently, I think its a good idea, but did have a rocky start. I was trying to free up space on the hard drive and my Steam folder is 9gb. I only have HL1, HL2, EP1, Lost Coast, CS 1.6, Dystopia and NS installed. Why does it take up so much room?
Previously, I owned an internet gaming cafe. We were forced to buy client licensing with a monthly 10 seat minimum and that increased our cost of doing business. (previously it was WON servers, 0 upkeep fees). I'm not denying Steam from making money, we were legit while I heard other icafes were doing illegal stuff to run Steam. The added cost of being legit didnt help to keep the store running in an unfriendly business climate like Hawaii. Also, Whenever we ran into backend problems with steam updates, there was very little tech support. They'd drop patches that would scew up our launch events late friday and we'd have to figure out a work around to make things work, as there was no one in their office on the weekends. It would be like "Everyone come Friday for the CS:Source launch event", then theyd drop a patch that wasnt tested in the wild and break steam, so people would show up and Steam wouldnt be running. I heard there was a cyberleague event tournament deal that got delayed because a Steam update dropped right before the tournament started.
I like how they carry alot more stuff now, as previously it was just the weird 3rd party games.
I feel mixed about buying digitally vs packed products. Its sort of like the album vs CD argument. Games nowadays dont come with much unless you buy the super deluxe collectors edition with the piece of a wall from somewhere and a cup holder for $70. I remember when game boxes were unusual (Eye of the Beholder's triangle box), youd get a cloth map with Ultima, etc. Nowadays you have to pay extra for a stratagy guide as the manual with the game has the most basic of instructions. (I bought the regular Halo3 and was appalled that it didnt have all the deployable equipment listed, just 3 of them). Manuals used to be thicker.
Steam works amazingly for international consumers. Here in Australia most new release boxed games are $99AUD (~$87 USD). While Steam has them for $56AUD ($49.95USD), that's a pretty large saving no matter how you look at it.
Also, i love the fact that i can go "well shit ey, i have nothing planed for tomorrow.... Mite grab a game to play" then purchase something late at night and have it good to go the next morning when i wake.
@ Steam
noobert on
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thorgotthere is special providencein the fall of a sparrowRegistered Userregular
ok so I don't remember my email addy used when I registered HL2....4 years ago, but I know the account name and what I used for a password as well as I own the CD key. Now, last night I was logged into Steam just fine, but after a reboot from a game freezing (non steam or valve related) then when steam popped up it asked me to enter my password, which was unusual. It auto saved it and never asked before. so I put it in and then it tells me my password was wrong. No, no it's not wrong, it was working just moment previous and I only ever use 1 password for things like that anyways so I know exactly what it is. ok so at this point I go to retrieve the pass and I tell the dialogue box that I know the login name and have the CD key, but I do not remember the email I used when I registered. so, what does it do? it sends an email to me with the info and verification code....yeah alot of good that does me since I don't remember the email I used. any suggestions?
This isn't really the right thread for this, but I suggest setting up a support ticket.
I've already brought this up in the last steam stealm lol thread we had but eh...still gotta register my opinion
Steam as digital distribution, I have no problems with. I just don't like how Steam has to be running in order to play any of your games. Should it be a requirement to play anything online, sure why not? but for offline gaming, steam needs to just go away.
I freely admit that I've never had any significant problems running steam...it is just the principle of it though.
I also wish there were more DD companies to provide competition in order to promote value for our bucks. Until games truly are cheaper on DD than they are on retail...even if it's just a buck or two difference. I'll buy the damned hard copy. fuck the gas it takes.. if going to the gaming store is the only thing you're burning that gas on and you're not performing other errands to make the price of gas you've burned worth it. Then you're the one that's wasteful, not the retail box, ride a bike for fuck's sake if you're going to nitpick the gas issue. And if laziness to get up off your ass and go outside to the store is truly a factor for you people and not just some sarcastic quip...then your opinion is pretty much worthless to me to begin with.
In other words, give me more companies like StarDock, where once you have the game, the DD client goes away. If it wants to deliver auto-patches to me, fine, great, lovely. but go the fuck away once you've done your delivery
I absolutely love Steam. I really didn't start using it until recently, but it's a great product in my book. People complaining about the lack of a cost difference doesn't really bug me all that much...it's how much I was going to pay anyway, I don't have tax, and I don't have CD checks. I absolutely hate physical media (if it gets scratched or you lose a CD key, enjoy your $60 coaster), and there hasn't been a good manual with a game since Planetfall. I wish that I'd found it sooner, and they had more of the games that I like and look for (olol SimCity).
For me, not even factoring in the plus sides of the Steam model, the lack of added value of having a physical copy is enough for me to go with the DD version.
jonxp on
Every time you write parallel fifths, Bach kills a kitten.
3DS Friend Code: 2707-1614-5576 PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
I've been wondering about relative costs. I live in Australia, where games are relativly over priced. Thus, getting stuff on steam is always a good deal. Even "Full-Price" games like Bioshock are much much cheaper for us. 49 USD = 55 AUD, where we could expect to pay about 100 AUD for it in stores. Thus I was quite suprised to read on the Steam wiki that one of the compaints about Steam is the "high" cost of games. What do you guys think? Do other non US gamers enjoy the current shitty state of the US Dollar? The main problem I have is that Australia has much worse internet, and downloading 4 gigs and 27 kbs isn't fun.
The main problem I have is that Australia has much worse internet, and downloading 4 gigs and 27 kbs isn't fun.
I'm pretty sure someone here said that iiNet mirrors Steam content for Australians and whenever I've downloaded off Steam I've been hitting about 800kb/s on Optus cable.
Posts
Good:
Because of the Sterling Pound to US Dollar, UK people get decent deals
No rootkits
No CD checks
Convenience of being able to download and play your games anywhere (well, good if you have a net connection anyway)
Bad:
Because of the Sterling Pound to US Dollar if the Dollar ever makes any gains against the Pound we're screwed.
DRM
You're in for a world of hassle if you forget your username & password
The games on Steam stay priced high for too long (for example I can now pick up X3 Reunion in the shops retail for massively less than I can buy it on Steam)
When Half-Life 2 was released I spent a good couple of days twiddling my thumbs just to get the damn thing to fully authenticate just so I could play my damn game i'd bought
If Valve ever goes tits up you can forget about keeping those games you purchased on Steam (Valve games maybe, but third party games very doubtful)
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
Can't you do that?
I mean it doesn't work with every single game, but there is an "activate a product on steam" and also a "add a nonsteam game to my steam list" button under "games" in the big steam window you get when you double click your tray steam icon.
Pretty sure you can do it that way, though I may be wrong.
It's not that there isn't good reason for it, but it does undermine steam a little.
Retail you get alot of the benefits of steam (stored on your account so no worries if you loose the disc, pre-loading for instant playing), a hard copy of your game, and nice packaging, and all at £1 cheaper.
There are plenty of better then retail prices on Steam. Especially for Valve games. Now Bioshock had to be 49.95 at release because otherwise retailers would refuse to carry 2k's future games. Retailers are dicks, but Steam is making inroads with their specials and early purchases.
I think that one of the reasons Steam has been so successful is because they were one of the first to try digital distribution. And it was pretty bad when they started out, but they learned from their early mistakes and were able to slowly make it better and better because of the insane popularity of Half-Life 2. What better way to launch a platform like that than have it be required by one of the most popular PC games of all time?
Dear British/Canadian/foreign/New Yorker guy:
Fuck.
You.
15 minutes of driving in the real world:
involves nine dollars worth of gas, one fuckwit nearly killing you, stupid fucking nephews who never shut the fuck up, and, having this fuckwit who lost his legs because some dick fucked up installing the brakes replace your perfectly normal breaks that just had a screw loose on the left tire with sandpaper.
Steam ROCKS.
Except having a box is not a sherman tank.
There's that.
You can do that with some games available on Steam, but not all.
I'm talking about having that as an option for all games on Steam, if you already bought a physical copy of the game. And having the option to give Valve their share of the profit, so you can download it through Steam anytime you'd like, just in case.
The HL2 launch was somewhat frustrating, but nowhere near as bad as Steam when it was first released. It was a horrid program back then, and people were understandably reluctant to switch from WON servers to Steam. When Valve finally made the switch official and shut off WON authentication, lots of people said they would stop playing CS 1.6. But CS 1.6 rolled on, and on, and begat CS:S, which Steam delivered as a beta.
So far with Steam I've had good experiences. Maybe I won't have a box, but in the end they're not that important. The best thing is not having to worry about losing CD Keys. With Company of Heroes I don't think I even paid attention to my key (it gets imputed automatically when creating your account). With Dawn of War (I bought all 3 of them at release. Physical copies) I have to keep them safe (and maybe I should find a better way to keep my CD Keys somewhere). Also I can start downloading the games on any machine I want, so I don't have to bring my CDs with me in the case I feel like replaying a game later on in my Laptop or wherever. You're really paying for convenience. The XBox Live style Steam Community is just a great addition on top of it all. To think Microsoft attempted to charge for something like it...
The only thing I would not use Steam for is if the Limited/Collector's Edition has something I just need, but lately that's not been the case with any game really.
I've had preorder issues on launch day for DOD but it was resolved and no other problems since. I prefer digital distribution and loathe manipulating physical media.
Steam had a rocky start, but has grown considerably and I'm not above modifying my opinions when past performance is not reflected by current performance.
I had a short conversation explaining things and never got anything else from it. I spent the remaining time until launch looking over my shoulder for the valve ninjas that I was sure were following me, though. In retrospect it would have been easier and less frightening to just buy the thing through steam in the first place.
If my computer gets stolen, well, I don't want to deal with that. If I'm reinstalling games for whatever reason, I'd rather have the option of using a CD instead of HAVING to deal with Steam. It's there if I want it, but I also get hard copies of games, and friends can come to my house and see what I have.
If your computer gets stolen, and you get a new computer, you just install Steam and it downloads your games.
Then, the next time the stolen computer starts Steam, it will prompt for your password, which (presumably) the thief doesn't know, and that's that.
If you forget your username and password, and also the e-mail you used register that account, then you're pretty damn dumb.
Also, yeah, you do save yourself hassle by not having to go deal with retail monkeys at your local brick and mortar store, saving yourself the trip there/back, and also being able to purchase X game on release day without having to worry about the game's availability or late shipments etc.
One thing Steam should do from now on is to give a specific time for when they will "activate" a game so that people who really must play ASAP can decide between brick and mortar or digital distribution.
Also, I hate myself when I do it but I kinda impulse buy sometimes on Steam and later do NOT regret my purchases.
I've found the major advantage of doing this with games, is that it allows me to talk to people on the steam community through it.
Huzzah for Mount & Blade!
I kind of wish I had STALKER or Company of Heroes through steam, but they both showed up well after I bought them.
I'm even one of those few people who had almost(had a weird problem with a scene not loading) zero problems with steam or HL2 on launch night/day.
Steam id: skoot LoL id: skoot
As much as I hate Steam's slow, crawling clunkiness, I paid half price and never have to juggle CDs or anything.
1) PreLoading - A game set to release at midnight. I have all the game but 1 bit left. I'm playing right at midnight
2) Patching - Total PITA with retail. Install, patch patch patch. Might as well just have d/l the whole thing to begin with
2a) Auto Patching - I hate it when game versions get out of sync because the server or your friend hasn't updated etc..
3) Unified Friends system - This is a newer feature of Steam but I love it. My friends playing TF2 on so and so server. I can hop right in and join them.
****
The Steam Launch sucked ass, back before HL2 released. But thats mostly a technology problem that fixed itself up. Steam took up alot of resources, when HL1 / CS was taking up alot on most people's computers to begin with on top of significant bandwidth uses. There was really no brightside to steam until HL2 finally launched and steam started offering alot more then the few Valve games and HL mods.
The current steam platform is a fine example of Digital Distribution done right. We (unfortunetly) don't know any numbers but I'd say Valve is making money hand over fist by cutting out the (huge) costs of publishing retail.
I do miss nice printed manuals, I always read them to learn the game systems and the flavor text they oftentimes put into them. Homeworld had a huge tome that read more like a history book and technical journal than as a game manual. I still have a drawer in my desk full of the printed manuals I kept after I ended up recycling alot of the nice boxes I had for them. I still do have quite few on my shelf from more recent purchases.
Recalling the HL2 launch, I did not have any auth issues. I bought my copy through steam, it was easily authenticated and played HL2 from start to finish in one sitting. I remember reading stories about people who purchased the retail box copies having authentication issues over steam, and still even needing to put in the disk to play.
With pricing however, digital distrobution should be cheaper. Servers and bandwidth I'm pretty sure do not cost nearly as much as the infrastructure required for the manufacturing and distrobution of the physical media, nor do they have to negotiate for shelf space in meatspace stores.
Steam in particular, as has been mentioned before, has a really solid Buddy system, and has had it ever since the earilest public betas. Even if it did take them a long time to iron out the bugs and stability of thier Friend's network servers. Now that they have added the Community feature, I like thier system even more.
I bought HL2 at retail, and it took forever to install and decrypt (including causing the computer to reboot halfway through).
Since then I have purchased quite a few games directly through Steam, most have worked fine (Half Life 2 Episode 1, Darwinia, Defcon...) while others where a nightmare to get working (Company of Heroes would not run at all unless I ran Steam in Administator mode - I have Vista; I had to download Bioshock again because I ran into a problem where two files did not decrypt properly and the game would not run). I have never experienced these sorts of issues when purchasing at retail. I have no doubt many people have no issues, but I still run into enough of these hiccups to think the service is not quite 'there' yet.
On the flip side though, it's generally much cheaper to purchase games through Steam in Australia than retail. Orange Box? About $55 Aussie, while in the shops it will be at least $90. I'll agree with the comment that game prices don't appear to come down quickly enough though compared to brick and mortar stores.
Although I haven't played around with the community features much, it looks like what 'Games for Windows Live' should have been on the PC.
Overall Steam is good, as long as you can deal with a few of the annoyances.
You sir, need to learn how to drive and get a new fucking car. And when they fuck up your repairs you take it back and make them fix it.
You want to talk about driving being hazardous and annoying? Fuck I ride a motorcycle and have to deal with people like you who are so irate while they drive they can't watch the fuck out for me and start pulling over ON TOP OF ME at the ENTRANCE RAMP until I honk my horn at them.
Anyway, buy a new car and stop wasting all of our gas!
Oh, maybe you need a good sized vehicle? Well a Saturn Vue gets 26 miles per gallon, and a Suburu Forester gets about the same. Heck, even a 91 Pontiac Grand Am can pull 20-23 (I used to own one) so I'm not sure what the hell you're driving.
To be on topic, Steam is good in theory, but issues like getting accounts moved, having backup copies, authentications, etc... well at the end of the day you're going to get fucked. All it REALLY takes is for Valve to change the service, or get bought out and change the service, years down the line and decide not to support previously available software that they've taken off their servers. Do you trust at that point that they will ALWAYS release a "fix" for every piece of software? And even assuming they did, what happens if you got a new computer and had internet trouble, or had to downgrade your internet and didn't have those games installed (new HDD)? If you've got a disc it's no problem but in the case of Steam you're out of luck.
Previously, I owned an internet gaming cafe. We were forced to buy client licensing with a monthly 10 seat minimum and that increased our cost of doing business. (previously it was WON servers, 0 upkeep fees). I'm not denying Steam from making money, we were legit while I heard other icafes were doing illegal stuff to run Steam. The added cost of being legit didnt help to keep the store running in an unfriendly business climate like Hawaii. Also, Whenever we ran into backend problems with steam updates, there was very little tech support. They'd drop patches that would scew up our launch events late friday and we'd have to figure out a work around to make things work, as there was no one in their office on the weekends. It would be like "Everyone come Friday for the CS:Source launch event", then theyd drop a patch that wasnt tested in the wild and break steam, so people would show up and Steam wouldnt be running. I heard there was a cyberleague event tournament deal that got delayed because a Steam update dropped right before the tournament started.
I like how they carry alot more stuff now, as previously it was just the weird 3rd party games.
I feel mixed about buying digitally vs packed products. Its sort of like the album vs CD argument. Games nowadays dont come with much unless you buy the super deluxe collectors edition with the piece of a wall from somewhere and a cup holder for $70. I remember when game boxes were unusual (Eye of the Beholder's triangle box), youd get a cloth map with Ultima, etc. Nowadays you have to pay extra for a stratagy guide as the manual with the game has the most basic of instructions. (I bought the regular Halo3 and was appalled that it didnt have all the deployable equipment listed, just 3 of them). Manuals used to be thicker.
My $0.02
Also, i love the fact that i can go "well shit ey, i have nothing planed for tomorrow.... Mite grab a game to play" then purchase something late at night and have it good to go the next morning when i wake.
This isn't really the right thread for this, but I suggest setting up a support ticket.
Steam as digital distribution, I have no problems with. I just don't like how Steam has to be running in order to play any of your games. Should it be a requirement to play anything online, sure why not? but for offline gaming, steam needs to just go away.
I freely admit that I've never had any significant problems running steam...it is just the principle of it though.
I also wish there were more DD companies to provide competition in order to promote value for our bucks. Until games truly are cheaper on DD than they are on retail...even if it's just a buck or two difference. I'll buy the damned hard copy. fuck the gas it takes.. if going to the gaming store is the only thing you're burning that gas on and you're not performing other errands to make the price of gas you've burned worth it. Then you're the one that's wasteful, not the retail box, ride a bike for fuck's sake if you're going to nitpick the gas issue. And if laziness to get up off your ass and go outside to the store is truly a factor for you people and not just some sarcastic quip...then your opinion is pretty much worthless to me to begin with.
In other words, give me more companies like StarDock, where once you have the game, the DD client goes away. If it wants to deliver auto-patches to me, fine, great, lovely. but go the fuck away once you've done your delivery
Enlist in Star Citizen! Citizenship must be earned!
For me, not even factoring in the plus sides of the Steam model, the lack of added value of having a physical copy is enough for me to go with the DD version.
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PAX Prime 2014 Buttoneering!
I'm pretty sure someone here said that iiNet mirrors Steam content for Australians and whenever I've downloaded off Steam I've been hitting about 800kb/s on Optus cable.