A few things I hate about Steam.

[Rifter]

Actually I think that is exactly Steam's responsibility.

- Proud owner of 0 steam games.

You are wrong. If you buy a game with win98/xp support only and expect it to work with win7 then you are an idiot. Steam clearly states on the product page what OS the games are supported on, just like retail copies. Its not steams problem, just like it isnt bestbuys problem if you bought a retail copy.

 

[toyota]

You are wrong. If you buy a game with win98/xp support only and expect it to work with win7 then you are an idiot. Steam clearly states on the product page what OS the games are supported on, just like retail copies. Its not steams problem, just like it isnt bestbuys problem if you bought a retail copy.

someone that buys a game that came out when XP was the current OS and expects it to work on Vista/7 is most certainly not an idiot. of course NO older game is going to say it supports a newer OS because that newer OS did not even exist at the time. its not like they go back and officially add each new OS that comes out to the supported list. nearly all games work with Vista/7 so if there is a game that is known not to work or has documented issues then it should be stated or the store page if possible.

 

[Rifter]

someone that buys a game that came out when XP was the current OS and expects it to work on Vista/7 is most certainly not an idiot. of course NO older game is going to say it supports a newer OS because that newer OS did not even exist at the time. its not like they go back and officially add each new OS that comes out to the supported list. nearly all games work with Vista/7 so if there is a game that is known not to work or has documented issues then it should be stated or the store page if possible.

I agree, most games do work with 7 but some dont, and some work with 32bit and dont with 64bit. I have alot of games and have worked through alot of issues. All im saying is if a game came out in the Xp Era and doesnt list at least vista as supported there could be issues. And you as a consumer should be able to deal with them as a result. It shouldnt be whoever sold you the games responsability to hold your hand, even though steam does have decent support through forums more so than most B&M stores.

Edit spelling

 

[gothamhunter]

I really dont know why some people get so upset with games that require an online connection as DRM (I believe Ubisoft was the company most people were upset by), because to me this is basically what steam does.

You only need to be online if you decide to download the game through Steam. Once it's downloaded, you don't need to connect to the Internet or Steam services to play the game at all (if it's single player, or unless it requires non-Steam online DRM).

 

[gothamhunter]

Actually I can understand it perfectly. See my other post for the technical problems I had with Steam recently.

The only reason I can see to use steam over a hard copy is if you can get the game cheaper on steam or if you cant find a DVD of the game. Granted, this is often the case, but all other things being equal, I would still prefer a hard copy that does not require steam. Then I have complete control of the game, and dont have to be dependent on a second party to play the game.

I also try to use another service such as Direct2Drive when they have the same game at the same price, since they dont require you to log on to play the game. I also would like to see some competition to Steam, since I am always concerned when one entity controls so much of the market.

Having a permanent digital copy available through their interface is much more reliable than a hard copy. You can even back up your library offline after the game is installed through their backup services so you won't have to re-download them.

You only need to be online to download the game initially; after that you can be in Steam's offline mode to play your games if you choose to.

Steam does have competition, but they're almost moot with current gen games because of the amazing deals Steam usually has for them. If you're worried about the state of your games, they've stated multiple times that they will allow you to still have them if they ever go under.

 

[Veliko]

If you're worried about the state of your games, they've stated multiple times that they will allow you to still have them if they ever go under.

That's something that is impossible for them to guarantee. If they go bankrupt that decision may be out of their hands.

 

[DirkGently1]

I only ever buy games off Steam. I couldn't stand having to return to a system where i have to mess around with disks and hunt around for patches to install. It's easy to backup your games with Steam too, making it a piece of cake to reinstall everything when needed. Physical media has no place in this day and age

 

[ShawnD1]

I only ever buy games off Steam. I couldn't stand having to return to a system where i have to mess around with disks and hunt around for patches to install. It's easy to backup your games with Steam too, making it a piece of cake to reinstall everything when needed. Physical media has no place in this day and age

What's cool about Steam games is that you don't need to reinstall them. I keep my OS and games on separate hard drives, and I haven't had to reinstall any of my Steam games ever. Steam needs to be reinstalled every time I reinstall or change the OS, but that's all. Yesterday I had to reinstall Win7 after replacing a motherboard, and Borderlands was up and running after it installed some .NET library or something it needed to run. The game itself was already up to date and ready to go.

It doesn't sound like a big deal, but reinstalling games really was a huge pain in the ass. Having to go through some bullshit 10 minute install process for every single game you intend to play. I could probably recite every single note in the song that plays when installing Red Alert 2.

 

[gothamhunter]

That's something that is impossible for them to guarantee. If they go bankrupt that decision may be out of their hands.

What would prevent them from doing so? They've stated that if they ever go under, they would release the necessary keys to decrypt your games so they would be available to you without the Steam service.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

my issues with steam are the fact it expects to be running at all times, and it's barbaric IE-skin interface. hey jerks, your text is way too small! at least let me zoom in, if not increase the font.

 

[ShawnD1]

my issues with steam are the fact it expects to be running at all times, and it's barbaric IE-skin interface. hey jerks, your text is way too small! at least let me zoom in, if not increase the font.

wtf resolution are you using?

At 22" 1680x1050 it's perfectly readable.

 

[Barfo]

it's barbaric IE-skin interface

This made me LOL
You have a point though, I love Steam but the browser is shit.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

wtf resolution are you using?

At 22" 1680x1050 it's perfectly readable.

1920x1080

 

[Barfo]

1920x1080

Bad eyes? I run the same resolution and have no problems.

 

[gothamhunter]

1920x1080

:\ Do you have a 14 inch screen or something?

 

[Veliko]

What would prevent them from doing so? They've stated that if they ever go under, they would release the necessary keys to decrypt your games so they would be available to you without the Steam service.

It's all well and good for the top bods at Valve to say these nice things when everything is going well but if Valve suddenly tanks they may not be so concerned about giving out keys and things willy nilly. It might be a decision that is out of their hands in the event of a takeover or bankruptcy.

The customers are always the ones who lose out in these situations.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Having a permanent digital copy available through their interface is much more reliable than a hard copy.

Not if you cannot connect to steam to download them and get no help from technical support for days on end!!!

 

[mindcycle]

Steam's ok for $5 games, but i'd never buy a new copy off Steam. Too much potential for shit to go wrong since they pretty much control every aspect of the games you "own".

 

[simonizor]

someone that buys a game that came out when XP was the current OS and expects it to work on Vista/7 is most certainly not an idiot. of course NO older game is going to say it supports a newer OS because that newer OS did not even exist at the time. its not like they go back and officially add each new OS that comes out to the supported list. nearly all games work with Vista/7 so if there is a game that is known not to work or has documented issues then it should be stated or the store page if possible.

Ever heard of continual support for products that you put out? It's this thing were you release updates for your products after your release them.

Spoiler

In case you don't get the hint, good devs update their games often and will update them to work on new OSes. Think about how much business Blizzard would have lost if they would have chosen for WoW to not support Windows 7...

 

[toyota]

Ever heard of continual support for products that you put out? It's this thing were you release updates for your products after your release them.

Spoiler

In case you don't get the hint, good devs update their games often and will update them to work on new OSes. Think about how much business Blizzard would have lost if they would have chosen for WoW to not support Windows 7...

and that has what to do with me though? MOST devs do not go back and update their OS support list. all but a couple of games from the XP era work perfectly fine on Vista/7 but how many of them say that? so again my point was that people would expect those games to work just fine on Vista/7.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

:\ Do you have a 14 inch screen or something?

nope, it's a 24 inch widescreen dell monitor. and my eyes are perfect, it's just most fonts on the computer are too small. any browser gets zoomed to 150%.

 

[zeekr]

At least steam is better than GFWL...

That's a very low bar to beat

One small thing I don't like about Steam is the fact that don't allow you to change your account's password on their site. You have to have the client installed to do that. [At least I couldn't figure out where that option is on steampowered.com]

 

[Tom]

someone that buys a game that came out when XP was the current OS and expects it to work on Vista/7 is most certainly not an idiot. of course NO older game is going to say it supports a newer OS because that newer OS did not even exist at the time. its not like they go back and officially add each new OS that comes out to the supported list. nearly all games work with Vista/7 so if there is a game that is known not to work or has documented issues then it should be stated or the store page if possible.

It does. It says game requires XP.

You are expecting Steam to deal with Microsft's inability to make their operating systems compatible with previous versions ?

 

[toyota]

It does. It says game requires XP.

You are expecting Steam to deal with Microsft's inability to make their operating systems compatible with previous versions ?

again when they list the OS that is "required" that is simply the OS that was current at the time the game was made. and YES Steam should list on the store page if a game is known to be incompatible with a newer OS.

 

[Rezident]

I actually really like steam, normally, but for the last week, the Steam Store (front page) is all messed up on my 64-bit system, does anyone else have this problem? On my backup system (32-bit) Steam Store is fine. But on my main system, the Steam Store looks horrible, pictures and text all over the place, it looks awful. I tried re-installing Steam but the problem remains, anyone know what causes it?