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Bad luck with Steam...

Ichinisan

Ichinisan

Lifer
As an obsessive game hoarder since the early '80s, I have a Steam account with more than a dozen titles and not enough time to ever play them.

On the RARE occasion that I would install Steam to play a game, NOT ONCE has it gone smoothly.

Remember this? http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...hreadid=1884488&enterthread=y&arctab=y

That problem is still there. This is UNACCEPTABLE.

Another problem that I encountered made it impossible to download the demo for several months and it took months to get them to even acknowledge it.

I saw an ad today on Kotaku.com that seemed to offer free game content for Intel Core 2 Duo owners. I clicked the link and was prompted to install Steam. Now I've downloaded Steam install on 4 machines and all of them lock up before the app's first appearance. All that appears is a progress bar that says "Steam - Updating - x% complete". My machines are all locked at different completion and hang at the same respective completion even after restarting the machines. My Internet connection is not showing packet loss in continuous ping tests to outside servers including 4.2.2.2


Valve:
HOW CAN YOU EXPECT YOUR SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM TO SUCCEED IF IT IS PERPETUALLY BROKEN?!
 
I was one of the biggest vocal opponents of Steam but I'm pleased to say I have not had a single issue with it.

I only have HL2 Collector's Edition DVD though so perhaps downloading the games is a more painful experience (one of the reasons I insisted on getting original media).
 
This current problem is not only affecting me. It appears to be affecting everyone who does not have Steam installed and tries to download it from the site. Why, then, is this current problem NOT MENTIONED ON THE SUPPORT SITE? Just to waste my time?
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=535456

Just like the time when the ability to obtain an HL2 demo was broken for weeks with no acknowledgement from Valve, this problem is also affecting ALL new Steam installation attempts and is not mentioned on the support site.

I absolutely LOVE the concept of Steam. I'll be first to say that the *idea* of Steam is how digital distribution SHOULD be. I was delighted to see that I could even make my own install/backup discs with UPDATED versions of the game.

My first attempt at making a single DVD-R backup was a failure on Steam's part. Attempting to execute the installer on the disc resulted in a disk write error...hmm. You had to copy the entire contents of the disc to the hard drive before installing! The installer would copy all content to the destination folders, effectively requiring TWICE the storage space before the install could be completed and taking significantly longer for the whole process. I'm not sure, but this problem has probably been fixed. I had already wasted several discs and a lot of time troubleshooting this problem.

Then I once needed to download the HL2 demo...
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=460942
The HL2 demo was broken for ALL wishing to download it for several weeks. The Valve support system was useless and made no mention of the problem. Only through the forum was I able to find someone to help, and he was likely a game developer. The support site is completely USELESS.

Before that, I struggled with a problem and eventually learned that Steam inexplicably is 100% fine with NAT behind a router, but if you enable you're router's DMZ feature to resolve NAT/connectivity problems with other applications, Steam fails! Valve acknowledges the problem, but expects you to disable DMZ as a workaround rather than fixing the problem with the software (as if they are not aware this is purely a problem with programming logic in their own software). Worse, the error message given by Steam is completely inappropriate: "failed username/password"!

I'm really fed up with Steam. The idea was great; but the actual implementation FAILS. Steam needs to be put into the hands of more competent developers.
 
Originally posted by: Ichinisan
Valve:
HOW CAN YOU EXPECT YOUR SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM TO SUCCEED IF IT IS PERPETUALLY BROKEN?!
Click to expand...
Answer: It is suceeding because it is not perpetually broken.
If that were the case, I would never get any updated and I'd also never be able to play any of my games because you need to check for updates routinely just to play at all.
Personally I would love it if they had an option to disable update checking completely. I have heard of some people using hacks and such to disable it, but you shouldnt have to use leet-haxor files just to get a game running like you want.

Just because you are having problems (I wont call you an idiot, 'cause I dont think you are) doesnt mean everyone else is lost or that the program sucks.
I will concede they could do a better job, but the problem is EVERY software company could be doing a better job these days. Valve is making much better progress than most other companies like EA and Sierra.

EDIT - As for your issue with installing all the files: thats the same for retail discs too.
The data on any of the discs is encrypted and you have to get the code from Steam before its installed. Overall, it is much easier and faster to decrypt several gigs of files from your hard drive than an optical drive.
Valve just wants to protect their game, retail box or online its the same to them. They both need to be protected.
Yes, it can be hacked, but as has already been pointed out multiple times on Anandtech, ANYTHING can be hacked. Software companies will still try their best though.
 
Originally posted by: Ichinisan
Valve:
HOW CAN YOU EXPECT YOUR SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM TO SUCCEED IF IT IS PERPETUALLY BROKEN?!
Click to expand...

Steam has the occasional screw up but it is far from being mass broken, even friends is fixed

Yes there are a minority of users who have consistent problems with either Steam or Source (One of my mates has a weird error in Source games that has never been shifted) but by sending proper bug reports to Valve something will get done

I use the DMZ all the time (C&C Generals has a balls up if its not on) and Steam works fine
 
I"m another huge fan of Steam. Being able to permanently link a game to an account is great imo. I can go back to those games anytime i want, without needing the CD and registration keys again. But i guess if you resell your games, it's bad, but i've never resold a single game in my life, console or PC, so that doesn't bother me.
 
Originally posted by: shortylickens
EDIT - As for your issue with installing all the files: thats the same for retail discs too.
The data on any of the discs is encrypted and you have to get the code from Steam before its installed. Overall, it is much easier and faster to decrypt several gigs of files from your hard drive than an optical drive.
Valve just wants to protect their game, retail box or online its the same to them. They both need to be protected.
Yes, it can be hacked, but as has already been pointed out multiple times on Anandtech, ANYTHING can be hacked. Software companies will still try their best though.
Click to expand...

You misunderstand this particular problem. This is preventing new customers from installing Steam. You can't even get to a point to browse, purchase, register, or download games. You can't even get to the app's main window. With Steam, I continually encounter problems that cripple Steam for NEW users...the most valuable of all. As a programmer who has entertained the idea of distributing content through Steam, I just can't ignore these setbacks that I encounter each time as a user.

This problem is on the server side and is affecting everyone who tries to download and install it before creating an account or installing from a disc/backup. It may be resolved now, but I won't know unless I uninstall/reinstall Steam.

Checking...

Originally posted by: Vinnybcfc
Originally posted by: Ichinisan
Valve:
HOW CAN YOU EXPECT YOUR SOFTWARE DISTRIBUTION PLATFORM TO SUCCEED IF IT IS PERPETUALLY BROKEN?!
Click to expand...

Steam has the occasional screw up but it is far from being mass broken, even friends is fixed

Yes there are a minority of users who have consistent problems with either Steam or Source (One of my mates has a weird error in Source games that has never been shifted) but by sending proper bug reports to Valve something will get done

I use the DMZ all the time (C&C Generals has a balls up if its not on) and Steam works fine
Click to expand...

The problem is a server-side problem. It affects all users who are just trying to download Steam and not play from an existing install or install from a disc. Past problems like the problem with the HL2 demo were also server-side problems.

Even the DMZ incompatibility problem is a problem with their software that is acknowledged but not treated as a problem and not fixed. I haven't tested the DMZ problem, but I did notice the same message on their support site saying that Steam is "incopatible" with DMZ...which is a crock.
 
A lot of people have probs with steam, which is unfortunate because when it works well (like for me) it's a fantastic system. Kind of like w/ BF2... it's great when it works, but it's so hard to get it to function right I just gave up.
 
Originally posted by: Looney
I"m another huge fan of Steam. Being able to permanently link a game to an account is great imo. I can go back to those games anytime i want, without needing the CD and registration keys again. But i guess if you resell your games, it's bad, but i've never resold a single game in my life, console or PC, so that doesn't bother me.
Click to expand...

That feature (being able to use Steam without your discs/installers) is currently broken.
 
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