Is it just me, or is it unimaginable to NOT have Steam nowadays?

[rstrohkirch]

Originally posted by: archcommus

Originally posted by: TechBoyJK

Originally posted by: Caveman
In all seriousness, what's STEAM?

Can someone give me a small 2-3 sentence concept?

its a lame as5 program you have to install that makes sure your game is updated, and you are using a purchased copy of the game.

why it sucks

1. you have to be connected to the internet if you want to play your game.. have a nice laptop with a good graphics card? who cares, because its not like you can play the game unless you are connected to a network with internet access...

2. bloated and forced.

1) It's called offline mode. Your argument is pointless when you ignore things that make you wrong.

2) It is not that bloated. Check out the memory usage yourself. And it does not slow your game down any noticeable amount. Think otherwise? Then show me benches with and without Steam.

steam memory usage:
phy - 45megs / pf - 44megs
hammer beta with memory leak after a few hours and a compile - 1.2 gigs combined

sweet =]

 

[ArchAngel777]

I don't like steam. I find it very intrusive and anoying. I would have enjoyed half life 2 if it were not for steam.

I completely agree with XTKnight's mini-review of it. It is absolute trash and could be done without the use of steam. Having a centralized server has to be one the stupidest things every thought of by man. Why would you want your only point of sales to be available through one method? It just is not a good business decision. What do you do when steam goes down? Where do you go? There is no mirror, is there? That is what I am talking about. No matter how powerfull the server, if their T3's go down, what good will it do? I am all for distributing the content between many servers all around the globe.

Patches should not require a username and password to download. New content for a game I purchased should not only be available to those who register for steam. I should be able to head to fileplanet, gamershell, fileshack, etc... to get my patch. Besides, it takes the load off of Valve's own servers, so I fail to see how steam is "superior".

Piracy will exist no matter what... It is funny, so many headlines say "So and so developed a hacked proof system" only to read yet again it was cracked by some ubah society. I don't agree with piracy, but I don't believe it is ok for companies to protect their information at the expense of their paying customers, when the game will be cracked anyway.

For instance, I purchased Far Cry and was furious when I couldn't play the game... Why not? I guess in the documentation it said that some CD/DVD-ROM drives were not compatable with the copy protection... So, I have a game that I cannot play and I cannot return it? That is flat out wrong... So I have to purchase another CD/DVD-ROM drive in order to play this game? Bull Poop! No way, I am downloading the crack and playing it with the no-cd hack...

Piracy will always exist no matter what, so why make it a pain in the azz for your customers? Make it simple and let the pirates do what they do best, you can't stop them and in doing so create many pissed off legimate customers.

 

[PseudoKnight]

- There are mirrors -- numerous (48 from Valve alone) and regional.
- They are working on a another payment method. They held off on this until now because it was expensive to setup.
- The Friends network is being re-done. This is why it is down.
- CD protection is lame, yes, but blame the publishers who are often responsible for such mechanisms. Such is the case of Half-Life2.
- Steam is convenient for me. It's really easy to get a game downloaded onto my system. Just click and forget. You might not like it, but there are many who do.
- Patch downloads typically require username and passwords regardless of your source.

 

[eplebnista]

Originally posted by: RBachman
I don't have steam.

ditto

 

[BladeVenom]

Like many others, Steam is why I wouldn't buy HL2.

What happens to all your games when Valve goes out of business, or gets bought out? If you have been playing games any length of time you know publishers, and developers have the the lifespan of mayflies. My book cases are littered with games from publishers and developers who are no longer around.

 

[PseudoKnight]

What happens to all your games when Valve goes out of business, or gets bought out?

Ignorance isn't an excuse to run away from Steam. VALVe has covered this issue already. They've stated repeatedly that they would unlock the game and make it useable without the Steam network if they were to go out of business or whatever. However, the chances of this are increasingly slim. They're making enough money to finance their own games and then some. They'd have to create two major duds in a row to even feel the heat and they'd still have the foundation of HL and HL2 (including CS, DOD, TF, etc) to rest on.

 

[Malak]

Originally posted by: archcommus
1) It's called offline mode. Your argument is pointless when you ignore things that make you wrong.

2) It is not that bloated. Check out the memory usage yourself. And it does not slow your game down any noticeable amount. Think otherwise? Then show me benches with and without Steam.

1. Offline mode requires you to be online regardless, and it isn't permanent. This is not a solution for people without the internet.

2. It is bloated, and there are benchmarks out there showing that the loading times were drastically affected by Steam for reasons nobody knew. 1 minute load times turned to 3 second load times in the benchmarks. Steam was proven to be bloated shortly after HL2 came out, maybe YOU need to go do some research. There's a reason why many people make these accusations.

 

[JBT]

I think Steam is a great system. Most other games are annoying with CD/DVD's. With Steam I don't have to even bother making miniDVD's or anything. I have also never had any trouble with it so that might be why I like it so much.