Is Steam becoming the main way for pc game distribution?

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calyco

Senior member
Oct 7, 2004
825
1
81
Steam is OK, very convenient to purchase and download games. Only thing I dont like is having always to run the app just to play a game, especially for singleplayer its gets annoying. But for MP I do like the auto updates and not having to search for patches.
 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
4,914
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I don't think Steam is going to become a viable replacement for regular media until they can reliably keep their servers up and running, so that customers can actually play the games that they've purchased the way they were meant to be played...
 

Joemonkey

Diamond Member
Mar 3, 2001
8,859
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Originally posted by: AmberClad
I don't think Steam is going to become a viable replacement for regular media until they can reliably keep their servers up and running, so that customers can actually play the games that they've purchased the way they were meant to be played...

tell me about it! trying to get some L4D in tonight and the damn servers are down
 

AmberClad

Diamond Member
Jul 23, 2005
4,914
0
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Originally posted by: Joemonkey
Originally posted by: AmberClad
I don't think Steam is going to become a viable replacement for regular media until they can reliably keep their servers up and running, so that customers can actually play the games that they've purchased the way they were meant to be played...

tell me about it! trying to get some L4D in tonight and the damn servers are down
Heh, yeah, that post was basically my circuitous way of ranting that this is the second extended Steam server outage in the past two weeks (the first one affected the Steam Store), and that L4D is unplayable except with the braindead bots.
 

Canai

Diamond Member
Oct 4, 2006
8,016
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Originally posted by: Joemonkey
yet i can still play TF2 without issue...

Due to Valve's UNFUCKINGBELIEVABLY dumb matchmaking service. See my drunken rant post from when the game went live for more on how I feel about the idiotic, stupid, dumb, silly, WTF-were-they-thinking?!?! decision to use the matchmaking. I can't even connect to a dedi on my own machine!
 

nerp

Diamond Member
Dec 31, 2005
9,865
105
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Steam store busted tonight. Wanted to buy GTAIV. Couldn't. First time I've ever had a problem like this happen. Oh well. I once drove three hours to get to an Egghead Software for a copy of the original Simcity for PC and all they had was the c64 version. That was a lot more inconvenient.
 

zerogear

Diamond Member
Jun 4, 2000
5,611
9
81
same, i don't buy from steam unless its discounted. No reason for digital distribution to cost the same as boxed copies. If I have to pay the same, I rather have the packaging.
 

Onita

Golden Member
Feb 24, 2004
1,158
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I prefer steam. I don't need boxes/cds as I'll lose or scratch them anyways. If Steam is comparably priced to B&M, I'll buy from Steam.
 

Red Storm

Lifer
Oct 2, 2005
14,233
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Originally posted by: rpkelly
I prefer steam. I don't need boxes/cds as I'll lose or scratch them anyways. If Steam is comparably priced to B&M, I'll buy from Steam.

Agreed. It used to mean something when games shipped with big boxes and nice, thick manuals plus any other extra content. Now these are relegated to "Collector Editions" for vastly increased prices, so I've lost all interest in obtaining physical copies and packaging.

I'll take the flexibility and ease of use of online buying then downloading over B&M stores every time now.
 

Genx87

Lifer
Apr 8, 2002
41,091
513
126
For me yes. I am not going to buy games that dont come out on Steam. Too many discs lost or scratched for me.
 

4537256

Senior member
Nov 30, 2008
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pretty irrisponsable to have lost or scratched disks. no execuses for that, i still have all my segaCD disks and packages and like new.
 

Born2bwire

Diamond Member
Oct 28, 2005
9,840
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71
Originally posted by: 4537256
pretty irrisponsable to have lost or scratched disks. no execuses for that, i still have all my segaCD disks and packages and like new.

That's nice but I'm not really into Pokemon.
 

idiotekniQues

Platinum Member
Jan 4, 2007
2,572
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Originally posted by: Born2bwire
Originally posted by: 4537256
pretty irrisponsable to have lost or scratched disks. no execuses for that, i still have all my segaCD disks and packages and like new.

That's nice but I'm not really into Pokemon.

lol

isnt it irresponsible to not be able to spell 2 words out of 2 sentences also? we should let him know