Originally posted by: apoppin
Here is what i see; and i touched on it in the other topic.
The steam guys talk the talk [i do mean gabe espcially], but they are mostly all talk - PR guys. Look how long it takes to get an Episode out of these guys - they admit they get story as their fans give them ideas. They are weak on delivery all throughout their company. Their engine is the most dated of all the popular ones - they give you quad core support - but who cares; a P4 can run Source.
They always talk about their community; but it is basically unchanged and there is little improvement overall for the huge bucks they rake in.
- i see the same deficiencies as before - slow service, long lines .. and they are slow to address them; they offer 3-day demos that take all weekend to D/L .. and it is not rare.
They *pretend* to listen to you.
- a real company with real customer service will show how it is properly done some day. i think they suck - they just have no competition
Some of Gabe Newell's speeches have hit a chord with gamers, but ultimately seemed a little hypocritical; I'll give you that. He's gone on at length about his opposition to DRM and the belief that game pricing should be lower. But then you look at Steam, which, as you've rightfully pointed out, is itself a fairly restrictive form of DRM, and see that the prices are often no better than retail channels (although the occasionally weekend deal goes a long way). One could argue that pressure from publishers who use Steam and from major retail companies has forced Steam to take these measures in order to exist and be successful, but it does call into question whether Newell makes these statements just to garner favor with the community. However, with these remarks it at least seems that he has a finger on the pulse of the gaming populace and knows what they want to hear. That could make him a wolf in sheep's clothing, but it's nice to know a big development house is at least listening, which is more than can be said for most.
The age of the Source engine does make one wonder if Valve is getting complacent in their success, but the fact that it has lasted this long (and still looks pretty good, to my eyes) just goes to show how Valve takes more than just a passing effort to put out quality products with longevity that appeal to real people. I haven't personally participated in any of the Steam free weekends, but my understanding is that players have the opportunity to preload the game prior to the allotted playtime. I guess it's a problem if they don't have the infrastructure to support the promotions they have, but it's hard to argue with a free trial.
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