Steam: Invasive crap software

[StinkyPinky]

Yesterday, Steam decided to no longer start, which also meant Skyrim and other games would not start. When clicking Steam, nothing happened. I tried several things, but nothing helped. The log file just read " ReconnectThread (####) Starting", no error messages or anything.

I was eventually forced to uninstall and re-install the client. Then I had to re-download every single game....
At least it's downloading at around 9MB/s now, vs just 300KB/s when I downloaded Skyrim at launch. They must have upgraded their servers.

?? Next time backup your Steam Apps folder. No need to download all your games again.

 

[Nebor]

?? Next time backup your Steam Apps folder. No need to download all your games again.

Yeah.... I haven't redownloaded any steam games in years. Just back them up periodically.

 

[gothamhunter]

Not being able to play games you "bought", since you can't get into offline mode because it requires you to be online... NOT AWESOME!!

I don't understand the issue here. If you can't go online AT ALL, as in you don't have the Internet, then don't buy the game; they tell you if it requires it or not right on the package. If you're able to go online, then you can go in offline mode.

Pirates who didn't buy a damn thing, yet they can play the game any time they want... NOT AWESOME!!

How this Steam's fault? I again don't understand.

Steam going bust, and now, all those games you "bought" are worthless... NOT AWESOME!!

I highly doubt this happening. Valve has also stated in an interview once that if that somehow happens, all games you have purchased will be available. Steam would basically revert to a permanent "offline mode". But seriously, do you see them going bust? Even if they do, I'm sure someone would be willing to buy their service up immediately.

Someone hijacks your account, and now you lost all your games that you "bought" while steam looks into this... NOT AWESOME!!

SteamGuard prevents this very well. The only possibility of you being hijacked is if it's your fault or if they get a hold of your email account as well (and you have bigger issues at this point)

Reinstalling a game that steam backed up for you, and not being able to play it, even if you are in offline mode... NOT AWESOME!!

See #1 response. This is not a valid issue.

You got on steam's bad side and posted something you shouldn't have in the forums, and now you and all your games are banned and you end up with nadda... NOT AWESOME!!

This doesn't happen; they are separate services. Stop making things up.


Face it, steam is a glorified rental service, true, it does have advantages, and most of the time it does work well, but at times when you don't have a reliable ISP, or something happens to your account, or piss off steam in another way, then you can never play the software you rented--even though, most people think they just bought it.

Stupid, non-sensible rant.

Then of course, we got steam DRM on top of more DRM on top of yet even more DRM that some publishers do, which is really fun, especially if each of those requires you to be online at some point. If steam wanted to, they could stop this, but they don't really care, since they just blame the publisher.

How can Steam tell a publisher to get rid of their DRM? Please tell me that process.

Direct2Drive, Steam, Origin, Ubisoft all treat paying customers like they were criminals, and if any other provider of a service did the same to you, you can bet people would be in the streets yelling at how they are being treated. However, with software, it is OK, since everyone is a pirate, right ?


This makes no sense.

See responses.

tldr: your rant sucks. Try harder next time.

 

[JD50]

1. Everything I posted was factual.

2. I didn't get 'upset' with people who disagree. It's an internet forum, and you know what they say about opinions.

3. The problem is the number of people who are willing to close their eyes and ignore the problems. I'm happy Steam fills a nitch as a digital distribution source. That's great. It's also fairly buggy, is invasive (monitoring and ads), has connection issues, and does some annoying things.

The real problem here, as a number of others have pointed out, is people like you who start name calling and can't be bothered to see both sides of the same coin.

If you wonder why people are automatically defensive, just start with the title of this thread. What did you expect with such a trolling title?

 

[Pulsar]

If you wonder why people are automatically defensive, just start with the title of this thread. What did you expect with such a trolling title?

Eh? I had no idea so many people here were that personally invested in a buggy electronic content delivery system.

 

[JD50]

Eh? I had no idea so many people here were that personally invested in a buggy electronic content delivery system.

Really? You didn't know that people are fans of software companies, video game companies, etc...? Are you new to the internet?

 

[irishScott]

Eh? I had no idea so many people here were that personally invested in a buggy electronic content delivery system.

Nothing to do with personal investment, Steam works. Always has for me. You like facts? There's one. It's buggy for you because you have borderline obsolete internet.

 

[rchiu]

Eh? I had no idea so many people here were that personally invested in a buggy electronic content delivery system.

Well your buggy electronic content delivery system achieved the following: (quote from wiki)

Sales figures for Steam have not been released by Valve. However, Stardock, the previous owner of competing platform Impulse, estimated that, as of 2009, Steam had a 70% share of the digital distribution market for video games.[67] In early 2011, Forbes reported that Steam sales constituted 50 to 70% of the $4 billion market for downloaded PC games and that Steam offered game producers gross margins of 70% of purchase price, compared with 30% at retail.[68]

Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale sold more than 140,000 units, which its localization distributor, Carpe Fulgur, attribute in part to Steam and its sales.[69] Magicka sold 30,000 copies on its day of release in January 2011,[70] and went on to sell 200,000 in 17 days.[71] Garry's Mod sold 312,541 in its first two years[72] and reached 1,000,000 after five years[73] with yearly sales growth of 33%.[74].

In November 2011, it was revealed by the developer of The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings that Steam was responsible for 80% of the online sales of the game[75].

-----

In summary, Steam is good for game producers, good for customer (at least millions of us who are happy customers), good for Indies that otherwise won't be offered in the expensive retail market distribution, and good for the overall industry. More profit, more sales for the gaming companies means more games, better games for the rest of us.

You can nitpick all you want, but you don't matter in the scheme of things. The industry has moved on to Internet/electronic distribution and the Steam is by far the best, most stable company out there.

 

[Elixer]

See responses.

tldr: your rant sucks. Try harder next time.

lol, whatever.

The point is, if you normally have no issues, but the one time you have ISP issues, you can't play any of your games that are already "bought" & installed on steam.
It will not let you. End of story.

Steam is just a DRM wrapper, that all paying customers have to deal with.
Those that don't pay can play the game anytime they want, and then publishers wonder why people don't buy their games?
Look at how these guys treat their customers:

CD Projekt has been a vocal advocate of releasing games without digital rights management, saying it is easy to circumvent and ends up punishing legitimate customers. Good 'Ol Games, the publisher's DRM-free digital storefront, appears to be doing well, but Iwinski doesn't see the industry moving away from copy-protection schemes.

"As funny as this might sound, DRM is the best explanation [for big publishers], the best 'I will cover my a**' thing," Iwinski said. "I strongly believe that this is the main reason the industry has not abandoned it until today, and to be frank, this annoys me a hell of a lot. You are asking, 'So why is it taking so long for them to listen?' The answer is very simple: They do not listen, as most of them do not care. As long as the numbers in Excel will add up, they will not change anything

You buy the publisher's line that he is talking about, hook, line, and sinker.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Not that people refuse to acknowledge there can be connection issue,

what people are telling you is that there are work around that works with majority of people.

Why do you set up offline mode only when you have connection issue? I pretty much setup up offline mode permanently until I want to download games/update. Once I am done with new game download/update, I immediately switch back to offline mode. I have been in offline mode in probably over a month already. No issue, no request to relogin/reconnect. Works perfectly for me with fairly unstable Internet connection.

The thing is, there are bunch of people complain about this and that but never bother to read instruction on how things work or think about/read around the forum on how things can work better for them. They rather yap yap and yap instead of just find a solution and enjoy the game.

I am not saying you are one of them, but look at how many posters in this thread stubbornly insist that the only reason that the OP had connection issues was because he had poor internet, and insist that you will not have connection issues if you have a good internet. I have 7.5mb/s DSL internet and have had connection issues with Steam, especially after they instituted their new login/verification scheme. So it can happen.
And by the way, it took 3 days for steam to answer my help e-mail, and they sent me a canned response that was totally irrelevant to the problem that I described.

 

[TheRealMrGrey]

The OP has a legitimate gripe on the merits - he/she is not a troll. If you buy a single-player, off-line game you should be able to play it if you install it - end of story. You paid for it.

The OP bought an off-line game likely *because* he/she has a crappy internet connection - the OP has stated he/she cannot obtain better. Yet somehow people here are insulting him/her because of this - are you all working for Bethesda trolling the forums to insult anyone who points out how utterly asinine it is to make paying customers deal with some random 3rd party software?

Steam is not stopping anyone from stealing - I know people who are playing pirated copies, post-patch.

Why aren't the admins of Anandtech policing this thread to stop the kind of abuse taking place? There are lots of people who do not use Steam and do not know it's various quirks - that doesn't mean they are some brain-dead low-life. Yet the community here seems to have nothing better to do than insult people for not wasting their time learning the ins and outs of every fan-boy piece of software. People have better things to do - like *playing* the games that they paid *real money* for.

 

[StinkyPinky]

The OP has a legitimate gripe on the merits - he/she is not a troll. If you buy a single-player, off-line game you should be able to play it if you install it - end of story. You paid for it.

The OP bought an off-line game likely *because* he/she has a crappy internet connection - the OP has stated he/she cannot obtain better. Yet somehow people here are insulting him/her because of this - are you all working for Bethesda trolling the forums to insult anyone who points out how utterly asinine it is to make paying customers deal with some random 3rd party software?

Steam is not stopping anyone from stealing - I know people who are playing pirated copies, post-patch.

Why aren't the admins of Anandtech policing this thread to stop the kind of abuse taking place? There are lots of people who do not use Steam and do not know it's various quirks - that doesn't mean they are some brain-dead low-life. Yet the community here seems to have nothing better to do than insult people for not wasting their time learning the ins and outs of every fan-boy piece of software. People have better things to do - like *playing* the games that they paid *real money* for.

I think people would be a lot more sympathetic if his original rant actually was correct. Rather he did zero research and most of his points he made are actually incorrect. Like after the initial activation he never even needs the internet ever again. Or that the amazon website does actually state it needs steam

Nothing fan boyish about it. He didn't do his homework and got burned. Reminds me of those people that buy games like Skyrim and rant out when it doesn't run on their mac.

 

[Wardawg1001]

The OP has a legitimate gripe on the merits - he/she is not a troll. If you buy a single-player, off-line game you should be able to play it if you install it - end of story. You paid for it.

The OP bought an off-line game likely *because* he/she has a crappy internet connection - the OP has stated he/she cannot obtain better. Yet somehow people here are insulting him/her because of this - are you all working for Bethesda trolling the forums to insult anyone who points out how utterly asinine it is to make paying customers deal with some random 3rd party software?

Steam is not stopping anyone from stealing - I know people who are playing pirated copies, post-patch.

Why aren't the admins of Anandtech policing this thread to stop the kind of abuse taking place? There are lots of people who do not use Steam and do not know it's various quirks - that doesn't mean they are some brain-dead low-life. Yet the community here seems to have nothing better to do than insult people for not wasting their time learning the ins and outs of every fan-boy piece of software. People have better things to do - like *playing* the games that they paid *real money* for.

Since it somehow isn't clear to you, its not BECAUSE he dislikes Steam that he is being berated, its because of his attitude. If he wanted to learn about Steam, get advice on how to use Steam, figure out the tips and tricks to Steam, and he did so in a calm and respectful manner, he wouldn't have received anywhere near the amount of negative responses. I think hes getting what he deserves, and I imagine the mods do too (though they may have other reasons for not 'policing' this thread). When you make an offensive title to your thread and then fill it with angry, uninformed, belligerent content, this is the kind of response you get. It doesn't help that he still hasn't backed down from his position, and continues to act like Steam is some piece of shit software that was seemingly developed for the sole purpose of pissing him off, despite the numerous responses detailing the positive features and benefits of Steam.

 

[StinkyPinky]

In fact, his original complaint isn't legitimate AT ALL.

Let's break down his little rant

1) Steam needs an internet connection on at all times.

Incorrect. Only for the initial activation.

2) Steam takes ten minutes to log in

Incorrect. Clearly a problem on his end

3) Amazon didn't list it needs steam

Incorrect. It's clearly listed, plus even the most basic of research would show that it needs steam

4) Steam is a broken piece of crap

Incorrect. Never had a problem with it and I love it, as do many people.

 

[KaOTiK]

This thread just get better and better each time I check it

 

[Cyco]

Oh, and why do so many people check out KaOTiK's daily deals thread everyday at around 10am PST? Because sometimes the daily deal is worth it, and there's some kind of excitement that goes with it. That's in addition to his threads about mid-week deals and weekend deals. If Steam was the POS that the OP claims it is, I doubt anybody would care.

 

[dust]

WOW, the amount of people having a hard on about Steam is staggering.

 

[QaaQer]

The OP has a legitimate gripe on the merits - he/she is not a troll. If you buy a single-player, off-line game you should be able to play it if you install it - end of story. You paid for it.

Should be the case? sure. Is it? Nope.

Seriously, this is almost 2012. If someone hates online activation for single player games, the PC is the wrong platform. Get a PS3/Xbox/wii....

 

[Sulaco]

Should be the case? sure. Is it? Nope.

Seriously, this is almost 2012. If someone hates online activation for single player games, the PC is the wrong platform. Get a PS3/Xbox/wii....

...and even then, A LOT of console games now almost REQUIRE patches and updates to work correctly, or fix launch day bugs and glitches. Sure the game will "work", but will be bugged and flawed in many cases to be almost unplayable.

And try fixing/patching those problems with a dial-up connection.

 

[ImpulsE69]

I didn't realize patching games out of the box was a good thing these days. Especially on consoles. DLC must be the motherload then. Welcome to 2012, the future of gaming is here and they all rejoiced.

 

[cronos]

The OP has a legitimate gripe on the merits - he/she is not a troll.

I agree with your first statement, but I disagree with your second.

I think we've been trolled above and beyond, folks. In fact I'm embarrassed that I took part of this early on.

OP got us to fight each other about the advantages and disadvantages of Steam (both sides have good points, and we've done this before many times here), while his post was really more about his inability to read the game's requirements and his (mostly misplaced) hatred of Steam. All of the above with the troll-bait title and his posting attitude clearly showed that he was flat out trolling, and yet we fell for it.

Congrats OP. You win.

(I think it's time to lock this now, mods)

 

[Dranoche]

I love Steam. It irritated the hell out of me when it first launched, but it has been improved upon so much since. Automatic updates, everything in one library, high-profile games for dirt cheap during the big sales. It could have been GFWL that Skyrim required, so while requiring Steam may be irritating for somebody who doesn't use it, its infinitely better than the other common options we've seen in recent years.

As people have stated, the news can be turned off. But I don't see why it should be perceived as intrusive, even to a new user. You just installed a distribution service, its one of the ways they inform you of new games and deals, and the way it pops up is consistent. I don't recall any popups to inform me of time played, but I don't see how the recording of that information is a bad thing. It's nice to see what you've been getting for your money. Any depression from seeing how much time I've sunk into Borderlands and BFBC2 is quickly wiped away when I realize I've gotten dozens of hours of entertainment per dollar spent.

 

[CVSiN]

7 pages of this? wtf die in fire..

 

[lord_emperor]

Steam proves to be a massive headache to a legitimate customer and fanbois come out to defend Steam.

Pirates lawl as they play the same game with no asinine requirements.

Typical Steam-related thread.

 

[Nebor]

Steam has never caused me a headache. I literally won't purchase games anywhere else. It gives me a friends list that can overlay over my games with voice chat, syncs my save games to the cloud.... I could go on and on. I love Steam. It gives me a massive hard on, which I will use to murder you anti-steam infidels.