Steam & Non-Steam

[nwotnawa]

My friend has always been talking about steam and non-steam, but i never understand a bit about it.

Fucntion ?

Why i need it ?

versitality ?

makes games faster ?

What is steam or non-steam and why do people use it ?

Please help.

 

[brblx]

really?

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=steam

 

[nwotnawa]

Thanks man.

 

[Chriscross3234]

Steam is basically a gaming client that allows you to purchase, download, and play games. The biggest reason for using steam is for pure convenience sake. No install process, no managing discs, automatic updating/patching. Steam also provides a community system with friends and gaming groups. Steam doesn't make your games faster by any means, it just provides you with a way of playing your games. Unless you like owning the physical copy of games, there is no reason not to use it.

 

[Udgnim]

it's a matter of convenience

being able to DL a game versus either ordering through an online store and paying shipping/tax or going to a physical store & paying for tax/gas

with steam, you no longer have to worry about losing CD keys, game discs, etc

I believe steam also does away with any DRM a game might normally come with if bought in box form.

one con I've experienced is that if a game downloaded from Steam doesn't work you are SOL. an example is I bought GTA San Andreas off of Steam and I can't get it to work. Steam's policy is no returns. I've bought several games off of Steam no problem, so it's an unfortunate fluke but still a risk.

another con is that if you like stuff like game manuals & possibly other stuff that might come along in a game box, you won't get that when purchased off of Steam

 

[damocles]

I use Steam a lot and like it. One problem I encountered the other day was my internet crashed and I couldnt play anything. There may be a simple way around this though.

 

[Inspector Jihad]

Text

 

[PuppettMaster001]

Originally posted by: damocles
I use Steam a lot and like it. One problem I encountered the other day was my internet crashed and I couldnt play anything. There may be a simple way around this though.

I've found that the offline mode works great for situations like that (I had crappy Comcast for a while).

 

[JTsyo]

Originally posted by: Chriscross3234
Steam is basically a gaming client that allows you to purchase, download, and play games. The biggest reason for using steam is for pure convenience sake. No install process, no managing discs, automatic updating/patching. Steam also provides a community system with friends and gaming groups. Steam doesn't make your games faster by any means, it just provides you with a way of playing your games. Unless you like owning the physical copy of games, there is no reason not to use it.

well there is the option to defrag just the game files, that might help a bit. I like adding non-steam games to it just so my friends can join be if they want to.

 

[nakedfrog]

The only reason I have Steam is to take advantage of their awesome weekend sales. BioShock for $5, Assassin's Creed for $10, HOMMV and both expansions for $13, etc...
That and TF2 is one of our LAN party games.

 

[nitromullet]

I use Steam, but if a game on Steam is available elsewhere for the same price I always choose the non-Steam option.

IMO, I prefer a retail disk or Direct2Drive for digital distribution. For UbiSoft games, actually DL'ing games straight from them isn't bad either.

- D2D also has diskless play.
- I don't have to have an additional client or have login to anything extra to play - no stupid Steam update advertisement every time I want to play.
- Games are installed to their standard locations on my PC instead of the Steam sub-folder, so the NVIDIA driver detects them properly. Why NV hasn't figured this on out yet is beyond me.
- My games are not managed by or tied to an account. If you ever have an issue with a single Steam game, you just might have issues with all of your Steam games... With D2D you can buy all of your games with a different account if you like. You can do this with Steam too, but you have to log into different accts to play different games.
- Valve has shite customer service

Valve does two things really well: they make great games and they make a lot of money

The first is true because they are a top notch development studio with good ideas, bright programmers, and an eye for detail. I can't think if a bad Valve game.

The second is true in part because they make great games, but it is also true because they have developed a draconian DRM system, placed very little service/support behind it, and somehow convinced people it was "good" for the customer.

 

[Onita]

I use steam 90% of the time, mostly for convenience. I have plenty of games where I'm missing 1 install disc, so they are useless :\. I never sell games, so having the physical disc for resale is irrelevant.

 

[reallyscrued]

The simplest extras seem to the be ones overlooked.

Steam has a buddylist you can Shift + Tab into and chat with your friends while your maps are loading or you're looking around in a server browser. Seriously this is the most convenient feature ever. Ever use Blizzard's Battle.NET?

Either way, steam doesn't bite and its worth giving it a try. Here are some links that can most likely get you started:

http://www.steampowered.com/ati_offer1a/

http://www.steampowered.com/nvidia/


My honest opinion though, if you can buy the actual physical disc version for the same price, but the physical game. You can resell it. This is a plus for me.

If the steam download for the full game is cheaper, then its a no brainer.