Steam vs. CD/DVD game purchase?

[mindcycle]

Steam will also not allow you to install games on more then one hard drive.

Yeah! I forgot about this. I bought Fear 2 awhile back and it wanted me to install the game to my C drive even though I have a separate HD for games that I wanted to install to. Completely negates the reason for owning a separate HD for games if you can only install to the HD Steam is setup on. I would have changed the install path but already had HL2 installed and it wasn't worth the hassle IMO.

Seriously, Steam DRM is kind of ridiculous.

 

[nitromullet]

This may be a minor point, but Steam doesn't allow you to re-name executables. If you have an NVIDIA card, it's no big deal because you can just use nHancer and add the executable manually to a profile, however, with an ATI card sometimes changing the name of the executable is the only way to get features (AA, Crossfire) working until the next Cats come out.

Borderlands was an example of this. Changing the executable to Bioshock.exe was the only way to get AA working on my 5870 when it first came out. I bought the game via D2D so I had no issues, but Steam ATI users were out of luck.

I've also seen threads about people concerned about getting banned by VAC for forcing Eyefinity on MW2. Apparently, MW2 doesn't support Eyefinity out of the box, and a third party app has to be run after MW2 is launched (every time) to swap out some data in memory that enables Eyefinity to work with MW2. The concern is that VAC will detect this as a cheat. Valve (of course) is keeping silent on what apps are black/white listed in VAC. http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1040581

...granted, this isn't specific to MW2 purchased via Steam because all copies of MW2 use Steamworks/VAC.

All-in-all, Steam provides a solid service IMO. You just have to understand that it is the software equivalent of a snack machine... You can get some tasty games, but if your chips get stuck your options are to either leave a note and hope for the best, or rock the machine back-and-forth and risk it falling on top of you and crushing your skull.

 

[pontifex]

I would prefer the retail version but when you live almost an hour from the nearest store that sells games, STEAM is wonderful. plus not having to store/keep track of your CDs is great too.

 

[Mike Gayner]

I would prefer the retail version but when you live almost an hour from the nearest store that sells games, STEAM is wonderful. plus not having to store/keep track of your CDs is great too.

People still go to a store to buy their games? Do you have the internet where you're from?

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

Yeah! I forgot about this. I bought Fear 2 awhile back and it wanted me to install the game to my C drive even though I have a separate HD for games that I wanted to install to. Completely negates the reason for owning a separate HD for games if you can only install to the HD Steam is setup on. I would have changed the install path but already had HL2 installed and it wasn't worth the hassle IMO.

Seriously, Steam DRM is kind of ridiculous.

You know, it's really not that hard at all. At most, it's reinstall the Steam client, then copy over the steam folders.


At any rate, pricing, availability and the lack of optical media are huge benefits. As they've just clearly demonstrated, there are good deals to be had on steam. Availability is more of an issue then some of us would admit, seeing as your typical electronics store aren't dedicating a whole lot of inventory to the PC.

And you know, not having to go looking for a disc anytime I want to play a game is much, much more significant then I would've really expected. In my case, I've directly benefitted - my copy of Dark Messiah of M&M's disc got damaged. But it just happened to be one of the few that you could activate a retail copy of on steam.

 

[runzwithsizorz]

Thanks again for the input. I usually buy games online and wait until the price goes down (rarely buy games when they first come out). All the information gives me a good idea which way I'll go. I will buy a game or two from Steam and see how I like it. I guess I'm still old fashioned enough to actually want to have the physical product in hand when I buy something. Thanks again for the info

 

[Zenoth]

The only real disadvantage of Steam, for me, is that none of the games we buy from it can be sold nor refunded, the rest are all advantages. I've been using Steam since its very beginning (I was using WON prior to it) and I can barely remember the very few number of issues I've had so far none of which were anything dramatic and were always resolved in a matter of a few hours or perhaps one or two days at most, the only "big" issue I can still remember by heart is that time when the entire Steam network (I think) went down when there was a storm at the city where all of Valve's servers were located (back then that is, on the West Coast I think it was, I think it was at Seattle mostly).

And so due to that storm there was a major power outage and Steam just wouldn't connect on-line at all for anyone, and that was back when Steam absolutely needed to connect on-line before going into off-line mode, and that has been resolved since then, now it IS possible to go directly off-line IF Steam does not detect any on-line connections upon launching (contrarily to what someone else said in this thread). But, honestly, other than that storm, I can't really remember anything "major" or worth even mentioning, only minor things and most of them relate to in-game bugs rather than Steam-related issues.

 

[Larries]

Several major disadvantages to me:

1. Manuals! They are in pdf formats (thats obvious because it is digital download). But when you are playing complex games (like Hearts of Iron), you really want to have a hard copy manual with you. Purchasing through Steam means you will need to print them out yourself, bind them properly, just so you can RTFM anytime you want.

2. Patches! You are at the mercy of the developer. Not all developer will make all patches available to Steam client. I had two games stuck with old clients because even though the developer had newer patches, they did not put the new patches to steam client

3. Price... for some reason, the retail price of most games in Steam is actually higher than what I could get in the local game stores. Only when Steam is offering massive discount (25%+) when the Steam price is lower. And no, the local game stores sell geniune copies, not pirated copies. And the boxed version come with a proper manual too.

But heavily discounted Steam prices (e.g. <usd10 for hearts of iron iii, usd5 for mass effect!) are hard to beat.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

How could you sell a digital copy of a game? It doesn't matter if it's used since it would be the exact same value as what you would buy from steam and you could sell games back and forth between your friends and never buy more than one copy.

 

[Mike Gayner]

2. Patches! You are at the mercy of the developer. Not all developer will make all patches available to Steam client. I had two games stuck with old clients because even though the developer had newer patches, they did not put the new patches to steam client

Yes, this has been a huge problem with some titles.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Yeah! I forgot about this. I bought Fear 2 awhile back and it wanted me to install the game to my C drive even though I have a separate HD for games that I wanted to install to. Completely negates the reason for owning a separate HD for games if you can only install to the HD Steam is setup on. I would have changed the install path but already had HL2 installed and it wasn't worth the hassle IMO.

Seriously, Steam DRM is kind of ridiculous.

If you install Steam on your "Games" drive, it will install games there. You just can't install Steam on C and have purchased games go on D. But you should be able to copy your entire Steam directory even post-install.

 

[sourceninja]

I only use steam to purchase their deals and won't spend more than $5 on any game. Because of that, I don't mind the DRM associated with it or care if Steam goes belly up a year from now and I lose the entire $30 I've spent on their games.

To be honest I actually really like Steam, but I would never consider blowing $50 on a game like Dragons Age or any other single player game on Steam. Spending $5 for Team Fortress 2 or Left 4 Dead? I wouldn't bother going to the store to buy that but would buy and download it instantly on Steam.

Exactly

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

2. Patches! You are at the mercy of the developer. Not all developer will make all patches available to Steam client. I had two games stuck with old clients because even though the developer had newer patches, they did not put the new patches to steam client

I hadn't heard of this one. Are you able to manually patch, or does that break things?

 

[Zenoth]

I hadn't heard of this one. Are you able to manually patch, or does that break things?

It's possible to manually patch most of the games contained within the "common" folder (any Non-Valve games, basically). Not all games will work if that is done, but most will, and when one does patch a game in there manually then the risk is that if the "Steam patch" for it is eventually released then the game will try to automatically update if the user leave the automatic update option activated.

If that happens then there's two possibilities, either it patches up and it screws up some files in the process, or it just doesn't patch at all. In the end the worst case scenario will require the user to simply un-install and then re-install the game completely. I for one patched only one game in my common folder manually (Gratuitous Space Battles), but since a few versions the developer sends a version to Valve so that the Steam version automatically updates usually the day after the "normal" patch is released.

It can sometimes be an issue, but is quite rare and most of the games affected by old, non-updated Steam clients (even though the retail version was updated to a newer version) are not very popular ones, but I would understand the frustration if there's anyone out there owning any of those games, there's an unofficial list of the "non-updated" Steam games on the official Steam forums somewhere, I'll try to find it and edit my post with the link.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

I'm not trying to downplay the negatives.

With all due respect, that's exactly what you're doing. If you say, "This is not a problem unique to Steam," you are downplaying the problem. Argumentum ad populum. Just because suppression of resale is an issue endemic to digital distribution platforms doesn't mean it's not an issue -- it impacts previously clear consumer rights. Disregarding the legality, ethics, and technical challenges surrounding this, it's still an obvious point against Steam.

I'm just trying to say we should worry more about playing the games than whether we will be able to play them at some arbitrary time down the road. Regardless of how you see it, buying software is about consumption and not about investment. As fun as it is, this hobby is a money pit and trying to justify it as anything but is silly. That is all. I'm all about enjoying my hobby, not declaring every roadblock as a stumbling block to happiness. If that means I'm more for Steam than against it, then so be it.

I agree to an extent, which is why I do use and enjoy Steam for some things, but what it sounds like you're saying is that we shouldn't care about having value stripped from entertainment or hobby purchases -- and with that, I disagree strongly.

As to predicting the life of Windows, I made no such claim. I'm claiming, as many studies have shown, that x86 is a tired platform that will eventually be replaced with something more efficient and more capable.

Strawman. The point isn't whether x86 will remain an active platform forever or even if it will outlive Steam (which I'm certain you can't predict, despite your claims). It's that Steam represents a single point of failure because its utility depends on ongoing support from a single company.

Anecdotally, I have several physical copies of Windows and a bunch of games. I'm confident that I will probably have access to hardware that can run these things until the day I die. But software companies come and go, and despite Steam's (and Valve's) increasing success in the present, I can't say with the same confidence that its servers will always be around and that the games I've purchased there will have the same longevity. That decreases its value for me, whether or not I actually want to play Torchlight when I'm 80.

We've ran into each other before, and its obvious you have strong views about physical software ownership and end user rights, whereas I am much more on the side of property rights and software authorship. We can just agree to disagree.

I'm fine with that, as long as you don't misrepresent or distort the facts about the shortcomings of this platform -- none of which I described as an outright dealbreaker, you might note. The OP asked for pros & cons and got them.

 

[pontifex]

People still go to a store to buy their games? Do you have the internet where you're from?

huh? I buy most games online, like through STEAM. Sometimes I'll buy from a B&M store or order through Amazon or something.

STEAM is good if you don't want to wait for shipping either.

No, I don't have internet where I'm from. I'm controlling you with my mind so actually you are typing this message!

 

[Larries]

I hadn't heard of this one. Are you able to manually patch, or does that break things?

I tried applying a patch on Baseball Mongul 2008 (to improve some AI) that I purchased through Steam, but the game simply won't let me do so (I think I tried to patch it through an ingame function - it was over an year ago).

Also, the steam client version of Hearts of Iron III seems bugged. Everytime I tried to open the tutorial, the game crashes. Read on Gamespot that this happens only if you have the Steam client version. Don't have time to search for a patch yet, but these little things (together with needing to print the manual out to learn how to play the game) do get annoying.

But then, a major plus with Steam that others haven't seem to mention is that Steam do carry a large number of titles, especially many older or less popular titles. E.g. it is hard to find Baseball Mongul 2008 (not popular enough) or KOTOR (too old) in any local store, but you can find them in Steam.

 

[Rebel44]

.......
Also, the steam client version of Hearts of Iron III seems bugged. Everytime I tried to open the tutorial, the game crashes. Read on Gamespot that this happens only if you have the Steam client version. Don't have time to search for a patch yet, but these little things (together with needing to print the manual out to learn how to play the game) do get annoying.

But then, a major plus with Steam that others haven't seem to mention is that Steam do carry a large number of titles, especially many older or less popular titles. E.g. it is hard to find Baseball Mongul 2008 (not popular enough) or KOTOR (too old) in any local store, but you can find them in Steam.

I created fix for Steam version of HoI3. Go here:
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?t=443295
-you have to have account there and register your CD key to that account to have access to Tech Support.
-Its also possible to use regular update to patch Steam version of game, but its not as easy.

This problem didnt exist in 1.1c and 1.2 versions of game and likely shouldnt exist in 1.4 (which is AFAIK in closed beta ATM).

 

[Udgnim]

if I purchase a game on Steam, it's because its cost is significantly lower than what a box copy would cost, otherwise, I'll almost always opt for the box version.

also, a potential con to Steam is that a game just might not work once downloaded. I currently have 9 games installed via Steam and have no problem running them, but I've DLed GTA: San Andreas multiple times through Steam and the game simply does not start up for me.

 

[Rezident]

I had problems with Steam in the very beginning but now it just works flawlessly (almost) all the time. I have been totally converted from hating Steam to thinking it's actually quite brilliant. It just works.

Games For Windows Live, on the other hand, oh dear oh dear, what a disaster. It makes me appreciate how good Steam really must be.

 

[pontifex]

Don't forget that your Steam account can be locked at any time for any reason, rendering all the games you have bought through steam (or one time registration code for retail) useless. I have not heard of this happening, but keep it in mind. Part of the reason I only buy cheap or MP only games through Steam if I can help it.

Steam will also not allow you to install games on more then one hard drive.

Do you mean PC or more than 1 hard drive in a pc? I don't know why you would want to install a game on more than 1 hard drive...

 

[ZzZGuy]

Do you mean PC or more than 1 hard drive in a pc? I don't know why you would want to install a game on more than 1 hard drive...

Really? I mean really? You can't think up a reason why someone would want to do this?

Anyway, Steam will only install games onto the hard drive Steam itself is installed on.

 

[CoinOperatedBoy]

Really? I mean really? You can't think up a reason why someone would want to do this?

Anyway, Steam will only install games onto the hard drive Steam itself is installed on.

It sounds like pontifex interpreted your post to mean you wanted to install a single game on multiple drives. I assume you actually meant you'd like to install Steam on one drive and then have the option to choose a separate installation path for purchased games.

 

[badnewcastle]

It sounds like pontifex interpreted your post to mean you wanted to install a single game on multiple drives. I assume you actually meant you'd like to install Steam on one drive and then have the option to choose a separate installation path for purchased games.

You can do this... For some reason I was able to do it. I did it on accident during a re-install of the W7. I copied the steam folder to a secondary drive on my system along with all my documents etc... After reinstalling I thought I had moved the Steam folder back to the same drive as my OS but I didn't. I then proceeded to install Steam client and it found all my games as usual. It wasn't until a week later that I noticed all the games were on my secondary drive instead of my main drive.

Based on what happened, you could probably move Steam folder to whatever drive you want. Then uninstall team then reinstall it on your main drive. Then Steam will install and have all your games on the secondary driver while the client runs on the primary.

I have no idea why you would want to do this. I have a everything on one main drive and keep a copy of my steam folder and other folders as back ups on the secondary drive just in case something happens to the primary. It does let me keep the steam folder, thus all the games on 2 drives, though I only have 1 steam client installed.

I have 50+ games and been buying games from steam since 2004 I can't remember but it's been installed flawlessly on 3 different systems and probably an average of 5 reinstalls on each machine.

So far it's been extremely stable and easy to move from computer to computer as I upgrade. Oh and the sales rock!