What features would you like to see implemented in Steam?

[digitaldurandal]

I have a list of four that would make steam 10x better.

#1 Custom status/shoutout message:
Name - Anyone want to get an l4d2 group going?

Much better than messaging the whole friends list one by one

#2 Integrate other chat clients:
AIM on Steam chat and overlay - yes please!

#3 Achievements from other steam bought games listed and comparible through steam

GFWL and Bioware specifically

#4 Friends list comparison of achievements instead of just population and 1 to 1 comparison and also perhaps a "score" system, or even just a total listed of the number of achievements earned.

 

[Molondo]

Ability to turn of friends list while playing valve games.

 

[digitaldurandal]

You can set yourself to offline.

 

[Chaotic42]

I don't really care about any of the things you listed, but I'd like:

-Steam to not go down during prime gaming time as much
-Any games sold through Steam be guaranteed to work
-The ability to get a refund on games

Other than that, I can't think of anything that really bothers me about it.

 

[Zenoth]

I don't know... can't think of anything "practical" for pretty much everyone right now, I honestly really like Steam the way it is, minus the new imposed GUI, but I can live with that. If I had to "wish" something for Steam on a more subjective point of view I might opt for the possibility to customize our profile with many more options to make it more personalized. But other than that, perhaps the ability to get a refund like Chaotic42 mentioned but I don't see that happening in my life time.

 

[Martimus]

The ability to play games without a Steam client running in the background. If this happened, I would actually pay full price for games on Steam.

 

[Modular]

I'd like a fleshlight to be made available when I start to play a game.

 

[manimal]

To pay steam for MMos instead of the game companies and to never have to logon to GFWL EVER!

 

[KaOTiK]

A user rating system for games, be it 5 stars or 1-10. Only people who have the game tied to the Steam account can actually rate it. There are gems out there that have low scores or people simply overlook and then there is trash out there with high scores.

 

[GhettoFob]

A user rating system for games, be it 5 stars or 1-10. Only people who have the game tied to the Steam account can actually rate it. There are gems out there that have low scores or people simply overlook and then there is trash out there with high scores.

I like that idea.

 

[DarkForceRising]

Download management settings, much like torrent programs have. Queuing, scheduling, bandwidth limits, etc.

 

[KeithP]

The ability to transfer a game to another account so I could sell it if I wanted to. Also, any game they sell should work on modern operating systems without major issues. Meaning, they shouldn't see old games unless they have been patched to work with XP, Vista and 7.

-Keith

 

[Lonyo]

To be able to login to the same account on more than one computer at the same time and be able to play different games on each account login. At the same time, including online play.

 

[spaceman]

The ability to transfer a game to another account so I could sell it if I wanted to. Also, any game they sell should work on modern operating systems without major issues. Meaning, they shouldn't see old games unless they have been patched to work with XP, Vista and 7.

-Keith

at the least the ability to gift games to other accounts from your own.

 

[shortylickens]

If I buy it off of Steam, I want it to WORK from fucking Steam. Having to use GFWL or YuPlay or Gamespy completely defeats the fucking purpose of having Steam.
Also, a much easier Offline mode. One that doesnt require me to log on once a day anyhow just to check if I'm an authorized user.

Fixes so the games they sell are actually playable. I am grateful for Hexen and Hexen II, but if I cant actually play them in Windows XP what the fuck is the purpose of selling them on Steam? The novelty? Knowing I have the code to a game that wont work unless I transfer it to a Win95 system?
Why have it?

As other folks have said, the ability to sell back a game or sell to someone else.
But since the whole idea behind Steam is to sell you ones and zeros (basically free money for them) I doubt that will ever happen. I am sure they'd see a drop in new sales if they allowed transferring.

 

[digitaldurandal]

Download management settings, much like torrent programs have. Queuing, scheduling, bandwidth limits, etc.

Yes! Steam rapes my bandwidth to the max.

 

[homercles337]

No more 3rd party DRM. If i buy a game on Steam i want Steam to be the DRM. Not GFWL, or Securom, or some other stupid shit.

 

[simonizor]

No more 3rd party DRM. If i buy a game on Steam i want Steam to be the DRM. Not GFWL, or Securom, or some other stupid shit.

If Valve had their way, it wouldn't. Do you honestly think they want to include all of that other bullshit so they have to support it and listen to customers wine about how it doesn't work? They'd rather do it all their way including the servers the game is played on, but the developers and publishers won't have it, for the most part.

 

[homercles337]

If Valve had their way, it wouldn't. Do you honestly think they want to include all of that other bullshit so they have to support it and listen to customers wine about how it doesn't work? They'd rather do it all their way including the servers the game is played on, but the developers and publishers won't have it, for the most part.

Valve does not support 3rd party DRM or problems. Here is an email i got from Steam a couple days ago:

Thank you for contacting Steam Support. Technical support for this title is handled by a third party support department - please follow the link below for instructions to contact the support provider for this title: Title: Grand Theft Auto IV series .... blah, blah.

So, like i said, Steam should strip all DRM from its titles and just use Steam authentication.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

built in IRC client

of course if steam could also turn into a multi protocol chat client as well that would be amazing

 

[TwinsenTacquito]

~Remove all the stupid crap they added to the overlay when they recently updated.
~Allow multiple computers to be on one account to play different games. I own all these games, why can't I play them?
~Allow games to be sold.
~Allow offline mode right away, don't sit there trying to connect to the internet for 15 minutes. Just let me play the games I paid for.
~Allow games to run without Steam in background.
~Stop making modding annoying. I OWN THE GAME. I BOUGHT IT! Why the fuck is it encoded?! I fucking bought it! How is encrypting a game that I already bought helping prevent theft? I already gave you the fucking money!

 

[Tristicus]

AIM? Hell no.

 

[Anubis]

~Remove all the stupid crap they added to the overlay when they recently updated.
~Allow multiple computers to be on one account to play different games. I own all these games, why can't I play them?
~Allow games to be sold.
~Allow offline mode right away, don't sit there trying to connect to the internet for 15 minutes. Just let me play the games I paid for.
~Allow games to run without Steam in background.
~Stop making modding annoying. I OWN THE GAME. I BOUGHT IT! Why the fuck is it encoded?! I fucking bought it! How is encrypting a game that I already bought helping prevent theft? I already gave you the fucking money!

i like these ideas

 

[Lonyo]

~Remove all the stupid crap they added to the overlay when they recently updated.
~Allow multiple computers to be on one account to play different games. I own all these games, why can't I play them?
~Allow games to be sold.
~Allow offline mode right away, don't sit there trying to connect to the internet for 15 minutes. Just let me play the games I paid for.
~Allow games to run without Steam in background.
~Stop making modding annoying. I OWN THE GAME. I BOUGHT IT! Why the fuck is it encoded?! I fucking bought it! How is encrypting a game that I already bought helping prevent theft? I already gave you the fucking money!

On the running without Steam, some games can do that. It depends on the game and the way it incorporates Steam though.
Something which uses Steamworks will require Steam (e.g. all Valve games, Red Orchestra, CoD MW2), but games which use Steam only as a backup authentification (e.g. Company of Heroes - or at least it used to) may only need Steam to be running if there is a problem elsewhere (CoH only required Steam if it could not connect to Relic Online to authenticate, otherwise you could run the .exe from outside Steam and it would play fine)
Some games do not require Steam at all and it just serves as a method with which to obtain the game files, which are then not tied to Steam at all. One example of this is Dangerous High School Girls in Trouble (Christmas joke gift), which you can run entirely outside Steam at all times.

So YMMV, but you could try some titles outside Steam and see if they work for you.

 

[TwinsenTacquito]

Well, it'd only really help with games that are demanding. Just one less stupid thing running in the background. And that means Valve games.