30 Million Steam Accounts Can't Be Wrong

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Yeah that happened to me aswell when I pre-ordered Metro 2033 it came a day early so I was hyped up... But I couldn't play on it. Lets just say I weren't pleased .

Aside from that I actually love steam. Constant sales on lots of stuff and I can speak to some of my friends aswell so it makes organising games a whole lot easier

Just realised I sound like someone who is advertising it :S

I essentially try and sell GFWL... it needs more support really.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

The problem is they haven't been supporting it, they tried to make xboxlive for PCs but ran into a problem when no one wanted to pay a monthly fee for something they got for free. Last I checked I barely could access the DLC I wanted it the website would bug out. They need to drop more support into it if they want to see anything from anyone.

They can't go about it with the mentality of a console, PC users have always played for free and used their own servers. They can charge for stuff but it has to make sense, unlike Activision and 15 dollars for 4 maps.

I was under the impression GFWL is free, you only have to pay for Xbox Live, still I don't know since I started on 360.

I just want more good games on GFWL. I am really looking forward to Age of Empires online.

 

[Snotnarok]

The problem is they haven't been supporting it, they tried to make xboxlive for PCs but ran into a problem when no one wanted to pay a monthly fee for something they got for free. Last I checked I barely could access the DLC I wanted it the website would bug out. They need to drop more support into it if they want to see anything from anyone.

They can't go about it with the mentality of a console, PC users have always played for free and used their own servers. They can charge for stuff but it has to make sense, unlike Activision and 15 dollars for 4 maps.

I was under the impression GFWL is free, you only have to pay for Xbox Live, still I don't know since I started on 360.

I just want more good games on GFWL. I am really looking forward to Age of Empires online.

No no, originally GFWL was like xboxlive and charged unless you had Xboxlive then it worked together. They dropped the charge since GFWL wasn't doing well.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

No no, originally GFWL was like xboxlive and charged unless you had Xboxlive then it worked together. They dropped the charge since GFWL wasn't doing well.

Yeah I thought it was originally and had changed. Well I'm glad it did cause I can defend GFWL to a point but there is no way it's worth a subscription service.

 

[2fish]

I have four games on steam, it is a decent system I just have a few mic bugs that I have never been able to work out. It is a convience thing for me, otherwise I would never use it. But it is not like Civ V game me a choice it was steam or not play.

Ok steam lets see what you can do to fix the people issues with your system and please leave the rabid fanboys home. Oh and congrates on your big number of users.

 

[Chesterfield Snapdragon McFisticuffs]

Almost everyone I know has multiple steam accounts for some reason or another. This number does not impress.

Why would anyone need multiple Steam accounts, so you can gift a game to yourself?

Actually yes. If you live in Australia or New Zealand some games are charged higher prices than USA (Modern warfare 2 was $90 us, Borderlands was $80). For this reason I like to have a 'friend' with their IP in the United states that just happens to have the same name, birthday, age and looks as me.

 

[LitleWaffle]

Spoiler

What's a Steam?

I kid, I kid. I like it. I bought a lot of adventure games on it. Haven't played most of them. Got the Telltale bundle last Christmas sale. You know...Steam sales make you buy games you never end up playing. Mostly use it for Puzzle Quest, Torchlight, and Morrowind. And 2 playthroughs of The Longest Journey.

*goes back to Morrowind*

It's fucking annoying to mod Morrowind on Steam, though. Have to change file dates and shit. Too lazy. Vanilla Morrowind will have to do.

Vanilla anything will never do for me... Since you've already bought the game, it's legal to pirate the retail copy. Then you can Tamriel Rebuilt the living shit out of it! 8D

Contrary to popular belief...it's not legal.

Wait, modding games you've bought is illegal? Really?

*Runs around in circles panicking*

no no no. Pirating a retail copy of a game you already own. THAT is illegal.

Oh thank goodness. Yes that makes more sense.

 

[V8 Ninja]

The only thing I'm thinking;

"Please oh please, let this be another reason to have an insane sale..."

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I essentially try and sell GFWL... it needs more support really.

The problem I find with GFWL isn't so much that it is a bad service, but that it is compounded by other services.

Take for example the two games I use GFWL for. Dawn of War 2. If I want to set up a MP game, I don't feel that I need to wade through logging into two separate platforms (steam and gfwl) before dealing with the game's rather poor matchmaking.

For Battlefield Heroes, its how that game is inherently tied to PunkBuster, the absolute worst anti cheating device on the planet.

On its own, I probably wouldn't be so harsh on GFWL. It is just how redundant it feels to me personally.

 

[RYjet911]

Now how about they fix all the little problems Steam has had for ages? Like an offline mode that needs to connect to the internet to start offline.

Never had that issue...I can turn on my laptop in the middle of a desert, far from the internet, and start playing Sam & Max with no problem.

Its the opposite for me.

If I try to start up without an internet in offline mode it gives me a big fat "CONNECT TO INTERNET TO COMPLETE PROCESS".

And that usually ends with me raging.

Activate offline mode once while you are online. Then offline mode should work consistently so long as you don't buy a game or Steam doesn't receive an update.

That doesn't exactly help since I'd have to be able to predict when my internet will die out.

And trying to predict when your unstable internet will die is not an easy task.

I'm not saying predict it, I'm saying activate offline mode while you are still connected to the internet, then go back into online mode. As long as Steam doesn't need to update for whatever reason, you should be able to switch between online and offline mode at any time.

Also, if your internet does cut out for whatever reason while you are in online mode, you can still activate offline mode since Steam doesn't suddenly refuse to let you do anything on it.

It needs to pre-verify that you do in fact own all the games before the first time you go into offline mode. Once you've done this, it should be easy peasy to go offline.

 

[Irridium]

I'm not saying predict it, I'm saying activate offline mode while you are still connected to the internet, then go back into online mode. As long as Steam doesn't need to update for whatever reason, you should be able to switch between online and offline mode at any time.

Also, if your internet does cut out for whatever reason while you are in online mode, you can still activate offline mode since Steam doesn't suddenly refuse to let you do anything on it.

It needs to pre-verify that you do in fact own all the games before the first time you go into offline mode. Once you've done this, it should be easy peasy to go offline.

I've tried those things. Steam still needs to quickly connect to the internet to go into offline mode.

Which doesn't work when my internet is down.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Only reason I have Steam installed is because the games I buy make me install and use it like MW 2. I fucking hate that so much.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

The problem I find with GFWL isn't so much that it is a bad service, but that it is compounded by other services.

Take for example the two games I use GFWL for. Dawn of War 2. If I want to set up a MP game, I don't feel that I need to wade through logging into two separate platforms (steam and gfwl) before dealing with the game's rather poor matchmaking.

For Battlefield Heroes, its how that game is inherently tied to PunkBuster, the absolute worst anti cheating device on the planet.

On its own, I probably wouldn't be so harsh on GFWL. It is just how redundant it feels to me personally.

Ugh I hated that DOW2 was tied with both platforms... whereas most people hated the GFWL I of course hated that I had to use Steam.

Why they just couldn't have done what Fallout 3 did and released 2 versions, one with GFWL, one with Steam.

It makes more sense and solves a lot of problems.

 

[SimuLord]

Now how about they fix all the little problems Steam has had for ages? Like an offline mode that needs to connect to the internet to start offline.

Never had that issue...I can turn on my laptop in the middle of a desert, far from the internet, and start playing Sam & Max with no problem.

Indeed. Once you've played a game in online mode once, you can play it offline to your heart's delight.

 

[Carlston]

I never heard of steam before I got left 4 and honestly it's not all that. It's just a battlenet large find a game room service like gamespy.

But eh...

Accept it works, unlike games spy, which imo is a horrible piece of shit and the biggest problem with borderlands.

I agree. I like a game I can just play and look up a game. I mean what happens to all these games 3 years down the line when steam doesn't want to waste bandwidth on them, or vanishes all together?

 

[Croaker42]

The only thing I'm thinking;

"Please oh please, let this be another reason to have an insane sale..."

Know what....... Thats a good idea.

"I just got paid and don't give a damn if they take the car."

I would love to see another celebration free release.

 

[twm1709]

I frecuently consider steam to be pc gaming's last hope to become something other than a buggy unsupported porting dumpster in the future really...

 

[Ravek]

About 25% of what they current do. I have an irrational hatred for torrents, usually because in my experience they're about half the speed as traditional downloads. Give me dedicated servers or naff off.

For some clients, particularly with low upload speeds, torrents will tend to be slower, since the system discriminates based on how much you contribute to the swarm. Or you have just always found bad swarms.

But the overall transfer bandwidth across all users increases drastically when using torrents. With dedicated servers the amount transferred is just those 400 GB/s. With torrents it's the 400 GB/s base bandwith plus anything the users contribute. Few people have symmetric connections, but uploading 10% of what they download should be possible for most, and that alone will have a drastic influence.

For succesful use of torrents, obvious examples are linux distros, but also some game developers are already using bittorrent to distribute their patches. Relic, for example.

 

[T3chn0s1s]

Having been with steam since WAN died in half life, I must say that we have a rather sordid and hush-hush love affair. I would make love to steam's mother if it so desired, but I wouldn't talk about it in polite company. It's the awkward games that force steam on you that steam behaves badly in, and it's the awkward games that force GFWL on you that GFWL performs badly in. I can't even PLAY Dawn of War II on my computer because of GFWL. I can't play Kane and Lynch without logging into GFWL from my desktop before going into Kane and Lynch, where it will fail to log in a couple of times before finally having the stars align just right to allow me access. Then in Fallout 3? Everything's gravy. Steam in Empire: Total War or Civilization V? Bullshit. I hate its guts and hope it dies.

Choose your poison, make your bed, and lie in it. Don't fight about it.


Now, on topic: 30 Million Steam Accounts logged in for some reason in the past month. Whether they did so because they were forced to or not, they're still in the steam network. May not mean they wanted to be, but they're still benefiting from it more often than they're not. I wouldn't say it makes them popular, but I would say it makes those using steam happier to have steam than be unable to play their games period, and that's at least something...

Ha!