Are low prices the only reason you use Steam?

[snowpuppy]

No, you can get a game when ever you want, without having to trawl through stores, greatly prefer it to hard copy.

 

[TheEndlessSleep]

Its just so conveniant, and damn the expense - except I don't have to because there isn't one...

And do you know what I've come to realize? I despise Steam.

What could you possibly find to 'despise' about it?

 

[Raddra]

I love steam, the deals are just the icing on the cake though.

The real reason? I like to have all my games there o a list, a double click or a rigt click install away from play. I hate trawling through my shelves for dusty discs that I may or may not find quickly.

That and the friends list with all my friends I may want to play with a click away form an invite or chat? cream on that cake too.

 

[Treblaine]

The best thing I like about Steam updating is unlike on consoles it updates as soon as the file is available.

On console it only updates when you launch the game, so precisely at the moment you want to play it, it grinds to a halt updating.

the likes of XBox Live and PSN have so much to learn from Steam, it is such an amazing service. The only thing that possibly holds it back is prejudice against the PC platform.

 

[Azmael Silverlance]

It is a great way to keep all your games in a nicve tight spot. Keeps track of your gametimes. And because of it i dont afk in Steam games so i have a pretty accurate hour count on my gaming sessions. Its just an amazing tool.

But yes the low prices are the brutal trap that gets us all in the end. I have a bunch of games i am yet to instal and play. But i got them beause of amazing deals and i didnt want to miss out. Its honestly like a casino....well sort of...but no matter what we do and what deals we get Steam wins all our money. So yeah kind of liek a casino

And it gets constantly improved and tweaked so i think the future of steam and gaming is bright. I hate that Origin is being deployed X_X its a silly way to split the market.

 

[PatrickXD]

I use Steam for the sales, and it's friend system. Normally I'll just find the cheapest place to buy games like ebay or amazon.

 

[Helscreama]

I use steam because of the low prices and ease.

If it wasn't for those things I would go buy my games from EB...

 

[deckai]

There reasons I use Steam are:

-games are usually cheaper than most of the online contributor
-I don't need a cd/don't need to switch cds (a hard copy is nice for nostalgia... but I prefer the version that only needs virtual space)
-steam cloud, I'm not afraid to lose my save-states when cleaning up my Pc.
-Never had any problems/bugs(using it for 4 years now)
-great Library of indie games/a lot of games that are hard to find
-Auto-updates, when the update is available
-Faster delivery than buying online (Ebay, Amazon, etc.)


Yes, steam is also a DRM, but a DRM that doesn't keep me from playing. I only need to be online to activate the game or if I want to update it(or play online.. but well..that goes without saying)... but that isn't even necessary.. since it doesn't eat up my connection-speed/CPU and doesn't use more memory than any other messenger (unless it's updating, but auto-updating can be turned off).

I had a lot prejudices against steam before... it was pretty much the reason why I didn't bought HL 2 sooner... but now it's a big part of my pc-gaming experience.

And to answer your question, I wouldn't buy as many games from steam as I do now.. but I would still use it.

 

[Veldel]

cheap prices are only reason I use steam i perfer GOG overall tho since I hate DRM of anykind and I also like to own my games

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

I use it because I'm a fan of digital distribution, it keeps all my games together and organized in a little library to be used on a moment's notice, it's good to communicate with other friends, and the sales.

It's not entirely the sales, I hardly buy anything from them.

 

[LITE992]

The only reason I use Steam is because I own some Valve games. The low prices are nice, I got Portal 1 for $10 and GMod for $2.50.

 

[bushwhacker2k]

I certainly wouldn't use it as much.

Low prices are my primary reason, but tbh it isn't low prices so much as mind-bogglingly extremely incomparably low prices. Just saying.

It's also overall convenient to use and has an in-game overlay that allows you to open a web-browser and talk to friends on steam without leaving the game, which I think is pretty cool.

Pardon me if I skimmed a bit, but why do you hate Steam? I missed the reason.

 

[Arafiro]

The client running in the background is great, as you can can access voice chat and server notifications even whilst ingame. Also, you have your library of games available at anytime, anywhere you want - which is useful for me as I use multiple different computers in the lab at my uni and it's nice to be able to install my games so easily on them.

 

[Tharwen]

It's a nice way to keep all my games together, even if the interface is slow and buggy (hint: needs moar multithreading!). The automatic patching is nice too.

You don't need an internet connection to play games on Steam.

Only if you switch into offline mode beforehand. If you start up the computer one day and your connection has kicked the bucket, Steam won't even start. However, there could be a roundabout solution to this that I've forgotten, and I am open to the chance of me being wrong.

Not true. Internet was out for me one day, and it just gave the "could not connect to Steam" message with two options: start in offline mode, or exit. I don't understand how this is such a widespread misconception.

It seems to be completely random for me. Sometimes when the internet is off it fails, sometimes it starts up.

 

[NinjaCatStudios]

The indie games support is good.
On XBLA the indie games section is full of shovelware and such, it seems to be like a bargain bin.
On steam though, the indie section is fool of wonderous goodies like terraria.

 

[poppabaggins]

Yes, I only use Steam because of the sales. That said, since most of my games are already on steam, I linked the remainder of my games to it.

And I know that Steam *supposedly* has an offline mode, but I find it to be inconsistent at best. Also, the download speeds are pathetic. Steam should just use torrents (Blizzard does it for their games). When I'm considering pirating a game I just bought because it's going to take 8 hours to get it, that's just sad.

 

[Ravison]

My reasons:
1. The sales (that's usually the only time where its prices are better than alternatives like OzGameShop and Play-Asia)
2. It often has games I can't find anywhere else

Whilst I like some of its features, nothing makes up for the fact that if Valve goes bankgrupt in 10 years, I will have to re-buy all of those games if I want to play them.

It may sound minor but there are plenty of 10+ year old games I still play.

I'm pretty sure that if Valve goes out of business, they'll put out a patch that makes offline mode the default option and disables other functions that require the servers.

 

[Azure-Supernova]

Pretty much. I'm trying to quell my impulsive buying and Steam really helps that. I bought two things off the entire Steam sale because they were dirt cheap. Basically instead of buying things randomly from GAME like I used to I now just wait for it to go on sale.

Edit: That and it's got a nice interface. I now run all my games through steam so I get the overlay ingame, it's so useful.