Short version because I'm an edit whore:
Portal 2 was about to start when Steam went "HA. JUST KIDDING", deleted some data for no reason and made me wait for six hours. I raged.
[I don't like the term 'open letter'.]
For starters, I like Portal 2 and I like Valve. I?ve been watching the hype over it and tracking the progress of the ARG. I chipped in with a friend and we got a twin pack and I then bought the game twice more as a gift for two of my friends. I bought the Potato Sack before knowing what was going on behind it and even counted down the last 40 minutes of the release after letting it pre-load for two days (to completion). To summarise, I was excited as hell about this game.
So you can hopefully imagine my disappointment when this appeared:
Steam download screenshot
(Except that it was on 0 MB)
Now as you can see, my connection isn?t particularly fast, but for starters couldn?t it just admit that downloading 1.7 GB at would never take 1 hour, 21 min at the top speed of 160 KB/s my connection handles? In fact the earliest it would take is 179 minutes. I hoped it would just be one of those cases where the data is there and it simply has to verify files, but in that case it usually does this about 20 faster than my connection. I checked the game folder and it has dropped from 9.8 GB after pre-load to 8.1 GB after unlocking. In short, it spontaneously deleted 1.7 GB of data.
That?s not what bother me most though. I know that this sort of thing happens sometimes with Steam, often if I were to delete clientregistry.blob or end the process after a hang-up, where it would react with a fixed download but a very slow update screen or something of the sort. But I did nothing of that kind. I just waited while it decrypted and never touched the PC while it was downloading. Basically, I did absolutely nothing to anger the fickle beast that is Steam and yet it still demanded a sacrifice of 1.7 of my precious gigabytes.
I get that Valve is running an extraordinarily complicated system of interconnected servers and ISP deals etc., but there really is no reason a program like this should just delete valuable data like that with absolutely no help from me. This isn?t even an isolated case for me. Back in my CoD4 days (I admit that VAC is a huge improvement over PunkBuster) I had to deal with the monthly 6 GB re-download ritual despite the fact that the game hadn?t been updated or changed for a year (and hasn?t since then). So I get that people like Mike Blaszczak and the other software engineers have a tough job, but who on earth added the deletePerfectlyGoodGameData(); function? Or more importantly (assuming it?s there for a reason), who designed the trigger for it to hit my precious virgin Portal 2 files?
Maybe I?ve wasted some employee?s time (maybe yours) by sending this to the general info address (since there is understandably no complaints address), but Steam is sure as hell wasting another two hours at least of my time while I wait for this thing to re-download. I suppose this doesn?t really achieve anything, but honestly I don?t have much else I?d prefer to do right now after planning to start Portal 2. I suppose it?s not even your fault that I have a trip to Dubbo due tomorrow and I?ll have far less time to try the game now, but it?s still severely annoying. Just something I really needed to get off my chest for once.
Facebook screen of friend suggesting that Gabe reads these complaints
(Maybe not gigantic, but you get the idea.)
Sincerely,
Me
Personal info I'd rather not post
P.S. Now that I?ve finished writing, the time is 5:58 pm (2 hours after download began) and it?s on 48%.
[Captcha: works dectom]
EDIT (at 3am): To summarise and clarify what I'm complaining about:
1) The malfunction was file related and not involved in the busy Steam servers at the time.
2) It didn't affect any of my friends.
3) I was this close to playing ("Preparing to launch..." screen) when it rejected me.
4) Everything seems to run completely smoothly except the areas that should work 100%.
5) It took 6 hours despite giving a constant ETA of 1 hr 30 min.
That said, the game (especially the co-op) is a lot of fun, so right now I'm focusing on the people who assume I'm an impatient kid who can't wait for a 30-60 minute download. I'm used to slow speeds on occasion and that sort of thing but the circumstances of this rejection just drove me insane.
Portal 2 was about to start when Steam went "HA. JUST KIDDING", deleted some data for no reason and made me wait for six hours. I raged.
[I don't like the term 'open letter'.]
For starters, I like Portal 2 and I like Valve. I?ve been watching the hype over it and tracking the progress of the ARG. I chipped in with a friend and we got a twin pack and I then bought the game twice more as a gift for two of my friends. I bought the Potato Sack before knowing what was going on behind it and even counted down the last 40 minutes of the release after letting it pre-load for two days (to completion). To summarise, I was excited as hell about this game.
So you can hopefully imagine my disappointment when this appeared:
Steam download screenshot
(Except that it was on 0 MB)
Now as you can see, my connection isn?t particularly fast, but for starters couldn?t it just admit that downloading 1.7 GB at would never take 1 hour, 21 min at the top speed of 160 KB/s my connection handles? In fact the earliest it would take is 179 minutes. I hoped it would just be one of those cases where the data is there and it simply has to verify files, but in that case it usually does this about 20 faster than my connection. I checked the game folder and it has dropped from 9.8 GB after pre-load to 8.1 GB after unlocking. In short, it spontaneously deleted 1.7 GB of data.
That?s not what bother me most though. I know that this sort of thing happens sometimes with Steam, often if I were to delete clientregistry.blob or end the process after a hang-up, where it would react with a fixed download but a very slow update screen or something of the sort. But I did nothing of that kind. I just waited while it decrypted and never touched the PC while it was downloading. Basically, I did absolutely nothing to anger the fickle beast that is Steam and yet it still demanded a sacrifice of 1.7 of my precious gigabytes.
I get that Valve is running an extraordinarily complicated system of interconnected servers and ISP deals etc., but there really is no reason a program like this should just delete valuable data like that with absolutely no help from me. This isn?t even an isolated case for me. Back in my CoD4 days (I admit that VAC is a huge improvement over PunkBuster) I had to deal with the monthly 6 GB re-download ritual despite the fact that the game hadn?t been updated or changed for a year (and hasn?t since then). So I get that people like Mike Blaszczak and the other software engineers have a tough job, but who on earth added the deletePerfectlyGoodGameData(); function? Or more importantly (assuming it?s there for a reason), who designed the trigger for it to hit my precious virgin Portal 2 files?
Maybe I?ve wasted some employee?s time (maybe yours) by sending this to the general info address (since there is understandably no complaints address), but Steam is sure as hell wasting another two hours at least of my time while I wait for this thing to re-download. I suppose this doesn?t really achieve anything, but honestly I don?t have much else I?d prefer to do right now after planning to start Portal 2. I suppose it?s not even your fault that I have a trip to Dubbo due tomorrow and I?ll have far less time to try the game now, but it?s still severely annoying. Just something I really needed to get off my chest for once.
Facebook screen of friend suggesting that Gabe reads these complaints
(Maybe not gigantic, but you get the idea.)
Sincerely,
Me
Personal info I'd rather not post
P.S. Now that I?ve finished writing, the time is 5:58 pm (2 hours after download began) and it?s on 48%.
[Captcha: works dectom]
EDIT (at 3am): To summarise and clarify what I'm complaining about:
1) The malfunction was file related and not involved in the busy Steam servers at the time.
2) It didn't affect any of my friends.
3) I was this close to playing ("Preparing to launch..." screen) when it rejected me.
4) Everything seems to run completely smoothly except the areas that should work 100%.
5) It took 6 hours despite giving a constant ETA of 1 hr 30 min.
That said, the game (especially the co-op) is a lot of fun, so right now I'm focusing on the people who assume I'm an impatient kid who can't wait for a 30-60 minute download. I'm used to slow speeds on occasion and that sort of thing but the circumstances of this rejection just drove me insane.
