Poll: Steam and your opinion

[romxxii]

The one time I had to contact Steam customer support was to get a refund from a mistaken purchase (I thought I was getting Civ V, I mistakenly bought Civ 4). They corrected the problem within 10 minutes.

I like the cheap games of course, but otherwise the program is pretty terrible.
It loads like a snail, it takes 15 minutes to start up because of constant checking for updates, its voice chat screws with my speakers, its offline mode and rules are stupid, and it is a leading cause of making me download games instead of just installing them from disc if I buy a hard copy.

So yeah, it annoys me.

I don't encounter issues with Steam anymore, at least, not since I installed it on an SSD. Even offline mode is consistently useful these days, working whenever I need it to work. Considering my connection's a bit shaky, it's been a godsend to have a functional offline mode.

I will agree that installation from disk is still atrocious. I solved that by ripping my disks to .ISO format and saving them to my HDD. Works for any non-SecuROM title.

 

[DanielBrown]

Never had to talk with their customer service, so I can't say anything about that. I love Steam though. Simple interface, easy to install/uninstall games and at least for me it boots up both the program and the games quickly. Had an account for over nine years, but I hadn't really used it until just about half a year ago when I discovered cheap bundles and the Steam summer sale.
Now I got 97 games(though half of those are in my "shit games" folder) all of sudden and way more to come. :

Will be a sad day when Steam shuts down.

 

[Realitycrash]

I like Steam. It's cost-free, it provides cheap games, I never have to go to the store, it's not Origin, it has sales, I can browse their web-site and look for new games, it's not Origin, etc.

I have never needed their costumer-support, but it wouldn't surprise me if it were horrible, and they need to make it very clear and upfront that every game you 'buy' is actually 'leased', since you aren't allowed to resell them, and won't be able to take them with you if you ditch Steam.

 

[Revolutionary]

Steam relies a great deal on forum volunteers which unfortunately leads to problems (An issue I also have with this site). While it's generally amenable, things can go bad when the mod just want's to call it a day. It's a problem inherent to large organisations, regrettably individuals can get buried under concerns they see as more important. Good luck dealing with the bastard though.

 

[major_chaos]

I really don't like steam much, I put up with it because sales, but I don't ever sing its praises. Its a slow resource hog starting up, it wastes my time regularly, whether its installing direct X for the nine dozenth time or spending several seconds figuring out what an EXE is ever time I launch a game, the storefront is slow and clunky when browsed from inside the application, the customer support is awful, the forums are poorly moderated cesspits, their customer support is so worthless its almost insulting, it took them years to figure out how to let you chose where to install games, they apparently spend all their profits on hookers and blow instead of servers because the whole thing becomes intermittently unusable during periods of above average traffic (mostly at the largest game launches and holiday sales), and most annoying of all is that I use the stupid thing to talk to friends and it consis*ERROR NO CONNECTION TO STEAM SERVERS*

EDIT: also there is the whole thing where it made digital distribution the norm, permanently making it inconvenient to buy PC games, especially if you have shit internet.

 

[Doom972]

I love Steam and how it changed gaming for me, but their customer service is the worst I have come across.

Yep, that about sums it up.

I love Steam, but I fucking hate megaloathe [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Tqa4sxJVY8] their customer service...

I got my account hijacked and opened a support ticket in the same hour. In the ticket I asked that, while I understand processing proofs of payment can take a little time, that they at least lock the account in some way, like blocking access to VAC-enabled multiplayer games, or preventing any trades or market transactions.

It was excruciating watching my profile get changed and my games played... for eleven fucking days. Eleven days without the slightest acknowledgement that anyone was even processing my ticket. Of course, what had to happen happened, and I'm now enjoying a nice, lifetime VAC ban in CS:GO because the hijacker had a comfy 11 days to take a shit on my Steam account.

The only other time I've ever opened a support ticket with a company? It was Ubisoft, and I exchanged 4 emails in 3 days with the support person.

Let me reiterate Ubisoft had better customer support for a PC game (Blood Dragon) than Valve!

Even EA has better support. I had better experience with their customer service chat. Many of those guys have difficulty with basic English.

 

[BoogieManFL]

I like Steam as a service but I don't much care for their support people though.


I'm not surprised at the issue you're having. I've never known an online service/game who actually punishes people for blatantly and grossly violating conduct rules. They always say they'll look into it but they obviously never do.


I do suggest calling and talking to someone though, any time you don't get properly helped through e-mail support. They can't dismiss you so easily over the phone and will probably be a little more willing to actually help you than some lazy support prick just archiving your e-mail and moving on to the next one, probably never actually doing anything about it. It'll probably be a real employee as well, who will have more power to get things done.


Blizzard is the same way with World of WarCraft. You can have the most vile of trolls harass you for a year and they don't give a damn. There was this guy who constantly harassed two of my guild members, even when they completely ignored him and never reacted to his attacks. For about a year we kept reporting him to the GMs and they said oh we'll look into it, which was a lie because they obviously did nothing. The day it stopped was the day I called in to Blizzard on the phone and explained the situation and repeated to them their rules of conduct and penalties for violation rules as written by them, and the many ways he was violating them. Only then did it actually stop.

 

[Juste Goose]

'sallright I guess. I don't think it's the greatest thing since sliced rainbows like most people, but I'm always wary of digital downloads. Gotta have that shelf appeal.

Not that wary I guess though, since I've bought about a hundred games through sales, (most $3 or less.) I only use it for TF2, Kiling Floor, and Terraria though. I bought too many games. (Now I gotta play them all...)

It's kind of annoying that it has to update on a seemingly daily basis lately...

 

[TehCookie]

I hate it because it blocks me from playing my games, screws with mods or patches, or flat out breaks the game when the Steam-free version runs fine. I refuse to buy any more games from Steam because of it, I'm not going to pay for games I can't play. The games aren't even cheap, used games are just as cheap as their sales and you don't have a time limit.

 

[votemarvel]

If not for the insanely good deals available on Steam, not to mention other places such as Humble Bundle, I wouldn't bother with the service.

Personally I hate that I'm forced to run Steam in order to play the games that I've paid for.

 

[SinisterGehe]

Steam has done nothing that would have made me regret having almost 400 games on it.
Customer service has always been excellent.
When I have reported accounts (I only report accounts that I know for sure have broken the rules, ToS or the law) and they have always been handled and treated (I know because when you report someone and it goes trough you get a message thanking you from reporting the account)

The only issues I have with steam are game specific and they are things that they haven't really got any power over.
When I have needed it I have gotten my refunds.
And since they have servers in Finland they have to obey by Finnish customer service laws. I am quite happy.

 

[Valagetti]

Great more people who respond to irrelevant stuff, to a guy who is actually looking for help.
My advice WHICH IS FLAWED is that you move on, seriously thats it. I do this to the point where I fuck'n rarely socialise with anyone in gaming and I play DayZ out of all things...
Their are twats on the net and yes they go out of their way to fuck your day. DON"T RELY ON STEAM, for obvious reasons, just move on... I've been there, its fuck'n shit.

 

[Tilted_Logic]

I really like Steam, although I miss the old layout. The 'friend activity' page, seems waaaay too much like Facebook, and I find the new layout for the screenshot page to be a tad imposing.

Regardless though, I love the service, the sales, the games... My only gripe is that you can have your account/online multiplayer access banned if you're hacked and said hacker decides to cheat on your account. I realize it's very easy to be safe and avoid being hacking all together, but this past spring I was hacked through a serious miss communication on Steams' part.
I had updated the email address associated with Steam - the new address received all the confirmed purchase and steam sale messages, but apparently, my old email, which I knew was highly open to hackers (yay, hotmail!), was somehow still tied to my Steam account. So... when they hacked that email, which I never use, they were able to gain my Steam info from recent emails: apparently Steam was sending messages to both accounts. I still don't understand why the process to switch the linked email account failed like that.

But yeah, within a few days Steam support had retrieved my account, however, had the hacker cheated on some multiplayer game and gotten me banned, I would have been absolutely livid. As far as I was concerned and aware, Steam had successfully changed my linked email address. Would have been nice to know otherwise when the process apparently didn't fully take.

 

[babinro]

Overall I love Steam because of their deals.
If they didn't offer great prices then I'd hate them.
I look at them a little like some people view Walmart in how they shut down the smaller guy.

That said, the company has the worst customer service I've ever dealt with. They also fail to accurately inform the consumer if a game sold will work with current age hardware. Will Dragon Age: Origins work on a Windows 8 machine? Hell if I know. Steam just sells games, they don't care enough about the consumer to follow up on the products they offer. Even the lazy approach would be to recommend we check our specs on manufacturers forums before purchase and provide a link but I guess they just want our money. If enough people band together and complain loudly enough they might wake up and take action because it'll become a PR issue.

Note: I have never bought a game that was not compatible with my rig. I have bought several games that required a few hours of research, troubleshooting and work arounds to make functional though. Customer service has never been of any assistance in these instances. In some cases I never even got a reply. Thankfully 3rd party sites have enough people with the same kinds of issues that eventually led to a posted suggestion that worked.

Bottom Line: Steam is a minimalist service. They don't care about their products or customers beyond what seems to be the minimum legal requirements. They offer amazing prices and it's pretty much buyer beware from there.

 

[OneCatch]

What is your opinion on steam, and are you content with how they run things?

Reply to the ticket asking for something more proactive to be done, detailing how you've done what they've suggested in the past and nothing has happened. Otherwise they aren't going to know that you aren't satisfied.

I agree that ticket systems are a pain, but the only way of getting a resolution is to keep hassling them.

 

[BigTeef]

You had a "breakdown" because of some random who keeps messaging you on Steam?

Sorry, but I think there's far more to this story than you're letting on.

I have been dealing with him for 3 months, and school has been rough.
Of course there is more to this story but im not going to disclose my life on the internet.
I come home and sit down and the first thing I see is a chat invite from somebody who writes a fictional newspaper. He has been doing this for years from what I was told making up shit and random things about people in it, and then circulates it.

This person has been destroying any chance we get with the public because hes pissed off he got banned from our fourm because we didn't like his idea of a spam topic.

This goes beyond steam, try getting police into this.

Nothing steam can do if the stalker goes way beyond steam. All they can do is delete or lock the account, which he can set up another.

The only thing he uses is steam, and what exactly do I do when it comes to this.
Go to a police station and say some guy on steam keeps harassing me when steam refuses to do anything themselves?

What is your opinion on steam, and are you content with how they run things?

Reply to the ticket asking for something more proactive to be done, detailing how you've done what they've suggested in the past and nothing has happened. Otherwise they aren't going to know that you aren't satisfied.

I agree that ticket systems are a pain, but the only way of getting a resolution is to keep hassling them.

I am doing just that, I keep compiling evidence of not only myself but my friends are also compiling and sending it in on the tickets we opened.

 

[Tayh]

Nah.
Fuck steam, and their monopolistic death-grip on the gaming industry.
I can't believe they're actually going ahead and release an "open source" OS. Allowing users independent control and choice seems so contrary to valve's usual policies.

 

[Pinkamina]

Allowing publishers to put extra DRM on certain games, looking at Ubisoft in particular, is both redundant and stupid.

Ubisoft? I've not had a problem with their DRM, you mean Uplay right? Generally that just functions as a second achievement system far as I can tell. Try playing something with Windows Live. Christ, took me 3 days to play Bioshock 2 simply because it wouldn't let me play until my account was made, signed in, and a few other hoops to jump through.

 

[Caiphus]

Ubisoft? I've not had a problem with their DRM, you mean Uplay right? Generally that just functions as a second achievement system far as I can tell. Try playing something with Windows Live. Christ, took me 3 days to play Bioshock 2 simply because it wouldn't let me play until my account was made, signed in, and a few other hoops to jump through.

UPlay isn't so bad, you're right. Having to run two separate clients just to play a game is redundant and a bit silly, but reasonably painless in this case. They used to have more intrusive DRM before they realised it was completely daft:

http://www.destructoid.com/ubisoft-anno-2070-drm-is-working-as-intended--220034.phtml

But yes, I think most people would agree that GFWL is worse. My brother struggled with it for a couple of hours to get Dark Souls working. I also struggled with it to get GTA IV to work, then it deleted my save file. It really is a mess. And completely unnecessary too.

Edit: Ubisoft also used to have an always-online system in Assassin's Creed II, but I can't remember if that ever made it to Steam in that state...