should steam rule the gaming world?

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Dont think i ever had a problem... And i have been using it since it came out... And damn it sucked at that point... But for me it has just got better and better...

I recently had to reformat my hard drive when I upgraded from XP to Windows 7.

Reinstalling GFWL client and then downloading Age of Empires 3 Gold, Tinker and my DOW2 DLC was fine and I had no problems.

Reinstalling my Steam games was an absolute nightmare... first it kept trying to download Empire when I already had the CD, then finally once I got past that it did exactly the same thing for Dawn of War 2.

Then it downloaded Unreal Tournament 3 to 90% and decided that would be a good time to randomly pause downloading for no reason and continue later on after I had rebooted my PC.

GFWL is clunky, has far far less games, screws many people around... yet it runs a hell of a lot better than Steam does on my PC.

 

[Irridium]

No. Nononononononononono!

A monopoly of any kind is never good. NEVER GOOD!

Some people don't like Steam. And for good reason. Its stability and reliability varies from person to person and machine to machine. It has issues, and I hate people are forced to use it to play a certain game.

Consumers should have choices, and should never be forced to use a system they don't want to use. And don't get me started on requiring an internet connection to activate a game. Its just so backwards and stupid its ridiculous.

 

[zehydra]

Making it the ONLY way to get games for PC would be a mistake. The only reason Steam is any good is because it needs to compete to stay ahead.

I have Steam, but only because Portal (I bought the CD at a store) made me install it.

(also, installing off of CD is just plain faster)

 

[zehydra]

Steam is popular because it's really good (All hail playing as a headcrab in Super Meat Boy!). All the hand-wringing about it becoming a 'monopoly' has a simple answer: make something better than Steam. However, it seems like one of the main potential rivals, Games for Windows Live, is more of an elaborate griefing scheme than an actual digital distribution platform.

There is something better already: Installing off of CD. (or any form of a physical copy) It's much faster.

 

[Rednog]

Steam is pretty much the standard for PC gaming and will be for a long time to come, I honestly don't know why some people have such insane issues with steam both technical and personal. I've had steam since day 1 when it was launched, the only problem I ever had was when they first released steam cloud and it would never sync up with Left 4 Dead. But other than that it is fine and it is actually the pacemaker that has given new life to PC gaming and actually formed a clunky but somewhat cohesive community around games that wouldn't exist otherwise.

 

[Liberaliter]

Pretty much, I can't see any downsides.

 

[Sixcess]

I've been using Steam for a few months and have had no problems with it, and some of their sales/special offers are extremely good - like 2 STALKER games for less than £7, or Portal for free.

Individual experiences will vary, but from my point of view Steam is successful because it's a very very good service, not because people are being forced to use it, so yeah, more power to them.

 

[GWarface]

Dont think i ever had a problem... And i have been using it since it came out... And damn it sucked at that point... But for me it has just got better and better...

I recently had to reformat my hard drive when I upgraded from XP to Windows 7.

Reinstalling GFWL client and then downloading Age of Empires 3 Gold, Tinker and my DOW2 DLC was fine and I had no problems.

Reinstalling my Steam games was an absolute nightmare... first it kept trying to download Empire when I already had the CD, then finally once I got past that it did exactly the same thing for Dawn of War 2.

Then it downloaded Unreal Tournament 3 to 90% and decided that would be a good time to randomly pause downloading for no reason and continue later on after I had rebooted my PC.

GFWL is clunky, has far far less games, screws many people around... yet it runs a hell of a lot better than Steam does on my PC.

Its true that the downloads can stop itself at randoms times, but i think that has to do with your connection more than steam... You see, i recently moved out from my parents... They have a crappy 2mb/s connection where it would randomly do the stops... But here at my own place, i have a 100mb/s connection and it runs like a naked chick in baby oil... And thats a good thing btw...

It also depends a bit on the game, some games install just fine, while others will do this and their sequels will propably do the same...
And i should know, i have downloaded quite a few games from there...

 

[Continuity]

Lets face it, steam pretty much is PC gaming.. and to be frank I couldn't think of a corp i'd rather have running it than valve. Plus, there is absolutely no evidence or reason to believe that they abuse their position of power... and they give us good prices and convenience.

Whats not to like?

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

i think most of the gamers today have a steam account. me too, and i really love steam. but there's one thing that i hate: i have 2 or 3 games which are not on steam. and i thought, why are there games which aren't on steam? it would be awesome if you can see really every game from your friends in their steam lists. in my opinion, steam should be standard, it installs itself when you install your OS or whatever. what do you think about that?

Personally,I hate that I need to have an internet connection to play a game offline. SO no, no ruling of the gaming world. I like my DVDs and Blu-Rays and PHYSICALNESS!

 

[Woodsey]

Not everyone enjoys steam. I hate that it takes like 5 minutes to startup sometimes, and a lot of people hate having to be online to play their games.
And i'd hate to give Gaben a monopoly on the market, since it just means more money to spend on delaying EP3.

i think most of the gamers today have a steam account. me too, and i really love steam. but there's one thing that i hate: i have 2 or 3 games which are not on steam. and i thought, why are there games which aren't on steam? it would be awesome if you can see really every game from your friends in their steam lists. in my opinion, steam should be standard, it installs itself when you install your OS or whatever. what do you think about that?

Personally,I hate that I need to have an internet connection to play a game offline. SO no, no ruling of the gaming world. I like my DVDs and Blu-Rays and PHYSICALNESS!

You need to go online a grand total of once per game on install. I even tested this out after everyone raved about needing to go online before playing offline, and you don't.

Steam is popular because it's really good (All hail playing as a headcrab in Super Meat Boy!). All the hand-wringing about it becoming a 'monopoly' has a simple answer: make something better than Steam. However, it seems like one of the main potential rivals, Games for Windows Live, is more of an elaborate griefing scheme than an actual digital distribution platform.

There is something better already: Installing off of CD. (or any form of a physical copy) It's much faster.

By the time I've gone to Game or HMV and come back I've spent more money, and the download/install time will be about the same as the walk down/walk back/install time.

I think it's a really good system but seeing as my PC can only run really old games (And Half Life 2 for some reason} I get most of my games on my Xbox.

Half-Life 2 is 6 years old... How old is everything else that you can run?

OT: It already does.

Great store, great deals, great community, great service, great (lack of) price.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Its true that the downloads can stop itself at randoms times, but i think that has to do with your connection more than steam... You see, i recently moved out from my parents... They have a crappy 2mb/s connection where it would randomly do the stops... But here at my own place, i have a 100mb/s connection and it runs like a naked chick in baby oil... And thats a good thing btw...

Well I just upgraded the connection to my internet from a normal wireless card to short range wireless Ethernet. Which is far faster than my dodgy wireless card ever was. So I doubt it's my internet entirely as we have a very good internet (my dad works for our service provider) which is also very stable.

When a game won't install because 'Steam servers are too busy to handle your request' I am just amazed... you can't install a disc based game because some internet based service is busy? F*ckin brilliant.

It also depends a bit on the game, some games install just fine, while others will do this and their sequels will propably do the same...
And i should know, i have downloaded quite a few games from there...

If that's so then the three games I own which require Steam are obviously some of the worst, since one of those is Empire: Total War and I am a huge Total War fan, Steam has left a bad taste in my mouth and an aversion to all of it's services.

Steam is really only useful for people who use their service, for people who don't it's just getting in the way of their games. I have downloaded one full game off of Steam and I plan to never do it again to the best of my ability...

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

You need to go online a grand total of once per game on install. I even tested this out after everyone raved about needing to go online before playing offline, and you don't.

Can you tell that to my copy? It doesn't believe that's true and still refuses to even acknowledge there is such thing as an offline mode.

Maybe mine has an internet addiction...

 

[loc978]

I dislike Steam's business model and demonizing of the used games market (of course, I also dislike GameStop's opposite approach... we used to exist within a happy medium, and these fucks had to go and polarize everything!).
I really miss the days of discs and multiplayer spawns. I still have LAN parties, and when someone doesn't own a game the rest of us want to play, not being able to cut that person in without them spending $30+ and a few bandwidth-sucking hours of download/install time is incredibly annoying.

 

[thehermit2]

I have used steam for years and I think it's great. It is probably not for casual users since there are glitches that can prevent specific games from running and glitches that can cause the steam program to fail to load, making all games unplayable until they are fixed or worked around. But for someone who can navigate all these problems, steam saves on physical storage space and distributes games a lot cheaper than most of the slowly disappearing and poorly stocked retail outlets in my area.

What I really wish is that iTunes worked like steam. Imagine being able to buy a song once, have it in an account that you can log in to, and being able to download it on to any or every computer with an internet connection, accidentally erase it, and download it again without having to buy it again. I wish steam would get in to MP3 sales, or video distribution. But again, because of the glitches, it might be better to have a seperate service that worked the same way so that if your game platform decided to be buggy you could at least still watch the video you wanted.

 

[Woodsey]

You need to go online a grand total of once per game on install. I even tested this out after everyone raved about needing to go online before playing offline, and you don't.

Can you tell that to my copy? It doesn't believe that's true and still refuses to even acknowledge there is such thing as an offline mode.

Maybe mine has an internet addiction...

Did you let it update at least the first time on install, and have you got "Don't save account credentials" checked under the Steam tab?

 

[Byere]

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but aren't there laws AGAINST any particular company having a complete monopoly over any specific industry? Doesn't that go against one of the amendments on some important piece of paper from point in history? (So sue me, I'm no history buff... and I'm British, but I'm pretty sure it's on some American law thingy. Bill of Rights or something).

 

[Eliam_Dar]

Honestly I got steam almost a year and a half ago, and since then I believe it was a great choice. I do not want to loose the option to buy retail, but I must admint that steam is my main source of games now.

 

[Jester00]

Personally,I hate that I need to have an internet connection to play a game offline. SO no, no ruling of the gaming world. I like my DVDs and Blu-Rays and PHYSICALNESS!

you can have your dvds and blu-rays.
look at the ps3, the playstation network is the perfect example of a good working gaming network.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Did you let it update at least the first time on install, and have you got "Don't save account credentials" checked under the Steam tab?

I made sure I'd updated it before my internet went off, then when my internet went off it suddenly came back on with the update screen and sat there telling me there was no connection therefore could not update.

Also good thing I checked the settings option... I didn't have that box checked but I did find out that Steam for some bizarre reason believes I live in the Netherlands...