Steam being open.

[Amishdemon]

It seems to me that a major complaint with steam is that it must be open to run steam games.

I just can't understand why this is such a bad thing. Anyone care to enlighten me?

 

[Aidinthel]

Well, a lot of people don't seem to realize Steam has an offline mode and assume it's always-on DRM. Note that offline mode works perfectly well for me if not necessarily for some other people judging by the number of times I've been quoted to tell me it does not work.

And everyone else is just being petty about a mild inconvenience.

 

[Weaver]

I'd assume because it's an additoinal resource overhead.

 

[Euhan01]

At worst its a minor annoyance, offline mode makes it fine.

 

[Irridium]

Because it takes control away from the user. The PC is the user's machine, the user controls what's happening. Steam breaks that control, and forces the user to use it on its terms.

And to those saying "offline mode", that does not fix this problem. Offline or online, Steam must be running, and quite a few people understandably hate being forced to run programs they want nothing to do with when they feel like playing the games they legally bought.

 

[CleverNickname]

... I hate games I don't have on Steam because I'll usually end up missing the overlay

I know it works on added shortcuts, but I always forget to add them.

Hell, I have Steam running even if I'm in a non-Steam game. Then I'll still hear the bloop of incoming messages (which is probably the most pleasant you-have-a-msg-sound ever).

My friend's brother hates Steam and barely plays anything on it (he's a dirty raging pirate) but is nevertheless online on Steam all the time.

People hating on Steam just want to feel special because they can come up with fancy-sounding reasons not to use something practical and popular. I'm so impressed by your superiorness (they're too cool for common superiority). Look at me, this is my impressed face, you self-absorbed tech-hipster.

 

[manythings]

... I hate games I don't have on Steam because I'll usually end up missing the overlay

I know it works on added shortcuts, but I always forget to add them.

Hell, I have Steam running even if I'm in a non-Steam game. Then I'll still hear the bloop of incoming messages (which is probably the most pleasant you-have-a-msg-sound ever).

My friend's brother hates Steam and barely plays anything on it (he's a dirty raging pirate) but is nevertheless online on Steam all the time.

People hating on Steam just want to feel special because they can come up with fancy-sounding reasons not to use something practical and popular. I'm so impressed by your superiorness (they're too cool for common superiority). Look at me, this is my impressed face, you self-absorbed tech-hipster.

There are good reasons to dislike steam, like the fact that they are among the worst priced providers but not enough people bother shopping around to notice. They also restrict access to your property and make it harder to actually make use of it.

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/08/17/deus-ex-human-revolution-is-region-locked/

Also stuff like that which valve have taken no issue with in direct contadiction to them being all about the consumer.

 

[psicat]

... I hate games I don't have on Steam because I'll usually end up missing the overlay

I know it works on added shortcuts, but I always forget to add them.

Hell, I have Steam running even if I'm in a non-Steam game. Then I'll still hear the bloop of incoming messages (which is probably the most pleasant you-have-a-msg-sound ever).

My friend's brother hates Steam and barely plays anything on it (he's a dirty raging pirate) but is nevertheless online on Steam all the time.

People hating on Steam just want to feel special because they can come up with fancy-sounding reasons not to use something practical and popular. I'm so impressed by your superiorness (they're too cool for common superiority). Look at me, this is my impressed face, you self-absorbed tech-hipster.

And, I hate Steam pure and simple, I'll use it for a few games that need it, but I prefer not to. Who the fuck cares about a social aspect added on to DRM, it's still DRM. And, quit insulting people who hate steam just because you are a blind fanboy.

 

[Weslebear]

Having programs running in the background really doesn't bother me at all, I mean I usually have Hamachi, Skype, Steam, Tiled, Chrome, Itunes and whatever game of choice I am playing at the time. If your PC can't handle a game and Steam at the same time it might need some upgrading if you actually want to PC game.

But as just not liking Steam, fair enough I have no say in that.

 

[CleverNickname]

my, aren't we creative again today...

I'm sure we can find hundreds of people who have "perfectly legitimate reasons" (...) to dislike Steam, and a handful of them I'll probably grant that they had some sort of unlucky experience

but that doesn't change that 95% (lol) of the whining on the internet comes from exactly what I described - people making shit up to sound "better". on the internet. because they believe that works. or matters.

So excuuuuuse me, princess, if some general behaviour I see a few times a week annoys me enough to vent about it. If you feel insulted by that, it's not my fault.

 

[dark-mortality]

Meh, I think steam is okay. Sure, it gets a bit annoying that I MUST have it open, and it gets a bit annoying when offline won't work, but so and say all my games are from there. (Mainly because i'm not what people can call a 'hardcore' gamer) And heck, I think the prices there are a heck of a lot better than the ones I find in the game shops in MY country. (Note, I live in Norway, and games here are ALWAYS at least 10 dollars/7 euro more expensive than what steam charges.)

 

[ZiggyE]

but that doesn't change that 95% (lol) of the whining on the internet comes from exactly what I described - people making shit up to sound "better". on the internet. because they believe that works. or matters.

[Citation Needed]

The fact remains that Steam is a bloated, buggy program. The fact that it must be on to run any legally purchased games, especially singleplayer games, is insult to injury.

 

[DarthRiko]

Small little things that make Steam worth it.

Being able to chat with friend while in-game via Steam Overlay.
Right clicking on a friend and selecting "Join Game."
Built-in voice-chat, rather than having to use skype or vent.
Getting $200 worth of games for around $75. (that's going by the listed prices, not original retail prices, which are even higher than $200)
Automatic updates to all of your games.
No additional DRM beyond Steam needed.
Never breaking or scratching your game disk.
Never lose your game disk.
Never lose your CD-key.
Steam Cloud make sure you don't ever lose your save data, for some games.
Massive indie library.

 

[KhakiHat]

[snip]

The fact remains that Steam is a bloated, buggy program. The fact that it must be on to run any legally purchased games, especially singleplayer games, is insult to injury.

And the injury is shined knees.

On topic: I still buy disks when I find deals and accept that the price I pay when I buy on Steam is for a service, not a product. The service I get is having my games on my drive, save files in the cloud and backups kept in a nice server in Redmond rather than in my house where disks DO scratch. I understand a layer of DRM is involved, but its the most humane form of DRM I've ever used.

And who said you had to play these games? ZiggyE, this isn't directed just to you but to me also. I got a life to live. For all It's evil DRM isn't going to change the fact that I need to get a job and make an advance on the cute bespectacled girl who sits across from me in Geography class.
Yup, i got hit with the Moe cannon hard. Peace brotha's!

 

[Woodsey]

I suppose people might find it an inconvenience. I'd struggle to believe anyone finds it too much of a resource hog though.

 

[GiantRedButton]

Well, a lot of people don't seem to realize Steam has an offline mode and assume it's always-on DRM.

And everyone else is just being petty about a mild inconvenience.

the offline mode only works if you start it when your online, so basicly not when you need it.
so you can't play steam games when your internet connection fails.
dont mind it, used to mind steam when the resopurces steam used while running where a problem (in the 512 mb ram days^^)

 

[Cornish]

The Steam client uses roughly a single gigabyte of memory on my Mac. That's a lot of memory for what it does during play; nothing. And I don't mean that in the literal sense. For me as a player, Steam doesn't contribute to my playing experience. It subtracts from it by using resources that could've being used other-wise.

Though I made a clear choice; I stopped buying from Steam and any product with Steam. I don't see a reason to bicker about it. Simple problem; don't like what a retailer is doing. Simple solution; stop buying from the retailer.

 

[DrOswald]

The Steam client uses roughly a single gigabyte of memory on my Mac. That's a lot of memory for what it does during play; nothing. And I don't mean that in the literal sense. For me as a player, Steam doesn't contribute to my playing experience. It subtracts from it by using resources that could've being used other-wise.

Though I made a clear choice; I stopped buying from Steam and any product with Steam. I don't see a reason to bicker about it. Simple problem; don't like what a retailer is doing. Simple solution; stop buying from the retailer.

A gigabyte of ram? That sounds a little weird. Are you sure your computer isn't messed up or something? my steam client uses less than a tenth of a gigabyte.

Also, many people are saying that steam is consistently $5 more than standard retail channels. where are you getting this data? I ran some comparisons:

Steam best buy game stop
Modern Warfare 2: $29.99 $29.99 $29.99
Bioshock $19.99 unlisted $19.99
Dawn of war II: retribution $29.99 $29.99 $29.99
Fallout New Vegas $19.99 $19.99 $19.99
Civilization V $49.99 $49.99 $49.99

Seems pretty much even across the board to me. I have noticed that amazon sometimes has better prices by a couple dollars, but not consistently and Steam has frequent sales and additional advantages such as storage of your games on their servers (instead of easily lost CD's and install keys), easy install, and a huge library of indie games that can't be found at standard retailers.

I think it is more a matter of preference and situation. I have never experienced problems with steam and neither has anyone else I know, but I admit it is not ideal for ever situation. I personally love it.

Edit: Crap, formatting for the chart didn't carry over, sorry. First number is steam, second is Best buy, and third is game stop.