Ururu117 said:
Eh? I don't even own a console.
How is it an advantage that the system covers for your own flaws? That is just glaringly hedonistic right there. This isn't a hard thing to do at all, and STEAM has a huge incentive to do it the way they do it because it prevents piracy to a large degree by sealing a hole in the system while only invoking minor changes to how you need to do things, IE, make sure you have an internet connection once.
Steam prevent piracy?..waahh...
Are you aware of programs like steambuster? I'd argue that games based on the steam platform are far easier to pirate than those based on secuROM (for one because neither pirated or legit games feel the need to hide themselves deep within the regeistry). Are you aware how easy it is to pirate the ever popular call of duty six? It's the easiest game in the call of duty series to play online without a legit copy of the game (seriously, I'll refrain from going into it here but I don't think the piracy even counts as hacking in this case).
Wait, forget that. Even if steam somehow
does prevent piracy,
why should I care? That's not my problem, I'm not involved in piracy (other than getting around intrusive DRM on purchased games, though the last game that neccissitated that was bioshock) and as such it has a minimal effect on me. Why would I choose a system that
doesn't cover my flaws when there's a better, age proven system that
does?
And I like how your "it is easy to do, you only need to do three things wrong over the course of a year and never write anything down at all and never ask for help from any sort of customer service." Yep, real easy.
A year is hardly a long time, especially for adult gamers. I can still quite easily dig up computer games from well over 10 years ago and play them with no trouble, it's a lot easier to lose a receit than it is a game disk, yes? Mine was one example of how it can fail, basicially anytime you change your email without remember to update steam beforehand (which is damn easy to do, especially for people who don't use it everyday) and suddenly that "oh so secure" system is easy be be seperated from. I lot of people feel more comfortable with a physical copy, and it is justified. Steam security is not infallable, it's not that unusual for people to lose their data.
And your assertion against incremental update is flawed as well, due to the very fact people often don't know how their internet is going to perform. A single giant download is glaringly hard to do for a large percentage of, oh, THE POPULATION OF THE EARTH, especially in areas where broadband is inaccessible. An incremental style is far more accessable, and for a multiarea platform, this is the way to go.
Are you simply trolling me or do you genuinly not understand what I'm complaining about? The compitition I've cited were impulse and xfire, both download patches incrementally and save "as it downloads" rather than in one large clump, the key difference is they do not
install patches as they download incrementally. The problem with steam isn't that it allows the pausing of downloading, or that it lets you download large files over several days, it's that
as soon as steam begins downloading an update, it begins installing it. This cannot be undone and the only possible way to play the game is to let the update finish. You're damn right that a great many people cannot download large files at once, in fact, singificant updates may be greater than a lot of users
entire monthly quota. By partially installing undownloaded patches effectively bars these users from playing their games. That is not only a stupid system, but utter bullshit, that alone is reason to hate the system....That's fantastic if you (like many other gamers on this site) are on an appropriate internet plan, the simple fact is that many people are not, just because it's not a major obstacle for you doesn't mean it isn't to the OP.
The flaws are neither large nor obvious, and while Steam is not perfect, it has, as I have said before, gotten better by leaps and bounds over the last, say, decade. If all you can complainable is that the download style doesn't suit you and it forces you to plan farther than five seconds ahead while you enjoy the LAN based game you just downloaded, you may need to re-evaluate what you regard as "obvious".
The flaws are gapingly obvious, especially the download and install one. ESPECIALLY when you have a shitty internet connection due to living with parents. It may not be obvious to you, or other gaming enthusiasts who have good internet connections, however it is a royal pain in the ass to others. Comparing it to it's immediate competition (I've been talking about impulse a lot, but seriously, it's a far superior platform) and it becomes more obviously flawed (words cannot describe how infinately better xfires and impulses patching system is). Compared to hard copies, it is far, far easier to lose access to your games. The only way to not see the flaws is to actively ignore them. The issues with offline mode, while they are far, far better than they were, are still there. The system is annoying to use offline, and if a secondary account was used on your computer, you cannot access your games without going online. That kinda sucks balls, there's no such problem with hard copies.
As someone who has been with Valve and Steam since it WAS unusuable and shit to the present day, I'm not attacking your argument because I like Steam (I really don't, it killed dozens of good servers and communities when it was deployed), but because your arguments are simply silly.
No, they are not applicable to the enthusiast, that doesn't make them silly. You're responce indicates that you have no fucking idea what I'm complaining about, which is good, hopefully you'll continue to enjoy using steam. I don't, however, and until they fix the problems and bring it up to the level of other platforms, I won't be recommending it.
