Why do PC Gamers Prefer their Games to be on Steam

[DrunkOnEstus]

I'm old school, but I've caved and can't help it. The prices can be way too damned good to ignore, and it's nice having DirectX/V C++ 2005-2010/XNA/Etc patched regularly even though I knew to do that shit before. Offline mode has worked for me 100% of the time as long as I've started a game once while connected. Besides, I can make the fucker work if it doesn't let me, I bought it.

To be honest, I probably wouldn't have caved if my box copies didn't starting demanding Steamworks as their DRM. If you look at my profile, there's me activating Half-Life 2 and decrying the death of PC games as we know it because of this mandatory and useless bullshit, then ignoring it for 6 or so years until that caving in I mentioned. I'm sure Valve has a lot of thanks to give to publishers deciding to use it as DRM (though that's a security blanket at best for them), and a ton of balls for banking Half-Life 2 as being a good reason to deal with it in the first place.

 

[00slash00]

This is something I've been seeing a lot of lately. People saying they wasted money because they bought a pc game and didnt realize it didnt use steam to run. people who say that they only pirated a game because it wasnt sold on steam. I always figured people preferred to use steam just because the prices were usually better but it seems like a lot of pc gamers these days just refuse to use anything but steam, no matter what. Why do pc gamers, these days, seem to want all their games to be on steam? why does it matter so much to people, to the point where they are willing to steal any games that arent on steam?

generalization, HO!

not all pc gamers want their games on steam.

the thing is that almost every damn game comes with steam DRM.
that means if you brought skyrim in retail and want to play it after you have installed it, you are forced to make a steam account and connect to the internet in order to wait a bunch of minuites until a patch you dont want to be applied to the game is applied to the game and you can then start the damn thing.

patches used to be applied to when you ran into a bug that hindered you to continue the story, but with steam every damn patch, no matter how small gets shoved down your throat. and if there is an error in the patch, you gonna have fun uninstalling the whole game and try again.

so to answer your question:

no, not all of us like steam.
we have to use it because the developers and publishers made a deal with them to have their kind of drm on their game and steams drm seems to be the only kind of drm that people accept.

whenever i have the choice to buy a game, i check good old games first. thankyouverymuch.

i didnt say EVERY pc gamer. all i said was most pc gamers (at least most of the ones i know or have spoken to online) try to only get their games from steam.

 

[Korolev]

I do not "love" steam, but I use it because

1) It's a secure service. Never had any trouble with anyone hacking into my account. Never had any trouble with my info being stolen from my account. I haven't heard of too much hacking of Steam either.

2) It... works. I'm aware that other Digital Stores also work okay - I use Origin, and I've never had that many problems with it. But Steam was the first digital store I used that.... worked. Consistently and well. I have never had issues with Steam, except for an unfortunate bug which stopped "offline" mode from working for a few days. And that was a long time ago. Games appear to work well on it.

3) The Store is fairly comprehensive and easy to use. The prices are decent, although I know there are cheaper prices elsewhere. Download speeds from Steam are quite high.

The main reason why Gamers love Steam is because of a glow effect from Valve's games (the excellent Portal and Half life and L4D - regardless of whether or not you like them, the sales and the fan numbers don't lie - those games are incredibly popular) and because.... it works. It was one of the first to work, consistently and reliably.

Is steam a form of DRM? Yeah, absolutely. But as DRM goes, it's as unobtrusive as could be. Most gamers never have any problem with Steam, or have problems which are very minor. I'm one of those who have never really had anything to complain about. The games are cheaper to buy from steam than from physical stores, downloads are fast, installation is almost always painless, backups work well, updates are delivered automatically, and the store is largely very secure from hackers.

I am moderately pleased with how Steam functions. I do not "love" it, nor do I foolishly demand all my games to be steam compatible.

 

[generals3]

I don't like steam. The only times i use steam is when the game doesn't give me a choice (looking at you civ V) or in the case of awesome steam sales.

 

[Caiphus]

I'm a clumsy bastard, and am prone to losing/breaking stuff. Especially small flimsy things like DVDs. Some Steam detractors argue that if Steam goes out of business, all your games go *poof*. I'm probably more likely to lose my physical game collection through being a pillock anyway.

It also means I don't need to go searching for installation keys in manuals (I lose those too), or scrummaging around in the attic for games I haven't played in 3+ years.

Now, I prefer GoG, but if choosing between Steam and physical, I go Steam every time.

 

[00slash00]

people who say that they only pirated a game because it wasnt sold on steam.

I have never heard this before. Ever.

I don't prefer Steam; it is the opposite for me. However, if I HAVE to use a digital platform, then I go with Steam because it is run by a company that isn't run like it is under control of deranged sociopath idiots.

Yeah, it is definitely one of the more idiotic arguments ive ever seen for pirating a game. i saw it the other night, it was one of the comments on one of wowcrendor's video game developer tycoon. i was going to challenge them on their stance but it was late and i decided it wasnt worth the energy

 

[MorganL4]

For me it's convenience (ease of access as they're all in one place), social integration (chat) and the whole 'collector's' appeal of seeing this massive games library you have access to just by opening a window.

Yeah, basically this.... That said, I won't NOT buy a game for PC if it is not on steam, but if given the option to buy it straight from the dev or in a box on a shelf, or buy in via steam, I'm gonna pick steam.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

The resaon I perfer it?

Its' been around for awhile, lots of features including Steam Workshop for Mods, a really easy backup system, large number of games available and of course Steam Sales.

Not being controlled by morons in suits who think 'Always Online is the best thing EVAR!' ala EA and Ubisoft is pure gravy.

 

[008Zulu_v1legacy]

I don't. I'd prefer there be no "always on" connection required, it's why I only run Steam if I feel like playing Skyrim or Space Marine.

 

[mirage202]

I use steam simply because it came with the original Orange Box.

So in a sense, as it was the first I used, I have stuck with it. Aside from a couple of dud games that just refuse to work, never had an issue and thus no reason to reconsider.

I will if possible though buy a game through GamersGate and then activate it on Steam, those Blue Coins are worth getting, especially when they equal free games when a sale rolls around.

To those discussing the long view. What does it matter? Steam or not we don't own our games, Steam may eventually fold yes, but that is no different from Publishers shutting them down the second it costs them money. So I take the long view in my own way. Steam offers the chance for a game to continue long after a publisher loses interest, especially if those games are using Steams servers and the Workshop.

 

[Auron]

Are you really suggesting that all of us who just praised Steam and really like the service work for Valve? The entire dev team must be here then.

I am quoting one guy. It can be therefore logically deduced that I'm addressing that guy.

If I was talking to "all of you" I would have addressed all of you, but that post sounded more like a salesman than a satisfied customer.

He pretty much said what we all said in a... weird way. Now that I read more attentively it does look a bit like a robot. Still sounded like it was directed towards all of us, apologize for the misread though. =p

 

[satsugaikaze]

I also loathe Steam. Their prices have been jacked up in certain regions (Australia~) and I can easily purchase a brand-new retail box on the cheap from elsewhere on the Internet for half the price that they do for new release games. The only problem is that a majority of PC games these days seem to demand being run on Steam and it feels like an obvious move towards monopolising digital distribution on that particular platform, as well as limiting exactly how much gaming you can share with others.

Steam Sales are also tickling my fancy less and less, mostly because the games on sale are usually ones I have already bought in previous sales or are games that I simply don't care about.

 

[nvzboy]

I don't really prefer steam but I can see why people like it more than other digital distribution software. Perhaps because they do give discounts once in a while on popular games while origin charges even more than the ye-olde shop.

 

[latiasracer]

Like others have said, it's having everything in one place and not having to faff about with changing discs when i want to play stuff.

The biggest thing for me is i live in a rural area, and it's about 40 minutes drive to the nearest game store. And then I'm limited by their prices, and their stock (They have a tiny PC games shelf). It also happens, that for some bizarre reason Cornwall was one of the first counties to be hooked up with BT Infinity's fiber optic, meaning that i get speeds of 55mb/s + meaning there is almost no reason, Whatsoever to drive for 40 minutes for something that will be overpriced IF it's actually there.

 

[Mullac]

Well I don't.

If it were a choice between Steam and any other digital download service then of course I'd pick steam, as they have fairly good support, a nice client and have always been good to me. However, I prefer to buy physical copies of games, I just really like to have something I can hold and remiss to later.

 

[PatrickXD]

I prefer to have games on disc. I buy games on steam when they have sales, otherwise I'll get a disc. It's cheaper, and I feel more confident as it feels more like my property.

 

[bliebblob]

Enter the System Configuration Utility, also known simply as msconfig.
It's found at "C:\\Windows\\System32\\msconfig.exe" or by simply searching for "msconfig" in the Start Menu searchbar.
The less of these you leave checked, the faster Windows will finish loading when you start your computer.

I've always wanted to do that but you can't just turn off everything can you? Any tips on what to leave on? What would be the bare minimum? For the record, I have attempted to figure this out on my own at one point but let's just say it was too ambitious of a project at the time.

OT: To the people saying they don't like steam being always on DRM. Did you know you steam has an offline mode? obviously you can't chat or anything like that but you can play your offline games like skyrim. Next time you do go online (if ever) it will just synch up your save file to the one in the cloud and nothing will be lost. It even offers to use offline mode if you're opening steam and there's no internet. Or did I completely miss your point?

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

Steam does have DRM. What with it requiring you to have been online at least once in the login session (not very inconvenient, but for some it's an issue). However, it's DRM is not the biggest piece of shit on the earth. It's not even that big of an issue. Steam has more Pros then Cons. And the only time I've had an inconvenience due to the DRM, is when my Internet was out for two days. Even then, I just played Minecraft or Pokemon. I prefer Steam because, whether the DRM is an issue or not, it provides a good service, and has never wronged me. I buy my games there for convenience, and because of the massively insane sales.

 

[Arakasi]

I don't prefer it. When I put a fucking CD in I expect it to not use Steam, and am actively pissed off when it does. Did I buy it from Steam? No, because I didn't want it to run from FUCKING STEAM!

I prefer games from GOG. At least you know there's no DRM.