Why do PC Gamers Prefer their Games to be on Steam
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I don't necessarily "prefer" them to be on Steam, but a game being on Steam (or more specifically, using the Steam services) is usually a plus to me.
Services like:
Auto-updates - for games and drivers
Match-making and hosting services
Cloud saves and file shares
Convenience
Easy access to my games from any location or computer
Sales
Friends network
Debugging and back-up tools
SDK and networking tools
Workshop
Game news and info hub
Game/item gifting and trading
Centralized group and event organizing
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I swear, a vast majority of the complaints I hear about Steam are based on either misinformation or massive assumptions.
This is not to say, of course, that there is nothing about Steam that's worth complaining about. There is plenty. Oh my is there ever. And believe me, I'll be right there with you when I hear someone bring them up.
(Still wish there was a way to roll-back to an older version of a game, should the latest auto-update break something.)
Even so, I still feel like many of the complaints are either minor nit-picks or just...false. At least, in a systemic sense.
No really, I'm genuinely serious. They may mirror my own grievances.
Or, perhaps they were problems I had faced, but found solutions to. In which case, perhaps I can help you with them.
Services like:
Auto-updates - for games and drivers
Match-making and hosting services
Cloud saves and file shares
Convenience
Easy access to my games from any location or computer
Sales
Friends network
Debugging and back-up tools
SDK and networking tools
Workshop
Game news and info hub
Game/item gifting and trading
Centralized group and event organizing
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
I swear, a vast majority of the complaints I hear about Steam are based on either misinformation or massive assumptions.
This is not to say, of course, that there is nothing about Steam that's worth complaining about. There is plenty. Oh my is there ever. And believe me, I'll be right there with you when I hear someone bring them up.
(Still wish there was a way to roll-back to an older version of a game, should the latest auto-update break something.)
Even so, I still feel like many of the complaints are either minor nit-picks or just...false. At least, in a systemic sense.
I hate that Steam always starts when my computer starts.
- This can be disabled with four mouse clicks. Five if you count clicking "Ok" when you're done.
Steam is nothing but a pop-up ad banner.
- This too can be disabled with four mouse clicks.
I hate that I don't own my games. That they are on some companies server instead of my harddrive. Unlike GOG, where I make back-ups on my harddrive so I have it forever.
- Steam has a very useful back-up utility that allows me to do the exact same thing. In fact, I've done so for every game I've bought through Steam. Twice. And, should Steam go down, it'll be a cinch to patch out auth-calls to the Steam servers. (assuming Valve doesn't do so themselves)
I hate the auto-patching ruining my games.
- Firstly, this isn't necessarily Steams fault. Blame the people who coded the patch. Secondly, auto-updating can be disabled with just a few mouse clicks.
I hate having all my games tied to one service. What happens when Steam goes down some time in the future? I'll have lost all of my games.
- No more so than if you'd bought them through, say, GoG.com or similar retailer. If GoG goes down, how can you redownload the games you bought from them? You can't. You'd have to rely on your back-ups. Same thing with Steam.
Steam causes my computer to chug. It slows everything to a crawl.
- While code hiccups will occur, I find it hard to believe a program that uses under 1% of the average CPUs processing power, and an average of 15 megs or RAM, would cause a machine to "chug". At least, not a machine that can play games from any point after 1995.
The Steam Overlay web-browser is buggy, laggy, and causes my games to crash sometimes.
- Actually...this ones a legitimate grievance. Valve really needs to recode that thing.
I hate that I have to be online to play my games.
- Not only is that patently false, it shows a lack of understanding of how Steam actually works. If you have a game on Steam that requires you to be online to play it, then that's due to extra layers of DRM added to the game by the developer or publisher of the game.
Offline mode never works. It's a broken system.
- I've had a desktop computer; one designed primarily for old games and single-player titles; running Steam in offline mode for over three years now. Haven't had an issue yet. Not saying there'll never be any. Things happen. However, looking into the issue, I've seen more cases of people having Offline Mode working fine than I have of cases wherein it doesn't. So, to say that Offline Mode is systemically broken is just wrong.
There are loads more, but I don't feel like going through them all.
But yet again, I'm not saying there's nothing to complain about in regard to Steam. I've got my fair share of issues. It's just that, as I said, most of the "issues" I hear about are just...well...non-issues.
- This can be disabled with four mouse clicks. Five if you count clicking "Ok" when you're done.
Steam is nothing but a pop-up ad banner.
- This too can be disabled with four mouse clicks.
I hate that I don't own my games. That they are on some companies server instead of my harddrive. Unlike GOG, where I make back-ups on my harddrive so I have it forever.
- Steam has a very useful back-up utility that allows me to do the exact same thing. In fact, I've done so for every game I've bought through Steam. Twice. And, should Steam go down, it'll be a cinch to patch out auth-calls to the Steam servers. (assuming Valve doesn't do so themselves)
I hate the auto-patching ruining my games.
- Firstly, this isn't necessarily Steams fault. Blame the people who coded the patch. Secondly, auto-updating can be disabled with just a few mouse clicks.
I hate having all my games tied to one service. What happens when Steam goes down some time in the future? I'll have lost all of my games.
- No more so than if you'd bought them through, say, GoG.com or similar retailer. If GoG goes down, how can you redownload the games you bought from them? You can't. You'd have to rely on your back-ups. Same thing with Steam.
Steam causes my computer to chug. It slows everything to a crawl.
- While code hiccups will occur, I find it hard to believe a program that uses under 1% of the average CPUs processing power, and an average of 15 megs or RAM, would cause a machine to "chug". At least, not a machine that can play games from any point after 1995.
The Steam Overlay web-browser is buggy, laggy, and causes my games to crash sometimes.
- Actually...this ones a legitimate grievance. Valve really needs to recode that thing.
I hate that I have to be online to play my games.
- Not only is that patently false, it shows a lack of understanding of how Steam actually works. If you have a game on Steam that requires you to be online to play it, then that's due to extra layers of DRM added to the game by the developer or publisher of the game.
Offline mode never works. It's a broken system.
- I've had a desktop computer; one designed primarily for old games and single-player titles; running Steam in offline mode for over three years now. Haven't had an issue yet. Not saying there'll never be any. Things happen. However, looking into the issue, I've seen more cases of people having Offline Mode working fine than I have of cases wherein it doesn't. So, to say that Offline Mode is systemically broken is just wrong.
There are loads more, but I don't feel like going through them all.
But yet again, I'm not saying there's nothing to complain about in regard to Steam. I've got my fair share of issues. It's just that, as I said, most of the "issues" I hear about are just...well...non-issues.
I'd like to hear them.Atmos Duality said:
No really, I'm genuinely serious. They may mirror my own grievances.
Or, perhaps they were problems I had faced, but found solutions to. In which case, perhaps I can help you with them.
Well, the primary problem is, of course, the Steamworks DRM and Offline Mode.Vigormortis said:
Sometimes, it just DERPS and locks me out of Offline Mode even when I have an internet connection.
Like when it doesn't go out entirely, but drops down to less than 50 kbps downstream during the login check.
Steam will just sit there with its thumb up its arse and refuse to let me into Offline Mode.
Last year, I had that happen from within Online Mode, as in, already downloading a game and everything was working fine. Then, when my wireless got knocked out, it punted me off and refused to let me use Offline Mode, even though it had already performed the check for Steamworks.
Where I suddenly got a good signal, logged on and did the check, but for whatever reason it locked me out of Offline Mode again.
Also, I've had issues with installations via their .NET Builder bot; where it will just hang after completing installation, but just not tell me.
Usually, canceling out of it twice will result in a functional game, as will installing .NET framework files manually (which I've done for a few things).
I've installed a few games without Steamworks using similar methods. DVDs that have the .NET package, And they work fine the first time...but they always screw the pooch when Steam does it. It happened with Monaco recently (and that lead into some...fascinating errors that created one helluva a strobe show), where I had to verify file integrity.
And of course, there are the forced updates for Valve products. I told Left4Dead and DotA2 to stop updating until I tell them to, and Steam went and ignored that, updating them either behind my back or at inopportune times.
(DotA2 updates are usually several hundred megs, every Thursday. Which is annoying when I get home and have to wait for DotA2 to finish hijacking my bandwidth)
The only solution was to uninstall them.
No other games did that to me, thankfully.
Convenience, and the neat community features. It updates games automatically, keeps track of my achievements and playtime, and lets me know what games other people have. As long as it remains useful and convenient and has most of the games I want, I'm a happy customer. It does have its niggles and wonks at times, but the positives outweigh the negatives.
Thread titled "Why do PC Gamers Prefer their Games to be on Steam"
Thread full of "we don't."
This amuses me more than it should. Perhaps OP should have asked *do we* instead of "why do we," since the second one is using a false premise and quickly becomes meaningless when it's apparent most people don't "prefer" steam.
Cheap digital distribution is what we "prefer." In the past, steam was the only name in that market. Today we have gog, gamersgate, greenmangaming, and all kinds of competition - they aren't big enough to put steam out of business, but they're competitive enough to offer better deals on a lot of games. Steam has convenience and an early head-start on our libraries, but even huge giants can fall behind in a race if they fail to compete.
Thread full of "we don't."
This amuses me more than it should. Perhaps OP should have asked *do we* instead of "why do we," since the second one is using a false premise and quickly becomes meaningless when it's apparent most people don't "prefer" steam.
Cheap digital distribution is what we "prefer." In the past, steam was the only name in that market. Today we have gog, gamersgate, greenmangaming, and all kinds of competition - they aren't big enough to put steam out of business, but they're competitive enough to offer better deals on a lot of games. Steam has convenience and an early head-start on our libraries, but even huge giants can fall behind in a race if they fail to compete.
Sometimes, when downloading a game, Steam won't re-auth your client credentials until after the download is complete. It's an annoying system sometimes, and may be why you couldn't go into offline mode.Atmos Duality said:
In that last example, it literally wouldn't restart in Offline Mode when you clicked the option in the File menu? If so, that's a new one to me. I'll have to do some research on it. Maybe there's a hot-fix of some kind.
I've had that happen as well, but it only seems to occur with certain titles. Some of which had similar issues outside of Steam.
I think it may be a combination of problems within Steam and Microsofts .NET framework.
I didn't have that issue with Monaco, though I do know someone who had. So I feel your aggravation.
Hmm. I've only seen this happen once with Team Fortress 2 some time back. Haven't seen it happen with Left 4 Dead 2 nor Dota 2. Though, to be fair, in Dota 2's case, I keep it updated since I play it often.
I know it's obvious, but did you try pausing the update as it started? Usually, once paused, you can disable the auto-updates and it should refrain from updating in the future.
Could also be that, sometimes when Steam crashes or "derps" on updating your client credentials, some settings can be defaulted. I've had that happen recently during a power-outage. Most of my Steam settings were reset. Was pretty annoying.
Yeah, manually going into Offline Mode did nothing. Rebooting the client entirely did nothing.Vigormortis said:
A full restart (and a day of waiting for the net to return) fixed it.
Well, if I were an epileptic, I'd probably be dead or recovering on account of Monaco. That was one weird ass graphical glitch.
Fortunately, I knew how to fix it...or just got lucky.
It has defaulted on multiple occasions. DotA2, I tolerate in case I want to play it (which hasn't been often as of late), but I remember one summer, Left4Dead2 was going apeshit updating. With like 300+ MB updates every 3 days. (this was before the Steam Workshop had subscription-style content too)
Disabling updates, even via pausing didn't stop them from resuming next time I loaded Steam or rebooted into a new Windows Session.
Other games play nice with this; just not Valve's games.
I haven't installed Portal 1 or 2 or reinstalled the HL2 series on account of this.
TheKasp said:
So how do you play games with friends when you're offline? I only needed one copy of Quake or Command and Conquer and could play with friends but now you have to have several copies of the same game to play with your friends. Unless you know of a way to play games like L4D with one account.josemlopes said:
You know you can't stop games with a heavy emphasis on online play from updating correct? Let's for an example I will use a game outside of Steam, but you should still get the point. Say when Battlefield 3 did the update that nerfed the USAS-12, and someone was able to prevent that update, allowing them to run around without the nerfed USAS-12, but with what some called the OP USAS-12. Does that sound fair to you? That is just a minor thing, updates for an online game that you do not allow usually render a game unplayable online until you do the update.Atmos Duality said:
Yes.00slash00 said:
If you're wanting to remain in the 90's, then continue using desktop shortcuts. But an extra click on the Steam link on your taskbar is worth having in exchange for an uncluttered desktop.
GoG is good for games that you can't find anywhere else. Most of GMG's sales are Steam codes anyway. I'm not saying use Steam exclusively (heck I even have Origin for a couple of titles), I'm merely alluding as to why Steam tends to be the most popular.
oh if i could travel back to the 90s, i totally would. but i can understand liking all your games kept in one place, in a neat list (though i suppose you could do the same thing by just putting all desktop shortcuts into a folder and organizing them in list form). what i dont understand is the mentality of "well its not on steam, so im not going to buy it." i guess it goes back to a joke Louis C.K. made, about how people these days tend to only do things if they can do it their favorite wayGriffolion said:
my experience with people i know and people ive spoken to in forums is that most pc gamers do prefer steam. additionally, people like total biscuit have commented about how games tend to do better if theyre sold on steam because thats the service most pc gamers prefer. based on those, i felt it was fair to infer that most pc gamers prefer using steam. my apologies if you felt i didnt do enough research, but i stand by my statementAuronFtw said:
I'd much rather have a nice, old fashioned boxed copy of a game than solely a digital copy. Unfortunately, that's becoming more and more impossible, and in light of that Steam offers cheap games with a decent to excellent experience and little hassle. That's why I buy a lot of games on there, even though I would prefer that we had stuck to the huge boxes with the giant instruction manuals that contained awesome things like maps, Prima strategy guides, and everything else cool.
Games on steam just do better because steam has captured a bigger market and only does the 'new on steam' pop up after you played a game. (origin does it when your machine boots wich is annoying as hell, That's why I disabled autostart on origin00slash00 said:
) So their advertisement is simply better. (and better as websites which only can send email to you.Email that you don't want in your inbox because there is enough garbage in there already)If you look around for deals steam is 'very' expensive. And in sale times Amazon and Greenmangaming match their offers or make them even better. This is probably caused by steam growing so big.
Personally, with purchases of games I go all over the place, Steam, amazon, greenmangaming, gamestop. I go where games are the cheapest.
I'm not quite a "won't get it if it's not on Steam" person. But I'm more likely to get something if it's on Steam. If I really want a game but it can only be gotten through other means, then I'm not really bothered. Steam is just my preferred method, as, for me, it seems like the path of least resistance.00slash00 said:
Never had much love for Louis CK. Much like Ricky Gervais, he's overrated and completely unfunny.
This. 1000x this. I hate steam. It's not that steam is evil. It's that steam is DRM.votemarvel said:
This is like free prostitutes. They may be clean. They may be actually free. But it conditions consumers to not even ask if the other prostitutes are clean, or free. Then they act all surprised when they wake up with HIV but by then the non-free prostitutes already have their money and don't care.
DRM is like a prostitute. It may be benign. It may just break your 1 game. Or it might even corrupt your entire system because Sony puts a poorly coded rootkit on your system with it. And no matter what, you'll never known until after it has already FUBAR'd something and you're reformatting again, because it's DRM, and it's not like they're going to tell you exactly HOW they're trying to stop the pirates.
And then every game ever is available 2 hours after release with w working crack for the DRM all over the net. So the worst part is, the DRM doesn't even work.
Would I encourage piracy? No. (Well...not any more. Not here. Heh.) But I'd suggest either buying your games in a box at a store, or else via a service like Good Old Games. If it isn't available there...screw it. It's not worth trashing my entire windows install with 40+ working games just to play 1 title I probably won't like anyway.
But no. No steam. I still can't comprehend why people don't see the inherent evil in DRM, steam included.