Why do People love Valve so much?

[MeChaNiZ3D]

How did I know it was you.

Steam doesn't try to install spyware on your computer. Steam has sales in accordance with the prices made possible by digital distribution, unlike some others. Valve's most prominent games, Half Life and Portal, are both original, thought-out, humourous games. Valve also has excellent customer loyalty from their attitude and treatment of players, and have extolled opinions that resonate with the people who hate EA's business practises.

As far as demonising other companies, services, whatever - Steam is DRM in the same way Origin is, except it doesn't do things to your computer you would rather it didn't, Valve has great customer support, and the savings are massive. Microtransactions in TF2 are either hats, which are irrelevant, or weapons which can be acquired normally but regardless are generally balanced. The one thing I don't like in that general area is the crate/key system, but that's about the only thing, which is more tha can be said for plenty of OH I DON'T KNOW SAY EA's games.

Basically Valve treats its customers right and makes its games well. There's nothing irrational about liking Valve.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

ALL of them are greatly over-hyped at least for me

There you have it. You just don't like Valve's output out of personal preference while a given majority apparently does. There doesn't need to be any elaborate reasoning to support this.

You're basically asking why people like something you don't like. Honestly, that question answers itself.

It's not just about what they do. It's more about how they do it. It's true that Steam can be considered DRM and TF2 transactions are microtransactions. But like I said, it's not about what, it's about how. Their way of doing business is convinient to their customers. It has customers in mind as actual living beings worthy of respect, not just wallets that need to be emptied. That's why people love Valve. It's one of the very few gaming companies that is completely run by actual gamers, instead of suits with a business degree.

As always, look to Sarif Industries' security chief for a more involved and thorough explanation. I didn't ask for this, but thanks a bunch.

 

[Vivi22]

I read the Steam service agreement It blatantly told me I do not own the games I buy on there.

I've got some bad news for you: Pretty much every company that sells software takes this same stance, and the law basically agrees with them, whether it's right or not.

I can pretty much guarantee that according to just about every EULA you've ever agreed to and in the eyes of the law you do not own anything more than a license to use every single piece of software you ever bought. That include your physical copies of games. Which means that companies can (and have) shut down services or cut off your access to portions of, or even entire games you bought whether you bought a physical copy or a digital one.

Now if we add this to your other complaints in the OP which were either factually wrong (they haven't released a game in years) or silly (they're selling people game items they want that don't force people to buy them to play the actual game), you don't seem to have much of an actual argument.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Words of wisdom!

Pretty much this, Gamerguy. Even if you buy your games in retail format, you will never factually own them. Even if you skip the PC market for consoles, you'll never actually own the games you'll buy, no matter which console manufacturer you choose to support.

If your primary beef is ownership issues; I'm sorry to tell you this but - welcome to 2013. Everything is a commodity, everything is a service that's being graciously extended our way by the content providers, and whatever segment of code you might have that happens to run entirely off-line *still* doesn't belong to you as per copyright law.

The books you buy? Not yours. The MP3s you legally snagged off iTunes? Not yours, either. Your operating system? Unless you're running on Linux or one of its distros, you can be damn sure you don't own your OS.

Considering that, you're better off sticking to one of the lesser evils. That happens to be Valve.

 

[DoPo]

Unless you're running on Linux or one of its distros

That made me chuckle "distro" is short for a "distribution" which in this case are just different variations. And all of them are Linux. Compared to Windows, Linux distros are sort of analogue to different kinds of Windows - Vista/7/8 or Home Premium/Professional and so on. These are all Windows, it's not "Windows or one of the variations".

 

[Gameguy20100]

Words of wisdom!

Pretty much this, Gamerguy. Even if you buy your games in retail format, you will never factually own them. Even if you skip the PC market for consoles, you'll never actually own the games you'll buy, no matter which console manufacturer you choose to support.

If your primary beef is ownership issues; I'm sorry to tell you this but - welcome to 2013. Everything is a commodity, everything is a service that's being graciously extended our way by the content providers, and whatever segment of code you might have that happens to run entirely off-line *still* doesn't belong to you as per copyright law.

The books you buy? Not yours. The MP3s you legally snagged off iTunes? Not yours, either. Your operating system? Unless you're running on Linux or one of its distros, you can be damn sure you don't own your OS.

Considering that, you're better off sticking to one of the lesser evils. That happens to be Valve.

Its GAMEGUY get it right.

Thats all very true but consider this to get rid of physical copies they would need to take away the disk and that would be to much of a pain for them.

For a Steam Library or something they can wipe it on a whim.

Am I being petty? probably but hey What can ya do I'm a teenager with nothing better to do.

 

[bafrali]

Guess OP didn't get the cake with strippers in it that comes with the every Valve game.

Seriously though, their games are always welcomed by both critics and fans. They have always free DLC for their games. They have terrific sales and I mean terrific. They have a sense of humour which never hurts.

Heck they are basically an indie company and as we all know people love the underdog...

 

[Lovely Mixture]

People have said a great deal about the microtransactions but I'll add my two cents.

TF2 became Free-to-Play shortly after they added microtransactions.
Their Portal 2 and DOTA2 content is all cosmetic.

"Their games are perfect"

Only fanboys say this.
I like Valve, but I've considered their games to pretty badly playtested in recent year.

Thats all very true but consider this to get rid of physical copies they would need to take away the disk and that would be to much of a pain for them.

For a Steam Library or something they can wipe it on a whim.

Am I being petty? probably but hey What can ya do I'm a teenager with nothing better to do.

Employees on the Steam Forums have stated that if Steam ever goes down as a service, they would release patches to make the games not require Steam.
They COULD wipe it on whim, upon which lawsuits would come in, and sometimes they have banned accounts. But they've developed a lot of trust with their users.

So unless things get REALLY bad, I'm not sure we will be seeing such lawsuits.

 

[IamLEAM1983]

Its GAMEGUY get it right.

Thats all very true but consider this to get rid of physical copies they would need to take away the disk and that would be to much of a pain for them.

For a Steam Library or something they can wipe it on a whim.

Am I being petty? probably but hey What can ya do I'm a teenager with nothing better to do.

No need to stress out over this, man. I'm a Lit geek, I spend my days reviewing spider leg-sized scrawls written by drunken university students who don't give a shit about grammar. It stands to reason that my vision would be more than a little shot and that I'd hallucinate an R in there.

Yes, I do know I need to have another go at the ophthalmologist.

Honestly, though - the odds of Valve pulling a dick move and deleting your entire library are next to nil. The closest thing that could happen would be entirely on you, and would consist of you forgetting your own username and password. As all good things come to an end and I'm assuming Steam will have to close its doors sometime before Great Chtulhu awakens from his slumber underneath R'lyeh, then I figure Valve will be kind enough to devise a means for users to save as many games as they can locally, and to do so in a way that allows them to be played offline. I like to call that the Great Self-Cracking Initiative. Again, not that I see this happening anytime soon.

Yes, you're being a tad petty and I don't think being a teenager is much of an excuse. I'm 29 going on 30, I'm still in the process of reaching a decent career spot that won't put me near the poverty line, having a spare twenty is still a cause for celebration - and I don't bemoan digital outlets for not giving me total ownership. Several devs are already providing me with terrific post-release support, modding tools and a generally challenging and interesting environment.

If traditional ownership is the one price I have to pay to play against the kind of people I do and to meet the friends I've made throughout those games - then you won't hear me complain.

Long story short, I'd really drop that hip cynicism that makes so many people (including myself, a few years back) assume that all DRM-using companies and corporations are so thoughtlessly evil as to take our games with them when their demise becomes inevitable.

And if they don't? Piracy! Download a crack for a game you legally "own" and that's already been downloaded from your Steam library, and you're all set!

Unless you're running on Linux or one of its distros

That made me chuckle "distro" is short for a "distribution" which in this case are just different variations. And all of them are Linux. Compared to Windows, Linux distros are sort of analogue to different kinds of Windows - Vista/7/8 or Home Premium/Professional and so on. These are all Windows, it's not "Windows or one of the variations".

Yeah, sorry about that. Being a bit of a Linux outsider, I figured there was one "core" release and several tweaked or severely modded versions that people called distros.

[insert requisite GIF of Bald Kevin Spacey yelling "WRONG!"]

 

[Rheinmetall]

Why do people tolerate DRM services, like Steam, Origin, Uplay? Zero consumer conscience.
Why do people love Valve so much? Zero consumer conscience and fan-boy mentality.

 

[Zhukov]

I like Valve because I enjoy the games they make and I like getting cheap games on Steam sales.

Fucking deal with it.

 

[Little Gray]

Its called stockholm syndrome. Seriously people love valve because they are used to them and there is a massive amount of games on steam. It is also forced on a lot of people because of the wide number of developers that are using it now as well.

They also do nice sales every week which helps to offset the fact that they are almost always the most expensive place to buy a game.

Isn't that Illegal here In the UK?

I don't think so. It's only altering something you already bought.

In most countries its illegal to circumvent any kind of drm.

People love Valve because they treat their customers right. Steam gets more praise than Origin because Origin's Terms of Service has a bit that says Origin is allowed to sift through your computer's files--even ones that aren't related to Origin. The explanation for this is so that Origin can give you better targeted ads, but since there aren't really any listed limitations on how they can use whatever information they find naturally the community is dubious of the whole idea. Steam has no such feature.

Actually it does the only difference is that Valve give you the option to opt in where as EA doesn't. That said neither of the services do anything I would call worrying, in fact for the most part they just sit there doing nothing.

I cant remember but is Steams an opt in option or an opt out option? EA has actually always had an opt out option for it but its something that its haters conveniently forget and ignore whenever its brought up.

 

[Little Gray]

It's not just about what they do. It's more about how they do it. It's true that Steam can be considered DRM and TF2 transactions are microtransactions. But like I said, it's not about what, it's about how. Their way of doing business is convinient to their customers. It has customers in mind as actual living beings worthy of respect, not just wallets that need to be emptied. That's why people love Valve. It's one of the very few gaming companies that is completely run by actual gamers, instead of suits with a business degree.

No they definitely treat their customers like walking wallets its just that they are better at hiding that fact then most other companies. They know exactly how to take advantage of their customers and they excel at exploiting it.

Plus as pretty much anybody who has had to deal with their customer service will tell you valve treats its consumers like complete shit when they actually deal with them. Hell on multiple occasions they have actually sold people games that they didnt even have access keys for.

 

[Elate]

Oh it's this thread again. Someone posts a "Why are Valve so fantastic?" not because they want answers, but because they want a chance to flame Valve fans.

Want to know something fun? I have Origin. I have Steam. I have Good Old Games. I have Desura.

Basically, I'm a digital download expert. /sarcasm

Out of all of those, Origin is the worst. I've had issues with customer service, delays in the release of DIGITAL games (apparently a game released in America needs to be delayed ONLINE? Lolwhat.) and generally, a shitty experience.

Desura, it's throw away and forget, not amazing, it does its job, it's stale.

Good Old Games? Caters to a niche market, and does it very well. It offers something new, which is the key here.

Steam? Steam is a community. THAT is the key. It has mod collections, sales, chat (Yes so does Origin, but it's horribly implemented.) a nice, informative games library, easy to navigate store, saving to the cloud, oh and greenlight. All in one little package.

So, if your gripe is with digital distribution, tough shit, frankly. The gaming community doesn't cater to the Luddites, some people really liked VHS and probably wished movies would have stayed on that, too fucking bad. If you want new games, you'll have to go with the flow. Valve just does digital distribution the best, so far, because it keeps innovating the way it does it.

Onto their games! All their micro transactions are optional cosmetics. There. It's really that simple. Dota 2 outfits, Tf2 hats. Hell, recently they just paid map creators on CS:GO and items used in Dota2 and TF2 created by the community get paid royalties, please tell me of any other company you know, that PAYS gamers to make content for their games. What's that? Tumble weed? Yeah I thought so.

As has been mentioned, while their games aren't always amazing, they're consistently GOOD. They put effort into them, and they keep good relationships with the people that they sell them to, oh and that map pack I mentioned? It's free to the community, no buying map pack DLC like CoD, they pay for it via paid ticket servers. A new idea, that works. I forgot L4D! They doubled the amount of content for that, merging storys and maps, totally for free.

So yeah, Valve are pretty good. That's why we like them, please, I'm dying to hear your strawman argument about how you don't like them, so they must be shit.

Origin lets you log into it's client without an internet connection.

So does Steam, do some research first yeah?

 

[Austin Howe]

Valve games are, in general, Die Hard, absolutely EXCELLENT executions of structure and design that do absolutely NOTHING to rise above just being a video game.

 

[FalloutJack]

In a nutshell.

Guy, is this thread going somewhere or what? When you ask a loaded question like that, you do not stomp on all the answers with an oversized chip on your shoulder. You're going to get a deluge no matter what, and bailing out the ocean isn't going to help, so take a moment in your schedule to learn something instead. And what you should basically take from this, after all the opinions and sayings and arguments are boiled down like nothing flat, is that the reason they're loved is essentially...that they aren't shit.

That's all! My secretary will schedule and further appointments! Good day, gentlemen and ladies!

 

[Vigormortis]

respectful snip for space considerations

*Insert enthusiastic clap gif*

Hear hear.

I'm all for "griping" about the bad aspects of Valve and Steam. And believe me, I have my issues with both at times. However, a vast majority of the times I hear Valve detractors (some like the OP and other more vocally condescending posters on this site) leverage complaints against the service or company, those complaints are petty at best and hypocritical nonsense at worst. Often times originating from misinformation or exaggeration.

In fact, there's someone (who I won't name) on this site (perhaps even this very thread) who angrily discussed how much he/she hated Steam in another, similar topic to this one. This person made a point of describing, quite thoroughly, why he/she hated Steam. Lamenting about how much he/she hated having games tied to a single service and not having access to them by any other fashion.

Yet, in another thread on the topic of EA's exclusivity deal with Lucas/Disney to make all future Star Wars titles, he/she was absolutely adamant about how excited he/she was to start playing Star Wars games again, making a point of saying he/she couldn't wait to see those games show up in the Origin store.

This is the kind of hypocrisy I see in threads like this all the time. It's the same kind of hypocrisy these same detractors will complain about in regards to Valve/Steam fans.

The sad part is, most of the posters bringing genuine complaints to the table in discussions like this are drowned out by the nonsense. Which is a shame, really, because the only way we'll get these issues addressed is by bringing them to the forefront. Instead, they just get added to the laundry list of nonsensical things people bring up.

 

[Gameguy20100]

In a nutshell.

Guy, is this thread going somewhere or what? When you ask a loaded question like that, you do not stomp on all the answers with an oversized chip on your shoulder. You're going to get a deluge no matter what, and bailing out the ocean isn't going to help, so take a moment in your schedule to learn something instead. And what you should basically take from this, after all the opinions and sayings and arguments are boiled down like nothing flat, is that the reason they're loved is essentially...that they aren't shit.

That's all! My secretary will schedule and further appointments! Good day, gentlemen and ladies!

HAHA I rember that Pic I used it on some troll who was flaming me for likeing dragon age 2 and I should not have said that.

 

[bafrali]

Valve games are, in general, Die Hard, absolutely EXCELLENT executions of structure and design that do absolutely NOTHING to rise above just being a video game.

Ahh What did you expect from their GAMES? To cure your cancer? To bring about the world peace ?Which games out there transcend their medium and become something more? Why does that sound so pretentious? Why is the sky blue?