Why I don't like Steam

[Shycte]

A problem I had was that I forgot my Steam password and I couldn't retrive it because I had a Ö in the Secret answer. So know I couldn't access my game there. A game I could not re-install because it was already bound to my old account, that I can't get to. Fuck that shit.

 

[Jaded Scribe]

This seems to be the PC markets way of clamping down on second hand gaming on the PC and no-one seems that bothered.

The second hand PC market has been dead for the last 10 years, so nobody really is that bothered. The second hand market is basicly piracy + profit, so I don't think anyone cares about the lack of second hand market to begin with.

I do because like the second hand market because you can't find old games. If it wasn't for second hand I wouldn't be able to buy a copy of Izuna 1 and 2 on the DS and I would have to pirate it just to play the freaking thing (it's one of those Atlus games where once the first or second shipment is sold out no more is made and shipment size is like 7 per store). Personally unless the company is willing to re-release or re print a old game they shouldn't complain if it's out of print and being sold (some companies seem to mind and some don't it seems).

Old games are different. Go watch the Extra Credits episode on piracy, it sums it up really well.

Basically, they give two situations where piracy is ok:

(1) You live in a country/region where you cannot obtain a legal copy of the game. At that point, the developer is just happy about getting exposure to a possible new market.

(2) It is an old game that the game developers have long since stopped producing new.

I forgot about the Extra Credit episode on that >_> yeah they did make a good point. I just like owning old games like that T_T but the price oh god they can get bad sometimes.

Yeah they can. I wouldn't feel bad about it. The people that sell it for way overpriced numbers tend to be personal collectors, or sellers that buy up stuff in bulk when it's new. So it's not like buying a "new" copy is actually getting money to the developer.

 

[Something Amyss]

I could see it being a problem if you buy retail all the time, but I dont so I have a hard time seeing a downside.

No offense, but this (and a lot of the rest of the lines) reads like "I got mine, so screw you."

Which is great, and I hope you never end up on the other side of that equation. While you will have my sympathy and even support, that attitude begets more of the same.

 

[BRex21]

This is most definitely true. All you need to do is click Steam > Go Offline, and then anyone else will be free to access it while you're in offline mode.

What If i want to play Left 4 Dead at home while a friend want to "borrow" New Vegas. NV was a HUGE piss-off for me, simply because of steam. My Biggest problem is that i now SPECIFICALLY CHECK games for steam requirements and this one doesn't list an internet connection in the system requirements. To be fair, it DID have a nice label on it saying steam is needed but that was only visible after i had removed the plastic wrapping and the sticker they had put over it, before it shipped informing me that this was an English version of the game.
I am a little bit bitter though, because while my internet connection IS good enough to download and play L4D2 it is NOT good enough to guarantee all updates will be free of bad packet data and this can set off the DRM rendering all your games unplayable, well all the ones that have nothing to do with steam.

Try and find a console game that is more expensive on steam.

in my region PC games are about $2 cheaper to buy retail than through steam.

 

[Assassin Xaero]

That is because they don't want 5,000 people all using the same account to play on... Makes perfect sense to me. If you want to borrow/share games, go console.

 

[Something Amyss]

I could see it being a problem if you buy retail all the time, but I dont so I have a hard time seeing a downside.

No offense, but this (and a lot of the rest of the lines) reads like "I got mine, so screw you."

Which is great, and I hope you never end up on the other side of that equation. While you will have my sympathy and even support, that attitude begets more of the same.

Wasn't meant that way. More of an honest "I have a hard time putting myself in your position".

I mean got steam on my PC when I got HL 2 and I never really been in any particular situation that was bothersome. I mean even the OP post about how he withdrew his complaint when he realised that his problem was easily solvable.

Ah, well, that's fair enough. I can understand how difficult it could be.

 

[tautologico]

As with any new technology, there are positive and negative points. Digital distribution has many advantages, but some disadvantages as well.

The impossibility (or difficulty) of sharing a game is one of the disadvantages. Most people judge that the advantages outweigh the negative points, me included.

Unfortunately, it's common that one option dominates and the others tend to disappear. In this case, retail is losing ground to digital distribution in the PC market. It's a fact of life, and it happens all the time with technology. Eventually, the new system can patch some of the problems later on, e.g. lending systems for ebooks and such.

 

[Treblaine]

My biggest problem with Steam is that with all previous purchases up till now, when I have finished the game I can let me brother play it on his PC. But now I cannot as if I am playing a steam game on my account, he cannot play a different game on the same steam account.

Sharing?

"Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party!"

Joking aside, if sharing really matters to you then let him either log in on your account when you are doing something else or let him use your computer. This whole "I want to pay for only 1 copy but have 2 (or more) people play it" is NOT what the publishers want. It is not as-bad as piracy, but it is the same principal.

Publishers assume that everyone who is interested in their game will buy a copy, not that merely a few will buy and share out amongst those who are interested.

Also if you DO want to share the experience well then Steam Sales are full of multi-game bundles where you can buy several copies for less than the price of 1. The fact that you don't know this just shows you have little knowledge about what you are complaining about, many be you should educate yourself.

I would not mind if this effectively tighter licensing and digital distribution resulted in cheaper pricing. But it doesn't with games that I have mail ordered always being cheaper than Steam.

xD

He hasn't seen the steam sales yet.

I have bought THOUSANDS of dollars worth of Steam games for only a few hundred dollars over the past few years. Sure occasionally you can find similar deals online but I have run the numbers they are never as good a deal as steam and what screws mail order games is so much is the postal costs having to order individual items from so many different places.

Even then the number of times I have bought a game for home delivery and found either a non-functional or absent CD key. Then of course you just don't know what kind of DRM you particular version is going to be saddled with, steam is far more consistent and upfront about DRM in place.

 

[Henrik Moeller]

That's because "legally speaking" your brother is expected to buy his own copy.

Erm no. If I buy a retail game I can do with it what I want, hence why second hand game sales are not illegal.

Actually, no.
The license you rent when you 'buy' a game is for you and you alone.
To lend out the game to other people, including your brother, is piracy.
Selling it has nothing to do with it.

For the last time as everyone seems to keep missing this. I have not brought these games through steam. I brought them retail and had steam foreced on me.

Next time look at the box first. It's a steam powered product regardless of which shop you bought it in.
You're furthermore breaching the terms when you share you steam account, learn to EULA.

 

[ph0b0s123]

Next time look at the box first. It's a steam powered product regardless of which shop you bought it in.
You're furthermore breaching the terms when you share you steam account, learn to EULA.

That term 'steam powered' really strikes me as a bit of an oxymoron.

Oh I will be checking the box, as I am not happy that the games industry are being able to change what people can do with games by the backdoor. I suppose the movie industry will be next. No more lending a friend a DVD, that's bad. Well that's odd, as no-one batted an eye lid for the last 40 years (or how ever long we have had home movies). What's changed, oh yeah you're having a harder time making money, so consumer rights out the window then.

And I have learned to EULA. I have learned that most EULA's are not worth the electronic paper they are printed on a rarely stand up in court.

 

[ph0b0s123]

Oh and here's the relevant sections from the Just Cause 2 EULA:

----------------------------------
2. Non-Exclusive Licence
For so long as you are in compliance with the provisions of this EULA, you are permitted to:
-snip-
(c) transfer the Software Product (complete with all components and documentation) and the benefit of this EULA to another person provided such person has agreed to accept the terms of this EULA and you contemporaneously transfer any permitted copies of the Software Product you may have made to that person or destroy all copies not transferred. If any transferee does not accept such terms then this EULA shall automatically terminate. Upon such transfer, you undertake to delete this Software Product from your computer and the licence granted to you under this EULA shall automatically and immediately terminate.

3. Restrictions
You are not permitted:
-snip-
(b) except as expressly permitted by this EULA and save and to the extent in the circumstances expressly permitted by applicable law, to rent, lease, sub-licence, loan, exploit for profit or gain, copy, modify, adapt, merge, translate, reverse engineer, decompile, disassemble or create derivative works based on the whole or any part of the Software Product or use, reproduce, distribute, translate, broadcast, publicly perform, store in a retrieval system or otherwise deal in the Software Product or any part thereof in any way.
----------------------------

I am no legal expert but it reads to me as I can completely transfer the product to another person but I cannot loan it to them. So giving the game completely to another person is not piracy as even the games own EULA confirms this..... The dumb thing is that if I give the game completely to someone else what's to stop them giving it back to me sometime later, in again, an acceptable transfer as above.

But again this is the game EULA which I am not breaking just I assume Steam's EULA because it is linked to my account and I can't transfer it. I suppose it will just have to wait until it gets tested in court.

Effectively it's a mess....

 

[Henrik Moeller]

Sure but it's not gonna reach a court because the EULA is there to make it prohibitively expensive for you to fight a ban from steam via the court system.

 

[Treblaine]

So giving the game completely to another person is not piracy as even the games own EULA confirms this..... The dumb thing is that if I give the game completely to someone else what's to stop them giving it back to me sometime later, in again, an acceptable transfer as above.

The question is not "what stops them giving it back" rather "what compels them to give it back"

A loan means they have to give it back and you retain ownership, it's just that they are using it.

If you GIVE it to them, as a gift or selling it to them, they don't have to sell it back to you, they could keep it forever or sell it to anyone else.

If you "sell" it to them with an agreement they will give it back in a further monetary exchange... well then that is de-facto not a sale, that is a loan.

 

[Dr. Pepper Unlimited]

The only big problem i see with steam is that you don't own a physical copy of the game anymore. Should Steam ever be closed down, there is a high possibility you will never be able to play/reinstall your games.

That's just silly. You can play the games without even being logged into Steam.

 

[lapan]

The only big problem i see with steam is that you don't own a physical copy of the game anymore. Should Steam ever be closed down, there is a high possibility you will never be able to play/reinstall your games.

That's just silly. You can play the games without even being logged into Steam.

True, but if the Steam servers would be closed down and you would ever have to reinstall you would be fucked.