Old Steam Poll posts split and 'archived'

[Frobond]

so as a genuine question. y are some of you so against steam as a platform. ive never had any problems with its games or connection or servers. i don't know if im just lucky or you are very unlucky but for me it is very convenient to be able to say ohh that game looks cool. i should get that. and 30 sec latter i have it downloading to my pc.

Is it a nostalgia thing where you guys still want that disk and box in hand. I mean after the first install you usually don't even need the disk anymore let alone the box so it just sits there taking up space.

And for those people that are afraid that when Valve goes under you will lose all your games. i have to comment that the odds of valve going under being your top priority at that time are rather low. Cause to me it seams that have a very good thing going for themselves and i don't see them slowing down any time soon.

I guess i could see problems arising when people live in countries where the internet connections are ether very slow or unreliable. but i cant see that as being all the negativity towards steam.


so after that lovely wall of text what really is yalls gripes with steam.

after i posted this i read this comment

The blunt truth...Digital sales will vastly outstrip boxed sales. Possibly to the point where even if a single boxed copy never sells the game can still be successful in sales thanks to steam.

as a really good example of this Minecraft is a digital download only game and it has taken off like a rocket sense it was first launched.

[T.S.Zatoichi]

Kor'ah, sshhhh! Don't put any ideas in their heads! I wouldn't really care if they went down that road. Is paying two bucks for a new plot line once or twice a year really that bad?

[A5PECT]

After getting the Bala Gi missions and Balance of Power for free, I'd be disappointed if Egosoft started charging for DLC.

But I wouldn't be surprised.

I'd probably even buy it.




...To be completely honest I'd be surprised if they didn't start charging in the near future. Egosoft is getting bigger, its games are getting deeper and development is becoming more costly. They can't keep giving away things for free.

[Eskymak]

I only using steam for Valve games (TF2, Portal, HL2,...) most of other games i want stand alone even if i have 12/12Mbit connection.

Why? Because on steam you can lost all games a money in one monent. Someone can steal you account and everything is gone or you can be banned no matter why.

If i have disc with game in my hand, i can install it everywhere, everytime and immediately.

All these copy protections are bad, because only annoying paying players. Real pirates have crack next day after game release. Even if i have original game, i use no cd crack, because i have no drive in my computer - i have one for a whole house because we dont want buy new sata drives to every computer in home if everything is going online and inserting disc to drive to only to check if i'm not pirate is waste of time.

Steam should be optional. Do you want achievements? Do you want automatics updates? Do you want no dvd in your drive? GET STEAM!

but absolutely NO: Do you want play? GET STEAM OR GET LOST!

[Bishop149]

I respectfully disagree. I expect Steam could easily be smart enough to know whether the computer its running on is offline and switch itself accordingly - rather than completely refusing to play the game merely because the user didn't know how or forgot to turn if off.

This is odd, I've seen a number of arguments in this direction.

"Steam should do x automatically even though there is a manual option!!"

Sorry but that's just just lazy, by all means complain about a feature that is absent from the program but just because its not entirely designed to your taste (what program is!?) and certain options are a little buried is no reason to chuck toys out of the pram.

I once had an issue with wanting to install a game onto a different drive to the steam folder (I've seen that bought up as a negative in this thread to) . . initially I couldn't see a way to do it and was getting annoyed, a google later and it turns out its perfectly possible and I was just being a bit dense.

[apricotslice]

is no reason to chuck toys out of the pram.

I dont want the toys, and I also dont want the pram.

[EmperorJon]

I personally have never had any problem with Steam.

Offline mode is fine, and I use it if I wish to be offline.
My games are never 'Not available'. I've had that once, and it turned out my internet was failing but Steam had yet to recognise the connection had dropped out.
I've even seen arguments which go along the lines of "Steam sucks 'cos achievements." Riiiight...

[OdinValhik]

A lot of those problems are most likely due to your steam client choosing a datacentre which is having issues at that time. Choose another. It's under the tab named cloud something or other, and you choose which country you get data from.

I'm fully aware of that option, and have done a bit of testing with that earlier, but with minor luck. It's still not very reliable at times.

[Alee Enn]

so as a genuine question. y are some of you so against steam as a platform. ive never had any problems with its games or connection or servers. i don't know if im just lucky or you are very unlucky but for me it is very convenient to be able to say ohh that game looks cool. i should get that. and 30 sec latter i have it downloading to my pc.

Is it a nostalgia thing where you guys still want that disk and box in hand. I mean after the first install you usually don't even need the disk anymore let alone the box so it just sits there taking up space.

And for those people that are afraid that when Valve goes under you will lose all your games. i have to comment that the odds of valve going under being your top priority at that time are rather low. Cause to me it seams that have a very good thing going for themselves and i don't see them slowing down any time soon.

I guess i could see problems arising when people live in countries where the internet connections are ether very slow or unreliable. but i cant see that as being all the negativity towards steam.


so after that lovely wall of text what really is yalls gripes with steam.

after i posted this i read this comment

The blunt truth...Digital sales will vastly outstrip boxed sales. Possibly to the point where even if a single boxed copy never sells the game can still be successful in sales thanks to steam.

as a really good example of this Minecraft is a digital download only game and it has taken off like a rocket sense it was first launched.

I will try to answer your question: Why are so many dead set against Steam

Answer: Freedom & Choice

Those of us who don't like Steam want the freedom to decide what we have on our PC's and the choice of what & when we put on it. Steam removes that choice.

I have lost count now of how many times I have commented on Steam, and I keep saying the same thing (always speaking only for myself), I have no problem with the digital download side (but some do as they have less than perfect internet connections), for me it's the having to be online to play I don't like.

If Rebirth requires me to activate via Steam, I could do that, but I'd rather not.

I have bought the same game from two different sites: Steam and GoodOldGames. The difference? Steam requires me to be online to play it. GoG allows me to download the setup file (which admittedly is big) and I can save that somewhere. I don't need to be online to install or play it.

If Egosoft & Deep Silver did that, allowing us to download a setup file (even if it is HUGE) that we can save it somewhere, and that we can install without needing to be online, I am sure NO-ONE here would object to that.

Does that answer your question?

[Vayde]

I was going to write a post about minorities and then thought, why waste any more of my time here?

Goodbye all.

[esd]

so as a genuine question. y are some of you so against steam as a platform.

I'm pretty sure I've covered that several times in depth now.

if you are worried about your ability to play games when the internet dissapears, you take survival-ism to a new high level, i hope you have spare computer parts, and a semi-permanent generator (as well as farming equipment) stored away!

Why? My internet went off 6 times yesterday.

When combined with limited computer time ... it becomes too much of a bother.

I never said it's not a bother, but how much?

So you admit it's a bother, but now are trying to dismiss my explanation as "not that much of a bother". The point is it doesn't have to be one at all, by releasing both Steam and standalone, just like with X3TC.

[Kor'ah]

What the **** is a DLC ?

Enough information to get you up to speed.

Something that adds more space to explore, new ships/equipment and has a some sort a plot/story that doesn't suck. If it's good stuff I'll buy, if not I won't.

Hell, if the base code is flexible/modular enough they can even do periodical expansions not unlike what Eve-Online has been doing for years.

[kyum]

my first post on the x universe and a negative one i am gutted to hear that x rebirth is gonna be relesed on steam. if its a one time activation online with the game contents loading from your disk and not over the net then its ok with me.if its alog on every time i want to play its a no for me iam on pay as you go 3g mobile £15 for 3gb to download the game on steam its gonna cost me loads.the way things are looking i dont think i will have a xrebirth dvd box lined up with my other games on the shelf.

[Shimrod]

On the topic of DLC, its been common for DLC games to release some form of special edition containing all the DLC packs. E.g. Fallout 3 GOTY, Borderlands GOTY, Sins Trinity. Usually a year or so down the road, as a means to shake the barrel and get some extra cash.

It can be worth waiting for this as typically the online activation requirements, and requirements to be online to play the DLC, are relaxed. Borderlands GOTY for example installs everything from the DVD with no online activation (although initially I understand they shipped activation codes in the box, and only included the content direct on the DVDs subsequently due to negative feedback).

However this was pre-Steam. From what I understand, once Steamworks is integrated with the product, no privately installable DVD-only version is likely to ever become available.

[fairywhipper]

i dont have a problem with the idea of dlc. i prefer not to.
as the idea of 20 year old software. i reloaded my original 5.25 360k floppy of populas 2years ago and it worked. this game i brought in 1988? (itsbeen a while)
ok, im old!!

[the old one]

what do you need DLC for, we have a scripting and mod section which produces a rich assortment of content which is second to none and does not cost anything,my thanks to the scripters mod artists,the old one

[Rnett]

what do you need DLC for, we have a scripting and mod section which produces a rich assortment of content which is second to none and does not cost anything,my thanks to the scripters mod artists,the old one

DLC can make them more money where scripting & modding are free.

[BDK]

I'm OK with Steam but I'm definitely not a fan. It's DRM and I dislike any and all DRM no matter how much they wrap it in useless features.
Their business model is questionable as well. They demand DLC monopoly or your game is simply removed from the 'service'.

[TrueSanity]

I demand that the programs I buy on Disk are totally stand alone and will never need anything that might vanish overnight and thus prevent a game from ever being able to be played again.

I am glad you highlighted that point!

Perhaps it's the survivalist in me, but I too want my games playable regardless of whether the existing infrastructure (internet, Steam, etc.) survives. I want to be able to pack around my box of dusty games and install them on whatever computer I may have in future without banking on Steam surviving long-term (which it probably won't in the nature of things).

So someone mentioned that Steam can make backups of your games, which I hadn't known. I checked it out. It's cool as hell, it actually creates an installation file and optionally splits it to DVD or CD sizes for you so you can burn it onto optical disks. What I don't know, and I assume is true, is whether you need Steam to activate a backup copy when you install it (and I'm not gonna fiddle with it because I don't want to delete my install just to reinstall the backup). That's a bit less convenient, although I figure in the 20 years some people are talking about, if Steam or some descendant of it isn't still around, some bright individual will have come up with a skeleton key that will unlock our Steam backups for us.

[TrueSanity]

if you are worried about your ability to play games when the internet dissapears, you take survival-ism to a new high level, i hope you have spare computer parts, and a semi-permanent generator (as well as farming equipment) stored away!

Heh, good point.

im surprised to hear that steam is takeing up 120 mb of ram, on my system its usually around 20 Mb, and peaks at 60Mb!

On mine it's taking up 90mb but it doesn't really bother me since I'm running 8gb. 20mb would be nice though. Impulse, on the other hand, is running at less than 7mb(!). Would be nice if I could get XR on Impulse since they're much less restrictive with what you can with your games after install (once your game is installed, you can delete Impulse if you want and your game will still run just fine). And since Impulse is now owned by EBGames I suppose it's more likely that XR will be available on it.