A digital distribution service owned by Valve Corporation. Originally created to distribute Valve's own games, Steam has since become the de facto standard for digital distribution of PC games.
" Maybe I'm doing something wrong here, so if anybody knows please let me know it would be much appreciated, but the only thing I do not like about Steam is how as of now if I go out and buy a game from retail how I have to download the game from Steam and cannot just install the game to Steam from the disk which would save me hours of my time. Other than that I love it. "
Oh, you mean for Steam-compatible games bought at retail? I was under the impression that there weren't too many retail games that were compatible. "
Quite a few are actually, I bought The Orange Box about a month ago and I had to download Half-Life 2/Episode 1/Episode 2/Team Fortress 2 which was quite a lot of data to download and took me nearly an entire day as I only have a 2MB connection, it works fine for playing games online...downloading them....not so much.
I love Steam for it's convenience. It automatically organizes all my games into one interface. I can download and reinstall these games on multiple computers. Steam works offline as well, allowing you to play a single player without an internet connection. Friends lists are easy to navigate. I cannot understand why Steam gets all this hate from some PC gamers who absolutely HATE drm. I feel steam has been the best thing that happened to the PC gaming industry.
I remember buying the retail Counter Strike: Condition Zero disc and being appalled that I had to download and install this seemingly pointless (at the time) extra program. After that I refused to buy any games that forced me to have steam, including Half Life 2. Oh how foolish of a child I was...
Little did I know, 9 years later I would be completely in love with Steam. I have not bought a retail disc PC game in 4 years, all of them are purchased through Steam now. Except that's probably gonna change soon, I've been eyin that Starcraft 2 for some time...
I can understand people not liking Steam back in the day, but reason is there to hate it now? I'm actually interested, if someone has a legitimate complaint, didn't like to hear it, but otherwise Steam is great.
I prefer that all my PC games are on Steam, and they all are except for a couple racing sims. What I HATE is games for windows live. It took me forever to get Dirt 2 running last week because of it, and if I didn't sign in it wouldn't save my progress...
The only PC games that I haven't bought through Steam when I've had the choice to were the Guild Wars games, that's only because they come with lore books that look cool.
That sounds utterly stupid. I use steam even when its not required. Not as much now though since I don't have an account anymore. But it was very convenient while it lasted.
" Hell, no. I've felt like refusing to buy games that require Windows Live, but I still do that. :( "
I love Games for Windows Live. Sure, it can be vastly improved as a DRM method, but being able to earn Achievements in my Live account while playing the (almost all of the time) superior PC version of the game is great.
I love Steam. It's so much better than keeping track of a million e-mails with activation codes, download and install limits, or simply forgetting if you purchased a game and if so where from. I know exactly what I have, and can download and install games to any computer. It's so rare to be in a situation where my computer would not have an internet connection that it's not really an issue.
I hated it initially, but that was only because the SteamId replaced the WONID and suddenly years of dumbarses banned from the CS servers I used to admin were free to come back and try again.
Since then, however, it has evolved into a hell of a service. It was a sad day when publishers realised us Aussies could buy new games half price on Steam though, and began gouging us accordingly.
@JoeyRavn: No problem with playing games on the PC, it's just that firstly I'd prefer to keep all of my games in one place (most are on Steam right now), and secondly Windows Live has given me lots of trouble on Windows 7.
Yes. I don't see why, if I pick up a copy of a game in the store that I have no intention of playing online, why I would need to activate it through some online service. But I'm stubborn and don't like change. Luckily, I haven't had a game yet that required Steam.
Often I have decided against buying games that don't activate on Steam. I think steam simply makes life better for gamers, I can't stand having to put a CD in the drive just to launch a game or having to hunt round forums for the latest update becuase the download manager that installed with the game is just a glorified shop front. (@that publisher: You know who you are!)
Are there people who don't like steam? Other than Stardock (who probably hate Steam because Impulse is total garbage and they know it) and people who inhabit the GOG forums (because they're crazy), I can't think of anyone. So my answer is obviously no. Like everyone else in this thread.
Id refuse to buy a game in a box that doesn't activate on steam. Though I haven't got a boxed copy of a game since left for dead.(oops.. starcraft 2.. doesn't count) Activating on steam should not mean you cant play it with out steam open. Just so you don't have to install from The disk.
I love Steam, but for me personally, I don't use it to buy new games first. Say I wanted Crysis 2, and I were to get it on 360 (or PS3, though less likely) first, but after a while, I felt I wanted to buy it again to see how it is on PC, I would then buy Crysis 2 off steam. If I were to buy Crysis 2 on PC first, I would go to the store and buy it there. Steam for me is much more for games I've either already played in the past on the consoles, or for games I simply have no desire to find anywhere else, like Painkiller or something like it. There's also times when games have been released for a good amount of time, and I still haven't purchased it yet, I'd most likely buy it on steam depending on what game it is, a good example would be Left 4 Dead 2, because I don't think that game is special enough to go out and get it anywhere else. Plus, I love having game cases, so buying newer games off Steam is not going to happen.
It's the curse of being the first. I'm on Steam for 10 years. In those 10 years it has grown into a quite a library of games and I like my stuff on a single digital service.
Necroposting aside, angry gamers are like console launches. After the first few biggies you more or less see how things are going
At the time? Steam (and gamespy/fileplanet's failure that basically just had a few NWN modules) was coming largely around the time people started caring about DRM. We are losing our minds over the idea that a game might need to phone home or, GASP, download some content while running and that we might not be able to reinstall a game a hundred times per day. And here are those half-life pricks insisting we give them money to let us download a game and let them refuse to download the games we paid for when they fall under. And if I lose the password to my email account I lose everything? Fuck that noise
Again, its kind of why the EGS and even Stadia stuff would be laughable if it weren't so hate filled. Same with console gamers and their pushback to digital distribution. They are the exact same arguments people trotted out a decade ago (and many times before that) and we already saw how things turned out.
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