Opinion of Valve's Steam

[ed^chigliak]

I havn't bought HL2 and Steam is the reason why.

[NGC224]

As I understand it, with Starforce your game would be toast as soon as you update your system with a new version or service pack that replaces the IDE drivers. Then if Starforce is not around or not willing and able to update their drivers your game will be toast permanently. How would a Steam-enabled game handle Valve going out of business?

I refuse to buy any game that is going to put some crap technology in there that will prevent me from re-installing my game at a later date. For example, I recently re-installed Might and Magic VI; something I never could have done if it was Starforce protected, not sure about Steam.

[unreal]

I think Steam is really good. Why?
- It isn't as ultra irritating as StarForce (no where near)
- you don't need CD's to play the game every single time
- Valves fast servers make small and large updates (including whole games) really quick and easy
- More money to Valve which means at the moment more customer rewards (well thats debateable, but they are certainly being quite kind with things)
- No need to keep entering CD Codes
- Less piracy, and cheaper games online (via download)

I have never had a problem with Steam myself, and unless they justify it I can't see why other people do

[NGC224]

I think Steam is really good. Why?
- It isn't as ultra irritating as StarForce (no where near)
- you don't need CD's to play the game every single time
- Valves fast servers make small and large updates (including whole games) really quick and easy
- More money to Valve which means at the moment more customer rewards (well thats debateable, but they are certainly being quite kind with things)
- No need to keep entering CD Codes
- Less piracy, and cheaper games online (via download)

I have never had a problem with Steam myself, and unless they justify it I can't see why other people do

Could you continue to play a Steam game if Valve went out of business?

[andshrew]

Could you continue to play a Steam game if Valve went out of business?

You'd have to assume that they would patch steam so that it didnt require itself to connect to the internet before they went out of business

[NGC224]

You'd have to assume that they would patch steam so that it didnt require itself to connect to the internet before they went out of business

That cannot be a simple task or circumventing Steam would be too so the answer is no, especially when you consider that all of Valve's titles would require the effort. Also, often the employees don't know until they show up for work and find padlocks on the place. I think publishers are nuts for using copy protection schemes that will render the game useless once the copy protection company goes out of business; you can see the class action lawsuits looming now.

I'm all for copy protection methods what will actually work and are cost effective, don't cripple the game, don't install offensive crap and don't shorten the shelf life of the game.

[Agent]

That cannot be a simple task or circumventing Steam would be too

Lets just keep in mind that steam was cracked before HL2 hit the retail shelfs !
Somone would release a utility to allow you to play it, i have no question of that.
The number of copy protection systems that havnt been broken is about as long as my list of girlfriends.

[Mutley]

Copy protection systems invariably do not work as intended. What annoys me is that these attempts are so often misguided - they penalise the law abiding purchasing customers, and the pirates and cheats continue to pirate and cheat.

As Agent sais, steam was cracked immediately, and you didn't need to look too hard to find a cracked version of HL2 you could play without steam. If you think about it, it can't have been that hard to snoop communication and reverse engineer the protocol. Then you can just build in a stub to give HL2 the answers it wants (yes, I know its a little more complex than that, but you see what I mean).

I see this time and again, not just in games but in law making in general - they hit the honest punter and do nothing to stop the bad guys.

In this respect I think steam probably has not stopped piracy. As a content delivery system, it is improving. As a tool to mandate implementation of DRM, it worries me.

[Spud1]

Lets just keep in mind that steam was cracked before HL2 hit the retail shelfs !
Somone would release a utility to allow you to play it, i have no question of that.
The number of copy protection systems that havnt been broken is about as long as my list of girlfriends.

3 then impressive

afaik TAGES, Starforce 3.5+ and errr one other protection that i can't remember havn;t been 'cracked' so to speak. All of them have been bypassed with loaders/clones (using antiblaxx etc) but none have been 'cracked' so to speak.

Steam ofc was done a while back, and if valve go bust that's how you will be able to play your games.


RE:Unreal

I think Steam is really good. Why?

- It isn't as ultra irritating as StarForce (no where near)
Yes it is, and with starForce there are legal ways around it (albeit annoying) but you don;t neccessarily need to install starforce to play a game..

- you don't need CD's to play the game every single time
True but then thats why no-cd patches exist and are legal

- Valves fast servers make small and large updates (including whole games) really quick and easy
erm fast servers? what planet are you on. Have you forgotton how much of a pain getting HL2 was? With steam constantly trying the same blatently full content server for hours before deciding to move to one of the many empty ones...

- More money to Valve which means at the moment more customer rewards (well thats debateable, but they are certainly being quite kind with things)
Can't argue with getting more cash to valve, thats a good thing.

- No need to keep entering CD Codes
Don't get this point? You only have to enter a CD code once anyway, and with some steam games you still need to use your CDkey...

- Less piracy, and cheaper games online (via download)

No and No, Piracy with steam remains the same as without steam, and the games are not really much cheaper if you buy them from play or similar sites...

[afraser2k]

I always thought that Steam was mainly to allow Valve to send out updates whenever they wanted to all users so that servers wouldn't get swamped with updates like they did in the days before it? Instead of people having to wait days to get the patch we now get them whenever we login (well, if the content servers are up).

Thanks to pre-loading of HL2 I didn't have any problems getting it on release so I was happy with that (I bought Silver), although I'm annoyed that it's so easy to pirate Steam games, which'll only encourage cheaters. I also agree that new games aren't cheap on Steam as Bronze Steam was the same price as retail. In some cases it was cheaper just going to the shops (but then you wouldn't get other stuff like DoD:S ).

[Mutley]

One thing that I do approve of with Steam is the lack of packaging. To sell stuff in shops you need to make sure that your product's shelf space is taken up by something that is easy to find, so that those looking for it can find it, and something that stands out and is appealing for those browsing. A lot of packaging is so wasteful. I like keeping boxes I have to say, but there is no reason, other than they are nice and shiny.
Manuals can PDFs as well.

Steam does allow for making CD/DVD backups, but my one and only experience of this was a bloody nightmare. I was shocked at how shoddy this aspect of steam was. You would have thought that a tool built to back up your steam-delivered games might also backup your game saves. Oh no. It doesn't. OR didn't. Don't know about now.. That was only one frustration in a very bad experience of trying to reinstall my steam-backed-up games.

[Lee H]

I was bothered a little when I first heard about Steam, but nowadays I couldn't give a flying hoot about it really.

The software works, is easy to use - with instant patching when updates are released and no scrambling to file servers and queuing for the files a lá fileplanet style. Who here recalls the big scrambles to jolt, blueyonder etc when say Counter-Strike had an update or HL was updated. It was a nightmare trying to get all the updates downloaded and installed and then the server changed across in time for a clan match. Now its a blessing with automatic patching, fixes and a nice page showing suitable addons.

The only niggle is friends Still doesn't work. Probably a victim of their own success, but X-fire is an ample replacement really until the friends works

Backupwise - I've done 1 backup and it all went fine to disc, formatted and it reinstalled 100% with no issues.

[Spud1]

The software works, is easy to use - with instant patching when updates are released and no scrambling to file servers and queuing for the files a lá fileplanet style. Who here recalls the big scrambles to jolt, blueyonder etc when say Counter-Strike had an update or HL was updated. It was a nightmare trying to get all the updates downloaded and installed and then the server changed across in time for a clan match. Now its a blessing with automatic patching, fixes and a nice page showing suitable addons.

thats what filemirrors.com was created for Finding and downloading updates was never a problem if you knew where to look for them

The point is that what if you don't want the update? What if you want to play CS 1.5? What if you want to keep your server running an older version for whatever reason(compatability, features that may have been added/removed etc).


You can't really, ok so you can technically click don't keep this game up to date but i find that sometimes it just decides to force you to update anyway..and since you can't tell what version the servers are running from within the interface you can't find older servers either..

[NGC224]

To each his own I guess. I have a pretty narrow taste in games so I often reinstall an older game that I enjoyed years previous. For example, I recently reinstalled and played Might & Magic VI again. What do you think the odds are that you will be able to re-install a Steam game 10 years and multiple OSes later?

[Ramedge]

I like the idea of steam, but i just dont like steam.
It always finds away to crash/piss you off - and if your like ajbrun you prob just scream at the word "Steam" as he keeps getting "No steam login" durring a game and gets thrown off! Apperntly theres no solution for this

So yeah nice idea shame its just genericly rubbish

[smtkr]

The poll results don't seem to reflect the sentiment in this thread. Maybe that's because neither of the two negatives say anything about how it sucks but we like the idea.