Steam is pretty underwhelming

[Powermoloch]

Every game released by Valve since Half-Life 2 (November 2004) requires Steam to be installed. So regardless if you have the disk or not, you still have to have steam installed.

I had a difficult time overcoming the mindset that I "had" to have the disk, but times change, and so do the way games are delivered.

I still hold onto my cds, but like my Diablo II disk, one little scratch and its useless. I have had to rebuy Diablo II - 3 or 4 times over 6 or 7 years.

How many times have I had to rebuy half-life 2, counter-strike, counter-strike:source, left 4 dead, tf2, portal, left 4 dead 2, borderlands, stalker,,,,??? Zero times.

As long there is publishers delivering content in discs, I'll still keep buying them. I don't pay 'em at full price of course, it's silly to blow a wad of cash for 8hrs of content these days. It's unfortunate for you that you have to buy DII disk 3-4 times, but for me I just had to buy it once and that's about it. I heard stories people losing CD-keys, DVDs getting scratched, cracked, stomped, burned, left it under the sun, it's a bummer. But with proper storage and handling you can get your money's worth.

There's a risk for investing on something, but it's a risk i'm willing to take. Plus a majority of my games 99% out of the 180+ doesn't require steam.

 

[Texashiker]

I heard stories people losing CD-keys, DVDs getting scratched, cracked, stomped, burned, left it under the sun, it's a bummer. But with proper storage and handling you can get your money's worth.

I can tell my kids to be careful with their CDs, but like most kids they just take them out of the computer and lay them down wherever.

The thing with Steam, I dont have to worry about CDs.

My son, my daughter and I all have our own steam account. When something like Titan quest gores on sale, I'll buy all three of us titan quest on Steam. For me, Steam is convenient for managing not just my games, but also my kids games.

 

[Powermoloch]

I can tell my kids to be careful with their CDs, but like most kids they just take them out of the computer and lay them down wherever.

The thing with Steam, I dont have to worry about CDs.

My son, my daughter and I all have our own steam account. When something like Titan quest gores on sale, I'll buy all three of us titan quest on Steam. For me, Steam is convenient for managing not just my games, but also my kids games.

Steam is great when it comes to children, you don't have to worry about lost discs, being scratched, etc. Especially how cheap the games that steam always pump out, it becomes very attractive for everyone. I see your point of view, pc game ownership varies from person to person.

I'm just one of the last breed of people owning discs (lol), but hey it's a collection thing

 

[Lonyo]

Steam is great when it comes to children, you don't have to worry about lost discs, being scratched, etc. Especially how cheap the games that steam always pump out, it becomes very attractive for everyone. I see your point of view, pc game ownership varies from person to person.

I'm just one of the last breed of people owning discs (lol), but hey it's a collection thing

Attractive until they try and play different games on different computers which are linked to the same account.
The only viable way to use Steam in a family setting is to have each game on its own account. Hello inconvenience.

 

[Powermoloch]

^ This sums it up for me.

 

[raasco]

Steam is great until the ISP's bring in the usage caps.

 

[Texashiker]

Steam is great when it comes to children, you don't have to worry about lost discs, being scratched, etc. Especially how cheap the games that steam always pump out, it becomes very attractive for everyone. I see your point of view, pc game ownership varies from person to person.

My daughter likes certain types of games - like Overlord, left 4 dead, and team fortress classic. she mainly likes to play left 4 dead with me and she has 32 games in her Steam account.

My son likes the action games more then my daughter does - black ops, left 4 dead 2, fortress forever,,,,,. He 52 games in his steam account.

Due to the massive amount of games that Steam has, its easy for me to gift my son and daughter games based on their taste - and I dont have to worry about them losing the disk.

Between my son, daughter and myself, we have 154 games on steam - that would be a disk to keep up with.

 

[shortylickens]

Steam is great until the ISP's bring in the usage caps.

Thats the only problem. If I ever lose a hard drive theres no way I can download all 600GB in one month. That would have to be spread over 3 months and I couldnt do much Netflix or Hulu during the gaps.

 

[Aikouka]

I still hold onto my cds, but like my Diablo II disk, one little scratch and its useless. I have had to rebuy Diablo II - 3 or 4 times over 6 or 7 years.

You can just register Diablo II (and StarCraft and Warcraft III) at Battle.Net and download it as much as you want.

 

[thedosbox]

Thats the only problem. If I ever lose a hard drive theres no way I can download all 600GB in one month. That would have to be spread over 3 months and I couldnt do much Netflix or Hulu during the gaps.

Riiiight. This is a valid concern because you're going to be playing 60 10GB games in one month.

 

[Texashiker]

You can just register Diablo II (and StarCraft and Warcraft III) at Battle.Net and download it as much as you want.

When did Blizzard start doing that?

Thats the only problem. If I ever lose a hard drive theres no way I can download all 600GB in one month. That would have to be spread over 3 months and I couldnt do much Netflix or Hulu during the gaps.

How about a link to your steam profile? 600 gigs? Wow, that is a lot. My steam folder is only 141 gigs.

If having to re-download 600gigs is a concern, buy an extra drive and copy your steam folder to it from time to time.

 

[itsmydamnation]

Steam is great until the ISP's bring in the usage caps.

we have caps in australia, good australian ISP's have steam content and game servers and that data doesn't go against you quota. the trick is to getting steam to only connect to the content servers you want and there are severial solutions for this

 

[raasco]

we have caps in australia, good australian ISP's have steam content and game servers and that data doesn't go against you quota. the trick is to getting steam to only connect to the content servers you want and there are severial solutions for this

I live in the US and currently don't have a cap of any sort, but Bell Canada WAS trying to limit Canadian DSL users to 25 gb per month.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/31/technology-internet-usage-based-billing.html

I know steam downloads will be the least of our concerns if data caps are put in to place in the US, but its just one more thing to think about. I just did a fresh install of my o.s. the other week and I downloaded and installed 12 games. Surprisingly, the next day my download speeds from my cable ISP seemed to be rather slow. Coincidence?

 

[SunnyD]

Your problem is you're expecting demos on PC games. It just doesn't happen.

 

[Aikouka]

When did Blizzard start doing that?

Not sure about the exact time, but probably a year or two ago.

 

[Texashiker]

Your problem is you're expecting demos on PC games. It just doesn't happen.

Steam has lots of demos for pc games, so I'am not sure what your taking about??

Not sure about the exact time, but probably a year or two ago.

It would be nice if blizzard created their own version of steam, where you could buy and download games, have a friends list, instant messenger program and social networking site all-in-one.

 

[ViviTheMage]

I am wondering what you were expecting?

All Steam does is make a friends community, and allow you to purchase games/download said games in one, nice area...

There are no good demos for PC games.

 

[Zargon]

never having to patch is nice

also, I will jump into games based on my friends list, as its usually more fun to play with others....

 

[Aikouka]

It would be nice if blizzard created their own version of steam, where you could buy and download games, have a friends list, instant messenger program and social networking site all-in-one.

I think I've seen people ask them for an IM program for Battle.net quite a few times, but they seem a bit hesitant about it. They already have a Real ID system so you can chat regardless of the game you're in (if the game supports it).

 

[dust]

Its the very best online store available for games.
Anything better is illegal.

LOL ...True!

 

[Morphine06]

Every game released by Valve since Half-Life 2 (November 2004) requires Steam to be installed. So regardless if you have the disk or not, you still have to have steam installed.

I had a difficult time overcoming the mindset that I "had" to have the disk, but times change, and so do the way games are delivered.

I still hold onto my cds, but like my Diablo II disk, one little scratch and its useless. I have had to rebuy Diablo II - 3 or 4 times over 6 or 7 years.

How many times have I had to rebuy half-life 2, counter-strike, counter-strike:source, left 4 dead, tf2, portal, left 4 dead 2, borderlands, stalker,,,,??? Zero times.

This is so true. It was critical for me to have the disk at one time and now I prefer to have the digital copy sitting safely on the steam server for me at any time or place I need. The installation is so easy too. I just hit install and it downloads it as installed, something I don't think people realize. Once you install a disk game after it's a year old you then have to download a ton of updates. If you install the game after a year on steam it will install as updated. So much less hassle.

It's also really easy to buy and gift games to friends. I plan on giving a few copies of Portal 2 to the most active forum posters of our steam community. It would be difficult to do that without steam.

The only way I would stop buying steam games is if they put a limit on how many times you can DL a game, but I don't think that is likely to happen.

 

[NYHoustonman]

I'm just one of the last breed of people owning discs (lol), but hey it's a collection thing

I'm the same way to an extent. Games I expect to love (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, etc. etc.) I buy physical copies of, because I still like having the box/manual.

But for everything else, Steam is fantastic, for all the reasons others have mentioned... Automatic updates, fantastic sales, convenience (and, by the way, I don't think Steam/Valve is going anywhere anytime soon). Add to that ease of backups, as all you have to do is copy the Steamapps folder somewhere and restore it if you ever lose your installation.

 

[Zargon]

I'm the same way to an extent. Games I expect to love (Dragon Age, Mass Effect, etc. etc.) I buy physical copies of, because I still like having the box/manual.

But for everything else, Steam is fantastic, for all the reasons others have mentioned... Automatic updates, fantastic sales, convenience (and, by the way, I don't think Steam/Valve is going anywhere anytime soon). Add to that ease of backups, as all you have to do is copy the Steamapps folder somewhere and restore it if you ever lose your installation.

I do wish I had a BF BC2 box.

maybe ill get lucky and get one cheap on closeout somewhere.

 

[Magusigne]

Steam is our only beacon of hope for the PC Gaming Industry. Most games released to the PC are hacked and cracked in a matter of hours and does cut into the profit margins of some developers. If I were a corp, I would make multiplatform or skip PC all together.

Sure you can hack an XBOX but it requires a great deal of risk and work. Whereas PC gaming piracy just requires a download.


Edit: Also Steam is a wonderful opportunity for INDY developers to really get a great start.

 

[shortylickens]

LOL ...True!

I hate to use the Straw man argument but I honestly believe it to be the case. Same thing with Netflix. There is nothing in the entire world better unless its illegal.
Hulu is getting up there but not quite dead on. And they will never have discs so they will never be a true Netflix competitor.

Only torrents are superior and those can get you sued or worse. So whenever I hear people say Netflix sucks, I dont accuse them of anything. I already know.