Another "I hate steam" thread

Blitzkrieger

Christf**k I hate steam. I build myself a lovely new PC last Thursday and said I'd re-install the orange box to see what it looks like. Now I know the difficulties I had were down to me forgetting my account name, password, secret question answer and which email address I used, but why in god's name can't I just install the ****ing game without having to login to steam? My internet connection is crap - I don't want to play online. The first time I play it I'll be setting offline mode. I wish I had a pirate copy. At least then I could play the ****ing thing without being caught out by the security features.

Their customer support haven't exactly been speedy either. They just re-set all my account details (not what I asked them to do), but I'm busy tonight so I won't be able to play until tomorrow. That'll be a full week between trying to install the game and actually playing. Thank christ it was only a passing fancy and I'm not in a hurry.

I was thinking of buying Left 4 Dead but this **** has put me off. I think I'll get GTA4 instead....

PirateShampoo

Correct me if im wrong, but doesnt steam give you the option to back up ur games on dvd so you dont have to re-download them.

humanji

Even then you still have to log into steam to play them. It's a pain in the tits, especially when a new game is released and Steam insists on patching it whether you want to or not.

kaimera

you want to install the game via a download from steam without logging into an account?

please tell how exactly that would work?

tba

Blitzkrieger wrote: »

I was thinking of buying Left 4 Dead but this **** has put me off. I think I'll get GTA4 instead....

GTA IV is available on steam too right?

Blitzkrieger

You're ****ting me? Do you have to log in to play that too?

kaimera wrote: »

you want to install the game via a download from steam without logging into an account?

please tell how exactly that would work?

There's me thinking it was obvious I had a disk, but I never did say....


....Thanks for assuming I'm a total ****wit though....

tman

On the flipside to this, I effing steam
Love the way that you can now enter the cd key of some normal retail games and download them via steam (my UT3 disc is in storage at the moment, but it's happily downloading now thanks to my steam account)

I felt the same at HL2's launch, but have had nothing but good experiences with it since then (apart from being too stupid to figure out how to unlock a preloaded game, but that was my bad...)

Genghiz Cohen

Blitzkrieger wrote: »

....Thanks for assuming I'm a total ****wit though....

People who moan about Steam in this day and age usually are.

L31mr0d

*checks thread start date* huh, so this thread wasn't started in 2004.

I'm pretty sure everyone on the planet understands how Steam works by this point. It's like buying a can of Ronseal then posting on a forum "why in god's name can't I just woodstain my fence without it drying so fast?"

nix

The reason you have to connect to steam is to validate your install so they know your not using a pirate copy, its to counter piracy which is very understandable for a platform that make their profit from selling games.

Forgetting all of your own personnel info preventing you from logging in is your own fault, you would have to go through the same process for any online entity that requires login information.

I happen to love steam, cant see why some hate it

koHd

Steam is good.

ronkmonster

nix wrote: »

I happen to love steam, cant see why some hate it

Well for one, it requires you to be online for single player games (initially).

And what about people with no internet or dialup.
Until recently that's all we could get. I just leave games on the shelf that use steam. It's easier to pirate such games than have to deal with steam - may be waiting hours to update a game before playing rather than offering choice to install update.

Blitzkrieger

I do understand your points and do know the benefits of steam, but wouldn't it be nice if I could just install and play the game that I bought? It's a "security is a double edged sword" argument. I'd acknowledge that in this case the problems were my own fault - I didn't use my account in two years and forgot all the details, but it highlights how long it takes to resolve a problem that you have. Can you imagine how pissed off you'd be if you couldn't play a spanking new game you just bought for a week?

Genghiz Cohen

ronkmonster wrote: »

Well for one, it requires you to be online for single player games (initially).

And what about people with no internet or dialup.
Until recently that's all we could get. I just leave games on the shelf that use steam. It's easier to pirate such games than have to deal with steam - may be waiting hours to update a game before playing rather than offering choice to install update.

Do you torrent your pirated games?
(Irony incoming, be warned)

Stephen

You don't want to play online but were thinking of getting left 4 dead? Those two things don't add up.

Overheal

You also did a really bad job selecting a secret question. Can you not just remember your Mother's Maiden Name and be done with it?

Steam's great. And like you said, offline mode. Which is a cinch.

You should have well known by this stage what was required of you when you bought the Orange Box though. Expect to download quite a bit of data in updates before it lets you play.

If you had no internet well then buddy, ya shoulda got in on Xbox 360.

Blitzkrieger

Stephen wrote: »

You don't want to play online but were thinking of getting left 4 dead? Those two things don't add up.

Meh - I think the single player mode will keep me going for a while. I'm planning on getting a better broadband connection soon.

Stephen

Left4Dead's single player is not up to much. Its just the multiplayer game with bots. Multiplayer versus mode though, now that's fun

Mantel

You should try Games for Windows Live! I hear it's much better.

It's not like you can install a game, have it register itself, let you play away fine. Then one day GFWL servers goes away for a rest for awhile and GFWL won't let you play because you have to make an offline account but you can only do that online...

ATM steam is up there with that music DRM stuff and Yahoo. What happens if steam ever goes away like Yahoo did? Your games (like the Yahoo music) are gone, when your hard driver fails or whatever you installed steam on. That will never happen because Valve is immortal or I mean valve make loads of money from it so why would they shut it down.

I've liked the slow (I wish it was faster) march of gog.com, sure they have no DRM and you can pirate it but if you loose it you have to find it to pirate it again! and the games are pretty cheap that it's just faster to buy them. Now that's a digital distrubtion system I like.

Yes steam sucks sometimes but it's here to stay for awhile.

5uspect

I hated Steam way back yonder when I was stuck behind a university firewall and had to tunnel updates at 5 kb/s. I love it now tho. Their servers are fast and their prices are generally good (ignoring exchange rate shenanigans and nodding to the sales).

I recently build a new machine and left it updating at night and had everything downloaded over the weekend.

Not having good broadband is a pain, not Steam.

thebman

Mantel wrote: »

You should try Games for Windows Live! I hear it's much better.

It's not like you can install a game, have it register itself, let you play away fine. Then one day GFWL servers goes away for a rest for awhile and GFWL won't let you play because you have to make an offline account but you can only do that online...

ATM steam is up there with that music DRM stuff and Yahoo. What happens if steam ever goes away like Yahoo did? Your games (like the Yahoo music) are gone, when your hard driver fails or whatever you installed steam on. That will never happen because Valve is immortal or I mean valve make loads of money from it so why would they shut it down.

I've liked the slow (I wish it was faster) march of gog.com, sure they have no DRM and you can pirate it but if you loose it you have to find it to pirate it again! and the games are pretty cheap that it's just faster to buy them. Now that's a digital distrubtion system I like.

Yes steam sucks sometimes but it's here to stay for awhile.

Didn't Valve say they would release something if that happened so people could still play?

I doubt Steam is going anywhere, if Valve went under someone would buy it with that large a user base.

Stephen

When there was only Valve's own stuff on Steam in the beginning they said that if Steam ever shut down they'd release patches that make all their games work without Steam. I don't know how that would apply to third party stuff that they're selling now though.

Overheal

Likely 3rd party software would come in for those. Like EAs SecuROM, would step-in for any copies of Spore purchased through Steam, etc.

dreamers75

I hate steam prices and the fact the program does a white screen of death every now and then.


Other than that its a good idea implemented badly.


re the point of logging in, why should i have to log in to play a game i "authenticated" previously. I had to get a crack to play Hl2 offline as i wasnt connected to internet.

Kinetic^

This is something I've just picked up on. I was browsing the store and I clicked on the ID Software catalogue. Under each name it has release date which shows when it was added to the steam store rather then the actual release date of the title. Granted a lot of people will know what is what but if you're a complete n00b and got stung by that you'd be seriously pissed off. Particularly paying €20 for Q3 when you can just go play QuakeLive for free. :P

I dislike the regional pricing system, it's a joke.

Overheal

dreamers75 wrote: »

I hate steam prices and the fact the program does a white screen of death every now and then.

Other than that its a good idea implemented badly.

re the point of logging in, why should i have to log in to play a game i "authenticated" previously. I had to get a crack to play Hl2 offline as i wasnt connected to internet.

White Screen? News to me. Maybe your computer is b0rked.

As for the latter, Offline Mode

Kiith

I love Steam.

/thread

MooseJam

I like steam, I like how you don't need disks to play games, I like how your games get updated automatically, I like the sales they do at the weekend, I like sitting on my arse browsing through the catalogue seeing something cheap that looks good and be playing it 5 minutes later.

As someone else mentioned it sux that you don't have a good bb, steam is grand

dreamers75

Overheal wrote: »

White Screen? News to me. Maybe your computer is b0rked.

As for the latter, Offline Mode

"This game cannot be started in Offline Mode" when attempting to play offline, the Steam client application's files need to be updated.

To play offline i have to go online :P Find it troublesome with Valve games mostly , Ubi games are fine.

Still tho biggest gripe is the prices, HAWX is still 50 quid on it, i got it in game for 15,99 and its 23,49 on play.

Sabre0001

dreamers75 wrote: »

Still tho biggest gripe is the prices, HAWX is still 50 quid on it, i got it in game for 15,99 and its 23,49 on play.

ALWAYS worth shopping around...and that's not even a gripe at Steam's prices; just a general 'let the buyer beware'.

Overheal

dreamers75 wrote: »

To play offline i have to go online :P Find it troublesome with Valve games mostly , Ubi games are fine.

Still tho biggest gripe is the prices, HAWX is still 50 quid on it, i got it in game for 15,99 and its 23,49 on play.

Steam has no bearing on what its 3rd party's charge via the service.

You only need to run the game once, then exit the program, and tell Steam to go in Offline mode. Then that game will no longer check for updates, unless of course, you go back online at some point.