They have the potential to turn PC gaming into another monopoly like consoles, where one company dominates the whole thing.
I'm sorry but Valve (guys who are somewhat behind steam) doesnt dominate much of anything. Do not get me wrong, I love valve and anything they do (minus the lack of half life info).
But what I see them as is basically a virtual game store. They are basically the cheaper, better, internet version of Gamestop which to me is much worse than Steam. Steam doesnt really have a say in how games are done or handled like Microsoft or Sony might on their respective consoles.
And honestly, with some of the publishers like EA on Steam, the likely hood that Steam can push around these larges companies is close to nill.
But regarding Steam, it is besides a community also a way to fire game promotions and other commercial at you. The games you buy are bound to your steam account, and also some of them can't be played without an active connection to Steam.
This^^
I had the craving for some civ some time ago, and I bought Civ5. In order to play Civ5 you NEED to register it with Steam, so I guess I had no choice. After a short time I realized Civ5 is a crappy game IMO, but after asking in the Civ forums I got the official reply that the game is tied to that Steam account and can never be untied.
Same here
I despise Steam for this. I made the mistake of buying CIV5 but will never use anything Steam oriented again (if it requires the Steam tie-in tp play).
You can run almost any game through steam and that will enable the steam community overlay within that game. So, it's been realized, the future is here!
Exactly. Also, Station Launcher allows cross game interaction, and there's Garena, XFire and Raptr for those who like that sort of thing. The F2P communities seem to interact across the games moreso than the subscription gamers do and that may very well be because they see themselves as gamers playing games, much like Steam, whereas most MMO gamers that use forums and third party gaming community sites/apps usually are much more polarized regarding the various titles.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
i had no intrest in PC gaming (other than MMOs) till i found steam. and i found it because i wanted to buy Global Agenda when it first came out and the only way to buy it was from Steam. since then its been the only place i buy games, use to buy MMOs from direct 2 drive but haven't since i found steam. they're just so much cheaper than anywhere else, atleast after a game has been out awhile.
and as i said i didn't play any non-mmo games on PC till i got steam. now i have a pretty nice collection built up on it, around christmas and mid summer how can you not go overboard buyin games when they're like 75% off or more? lol just bought Batman Arkham Asylum back in march when it was 75% off.
i keep in touch with a few friends from old EQOA on steam as well they kept trying to get me to get a steam account but i kept putting it off .now that i have it i couldn't immagine not having it.
I have read that article and I sit back scratch my head and wonder why. I have seam loaded on my comp it is always running. My friends that I know in steam can see what I am playing at all times, mmo's or fps. So we already have that you just have to enable it for what you are doing.
Now I have to ask Bill why do we need a united community across all mmo's? In my experience I find folks who play eve are of a certain mind set, and those for the most part do not mix with say fantasy types who are off killing orcs. I just find it laughable that we need something like this, as were talking about diverse games/genres that not all folks would want to communicate with each other. Even in steam you have sub communities that you can join.
Oh well one last thing, please no more prop ups for Stalzer from that you know corporation, I for one who could care less about that organization/person, and to keep throwing that name in our face is starting to get old really quickly.
Possibly you are correct the entire article being a pip dream.
I have been on steam since HL2 and i think it is great. I really like that a lot of the MMOs are starting to distibute through steam too. I got my Lord of the Rings online through them and it works great.
And all those advertisements are NOT a bad thing. I have picked up a ton of games on the cheap with the sales that they show. Like games that are only a couple months old at $5 instead of $50!
Another great thing about it is you can find great games by seeing what your friends are playing. Maybe you didn't know it was even coming out until your friend is playing it.
I have had a few times where the i find my computer is running slow because a game or 2 is updating but that too is nice since i don't have to worry about patching.
I have read that article and I sit back scratch my head and wonder why. I have seam loaded on my comp it is always running. My friends that I know in steam can see what I am playing at all times, mmo's or fps. So we already have that you just have to enable it for what you are doing.
Now I have to ask Bill why do we need a united community across all mmo's? In my experience I find folks who play eve are of a certain mind set, and those for the most part do not mix with say fantasy types who are off killing orcs. I just find it laughable that we need something like this, as were talking about diverse games/genres that not all folks would want to communicate with each other. Even in steam you have sub communities that you can join.
Oh well one last thing, please no more prop ups for Stalzer from that you know corporation, I for one who could care less about that organization/person, and to keep throwing that name in our face is starting to get old really quickly.
Possibly you are correct the entire article being a pip dream.
Not really true Eric. Most of my MMO friends have been through all of those games including EVE. I don't think that MMO's are as segregated as you think. And if you have a cool multi-game guild it is even better!
Originally posted by William Murphy: This would require a unified login for any number of games, and there’s very likely a security issue involved that I’m unaware of too.
I may get blasted by a wall of flames after this, but there is currently one other option than Steam: Facebook.
Yes, yes, FB is evil, Farmvile&co are evil and FB's chat is currently a mess.
BUT it has millions of voices, it already has friend lists, it can already be access from your mobile, and it may be a way to bring "non-gamers" or "casual gamers" into the community of MMOs. Heck there are MMOs on Fb, as a recent article here proved: http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/5160/Facebook-MMOs.html
Again, FB is NOT the only way. But it could offer an alternative to Steam, if only for the sake of concurrence and customers. Just saying.
I have read that article and I sit back scratch my head and wonder why. I have seam loaded on my comp it is always running. My friends that I know in steam can see what I am playing at all times, mmo's or fps. So we already have that you just have to enable it for what you are doing.
Now I have to ask Bill why do we need a united community across all mmo's? In my experience I find folks who play eve are of a certain mind set, and those for the most part do not mix with say fantasy types who are off killing orcs. I just find it laughable that we need something like this, as were talking about diverse games/genres that not all folks would want to communicate with each other. Even in steam you have sub communities that you can join.
Oh well one last thing, please no more prop ups for Stalzer from that you know corporation, I for one who could care less about that organization/person, and to keep throwing that name in our face is starting to get old really quickly.
Possibly you are correct the entire article being a pip dream.
Not really true Eric. Most of my MMO friends have been through all of those games including EVE. I don't think that MMO's are as segregated as you think. And if you have a cool multi-game guild it is even better!
Actually I was at one time part of a large guild. We all started off in SWG, and eventually spread out to EQ2, wow, daoc, and EVE. The problem being is that when we started spreading out, we lost the core of the guild, as far as being cooperative. Eventually the guild fell apart. I think they still exist in SWG, some in STO, however out of the original 282 members I only keep up with 3 of them now. I think 2 of the officers eventually moved in with each other and got married. However the rest of everybody else spun off. The problem was trying to be all things to all folks and we ceased being what we were originally, and ended up being failing on what we though was a good go. The main issue was the guild leader was the guild leader in all games, and failed at providing true leadership.
Maybe other guilds are better at this, but I watched mine implode. Oh well life moves on and you find different guilds and folks to run with, and keep those in your circle of friends who really matter.
Sorry it is just the way I see things, having been there, and watched the differences between the type of mmo's drive apart a guild, not help it.
Steam is not cheap unless stuff is at sale. It's usually more expensive than any other online shop, like amazon etc.
Steam might be online all the time, but that doesn't say a thing about your ability to play games. Sometimes Steam decides you don't own a free game, or the servers are too busy to handle a installation, which mostly takes part on your system, or the download is only 5 kb/s even though your literally the only one using bandwith in your region (you can choose content servers for a reason).
I use Steam to play games that make full use of it, e.g. source engine games, and i buy games if they are really cheap, as the sales often are awesome, i give them that, and i chat with people i know from playing games on Steam using Steam. But outside of that..
Most non-source games do not support stuff like "show players on server", "join game" etc through Steam. So Steam only does show you they are playing it, or to be exact, they have the game running. They can be in main menu all day, Steam doesn't know/care.
To find out if they are really playing etc., i still have to start it and log in, and i do not know which character they are on when it's an MMO etc.
People can invite me to play games i do not own, but i can not invite them to join my match even if we are both ingame, and i only just left the server they are playing on.
So Steam does not only not support every feature MMOs do through the ingame friends list, it does not even support (or games to do support it) every feature it has for every game.
So somethinh independend from Steam might be better for MMOs, if you really need it.
Which ain't the case imho. I like not being online everywhere if i choose to do so. I like being able to choose the level of my participation. I can start ICQ, TS, the game etc. independently from each other. I don't feel like speaking/listening? I don't start TS. I still can find out if my buddys are there using the TS viewer on my guilds website or the general one. I can start the game but not ICQ/TS and be online "stealthy", or TS but not ICQ, so only my guild knows im there.
And if Steam+MMO would be done right (see above, at least supporting what Steam does for source games and what friendslists do for MMOs), it would tracking literally everything you would do. And if they ever decide you have been bad or they don't like you, or just a bug like it happens all the time, you lost everything.
You can't contact your friends, you can't play..maybe you use the integrated browser too, and they decided they don't support some piece of hardware you happen to have?
And thats only the industry site. Things like guilds requiring you to have an IPhone like Unlight mentioned as possibile outcome would make matters worse.
I wouldn't want Valve to control all that, and i wouldn't want anyone else do to it, and i don't see think game developer/publishers would want to support other MMOs.
Most likely outcome though will be that someone will develop something like that without belonging to a game company, and it will become a success like Facebook etc., so everyone will start supporting it.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
Steam works because Valve operate from the viewpoint of "give the gamers things they want, even if they dont know they want it yet", not "Lets get as much money as we can out of them".
With their games they give us polished releases, FREE DLC (oh yes Bioware and Activision I am looking at you) and with steam they give you cloud support that you didnt even know you wanted, a friends functionality that is simple and works and cheap games.
Thus hardly anyone cares that steam is the most effective DRM out there. Because Valve give us shit we like and they dont patronise their customers. Look at the ARG for portal two, its been a better bit of marketing than ANYTHING EA have EVER done.
Personally of the various online retailers I go with which ever is cheapest for the game I want, but I always try and activate that purchase on steam. If I want to format my PC I never need worry about where my disks are again, nor do I have to manually install any patches. I have a 50mb Broadband connection thats always on, and I pay the bill on time so I need never worry about being disconnected from my games.
I wish Valve would do an MMO, then again with their level of Polish if they did it would likely never release.
If you feel like being bombarded by never-ending advertisements, constant patch conflictions when playing on non-steam servers, and lots of downtime when the steam network is down, then by all means... enjoy steam.
I personally can't stand Steam... especially when I'm forced to use it, e.g., MW2 / Black Ops.
In get one advert everytime I log in, and it's usually for a pretty good deal on a special offer game.
I own around 20 games on Steam, inluding 2 MMOs, and I personally do not get these 'constant' patch conflicts.
I know it's the 'elite' position to not like the service, but I really like steam personally, plus it's a great platform for indie games to get market space.
With 190 games purchased through Steam, you could say I have no problem with it. I originally used Steam with CS 1.6 and the Half-Life series. With other games I hated having to put the CD in to play or having to re-install all the games I wanted installed when I reformatted or built a new computer.
The downtimes were short and rare.
Some of my friends refuse to use it because they feel like they lost their privacy. One told me that he doesn't like that Steams shows everyone the games he has bought. I don't understand this line of thinking but whatever. I had another who said he hated that when he was on Steam, people would send him messages and he just wanted to be left alone to play for awhile. I pointed out that he could set his Friend's List to show him offline at anytime even though he was online.
Of the 190 games I have bought through Steam, most of them I bought at a very reduced price. There are so many games out there that I don't feel the need to buy it the day it is released. I can wait a month or so and then get it when it goes on sale for 30-50% off.
However, MMOs I usually buy day 1. This worked for me with Rift but was a disappointment with DC Universe.
The way Steam is integrated in Black Ops works great with finding friends in servers.
Steam is a full out win. I have actually replaced some games that I had on CD/DVD with the Steam version.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
I love steam, it is my only source for pc games and have been for years.
If steam does not release the title i wont buy it.
Its only one game i refused to buy from steam and that was cod4 where they charged absurdly 70euro from my country. That was way over the top even for a steam fan as myself. That game i never bought.
When they are giveing me ripoff deals like that im glad there are people who crack games.
If you feel like being bombarded by never-ending advertisements, constant patch conflictions when playing on non-steam servers, and lots of downtime when the steam network is down, then by all means... enjoy steam.
I personally can't stand Steam... especially when I'm forced to use it, e.g., MW2 / Black Ops.
In get one advert everytime I log in, and it's usually for a pretty good deal on a special offer game.
I own around 20 games on Steam, inluding 2 MMOs, and I personally do not get these 'constant' patch conflicts.
I know it's the 'elite' position to not like the service, but I really like steam personally, plus it's a great platform for indie games to get market space.
Qft. @depain A freind of mine uses the same argument. He has never used Steam and by the looks of things neither have you. Downtime? Never experianced any of that myself or constant patch conflictions. To me it is a tool and a fine way to pick up bargins sometimes for less than a fiver. And as vesavius says a fine platform for indy games.
My wife and I have two MMOs on Steam (seperate acocunts) and often get frustrated that we can chat over steam but cant get others to chat in there. Having the Steam overlay that also means we can chat across games with groups of people is really useful. But people often dont buy the Steam version.
Steam in an MMO can tell you if a person is online but on a different character, if you want to be anonymous you can always go 'offline' in Steam too. It also allows guilds to check their friends list and see if you are available, notify you in game of an instance/raid, and all this without interfering with your current gameplay, allowing you to get to a safe place, save, log out and join them in the game they need help.
Steam provides and automatic, easy way for community to develop without rearranging whole websites or systems. Just creating a group on steam is an automatic guild with its own chat and voice chat. Why are people not catching on?
I bought recently Civ V and have no other Steam games and as far my experience goes i really do not want more steam games. There is no advantage, the games i buy per steam do not belong to my very personal property and if i have trouble with connecting to steam i have trouble with all steam products i may ever buy (hopefully not). Recently i got many "steam servers overloaded" messages in my language and the multiplayerperformance of Civ V is really not good. My Dad has Metro 2033 and handling the game is handling a pile of crap. I want my games be my property under my control and for chatting i use a voip software and for digital downloading i use Gamersgate which gives me full controll over my software or GoG.com which does the same for golden oldies and classics made playable for any modern windows be it xp or win7. Steam is a big annoyance and any of its pros could be made totally optional so one has not to hassle with all the other crap it includes also.
The Steam Dream is a very bad dream!
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
If you feel like being bombarded by never-ending advertisements, constant patch conflictions when playing on non-steam servers, and lots of downtime when the steam network is down, then by all means... enjoy steam.
I personally can't stand Steam... especially when I'm forced to use it, e.g., MW2 / Black Ops.
In get one advert everytime I log in, and it's usually for a pretty good deal on a special offer game.
I own around 20 games on Steam, inluding 2 MMOs, and I personally do not get these 'constant' patch conflicts.
I know it's the 'elite' position to not like the service, but I really like steam personally, plus it's a great platform for indie games to get market space.
Qft. @depain A freind of mine uses the same argument. He has never used Steam and by the looks of things neither have you. Downtime? Never experianced any of that myself or constant patch conflictions. To me it is a tool and a fine way to pick up bargins sometimes for less than a fiver. And as vesavius says a fine platform for indy games.
I think the Steam haters underestimate the last point, and thats a shame. steam basicially puts grass roots indie devs into the mainstream PC market- every gamer has to see how thats good surely?
Something like Capsized thrives on Steam, but probably wouldnt even get looked at by traditional retailers.
There is no advantage, the games i buy per steam do not belong to my very personal property and if i have trouble with connecting to steam i have trouble....
If I understand this correctly you are saying that if you cannot connect to Steam you cannot play your games, so you don't feel like they are 'yours'?
If so,you know you can play in offline mode?
Recently i got many "steam servers overloaded" messages in my language and the multiplayerperformance of Civ V is really not good.
I play Civ5 online and it bahaves fine... I am not sure what you mean here.
Comments
What a great program, that steam.
I'm sorry but Valve (guys who are somewhat behind steam) doesnt dominate much of anything. Do not get me wrong, I love valve and anything they do (minus the lack of half life info).
But what I see them as is basically a virtual game store. They are basically the cheaper, better, internet version of Gamestop which to me is much worse than Steam. Steam doesnt really have a say in how games are done or handled like Microsoft or Sony might on their respective consoles.
And honestly, with some of the publishers like EA on Steam, the likely hood that Steam can push around these larges companies is close to nill.
most recent MMO's have released on steam anyway so the dreams pretty much there already.
It doesnt have WOW's community no big loss IMO as none of my mates play it.
I despise Steam for this. I made the mistake of buying CIV5 but will never use anything Steam oriented again (if it requires the Steam tie-in tp play).
Exactly. Also, Station Launcher allows cross game interaction, and there's Garena, XFire and Raptr for those who like that sort of thing. The F2P communities seem to interact across the games moreso than the subscription gamers do and that may very well be because they see themselves as gamers playing games, much like Steam, whereas most MMO gamers that use forums and third party gaming community sites/apps usually are much more polarized regarding the various titles.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
i had no intrest in PC gaming (other than MMOs) till i found steam. and i found it because i wanted to buy Global Agenda when it first came out and the only way to buy it was from Steam. since then its been the only place i buy games, use to buy MMOs from direct 2 drive but haven't since i found steam. they're just so much cheaper than anywhere else, atleast after a game has been out awhile.
and as i said i didn't play any non-mmo games on PC till i got steam. now i have a pretty nice collection built up on it, around christmas and mid summer how can you not go overboard buyin games when they're like 75% off or more? lol just bought Batman Arkham Asylum back in march when it was 75% off.
i keep in touch with a few friends from old EQOA on steam as well they kept trying to get me to get a steam account but i kept putting it off .now that i have it i couldn't immagine not having it.
I have read that article and I sit back scratch my head and wonder why. I have seam loaded on my comp it is always running. My friends that I know in steam can see what I am playing at all times, mmo's or fps. So we already have that you just have to enable it for what you are doing.
Now I have to ask Bill why do we need a united community across all mmo's? In my experience I find folks who play eve are of a certain mind set, and those for the most part do not mix with say fantasy types who are off killing orcs. I just find it laughable that we need something like this, as were talking about diverse games/genres that not all folks would want to communicate with each other. Even in steam you have sub communities that you can join.
Oh well one last thing, please no more prop ups for Stalzer from that you know corporation, I for one who could care less about that organization/person, and to keep throwing that name in our face is starting to get old really quickly.
Possibly you are correct the entire article being a pip dream.
I have been on steam since HL2 and i think it is great. I really like that a lot of the MMOs are starting to distibute through steam too. I got my Lord of the Rings online through them and it works great.
And all those advertisements are NOT a bad thing. I have picked up a ton of games on the cheap with the sales that they show. Like games that are only a couple months old at $5 instead of $50!
Another great thing about it is you can find great games by seeing what your friends are playing. Maybe you didn't know it was even coming out until your friend is playing it.
I have had a few times where the i find my computer is running slow because a game or 2 is updating but that too is nice since i don't have to worry about patching.
Overall though i think Steam is awesome!!
Not really true Eric. Most of my MMO friends have been through all of those games including EVE. I don't think that MMO's are as segregated as you think. And if you have a cool multi-game guild it is even better!
I may get blasted by a wall of flames after this, but there is currently one other option than Steam: Facebook.
Yes, yes, FB is evil, Farmvile&co are evil and FB's chat is currently a mess.
BUT it has millions of voices, it already has friend lists, it can already be access from your mobile, and it may be a way to bring "non-gamers" or "casual gamers" into the community of MMOs. Heck there are MMOs on Fb, as a recent article here proved: http://www.mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/5160/Facebook-MMOs.html
Again, FB is NOT the only way. But it could offer an alternative to Steam, if only for the sake of concurrence and customers. Just saying.
Actually I was at one time part of a large guild. We all started off in SWG, and eventually spread out to EQ2, wow, daoc, and EVE. The problem being is that when we started spreading out, we lost the core of the guild, as far as being cooperative. Eventually the guild fell apart. I think they still exist in SWG, some in STO, however out of the original 282 members I only keep up with 3 of them now. I think 2 of the officers eventually moved in with each other and got married. However the rest of everybody else spun off. The problem was trying to be all things to all folks and we ceased being what we were originally, and ended up being failing on what we though was a good go. The main issue was the guild leader was the guild leader in all games, and failed at providing true leadership.
Maybe other guilds are better at this, but I watched mine implode. Oh well life moves on and you find different guilds and folks to run with, and keep those in your circle of friends who really matter.
Sorry it is just the way I see things, having been there, and watched the differences between the type of mmo's drive apart a guild, not help it.
Steam is not cheap unless stuff is at sale. It's usually more expensive than any other online shop, like amazon etc.
Steam might be online all the time, but that doesn't say a thing about your ability to play games. Sometimes Steam decides you don't own a free game, or the servers are too busy to handle a installation, which mostly takes part on your system, or the download is only 5 kb/s even though your literally the only one using bandwith in your region (you can choose content servers for a reason).
I use Steam to play games that make full use of it, e.g. source engine games, and i buy games if they are really cheap, as the sales often are awesome, i give them that, and i chat with people i know from playing games on Steam using Steam. But outside of that..
Most non-source games do not support stuff like "show players on server", "join game" etc through Steam. So Steam only does show you they are playing it, or to be exact, they have the game running. They can be in main menu all day, Steam doesn't know/care.
To find out if they are really playing etc., i still have to start it and log in, and i do not know which character they are on when it's an MMO etc.
People can invite me to play games i do not own, but i can not invite them to join my match even if we are both ingame, and i only just left the server they are playing on.
So Steam does not only not support every feature MMOs do through the ingame friends list, it does not even support (or games to do support it) every feature it has for every game.
So somethinh independend from Steam might be better for MMOs, if you really need it.
Which ain't the case imho. I like not being online everywhere if i choose to do so. I like being able to choose the level of my participation. I can start ICQ, TS, the game etc. independently from each other. I don't feel like speaking/listening? I don't start TS. I still can find out if my buddys are there using the TS viewer on my guilds website or the general one. I can start the game but not ICQ/TS and be online "stealthy", or TS but not ICQ, so only my guild knows im there.
And if Steam+MMO would be done right (see above, at least supporting what Steam does for source games and what friendslists do for MMOs), it would tracking literally everything you would do. And if they ever decide you have been bad or they don't like you, or just a bug like it happens all the time, you lost everything.
You can't contact your friends, you can't play..maybe you use the integrated browser too, and they decided they don't support some piece of hardware you happen to have?
And thats only the industry site. Things like guilds requiring you to have an IPhone like Unlight mentioned as possibile outcome would make matters worse.
I wouldn't want Valve to control all that, and i wouldn't want anyone else do to it, and i don't see think game developer/publishers would want to support other MMOs.
Most likely outcome though will be that someone will develop something like that without belonging to a game company, and it will become a success like Facebook etc., so everyone will start supporting it.
I'll wait to the day's end when the moon is high
And then I'll rise with the tide with a lust for life, I'll
Amass an army, and we'll harness a horde
And then we'll limp across the land until we stand at the shore
After being forced to use it to be able to play Civ5 legally, I wouldn't now use steam if I was paid to.
-----
Pay-to-Win / F2P will be the death of real gaming, Boycott it !!
Steam works because Valve operate from the viewpoint of "give the gamers things they want, even if they dont know they want it yet", not "Lets get as much money as we can out of them".
With their games they give us polished releases, FREE DLC (oh yes Bioware and Activision I am looking at you) and with steam they give you cloud support that you didnt even know you wanted, a friends functionality that is simple and works and cheap games.
Thus hardly anyone cares that steam is the most effective DRM out there. Because Valve give us shit we like and they dont patronise their customers. Look at the ARG for portal two, its been a better bit of marketing than ANYTHING EA have EVER done.
Personally of the various online retailers I go with which ever is cheapest for the game I want, but I always try and activate that purchase on steam. If I want to format my PC I never need worry about where my disks are again, nor do I have to manually install any patches. I have a 50mb Broadband connection thats always on, and I pay the bill on time so I need never worry about being disconnected from my games.
I wish Valve would do an MMO, then again with their level of Polish if they did it would likely never release.
Xfire? I have been using it for years.
In get one advert everytime I log in, and it's usually for a pretty good deal on a special offer game.
I own around 20 games on Steam, inluding 2 MMOs, and I personally do not get these 'constant' patch conflicts.
I know it's the 'elite' position to not like the service, but I really like steam personally, plus it's a great platform for indie games to get market space.
With 190 games purchased through Steam, you could say I have no problem with it. I originally used Steam with CS 1.6 and the Half-Life series. With other games I hated having to put the CD in to play or having to re-install all the games I wanted installed when I reformatted or built a new computer.
The downtimes were short and rare.
Some of my friends refuse to use it because they feel like they lost their privacy. One told me that he doesn't like that Steams shows everyone the games he has bought. I don't understand this line of thinking but whatever. I had another who said he hated that when he was on Steam, people would send him messages and he just wanted to be left alone to play for awhile. I pointed out that he could set his Friend's List to show him offline at anytime even though he was online.
Of the 190 games I have bought through Steam, most of them I bought at a very reduced price. There are so many games out there that I don't feel the need to buy it the day it is released. I can wait a month or so and then get it when it goes on sale for 30-50% off.
However, MMOs I usually buy day 1. This worked for me with Rift but was a disappointment with DC Universe.
The way Steam is integrated in Black Ops works great with finding friends in servers.
Steam is a full out win. I have actually replaced some games that I had on CD/DVD with the Steam version.
"I don't give a sh*t what other people say. I play what I like and I'll pay to do it too!" - SerialMMOist
you do know you can add a non steam game and you can shift tab and there steam overlay in a game that wasnt boguht in steam.
also xfire is another option.
I'm a huge fan of Steam.
I love steam, it is my only source for pc games and have been for years.
If steam does not release the title i wont buy it.
Its only one game i refused to buy from steam and that was cod4 where they charged absurdly 70euro from my country. That was way over the top even for a steam fan as myself. That game i never bought.
When they are giveing me ripoff deals like that im glad there are people who crack games.
Qft. @depain A freind of mine uses the same argument. He has never used Steam and by the looks of things neither have you. Downtime? Never experianced any of that myself or constant patch conflictions. To me it is a tool and a fine way to pick up bargins sometimes for less than a fiver. And as vesavius says a fine platform for indy games.
My wife and I have two MMOs on Steam (seperate acocunts) and often get frustrated that we can chat over steam but cant get others to chat in there. Having the Steam overlay that also means we can chat across games with groups of people is really useful. But people often dont buy the Steam version.
Steam in an MMO can tell you if a person is online but on a different character, if you want to be anonymous you can always go 'offline' in Steam too. It also allows guilds to check their friends list and see if you are available, notify you in game of an instance/raid, and all this without interfering with your current gameplay, allowing you to get to a safe place, save, log out and join them in the game they need help.
Steam provides and automatic, easy way for community to develop without rearranging whole websites or systems. Just creating a group on steam is an automatic guild with its own chat and voice chat. Why are people not catching on?
I bought recently Civ V and have no other Steam games and as far my experience goes i really do not want more steam games.
There is no advantage, the games i buy per steam do not belong to my very personal property and if i have trouble with connecting to steam i have trouble with all steam products i may ever buy (hopefully not).
Recently i got many "steam servers overloaded" messages in my language and the multiplayerperformance of Civ V is really not good.
My Dad has Metro 2033 and handling the game is handling a pile of crap.
I want my games be my property under my control and for chatting i use a voip software and for digital downloading i use Gamersgate which gives me full controll over my software or GoG.com which does the same for golden oldies and classics made playable for any modern windows be it xp or win7.
Steam is a big annoyance and any of its pros could be made totally optional so one has not to hassle with all the other crap it includes also.
The Steam Dream is a very bad dream!
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
I think the Steam haters underestimate the last point, and thats a shame. steam basicially puts grass roots indie devs into the mainstream PC market- every gamer has to see how thats good surely?
Something like Capsized thrives on Steam, but probably wouldnt even get looked at by traditional retailers.