Steam wants to know more then just the hardware you're playing on big brother cometh!

RangerXML

RangerXML

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Apr 16, 2006
Messages
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Ahhh, so that's how they can afford such cheap game deals... they are supplemented by the government!

** puts on tinfoil hat **
 
http://store.steampowered.com/news/4073/

"The new software component of our survey helps us understand what else our customers are using their PCs to do, and as a result, what features we can deliver or leverage to make Steam and our games better", Valve says in a statement. "PC users, developers and manufacturers will no doubt also find this information useful, so we plan to publish these results and trends over time. The first set of software survey results will be published among Steam stats at the end of the month."
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It doesn't scan your file structure and preferences, just the installed programs under Programs and Features in Windows per that article... it's also opt-in, thus disabled by default. You have to specifically tell it to scan that stuff for it to do so.
 
Dammit, I misplaced my tinfoil hat. There is no logical reason for Steam to need that data, thus put the functionality into the software.

EDIT, Fine, Steam wants to compete against Impulse, then do it, but this is still crossing a line.
 
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What ideas does Valve have behind this? I mean, how useful is this?

The only thing I could think of is maybe they want to start selling non-gaming software through Steam like Stardock's Impulse. I hope Valve gives some more info on this.
 
They want to know what hardware you use now the software, what would be next?
 
I think this will reduce the usefulness of the hardware survey. I know I always allowed it to scan my hardware when I was asked, but now I won't allow it anymore. Unfortunately I think with this little addition the number of "high end" system represented by this survey will be reduced significantly since it is those people that will usually see this type of scanning as unacceptable. This might be a very bad thing for PC games since we might see fewer options as game companies try to reduce their budgets. Kind of like the way we see all the console ports with these low res textures.
 
Hardcore gamers should have a gaming computer that's separate from their work computer. Steam can scan my gaming computer all they want. All they're going to find is games.
 
phide said:
Sensationalism at its finest, Ranger. Bravo.
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Thank you, thank you. OOXX

Hysteria has its own rewards, better then coffee!

WabeWalker said:
Hardcore gamers should have a gaming computer that's separate from their work computer. Steam can scan my gaming computer all they want. All they're going to find is games.
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I do most of my stuff on one powerful machine in VMs, cheaper and uses less power. I do have a couple of net tops, but that is not the point.
 
LurkerLito said:
I think this will reduce the usefulness of the hardware survey. I know I always allowed it to scan my hardware when I was asked, but now I won't allow it anymore. Unfortunately I think with this little addition the number of "high end" system represented by this survey will be reduced significantly since it is those people that will usually see this type of scanning as unacceptable. This might be a very bad thing for PC games since we might see fewer options as game companies try to reduce their budgets. Kind of like the way we see all the console ports with these low res textures.
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I doubt it, most of the users here are high end users yes, however even us are a small potion(though proportionally bigger) among users of high end hardware. I doubt any of your concearns will become an issue.

Oh and its only in the beta client, who knows when, if ever it will come to the regular client. AND its OPT-IN, as phide said
phide said:
Sensationalism at its finest, Ranger. Bravo.
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What is the big deal? One, it's optional. Two, it really doesn't bother me too much as this is a separate pc that I don't use much.
 
OPT-IN!!!! Nothing to see here! It's YOUR choice whether to enable it or not!
 
It is really sad to see no one cares about Steam looking into something it really has no right to. Jokes aside, "Live free or die; Death is not the worst of evils." Good day all, have a great weekend!
 
I like Impulse better. I don't hate steam and I still get their games too. For me steam is just good for the super hot deals otherwise I buy elsewhere. I like Impulse's approach better. But their selection is smaller.
 
Ranger, it doesn't HAVE a right to. Each individual can give them access if they so please. Why are you recycling your thoughts when people have provided the reason why it isn't all that bad due to the fact that we make the decision to give or withhold the information.
 
I just like showing off to Valve that I'm using a 606GHz CPU. :p

beatthis.png
 
People that have issues with something that is voluntary are a fucking idiot, plain and simple.
 
The reason why valve is doing this is pretty simple, money. They will sell the results to companies who are interested in it. Not a bad business decision on their part and with it being opt-in no feelings are hurt on the consumer's side unless you just choose to be upset about something that doesn't affect you unless you make it affect you.

Also, contrary to popular belief, there is a difference between "then" and "than", learn it.
 
How is the fact that I may be using AutoCAD on my PC helpful to Valve for Steam or their games again? (Yeah, yeah, opt-in...blah blah blah.)
 
RangerXML said:
It is really sad to see no one cares about Steam looking into something it really has no right to. Jokes aside, "Live free or die; Death is not the worst of evils." Good day all, have a great weekend!
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How can you have this stance when steam has to have permission from you to do it? If you don't like it, then they can't do it. That simple. It's like a cop asking you a simple question. You have a choice to answer it or not. Same thing here.
 
Yea, i don't really see a problem with this. In fact it seems like a great idea. I mean, think about how many different antivirus software apps are out there. If they can figure out which ones gamers use most, then devs can plan ahead and make sure their installers and apps do not interfere. Or say Valve has plans to add a bookmark menu to the steam web browser. This way they can see what browsers they should support bookmark importing for. Or what hardware monitoring tools gamers use so they can make sure VAC does not falsely detect them. Etc.
 
randomhero58 said:
What ideas does Valve have behind this? I mean, how useful is this?

The only thing I could think of is maybe they want to start selling non-gaming software through Steam like Stardock's Impulse. I hope Valve gives some more info on this.
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Here's the thing. Valve's been selling video games through Steam for a long-time now. Valve has become a semi-trusted-publisher. Valve now wants to expand outside of Windows. They've already released their OSX client, and the Linux client is in testing.

Valve now wants to go further. They want to do more than just games. They want to be a complete software store, offering productivity software, music making software, and other packages.

However, that means Valve needs real information on what people buy. What software packages do users install. What software vendors should Valve look at talking to. So Valve does the same thing that drove the creation of their OSX and Linux clients: Look at what the Steam users are actually using.

Valve can then take this information to software vendors. Valve can offer software vendors a secure store, with single-sign-on DRM tech, across multiple platforms. Linux and OSX tend to be hard-nuts to crack for third party software sales. Valve can offer developers a single store-front that protects the vendor's software, while also giving the users what they want: unattended installations, software package on demand delivery, multiple computer installation, cross operating system installation, and so on.

If you start thinking about Valve as a store-front for all software, their listing move here makes plenty of sense. Tacky, but it does actually makes sense for market research.
 
RangerXML said:
It is really sad to see no one cares about Steam looking into something it really has no right to. Jokes aside, "Live free or die; Death is not the worst of evils."
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It's even more saddening to see someone trying to troll up PC Gaming & Hardware. I mean, General Mayhem, that's our playground, but PCG&H?
 
As long as it remains opt in, and not opt out, I can't find much reason to be troubled over it. Though I do have sneaking suspicion that this will switch over to opt out at some point. I will have a problem with it then.

How the info serves them is obvious. It can help them with advertising to it's current customers, and of course, there is prolly no shortage of companies that would be willing to pay for that data.
 
Data which is collected isnt linked to any specific Steam account, so I dont see any problem with that.
 
I know EA got in trouble with this a few years ago with Ultima Online... but then it wasnt optional.
 
Thuleman said:
The reason why valve is doing this is pretty simple, money. They will sell the results to companies who are interested in it. Not a bad business decision on their part and with it being opt-in no feelings are hurt on the consumer's side unless you just choose to be upset about something that doesn't affect you unless you make it affect you.

Also, contrary to popular belief, there is a difference between "then" and "than", learn it.
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I'm not so sure it's JUST to sell off information, perhaps they're ready to branch out and not just offer games. If they can show other software developers there's a market via steam for their products, we may see steam growing even larger in terms of what they sell.
 
Valve does not have a history of turning something from an "Opt-In" where you have to go and turn it on explicitly, to something that is now all of a sudden on, and that you turn off. It seems that people around here like to complain about something, about someone being sneaky about something or even better conspiracies here seem to do VERY well.

But Steam is usually very consistent. They have probably watched the Facebook mess and the other sites messes and learned that if you want something, you make it an Opt-In option. I personally don't care if they see what software I have on my PC. If they are just looking at the installed programs than I don't care because it could mean that Steam will expand and I will have a single place to get software that is well priced. I see many of you mention Steams SUPER sales that they have, could you imagine the same for Photoshop CS5 and like like???

Most of you like to go sensationalistic and it drives me made. Here the do something correct. They let you know they want to scan your computer for installed software and make it an opt-in deal.... If you don't want to share, guess what.... DO NOT OPT IN.

They you have your nay sayers, wondering what they could do with that data and guess and some come up with plausible theories, others with ones from right field. Others say it will secretly be changed to opt-out, but given Steams track record, odds are VERY MUCH against this. They realize that the community is a finicky bunch and they don't grow this big by doing things wrong.... you now have a Linux and OS/X market which was unforeseen a year ago, but its hear.

It seems to me that Steam is doing things only to provide the END USER with a better, more streamlined service so that when you think of buying games, you think Steam (I know I have started to think that way for PC games), and I bet they are going to do that for other software, but I doubt that they would comprise there integrity to do so. That would be un-Steam like. I checked the box, they can see what I have installed. I hope that they expand past games into all software so then I don't have to worry about patch xxx being installed or losing my CD or my CD-KEY (which has happened on some expensive developer software many years back).....

I see nothing but POSSIBLE advantage from opting-in to this survey. First we don't know what it will be used for, if anything other than a graphical survey like the HWSurvey, and maybe combine it together to see if certain games/software can cause issues and let people know before buying them.

There are a whole host of reasons, but it make me ill to sit here and watch you guys slam an "OPT-IN" choice and start comparing it to other sites like Impulse... we don't know where Steam is going, but it got where it is by being successful, and keeping its user information private. (Don't start about a HWSurvey for its imposible for me to find out where you belong there) The HW Survey actually shows which way computer are moving a maybe used by developers who may have been leaning to the DX 9 code path to move to a DX10/11 path instead due to the installed base.... plus it may make them use more thread if they know if they market on Steam that xx% of the machine have 2 or 3 or 4 cores.

Steam has done nothing wrong, but provide a great way to get games, sometimes VERY cheaply, download them at anytime onto ANY machine and not have to worry about DRM issues.

If you are asking me, thats a big success and a reason that this person will use Steam now and in the future. If they keep adding options and they are Opt-In ones, then I see no reason for all this crap that has been fed to them in this forum.
 
I'll be very interested to see the results of this survey. However, i'll be opting out of the survey my self.
 
This isn't about making their games better. This is about them trying to figure out how to better market their games. I hate press releases that try to make a bad thing sound like a good thing.
 
Dunno how this is a bad thing. Lots of paranoid people in here.

Bottom line, valve uses this info so they can keep their games from bloating to the point you need hardware that's still years away to play them well (Crysis). They know that HL2's success is largely based on how well it performs for the average user (1280x1024 res with a 3+ year old system). It also tells them how much support the need to add to their games for, say the odd Matrox user. As well, it helps them to determine if multi-theading is going to be a safe thing to make a default setting in a game.....Or when to put the ax to, say, DX9...which they won't do until WinXP falls below Win7/Vista in popularity.

I don't see a reason to worry
 
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