ScotteusMaximus
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 2, 2005
- Messages
- 415
the announcement that HL2 is switching to episodic got me thinking about valve's little experiment in content distribution, and apart from being able to showcase the work of independent devs and offer episodic content more easily, i honestly don't see the benefit of steam to us as gamers. i remember when i first read about steam, i got all excited about the prospect of never having to drive to the store, never having to wait in line, and best of all, cheaper games. too bad it never (at least for me) lived up to the hype.
edit: what follows is my initial rant (rant=bitchy. look it up ) about steam. read it if you want, but it's not necessary. what i really wanted was more opinions on steam, systems like steam, episodic gaming, and whether you think moving toward this model is good or bad. if someone disagrees with you, it doesn't mean they just called your mother fat. please keep it civil, and just provide why you like/dislike steam.
1. steam is horribly inconvenient-after i reformatted to x64, i had to reinstall all of my applications. no big deal, i always set aside time for that, and i've got a folder full of CDs, DVDs, and backup images in case i ever need them. then it came time to reinstall HL2. i bought the steam version just so i could preload the game and play it at midnight (HA! i couldn't activate it until the next day), but lo and behold, i forgot my damn password. it took me 15 minutes just to figure it out, and after that, i had to redownload all 4+ gigs of HL2 before i could play. had i not remembered my password, i would've been fucked. people bitch about having to swap CDs when installing a game, but i'd rather swap CDs than have to download the whole game off of valve's slow ass servers. hell, i could've driven to best buy and bought a new copy in the time it took me to download.
edit: i know that you can make backups of your games, but if i'm going to be paying the same amount of money as someone who buys a boxed copy, i'm going to drive to the store and get a professionally stamped copy, complete with box and manual.
edit: i know forgetting my password was my bad, but that really wasn't my big beef with steam. the biggest problem i have is that it hasn't translated into cheaper games for us like they said it would. publishers bitch about having to pay to manufacture and distribute games, but if steam is getting rid of all of that, why are games still the same price as before? people complain when they pay the same price for a new video card but only get a .pdf manual, so how is that different than paying the same price for a game, but not getting anything at all?
2. it's an unnecessary program that takes up unnecessary system resources-unless you want to use workarounds, you have to run steam to play your games. valve has really lowered the amount of memory it takes up, but i remember when it used to take up 40+ megs just by itself. it's not a big deal if you have 2+ gigs of memory, but what about people who only have 512 MB or 1 gig? that's just a waste of resources to have steam running in the background when it's not doing anything.
3. steam isn't lowering the cost of games-the big promise of steam was that valve could cut out the middle man, save money on packaging and distribution, and pass those savings directly onto us, the customers. really now? is that why i paid 60 freaking bucks for HL2? granted, i didn't have to get the silver package, but even the bronze was 50 bucks, the same price as a boxed copy. what did i get for my 60 bucks? a bunch of code that sits on valve's servers, and not a damn thing that physically exists in the real world. i don't know, call me greedy or something, but if i'm paying the same amount of money for less product, something is seriously fucked. where is that money that valve is saving? i sure as hell haven't seen it.
what are your thoughts on steam and other similar forms of content distribution?
edit: what follows is my initial rant (rant=bitchy. look it up ) about steam. read it if you want, but it's not necessary. what i really wanted was more opinions on steam, systems like steam, episodic gaming, and whether you think moving toward this model is good or bad. if someone disagrees with you, it doesn't mean they just called your mother fat. please keep it civil, and just provide why you like/dislike steam.
1. steam is horribly inconvenient-after i reformatted to x64, i had to reinstall all of my applications. no big deal, i always set aside time for that, and i've got a folder full of CDs, DVDs, and backup images in case i ever need them. then it came time to reinstall HL2. i bought the steam version just so i could preload the game and play it at midnight (HA! i couldn't activate it until the next day), but lo and behold, i forgot my damn password. it took me 15 minutes just to figure it out, and after that, i had to redownload all 4+ gigs of HL2 before i could play. had i not remembered my password, i would've been fucked. people bitch about having to swap CDs when installing a game, but i'd rather swap CDs than have to download the whole game off of valve's slow ass servers. hell, i could've driven to best buy and bought a new copy in the time it took me to download.
edit: i know that you can make backups of your games, but if i'm going to be paying the same amount of money as someone who buys a boxed copy, i'm going to drive to the store and get a professionally stamped copy, complete with box and manual.
edit: i know forgetting my password was my bad, but that really wasn't my big beef with steam. the biggest problem i have is that it hasn't translated into cheaper games for us like they said it would. publishers bitch about having to pay to manufacture and distribute games, but if steam is getting rid of all of that, why are games still the same price as before? people complain when they pay the same price for a new video card but only get a .pdf manual, so how is that different than paying the same price for a game, but not getting anything at all?
2. it's an unnecessary program that takes up unnecessary system resources-unless you want to use workarounds, you have to run steam to play your games. valve has really lowered the amount of memory it takes up, but i remember when it used to take up 40+ megs just by itself. it's not a big deal if you have 2+ gigs of memory, but what about people who only have 512 MB or 1 gig? that's just a waste of resources to have steam running in the background when it's not doing anything.
3. steam isn't lowering the cost of games-the big promise of steam was that valve could cut out the middle man, save money on packaging and distribution, and pass those savings directly onto us, the customers. really now? is that why i paid 60 freaking bucks for HL2? granted, i didn't have to get the silver package, but even the bronze was 50 bucks, the same price as a boxed copy. what did i get for my 60 bucks? a bunch of code that sits on valve's servers, and not a damn thing that physically exists in the real world. i don't know, call me greedy or something, but if i'm paying the same amount of money for less product, something is seriously fucked. where is that money that valve is saving? i sure as hell haven't seen it.
what are your thoughts on steam and other similar forms of content distribution?