Why Steam is a Bad Idea – Logical Arguments

J

J4M3S0N79

Gawd
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Why Steam is a Bad Idea – Logical Arguments

I will try to keep this pointed and concise as possible so please bear with me. I have worked in software development for some time (on the business side) and deployment/ updates of software have always been the perpetual disconnect between subscribers and developers. In general, developers try to release a product followed by support and enhancements. Customers use a product, get familiar with it…and their expectations are often different than that of the developers. What valve has done is this, they have introduced a HUGE variable and I hate to sound cliché, but the problem is not the 100’s of foreseeable problems, it’s the 1 issue that is unpredictable that will generate a number of unhappy customers. Here are a list of situations and potential problems I worry about.

1) When I installed HL2, I was HORRIFIED at how long it took to decrypt all of the files. Now I am the type of guy who reinstalls my OS A LOT (like 4 times a year) to clean registry, HW upgrades etc…I never install a SP over the OS, I always slipstream it. This means that I have to go through a 40 minute install process every time!
2) What happens when my cable company is down, my brother forgot to pay the cable bill, my modem gets fried etc…there will be NO HL2, and I REEEEALLY believe that I should be able to play a SINGLE PLAYER game offline at any time…I was duped into buying the DVD version for that specific reason. This also means that I cannot take the game home with me for the holidays because the comp at my house is not online. WHAT A HUGE BUMMER.
3) Valve has issued its customers NO UPTIME GUARANTEE. This means that there is no recourse for players if it goes down for a day, a week, etc…we are fish out of water.
4) Valve does not control the internet or the networks that HL2 will be played on. The perfect example is the college campuses that don’t support steam. This is a huge population to alienate to save a few dollars on what potential pirates could. Also, what if a major internet backbone (or 2) goes down, what happens if (it’s a stretch) this happens. Again…we are screwed.
5) SOFTWARE CAN BE HACKED and VALVE SHOULD KNOW THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Valve has a direct connection to all of our computers, and if they are that careless with their source code…than this means steam can be hacked to distribute UNWANTED CONTENT on to our box(0rs). This makes me really mad, because steam could be hijacked for less than noble purposes!
6) There is always the possibility that someone else invalidates your copy…and they (valve) could care less if it was you that is to blame…they want us all to protect our COPY….THAT IS THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK.
7) There is no longevity guarantee meaning that 7 years from now (I still play unreal, quake etc.) they may have gone out of business...who then will authenticate and decrypt content?? If I have a $80 coaster 5 years from now because steam ends up flopping and they lose the suit against VUG I am gonna be especially sore.
8) Also, what happens when someone gets the game, leaves the settings as they are (as most do) and a content or exe update causes incompatibility with your current drivers…you could be FORCED TO UPDATE VID DRIVERS OR SOUND DRIVERS which could create a nightmare of compatibility with other games.

I really hate to get on my soap box here and go on a rant, but I really think that valve is smacking all of the loyal fans in the face to get back at a few bad apples. In the process, they may end up creating a nightmare of a situation for themselves. A (very small) part of me hope that those handy hax0rs are clanking away on steam as we speak because I FEEL LIKE I AM IN CITY 17 AND VALVE IS THE COMBINE watching my every move…every time I run the game…every time I install it every time it updates. I am all for developers having control…but lets be reasonable.

Thanks,
M
 
You can play the game in offline mode if Steam is unable to detect a network connection.
 
If Valve goes belly up, then nobody will be held to the EULA and the modifications that allow you to play the game without authenticating to the servers will probably be freely distributed. However, there's supposed to be an offline mode that allows you to play HL2 when no internet connection is available, assuming you've registered and authenticated your copy successfully. I've also noticed that you specifically have to allow Steam to put content on your PC via a prompt.

You slipstream your OS, but don't know how to "slipstream" your HL2 installation? Try this in your browser...

steam://backup

Then burn the .exe file it creates to a DVD or 5 CDs. You'll have the latest backup available for install, and it should superseed the need to download updates upon install.
 
I agree guys...it's not that its not possible..its just that jumping through this many hoops really sucks!
 
Ludic said:
If Valve goes belly up, then nobody will be held to the EULA and the modifications that allow you to play the game without authenticating to the servers will probably be freely distributed. However, there's supposed to be an offline mode that allows you to play HL2 when no internet connection is available, assuming you've registered and authenticated your copy successfully. I've also noticed that you specifically have to allow Steam to put content on your PC via a prompt.

You slipstream your OS, but don't know how to "slipstream" your HL2 installation? Try this in your browser...

steam://backup

Then burn the .exe file it creates to a DVD or 5 CDs. You'll have the latest backup available for install, and it should superseed the need to download updates upon install.
Click to expand...

I fallowed the directions to go into Offline mode and it still connects to the Steam servers to verify my account. So until I try it by pulling the plug out of the wall, I'm not buying into that crap.
 
I agree with the thread.

I think the IDEA of Steam is a great idea. But Steam itself is a joke. Now, many people will argue back that yes you can do this and that to get it to work ... but in reality... we shouldn't have to do this and that.

Jumping through hoops is NOT the responsibility of the consumer, nor ever should be. So in a basic nutshell, Valve has good intentions, but really ... their decision makers are fucking retards.

Proud Uninstaller of Steam,
Noid
 
I haven't tried it yet, but i think steam will always use an internet connection if it finds one, you can't force it to ignore one if its there. you have to disable youre connection(by pulling the cord or through windows) to make it use offline mode. thats my understanding anyway

I have certain issues with steam, most of which are mentioned in this thread, but steam does have some things going for it. I bought the silver package through steam and have been pretty happy so far.
 
I block steam via Sygate (my firewall) and play HL2 in offline mode. The only gripe I have about this is that when Steam first fires up, it tries to connect and update for around 5 minutes before realizing that there is no net connection. THEN it lets me play in offline mode. Granted if I keep Steam running in offline mode the game starts up in seconds. But still.

Valid points all Mysogonist, I'd especially like to see pt 7 addressed by someone at Valve.
 
steam does require you to be disconnected from the net before enabling offline mode.

I also was a person who bought HL2 and was unable to play my game for a full day because steam was down.

How mad was I? Well, let's put it this way, I was on vacation that week so I could play HL2.

So yes, steam is a bloated pussbag of a program. I am very upset with having to use it, and I am never going to buy anything by Valve again. It's not just that steam was crap, but that I beat HL2 in 2 days. The last HL took me weeks, so making a game this short let me down a lot.

I will say the engine is awesome, and the game is decent, but I certainly don't think its worth the hassles and I'm sick of hearing people getting all excited and saying it's the best game ever.

On another note: When steam was down that whole day, I actually spent a few hours looking for a cracked copy of the game I just bought just so I could play it. I never found it, lucky for me, but I really am sickened that I couldn't install a game because steam had an outage and if I had been able to hack it to install it, I would be punished?

I am very concerned with not being able to play my game in a few years if I choose to do so, even if its just as a benchmark on a GeForce 9900 GT or something. I figure if I own the game, let me play it, don't punish me because you're concerned with hackers.

I really like the source engine but have decided not to use it for any development at all. I will not make any maps, any mods, or any weapons for this system. I am going to focus on UT as they really support the community and don't screw their customers.

so thats my rant about HL2 and my comments on your post, I won't discuss this further so feel free to flame :D
 
Mysogonist said:
1) When I installed HL2, I was HORRIFIED at how long it took to decrypt all of the files. Now I am the type of guy who reinstalls my OS A LOT (like 4 times a year) to clean registry, HW upgrades etc…I never install a SP over the OS, I always slipstream it. This means that I have to go through a 40 minute install process every time!
2) What happens when my cable company is down, my brother forgot to pay the cable bill, my modem gets fried etc…there will be NO HL2, and I REEEEALLY believe that I should be able to play a SINGLE PLAYER game offline at any time…I was duped into buying the DVD version for that specific reason. This also means that I cannot take the game home with me for the holidays because the comp at my house is not online. WHAT A HUGE BUMMER.
3) Valve has issued its customers NO UPTIME GUARANTEE. This means that there is no recourse for players if it goes down for a day, a week, etc…we are fish out of water.
4) Valve does not control the internet or the networks that HL2 will be played on. The perfect example is the college campuses that don’t support steam. This is a huge population to alienate to save a few dollars on what potential pirates could. Also, what if a major internet backbone (or 2) goes down, what happens if (it’s a stretch) this happens. Again…we are screwed.
5) SOFTWARE CAN BE HACKED and VALVE SHOULD KNOW THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Valve has a direct connection to all of our computers, and if they are that careless with their source code…than this means steam can be hacked to distribute UNWANTED CONTENT on to our box(0rs). This makes me really mad, because steam could be hijacked for less than noble purposes!
6) There is always the possibility that someone else invalidates your copy…and they (valve) could care less if it was you that is to blame…they want us all to protect our COPY….THAT IS THE POT CALLING THE KETTLE BLACK.
7) There is no longevity guarantee meaning that 7 years from now (I still play unreal, quake etc.) they may have gone out of business...who then will authenticate and decrypt content?? If I have a $80 coaster 5 years from now because steam ends up flopping and they lose the suit against VUG I am gonna be especially sore.
8) Also, what happens when someone gets the game, leaves the settings as they are (as most do) and a content or exe update causes incompatibility with your current drivers…you could be FORCED TO UPDATE VID DRIVERS OR SOUND DRIVERS which could create a nightmare of compatibility with other games.
M
Click to expand...
Ok Heres my couter-point to this argument since I am a fan of steam and what it will bring.
1) First off it took me no more than 15 minutes to authenticate and that was with the insane traffic which they had the first day, any other day I doubt it will top five.
2) I've had recent cable trouble and have no problem playing HL2, it doesn't connect and asks me if I would like to stay ofline or retry. I click ofline and I can play if I want.
3) See point 2
4) There are many ways around this without violating any usage policies. Also see 20,000 attempted pirates failing within first two weeks of release. That right there is $,000,000 worth of product that wasn't stolen due to Steam.
5) Yeah anything can be hacked, I use ESPN BottomLine, that can be hacked, AVG can be hacked, Ad-Aware can be hacked.
6) Its a simple concept, one person is assigned a cd-key and a user name, if they dont match up we have a problem. I highley doubt the original user will have thier account taken away for others stealing it (or if they give it away, who cares if it can't be used)
7) If Valve goes defunct which I highly doubt they will, I'm sure the files will be given to the rightful owners or made avaliable for free.
8)Tell me when this happens, also same is applicable for patches and I once again highly doubt they will force patches down your throat.
 
obyj34 said:
Ok Heres my couter-point to this argument since I am a fan of steam and what it will bring.
1) First off it took me no more than 15 minutes to authenticate and that was with the insane traffic which they had the first day, any other day I doubt it will top five.
2) I've had recent cable trouble and have no problem playing HL2, it doesn't connect and asks me if I would like to stay ofline or retry. I click ofline and I can play if I want.
3) See point 2
4) There are many ways around this without violating any usage policies. Also see 20,000 attempted pirates failing within first two weeks of release. That right there is $100,000 worth of product that wasn't stolen due to Steam.
5) Yeah anything can be hacked, I use ESPN BottomLine, that can be hacked, AVG can be hacked, Ad-Aware can be hacked.
6) Its a simple concept, one person is assigned a cd-key and a user name, if they dont match up we have a problem. I highley doubt the original user will have thier account taken away for others stealing it (or if they give it away, who cares if it can't be used)
7) If Valve goes defunct which I highly doubt they will, I'm sure the files will be given to the rightful owners or made avaliable for free.
8)Tell me when this happens, also same is applicable for patches and I once again highly doubt they will force patches down your throat.
Click to expand...


check your math on #4

plus not everyone who pirates would have bought it anyway, yes thats a cheap excuse that people use, but sometimes its true too
 
I'm sure he meant $1,000,000

Anyhow rumour has it that valve is working on a patch which will allow you to play the game without steam whatsoever. Whilst yes its just a rumour, it does make sense that they will eventually do so, other game companies have released no-cd patches a while after the game was released.
 
True, true, and true.

1- Yes I meant $1,000,000, my bad.
2- I'll bet atleast 15,000 of the 20,000 will buy the game now.
3- I'm sure this will happen eventualy, just don't expect it to happen tommorow.
 
I've reinstalled since hl2 was decrypted, and can confirm that if you made a backup since the 16th, you will not need to unloack hl2 again. Simply restore your backup, and presto, hl2 is playable again.

I've also encountered a network outage, and can also confirm that steam will switch to offline mode and hl2 works just fine (since I had already loged in and validated).
 
All the points stated I agree with. But also, what's with how the games update? Is there anyway to control when to download updates? I downloaded the free game "Codename: Gordon" and it was annoying because I'm on dial-up, and every time steam was in on-line mode, it would download, and there was no way to control when it did or didn't. I know theres a setting to not auto download, but if i set that, then WHEN will it download? I just think it's horribly set up that I have to make sure I block steam with my firewall, just so it doesn't suck up my bandwidth. Why can't you go into Steam offline mode without having to manually block it from connecting. If I'm online and downloading (Meaning my internet is being used up to full capacity), it's really annoying to have Steam to try and log in and connect/download.
 
Drexion said:
Anyhow rumour has it that valve is working on a patch which will allow you to play the game without steam whatsoever. Whilst yes its just a rumour, it does make sense that they will eventually do so, other game companies have released no-cd patches a while after the game was released.
Click to expand...
If this is true and they remove the rediculous requirements they have regarding HL2 then I will possibly think about buying HL2 and start supporting VALVe again.

But if not, then VALVe can rot in fucking hell. And I do hope they go under.

I also agree with a lot of th epoints in this thread.

Proud non-installer of STEAM.
 
I was going to post something, but obyj34 pretty much picked your "Arguments" (read: whining) apart like a buzzard on a dead cow for me. I stayed up till 2AM on the 16th and unlocked my copy of HL2 the SECOND Valve released it. Took a WHOPPING 15 minutes and I was able to enjoy HL2 without any problems. My best friend bought the DVD version and we got him up and running with HL2 without a hitch at 7:30PM on the 16th which I reckon was Steam's peak usage time for release day.

Now as for your whining here, I do have issues with #2 which is REALLY whining because you are naming VERY hypothetical worst case scenarios that aren't even true. Cable goes down, Steam can't connect and it'll ask you to go into offline mode. I've done this SEVERAL times with my PC here at home in just about every practical way imaginable. As long as you just EXIT steam and not logout you can play offline all you freakin like without incident. Oh wait, I also have problems with #8, I work with computers on a daily basis and I've personally never seen a problem where an updated driver from a mainstream hardware maker caused incompatibility with legacy products except with some one-off obscure program. ATi and nVidia aren't that short sighted and that's the only drivers that HL2 will really throw a fit about being updated.

Fragalot: You're kinda defeating the purpose of OFFLINE mode being connected to the Internet and all, but if you're so bound and determined to play without an internet connection just to spite Valve (for all the good in the world it will do) right click your network connection. Click DISABLE and BAM no more Internet for Steam to connect to.
 
What I hate about Steam is the fact that they can, at any time, decide to just cut off access to all of your purchased games for any reason.

Probably not likely, but, still, just the fact they can just frag all your games you have on thier system bugs me.
 
obyj34 said:
True, true, and true.

1- Yes I meant $1,000,000, my bad.
2- I'll bet atleast 15,000 of the 20,000 will buy the game now.
3- I'm sure this will happen eventualy, just don't expect it to happen tommorow.
Click to expand...

I seriously doubt it. It will be cracked again in a matter of days, and pirates will be laughing at all of us that bought the game that have to tapdance on one foot while rubbing our head in a clockwise rotation just to play it.

My copy is currently on its way back to Valve. I never even thought about the following until recently...
1) What if I want to let someone borrow my copy?
2) What if I want to sell my copy?

Im tired of asking permission from valve to play the game, so im getting my money back. $80 well spent elsewhere. The fustrating part is it is such an excellent game.
 
Mr_Evil said:
I was going to post something, but obyj34 pretty much picked your "Arguments" (read: whining) apart like a buzzard on a dead cow for me. I stayed up till 2AM on the 16th and unlocked my copy of HL2 the SECOND Valve released it. Took a WHOPPING 15 minutes and I was able to enjoy HL2 without any problems. My best friend bought the DVD version and we got him up and running with HL2 without a hitch at 7:30PM on the 16th which I reckon was Steam's peak usage time for release day.

Now as for your whining here, I do have issues with #2 which is REALLY whining because you are naming VERY hypothetical worst case scenarios that aren't even true. Cable goes down, Steam can't connect and it'll ask you to go into offline mode. I've done this SEVERAL times with my PC here at home in just about every practical way imaginable. As long as you just EXIT steam and not logout you can play offline all you freakin like without incident. Oh wait, I also have problems with #8, I work with computers on a daily basis and I've personally never seen a problem where an updated driver from a mainstream hardware maker caused incompatibility with legacy products except with some one-off obscure program. ATi and nVidia aren't that short sighted and that's the only drivers that HL2 will really throw a fit about being updated.

Fragalot: You're kinda defeating the purpose of OFFLINE mode being connected to the Internet and all, but if you're so bound and determined to play without an internet connection just to spite Valve (for all the good in the world it will do) right click your network connection. Click DISABLE and BAM no more Internet for Steam to connect to.
Click to expand...

Yes, the fact that two people had no problems means that everyone had no problem. Jesus christ I hope you never do statistics for a living.
 
Mr_Evil said:
I was going to post something, but obyj34 pretty much picked your "Arguments" (read: whining) apart like a buzzard on a dead cow for me. I stayed up till 2AM on the 16th and unlocked my copy of HL2 the SECOND Valve released it. Took a WHOPPING 15 minutes and I was able to enjoy HL2 without any problems. My best friend bought the DVD version and we got him up and running with HL2 without a hitch at 7:30PM on the 16th which I reckon was Steam's peak usage time for release day.

Now as for your whining here, I do have issues with #2 which is REALLY whining because you are naming VERY hypothetical worst case scenarios that aren't even true. Cable goes down, Steam can't connect and it'll ask you to go into offline mode. I've done this SEVERAL times with my PC here at home in just about every practical way imaginable. As long as you just EXIT steam and not logout you can play offline all you freakin like without incident. Oh wait, I also have problems with #8, I work with computers on a daily basis and I've personally never seen a problem where an updated driver from a mainstream hardware maker caused incompatibility with legacy products except with some one-off obscure program. ATi and nVidia aren't that short sighted and that's the only drivers that HL2 will really throw a fit about being updated.

Fragalot: You're kinda defeating the purpose of OFFLINE mode being connected to the Internet and all, but if you're so bound and determined to play without an internet connection just to spite Valve (for all the good in the world it will do) right click your network connection. Click DISABLE and BAM no more Internet for Steam to connect to.
Click to expand...

Woah, just because YOU didn't have tons of problems with Steam, doesn't mean that he (an us) are whining. I got a taste first hand how bad things can be if Steam doesn't run "smoothly". On the day of the release, not only was steam down many times, but even after allowing me to register, for many hours HL2 stayed in "Not Ready" for offline mode.

Just because you got lucky, doesn't mean everyone else did. As customers we deserve full access to our product. With Steam, it doesn't seem that we get that. For people to not be able to play their game because of their computers not being connected to a network, or due to college campuses, just doesn't seem right.

And yea, they disabled 20,000 accounts... they stopped a lot of people from stealing the game. But does this really justify using Steam? What about the people that are REFUSING to buy HL2 because of Steam? What about the people that will still get around to stealing the game? Just because Steam doesn't allow you to steal it, doesn't mean eventually people will come out with an unlock crack that allows you to play without using Steam.
 
The 20,000 people was steam punishing those who tried to use a cd-key which supposedly let you play early and which let you play without putting in the cd every time and it didn't work anyway. They just waited until enough people tried and then killed the accounts of all those who did, even if they had already registered a legal copy after they tried the bad cd-key. The cracked version of the game emulates steam and apparently works just fine.
 
Thanks for the responses guys. Here is my thought on those who think I am whining. I am not just bashing steam because I have nothing better to, but to make a parallel....how would you feel if you had to 'activate' a music cd everytime you put it in a different player? I just think that WE as consumers need to watch out what precedents are set by developers because now it is just a small step...but soon we will have to sign a contact to play a game and get it notarized (hehehe). I dont know about you all...but for the last 7 years I have not been spending mommy and daddys money...i plopped down lot of money for this game and we have the right to be upset at valve for steam..not HL2. With that said...i really need a burrito!

M
 
I think they would have been better off using the activation like Dreamweaver has. You install it. Activate the key over the internet and your done. If you try to run it on another non-licensed machine, you can't.

However, you can go back to the original machine and remove the licensing key and then activate it on another machine. The original machine can't run it until you remove the license from the second machine and activate it again on the original.

Lets you install it multiple times but only run it on one machine at a time. You also don't have to have it check each time it starts. You could also in theory deactivate it, uninstall it and then sell it to someone else.
 
Mysogonist said:
how would you feel if you had to 'activate' a music cd everytime you put it in a different player?
Click to expand...

Heh, I bet the RIAA is already trying to figure out do that. :p :D
 
obyj34 said:
4) There are many ways around this without violating any usage policies. Also see 20,000 attempted pirates failing within first two weeks of release. That right there is $1,000,000 worth of product that wasn't stolen due to Steam.
Click to expand...
OMFG!!! You don't research ANY of your info do you??? You just let it rollout of your mouth without being verified huh??? The fact is HL2 crack was released WITHIN 24 hours of the HL2 release...and a better one was released within the first week...now I think they've figured out how to play HL2 non-steam on legit copies AND dl HL2 WITHOUT Steam and both versions 100% playable...with the pirated versions you don't HAVE to put up with Steams crap...Steam has just encouraged piracy instead of preventing it...Steam farking sux!!! :mad:
 
I installed it on D: drive and that way when I reload ( witch I already have to do once ) I dont have to reinstall. HL@ does NOT place any files in your c drive or windows folder. I placed steam and hl2, hl1 plat, and doom all on d, along with other games
 
obyj34 said:
True, true, and true.

1- Yes I meant $1,000,000, my bad.
2- I'll bet atleast 15,000 of the 20,000 will buy the game now.
3- I'm sure this will happen eventualy, just don't expect it to happen tommorow.
Click to expand...

I would wish they would at least put out a HL2 demo. This game makes me physically nauseated when I play it at my friend's house, and it makes him feel physically sick too (like vomiting). I'm not going to buy the game, not because I dislike, but because I physically can't play it for more than 30 minutes at a time.

I'm sure other people have differing experiences, but I know my friend is pissed because he actually spent money on this game and he can't really play it.
 
ruhk said:
1) What if I want to let someone borrow my copy?
Click to expand...
That breaks the EULA of not only Valve's games, but just about nearly any other top of the line pc game to come out in the past 8 years. Usually there's a "non-transferable" clause somewhere in there.
 
Stinger1 said:
I installed it on D: drive and that way when I reload ( witch I already have to do once ) I dont have to reinstall. HL@ does NOT place any files in your c drive or windows folder. I placed steam and hl2, hl1 plat, and doom all on d, along with other games
Click to expand...

What about the registry?
 
Ludic said:
You slipstream your OS, but don't know how to "slipstream" your HL2 installation? Try this in your browser...

steam://backup

Then burn the .exe file it creates to a DVD or 5 CDs. You'll have the latest backup available for install, and it should superseed the need to download updates upon install.
Click to expand...

Woah! That's awesome. I'm gonna do that :) Thanks for the tip.
 
my major issues with STEAM:

1) HL2 will in fact be a coaster in 10 years or so. you cannot put a HL2 cd into your cdrom drive in 10 years and load it up.

now, the biggest thing fan boys seem to respond with is "you won't play HL2 in 10 years" ... how do you know? i still have my quake cd (yes, quake1 kiddies) that i actually did load up about 3 months ago -- and how old is that?

2) they can turn off ANY AND ALL GAMES that you have LEGALLY purchased at any time.

this is utter crap. there are THOUSANDS of people who tried to use the hacked CD key in the last week that discovered it didn't work, then went out and purchased the game. now guess what? they just wasted their money because valve turned off their abilities to play their newly LEGALLY PURCHASED game because they "attempted" to input an invalid key. these people didn't even PLAY the game illegally, their only crime was attempting an invalid key and then purchasing the game legally.

what valve has done is made it so that if you have any association with any sort of pirated information, such as a CD key, no CD cracks, etc etc, anything AT ALL, it is now illegal for you to actually go out and purchase the actual game. is this a good thing to enforce on the game community?



i will never purchase another STEAM game because of the above reasons. it is much more economical to pirate the game, burn it to CD, and play it that way than it is to legally purchase it. at least with the pirated version burnt to CD you get to play it 10 years down the road AND you do not risk the chance of VALVE turning off all of the legally purchased games you have ever baught.



hell, valve lost at least 3 customers when i've told my friends the exact same things i've said above ... and yes, they're playing the game, and they're not dealing with these downfalls from STEAM.
 
For some reason after installing HL2 using steam, it messes up my ports and so my internet loads very slowly. I had to use winsock fix to solve the problem. :mad: It doesn't happen when I install CS:S though :confused:
 
Valve had the right to do what they did, but "the right" doesn't always translate to "smart." Anyone have a little brother? I don't :p but there could be more then one gamer per household where one took it upon themselves to try to find a hacked copy while the others bought the game. By Valve's judgement all would be guilty though some wouldn't have known or participated. Like file sharing. People have been fined without knowing their kids are doing that stuff, even while trying to monitor them. MS backed down on banning illegal copies of XP for SP2 because it was "for the good of all" that everyone be able to get SP2. They took the "smart" road instead of the "we have the right" road.

This Valve decision seems more related to an overzealous CS admin that bans people because he thinks the might be cheating, though there's no proof, etc. Let's face it, it wouldn't have been as "cool" to err on the side of caution and first warn 20,000 accounts before banning. For the record, Steam has worked flawlessly for me so far, but I also have concerns about the future. Plenty of seemingly untouchable companies have gone away in the blink of an eye. 3dfx's intellectual propery went to Nvidia, A3D's went to Creative, and they were generally locked away for good. There's no guarantee that if they go under we will get the property open source.
 
I find the lack on consistency in these fourms dis-concerting. The thread that gets locked is the one saying steam does not suck ... yet this one continues to flourish with the same sort of drivel that was posted in the other .... hmmm a little biased are we mods ?
 
bonkrowave said:
I find the lack on consistency in these fourms dis-concerting. The thread that gets locked is the one saying steam does not suck ... yet this one continues to flourish with the same sort of drivel that was posted in the other .... hmmm a little biased are we mods ?
Click to expand...

If you are talking about the one started by rfc### or something then it was locked b/c
1) advocating piracy
2) big bad flameware going on

Doesnt seem to be happening here.
 
dariob said:
If you are talking about the one started by rfc### or something then it was locked b/c
1) advocating piracy
2) big bad flameware going on

Doesnt seem to be happening here.
Click to expand...

No I talking about the one started by ricko .... the quit whining about steam thread.... and their was no reason given other then stop whining about HL2.... thats it. And it was locked by a mod who is unimpressed with steam.
 
bonkrowave said:
No I talking about the one started by ricko .... the quit whining about steam thread.... and their was no reason given other then stop whining about HL2.... thats it. And it was locked by a mod who is unimpressed with steam.
Click to expand...

I'm sure timing is part of it. This is more of a "calm after the storm/reflective" thread and the other was probably during the "massive [H]/HL2 thread spamming of 2004."

Has anyone answered the question of how you end up if you restore your HL2 backup done via IE? Do you have to have a live connection to Steam to restore, or can you restore straight into offline mode? If that's the case, then that would make things a little easier on the mind.
 
OldPueblo said:
I'm sure timing is part of it. This is more of a "calm after the storm/reflective" thread and the other was probably during the "massive [H]/HL2 thread spamming of 2004."

Has anyone answered the question of how you end up if you restore your HL2 backup done via IE? Do you have to have a live connection to Steam to restore, or can you restore straight into offline mode? If that's the case, then that would make things a little easier on the mind.
Click to expand...

Naaa Im pretty sure it has more to do with a biased Mod.
 
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