Steam is a favorite service. I also like EADM and Impulse. 

The best thing to steam are its deals and its backup/recovery system. Staying in contact with friends is also retroactive because it also means all their enemies and people who don't like them could be pushed onto you or linked to you directly through steam. 

It means if you have X amount of friends, and each friend also has at least one enemy, and they all know where to find you...It means as long as you do not have any enemies but are in the group, the total number of people you will deal with is 2X + 1 where the possibility of meeting people you do not know or an enemy is actually higher. 

Its like a forumboard in a way...You can have a friend or two, but the majority of people you either DO NOT CARE ABOUT or are INDIFFERENT and Neutral to their existence. However, you find yourself dealing with many people you do not wish to intend to be party to.

As with others I too was a late comer to Steam, however it is most assuredly my preferred method of gaming now. A good article and a good read.

Originally posted by GrumpyMel2

I kinda hate Steam as well. Why should I ever have to load/run a 3rd party TSR (terminate & stay resident for you non-techies) client in order to play a game. Why should I EVER (and I do mean ever) need to be online to play a single-player (or LAN or Hot-Seat) game on my computer?

It's one thing to need to be connected in order to play an MMO...but something like Civ or Dragon Age or Total War? 

Essentialy I avoid purchasing anything on Steam unless there is absolutely no option to get it any other way....and then I think twice about whether I want to make the purchase or not..simply because I'd rather not have to deal with Steam.

The only good thing about Steam is that it keeps track of what games you own in case you ever loose the physical media...but there are plenty of other digital distribution channels that do that as well...minus the intrusive 3rd party client.

Finally, I really DON'T want to be universally connected (and tracked & marketed to). If I'm playing a turn based wargame with my wargame buddies...I don't want to be bugged about what my MMO Guild is doing...or what my buddy who plays FPS games are doing. If I want to know about that, I can fire up clients dedicated to that...or just check my e-mail or a guild website.

Heck, I already feel too connected for most parts of my day as well. Alot of times there is nothing better then being out-of-range of a cell phone signal....or just turning the darn thing off in the first place.

/rant>

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555

There. So you dont have be a player hater anymore.

If you still have to connect to play, like say HL-2, thats because the software developer decided you need to, not Steam.

Who can disagree on this article ?

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.

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.

Great, I had hoped to give the game to someone related now that I didn't find it enjoyable .. but I cant, unless I want to give my Steam accoutn away - And as stupid as I have been, I had some other games bound aswell, so that is not an option.

Here you go Sir, the keys to you brand new car.. oh btw, you can never sell it as it is registered to you forever.

It is not only Steam, others do the same .. Settlers 7 made me bind the game to an account, and the Civ5 on Steam just opened my eyes. NEVER AGAIN WILL I BUY A GAME THAT BINDS TO AN ACCOUNT FOREVER - Talk about taking it up the a....

When/If this practise stops, I guess I could tolerate Steam - They do provide a service, and the price is having them gather info about you for marketing purposes.

Originally posted by depain

Steam... ugh.

 

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.

 

I have always been extremely sceptical about digital download services & the like. I installed steam right back when Halflife2 arrived in my hot little hands but only because it was forced upon us. I promptly installed HL2, activated it and set steam into offline mode & never touched it again until CoD Black ops came out with its included steam works (Brink has this too).

What Can I say, the service has come a hell of a long way & the gaming goodness bargains on offer in the market place are almost impossible to ignore.

For your list of complaints:

- I dont mind the adverts personally as I like the bargains to be had. But you can quickly close them after steam launches & you can put the steam interphase into a minimalist mode where a lot less advertising shows up as a result.

- No patch conflicts here (and I own about 50 games now) but it is something I had heard complaints of in the distant past.

- Steam Network has never been down when I wanted to use it since i started using steam again after COD Black Ops came out.

- You can always put steam into offline mode to play when you have no net connection.

Overall I have been largely happy with steam, voicechat anywhere and the friends overlay are invaluable to me now.

For those complaining about binding games to accounts etc, welcome to the new world of digital distribution & the publishing war against secondhand games. Many Console games now require you to register your multiplayer key online and to name one EA encourages you to keep all your EA game registrations together. Steam & other digital distribution platforms are actually saving PC gaming, making it cheaper & more accessible to people.

People demonize steam based on its past (I know because I was one of them) but you should really give it a chance it has come a long way. Besides Pretty soon almost every game on every playform is going to require you to login to some sort of online account so you can play....

Ugh, not Steam.

They have the potential to turn PC gaming into another monopoly like consoles, where one company dominates the whole thing.

What a great program, that steam.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

Ugh, not Steam.

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. 

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.

Originally posted by kjempff

Who can disagree on this article ?

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).

Originally posted by rainwolf

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.

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!!

Originally posted by erictlewis

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.

Originally posted by sgtalon

Originally posted by erictlewis

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.

After being forced to use it to be able to play Civ5 legally, I wouldn't now use steam if I was paid to.

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.