Steam : what do you think about it? any quirks ?

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 16 Nov 2009, 12:15

First I never used steam, I was no big fan of the whole system when it was launched back at the time, however I didn't dig deeper than a bunch of news here and there and the simple fact that back in those times I didn't have the knowledge to easily setup a shared internet connection for @home LAN parties (which came in conflict with online authentication of course...).

Which brings me to this post, I'm pondering whether or not I should change my opinion.

So I'm here because while looking for information about steam I stumbled upon some things which kind of arose my curiosity :
-it seems there's pirates out there generating keys and registering games, which then prevents legit users from using their game, true or not ?
-is there ways to correct the previous situation?
-it seems you have to talk english or be doomed if you want support ?
-every steam game needs to be launched while online and connected right ?
-it seems a steam game property is not transferable ?
-any other quirks that come to your mind ?
-any opinion on the service ?

Ho and please refrain criticizing the fact that there's some games I MUST play and that not having steam is pure heresy. Nothing's an absolute must in my book, everything's just optional.
Thanks. ;)

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 16 Nov 2009, 12:31

-it seems there's pirates out there generating keys and registering games, which then prevents legit users from using their game, true or not ?
-is there ways to correct the previous situation?
-it seems you have to talk english or be doomed if you want support ?
-every steam game needs to be launched while online and connected right ?
-it seems a steam game property is not transferable ?
-any other quirks that come to your mind ?
-any opinion on the service ?

1. False, there's actually only a handful of games that you can actually register keys with on steam, Those are the games that you can buy in store that integrate with steam such as HL2 or MW2. See here: https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=7480-wusf-3601 and it is no more likely that someone would generate your key for a
steam game than any other game.

2. Null

3. Absolutely not; the support wiki is available in 14 different languages and human support is available in 8 popular languages.

4. As I pointed out in #1 there's really two different kinds of games on steam, ones that require steam and ones that do not (95%+.) The ones that do not interact with steam at all you can play without even having steam open. Many games which require steam such as HL2 work fine when run in Steam's offline mode as well.

5. Correct steam games are not transferable; which is actually a good thing in a way (unless they had some drastic protection on it...) Account hijacking would fly through the roof.

6 & 7. Nothing major; I just think that one should not exclusively use steam, as much as I prefer to have my games on steam it's always better to buy it where ever i can get it cheapest. I do miss the boxes, but god damn I love steam.

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 16 Nov 2009, 13:50

thanks for your answers

2. ha thanks to your link I read that you can reset your cdkey should a problem arise with a new product

5. I have difficulties foreseeing how account hijacking would go through the roofs ?
you could have the same system as for Domain transfers for example

Tanuki · Post by **Tanuki** » 16 Nov 2009, 20:43

5. Correct steam games are not transferable; which is actually a good thing in a way (unless they had some drastic protection on it...) Account hijacking would fly through the roof.

Actually, I believe this is done to prevent reselling.

infernus · Post by **infernus** » 16 Nov 2009, 22:25

Love the service, love the overlay it adds to games. I've been buying most of my recent games on it. Hell, it seems they handled the Dragon Age release best too. I realize something could happen to it and I'd be screwed out of all my games but so far, so good. I'm not going anywhere else, digitally.

Post by **MobsterOO7** » 16 Nov 2009, 23:13

The integrated invite system for the Valve games is great. And now that they put in the browser I can surf WSGF while waiting for peeps to join the server.

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 17 Nov 2009, 10:02

5. Correct steam games are not transferable; which is actually a good thing in a way (unless they had some drastic protection on it...) Account hijacking would fly through the roof.

Actually, I believe this is done to prevent reselling.

Well yes of course, the industry does not want reselling. Trading digital copys would be too easy, Just imagine if you bought a game, beat it in a few days gifted it to your friend, he beat it, passed it to the next friend etc etc. That's a handful of sales lost.

Post by **maherie** » 17 Nov 2009, 11:28

wow, lots of good information here. I used to hate steam aswell but now I see the light, I might intsall it just for boarderlands.

yogibbear · Post by **yogibbear** » 17 Nov 2009, 12:41

Yep i have ~30 games on steam...

I absolutely love it for valve games and cheap older games...

BUTTTtttt for non-vave new releases i prefer the real deal bought from brick + mortar... but have been relaxing that due to the awesome exchange rate between australia and the usd at the moment which means instead of paying $90 AUD i pay ~$50-55 AUD for a new full release game e.g. borderlands....

So yeah... for valve games... it's wicked. But for other games (which means other publishers that are still around) you have to read into it a bit as they don't tend to tell valve all the details (e.g. release dates get mucked up (borderlands), or the securom isn't listed).

But as i said about two times already:
-old games >3 yrs old
-valve games
-indie games
STEAM = the best thing ever.

Post by **Abram** » 17 Nov 2009, 12:57

Ya, it has its' ups and downs. It's improved greatly since it first came about. Personally, i love it for the weekly deals they have. Other than that, I prefer retail, overall.

whismerhill · Post by **whismerhill** » 17 Nov 2009, 14:01

for oldies there's http://www.goodoldgames.com out there ... (No DRM policy is nice)

another question came to my mind :
-if you buy a steam game (online) and there's an undisclosed DRM in the package, and let's say you can't bear that DRM at all, can you get a refund ?

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 17 Nov 2009, 14:15

-if you buy a steam game (online) and there's an undisclosed DRM in the package, and let's say you can't bear that DRM at all, can you get a refund ?

I believe you can.

Use this list in reference to avoid such a thing though.
http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=966005

neddy · Post by **neddy** » 17 Nov 2009, 17:27

i'd rather have a real disk in a real box with the little booklet and a chance to install on more than 1 machine and play lan. having said that there are some good bargains to be had if u keep an eye on the updates. i buy off steam when they have a game i want half price, otherwise get the real thing, i wanna be able to lend games to mates should i be feeling generous or trade if i'm skint.

has anybody any thoughts about games being re-released in hd with a hefty new price tag? :D

serious sam hd... £16.19 steam.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/5475/

packerfan · Post by **packerfan** » 17 Nov 2009, 18:24

Well yes of course, the industry does not want reselling. Trading digital copys would be too easy, Just imagine if you bought a game, beat it in a few days gifted it to your friend, he beat it, passed it to the next friend etc etc. That's a handful of sales lost.

Which is why they are SecuRom-ing stuff with activation limits also, that way you can only pass on physical copies to a few friends. Downside being it can potentially screw over the people who don't pass copies down but reformat alot (me).

DaFox · Post by **DaFox** » 17 Nov 2009, 18:45

Which is why they are SecuRom-ing stuff with activation limits also, that way you can only pass on physical copies to a few friends. Downside being it can potentially screw over the people who don't pass copies down but reformat alot (me).

Yep which is why I much much much prefer steams DRM.

X-Warrior · Post by **X-Warrior** » 17 Nov 2009, 19:03

has anybody any thoughts about games being re-released in hd with a hefty new price tag? :D

serious sam hd... £16.19 steam.

Well I preordered that one, so that'll say enough about my opinion I suppose :roll:

Generally I think Steam is pretty expensive with its games. Except weekend deals. They rock :D. Basically when you want something, it's best to wait for a deal of some kind. Saves you lots of money.
The number of games on offer and easily obtainable is a major plus. Older games tend to be released regularly, as well as Indie games. After all, who wants to deal directly with those scary webgame developers, another one for each game sometimes? I like it much better to get my stuff from one vendor, Valve in this case.

neddy · Post by **neddy** » 17 Nov 2009, 21:15

i think they have a cheek charging that much cash for a patch? i'm going to pick up the 20p version next time i'm in town. £15.99 price difference because they added the letters hd to title, no thx.

http://www.cex.co.uk/products/Gaming/PC%20Gaming/PC%20CD-ROM/index.php?sku=5026555033954&name=Serious%20Sam&mode=buy

have u seen torchlight on steam? it's a great game. well worth £15

http://store.steampowered.com/app/41500/

packerfan · Post by **packerfan** » 17 Nov 2009, 21:22

Steam DRM + Physical Disks is nice, that way you can prove you own it if something went wrong with steams servers (granted there would be a backlash) and you can download it with ease if you happen to lose the disks.

Post by **The_cranky_hermit** » 17 Nov 2009, 23:13

i think they have a cheek charging that much cash for a patch? i'm going to pick up the 20p version next time i'm in town. £15.99 price difference because they added the letters hd to title, no thx.

It's a total graphical overhaul. It's not exactly reasonable to call it a "patch."

infernus · Post by **infernus** » 18 Nov 2009, 07:28

Another great (or terrible, depending on how you look at it) thing about Steam: weekend deals. Burn through your money, wooo

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