I hate steam!!

The other day, I went to my computer to start mapping. I clicked the icon and it says that this game was not ready yet. So I ran Steam to check up on the other games, the entire program reset and thinks every thing needs to be validated. I validated it months ago. Steam is a good idea, though, but when your installation goes corrupt and you need to reinstall, its not feesable to reinstall and then wait for steam to revalidate the game. Valve saved money with steam to insure the game was not released early, compared to Halo 2 that shiped in safes to every store. But release was months ago, and the validation should be contained withing a downloadable file. I do, however, agree that valves decision to force people to register before playing the game insures that noone will pirate the game easily. All I ask is that someone would stand up to valve and resolve this problem.

It's also one of the main reasons Half-Life 2 did not sell a record amount of copies.

i have reinstalled HL2 prolly 6 times now, on 2 different machines without a single hitch. am i lucky or are others not? :/

the only issue, and its a small one is it continuously requests my password. i have no idea why.

I've never had a problem with Steam and I think it is a good way to run everything in one window and in one nice controlled space. The only thing I don't like is that you need to be online to run any Steam games. My internet it screwed and frequently goes down, and during that time I would like to map, but can't because I'm not online.

I have heard a lot of bad things about Steam though, I guess it depends on the person :biggrin:

Steam is very very annoying but it hasn't caused me any major
problems...so far. However I agree that VALVe lost alot of money out of
pure stupidity by allowing only those who have an internet connection
to play. Like I said: they actually ENCOURAGE you to buy a cracked
taboo version of their game from a pirate instead of the original
thing. And It's cheaper too.

It's also one of the main reasons Half-Life 2 did not sell a record amount of copies.

And where are your sales figures coming from?

Half-Life 2 is confirmed to have sold at least 1.7 million copies, perhaps including Steam, perhaps not (many assume not, but given the high number I wouldn't be surprised if it did, and even if not, those who actually are online and know about Steam generally represent the minority of the game market so you probably wouldn't see too ridiculous a jump). For a non-Sims and non-Blizzard title, that is phenomenal. It even tops World of Warcraft's initial US sales (~600,000, if I recall), leaving HL2, D3 (whose sales numbers I have seen but have not been released publicly), and WoW as some of the top selling PC titles in the last year - all with late-year releases.

you gotta admit one thing Andrew. steam caused some to not buy the game at all. given that you need an internet connection to even play, i am betting some opted to decline for that reason given the hassles of 56k and such. not everyone has broadband, and some have no connections at all.

personally, i do not understand why it couldn't all have come on disk :/

when i first got HL1, i was not online.

Things that suck about steam

1) Expects broadband. Userbase reduced by 1 million.

2) What happens when valve decides to shut down their servers? What
happens when they pull support for HL2? Your 5 CDs or whatever aren't
worth their weight in dogcrap.

3) Randomly downloads stuff behind your back without your knowledge.

4) Forced upgrades.

Things that don't suck about steam

1)...

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting fraggard</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Things that suck about steam

1) Expects broadband. Userbase reduced by 1 million.
2) What happens when valve decides to shut down their servers? What happens when they pull support for HL2? Your 5 CDs or whatever aren't worth their weight in dogcrap.
3) Randomly downloads stuff behind your back without your knowledge.
4) Forced upgrades.

Things that don't suck about steam
1)...
</DIV></DIV>

actually given those set of circumstances, i can see where dog crap may be worth more in some instances.
for instance, putting the 5 disks in a paper bag and lighting it afire on someones front porch, will not give you the same satisfaction when the doorbell is answered.

1) Good point.

2) Worry about crossing that bridge when you get to it, but it does not matter now! Presumably, when that happens in ~10 years or so, we'll each have internet connections as fast as Steam's entire network now or some such, or by then the Steam system will be obsolete/circumvented.

3) Like..? See below.

4) The only thing you are forced to upgraded is the Steam client itself- other games can be changed to not update, unless you try to run them. This all makes good sense.

I think the only real problem with it is the 'self-contained' nature- you can't download add-ons/upgrades seperately, and it's very difficult to backup/copy the damn thing.

Things that suck about steam
1) Expects broadband. Userbase reduced by 1 million.

Valid point, but broadband is becoming more and more accessible and as a content delivery system, dial-up is just out of the question with the size and amount of content to be delivered.

2) What happens when valve decides to shut down their servers? What
happens when they pull support for HL2? Your 5 CDs or whatever aren't
worth their weight in dogcrap.

What's going to happen when WON goes down? How will we ever play a game then? People didn't really worry about it in `98, and you really shouldn't now. Quick flip of a switch, quick mini-update, and poof. You're clear.

I've barely even loaded the game since I finished it anyway... once to try HL2DM. shrug

3) Randomly downloads stuff behind your back without your knowledge.

Windows has been known to do the same. And it's not like it's downloading gigs of porn or random files to flag you for interrogation/disappearment by Homeland Security. :wink:

4) Forced upgrades.

Yeah, keeping everyone on a level platform for play and, particularly, support really sucks. :wink:

My big problem with Steam is internet conncetions. I am STILL on my old
56k pay-as-you-go system. If a steam update takes around two hours,
that's the same cost as a two hour phone call. And so on and so forth.
What WOULD be better is if Valve released update files which you could
download and install as well as the automatic Steam updates. Ah well, I
can live in hope...

Things that suck about steam

1) Expects broadband. Userbase reduced by 1 million.

2) What happens when valve decides to shut down their servers? What
happens when they pull support for HL2? Your 5 CDs or whatever aren't
worth their weight in dogcrap.

3) Randomly downloads stuff behind your back without your knowledge.

4) Forced upgrades.

Things that don't suck about steam

1)...

1) Steam worked fine on my friends 56k, took a long time to d/l updates, etc.

2) True, but lets take a look at valves track record... HL1, CS, DoD...
they are all still supported even after 5 years. Show me another
game company that still releases updates and support for a 5 year old
game.

3) It down loads updates for games becuase you have your games set to
"keep up to date" (this goes for four too) You have full controle over
what gets updated and what dosn't.

Steam dose have problems, I haven't had many at all, but others
have. But really guys, do you think that valve could make a
program like this that has to run on almost every and any machine out
there. It has to deal with millions of people 24 hours a
day. I think that people look at steam the same way they look at
most things, if it works it is out of mind but the second something
goes wrong its the worst program ever and you hate it as if it killed
your father.

do you really want to go back to the days when CS updates would take a
week to get becuase you had to search for a site that didn't have
250,000 people trying to download the same 25mb file at once.
That was pure hell in my opinion. Now I leave steam on over night
and when I wake up I see that it has downloaded a 800mb game/update for
me.

My big problem with Steam is internet conncetions. I am STILL on my old
56k pay-as-you-go system. If a steam update takes around two hours,
that's the same cost as a two hour phone call. And so on and so forth.
What WOULD be better is if Valve released update files which you could
download and install as well as the automatic Steam updates. Ah well, I
can live in hope...

If it costs you money to stay online, why do you use steam online at all? Update once and then keep it in offline mode. What would the difference be if you downloaded the updates through fileplanet or something as such? The steam network is faster. Going through fileplanet would take even longer, for example, plus there's que times.

Think about it.

KFS is right, as usual.

Steam borked badly on me once, causing me to have to dl TFC again
but thats pretty much been it for me. The last css update took
ages to dl on day it came out but thats been my only problem with it
recently. Its nice not having to look for patches and stuff.

KFS:

Valid point, but broadband is becoming more and more
accessible and as a content delivery system, dial-up is just out of the
question with the size and amount of content to be delivered.

Broadband isn't becoming too accessible outside of US/Europe/East Asia.

And VALVe used to release 100MB updates to HL1, even though they had a
large dialup user base. The advantage of using single files to update
is that they can be redistributed, unlike steam. That's how I got my HL
updates, one person downloaded, lots of people updated.

What's
going to happen when WON goes down? How will we ever play a game then?
People didn't really worry about it in `98, and you really shouldn't
now. Quick flip of a switch, quick mini-update, and poof. You're
clear.

When VALVe pulled WON support, I could still play on
a LAN. I could install on new machines as and when necessary. I doubt
that would work with HL2, seeing as every installation needs to be
decrypted (with valve's permission).

Windows has been
known to do the same. And it's not like it's downloading gigs of porn
or random files to flag you for interrogation/disappearment by Homeland
Security. :wink:

TBH, I didn't know that you can control the downloads. First time I ran
steam with HL1 it immediately downloaded 40MB of stuff, and the scary
part was that it said 15% done. Got rid of it and never reinstalled it
since. I was wrong with this point.

Yeah, keeping everyone on a level platform for play and, particularly, support really sucks. :wink:

I don't want to play online. Why should I be forced to update?

DrGlass:

1) Steam worked fine on my friends 56k, took a long time to d/l updates, etc.

Plural of anecdote is not equal to fact.

2) True, but lets take a look at valves track record... HL1, CS, DoD...
they are all still supported even after 5 years. Show me another
game company that still releases updates and support for a 5 year old
game.

You really want to bet your games ownership on the reputation of an
entertainment company? $50 might not be too much for some to throw
away, but it's over the average income of a family over here. I want to
play my game, irrespective of VALVEs choices.

3) It down loads updates for games becuase you have your games set to
"keep up to date" (this goes for four too) You have full controle over
what gets updated and what dosn't.

I didn't know this. Earlier versions didnt have this much control IIRC.

Now I leave steam on over night
and when I wake up I see that it has downloaded a 800mb game/update for
me.

Exactly. Ever been on a pay-as-you-go connection? It becomes insanely costly when steam downloads that much stuff :sad:

Edit:

Bah. Basically I'm whining because Steam makes HL2 far too costly for
me, so most of you will find all this irrelevant. Sucks to be me right
now.

oprh looks on cause as usual his joke either went right over everyones head, or was so dumb it never achieved escape velocity

My big problem with Steam is internet conncetions. I am STILL on my old
56k pay-as-you-go system. If a steam update takes around two hours,
that's the same cost as a two hour phone call. And so on and so forth.
What WOULD be better is if Valve released update files which you could
download and install as well as the automatic Steam updates. Ah well, I
can live in hope...

If
it costs you money to stay online, why do you use steam online at all?
Update once and then keep it in offline mode. What would the difference
be if you downloaded the updates through fileplanet or something as
such? The steam network is faster. Going through fileplanet would take
even longer, for example, plus there's que times.

Think about it.

KFS is right, as usual.

I understand your point, but I work behind a proxy at school you see, and tunneling isn't an option
(actually, just saying "proxy" on this forum could make the page
blocked from where I'm sitting). Subsequently, I can download large
files, but Steam won't work. At home, it's the other way around. This
is often the case for quite a few people at school and university.
Anyway, you can get generous broadband enabled friends to burn files to
disk for you, but this isn't really an option with Steam (or is it?
Anyone know if you can burn pure GCFs to disk and transfer them from
one Steam account to another?)

Oh and Orph, I did laugh at the joke if it's any consolation!

I see no reason why you couldn't backup GCFs, I'm sure I heard
something about Valve giving out some tool that does it for you
actually.

steam>playgame>half-life2>rightclick>back up file

True... I've used the backup tool before myself (five cds of backed up
goodness). Only thing is whether or not they are "attached" to any
Steam account. In theory they shouldn't be, as you can use multiple
Steam accounts. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

They aren't.

True... I've used the backup tool before myself (five cds of backed up
goodness). Only thing is whether or not they are "attached" to any
Steam account. In theory they shouldn't be, as you can use multiple
Steam accounts. I'll give it a try and see what happens.

They aren't ... the only way you wouldn't be able to use them on another account is if that account doesn't have access to the game.

I remember, before they had the steam backup thing I copied all my GCF files and distributed them to my friends at a LAN so we could all get up to date fast. Worked fine for the most part.

Good stuff. Looks that's sorted then. Thanks. Having said
that, it's still slightly inconvenient. Ah well... never mind.