Mr. Purple Cat Esq. - 2017-11-09
Steam found its way into the 'hate' section of my mind, from which few return.
It was when I bought HL2 episode 1 in the shop, brought it home, and then couldnt play it cus I didnt have internet, even though it is a *single player game*. I tried using the libraries internet but steam was blocked on it. I ended up having to get a train out to my sisters house and I was able to install it.
Went home, and the game kept crashing every 10 mins, I doggedly kept trying to play it anyway via quicksave spamming. Turned out it needed the latest gpu drivers for it to work (note: back in the day pre-ubiquitous-internet, one generally installed the hardware drivers that came in the box and that was it), cue another train journey to download those.
In the end it wasnt even good! being almost entirely composed of rehashed stuff from HL2 but now with perma-escort-mission horribleness.
If they want to do all their shiz online then thats fine, I can just ignore it. But *dont* sell your boxed game in the shops in 2004 if it requires one to go through all that shit.
VVVV Critique of steam VVVV
Strip all the superflous stuff away and steam is essentially just a DRM system, and fuck DRM.
The Steam program is an invasive system hog that wants to be always on and it is totally unnecessary for the game (the thing u actually want) to run.
I have no interest in the multiplayer or community features, the gaming 'community' (if one could even call it that) is a dirty clatter of cwc's. [citation needed]
And another thing! Achievements. They really exemplify the pointless or counter-productive nature of most of Steams features. What better way is there to completely break immersion and remind the player that they are playing a game, than an achievement popup?
Also the supposition that a pointless popup is somehow rewarding or an achievement is ridiculous; The reward should be the experience, the sense of achievement should come from you as the player discovering something, figuring something out, or achieveing a goal you made up in your head.
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That guy - 2017-11-09 The community is indeed a bunch of twats.
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Gmork - 2017-11-09 i just ignore the existence of achievements unless it's a game I like enough to bother with
steam is basically just a buffet.
(oh, and stay away from the ribs, they're never going to live up to your expectations)
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dairyqueenlatifah  - 2017-11-09
Steam is slowly turning into everything people hate about consoles.
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Gmork - 2017-11-09
I'm loving steam. Can't recall having a problem with it, really. Sounds like MPCE's complaint was more about valve's decision making than steam itself as a platform - and steam was definitely shittier back then during HL2's release.
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That guy - 2017-11-10 Steam lets game companies remove comments they don't like on their boards.
So at the very least it's royal fucking bullshit.
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Raggamuffin - 2017-11-10 On the other hand gamers are massive whiners, unafraid to spread lies and misinformation all over a developer's message board for any reason. A bunch of guys with hangups about "ethics in games journalism" can do a lot of damage to sales that way.
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That guy - 2017-11-10 So, you'll tolerate company lies over customer truth and lies.
Got it.
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Monkey Napoleon - 2017-11-10 Sorry TG, but it doesn't matter at all.
What Raggamuffin says is true, and unfortunately the "community" is 100% safe to ignore in all circumstances anything gaming related.
I can't properly express my disdain for anyone who makes purchasing decisions based on what some twelve year old sitting in his underwear screaming "nigger" indiscriminately over VOIP thinks. Gamers, much like the increasing culture of "movie reviewers", has a long standing history of whining over every little thing that doesn't live up to their unrealistic expectations and yet still somehow finding a way to self-justify buying everything involving certain IP's and studios regardless. The industry is propped up on pre-orders for fucks sake.
Honest reviews isn't a thing that exists, anywhere, and isn't anything anybody has any use for if they're honest.
Steam is a godsend for their sales, and everything else is pure fluff.
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That guy - 2017-11-10 But there are basically no critics in that industry either, just concubines.
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That guy - 2017-11-10 And the publishers constantly release semi-broken games.
So, what did we learn here?
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Gmork - 2017-11-10 We learned that companies are lazy. The ability of developers to patch things post-release is what's directly to blame for the release of semi-broken games. Laziness and avaricious neglect, I'm convinced, are natural processes like erosion and natural selection. Simply a result of how things work.
They can do it and get away with it, so they do it. Nobody's holding them accountable, especially the most important group - the consumers.
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Nominal - 2017-11-10
The biggest complaint I have with Steam is no neutral option for reviews.
Other than that it's great. Do we all really want to go back to the days of hopefully finding a 5 year old game in the bargain bin for $10? Now you can stuff for half off only 3-6 months after release. I think I've paid more than $15 for a game maybe four times the entire decade.
The refund policy is great too. What other digital platform lets you do that no questions asked? (although a lot of companies are starting to introduce unlockable grind bullshit to keep you playing past the 2 hour cutoff point)
All the complaints here haven't been true since 2009. All games work fine in offline mode. You can turn off achievement notices.
What other digital delivery platforms are you comparing it to? Origin? Stardock? The Microsoft Store? Brick & Mortar Gamestop stores? O_O
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Monkey Napoleon - 2017-11-10 GOG has rolled out their own DRM client for companies who want online only style DRM in their games.
Guaranteed in five years, nobody will even remember that no DRM used to be their thing.
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Mr. Purple Cat Esq. - 2017-11-10 Gog have a light steam style client 'gog galaxy', but all the games are still DRM free and you only download the client if u want it. You can still just download the binaries and play the game like normal.
A multiplayer focused game is a bit different, because they have servers running the game the actual game company itself can make you go through some authentication to get access to their servers. So even thought the game client mightnt have DRM u may need a serial or something to get on the server.
Unless I'm unaware of some new development, pls link me if so.
Good old games has been going for like maybe 10 years at this stage. No DRM has always been one of their main axioms + now its the main thing differentiating them in the market from steam et al. I'd be very suprised if in 5 years they have abandoned it. I'd bet on it! Also cd project red have been perfectly happy releasing their massively popular AAA witcher games on gog without drm, and their sales just keep going up.
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Nominal - 2017-11-10 GOG is a very niche selection. Even when they do have big titles on there, I've never seen a >50% off sale that amounts to more then saving $10.
And if you want to talk worthless communities, then GOG takes the cake. I can find plenty of helpful user reviews on Steam. GOG only has 5 star reviews ("This thing I loved 20 years ago when I was a kid exists! 5 stars!") or 1 star reviews ("I tried to burn this game onto a DVD to insert in my anus and it broke into jagged shards. 1 star!"). All of them worthless.
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Scrimmjob - 2017-11-10 Nominal is right about the reviews at gog. All the reviews there are so blinded by nostalgia that they end up being useless.
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Scrimmjob - 2017-11-10 with that being said gog is awesome for helping you configure games to run properly on your computer, and will offer you a refund if no solution can be found.
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garcet71283 - 2017-11-11 DRM has become a meaningless buzzword. Back in my day, we were just glad that it wasn't starforce.
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SolRo - 2017-11-11 Hey man, DRM is pretty nice compared to how EA is now adding server-based lockbox progression to every god damn game they make.
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