Steam - your views

[Tinman]

Defending Steam

Why Steam is the goth kid of the gaming industry

[Stefan9]

Personally I love steam. Will take it over games for windows live and securom protection any day . Only wish the WA steam server would come sooner, then most issues with steam will be solved since my only issue is lack of bandwith to enjoy it to its full.

[Fivel]

I've got a list of games to play that I just can't seem to find time for but once I get through that list I will buy all new games through Steam. Great specials, achievements, having a game list that's ready to install and play any time I want to, forums with answers whenever I need them, no need for discs that take up space, a huge collection of both old and indie games that are sometimes tough to get hold of.

Awesome really.

Agreed.

Personally I love steam. Will take it over games for windows live and securom protection any day . Only wish the WA steam server would come sooner, then most issues with steam will be solved since my only issue is lack of bandwith to enjoy it to its full.

Cost of bandwidth is the only inhibiting factor, if this is sorted out, maybe our brick and mortar retailers will also look at their pricing.

[Solitude]

I've got a list of games to play that I just can't seem to find time for but once I get through that list I will buy all new games through Steam. Great specials, achievements, having a game list that's ready to install and play any time I want to, forums with answers whenever I need them, no need for discs that take up space, a huge collection of both old and indie games that are sometimes tough to get hold of.

Awesome really.

[Tank]

Steam is a great app, the only issue i have with it is not a steam issue but the crappy bandwidth we get in this country, if that falls away steam would be a very good addition, i use it for games like Serious Sam HD and such, for me it won't replace buying CE's and such for games like Mass Effect 2 and so forth but for those downloadable jobbies and indy games steam is great

[Deceptor]

The only time I didn't like using Steam was when I had to install HL2 and then update it with dialup which took a couple of hours.

[Etiko]

Modern Warfare 2’s migrating hosts? Yeah, that’s IWNet, not Steam.

Not 100% true. MW2 for the PC uses a lot of Steam dll files for its connection management. A couple of patches ago there was a bug that made MW2 multiplayer crash on every second map when you are the host. It was the fault of a buggy Steam dll.

So it is safe to say that games are starting to "merge" with Steam a lot more and if Steam is unstable, there's a good chance the game will be as well.

Now getting back to the original topic - I love Steam. It is great. I have bought 42 games off of Steam and it has by far been the easiest way I've ever shopped for games.

The friends and group lists are also miles ahead of anything that MS and Sony have to offer.

Steam is great. The only issue I have is if they ever go belly up... Or if they just decide to ban your account for some arb reason... Bye bye games It's important to note that on Steam you aren't actually buying a game, you are buying a license to play the game. Thus, they can decide to stop this license at any time and thus you can't play the game anymore. With physical media, it is a lot harder (maybe even impossible?) to do this...

[Azimuth]

Not 100% true. MW2 for the PC uses a lot of Steam dll files for its connection management. A couple of patches ago there was a bug that made MW2 multiplayer crash on every second map when you are the host. It was the fault of a buggy Steam dll.

So it is safe to say that games are starting to "merge" with Steam a lot more and if Steam is unstable, there's a good chance the game will be as well.

Now getting back to the original topic - I love Steam. It is great. I have bought 42 games off of Steam and it has by far been the easiest way I've ever shopped for games.

The friends and group lists are also miles ahead of anything that MS and Sony have to offer.

Steam is great. The only issue I have is if they ever go belly up... Or if they just decide to ban your account for some arb reason... Bye bye games It's important to note that on Steam you aren't actually buying a game, you are buying a license to play the game. Thus, they can decide to stop this license at any time and thus you can't play the game anymore. With physical media, it is a lot harder (maybe even impossible?) to do this...

Yeah, but that was a short term problem that's been fixed. The main reason host migration occurs is because - drumroll! - the host has abandoned the game, forcing IWNet to transfer the game to someone else. People quit the game. Sometimes that's the host. It happens on console all the time too.

It's a no-win situation, isn't it? Everybody complained about the game dropping back to the lobby in the first Modern Warfare. So IWNet implements host migration, and everybody complains about that instead. Being a developer is just about the most thankless job in the universe.

[tpex]

Yeah, but that was a short term problem that's been fixed. The main reason host migration occurs is because - drumroll! - the host has abandoned the game, forcing IWNet to transfer the game to someone else. People quit the game. Sometimes that's the host. It happens on console all the time too.

It's a no-win situation, isn't it? Everybody complained about the game dropping back to the lobby in the first Modern Warfare. So IWNet implements host migration, and everybody complains about that instead. Being a developer is just about the most thankless job in the universe.

LOL there is an easy way to fix it... I don't have to say it

[Necuno]

apart from being "accidentally" flagged and being on hold so i can't use my account to shop steam been great. it was dah suck in the beginning though.