SUBSIM Radio Room Forums - View Single Post - Are Steam-games known for being freed from the Steam chains

Oberon · 10-09-11, 01:11 PM

I hated Steam to begin with, my major beef with it was the requirement to be online all the time. Back then I had a naff connection and I didn't like what Steam foretold. I still don't. However if you take a look at most high street game stores now you'll be hard put to find many PC games there any more. It's a sad fact. Which leaves either ordering a hard copy or downloading a copy.
So far I have had no problems with Steam at all, it's behaved itself, I use the chat function on it regularly and nothing has gone wrong with my games that could be traced back to Steam. The Steam sales have some excellent games at ludicrous prices, and it's through them that I have increased my game collection with limited financial problems.
Do I like the idea that Steam could one day disappear and take my games with it? No, no I don't, however I think there would be a small international riot if that happened, and I can't see Valve going bankrupt any time soon which is, to be honest, about the only way they'd ever shut down. Valve and big Gabe do seem to be focused towards Gamers although in recent years the DLC bandwagon has seen them becoming a little greedy in terms of things like extra weapons (and hats...the goddamn hats) for TF2 and the like, I don't like that kind of thing, it makes the playing field unlevel, and I don't like that, but to be honest everyone is on the DLC bandwagon these days, and at least Valve do release some DLC for free (like the recent Portal 2 - Peer Review DLC).
Certainly I have found Steam to be relatively unintrusive, much less so than things like youtube and Google who seem to remember my every move...but there's ways around that if needed and it's not even that much of a CPU hog on my new system.
So while I'm not ecstatic about Steam and what it represents (the death of the PC gaming industry on the high street) I have taken advantage of what is available through it, and I have had a hassle free experience with it to this date.

10-09-11, 01:11 PM	#12
Oberon Lucky Jack Join Date: Jul 2002 Posts: 25,976 Downloads: 61 Uploads: 20	I hated Steam to begin with, my major beef with it was the requirement to be online all the time. Back then I had a naff connection and I didn't like what Steam foretold. I still don't. However if you take a look at most high street game stores now you'll be hard put to find many PC games there any more. It's a sad fact. Which leaves either ordering a hard copy or downloading a copy. So far I have had no problems with Steam at all, it's behaved itself, I use the chat function on it regularly and nothing has gone wrong with my games that could be traced back to Steam. The Steam sales have some excellent games at ludicrous prices, and it's through them that I have increased my game collection with limited financial problems. Do I like the idea that Steam could one day disappear and take my games with it? No, no I don't, however I think there would be a small international riot if that happened, and I can't see Valve going bankrupt any time soon which is, to be honest, about the only way they'd ever shut down. Valve and big Gabe do seem to be focused towards Gamers although in recent years the DLC bandwagon has seen them becoming a little greedy in terms of things like extra weapons (and hats...the goddamn hats) for TF2 and the like, I don't like that kind of thing, it makes the playing field unlevel, and I don't like that, but to be honest everyone is on the DLC bandwagon these days, and at least Valve do release some DLC for free (like the recent Portal 2 - Peer Review DLC). Certainly I have found Steam to be relatively unintrusive, much less so than things like youtube and Google who seem to remember my every move...but there's ways around that if needed and it's not even that much of a CPU hog on my new system. So while I'm not ecstatic about Steam and what it represents (the death of the PC gaming industry on the high street) I have taken advantage of what is available through it, and I have had a hassle free experience with it to this date.