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Bumblyburg

Join Date 09/2008

Why So Excited About Steam?

The general consensus seems to be that everyone is excited Stardock games will now be available on Steam. I'm trying to understand why people are so excited about this. I have used Steam for some games and personally don't like it. It seems way to intrusive on my computer and I don't like the idea that it keeps track of how many hours I have played each game, friends list pop-ups,Internet connection requirements, etc. I also don't like having to be connected to the internet to install and play single player games. For instance when I bought Supreme Commander 2 I HAD to create a steam account and register the game just to play the single player game.

I always liked the fact that Stardock games didn't force these kinds of things onto you. I found that Stardock Central and Impulse were good tools for getting the latest updates and that's all I wanted from them.

I hope that the new Sins Rebellion will be available more places than just Steam. If not, I hope the download from Steam will be the pure Stardock game and not be intrusive. I also hope it will let me play the game without loading Steam.

I was just curious if I'm missing something about Steam that others are seeing. Why does everyone like Steam so much?

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Steam has been around for quite a while and in general, people seem to prefer keeping all of their game purchases together on a single service. I'd wager a good-sized chunk of the people who are/were using Impulse are primarily Steam-users who are 'only' doing so because they couldn't get Sins, GalCiv, Demigod, and so forth anywhere else (I'm one of them). And, of course, Impulse now being Gamestop-managed is even more incentive to drop it like a bad habit for many out there.

As far as the service itself, it offers the most important things that people are looking for: game availability, competitive daily prices, constant sales (even on popular items), frequent service improvements and new features, and it's intuitive and easy to use. I'm happy that Steam has some measure of competition out there to keep them honest but from where I'm standing, I think Valve works very hard to keep this thing on top.

Beyond that, I can understand people's concerns about the program being intrusive but in my experience, this isn't something that the average consumer seems to care about and considering the amount of resources that Steam actually uses, I honestly don't see why the average consumer should. Yes, it can be inconvenient for those who simply don't have access to a regular internet connection (which is another reason I'm happy that people have alternatives) but those that do are getting a good mix of products and services for the 'trouble'.

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CobraA1

Join Date 09/2006

+26

"I have used Steam for some games and personally don't like it."

You may not personally like it, however that doesn't mean that it is objectively a bad thing.

"It seems way to intrusive on my computer and I don't like the idea that it keeps track of how many hours I have played each game, friends list pop-ups,Internet connection requirements, etc."

A lot of people are fine with it. You can set your profile to private if you don't want to share your hours with others. You don't see the friends list unless you tell Steam to show it.

"I also don't like having to be connected to the internet to install and play single player games. For instance when I bought Supreme Commander 2 I HAD to create a steam account and register the game just to play the single player game."

Umm, how else would you install the game?

You can, if you want, install many games via CD and register the key with Steam. You can even install a game via CD and just add a shortcut in Steam.

You don't need to be online to actually play a game. Just switch Steam to offline mode.

"I was just curious if I'm missing something about Steam that others are seeing. Why does everyone like Steam so much?"

Right now Impulse is actually being a pain in the ass. It won't accept new Object Desktop registrations, and I have a Tiles update that will haunt me until I get the matter resolved. Unfortunately, I don't know how to get the matter resolved, as they don't want to work with me. I'm not too thrilled about the situation.

Steam is a great place because it's a centralized place for every game I know of. Impulse came a bit later, and while it's a fine platform, 99% of my games I had already bought in Steam. It's just more convenient.

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I understand that everyone has their preferences, and rightly so. I'm with the OP on this one. I don't like Steam and won't use it. I was really looking forward to Skyrim. However, their decision to make it require Steam, even for a retail physical version, lost them a sale. I'm also looking forward to Rebellion. However, if it also requires Steam, it will be another lost sale.

I would prefer to buy and download it from Stardock itself. But I refuse to use an intrusive system like Steam, especially to play a single player game.

Actually, my first choice is GOG. Now that they are selling new games, maybe Stardock could make a deal to sell it through them. That would be great.

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Quoting CobraA1,

reply 2

Umm, how else would you install the game?

Clarification....

I was first introduced to Steam when I bought Supreme Commander 2 on CDROM from a Target store. After installing the game from the CDROM I was forced to create a Steam account and register the game with Steam before I could play. If I didn't do this I was unable to play the game even in single player mode. Each time I run this game in single player mode Steam opens up and tries to connect to the Steam server. Even in Off Line Mode Steam is still running in the background. This is completely unnecessary and intrusive in my opinion. Maybe my beef should be with the game maker developer/distributor for choosing to requiring Steam rather than with Steam themselves.

I've always liked Stardock games because of their DRM practices. Stardock games are easy to install and use. Stardock Central and even Impulse were more like software update tools to me. Unlike Steam, they do not run in the background every time you play a game.

I really hope we will have the option to buy Rebellion directly from Stardock or on CDROM.

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I have been using Steam ever since the beginning (when it became the 'DRM' for HL2) and am extremely pleased with it. At first I thought I would miss "having the box, DVD, instructions", etc. for my games. But now I will buy a game first on Steam over a shelf copy.

Good things to consider about Steam:
1. You don't have to worry about losing or damaging your game discs again
2. You don't have to store, write down, or worry about losing your CD-Keys or game codes (except for very rare circumstances)
3. No more trying to download patches. Steam keeps your games updated for you.
4. You can buy games pretty much anywhere in the world.
5. You can join your friends games easily.
6. Steam has it's own voice chat and IM services.
7. Prices on Steam are generally less than in store or at other places.
8. Plenty of demos, videos, screenshots, forums so you can buy games from an informed perspective
9. Great daily and weekly specials
10. You can send games to your friends as gifts, and they can do the same for you

Bad things about Steam:
1. Someone can hijack your account and steal your expensive game library from you
2. You will end up spending a lot more money than you planned on because there are so many cool games and game specials
3. You will have too much fun playing online with your friends and be tempted to ignore your family

Please don't discount me as some "young gamer" who doesn't know any other system. I grew up writing BASIC text games on my TRS-80 in Junior High, have taken apart more than my fair share of Atari 2600 consoles and paddle controllers to play Kaboom! over and over, and have been through every iteration of DOS, Windows and PC gaming from the Intel 386, DOS 3.0 and Windows 3.0 (yes, 3.0 came out before 3.1) onward.

So if you want to stay a luddite that is fine. I can understand the thinking (read Cliff Stoll's Silicon Snake Oil for more on that). Otherwise jump on the digital bandwagon and have a blast with Steam! You won't be disappointed.

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About the complaint that Steam is "intrusive in your computer". What isn't nowadays? The only way to avert that is to become completely disconnected from the internet altogether. So many programs sit in the background "checking you out" it is alarming.

With Steam you can actually play in offline mode any time you want. And the only thing that remains "intrusive" is your game catalog on the taskbar notification area. And this is much more a convenience than an intrusion.

And I agree that Impulse is being a pain. I am much more suspicious of it now that it belongs to Gamestop, who really has an interest in "figuring out what we are doing" and pushing information to us from their parent corporation.

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