Hard Light Productions Forums

Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: Petrarch of the VBB on March 03, 2004, 04:11:54 pm

Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on March 03, 2004, 04:11:54 pm: If, like me, you have just spent several hours trying to get the latest steam update, watching it go from 98% to 28% repeatedly, having it end half way through, being told it's unavailable, then finding that, when you have finally got the update, you can't sign in, then you will no doubt be wondering what kind of sadists brought this thing into the world.

Can anyone give me a good reaon for its existence?
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: aldo_14 on March 03, 2004, 04:13:28 pm: Well, when the temperature.... oh, right that Steam.

it's so valve can make money whilst satisfuing their masiochistic tendancies.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Rictor on March 03, 2004, 04:14:48 pm: My bro has been trying for ages to get it to work correctly. I mean, he's spent more time on the Steam issue than he probably has on studying for school in the past year. And after 5+ tries, reinstalls and so forth, it still doesn't work.

Oh, interesting fact, Valve has hired Bram Cohen, the inventor of Bit Torrent to work on (I assume) Steam. Who knows, it might even become functional one day.

Quote
Originally posted by aldo_14
Well, when the temperature.... oh, right that Steam.

it's so valve can make money whilst satisfuing their masiochistic tendancies.

Wouldn't that be their sadistic tendencies and our masochistic ones.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Janos on March 03, 2004, 04:17:25 pm: why IS steam?
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Liberator on March 03, 2004, 04:29:20 pm: Steam is a misguided attempt by Valve to incorporate DRM into their software. Actually, misguided applies to DRM in general as it treats the end-user like a criminal instead of the pirates who it's intened to stop.

They should spend more time fixing the problem instead of putting a band-aid on the problem, as DRM has been shown not to appreciably decrease the piracy rate.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Kazan on March 03, 2004, 04:44:08 pm: Boycott Steam for great justice!

I kid you not - BOYCOTT STEAM FOR THE LOVE OF YOUR FAIR USE RIGHTS!
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: mikhael on March 03, 2004, 04:51:16 pm: Well, technically, Steam is a by-subscription game-on-demand service. Its not really the same thign as DRM, but the end results are the same.

One of the goals for Steam was to allow developers to create a game and then sell directly to the consumer and skip the whole publishing phase. If there's one thing people around here on HardLight know, its that publishers area great source of evil in the game industry. From Interplay to Infogrammes, dumb decisions are made by publishers constantly and developers generally get the blame.

The problem, of course, is that Valve forgot the end user in the design for Steam. Sure, its great that your game is always up to date and always has new content without having to install mods or addons, but what if you can't get to the Steam server that has your game? Suddenly, there's this software--that you've paid for--that you cannot run, or play.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Martinus on March 03, 2004, 06:56:38 pm: [color=66ff00]Ive tried to register 2 half life keys to play Counterstrike 1.6, the first was my own and belonged to a game of the year pack; didn't work.

The second my mate had extra because he bought a spare, also did not work, both were suposedly already registered.

So much for paying for the thing eh? I may as well just have DLed a copy, got a key gen and kept registering until I found one that worked. :blah:

I just play 1.5 now and I'm not shifting.
[/color]
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Kazan on March 03, 2004, 08:58:41 pm: mikhael: i never associated it with DRM - DRM isn't the only assault on fair use
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: mikhael on March 03, 2004, 09:14:39 pm: Nope. That was Liberator. You got your post in before I finished mine.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: kasperl on March 04, 2004, 06:10:39 am: ok, ****.

i just had steam update itself, without asking, and now i can't play anymore, it can't validate the steam ID user ticket. sounds like the good old "Auth server is down" from AA.

bottom line, no HL, CS, Rico, DoD, TFC or any other steam game for anybody for now.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Kazan on March 04, 2004, 08:59:25 am: kasperl: hence why you don't use steam and you actually get a real copy of the game instead of havinmg them spawn it to your computer and delte it when you're done
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: kasperl on March 04, 2004, 10:46:09 am: well, i have a real copy installed as well.

and they don't delete it when i'm done, that's causing me C drive to fill up.

and did i mention it ****ed my Rico install so it gives me an illegal op whenever i run it? and that that error will keep popping up so that i can;t even reboot my machine?
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Liberator on March 04, 2004, 10:49:39 am: All this illustrates why not giving the user a choice and forcing them to do stuff is bad, and a stupid move on Valve's part. Regardless of what futurists and software developers say, most people still prefer Brick & Mortar.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: mikhael on March 04, 2004, 12:36:30 pm: Who would have thought me and Liberator agree on something? ;)
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Liberator on March 04, 2004, 01:50:03 pm: This isn't politics, so it's all good! (http://mysmilies.rgforums.com/s/kao/otn/pbraids.gif)
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on March 04, 2004, 02:03:46 pm: Heh. It's finally managed to update, and to work.

And, after all this ****e, Friends is still down.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: kasperl on March 04, 2004, 02:08:24 pm: ugh, ugh and ugh.

i can't even connect to any Steam server, it says my net conn is down.
Title: Justify the existence of Steam.
Post by: Petrarch of the VBB on March 04, 2004, 04:59:29 pm: I've just been linked to this.
Sums it up well

(http://members.chello.nl/p.bergman3/71031.jpg)