Steam: What A Load Of Crap! I wish I could download pirated games.

[rayzoredge 2]

DRM and Steam are among the contributing factors as to why people pirate games. I agree with galexcd as to how it's a good thing, but it seems that everyone is trying to do a good thing and it's screwing legitimate customers. Just look at how people that bought Spore reacted to the DRM.I find it ironic that it's easier to torrent a game, wait a week or so, install it, apply a crack, and play it than it is to go out to the store, buy it, install it, register it with a server, and play it. No one wants to go out and pay $20-$60 for a game that they can't play or have issues before they even start.

[Spudd 0]

Steam is a cool program, but there are a few things I don't like about it. The biggest of which is that you must actually purchase a game to be able to use 90% of the features. I think that's really lame, as I have a couple free games I play using steam, but can't add any friends on there to play with. For the most part, though, it's a handy little program for buying and playing commercial games. I don't think any game you buy a hard copy of at the store should require that you use steam to play it, though.

[Atomic0 0]

I actually like using the Steam platform, especially when playing multiplayer games. Reason is that the Steam server browser and connection protocols are more streamlined and efficient when compared to games that have implemented their own multiplayer platforms, which are often buggy and glitched, and require significant effort and testing in order to get the multiplayer working. With Counte Strike Source and Team Fortress 2, the two games I have bought with Steam, I have never encountered any problems with its multiplayer game workings, unlike other games like Rainbow Six Vegas 2 which have some issues with multiplayer that prevent certain computers from hosting while others can successfullly host games. I suppose the only negative of buying a game using the Steam platform is having to download the entire game through the Steam network, instead of just installing the game from a DVD in the case of buying the game retail from the local game shop.

[Profaris 0]

The steam is great [ yes i know is has some bugs , but all programs have one] . Whe live a modern world , and all whe need is on the internet [online radio , tv , newspaper , games] . Its better to buy the game via steam becouse you dont have to pay shipment taxes , you dont have to wait the game to be shiped to you local gaming shop and you dont have to worrie that in 5-6 years the cd/dvd/blue-ray will not work anymore. And btw on steam you get nice deals like bioshock 1 + bioshock 2 at 45$ if you ask me its a very good deal [there where a loot more good offers in the past [pack of games or very expensive games at 1-10 $ ] and the best thing at steam you can accept a payment mode that you pay [i think you pay monthy 10%] and you play all the steam games new/old. If you have probles whit the downloading the games from steam then game a better internet or change your provider [some providers have better speed in the contry and other have better speed from other contry's].

[Zagubadu? 0]

I guarantee a lot of those steps have to do with people pirating games. I bet you have to do that while you install or whatever so they can make sure your game is genuine or something along those lines. Well anyways its still completely ridiculous. I've never used steam but after hearing what you had to say about it I don't plan too. I think PC gaming is overated anyways. I mean your PC gets outdated fast when new games come out, compatibility issues, just all around lots of issues you will probably encounter. I'm happy paying 50$ a year for Xbox Live and wrapping it in towels every now and then.

[Profaris 0]

Overrated ) that funny , yes Pc gets outdated reafy fast becouse new technologi comes out and imvreves the grafic the gameplay and so on . And belive me a hardcore gamer from a pc its more smarter at games then a console hardcore gamer for exemple atr a consol how many scree's you have until you go to the game ? like 2 maxim 3 [press start and new game] at pc there is hole other story [you must pas like 5-6 screen's] and at on rpg console you have quick time events [that are retarded] and you must be in a exact spot to go advance in the game , at the pc its a litle bit harder

[iGuest 3]

Agreed. I think once I have paid for a game in good faith that I should be able to play it.I purchased a copy of the latest version of civilization not knowing about steam - i have purchased just about every version of the game ever released and never had to deal with any of this rubbish.now i have a new pc and i want to play it on my new pc but cant remember the password to play it, and it seems 'steam' have been unable to reset my password for two weeks.i then looked at the steam forums and found other complaints and registered an account so i could reply to a posting about bad practise on steams part - i wanted to add my agreement.surprise surprise, steam have an interesting method of greatly restricting people from doing so.new people who register cannot post to what they categorise as 'off topic' postings.before you can post to 'off topic' you have to make ten prior postings that pass their 'mediation' process to 'on-topic' forums.an interesting way of preventing users filling their forums with complaints about their poor service.what is even more interesting is even though it seems they try to actively stop people complaining about their service on their forums, there are still complaints on their forums.i hope people actually start to question processes like 'steam' and stop buying games that run through steam - that is the only way it will change. I paid for this game (in fact I bought two of them as I bought one for my partner as well) in good faith. I would really like my money back.

[iGuest 3]

Wow yes this is a load of Crap this Steam Bull/sh i just payed $100 for COD Black ops, and its not worth a cup full of cold snow as the game id supposedly is invalid. Ive tried to establish a new account with steam but still haven't heard back from their so called Support. Any way Who died and made this "Steam" outfit GOD. As for me its the last game i buy that has anything to do with this Steam crap and im a pensioner in my 60's and never seen such a drawn out lot of crap just so as to be able to have a game of something i enjoy.I guess we all just wait for Karma to take hold and fix it.What was wrong with just putting in your legit game code and getting on with it and from what i read here there's a lot of people Pissed with this Issue.Some one please sort it.

[iGuest 3]

Its funny reading all of these complaints on steam and their backwards way of dealing with customer service. At this very moment I'm sitting infront of the same "Steam- Creating Account" prompt and it hasn't changed for the past half hour at least. So let down that I payed the money for a game that I'm starting to doubt will ever work.

[iGuest 3]

HAHA!i agree with EVERYTHING on this topic!i was tied up with steam support for over three weeks without a SINGLE reply!in the end i posted this:I am currently in England, UK. I'm unsure as to the "base of operations" of steam, but i am assuming that time differences aren't to great. Therefore today in (i'm assuming America) is probably a Tuesday. Tuesday is generally a working day and seeing as you have numerous employers I hope it is within your capability to reply to this thread.Just to point out - it has been 24 days. This means that you have been ignoring this thread for AT LEAST 18 days. It does not take much effort to simply type out:YESor:NOIt also does not take much effort to copy and paste a URL:http://forums.xisto.com/topic/69995-steam-what-a-load-of-crap-i-wish-i-could-download-pirated-games/
See?

[Forte 0]

I personally think steam is a great platform for managing PC games. Needless to say, I don't really play many games on it outside of games published by Valve, but there are certain indie games that I play on it, too. Steam, like anything else, does have its flaws, and the biggest issue I have with it is how unstable it seems to be sometimes. Recently, Valve fixed an alt-tabbing error in TF2 and other Source Based games so that minimizing your game goes very smoothly now, and I really enjoy that, since I end up doing tons of things outside of game while I'm still playing (music most of the time).I hear a lot of complaints about steam, but I never really understand why people would complain. I guess that's just one of those things that matters on people's opinion of something.

[CyrusVB6 0]

Here comes another unsatisfied customer story:1. I bought Saints Row The Third (hard copy, two DVDs with Genki's funtime pack)2. I inserted disc and got to installing the game. It asked me to install Steam.3. OK, I know what Steam is, press "continue".4. OK, i need to create account before even installing (not playing) the game. OK. I'm creating account.5. OK, the game is installed. Double-click to launch.Steam: "you need to download 2 Gb worth of patch before playing the game. You can't play without it".Ok, this will take 2-3 hours but [sarcasm] i had no intention to play right now anyway [/sarcasm]6. SR3 updatead, i shut down the computer to play another day.7. I'm turning on my PC. Double-click to launch. "Can't connect to Steam". OK, why do i need Steam to play single-player? At DVD-shop they told it only requires Steam to activate the game for the first time, so screw them.8. Fine, my ISP is having no problems at the moment, so I simply connect to the Internet and launch it again.9. Another patch? Another hour??? I seriously want to kill somebody.So, for me Steam sucks because of:1. I can't play single-player games offline. What the F?2. I'm forced to download patches before playing.From now on, I'll only buy 1-3 games per year, and only to support devs.

Edited December 16, 2011 by CyrusVB6 (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Luckily I avoid STEAM, just because I don't like the fact that they require proprietary software to even run their games/update them. It's like they want their users to be dependent upon them, and that in itself gives them too much power and allows them to do as they please.

[iGuest 3]

I've never been so frustrated installing something before in my life. I have a real purchased copy of Empire: Total War and I've been trying for days to install it. I'm forced to use the complete garbage that is STEAM to play a game I spent my money on? It takes me 60minutes to log in to steam, I have NO idea why, but it takes that long, every time, and I've done it half a dozen times, and then it keeps saying it's servers are too busy to install my game. So I have to keep logging in. Why do I even have to connect to their damn servers? I spent hours registering the game with their moronic way of doing it, let me play the stupid thing. I thought that's what the flippin' DVDs were for! Why did I pay $49.99 for this? It's taking me hours and hours just to see if this game will even run. It doesn't make any damn sense. Just let me run the executable like back in the day when thing actually worked right.
I'm not buying another game that uses that STEAM B.S. Heck, I'm put off from buying games in general now. If I had high-speed internet, I would download these games and any future games by these people without a second thought. I suggest anyone who values their time do the same, don't waste your money on any product that forces that kind of protection down your throat. It's pretty bad when you buy a game and you're more inconvenienced than if you just downloaded the game and installed a crack. Pathetic. I tried to be patient, but this is ridiculous. It shouldn't take days to install a big name game, I wouldn't even accept this much trouble with some obscure OSS.

And don't even get me started on the fact that I had to google blogs just to figure out how to install the game without re-downloading two dvd's worth.. I have to use the Windows command line install a game? Screw you, SEGA or whoever publishes the stupid thing. People pirate your stupid games anyway! Why should paying customers be inconvenienced this much? People think Linux is hard? It's a cake walk compared to installing Empire Total War.

Am I angry? You bet! I wouldn't go through this crap again if they paid ME. Of course, I need to download faster than 2.5kb/s to download games, argh!

Exatctly the same thoughts as above. I also had a 6 month(!) battle to get this game to work last year after buying it for $75!?!? here in Oz. Unfortunately, I had to format my computer recently. This required another re-install battle to get the game loaded by disk, but now I am in my third day of "preparing to launch Empire total war" and "steam servers are busy" messages of the so called game update process. When I had contact with steam support and sega, they gave me the old excuse about package statements and internet access to steam to play the game. I mentioned to them that it does not say that my game is not playable directly from the disk, but required extra expense on my part (downloading/internet access is not free!) to update the game. I told them that I would be making a complaint to our Consumer Affairs Commission, about their, in my opinion, defective/deceptive product. I still have not seen/heard anything in any forum anywhere (from steam) on this issue, or about any improvements that they have made to their process.
Fix it Steam!, and everyone else involved in this game/franchise.

[iGuest 3]

If I'd had the first clue that I'd be sitting here on Boxing Day, waiting for TW Shogun 2 to download all the guff from Steam, I'd have left it in the shop. I don't want to play online, multi-player, none of that stuff, I just want to play the game.As the previous poster says, it says nowhere on the packaging that you HAVE to download Gigs of files to get the game to work, it simply says an Internet connection and a free Steam account is required. Well, I have both of those, so I should be playing my game NOW, not waiting for files to download.I mean, what exactly was on the TWO DVD disks in the packaging?This is like the bad old days when I was a kid, sitting in front of the telly, listening to a cassette player squealing away whilst I waited for ZX Spectrum games to load. One difference, I'm in my forties now, and I have lots of real-life stuff to do, the small time slot I had to myself for relaxation is nearly over, and I've spent it staring at a screen again.Steam is a great name for this process, my dog lays things that steam out in the garden, and now I have to go and pick them up before my wife gets home. Cheers Steam, I'll try to avoid buying anything with your name on it again..."Outraged", Tonbridge Wells