what's the big deal about having steam running to play a game? Single player games can be played in offline mode, multiplayer games who cares? it's pointless to play offline. I don't get it really. better than carrying around 50 discs for all my computer games.
there are several reasons for why steam isn't and never will be perfect but at least its not intrusive. Yes i am talking about you Faggple
Well it has now an applefied user interface that is impossible, but shiny, and there are digital rights management on your games so you can't play them without steam running and they have to be cached, well its a good system of making sure you payed for those games but still theres those restrictions that doesn't allow more freedom.
But Z100000M specifically says "and never will be perfect". Interfaces and DRM can be changed, infact, DRM comes with the game, not with Steam and this is the 3rd Interface for Steam.
How does the system for DRM work on steam? would it be that it downloads it with a unique code unlike any other that is tied to your account, or is it possible to have pirated the game with a crack so DRM doesn't get on your ass. but still steam updates the ticket every time you want to play(at least online games) and if it notices one game that has a very different ticket than your accounts ticket, then you are screwed. It is a good system, just there's still that limit, but I don't have a problem with opening up steam.
I like steam, handy for buying things and giving me updates, also means I don't need CDs and the unified interface across many games is also helpful, community functions are good, all in all it's useful. Having to start it to play the game is a perfectly good tradeoff for me.
Can I hear one rational and decent argument about why steam is bad? or how it "limits your freedom"? I'm having a hard time understanding these two concepts. As far as I can tell, steam is nearly the best possible program to have for a digital media distributor. No pop up adds, no monthly subscription fee, will even help advertise for free mods. I really want a rational argument as to why steam is limiting and bad. On a side note, the new interface sucks.
For one thing VALVe games are ok to have a drm on them, because, well, its steam, steam is owned by VALVe and yea. The problem is is that games not owned by VALVe and the servers are not run by VALVe, you still have this barrier you have to get past, unless you get a game that needs to use dosbox(the early Id games for example) you can't play without loading steam up, and of course it's simple, I have no problem with it most of the time, but on shitty days where my internet is extremely slow it takes, and I am speaking literally, around 10 minutes to open steam, sometimes it fails half way, need to put in my login information, wait 5 minutes, woot woot, lets kiss some muscles cause we are in... ...oh wait then I go to play my non-valve and non-dosbox games and WOOPS I have to wait 10 minutes of caching because the internet was slow. It is frustrating but you guys have a point theres no need to pay, no advertisements that pop-up, and there are many games to choose from, and adding on top of it a very nicely planned out download manager that isn't laggy and slow like a lot of other managers.
If you unplug your internet connection and then start Steam, then any games that are fully updated can be played, and Steam won't take 'forever' to start up. Ofcourse, unplugging your connection is sooo difficult.
I only unplug to play non-valve games, cause I have beaten all my valve games, and I have beaten minerva:metastasis and yea, so I only use online for Empires and PVKII and Age of Chivalry.
Whenever steams decides that is time to update some of my installed games, it takes over my internet connection and all other clients end up with no internet access. I did check with steam support about this but it kept happening even after a full OS/Steam re installation. It might be related to my moronic BT hub router but I dont have any more time to be chasing around this issue so I just let it be: a game is updating.. there will be no internet for anybody at the house until the game is downloaded. :confused:
Thats because Bit torrent, which is what steam uses, opens up SO many connections, that no one can use the internet anymore because its using up more than how much it says its downloading, plus its very hard on the router and hard on the isp routers. What sucks is that here in Canada there's a monopoly in phone companies, cable companies, and Internet provider companies, which they are all the same 2 companies, so they are allowed to limit A LOT of things, one of them being bit torrent. Is it the same in your country?
