If I hate STEAM should I stay away from PC gaming?

[Fenrir190]

Currently I have a PS3 and I'm on the fence about whether or not I want to upgrade my PC or just get the 360 back. A lot of the steam practices I just can't ignore namely
1.) If I have a single player game why do I still need to be online to install it or play it?
2.) Forced updates, I can do this myself.
3.) Not being able to resell games when I'm done with them. I understand why they feel the need for this, I just don't agree with it.
4.) Sharing a disk(which is none existent) to play offline MP, like 3 I understand why they feel the need to do so, I just don't agree with it.

PC does have a lot of games I like and is getting a lot of releases that I plan on getting in the future such as borderlands 2, AC3, and Bioshock infinite but for a lot of those games steam is/will be required to play them. Games like the witcher 2 which doesn't require STEAM are games I'm interested in playing on the PC but it's also for the 360 so not much incentive right there. While the 360 did get old for me, I realized that having people to play with online made it fun. Given how PC gaming is done now, I don't see STEAM leaving anytime. Being an RPG fan PC seems to be more way but I just don't like having to go through something like STEAM to play them. So like the topic says should I just stay away from PC gaming?

 

[bumnut53]

1:- fair point, but you still have the same problem with xbox live games.

2:-?????? automatic updates are a good thing.

3:- agreed, but most games are cheap. Same applies to xbox/psn games.

4:- Installing on multiple computers is illegal.

Also, all games can be bought retail or from alternative online providers.

 

[namelessonez]

1. You can play single player games offline by starting Steam in offline mode. You will need to be online for the first time installation/ setup as the game downloads the files from the Steam servers. However, once installed, you do not require an online connection for playing single player games.

2. Updates: You can manually select Steam NOT to apply updates automatically. This can be done from the settings menu in Steam.

3.&4. Its all about DRM. Since you simply do not 'agree' with it, there is no solution to it. You can however, gift your games to another person on Steam, who in turn can gift you a title you want.

Personally, PC gaming has far more potential than console gaming. I have a PS3 and a gaming rig and I personally prefer the PC. I limit the PS3 to non-fps/ racing titles like NFS: the run, WWE12, Ace Combat, God of War, etc. I prefer fps titles on the PC because of the precision offered by the mouse-keyboard combo....plus, I get better graphics on the PC!

 

[13thmonkey]

+1 ^

stay away from hot water

Steam is regularly cheaper than physical, you never have the risk of disk being damaged, you can still mod, your arguments are weak and centre around multi-use of a single license.

 

[13thmonkey]

3.&4. Its all about DRM. Since you simply do not 'agree' with it, there is no solution to it. You can however, gift your games to another person on Steam, who in turn can gift you a title you want.

Can gift an already brought game? I knew you could do it when purchasing a game.

 

[namelessonez]

Can gift an already brought game? I knew you could do it when purchasing a game.

I do believe you can sell games already in your Steam library, but maybe I'm mistaken.

Coming back to the OP's question re: reselling physical copies- physical versions need to be activated by using the activation code which comes with them. So once you've used the code to activated the game, how does one plan on 'reselling' the game? Because the person buying it won't be able to use the code again, right?

Maybe I'm missing out on something here(?).

 

[13thmonkey]

I do believe you can sell games already in your Steam library, but maybe I'm mistaken.

Coming back to the OP's question re: reselling physical copies- physical versions need to be activated by using the activation code which comes with them. So once you've used the code to activated the game, how does one plan on 'reselling' the game? Because the person buying it won't be able to use the code again, right?

Maybe I'm missing out on something here(?).

Its the only interesting point in the OP's post, i.e. the killing of the secondhand market, which is going to happen anyway even with non-steam physical. If there were two versions available, single user (-20% cost) and sellable (std cost).

Games are viewed as brought and not a licensed product, a brought product you own and can do what you want with, a licensed product has limitations such as being able to resell. The industry is trying to move us from one model to the other. Naturally we don't want to move. Steam (for instance) is able to offer cheaper games probably for this very reason, this is a strong incentive to move in my opinion. Unfortunately it will happen, as a consumer the only choice we have is to buy or not buy. And if the OP thinks its not going to happen on the Xbox/PS3 i think you'll find it already is.

 

[Alex The PC Gamer]

Can gift an already brought game? I knew you could do it when purchasing a game.

I confirm that you can buy a game and give it as a gift (which means it's not your copy, you're giving that license to whomever you're giving it to...


...but I don't think you can give "YOUR" games as gifts. If so, please provide more details as I'd love to know how...


To OP: I personally love STEAM but you make very good points. I see it as a trade-off to keep PC gaming as legit as possible while having the benefits of having crazy good deals. There are games (such as the latest COD games) that require a STEAM account though most games can be purchased on their own. That said, many publishers are going the digital way and will end up using either STEAM or EA using their own Origin (i.e. BF3). Not to burst your bubble but even the upcoming consoles will be operating the same way (Microsoft having their own STEAM version), PSN, though I'm not sure about Nintendo's distribution platform (they seem to favor the old way).

That said, it's your call. You make good points (you also forgot that all games purchased on STEAM you don't own...you rent permanently as long as the service is available. The day STEAM goes down is the day we all lose you games (and I have many).

Cheers.

Alex

 

[Fenrir190]

Thanks for all the criticism guys both good and bad. I thought MS and Sony were looking into the steam model but I thought it was squashed, maybe I got something mixed up. You guys do make a lot of good points that certainly put steam in a better light. There are still things such as basically renting the games you buy but still this discussion has caused me to look into this a bit more. Thanks all.

 

[13thmonkey]

EA's origin has a clause in it that they can give 30(?)days notice and then shut the service down, all gone. I think that they have to put this in so that they don't have to put funds aside for indefinite maintenance of the service should then company decide it is not profitable to continue, or if the company collapses.

some studios are looking to purposely kill the secondhand market without the convenience of digital copy.

 

[Fenrir190]

EA's origin has a clause in it that they can give 30(?)days notice and then shut the service down, all gone. I think that they have to put this in so that they don't have to put funds aside for indefinite maintenance of the service should then company decide it is not profitable to continue, or if the company collapses.

some studios are looking to purposely kill the secondhand market without the convenience of digital copy.

Isn't EA doing badly right now?

 

[13thmonkey]

possibly...

but some of origins downloads are 'download in place' i.e. there are no registry entries, just the file structure than you can move around and backup as desired. Not sure if Steams are or not?

 

[casualcolors]

Isn't EA doing badly right now?

Publicity wise? Yeah.

Financially? They seem to be doing fine. Their games still sell like hotcakes and they just put out arguably the biggest title of 2011 in Battlefield 3.

 

[Brett928S2]

Publicity wise? Yeah.

Financially? They seem to be doing fine. Their games still sell like hotcakes and they just put out arguably the biggest title of 2011 in Battlefield 3.

Hi Casual

Funnily enough regarding this thread the only reason I wont buy BF3 is because its not on Steam lol...

I have one of the new HTC ONE X phones on Android and tried a couple of EA games on it...lol...absolutely FULL of adverts that totally ruin the game,,,Scrabble as an example....you get a 30 second advert between EACH move...... they are not doing themselves any favours with rubbish like that...

All the best Brett

 

[casualcolors]

Hi Casual

Funnily enough regarding this thread the only reason I wont buy BF3 is because its not on Steam lol...

I have one of the new HTC ONE X phones on Android and tried a couple of EA games on it...lol...absolutely FULL of adverts that totally ruin the game,,,Scrabble as an example....you get a 30 second advert between EACH move...... they are not doing themselves any favours with rubbish like that...

All the best Brett

Obviously all you can do is vote as a consumer with your own dollar bill. Personally BF3 not being on Steam wasn't an issue for me, but then again, that's a personal choice.

Unfortunately however, all of the informed and restrained good consumer practices in the world won't likely have any impact on the direction games are going in general (with regard to your ios apps). By the same logic, I didn't buy Diablo 3. I feel good about the choice, but ultimately I'm in a vassssssssst minority and Blizzard's as aware of that fact as I am. Same for Activision, EA or anyone else on their level financially. Not sure we'll see a toppling reminiscent of Acclaim or anything in the near future.

 

[rambostyrer]

If you don't like STEAM, simply buy your games from digital stores like Gamersgate.com, GOG.com and getgamesgo.com. Neither of these stores requires a online connection for singelplayer - unless the game has some sort of DRM built into them like steam securom origin etc. Or just buy your games on discs. Just make sure the games does not require some sort of DRM beforehand.

To me STEAM is a great service, despite the online requirements (lets face it offline-mode doesn't work). It is very easy to buy games, wich very often is on sale, it is super easy to download, un-install and re-download your games, and the cloud makes it very easy to manage savegames. Besides that you got the steam workshop (mods) used by portal 2 and Skyrim (and hopefully more games in the future.

There are plenty of games not even available on steam, most MMO's and free-to-play games are not on STEAM.

 

[jjack339]

I personally like not have to deal with CDs. I lose them they get scratched... load times are longer, etc.

Example. Skyrim.

I had the game on the PS3. I had a 10-30 second load time depending on where I was going. I got rid of the PS3 version and got the PC version (when I built my PC in Jan) and my load times are 2-4 seconds depending on the environment.

Some of that has to do with my PC just being faster than my PS3, but most of it is disk read times.

 

[casualcolors]

I personally like not have to deal with CDs. I lose them they get scratched... load times are longer, etc.

Example. Skyrim.

I had the game on the PS3. I had a 10-30 second load time depending on where I was going. I got rid of the PS3 version and got the PC version (when I built my PC in Jan) and my load times are 2-4 seconds depending on the environment.

Some of that has to do with my PC just being faster than my PS3, but most of it is disk read times.

Most of it is how significantly more powerful a gaming PC is than a PS3. Can't really compare load times across platform in this way to judge whether or not a disc on PC is responsible for load times, particularly when discs these days are often just installs, and the textures are pulled from your HDD and cached in system memory same as with any digitally downloaded game.

 

[dxe22]

if you get a xbox 360 its going to cost to much for online my suggestion is wait till the playstation 4 or xbox 720 comes out or you can just get games that dont requre steam like ubisoft games dont requre steam.

 

[dxe22]

you could always torrent them or crack them but you would have to buy the game before doing that beacuse its against the law.

 

[Hirachi]

you could always torrent them or crack them but you would have to buy the game before doing that beacuse its against the law.

You seem to forget the ability of not being able to play online and even if you can it will be a crap experience

 

[nikorr]

you could always torrent them or crack them but you would have to buy the game before doing that beacuse its against the law.

If u buy a game and try to crack it, it is against the rules that u are agreeing to when u installing the game. If u disagree, it wont install.

Also illegal.

 

[bystander]

If you don't like STEAM, simply buy your games from digital stores like Gamersgate.com, GOG.com and getgamesgo.com. Neither of these stores requires a online connection for singelplayer - unless the game has some sort of DRM built into them like steam securom origin etc. Or just buy your games on discs. Just make sure the games does not require some sort of DRM beforehand.

To me STEAM is a great service, despite the online requirements (lets face it offline-mode doesn't work). It is very easy to buy games, wich very often is on sale, it is super easy to download, un-install and re-download your games, and the cloud makes it very easy to manage savegames. Besides that you got the steam workshop (mods) used by portal 2 and Skyrim (and hopefully more games in the future.

There are plenty of games not even available on steam, most MMO's and free-to-play games are not on STEAM.

How does it not work? I've logged in many times when Steam was offline. It gave me a pop up, told me that my data would not save to their servers and I could continue if I choose. I chose and I played.

 

[casualcolors]

How does it not work? I've logged in many times when Steam was offline. It gave me a pop up, told me that my data would not save to their servers and I could continue if I choose. I chose and I played.

Just because it worked for you, doesn't mean that it works universally. I also think it's very hit and miss.

 

[bystander]

It may be game related, though I've never not been able to play and most my games are from Steam.