Why Steam Seems Very Bad, But Your Thoughts?

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OneHumongousLoser

OneHumongousLoser

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Ok, i bought Fear 2, which can only be used through Steam, which is not mentioned until you get the box in the mail (thats crappy in itself).

Then, of course, you can 'buy' games from steam that must be used with them and then, if I understand correctly, only on your account.

So, this is very bad, because:

1) you dont own the game, and therefore there is no resale value (I buy games, play them a year, then sell them on ebay, but no more), as opposed to the normal buying the games with CD and key code.

but more importantly:

2) the games are locked to steam. So what happens if steam goes out of business? hey, happens everyday, look at the 1hundred+ year old companies that folded the last year. If I am forced to buy and use games through them, then I could like spend a bunch of money and lose it all when they go bust. Again, dont think they cant, cause it happens all the time.

So, this is very bad.

Steam is simply a company trying to make a buck, as are the companies that develop/provide the games, and there is nothing bad about that, but:

I really hate buying something I cant resale, and there does not seem to be any consumer protection against them going out of business and then customers losing all their stuff.

I would like to state that yes, I am against piracy, and buy all my games either new or used off ebay (never pirated and wont in my life), and there should be another way other than Steam.

Just curious what others think about this.
 
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I think the best analogy mentioned above was movies. Do you just buy a movie then resell it? Selling a game is selling your memories. Tempted to buy the ID pack off of steam. <3 Doom

And talking about the money aspect. The industry makes about 1-2 semi-decent games per year. At $20 resale, you're saving ~$40 per year. I can save more than $40 on my heating by putting a $6 piece of styrafoam in my bay window during the winter.
 
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Gamestop is a huge sucess, and a big chain store now.

Now, what is it that they do....ummm......oh yes!!!... People sell their old games to them, and then they sell those used games to other people who want to play it !!!

Come on people, there is a huge demand for used games.


At Christmas, the lines were really long. Their sales were huge!

Now, if steam were to allow selling of MY games that I BOUGHT WITH MY MONEY... but actually steam owns everything, even though I bought it...should be robbery.

Please tell me about how people take pride in owning a game library through steam??? You have no game boxes, no cd's, no manuals - what are you gonna do, print out your account game list from steam and post it next to your computer?? (Look at my account!!! gosh, i have so many games, some the smithsonian even has in their museum too - oh yeah, that 1995 Doom game, let me play it again!! waahooo)

By the way, Doom3 on ebay is $3.00+3.50 shippin= $6.50
and on steam its $20!!!

Doom3 Resurection of Evil is $10 + 3.50 shipping= $13.50 while on steam its $20!!!!

and you can resell them if you want to.

tell me again about these great prices, i bet i could beat all of them on ebay/amazon (and oh yes, get the box and cd and can resell them!!!)

 
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Gamestop doesn't sell used PC games so your comparison is invalid.

Also you sound like an idiot when you make fun of others for wanting to keep their old games yet you make such a big deal about the damn box and paper that comes in the box. I don't care about a game manual. Never even read one and I throw all of those over sized boxes away as soon as I get the game out. BTW I do have Doom II on my desktop and it's always great fun to jump in on nightmare for a few minutes when I have nothing better to do.

Honestly I don't really get why people bother selling or buying used PC games at all. Just pirate them, it's essentially the same thing anyways so why not save your money? I'm not advocating piracy but if you don't care about licensing anyways you might as well be smart about it and save yourself a few more dollars. Oh yeah, that's right - you really love those boxes and manuals. Stupid me, I only keep the games.
 
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Absolutely untrue strangestranger. A used game has been bought from them, they got their money for the game. Piracy they get absolutely nothing. I dont equate buying a used game with piracy (I really never thought of it that way though, and really hate piracy. Will have to mull that one).

Is this really the best yall can come up with for responses? nit pick my arguments/rants/posts??

I really expected better responses, but I guess you cant polish a turd (steam) and make it look good.
 
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Used games do not give a cent to the publisher/developer. They are sold secondhand. Devs/Publishers only make money on the initial sale to the distributors that sell the game.

And as stated above, Gamestop doesn't sell used PC games [mainly due to CD key issues]

If the PC industry wants more money, stop flooding the market with FPS that are exactly the same. [Seriously, the last advancement in FPS was Halo [health system]]
 
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99% of console users are not going to buy a game copy it and sell it to somebody else. With PC games it's incredibly easy to do so. When I was buying PC games retail I would always copying the game, write down the key and find any necessary cracks just in case something happened to the game. If I sold any of those games there is nothing stopping from still playing them. Not only would the developer not get anything from the person who bought the game off me, but I would be making pure profit without losing anything off of that developers work.

Also I think more and more developers are looking at used console sales and asking what's the difference from PC games. They'd like to see used console game sales go the way of used PC games.
 
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I didnt know that.
wow, I should have been making copies all these years (just joking).

I dont know how to copy a PC game, much less how to acquire a pirated copy (unless a used game falls into that category).

So, basically, the whole steam concept eventually comes down to copyright protection (and game sale protection). I can understand and appreceiate that.

I can understand that, but still dont like it.
 
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*cough* http://dsc.discovery.com/videos/mythbusters-polishing-a-turd.html *cough* 2min 30sec into the video

Actually on topic - As others have said, Steam also is a means of fighting software piracy. I can't tell you how many LANs I've been to where someone purchased a game (say, Serious Sam) and then the rest of us used his install disk to install the game and then play multiplayer for hours. With Steam, each of us have to purchase the game. I'm actually very happy due to this process - this way the developers get their revenue in order to put back into producing better games for us.
 
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"I'm actually very happy due to this process - this way the developers get their revenue in order to put back into producing better games for us. "

Utterly bogus argument. You are giving up rights of purchase, your right of ownership, you meak little socialist/communist wimp.

You paid for something, you should be the owner to resell as you want to.

Does this mean you are also willing (and support):
buying one car - and have to crunch it since you cannot resell it?
buy one house - and never move because you cant resell it?
etc. etc. etc.


In short - buying anything - and never actually owning it? Sounds like you are.

Fine, wake up one day with nothing to show for your hard work.







 
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Does this qualify as Godwin's Law?

It's close enough for me.
 
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No. I made no analogies to Hitler or any of that.

Only to an economic system where people give up individual rights, and individual ownership for some supposedly 'common good' that history shows ends in more suffering, more hardship than otherwise would happen.

Fine, I will quote Benjamin Franklin then:

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

 
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Ok, then you've displayed a complete lack of understanding of IP and licensing. Anyways, as has already be mentioned you are completely free to sell your Steam account and all games associated with that account. You can also create individual accounts for each game and sell them individually. So your argument is fail either way.

Also your ideas of economic/social systems is flawed. Socialist systems would support ideas and IP as being common property and not restricted to individual (or corporate) ownership. The licensing/copyright system is a product of capitalism where everything people can claim ownership and rights over an idea or intellectual property. In a capitalist system it's the creator of a given idea, or who every first thinks to claim ownership, who has the right to determine how it is sold, traded, used etc.

In a communist system somebody who creates an idea does so for the common good not for their own benefit. If you lived in a communist country and created a game it would be owned by everybody not you (i.e. Tetris).
 
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You people cant handle DISSENT. My arguments are not extreme, they have been played over and over, with the same questions and conclusions by thousands (if not millions).

Quit mis-characterizing my arguments (trying to imply I invoke Nazis??), and then shooting them down. That works on AM talk radio for the weak minded. I expected more from here.

I dont know what a Troll is, besides a fictional character.

Just because some lawyers get together somewhere and passes some laws DOES NOT MAKE THEM RIGHT, NOR THE BEST LAWS. THERE CAN BE OTHER WAYS THAT ARE BETTER, so pull your heads out of the sand, you brain-washed masses.

Also, steam specifically states that if they find you are selling your accounts, they will disable it, and ban you (maybe you should read their policy before you start spouting off about how great they are, and they allow this and that)
 
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You're the one calling anybody who doesn't agree with you "weak minded". I use Steam, like it and have no problem with it. I don't sell games regardless of where I bought them so that arguments is pointless to me. For some reason that really seems to bother you.
 
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The potential for banned CD keys mostly. Its not good business to sell a used PC game, then find out the games CD-key is invalid/banned. Console games are free of that restriction, so as long as the disk runs, there are no ways for Gamestop to get hurt.
 
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Didn't Mythbusters successfully polish a turd?

I thought I saw an episode about that very thing. :lol:

Have you learned anything yet?

Like maybe you're preaching to the choir?

You'll never convince any dedicated Steam fan to see this your way, one reason being they're already seriously invested in it and will defend it to the end.

You can make your claims until you're blue in the face and not change a Steam fans opinion.

Most of my actual resell-able games, I give to friends because I cannot recoup my investment anyway.

If Steam did go under, provisions would have to be made, and are probably already in place, by Steam for game updates to be available that would allow offline use, or else not only would they go under, but the lawsuits would stretch to the moon, so that's really nothing to fear.

Fortunately for you, no one is making you purchase games from Steam, unfortunately for you, there are some fantastic games coming, you'll only get through Steam.

So, as it stands, thats just the way it is.

My only complaint is not even Steams fault, I'm on a Satellite internet connection causing my ping rate to be too high to be able to play online smoothly, which causes lag in the game and ruins it for other players, but maybe one day we'll get cable out where we live.

There are some really good things about Steam, like not having to track down game updates, or getting some special time limited game discount sale offers you'll never get off Ebay, or game file repairing capabilities.

Also you can upgrade a HDD or build a completely new machine and all your games are at Steam waiting to be re downloaded and installed and you're back in business.

So there are some really good things about Steam that IMO outweigh holding an Installation set of CDs or DVD in your hand that could actually go bad over time anyway and you have a handful of nothing.

Carry on! :hello:


 
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Wow, name calling over the internets? Your e-peen just grew 1.5 inches!

"I dont know what a Troll is, besides a fictional character. "

Troll (also known as Internet Troll) - In Internet slang, a troll is someone who posts inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community, such as an online discussion forum, chat room or blog, with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_%28Internet%29

On-topic: Tell you what - don't buy anything that's dependent on the Steam Client. Case closed. You can continue buying and reselling your precious games. I'll continue supporting Steam/Valve because I believe they are heading in the right direction against software piracy. You can think of it as an investment - I'll continue to put money into the company as long as they continue to come out with exciting games. Do I get any return with my investment? Hell yeah I do - it's called entertainment.

@ 4ryan6 "Didn't Mythbusters successfully polish a turd?" - Check my first post in this thread, 9 posts above yours.
 
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You were holding your own until the insults entered into the picture, you've violated the forum Terms of Use which in this case gets you a 3 day vacation and your thread closed, when you come back make your points but leave the insults out of it. Ryan
 
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Ok, so I did some more investigation, bought more games on Steam, and came to the conclusion that Steam is the best way forward for keeping PC gaming alive, and that it is actually a very good service.

I found that when they have their sales, the final price beats buying a game and reselling it. Also you get to keep the game (for all eternity).

So, now i have like 15 games, and almost all were bought at huge discount, and I also feel good about keeping gaming alive by my money going to developers (who hopefully will have incentive to produce better games, improvement happens when money is the incentive).

So, I would like to apologize to all that I may have insulted in the heat of the moment.

Regards,
1HumongousLoser
 
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4ryan6 Edit: Leave out the insults or action will be taken against you!

you can make a separate account for every game you activate on steam. Hence the game is bound to a single login.

Hence: you can now sell your games DIGITALLY without even using the freaking post office!
 
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