Is this STEAM Concept for REAL?

[Mystery Squid]

WTF, I have DSL connection with a pretty damn good PC I just built, and from the time I popped in the first installation disk, to the time I was actually able to play the game, a whole HOUR AND A HALF had elapsed.

Am I doing something wrong? This STEAM concept seems to really suck, I could not believe the message that went something like, "YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PLAY IN XX MINUTES". WTF ever happened to playing games when I want to play them?

Anyway, great game, CRAPPY set-up. At least DOOM3 GIVES ME PERMISSION to play when I want...

So I guess my question is, can I play THE WHOLE game offline WITHOUT the S.S. Steam Oberpiracyparanoidgrupenfurher?

:frown:

 

[Kyorisu]

Yeah there are those things called updates. You need those first before you play. Thus the long time before playing.

To answer your question no.

 

[DevgruSeal]

If you don't like it, shove a cd box up your butt, or this community will throw cheetos at you and make you tapdance.

STEAM makes billions off of HL2 buyer already. One asshole won't make a difference.

 

[Mystery Squid]

If you don't like it, shove a cd box up your butt, or this community will throw cheetos at you and make you tapdance.

STEAM makes billions off of HL2 buyer already. One asshole won't make a difference.

I dunno, after I posted, I read through some threads, seems like there are A LOT of people who abhor STEAM. I will think TWICE about buying another VALVE game given what I went through last night (on top of the fact that an internet connection is "needed" (that's BS, no game should be contingent upon a third party)), and from what I've read so far, a whole lot of people would agree.

:cheers:

 

[Mystery Squid]

Actually, I should clarify one thing: after getting pissed I wasted an hour and a half, I disabled my internet connection and played in some sort of "offline" mode. I played for about 1/2 hour, made it through a bunch of canals, and stopped for the night in some room with a big red valve you turn which floods an area with water.

Anyway, so I guess I should refine my original question: If I keep playing within this "offline" mode, will it eventually "lock up" on me?

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

Offline mode is exactly what it says.

 

[DevgruSeal]

Also, STEAM is an anti-piracy measure as well.

 

[HL2Fans_MoleX]

look if the update is 2 long for you, do what i do when downloading more then 10mods at a time.

step#1: start the update or download at about hm... any time befor sleeping.
step#2: sleep to till you wake up "morning"
step#3: light up your monitor and tada every thing are nice and ready.
step#4: have a nice day and play well.

..........

 

[NiteX]

I dunno, after I posted, I read through some threads, seems like there are A LOT of people who abhor STEAM. I will think TWICE about buying another VALVE game given what I went through last night (on top of the fact that an internet connection is "needed" (that's BS, no game should be contingent upon a third party)), and from what I've read so far, a whole lot of people would agree.

:cheers:

Well it seems a lot of developers like the Steam idea. So in the future many more devs will either be using Steam like Ritual is doing for Sin, or they will be using programs similar to Steam. No matter if you hate it or not it won't change a thing.

 

[^Ben]

You would be whining like a little bitch if you didnt update and 1 of the updates fixed a crash bug.

Yeh, you would be straight in here whining about a crash bug.

It updates your game in that "ready to play in xx" ya know, CRITICAL FIXES and junk?

Do you think they are like "ok they have this awesome game, we should make them cool down first make sure they have to wait XX minutes before they can play otherwise they might have a heart attack!"

It's a 1 time update, if you wanna come here and complain, shut up and leave and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

 

[Pesmerga]

I dunno, after I posted, I read through some threads, seems like there are A LOT of people who abhor STEAM. I will think TWICE about buying another VALVE game given what I went through last night (on top of the fact that an internet connection is "needed" (that's BS, no game should be contingent upon a third party)), and from what I've read so far, a whole lot of people would agree.

:cheers:

A 'whole lot of people' is the minority. Steam is the greatest concept of distrubution today, and whether you find it annoying or not counts as null.

The back of the box says INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED you ****ing morons, shut the **** up before I get ****ing ugly with your stupid flames and misguided judgements, dick holes. You bought the game, it was your decision and not Valve's. So why don't you go write a blog about how much steam suxors lololol and get the **** off this part of the internet.

 

[nick_t]

Steam is ok... I can't say its great. I remember preloading HL2 a month early, waking up the day of release to play before school for an hour, and being tragically disappointed by the stupid Steam system which took the whole day to download some patch on the first day of release! However, it beats patching manually.

 

[diluted]

2 things I dislike/think should be changed about Steam:

1.) On release day, I had to wait 3 hours until I could even get a connection with the Steam servers because they were too busy. So I couldn't even begin 'decrypting' the files until 3 hours after I came home with the game, and it was nearly another hour before I was actually playing it. This is entirely Valve's fault, they should've foresaw the massive stress on their servers and ordered more servers/bandwidth. Mind you, this was like 8 months ago or something, but it sure pissed me off then.

2.) They need to add an option, when installing the game, that asks you if you want to update the game or not. The way it is now, Steam just goes ahead and starts downloading all the updates, which is a headache for dialup users who just want to play the game right off the bat.
My two cents.

flame on, steam apologists

 

[Pesmerga]

2.) They need to add an option, when installing the game, that asks you if you want to update the game or not. The way it is now, Steam just goes ahead and starts downloading all the updates, which is a headache for dialup users who just want to play the game right off the bat.
My two cents.

I completely agree with this, and I'm 99% certain Valve will add this feature when more games are releases over Steam, such as Sin Episodes. I'm really intrigued by Steam, it is possibly the best solution to low budget distrubution despite its underlying flaws (like, Steam Friends never ever working, ever).

By the way....does anyone know if each Steam Update carries with it a date of when the next update is to be released? Because it seems to me that even when I'm offline, it tried to update on the day a CS:S update was released but found out it couldn't. Curious...because one may be able to predict when updates are coming out, which would give news writers something to look forward to

 

[Chris D]

WTF, I have DSL connection with a pretty damn good PC I just built, and from the time I popped in the first installation disk, to the time I was actually able to play the game, a whole HOUR AND A HALF had elapsed.

Am I doing something wrong? This STEAM concept seems to really suck, I could not believe the message that went something like, "YOU WILL BE ABLE TO PLAY IN XX MINUTES". WTF ever happened to playing games when I want to play them?

Anyway, great game, CRAPPY set-up. At least DOOM3 GIVES ME PERMISSION to play when I want...

So I guess my question is, can I play THE WHOLE game offline WITHOUT the S.S. Steam Oberpiracyparanoidgrupenfurher?

:frown:

Right click on the game in your Games list. Select properties. In the Automatic Updates section click on Do not automatically update this game.

Wait for the next update to be released and try and play an online game. Then you'll find out why it stops you playing.

 

[TheSomeone]

Steam, like every revolution in distribution, is having a hard time lifting off.

 

[Mystery Squid]

Well it seems a lot of developers like the Steam idea. So in the future many more devs will either be using Steam like Ritual is doing for Sin, or they will be using programs similar to Steam. No matter if you hate it or not it won't change a thing.

lol, sure it will. In the end, anyone with 1/4 brain older than 13 will realize just how much BS this set up is, and won't buy games as such. I'm not going to buy anymore games structured like this, and I know I'm not alone. Look at all the anti-steam propaganda! At LEAST DOOM3 you can install and play when you want, with or without an internet connection. :bounce:

 

[Mystery Squid]

You would be whining like a little bitch if you didnt update and 1 of the updates fixed a crash bug.

Yeh, you would be straight in here whining about a crash bug.

It updates your game in that "ready to play in xx" ya know, CRITICAL FIXES and junk?

Do you think they are like "ok they have this awesome game, we should make them cool down first make sure they have to wait XX minutes before they can play otherwise they might have a heart attack!"

It's a 1 time update, if you wanna come here and complain, shut up and leave and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

LOL, have a :cheers: and try not to forget taking your ritalin again...

 

[Mystery Squid]

A 'whole lot of people' is the minority. Steam is the greatest concept of distrubution today, and whether you find it annoying or not counts as null.

The back of the box says INTERNET CONNECTION REQUIRED you ****ing morons, shut the **** up before I get ****ing ugly with your stupid flames and misguided judgements, dick holes. You bought the game, it was your decision and not Valve's. So why don't you go write a blog about how much steam suxors lololol and get the **** off this part of the internet.

Yeah, they do say an internet connection is required, big deal, so do tons of other games, most of which don't take HOURS to install... looks like you haven't been taking your ritalin for a week now! :bounce:

 

[Mystery Squid]

From another perspective, anyone ever think of what might happen if someone hacks into Steam and leverages that into ultimately stealing info.? Anyone know what Steam can and CAN'T do with this structure? Seriously though, take a moment to think about it. Who would you go to, if someone hacked Steam, got into your PC, and ultimately drained your bank account? Who could you turn to? Steam? lol Oh yeah, that's right, it could never happen... Thankfully, I have about 6 PC's, and this one is only used for gaming, but most people don't really have that luxury... Steam is walking a fine line with this concept, they're taking "control" of their product to another level. It's like having a member of the Nazi party stay with you at your house for a week while you're discussing politics to make sure your discussions are "accurate"... Take off the blinders folks!

 

[Mystery Squid]

Again, I just want to add that Half Life 2 is in fact a GREAT game. I've been fairly obsessed with it since I got it, it's just that whole delivery concept really rubs me the wrong way...

Oh yeah, the explosions sound AWESOME, I love shooting the explosive barrells just to hear it....

 

[Lord_PackRat]

This is entirely Valve's fault, they should've foresaw the massive stress on their servers and ordered more servers/bandwidth.

A nice idea, yes... But I'm willing to bet that a feat like that is either physically impossible or the costs are quite prohibitive for any mere mortal.

In any case, I'm certain Valve was well aware of that bottleneck.

From another perspective, anyone ever think of what might happen if someone hacks into Steam and leverages that into ultimately stealing info.? Anyone know what Steam can and CAN'T do with this structure? Seriously though, take a moment to think about it. Who would you go to, if someone hacked Steam, got into your PC, and ultimately drained your bank account? Who could you turn to? Steam? lol Oh yeah, that's right, it could never happen... Thankfully, I have about 6 PC's, and this one is only used for gaming, but most people don't really have that luxury... Steam is walking a fine line with this concept, they're taking "control" of their product to another level. It's like having a member of the Nazi party stay with you at your house for a week while you're discussing politics to make sure your discussions are "accurate"... Take off the blinders folks!

OMG TEH H4X0R5

RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!11

 

[Laivasse]

@MysterySquid - Please don't quintuple post, or even double post please. Edit your first message if you need to.

And yes, for the record, Steam sucks. It didn't achieve a single thing that it set out to do (revolutionise distribution, stop piracy, stop cheating, etc) - the only thing it did was hamper and frustrate the average consumer. I would go as far as saying that Steam cost Valve sales rather than protected sales, but of course they wouldn't care since they made up that money (and more) from HL2's direct distribution through Steam. Let's also remember that Valve were incompetent enough to have the source code stolen once, yet we are dependent on Valve's management of Steam servers for our ability to play all Valve games now and in future. Flame away, sycophants. There is also the irony of a game about authoritarian oppression requiring some of the most draconian validation methods ever.

Developers should stop worrying about cockbrained "revolutions", and just concentrate on producing games the tried and tested way - making them, putting them in shops, letting us play them without interference. Anyone who can't find a patch on the net probably can't get your average PC game running anyway. The one good idea with Steam was preloading/buying and downloading the game directly, but with corrupt downloads, double-charging of credit cards, etc, not even this is perfect.

 

[^Ben]

@MysterySquid - Please don't quintuple post, or even double post please. Edit your first message if you need to.

And yes, for the record, Steam sucks. It didn't achieve a single thing that it set out to do (revolutionise distribution, stop piracy, stop cheating, etc) - the only thing it did was hamper and frustrate the average consumer. I would go as far as saying that Steam cost Valve sales rather than protected sales, but of course they wouldn't care since they made up that money (and more) from HL2's direct distribution through Steam. Let's also remember that Valve were incompetent enough to have the source code stolen once, yet we are dependent on Valve's management of Steam servers for our ability to play all Valve games now and in future. Flame away, sycophants. There is also the irony of a game about authoritarian oppression requiring some of the most draconian validation methods ever.

Developers should stop worrying about cockbrained "revolutions", and just concentrate on producing games the tried and tested way - making them, putting them in shops, letting us play them without interference. Anyone who can't find a patch on the net probably can't get your average PC game running anyway. The one good idea with Steam was preloading/buying and downloading the game directly, but with corrupt downloads, double-charging of credit cards, etc, not even this is perfect.

Yeh, like it completly stopped 0 day piracy. Let's not forget all the ai_disabled messages! It did absoulotly nothing for piracy

And the double charging... yeh that happened... not. Next time you try to make a point don't spit it out of your ass.

It completly didnt rev the distrubution market, yeh I completly forgot. At 8 am I was sitting at my PC going "woo woo" and unlocking the game, instead of having to get on a train going to town to get a shitty little box.

It completly lost valve sales even though HL2 has sold nearly 5 million copies(Ima be making a topic on this) and the undisclosed number of steam sales(guarenteed to be atleast 50k plus a number that alot of games dont even reach)

Ima really be crying about how much "steam sucks" when we got HL2DM, numerous map/patches and stuff like lost coast. And when they start putting mods and independant games on steam i'm going to curse them into the night sky!

You are part of a vocal minority, and I for one will be glad when your gone.

Did you cry when the internet came common? Because we all know Libarys where SOOO better for getting information.

 

[Laivasse]

Yeh, like it completly stopped 0 day piracy. Let's not forget all the ai_disabled messages! It did absoulotly nothing for piracy

And the double charging... yeh that happened... not. Next time you try to make a point don't spit it out of your ass.

It completly didnt rev the distrubution market, yeh I completly forgot. At 8 am I was sitting at my PC going "woo woo" and unlocking the game, instead of having to get on a train going to town to get a shitty little box.

So because you didn't pirate the game, weren't double charged, and downloaded it with little hassle, it means that Steam has no errors, revolutionised distribution, and stopped piracy. Some awesomely backed up points, I'm stunned.

The rest is your average "lmao vlave r0x0rz teh b0x0rz" stuff. Rant coherently next time, tch...

 

[^Ben]

Oh, i'm not saying there wasnt piracy. That would be a stupid thing to assert, but next time read a little further. It stopped '0 DAY' piracy.

I heard no reports of double charging, and if it was a wide spread thing we would of heard about it on here.

Same for downloading, I might of saw 1 person with a problem, which was figured out to be his hardrive that was just about to blow up.

Just because the minority dosent like it, dosent mean the majority feels the same way or has the same problem.

let me ask you a question, have you played HL2DM? Are you going to download lost coast? And when they put MOD's on steam are you going to download them? Are you going to download the extra content they put out like maps etc? Are you going to buy small time developers games like ritual or facewounds game?

The rest of your is your average "omg steam sux0rs cus i cnt figure ut meh PC!!!!! I HATE YOU VALVE! DIE GABE NEWELLLL!, but im still gonna download lost coast and other stuff... but shhh about that"

 

[john121]

steam has its problems, yes. Yet, think of the patches you've had to hunt down the net for, open and install them in the right directory, etc.

When steam is working, no one says a thing. When steam has a hiccup, everyone is complaining. It's the same with a LOT of things like traffic lights. When they're working, no one complains about them working (traffic is a diff. story) but when they're up there replacing a bulb or whatnot, everyone complains.

Now, if steam was hacked and someone got alot of credit cards, is it really Valve's fault? possibly... then again, is this new? Choicepoint (in the US) handed thousands of credit card numbers over to thieves, sold them directly to them without checking their backgrounds! IMO the people that don't secure their networks should give every customer at LEAST 100% of the money that was stolen or charged and not have them deal with the credit card companies when they balk at bogus charges. That, is the very least. At the most, they should give 1 1/2 the amount that was stolen from them and have their records cleared as if the whole thing never happened.

 

[Laivasse]

Oh, i'm not saying there wasnt piracy. That would be a stupid thing to assert, but next time read a little further. It stopped '0 DAY' piracy.

I heard no reports of double charging, and if it was a wide spread thing we would of heard about it on here.

Same for downloading, I might of saw 1 person with a problem, which was figured out to be his hardrive that was just about to blow up.

Ok, this is a bit better than mysteriously accusing me of crying and liking libraries.

The double-charging and corrupt download reports were things I encountered when I was reading up on HL2 and Steam before buying it. I have to say that despite HL2 being my most anticipated game ever, these stories, and even moreso the validation, compulsory updates, and online requirement (until you update) left a bad taste in my mouth. I'm sure that for many people HL2 was NOT their most anticipated game ever, and that hearing such stuff about Steam put them off buying it. Not to mention the people without net access, or those with dial-up (they still exist, although their numbers are dwindling) who actually read the requirements and decided it wasn't worth the hassle.
On top of that I actually know people who have pirated the game, or who have just not bothered purchased HL2, with Steam figuring into their decision. That is why I say it cost them sales.

5 million is a massive amount, and it speaks for HL2's quality, but who's to say that it might not have been, say, 5.2million, or whatever, if not for Steam? It didn't protect Valve from piracy, and I don't know how it could have contributed to sales. After all, who among those who preloaded the game would not have bought it from a store if there was no option to download from Steam?

On top of that, the very sales figures you posted speak for the fact that the average consumer does NOT see Steam as the way ahead. Even I like to have something more tangible in my hand when I purchase something, and I conceded the convenience of this feature of Steam in my post.

Just because the minority dosent like it, dosent mean the majority feels the same way or has the same problem.

I don't know where you get the idea that it's a minority that doesn't like Steam, but I haven't made any claims one way or another about most people liking or disliking it. However, I would speculate that most of the people who buy HL2, or any game, are usually your average not-amazingly-competent computer user, or gift-giver, and these people, every single one, would have had to go through the long install and update times that Steam forces on users, the resources it takes (pirated versions of HL2 reported run faster), the awkwardness of unlocking offline mode, the validation measures, etc etc. I would therefore imagine that your average PC user doesn't actually love Steam all that much.

let me ask you a question, have you played HL2DM? Are you going to download lost coast? And when they put MOD's on steam are you going to download them? Are you going to download the extra content they put out like maps etc?

The answer's yes to most of those. Let me ask you a question: which of those things could not have been accomplished without Steam? Every single other game without Steam manages it fine.

The rest of your is your average "omg steam sux0rs cus i cnt figure ut meh PC!!!!! I HATE YOU VALVE! DIE GABE NEWELLLL!, but im still gonna download lost coast and other stuff... but shhh about that"

Hardly...

But I dunno why you think I would care about people knowing I use Steam anyway...? I have to.

 

[^Ben]

Valve dosent store any credit card numbers. They have a 3rd party that deals with it(I belive it's called bank of america and are actually situated down stairs from valve)

And if you are really worried about "h4x0rs on teh PC" do not put your password into any thing, do not use your credit card for anything(this includes real life) unplug your connection and then you will be fine from everything.

 

[Mystery Squid]

unplug your connection and then you will be fine from everything.

Except if you want to play Half Life 2... :bounce:

 

[Cole]

Except if you want to play Half Life 2...

Offline mode...it works perfect for me....

Look Steam is great for me. Have any of you ever thought the reason why we have long load times and such is for one simple fact:
It was the first game EVER released on steam.

Take a look at WoW, IT even had an extremely big rocky start.

Overtime developers such as Valve and Blizzard will begin to tune up there systems so releases turn out better. You can't do something right away on your first try and expect it to be down right amazing.

On top of that, the very sales figures you posted speak for the fact that the average consumer does NOT see Steam as the way ahead. Even I like to have something more tangible in my hand when I purchase something, and I conceded the convenience of this feature of Steam in my post.

Think of it like this:
Retail: $7
Steam: $35.
In the future as Steam based systems become more popular and more people start using them..... if 1 out of every 5 people bought off of steam... they would make the same money as they would through retail store.

Not to mention the people without net access, or those with dial-up (they still exist, although their numbers are dwindling) who actually read the requirements and decided it wasn't worth the hassle.

WTF do you know? I USE DIAL UP. Steam IS NOT A HASSLE FOR ME.




Look I keep hearing "The game took forever to install". "It dosn't help piracy". "bla bla bla bla bla".

Well guess what? When some brand new technology comes out that changes the way you buy things and such... do you expect it to be perfect the first time? I don't. I don't expect it to be anywhere near perfect the first time a game gets released on steam. Why can't anyone else see that? Yes it took a long time to install, and no I cannot change that. Does this Valve wont learn how to get those timings shorter? how to stream line it all better? Steam is fairly new, ecspecially when it comes to releasing full-out 4gig+ games to tons of people world wide.
God.....some people just don't relize that shit isn't always bug free right away.

The more games that get released on steam...the more it will change..


Oh btw, you can disable updates and play offline. If you can't... thats just sad..