More Erik Chat (steam, videos, etc.)

[Mr.Reak]

Well guys, you are talking about Steam, like Valve is MAKING you use it and nothing else. It's where freedom of choice comes in. Some people so lazy, they don't want to drive to the store, so they will get it from Steam, plus it is much faster (I got HL1 in 1 min and started to play it without any problems).

 

[Fuzzy]

Originally posted by Llevar
One thing I don't like about the whole steam thing is that ISP's have download caps and you have to pay for extra bandwidth. If there are constant big updates it will cost us in ISP fees.

Exactly, here in Australia we dont have the luxury of 50 buck unlimited cable for the entire population. Most people have dial-up while us more game oriented people pay huge amounts to get decent speed ADSL. This ADSL is heavily capped, as in 1-2 gigs a month at 256k will cost u 60-70 AUS bucks. So i hope that the people using STEAM dont get huge advantages over us retail bought people. I am happy to download updates and such but i cant have it constantly downloading, i need to schedule them for off peak.

Fuzzy

 

[NeoGlyphix]

I am glad that I have 40 dollar unlimited cable....=P

 

[DimitriPopov]

I have cable too , its a WELL worth it purchase for anyone its available too , you dont even worry about the internet anymore.

Steam has the ability , as well as programs like it to significantly decrease the price of games. No published decreases the cost of bringing the game to the public and that means they can get the same profit for charging less. Good news for everyone.

 

[Apos]

Thats not exactly true... if your like me you live in the middle of nowhere, and your still using phone lines from 1930 and you can't even get cable because there are no cable lines.... And as someone said early i like to have something solid for my 50/60 bucks I have no intention to pirate the game... for one i'd have to download it to do so, and im not a patient person so waiting 30 hours for my download ware to complete isn't worth my time when i could drive 10 minutes to the store and get brig it home pop in the disc and then go

Uh.... so just buy it at the store? Steam requires broadband.

Exactly, here in Australia we dont have the luxury of 50 buck unlimited cable for the entire population. Most people have dial-up while us more game oriented people pay huge amounts to get decent speed ADSL. This ADSL is heavily capped, as in 1-2 gigs a month at 256k will cost u 60-70 AUS bucks. So i hope that the people using STEAM dont get huge advantages over us retail bought people. I am happy to download updates and such but i cant have it constantly downloading, i need to schedule them for off peak.

Uh... so just don't enable the constant updating feature?

 

[Massif]

I wasn't even thinking about the monthly limits. My ISP has combined upload/download limit of 10gigs. That seems like a lot, but if HL2 is constantly downloading it could build up.

Also I do agree that forcing people to be online while playing would slightly inconvenience people when their internet goes down, but if lightning strikes your house isn't your power likely to go out as well? No power, no computer at all

Also, it's the only way to stop people from letting their friends use their accounts so they can all play it. Yes, burning CDs gives the same problem, but there are countermeasures to stop people from burning CDs. The difference is, the Steam countermeasure will actually work!

As for Steam specific content, I really hate it when developers do things like that to encourage people. I always get the short end of the stick. I think if the Steam version has a lower price, that would be enough incentive.

I just had a thought. Lets say lots of people buy HL2 on Steam, but then for some reason (I can't think of a good one) the whole Steam concept gets scrapped. Those people would be out of luck, no? Unless of course there's some kind of refund policy.

 

[Lex Talionis]

Originally posted by Llevar
It'd be kinda cool if Steam only donwloaded the parts of the game that you need. Like when you first download it it will get the engine and the hazard course and while you play hazard course it would download the first chapter and so on. This way you won't have to wait for a gig sized download to complete before you could play.

That’s how Half-life works now on steam. I thought I'd play through Half-life again (on hard this time) just refresh my memory of the whole story. There is the initial download of Half-life to start with, then as you work through the game it downloads a level when needed, which took about 25 seconds each time.

 

[Apos]

No, it doesn't download levels each time. The "loading" thing is how original HL works.

The "updates" steam downloads are bugfixes and such.

 

[Epsi]

It also doesn't download the whole thing to start with.

The phrase Steam 1.0 used for the initial download was "Minimum footprint" i.e. the absolute minimum to get the game to launch and to get a game going.

So, in the case of Half-Life, the minimum footprint would probably be the engine and essential components, + the first few maps and textures, and as you play through it it downloads the content it needs.

For example, it's totally pointless to have the last levels with the G-Man's speech when you first load the game.

So the slightly longer loading pauses going between levels sometimes when you're playing Half-Life on Steam are when it realises you haven't quite got all the resources you need and it quickly downloads them.

 

[dscowboy]

a couple thoughts

There's been a lot of posts on this subject but a few things nobody's brought up. Think about it from Valve's perspective: Printing manuals, pressing discs, assembling boxes, shipping, paying retailers, etc is a lot of money, all of which is eaten by the publisher, along with publishing fees. If Valve sees 10 bucks per box sold, I'd be surprised.
Through Steam, Valve takes all the money. They could sell it for fifteen bucks on Steam and still make more money than through retail! I don't know what kind of price discount Valve is going to give, but don't be surprised if it's considerably cheaper over Steam.
The other thing is, depending on Valve/Sierra's agreements with the retailers, HL2 may appear on Steam days before it appears in stores. In fact, other than the fact it would piss off retailers, there's no reason not to release HL2 on Steam the day it goes gold. People who bought it on Steam would get it a full week or more ahead of people who waited for discs to get pressed and shipped.
So wait until you find out what the whole deal is before you decide which way you're going to buy it. If the Steam-delivered version is cheaper and it comes out sooner, hell yes I'm going to buy it from Steam. A few weeks later when the retail version goes down in price and is easier to find, I'll probably go to the store and buy a box too.

 

[Apos]

So the slightly longer loading pauses going between levels sometimes when you're playing Half-Life on Steam are when it realises you haven't quite got all the resources you need and it quickly downloads them.

Uh, no. It downloads the entire game.

 

[jhero]

Really? I thought it was only in chunks...

 

[droper]

i guaranty they will change having to be connected shit. it makes no sence first of all(eg lan play) and the products functionality dependent on outside companies(ISP). The point of this is to get people to use steam rather then buy boxes but the way its setup it seems to have lots of detractors rather then attractors.

attractive qualities
-download where ever whenever(though 2 or 3 cd downloads are not fun and with box cds its 5 min or less install.)

*other then that i see no real benifits worth mentioning

unattractive
-huge download takes lots of time and bandwidth dependent.
-not portable to isolated computers.
-can't run without internet connection.
-lan play (unknown).
-install time with cds will be 5min or less compared with hours.
-no hard copy.


I think it all comes down to hl2 being a big multiplayer game which it will be which will make this trade off more valid, but still not a better choice then cd hardcopy by any means.