So who else had trouble with steam?

[impgrinder]

At first, I didnt get what steam was and why I had to struggle with that thing when I just wanted to play whatever came in the HL2 package.
I started freaking out when I thought, I may never get to play half life 2. I signed up for the steam forums to ask for help on their forums, but my account still has not been activated . And it was all very frustrating.

After hours of trying, having the steam program freeze my PC, it finally started working for me. A complete miracle Id say. I finally got HL2 to work. And now, I just play HL2 in offline mode.
I hope future games (Especially HL2 games) have nothing to do with steam and I just hope steam does something for all the users who are struggling with it. No one should have to cough up money for a game only to find they need to go to hell and back to get it to work.

No thanks Steam, I dont need every update on the game and I am not even interested in playing the multiplayer version online...and I sure as hell dont need by the minute updates on every thing steam does.

So, lets hear your stories. :sniper:

 

[bigburpco]

Let's see; did you attempt to read up on what Steam was and what you needed to do to set it up?

Because as it is, it's already user-friendly, much more then 2 years ago.

 

[impgrinder]

Well, on the way back home from the store, I was rabidly salivating all over the Half Life 2 package thinking "all I have to do is install this baby and Im good to go". The guy at the store did mention "steam" saying that I need an internet connection to get this to work and I was like "ok, no problem" because I was connected to the net both at home and at work.
I was able to install the game without any hassles. The part about using steam kinda confused me a bit, because when this steam thing came up, asking me to sign up and stuff, it all went good, but when I tried to get Half Life 2 to start, by clicking on "start game" at the main interface, the Steam interface opened up and there I was looking at a list of updates in progress and ads for games. Absolutely clueless at this point.

The thing is, Ive never used steam before and I had no idea what it was. I assumed Id just have to make that one stop with steam just to get some formalities done with. I simply did not expect steam to be such a pain.
It was frustrating because I had already bought the game and all I wanted to do was blow stuff up and save the world ... but instead, there I was having to put up with all of this. The fine people at Valve and Steam need to realize that steam should be an optional feature, only for users who are interested in it. They shouldnt really be forcing every customer to go through steam to get games to work. Because not every one has the know how or the patience to keep up with what drivers to install or what thingy to upgrade etc. in order to get steam to get HL2 to work.

The steam forums at steampowered.com is full of people who were having trouble with steam. Some even complained that Steam did nothing to help them out. Reading all of that before I even saw the first level, was a bit of a downer, for me.

I personally want games to be simple to install. I dont mind getting hopelessly stuck in a level for aeons or getting my butt handed to me by the games bosses 200 times in a row, I can always figure out a way to solve it, but when something like steam, ruins the gamers experience, its a different kind of a problem.

IMO, Steam definitely came across as an unnecassary middle man that complicated matters for fans.

 

[bigburpco]

It's worth it IMO. Not going to retail, preloading, being able to play immediately once a game is out... plus patches. You'll get used to it eventually.

 

[TaoFan]

Yes, Steam is a lifesaver when it comes to patches, as it updates the games automatically for you.

I remember in the olden days of HL1, having to get the latest patches from PC magazine CDs or the internet (56k connection) just to be able to play online, and some of those update files were HUGE, AND you had to get exactly the right version number or risk screwing up your entire HL1 folder.

Steam does all that for me, and I'm happy. And I love the idea of d/l'ing a whole game on Broadband with just my debit card and have it ready to play after just a few hours, maybe more - instead of traipsing down to the centre of town on a cold rainy day. Eh?

 

[$kelet0r]

So who else had trouble with steam?

constantly - it's a pain only for people without constant broadband which is why the people with a fast 24/7 connection are bewildered when others have problems with it

 

[bigburpco]

Which is why I love it!

Another plus point; keeps things organized and you won't have to look everywhere for that CD.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Most people install steam, make an account, register their game, it updates automatically, you click 'my games' and Halflife 2 and you are playing. A monkey could work that out. Many other people get driver problems (as they don't update them or their direct x), or internet issues connected to firewalls blocking Steam. It really has simplified gaming & updating games. There are literally hundreds of thousands who have no problems. Steam is well established now, and this community stands by it, as it was the first of it's kind & way ahead of the competition It's a shame your experience with it has been negative, and had tainted your opinion of it. You're missing out big time.

 

[Shifty]

They shouldnt really be forcing every customer to go through steam to get games to work. Because not every one has the know how or the patience to keep up with what drivers to install or what thingy to upgrade etc. in order to get steam to get HL2 to work.

Yes but how would steam then get the money to run for the people that DO like it? Most people have found out about steam not by reading about it in forums and stuff, but the same way you did. Except they were able to use it. If steam made it a choice to install thier program, people would see it as just a dumb ad and say no. Then, steam would run out of money, and people would never be able to use it! Sure steam is sometimes a pain in the butt, but more times it helps tremendosly, giving it the popular vote.

 

[impgrinder]

point.
But I, like most people who have bought HL2, Would worry more about the game I bought not working on my PC, than steam not making money. A bit selfish,. I know, but what the heck...steam wouldnt lose any sleep over a few poor users who are facing problems with it. :E

Note to mods - I accidently double posted. Can this post be deleted? Sorry and thanks in advance.

 

[impgrinder]

point.
But I, like most people who have bought HL2, Would worry more about the game I bought not working on my PC, than steam not making money. A bit selfish,. I know, but what the heck...steam wouldnt lose any sleep over a few poor users who are facing problems with it. :E

 

[586FAC75]

As long as my internet connection is working (fecking Sky...) I have no problems with Steam at all, I find it a nice little management tool for all my HL games.

 

[AJ Rimmer]

Point of interest; Steam does not make money, Valve does. Steam is just a piece of software. A rather nifty piece of software imho.

 

[TaoFan]

I think ImpGrinder is coming from the Doom 3 camp, considering his avatar. There, there is no Steam and such stuff. Maybe he didn't expect such a system for what seemed to him just another game.

 

[Jintor]

I love Steam. It's like a PC games store in my house.

That's what I'd be saying if a) i had a credit card and b) i had monies. But I still like it quite a lot. Makes it easy to patch, get trailers etc... if they bother to release them on Steam. Put the awesome hires Portal trailers on Steam, guys!

 

[impgrinder]

I think ImpGrinder is coming from the Doom 3 camp, considering his avatar. There, there is no Steam and such stuff. Maybe he didn't expect such a system for what seemed to him just another game.

I am from the doom 3 camp.:E

I did play HL1 and CS a long time back, without steam. So playing HL2 now through steam was a bit of a surprise for me. I didnt mind at first, but when I was unable to start up the game, thats when the troubles started.
Oh well, all that matters now is that HL2s working for me. I was up till 4 am last night playing it. :naughty:

 

[Xendance]

I like it alot now since I found my Steam information 2 years after I played Half Life 2 for the first time.

 

[panda_rage]

No, never. In fact I make most of my pc game's purchases over steam nowdays.

 

[Naudian]

That sucks you had trouble with Steam, but now that it's working I'm sure you'll warm up to it.

Oh well, all that matters now is that HL2s working for me. I was up till 4 am last night playing it.

HL2 is weird that way, you can keep playing and playing and completely lose sense of the time. I stayed up till 5AM when I first beat it, and when I finished it I was like "Oh yeah, time! With the clocks and the sleep and stuff!"

 

[Polaris]

I never had a problem with Steam, but my friend have still problems with installations of games...

 

[Operational]

The worst thing about steam is: "Offline Mode". Spoiled many a LANning session by not working.

Also you really do need a broadband connection since there is no way to refuse updates to games and you can't play without the latest update and some of those updates are large. I don't mind that much since I've got broadband and my ISP is a content server for Valve so I get unquotered downloads from the content servers but still.

 

[Ennui]

Whenever someone whines about Steam to me (which is a lot, because 95 random noobs who get my AIM from this forum message me daily. I'm not talking to any of you lovepots, just the anonymous ones) it's almost always for some inane reason, and I hope most of you echo my response:

RTFM NOOB

 

[Operational]

That might work for a lot of "problems" people have with steam. But offline mode is a problem a lot of people have and its not because they arn't doing it right - sometimes it just doesn't work.

I also don't like how controlling it can be a times. Take a look at this guy
http://www.halflife2.net/forums/showthread.php?t=116568
I mean even if he installs it from the DVD he still will have to download the updates. He really doesn't have to install the updates to play the game but steam will force him to get the updates and he will probably never end up playing the game because of it.

Take another example. Today I was in the SteamApps folder and found "The Ship.gcf". I use my laptop as my primary PC and as such don't have that much hard drive space and I find 1.5GB of The Ship data left over from the free weekend. Makes me wonder if there is anything else in there wasting hard drive space.

Now don't get me wrong I do like Steam but its not the be all and end all - there is something to be said for the do-it-yourself methods other games use.