Why People Hate Steam

oldagerocker

oldagerocker

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Now, firstly i want to state my own opinion and set it aside, I think Steam is a good thing.

Thats over and done with, il get on with my point... i jsut noticed some 'hate steam/valve' threads that have been closed and these people seem to hate steam, the platform that means they can play Half-life2 on midnight the day it's released, with constant updates etc.

But these people all seem to call it 'buggy', there are no bugs in steam, i've been using it since the beta on two different computers and from the huge amount of hugs that were there on first release, now it's almost perfect.

I have a feeling that the guys that hate steam only dislike it because of it's 'blocky' look, there are no rounded corners (i know there are in the cs beta) and the skins are bland and dull. People don't like looking at ugly things and steam is ugly, although function, plain ugly.

If the program was something with lots of colour and roundness and flashing bits, i think there would be far less complaints against it. Afterall, the people hating steam dont complain about gamespy or other flashy, spam/advertising filled programs.
Just a thought i wanted to jot down, what does everyone else think?
 
only thing that bugs me about steam is the friends service is RARELY up. its very annoying.

other than that you can use custom skins for steam to make it look better. people just don't like change
 
I like Steam's default skin. It's not spammed to death with flashing crap everywhere like some other interfaces... xfire for example, original skin = good, new one = omg.

The reason I don't like steam is the constant errors I get, with no explanation on how to fix it (and no, it's not my comp..) Also 'Friends' almost never works :(
 
What kinda constant errors?

And I've found Friends to be a bit more reliable recently, I actually managed to have a conversation with it!
 
I like steam i think its very useful, specially how it updates by itself instead of you needing to go to a website to find the latest patch. WON was good but steam is the next generation and is well welcomed on my behalf
 
Alright. My beef with steam...

1) Bugs: Now, this is a very minor one, because I too have encountered few bugs. None the less, steam is sadly no improvement on the old Counter-Strike server sorting. Still, 70% of the time, I CANNOT JOIN A SERVER. To be fair, I'm sure a a good 30% of those are server and ISP problems, not steam, but still, it can be extremely frustrating.

2) Accessibility: For mods and mod makers (me included) steam can be SUCH a bitch, especially for map making. Now you have to use ten other tools and stuff just to get your maps working. Plus, mods like Sven Coop have problems using Half-life singleplayer and such.

3) Control: The reason why steam was made is a combination of many things, like piracy and such, but is mainly this...

Lombardi: Hey Gabe, our HL1 multiplayer numbers are dropping, as much as 60%!?

Gabe: What? Why?

Lombardi: Well, there's this little phenomenon called Counter-strike that is taking server by storm! Nearly 100,000 people are playing at any one second!

Gabe: Great! Er... are we making any money on this...?

Lombardi: Nope! It's Free!

Gabe: D'oh!

Valve wants to never make THAT mistake again. If only they had a program that gave them greater control over mods, they wouldn't have lost potential millions in sales. By making a program in which every mod can be easily shut down or frozen, Valve is taking a big step towards ultimatelyt making you pay for mods. Now this may not happen in the near future, but it will happen.

4) Complete doom: Okay, so all of your games are tied to an account on steam. If you **** up and lose the password, or some error occurs, you are nearly completely screwed. Eventially you will have to purchase ALL games through steam, making this even a bigger nightmare.

5) Trust: The potential for spyware or malicious hacker attacks on steam servers is even more scary. What if a hacker managed to get a virus in the system that affected ALL steam accounts? You start downloading a supposed "update" automatically and get your hard drive wiped.

These reasons are why I absolutely despise steam.
 
2) Accessibility: For mods and mod makers (me included) steam can be SUCH a bitch, especially for map making. Now you have to use ten other tools and stuff just to get your maps working. Plus, mods like Sven Coop have problems using Half-life singleplayer and such.
Click to expand...

It's a bitch at first, but as soon as you have everything setup, everything's fine. I map with Steam, and it's just as easy as when using the old Half-Life installation. If you need help setting up with Steam, I can always help if you want. :)

Cyperious said:
3) Control: The reason why steam was made is a combination of many things, like piracy and such, but is mainly this...

Lombardi: Hey Gabe, our HL1 multiplayer numbers are dropping, as much as 60%!?

Gabe: What? Why?

Lombardi: Well, there's this little phenomenon called Counter-strike that is taking server by storm! Nearly 100,000 people are playing at any one second!

Gabe: Great! Er... are we making any money on this...?

Lombardi: Nope! It's Free!

Gabe: D'oh!

Valve wants to never make THAT mistake again. If only they had a program that gave them greater control over mods, they wouldn't have lost potential millions in sales. By making a program in which every mod can be easily shut down or frozen, Valve is taking a big step towards ultimatelyt making you pay for mods. Now this may not happen in the near future, but it will happen.
Click to expand...

But Valve WAS making money off of Counter-Strike's success. even before they snatched it up, you couldn't play CS without Half-Life because it was a free mod. So, if you wanted to play Counter-Strike, you needed to buy Half-Life. The rest of that paragraph just seems like pure paranoia. Why would Valve even want to "shut down" or freeze a mod? Why would they make you pay for a mod, when it would be illegal to do so unless the developers of the mod let them do it? That's just ludicrous. Valve have a large reputation for being incredibly supportive of the mod community, and realise that it was the mod community that kept Half-Life alive. They would never do anything to break that trust, ESPECIALLY something as stupid as "freezing" mods and making you pay for something they didn't even make.

4) Complete doom: Okay, so all of your games are tied to an account on steam. If you **** up and lose the password, or some error occurs, you are nearly completely screwed. Eventially you will have to purchase ALL games through steam, making this even a bigger nightmare.

5) Trust: The potential for spyware or malicious hacker attacks on steam servers is even more scary. What if a hacker managed to get a virus in the system that affected ALL steam accounts? You start downloading a supposed "update" automatically and get your hard drive wiped.

These reasons are why I absolutely despise steam.
Click to expand...

These last two are worst case scenarios, and aren't really valid because they haven't even happened yet. I could say the same sort of thing about buying a heavy book. I mean, it's heavy. It might fall off a shelf and onto someone's head, giving them brain damage. Books suck!
 
The only "bug" I've encountered with it was when trying to play games on Windows Server 2003. It doesn't work :(

After I installed XP on the same comp, it works fine.

As for my personal computer, I have never had problems with it. :thumbs: So I love it!
 
Steam has always performed well for me, but I do not use it very often. Can't really comment beyond that... I maybe fire up Steam once a month now if I'm lucky. Ran it for a while with Natural Selection, then dropped out of that.
 
I like Steam alot, I only found my old HL cd key days before the WON keys were rendered useless so I registered it with Steam and got all the games and i am having aloy of fun wif it. There is One major bummer though...... Offline Mode. There should be a whole different Offline.exe file because I do not have Net at Home so I cannnot go on to Login to Steam and then Logout to have Offline mode accessable. Im a little peeved because im so close to passing Opposing Force.
 
Any .exe file you download from the internet could potentially wipe your hard-disc. What if someone hacked say... Fileplanet? What if you downloaded in the olden days downloaded a patch from a mirror, and someone had slipped a little virus into the exe along with the update? Any program you let access the internet could have a backdoor that could install pretty much anything on your computer without your knowledge.

If you're paranoid enough to not trust Steam, then I think the first steps you should take to keep your computer secure should be unplugging it from the net right now, locking it in a safe, then putting it under armed guard.
 
Hungry_Gamer said:
I like Steam alot, I only found my old HL cd key days before the WON keys were rendered useless so I registered it with Steam and got all the games and i am having aloy of fun wif it. There is One major bummer though...... Offline Mode. There should be a whole different Offline.exe file because I do not have Net at Home so I cannnot go on to Login to Steam and then Logout to have Offline mode accessable. Im a little peeved because im so close to passing Opposing Force.
Click to expand...

Dude, all you've got to do is load it up, and when it says you can't connect, trhere are two options: "retry connection", and "offline mode". :)
 
KagePrototype said:
Dude, all you've got to do is load it up, and when it says you can't connect, trhere are two options: "retry connection", and "offline mode". :)
Click to expand...

you have to sign in first to get the account your going offline into... i think he means that he can't create an account in the first place on his other pc.
 
oldagerocker said:
you have to sign in first to get the account your going offline into... i think he means that he can't create an account in the first place on his other pc.
Click to expand...

Oh, that makes sense then. I wonder if he contacted Valve about it at all...
 
steam is a GOOD thing,

1)no 15 popups everytime you log on
2)its simple and straight to the point
3)does its job well
4)all your favo(u)rite games accessible in one program!
5)no flashing banners everywhere
6)doesnt want you to pay stupid amounts of money to make the program do what its supposed to do properly
7) updates are quick and easy to obtain
8) friends service is useful (when it's on)
9) you can check the servers for each of the games/mods without activating anything
and 10) has a cute lil' icon!
 
oldagerocker said:
But these people all seem to call it 'buggy', there are no bugs in steam, i've been using it since the beta on two different computers and from the huge amount of hugs that were there on first release, now it's almost perfect.
Click to expand...

I'm always happy when Steam manages to launch a game without crashing the entire system (reset switch, here I come). That doesn't happen very often though.

Steam is a steaming pile of shit.
 
Lol..................

Steam has never crashed on me, so NEH!
 
Steam has always crashed on me, on several very different hardware and operating system configurations.
 
Just because it doesn't happen to you doesn't mean that it never happens to anyone.

Different people get different bugs... it's mostly because of different computer specs and the installed software/drivers/registry differences between people's computers.

I know that with certain patches, my Steam games refused to connect to servers, authenticate my SteamID, friends net got all wonky, etc.
 
Whenever I run a Steam game, I'm under constant fear. When is it going to crash? How long do I got? If I click this button, will I have to reset the computer? And so on. Valve should either get their shit together or scrap Steam for good.
 
Cybernoid, if you're complaining so much, why not post them an email about the crashing of your pc...I mean sitting there complaining about it, won't solve it.
 
Cybernoid said:
If I click this button, will I have to reset the computer?
Click to expand...

Reset? Sounds like your using windows 98. You can easily kill a misbehaving steam (or any app) in windows 2000 or XP. My advice, upgrade your OS, win98 is a P.O.S.
 
I actually admire the platform.

However, I've only had one problem with it, it crashes during HL singleplayer

For example, I can't pick up a battery without the game sending me to my desktop with an error message in my face.

Weird, but oh well, maybe it's my configuration or something.

Go, Steam!!
 
Well i think we all can count on steam being a mature platoform now. Being able to handle all theese pre-loads
 
I hate Steam when it doesn't work

I got this "game is unavailable" erroe and ím fed up with that. I asked help from Steam support, but they didn't know the solution to my problem. Steam has bugs and i like the default skin (grey)
 
I got steam a year ago and it was buggy as hell, I had to redownload after every patch because they ***ked it up, but about a month or 2 ago, I got steam again and to my great surprise it was excellant with very few bugs

I think Steam is gr8 now, and cant w8 to play HL2 on it :thumbs:
 
I only got Steam a few months a few months ago. Nice and easy to install and register, and plenty stable for gaming and the like. The only thing that's never worked for me is Friends.
 
The only thing I dislike about Steam is that it sometimes keeps running in the background when I exit and that the filters aren't that great. Too few options and you can only do Add Server in Favorites?
 
People who don't like Steam haven't used in at least two months.
 
I hate Steam...it swindled my parents out of their life savings (and my inhertance.... :( ), it badmouthed me to my boss and lost me my job, and then it got my girlfriend wasted on tequila, took nudie pictures of her and a blindfolded llama and posted them all over the internet!! Damn you steam!! damn you to hell, you may well be the most innovative content delivery system devised by a games company yet, and I might well be tempted to use you to buy Halflife² when it finally comes out (with what's left of my redundancy money) now I have a lot more time on my hands (no woman or job) ...but I'll never forgive you for the evilness that lives with in your twisted black heart. When the time comes steam, and rest assured that day will come...it will be my hand thats on the plug, you hear me steam, you hear me!!
 
When I first had steam, it crashed on me a lot. A LOTTSSTSSkJEl.

What I did was, waited a few days without touching anything steam. The problem seemed to correct itself.
 
The only two problems with steam in my opinion:

1. "Game unavailable", why can't i just start up a game and use one of my favorites when valves servers are down. I don't want to be totally dependant on valves service for all of my favorite games.

2. LAN play. This really needs more work. It's currently really hard to set up LAN servers without any internet connection. 3 previous LAN games i went to had to rely on cs 1.6 for competition.

Aside from that, I like it :p
 
I use Steam only out of neccesity. I just don't like it

- It still has an unintuitive interface. Another skin will not fix that problem, they need to completely redesign Steam. Maybe they should take a look at iTunes on how to design an interface
- This relates to above, but I find it unfriendly to use as well. They make it way too difficult to do the stuff you want to do with steam

Its a great idea, but why don't they make it better? It feel so ugly and unintuitive to me.
 
blahblahblah said:
Its a great idea, but why don't they make it better? It feel so ugly and unintuitive to me.
Click to expand...

How so?

Not to sound like some sort of Valve fanboy blindly defending Steam, I'm just curious. :) I personally think, while the play games menu could use a bit of tidying up in the near future (especially with all of these source conversions coming out), that Steam is very user friendly.
 
KagePrototype said:
How so?

Not to sound like some sort of Valve fanboy blindly defending Steam, I'm just curious. :) I personally think, while the play games menu could use a bit of tidying up in the near future (especially with all of these source conversions coming out), that Steam is very user friendly.
Click to expand...

You know how some programs just have *that* extra thing to it that makes it special? Well, steam doesn't have *that* extra thing.

Download iTunes and compare that to Windows Media Player. iTunes puts WMP to shame. Its not because of features or the style, its how intuitive it is to do stuff in iTunes.

Let me load up steam and point out some problems, I have with it.

*loads up steam*

1) Pre-loading HL2 was confusing. One time I had a huge banner advertisement, the next time I had none and never got one again. When I decided to preload, it took me 5 minutes to realize I was supposed to double click on the HL2 icon.
2) I hate undocked windows. Make a tidy interface. It drives me insane when I see four or five different windows all over the place. Besides the undocked windows, I then get 4 different things to clutter up my task bar area.
3) The option to buy CS:CZ is still in my play games list. I'm not going to buy CZ today or ever for that matter, why must it take up space in my play games list?

That is a couple of things I don't like about Steam. Steam really needs an overhaul of its interface. Steams competitor, gamespy, imo is much easier and more intuitive to use.
 
ok blahblahblah, if u couldnt figure out how to preload hl2 u are just a nub with computers.. anyways steam is great, people just complain about it because they had to change to it... i was totally glad to change to it and i did it when it was in beta stages and have loved it ever since.. it is extremely sweet to have a friends list and stuff and i dont really have any complaints about steam at all... oh ya and it totally owns gamespy... i had gamespy for like 1 month before i realized it was a freakin spyware installer and i deleted it casue it was just so slow and laggy...

-merc
 
Yeh i kinda like the interface but it could do with improvments.

My biggest gripe is with the undocked windows.
 
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