Avoiding Steam Like The Plague

I despise Steam. I prefer DVDs because I like to actually own a game once I buy it; I like to be able to retain control of my saved games, play from the DVD instead of dealing with an online system that frankly, I don't like very much. Does anyone know how to take a game like Mafia II and bypass installing it through Steam?

Think for most users they probably can download a game really fast, connections are now at that point where downloaded can be as fast as it was to manually install a game in the 90's and early 2000's.

I avoid UPlay, Epic and Origin like plagues.

@lembu90: I haven't tried those. I know there are quite a few similar platforms out there now though.

lol DVDs

use GoG

Fun fact: A Gigabit connection is about twice the speed of the fastest Blu-Ray drive.

I dont like steam either, but I'll admit ive bought proabably 40+ games on it over the last 10-15 years, its getting harder to find PC DVDs, i still have a couple, like black and white 2, my Dawn of war games, c&c 3, company of heroes 2, my physical copy of painkiller doesnt work on the new Windows 10, also my physical zoo tycoon doesnt work either, halo combat evolved still works tho lol

It sucks PC went all in on digital . I actually hate steam, liked it when valve was good, like counter strike 1.6, day of defeat, team fortress, half life, they used to be cool, they went 100% corporate greed. Gaben sold out big time, cs go limiting sprays as microtransactions instead of just letting us use jpegs. Knife skins going for upwards pf 200$.

Dota 2 selling limited edition 500$ skins, then they made that shitty card game artifact littered with microtransaction card packs, they already make more than anyone else in the PC gaming industry, how many yachts does gaben need.

I love Steam personally. It's kind of what converted me to going all digital when buying my games. Back-ups of saves are mostly stored on the cloud but I also back them up on my Google Drive seeing as they don't take up much space at all.

@jeezers:

I remember I hated Steam when Valve first released it.

"wtf is this other program I need to run to play games???"

Of course that was back in the days when I would end the windows explorer task just to get a little more headroom for games.

Now I'm okay with it since it has a ton of quality of life features and computer hardware is overpowered and much less of a pain to deal with.

In the end I really prefer all digital because it's sooooo much easier. Night and day. Now I find myself cursing Nintendo when I have to get up and swap a cartridge in my Switch.

I guess I should also mention that I have taken steps to ensure that I always have all my game data backed up on my server such that I feel comfortable I will never 'lose' any of my games.

I wish I could say that about the countless discs and cartridges I no longer have because I loaned them, sold them, lost them, or broke them.

As for Valve. I've given up hope on them. They are but the company that maintains Steam. I'll be here when they decide to make games that aren't DOTA again.

@speeny: so it is possible to make backup copies of saved games? One thing I don't like about Steam is that it erased my saves on a game I didn't play for a few months.

@agrippina65: Yes, you can back them up directly to your computer. The easiest way is to locate the Steam Cloud & go from there. You'll have to look into it yourself as I don't remember step by step unfortunately but it's a very simple process.

Strange how they're deleted after a few months of not playing the game. Maybe for those games Steam Cloud isn't enabled/supported? I think the Steam Cloud can only take so much as well...maybe it deletes different files if it feels it's getting too full. I wouldn't know though.

At first, I hated Steam because I didn't want to download a program just to continue playing Counter Strike. What was wrong with it before? Then slowly it grew on me, they added so much to the platform that now I can't game without it. Started slowly switching to all Digital and I don't remember the last time I went into EB Games or Best Buy to buy a game anymore. Now I prefer digital, though I do keep game saves backed up. Not gonna lie though, I do miss the midnight launches and waiting in line just to get home an play it. Read the manual or strat guide while waiting for game to install. Good ole days.

Also Steam has started to lack quite a bit during it's sales and it doesn't even make great games anymore. I really wanted Left for Dead 3, but that ain't happening. I also hate having an upwards of 5 diff platforms to play my games now. Everything is too spread out, especially with Epic entering the picture.

Steam will still be my main place to play games. I am guilty of buying Borderlands 3 on Epic games. I ain't waiting 6 months to play a game i've been looking forward to for a while now. Those two can duke it out, i'm still getting my game on release haha.

I get what you mean, I'm old school so I'm right there with you, but games come out in beta and alpha these days, so owning a physcal copy with a broken game on it is pointless, so might as well go digital. If your issue is with online DRM, GOG might be the solution: their games all work offline. They also have Mafia 2 though the current price is outlandish.

@speeny: thanks for the info! I will definitely look into that.

@agrippina65: No worries at all. :)

Man I miss the days when Best Buy would be packed with physical PC games the late 90's and 00s where the best time to be a PC gamer.

And have access to 15 percent (at best) of the big games coming out. This year on PC, I only played DMC5, Sekiro and Resident Evil 2. Not on GOG.

I like owning my games physically, but it's not like I have a choice on PC. Thank god movies and TV shows haven't succumbed to online services.

I would have expected this sort of topic like ten years ago, but physical media for PC hasn't been much of a thing since then. In fact most (if not all) new releases are strictly digital. There may be the occasional physical release, but it's rare and frankly unconventional at this point. If you're on the fence at this point in the game then I recommend either swapping to console and buying physical, or find a new hobby. Otherwise you have to accept digital platforms.

I use Steam from time to time, it is what it is. I vastly prefer GoG. Yet it goes without question one simply has games the other doesn't offer. Not all for the better mind you but is factual_

One main concern with Stream however is they sell games that do not work without hiking for community patches/ mods on shady sites/ links. To me that's a big turn-off. When I buy a product, I expect it to work.

GoG however adds into the files all reliable patches to all-games so will work on all modern P.C. systems. Buying games on Steam can be like buying a broken car. It's why I think they have such a good refund policy. For them it's easier and lazier than fixing all the unworkable games on the store. Which at this point would require a lot of time and money.

Plus as the above have mentioned GoG lets us own what we buy permanently, can put it on a HDD and play anywhere, and offline if chosen. Many Steam fanbois shrug that off as a none issue, but that's none of my business

I use just about every launcher if only I need to. That's about it.

You own none of the games currently in your possession, in physical format.

Disc rot.

You're welcome ;).

P.S : Steam is fine, everything can be backup to your PC, including game installs.

I prefer physical games over downloads. I grew up with the original Nintendo, so physical copies of games are what I am used to and what I will stick with.

For a short time I was preferring digital copies to physical copies, but when Namco Bandai removed Digimon Story Cyber Sleuth from the Playstation store, I shifted back to preferring physical copies. Nowadays, unless it's a PC exclusive or practically only runs on PC, I'm going to buy all my multi-plats on console simply for the physical disk. (Granted I'll still have to update said games but I've never heard of Sony or Microsoft removing update downloads, just full video game and add-on downloads.)

To be honest, your topic counters your own point - or, rather, it shows how your notions have become dated: You don't "own" Mafia 2 just because it's on DVD. And, in fact, you can't use it without a digital platform. This is the norm now - IF you can even find a game on DVD still, it's not really a full offline install in almost any cases. Indeed, your boycott of digital games is basically locking you out of almost all PC games now, so... you're barely giving yourself access to the platform.

Don't get me wrong, I totally get where your mindset is coming from, and used to feel the same way, but it's also not clear that you've thought it through all the way. Games now - even on DVD - use DRM and almost exclusively are actually either just keys to Steam and other digital platforms or half-installs with the rest of the install regulated by requiring file downloads from a digital server. That multi-GB file you have to download as part of a "disc-based" install involves an online server check and such which means your DVD will just be a brick if they ever pull the plug. No better than if a digital store did the same. Conversely, if you lose your DVD you have to buy it again, whereas you won't if you "own" the game through a digital store. I'd argue there are more ways to lose access to your DVD game than a digital game these days*.

If you really want to "own" your game, I would argue GoG is actually a better option than DVD - you'll have more games to choose from and unlike DVD you can avoid online DRM and such schemes.

*of course I'm not referring to retro PC games where the disc predates these concepts - although I've been moving my retro PC library to GoG whenever a title has a good sale. Unlike the disc, GoG makes it easier to play and I can have backups galore anywhere I want if I ever get paranoid

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