Funny how everyone loves Steam now...

Rememeber when Steam use to be absolutely hated??? Funny how things change... Steam has definitely had a ruff start in the eyes of PC gamers, but wow look how far it has come. I just think its funny how Steam has gone from hated to coveted by PC gamers. I have to admit I am one of the converted. I use to hate steam with a passion andnow I absolutely love it!! IMO steam is a next chapter in PC gaming and a huge plus for our platform. It is a staple of PC gaming when you look at the % of PC game sales.

Any old schoolers sticking with the hate on steam these days?

Now the other online retailers despise steam hehehe. Think steam owns like 80% of the market for buying games online. Hard to compete with a company that sells games for 2 dollars.

Cheap prices, constant sales and a huge library of games avaliable. What is there to hate?

I'm an early adopter, of most things really, I never got the "hate" it always seemed like an amazing idea to me. Now, if only I would invest in these things, so far I've called Steam/Netflix/Google.

Steam's a lot more stable, which helps it in our opinions :P

Steam is great for online purchasing. I like harcopies, but with deals like these how can I ignore it :P.

Ha ha dude, google???? You could of bought your favorite sports team if you invested early in that.

Its so true tho. Back in the day it was popular to hate on steam. Everyone took turns kicking it lol. It just came as an annoyance when steam came about and just took some time to get use to and now were like YAY1!!!!

I don't remember any "hate" for steam. It had a few launch problems, but when those got sorted out it was fine.

I dislike Steam more and more. Their prices for Europe are insane and it only gets worse. For the last couple of sales I begged foreigners to trade games with me. It's a bit embarassing, but better than paying 200% more.

Today I'd like to buy BC2 and PoP 2010, but I won't because they're way too expensive compared to what the rest of the world is paying and frankly, I'm tired of asking people to help me get better deals.

The other digital stores aren't much better. They have tons of stupid restrictions.

I'm treated like **** just for living on the other side of the ocean :/ I thought digital distribution was supposed to bring fairness and advantages to everybody?

I thought digital distribution was supposed to bring fairness and advantages to everybody?

Baranga

Yeah? Who said that?

The only thing I see someone hating about it, including myself, is when it doesn't work. Even aside from the recent problem I had with it, which is solved now, it's still a great platform to have. And yeah, with the killer deals recently it's no wonder its gaining more attention.

Depends, I was an early adopter of STEAM (as of 2004, so I suppose it is considered "early")

Back then it was alot more simple, the store was not up and running if I remember correctly, just the most basic steam funktions.

back then those who disliked Steam was of a... paranoid nature. Alot of the complaints back then was about the "big brother" notion, not the service itself. And thier dislike of a controlling program for games (for reference see: DRM)

it did have more errors back then, a decent amount of bugs that needed squishing, but not more then anything else back then.

So I think that it was most likely a very vocal minority back then, and alot of us who looked at it with skeptical eyes, as for how useful it would me.

Glad to say that Valve did whatthey promised, I consider Steam to be the most essencial program for gamers who play on thier PC.

I dislike Steam more and more. Their prices for Europe are insane and it only gets worse. For the last couple of sales I begged foreigners to trade games with me. It's a bit embarassing, but better than paying 200% more.

Today I'd like to buy BC2 and PoP 2010, but I won't because they're way too expensive compared to what the rest of the world is paying and frankly, I'm tired of asking people to help me get better deals.

The other digital stores aren't much better. They have tons of stupid restrictions.

I'm treated like **** just for living on the other side of the ocean :/ I thought digital distribution was supposed to bring fairness and advantages to everybody?

Baranga

it's still cheaper than hard copy retail there though right? THAT'S the point...it's not about being equal and fair throughout the world, it's just about being cheaper than hardcopies and retail stores in that area

I still don't like steam now. I have steam games and have bought games in steam, but I absolutely hate the useless DRM. Steam has to be running for me to play my games that I bought? It's not like people can't crack steam games, so why have the useless DRM?

I still don't like steam now. I have steam games and have bought games in steam, but I absolutely hate the useless DRM. Steam has to be running for me to play my games that I bought? It's not like people can't crack steam games, so why have the useless DRM?

SF_KiLLaMaN

is it really that big of a deal to have it running though? i mean i launch all my games from steam so it's already running then anyway...this doesn't bother me at all

I dislike Steam more and more. Their prices for Europe are insane and it only gets worse. For the last couple of sales I begged foreigners to trade games with me. It's a bit embarassing, but better than paying 200% more.

Today I'd like to buy BC2 and PoP 2010, but I won't because they're way too expensive compared to what the rest of the world is paying and frankly, I'm tired of asking people to help me get better deals.

The other digital stores aren't much better. They have tons of stupid restrictions.

I'm treated like **** just for living on the other side of the ocean :/ I thought digital distribution was supposed to bring fairness and advantages to everybody?

Baranga

europe? i live in the uk and the deals are pretty much the same ( i think they ARE the same) and amazing?

funny how everyone always loved steam :P

well, not everyone...there was a teeny tiny amount of people that prefer hard copies over digital copies, but even the Old Guard of PC Gamers have been converted due to low low prices, an awesome library, and outstanding service.

Steam is freaking epic

I've never hated Steam.

[QUOTE="Baranga"]

I dislike Steam more and more. Their prices for Europe are insane and it only gets worse. For the last couple of sales I begged foreigners to trade games with me. It's a bit embarassing, but better than paying 200% more.

Today I'd like to buy BC2 and PoP 2010, but I won't because they're way too expensive compared to what the rest of the world is paying and frankly, I'm tired of asking people to help me get better deals.

The other digital stores aren't much better. They have tons of stupid restrictions.

I'm treated like **** just for living on the other side of the ocean :/ I thought digital distribution was supposed to bring fairness and advantages to everybody?

CDUB316

it's still cheaper than hard copy retail there though right? THAT'S the point...it's not about being equal and fair throughout the world, it's just about being cheaper than hardcopies and retail stores in that area

Most of the time it's not... As far as I noticed Steam games are 1/3 more expensive than retail games.

Still, I'd have to be insane to pay 18 dollars for BC2 when Americans pay less than 7. As if the costs to operate the European servers are three times higher or something! We're simply screwed over by publishers and Valve because we're a bigger PC market than USA.

europe? i live in the uk and the deals are pretty much the same ( i think they ARE the same) and amazing?

firefluff3

They're not, the UK has a separate business model from continental Europe. You pay 11 dollars for BC2 (almost twice as much) and 12 for Prince of Persia. Still better than 5 dollars = 15 Euros... An American will buy both games for the price you pay for one.

Just add a ?cc=us at the end of a Steam url to check out the prices. Replace us with uk and eu to check the other regions.

[QUOTE="firefluff3"]

europe? i live in the uk and the deals are pretty much the same ( i think they ARE the same) and amazing?

Baranga

They're not, the UK has a separate business model from continental Europe. You pay 11 dollars for BC2 (almost twice as much) and 12 for Prince of Persia. Still better than 5 dollars = 15 Euros... An American will buy both games for the price you pay for one.

Just add a ?cc=us at the end of a Steam url to check out the prices. Replace us with uk and eu to check the other regions.

Not PC related, but I saw MadWorld for Wii at €40 in Germany and it sells in the UK for £5... Shocking

Never hated steam...just hated PC gaming in general

but steam and it's massive sales has made me get into PC gaming

I don't love and like Steam at all. :) It's better to have the hard copy of the game. You should never forget it. Especially if it has something interesting inside (like maps, heroes figures etc.). Also I will prefer to buy the copy of the game directly from the developer. :)Happy_Dream

yep, steam is good for your health now

Steam rox

Cheap prices, constant sales and a huge library of games avaliable. What is there to hate?

marcogamer07

I don't remember any "hate" for steam. It had a few launch problems, but when those got sorted out it was fine.

JangoWuzHere

Really? I remember Half-Life 2 shipping with Steam and requiring it to play. People were flipping out.

[QUOTE="JangoWuzHere"]

I don't remember any "hate" for steam. It had a few launch problems, but when those got sorted out it was fine.

RearNakedChoke

Really? I remember Half-Life 2 shipping with Steam and requiring it to play. People were flipping out.

Yes, it was like MW2 and no dedicated servers....

When people found out you needed to have internet/steam to activate and play HL2, the world went crazy....

And RearNakedChoke.... DARE I ASK where you got that name from...?

I dislike Steam more and more. Their prices for Europe are insane and it only gets worse. For the last couple of sales I begged foreigners to trade games with me. It's a bit embarassing, but better than paying 200% more.

Today I'd like to buy BC2 and PoP 2010, but I won't because they're way too expensive compared to what the rest of the world is paying and frankly, I'm tired of asking people to help me get better deals.

The other digital stores aren't much better. They have tons of stupid restrictions.

I'm treated like **** just for living on the other side of the ocean :/ I thought digital distribution was supposed to bring fairness and advantages to everybody?Baranga

This is not a Steam issue. Steam doesn't directly control the prices, each individual publisher/developer does. Some developers have lower European prices to compensate - Valve itself does it. EA and Ubisoft seem to be the most uptight regarding Euro prices, although it's interesting to note that Prince of Persia is $4,99 / 3,74€. So it's not all bad.

Valve complete is 50 dollars and 50 Euros:(

I know publishers set the prices, which makes it even weirder since they started screwing Europeans just two years ago.

The only europeans they dont rip on are people from UK.

Apart from that i love it!

I have never hated steam......

Valve complete is 50 dollars and 50 Euros:(

I know publishers set the prices, which makes it even weirder since they started screwing Europeans just two years ago.

Baranga

Alright, but the individual game prices are all lower. I don't worry about it too much. Everything is cheaper in America, that's just one of the reasons everyone hates them. :P

If I deem it a good deal, I buy.

Valve complete is 50 dollars and 50 Euros:(

I know publishers set the prices, which makes it even weirder since they started screwing Europeans just two years ago.

Baranga

The only europeans they dont rip on are people from UK.

Apart from that i love it!

thespywholied

[QUOTE="SF_KiLLaMaN"]

I still don't like steam now. I have steam games and have bought games in steam, but I absolutely hate the useless DRM. Steam has to be running for me to play my games that I bought? It's not like people can't crack steam games, so why have the useless DRM?

CDUB316

is it really that big of a deal to have it running though? i mean i launch all my games from steam so it's already running then anyway...this doesn't bother me at all

Yea, I don't mind it running at all. I like to see if my friends are on and I always like to see if there are any deals on games for the day with a click of the button. I enjoy having the steam program running. Features like instant messaging a friend while playing a game and notices of when your friends enter another game. I like features like that.

[QUOTE="CDUB316"]

[QUOTE="SF_KiLLaMaN"]

I still don't like steam now. I have steam games and have bought games in steam, but I absolutely hate the useless DRM. Steam has to be running for me to play my games that I bought? It's not like people can't crack steam games, so why have the useless DRM?

Jermone123

is it really that big of a deal to have it running though? i mean i launch all my games from steam so it's already running then anyway...this doesn't bother me at all

Yea, I don't mind it running at all. I like to see if my friends are on and I always like to see if there are any deals on games for the day with a click of the button. I enjoy having the steam program running. Features like instant messaging a friend while playing a game and notices of when your friends enter another game. I like features like that.

Rememeber when Steam use to be absolutely hated?

Jermone123

Not really. I've been around since the start of Steam and I don't really remember any point where it was 'absolutely hated'. The only difference I see now is that more people are warmed up to it than ever.

It's silly complaining about Steam's DRM and that you "have to have Steam running just to play games". Why? Steam uses less system resources than Firefox most of the time, not to mention all the other useless programs Windows will have running in the background. Steam is the least of your worries.