[QUOTE="lowe0"][QUOTE="Birdy09"] Steam is ridiculously overated here if anything ever was, yes the deals are good but I just use it to buy games, it never offers any other function thats worthwhile. its just a store to me, with a bad UI and a poor feature set.Birdy09
Huh? Steam is by far the best thing PC gaming has going for it. In one place, you get: Authentication (for Steamworks games) Friends list Voice over IP DLC store On top of that, they're trying to integrate features like a launcher with a controller-friendly interface and one-touch driver updates for common gaming hardware. I love Steam, and if every single game I'm interested in handled everything through Steam, I'd be a lot more interested in PC gaming. I appreciate their efforts to enhance the user experience instead of just accepting the status quo.Authentication? why do I care? I love having to re-use my email to get unlock passwords when switch between my PC and Laptop :roll: even when it shouldnt it still does.
Freinds list? You mean like the million other ones? built into most games, most other gaming software, and normal social software. my freinds list is skype.... I Dont need that intrusive overlay during games.
Voice over IP .... again why would I use that? I have skype.
DLC store? .... joke?
As far as drivers go.... I dont get it, I get immediate alerts of Graphics card updates, and most game updates are shown ingame, very rarely are they not... are you still PC gaming in the 90s early 2000?
Yes, authentication. Why do I need to have a Steam account, a Gamespy account, an EA account, a GfW Live account, and who knows what other accounts I've forgotten about over the years? Consoles can do everything from one account. Why shouldn't PCs? Friends list: following from authentication, how do you know that Lowe0 at EA is the same as Lowe0 on Steam? More importantly, if someone has already friended me in one game, why shouldn't they see me in every other game? If someone mutes me in game, why shouldn't I be muted in every other game automatically? Consoles solve all of these problems by having a single identity across the entire platform. Why shouldn't PCs? Voice over IP: by making it a library that integrates into the game, developers can leverage voice as part of their game design. Squads can automatically get a channel set up the instant they're created, and players can automatically be connected to the right channel as they join or switch squads. Voice can be used as part of gameplay; say, playing local voice to alert enemies that a chatty squad is incoming, or disabling voice due to interference equipment deployed by an opposing player. DLC store: no, not a joke. If it's good, professionally-created content that I see value in, I have no problem with spending a few bucks for it. Drivers, updates, etc.: my graphics card has auto-update, my sound card has auto-update, and my mouse and keyboard supposedly have it (though it doesn't seem to work), but that's it. My network card and chipset don't. Besides, why should I even get an alert? Why isn't it just taken care of for me? Steam is already capable of doing this for games; I'd like to see it do so for the rest of my system as well. 
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