Is Steam really all that Hot?

I am a Steam user. I have been since before it was required for playing Counterstrike.

For the purpose of this article I am going to write from two viewpoints, because I have two opposite opinions on the subject of buying games digitally. I love it, and yet I hate it.

First, the love it side:
The last couple years I have found myself buying more and more of my games thru Steam. It is easy and fast.

I love that I don’t have to drive to the game store (Michigan roads in February…nuff said). I love that I don’t have to wade thru a game store past all the console players to dig thru a dusty shelf of PC games.

I love that there is no chance of the disk being defective and me having to deal with the dimwits at customer service that tell me I can’t return software (it is not a return it is an EXCHANGE!).

I love that I can see that my friends are online, and have an easy time joining them.

I love that I no longer have stacks and stacks of empty game boxes in the basement (well, my wife is much happier about that than I am).

I love that it automatically updates my games, and is relatively hack free.

More recently, I love that my games still work even tho my DVD burner crapped out.

I love that when I bought my dad a used copy of Modern Warfare 2, all I had to do was e-mail him the log in and password that the guy gave me, and the next day he was playing. He lives 150 miles away, so he didn’t have possession of the disks for another 3 weeks. Being able to download it was nice.


Then there is the other side of the coin:
I hate that I can’t sell crappy games. When I plop down $40 for a game, if I don’t like it I would like to be able to sell it to offset the cost. That is not possible on Steam. You can not separate a game from your account.

I hate that it downloads updates to the system and to games whenever it chooses to. I would like to set preferences to have it update at certain time windows only.

I hate that if you lose internet connection it goes all wonky. It should be better at knowing it has no internet and to stop looking for it.

I hate that it is always running, and takes so long to load. Make it lighter and faster. Gaming is about speed. My computer is a sports car, and sometimes Steam is like a trailer attached to it.



So, am I going to stop using Steam because of these beefs? No. It is not perfect, but it is not bad.

I'm a big fan of Steam. About 3/4 of the games I purchase for the PC I get through there. (Usually at some ridiculous discount).

That is a good point I forgot to mention about Steam, they have sales. Most PC games don't really go on sale, or if they do it is by 10%. The last 6-5 games I got I had the restraint to wait until they went on sale thru Steam and I saved 30% on all of them.

I like being able to digital download things for PC and now for my Xbox and PS3. I purchased my third PS3 title off their network, a tactics RPG that I reviewed here. I really like that and most of the reason you mentioned are there too that make it good to download.

I do have a couple problems with it though. Games aren't always going to be there for you to download. When a company decides to stop supporting a game, they'll pull it from their support, then everything goes haywire. Also, if I purchased a game that has off line play (especially for PC), I should be able to play that game whether I'm connected to the internet or not. Ran into that problem with Dawn of War 2 which uses steam if I recall for the online and windows live for communication.

The biggest thing the bugs me with PC games is that if I buy it, I'm stuck with it. there is no returning it because it doesn't work, exchanging it for something else, or selling it to someone else either because I've activated the game or I've attached it to my nick I use for just about everything. I've got a ton of PC titles I don't play because I didn't like em but thought they'd be decent.

a Bonus for digital download thought is I was able to buy a copy of Lich King for a close friend of mine digitally from blizzard and it was attached to her account for her to download the client and play, which she already had installed but needed a key. worked out really well as she was in Northrend in about 10 minutes playing with my wife and I

I love Steam for the reasons Bob mentioned. There really isn't anything I hate about it anymore. I used to hate it because you couldn't have a LAN party with any of their awesome multiplayer games (CS, TeamFortress, Left4Dead 1&2, etc) unless EVERYONE had an account and the game linked to their account. We found out at this last LAN party that at least with Left4Dead 2 you can LAN it with only one account. Basically, everyone logs on the one account in offline mode. Then the best computer starts up the server (via the console, I have no clue what commands are used) and viola! When we played, we used whatever accounts that had Left4Dead 2, and 'cloned' them.. so I think there were 3 or 4 accounts used, but cloned for 12 players.

Prior to having the ability to do that, I really disliked how Steam set up their games to be LANed.

Bob made some very good points but one thing I would add is that you can delete and redownload a game at your choosing. Granted you need an internet connection, but I am very rarely without one so its not a big deal.

I am one of those people that lose install disks or serial keys. The fact that Steam stores all those to my account and I never have to worry about "looking" for them in the future is just convenient.

Tenolein: That's a good point about playing on an offline LAN and I think it's the biggest thing that irks most of the PC gamers. Why do companies assume that people are not going to be networked locally to play with friends and not be connected to the net?

That was the biggest thing we did during my time in the service. We'd host LAN parties in the expandable conference rooms we had in the building I worked in. it was awesome, especially with some of the FPS games. Problem was that when internet became a requirement for the FPS games those parties sort of died horribly. I've got a lot of fond memories of starting up at 2 in the afternoon and going till 6AM the following morning. I'm glad to see that Steam is starting to allow that.