Steam - love it or hate it?

[Mongoose19]

There is no middle ground, you either hate or love it according to your poll, both being very strong words.

Just like with WoW you either love everything about or you not. People can't grasp the idea that if you don't like one feature it doesn't mean you are a hater.

[Afrospinach]

offline mode.

There are many instances where offline mode does not work. I cannot launch crysis in offline mode no matter what, it seems to discard your credentials at random so if you happen to be without internet for even a day you just might be locked out of your entire library. Furthermore, if you play a game that syncs it often seems to just screw up completely when trying to update your progress. Then there is the thing about steam requiring updates... Sometimes it will require and update even for offline mode again completely locking you out. How does it know it wants updates? not a clue, but it happens.

I bet anyone saying offline mode is all good has no idea what spotty internet even looks like. In spite of this it is still awesome.

[Al Gorefiend]

I am personally not sure how this makes Steam bad.
You had a rather unfortunate set of circumstances that all worked together to create a problem. It looks to me now, that your just trying to find something to focus your anger and have something to blame. Sure it isn't nice that Steam did that, but it is for security reasons I guess, and the chances of it happening to people regularly are so remote, they probably view it as an acceptable cost.
Sorry it happened, but that in no way shape or form makes Steam a bad thing. Heck I can recall buying HL2 on release day and having no internet to be able to activate it. Was I PO'd? Yes, very much so. Was it my fault for not checking properly and not asking why the game was non-returnable to the shop? Yes, that was my fault also.

Not saying this is your fault, but it is just natural to find something to blame when angry. Doesn't make Steam a bad thing though, not to my mind.

The point I've made on this thread is that I fully agree that Steam is remarkable, really I do. I see its usefulness and ease of access. The problem is that for people with no interest in sales, community, fancy UIs like myself there is no alternative. There is no "No thanks" button when I installed Skyrim and the Steam menu popped open. It was just "Hey, make this account and give us your email or you better just return that game buddy". I'm just dumbfounded that Steam can get away with this, however helpful it may be and whatever good-intentions Valve may have - I'm being forced into installing something I don't want. When things like this happen and everything goes wrong, I'm left angry and frustrated. A bitter taste in my mouth to remind me that I never asked for this in the first place, and now I have to suffer through it.

[Deleted]

Winter and Summer sales, 'nuff said.

[Yunru]

The point I've made on this thread is that I fully agree that Steam is remarkable, really I do. I see its usefulness and ease of access. The problem is that for people with no interest in sales, community, fancy UIs like myself there is no alternative. There is no "No thanks" button when I installed Skyrim and the Steam menu popped open. It was just "Hey, make this account and give us your email or you better just return that game buddy". I'm just dumbfounded that Steam can get away with this, however helpful it may be and whatever good-intentions Valve may have - I'm being forced into installing something I don't want. When things like this happen and everything goes wrong, I'm left angry and frustrated. A bitter taste in my mouth to remind me that I never asked for this in the first place, and now I have to suffer through it.

Thats why we got no cd/dvd cracks. (that also work agaist steam and other providers)
The only downside is that you cant play online games with them. But if you play a singleplayer then its a good idea to use them.

Well generaly i avoid drm crap and i just instal patches manualy when i buy some game. Then i apply a DO NOT ANNOY ME crack.

(also steam takes ram and slows down the computer = wortless process)

[Collegeguy]

Steam rejuvenated pc gaming. Even the console**** copy off steam. Dreaming one day they could be like us.

[bbr]

Everyone has internet nowadays, almost 100% of the time - so steam works fine.
yes its annoying when you lose connection, but you can still play most games if you just go to your installation dir and start from there.

Winter and Summer sales, 'nuff said.

Humble bundle rather.

[reemi]

Steam is the only one i like.

[SoulForge]

Anyone complaining about steam using up a lot of resources must be on relic computers. Its true this was an issue back in the old days but not so much today.

[Frozen Death Knight]

I am personally not that big of a fan of Steam, but I don't hate it either. It pretty much saved PC gaming for me with all the sales going on and I do use it on a regular basis nowadays.

However, that still will not make me forget all the years Steam was a pretty underwhelming platform. I played some of their games before Valve launched Steam and I really didn't like it whatsoever. None of my friends liked it either and they were huge Valve fans, playing Half-Life 1 and 2 as well as CS 1.6 and Source. It took Valve years to get Steam to the point it is today and I can now at least appreciate it more.

[Deleted]

Love it, I have my game library, all in the same places. AS for nowadays most of the save games are also clouded so I can access them from any PC
Oh and for the people hating it for no offline: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013...-indefinitely/

Here you go

[Kuthe]

One of the best things about PC gaming.
Deals are unbelievable.
Way to keep everything all together, and keep it secured.
It's so amazing.

[Mesovr]

That part of it is annoying. However they are aware of the issues with offline mode. They stated recently that they are looking for ways to improve the offline mode for Steam.

[Honzi]

I hated it like the pest it was when it was released. Nowadays I love it.

[Lucetia]

OP so you know in the future when you have internet if you log in to steam and choose "Go Offline" and relog in then the next time you go without Internet Access you'll be able to log into your account and access the games that can still be played. Done it a few times on other pc's.

[Fencers]

Love it. Very rarely have had any issues.

Love the convenience, sales and interface. To the point where I sometimes won't buy a game unless it is on Steam.

[Mothhive]

Love it. So convenient, works great, amazing sales and features. Also, I'd really hate to think what would have happened to PC gaming without it.

[Mechazod]

While I have bitched about Steam in posts before, the truth of the matter is that there is no real combination of words that I can type that can truly do justice to describing the amount of pure hatred, absolute loathing, bloody rage, penultimate disgust and ravenous dislike I have of Steam and all things related to it. Steam has caused me to loose about 95% of all of my interest in modern PC gaming and anytime I see someone or a group of people having technical issues with it or seeing them pass a new policy that angers fan, that causes me to receive an explosive wave of pure orgasm that ripples across my body. I like Valve, I like Half-Life and Left 4 Dead and Portal, those games are fun, but as far as I am concerned, all those involved with Steam are sub-human assnoids for which I secretly hope their children have a chronic case of spontaneous combustion.

I hate Steam. I hate it so very much.

[Deleted]

I little while ago I bought a new laptop that didn't have a cd drive. How much I loved steam at that time! I downloaded all my games without the need of getting an external dvd drive.

[1001]

Hate it. It's like dormant cancer.