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Is Steam the savior of PC gaming??

I think the best part of steam has simply been how they respond.

The deals aren't getting worse. They are getting better. Their weekend deal, Mid Week deal. Launch deals, specials, etc.

Like a recent one has been the Buy 4 copies for 150 of brand new games. This one seems to be working out extremely well at getting people to take the jump into a game. They weren't all too sure about...more so when they have a friend willing to push. They then get to save 12.50 on each copy, while the developer gets 4 sold instead of that 1 or 2 they may have got. They seem to understand the impulses to get us to buy something much better :lol
 
The last game I bought for the PC before getting into steam would be WoW. Before that it would probably be the original sims. :lol Being able to use paypal to pay for games, while sitting at home, while they're on sale is the best thing ever for computer gaming. I'll still take my physical console media though.
 
Steam is exactly what direct download should be. My PC is the center of my gaming universe and Steam is the main reason. I love you Gabe.
 
Gexecuter said:
Even tough i am not very fond of their DRM policies i have to admit they run a pretty good service with awesome sales. So i don't mind them being on top of the digital download services if that means PC gaming will stay alive for years to come.
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Exactly my thoughts.
 
Spire said:
When you have 100+ games (and with Steam deals, it's hard not too) having them all on one nice list is extremely helpful. It's also extremely helpful that Steam automatically patches and updates everything and redownloads all my stuff if I swap hard drives or PC's.
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i have about 200 pc games and the ones i actually play a lot stay installed on my hard drive.. at the moment its like 50 or so and i just have a folder in my Start menu with shortcuts to my favorites on the desktop. Auto-patching sounds nice but thats been a feature of pc games for a while now (auto-update feature in the launcher) and how often is it really necessary to patch a game once the 1-year mark hits? For me the only thing Steam has going for it would be the Friends list stuff.

i do like Steam though because anything that gets people to play and have fun is a-ok in my book. And i understand that people like the ease of use of it but i dont know.. to me pc gaming doesnt seem like this abstract and arcane process. i respect GoG a lot more than Steam because they take old games and package the launcher with DosBox so people who have no idea how to fiddle with Dos can get a chance to play great games from 10+ years ago.
 
Steam has plenty of old games, all of which have been "ported" so you don't have to do anything other than click "Launch". Hell I just bought a bunch of old LucasArts adventure games and the entire Jedi Knight series (including Dark Forces) for less than $13. I literally pressed one button and every thing downloaded and installed by itself. Convenience like that is why Steam is dominating.
 
I like Steam because stuff is cheap and it seems to be getting people interested in playing PC games. It's also been a huge driving force behind the lowering of PC game prices, which isn't a bad thing for consumers (and as long as revenue is the same, it's not a bad thing for developers/publishers either).
 
Spire said:
Steam has plenty of old games, all of which have been "ported" so you don't have to do anything other than click "Launch". Hell I just bought a bunch of old LucasArts adventure games and the entire Jedi Knight series (including Dark Forces) for less than $13. I literally pressed one button and every thing downloaded and installed by itself. Convenience like that is why Steam is dominating.
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Ah thats cool then. i havent been to Steams store for a long time (a year or two at least) and there werent many old games there at the time so i figured it wasnt their thing.
 
The savior? I wasn't aware it needed saving.

While PC gaming is still quite healthy, even with the success of Steam and other DD stores, the perception is that PC gaming is just there. Major developers still develop games for consoles in mind and dump a PC port out there. Steam doesn't magically fix that and it's only going to get worse (with few exceptions).

What it has done is brought more attention to smaller games to sell well though, which is great. =)
 
Fredescu said:
A lot of the other services offer the same conveniece. Being bundled with every post HL2 Valve game is why Steam is dominating.
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Steam was pretty shitty for awhile there, it didn't start kicking ass until a couple years after HL2's launch. Steam took off before Orange Box came out and well after HL2 fever had died down, I don't think you can contribute its success solely to Valve games considering there were none released when it started gathering steam (pun intended). I'd attribute it's success to having the best DD game selection and sales around and having kickass community features. That, and that all the other competitors were a day late and a dollar short.
 
Spire said:
Steam was pretty shitty for awhile there, it didn't start kicking ass until a couple years after HL2's launch. Steam took off before Orange Box came out and well after HL2 fever had died down, I don't think you can contribute its success solely to Valve games considering there were none released when it started gathering steam (pun intended). I'd attribute it's success to having the best DD game selection and sales around and having kickass community features. That, and that all the other competitors were a day late and a dollar short.
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i think what they were saying is that if you want to play Left 4 Dead you have to get Steam installed and log on. You dont have to log onto GoG when you install The Witcher and hence see nothing of GoG. You are exposed to Steam, like it or not, if you play Valves games.

edit: and as far as pc gaming needing saving.. i dont know. Gaming on PC will always have the advantage over consoles due to its longevity. Sure some games are made for consoles first but they usually are released on PC.. at least the Xbox/360 games.

Then you have things like mods and hacks which consoles dont support to anywhere near close to the degree that happens on PC. i still have Unlimited Adventures on my computer because modules are still being made for a near 20 year old game.
 
Number 2 said:
i think what they were saying is that if you want to play Left 4 Dead you have to get Steam installed and log on. You dont have to log onto GoG when you install The Witcher and hence see nothing of GoG. You are exposed to Steam, like it or not, if you play Valves games.
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Ah, okay.
 
Zzoram said:
I'm considering $50 for the Eidos pack of 20 games including Batman:AA, every Tomb Raider and Hitman and Deus Ex 1&2.

I'm definitely getting the $6.69 Sid Meier's Pirates!
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Its crazy to think that's how much a copy of the game alone costs on consoles. Buy it on the PC and you get 19(!!) games for free, and a bunch of them are genuine AAA titles as well. PC gaming is rapidly approaching the cheapest gaming platform around, and that's all thanks to competition in the DD space.

Please, lets not just single out Steam though, Impluse and gog.com get a lot of love from me as they both have they're own unique take on the service and are well worth supporting. Them two both charge in dollars with global pricing as well, which makes them an excellent alternative for people from mainland Europe.
 
ShinobiFist said:
Steam is the truth. Their business model on giving constant discounts(Amazon style)makes you want to keep coming back for more.
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this is something ALL gaming businesses need to adapt, for everyone's sake.

I don't think it's the 'savior' of PC gaming but it did make it a fuck ton easier and better.
 
imtehman said:
i love steam, but it won't save PC gaming since console gaming has completely usurped it.
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The PC is still far and away the biggest revenue driver out of all the individual gaming platforms. It doesn't bring in as much cash from the big budget "AAA" mainstream blockbusters as the PS3 or 360, but really, I hardly think that's a bad thing. Its sheer diversity is its biggest strength.
 
Also on the subject of titles not making their way to PC because of consoles.. which major multi-platform titles havent ended up on PC? The only one i can think of is Call of Duty 3. Surely im forgetting some.

edit:
zedge said:
Fucking love Steam. Bringing me back to PC gaming cause it makes it so easy. Screw Discs.
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Stuff like this is reminding me of those infommercials on tv where they cut to the black and white recording of some lady struggling for dear life with a can opener or scissors or something and finally just gets frustrated and throws it down in disgust :lol
 
I think so, I would barely play games on PC but every so often a Steam deal prompts me to buy a game that I enjoy for a while at a too good to refuse value almost literally. It gets me gaming on a platform I would otherwise ignore so for me personally it does save PC gaming.
 
Nope, if anything im not that keen on it.

Dont like the idea that i have nothing physical in hand, i have no second hand resale value and at any point valve has the right to restrict my ownership.

So in reality im paying to use something, that at any point can be taken away from me. Also bar the odd sale here and there on games that wouldnt sell otherwise. The games are not cheaper even though they have less distrubtion costs.

I think morally the laws over digital distribution are un-ethical, and no doubts big corporate backers have paid off judges and will continue to so, untill the consumer has very little right or control over what "they" purchase.
 
Number 2 said:
Also on the subject of titles not making their way to PC because of consoles.. which major multi-platform titles havent ended up on PC? The only one i can think of is Call of Duty 3. Surely im forgetting some.
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Bayonetta!
 
Number 2 said:
Also on the subject of titles not making their way to PC because of consoles.. which major multi-platform titles havent ended up on PC? The only one i can think of is Call of Duty 3. Surely im forgetting some.
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EA Sports stuff. Final Fantasy XIII probably counts now too.
 
Fredescu said:
EA Sports stuff. Final Fantasy XIII probably counts now too.
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Oh wow didnt even notice that the 09 Madden didnt make it to PC. Checking it out some and it seems almost all of EA Sports has no more Windows releases. Never noticed it since i dont play sports games but that sucks.'

edit: i wonder if CD Projekt is going to follow Valve and make it to where you have to have a GoG client to play The Witcher 2?
 
TheExodu5 said:
It completely revitalized PC gaming for me.
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Same.

Every time I see new PC games being talked about, I check to see if they're on Steam. If they're not, I don't even bother reading any more about them.
 
shintoki said:
I think the best part of steam has simply been how they respond.

The deals aren't getting worse. They are getting better. Their weekend deal, Mid Week deal. Launch deals, specials, etc.

Like a recent one has been the Buy 4 copies for 150 of brand new games. This one seems to be working out extremely well at getting people to take the jump into a game. They weren't all too sure about...more so when they have a friend willing to push. They then get to save 12.50 on each copy, while the developer gets 4 sold instead of that 1 or 2 they may have got. They seem to understand the impulses to get us to buy something much better :lol
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Yes. This. This 4-Pack thing will be the death of me.
 
Facism said:
Nope, if anything im not that keen on it.

Dont like the idea that i have nothing physical in hand, i have no second hand resale value and at any point valve has the right to restrict my ownership.

So in reality im paying to use something, that at any point can be taken away from me. Also bar the odd sale here and there on games that wouldnt sell otherwise. The games are not cheaper even though they have less distrubtion costs.

I think morally the laws over digital distribution are un-ethical, and no doubts big corporate backers have paid off judges and will continue to so, untill the consumer has very little right or control over what "they" purchase.
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Honestly, if you have a decent PC with steam, the current "odd" sale now on steam is utterly superb.

8 USD for GTA 4, and WiC full pack for 9.99 USD and a ton of EIDOS games for 50 USD....

If anything Steam does DD best, i'm sure impulse and D2D does help out our European friends. But Overall with free party chat and cross game invite, Steam overall is a better package.
 
Don't know if it's the "savior," but it's easily the best system for finding/getting/playing games. I don't buy hard copies anymore. All they do is take up space and gather dust until one day I decide to throw them out.

If there weren't some people with bandwidth caps I wouldn't mind seeing the end of physical media.

On top of that having games tied to an account pretty much solves DRM. I know some games still (stupidly) have proprietary DRM on Steam but really there's no need for it since games are tied to an account.

Steam is great. Digital distribution is far superior to having to drive to the store and buy a container of plastic and cardboard and then keep track of discs. (Unless it's the terrible kind not like Steam where they limit the number of downloads you get. That kind can get bent.)
 
Kintaro said:
The savior? I wasn't aware it needed saving.

While PC gaming is still quite healthy, even with the success of Steam and other DD stores, the perception is that PC gaming is just there. Major developers still develop games for consoles in mind and dump a PC port out there. Steam doesn't magically fix that and it's only going to get worse (with few exceptions).

What it has done is brought more attention to smaller games to sell well though, which is great. =)
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that's fine, most of those companies are hemorrhaging money so bad now, they have bigger worries on their mind. In that way a pc gaming movement towards "smaller and indie" could be a good thing once the whole house of cards starts crashing down on the big corps.


EvilMario said:
Wait, you're telling me there's more to Steam than The Orange Box?
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you been living under a question mark block or something?

http://store.steampowered.com/
http://store.steampowered.com/about/
 
It's a good portal for those people who need a paddock to graze in. I see it has attracted a great deal of people who would otherwise be intimidated by the traditional PC multiplayer and gaming crowd scene. It can be a bit wild out there for the average gamer with various issues installing, patching and finding a multiplayer game online. It's all good as long as people are buying PC games from PC developers.
 
Facism said:
Nope, if anything im not that keen on it.

Dont like the idea that i have nothing physical in hand, i have no second hand resale value and at any point valve has the right to restrict my ownership.

So in reality im paying to use something, that at any point can be taken away from me. Also bar the odd sale here and there on games that wouldnt sell otherwise. The games are not cheaper even though they have less distrubtion costs.

I think morally the laws over digital distribution are un-ethical, and no doubts big corporate backers have paid off judges and will continue to so, untill the consumer has very little right or control over what "they" purchase.
Click to expand...


You should pay attention to those sales they aren't infrequent and they are often on games that will sell or have sold well. And, where can someone resell a PC game?
 
freddy said:
It's a good portal for those people who need a paddock to graze in. I see it has attracted a great deal of people who would otherwise be intimidated by the traditional PC multiplayer and gaming crowd scene. It can be a bit wild out there for the average gamer with various issues installing, patching and finding a multiplayer game online. It's all good as long as people are buying PC games from PC developers.
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The wonid system was so backasswards. good riddance. :lol
 
TheExodu5 said:
It completely revitalized PC gaming for me.
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I don't usually do this, but I really couldn't have said it better myself.
 
I <3 Memes said:
Well you can always create a new steam account for the games you might want to sell. Thats problem solved right there.
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Wouldnt that open you up to getting scammed if they do an account recovery?

edit: i know you could get scammed in the real world too but just from my experience with Wow the amount of scamming going on with account recoveries and Paypal was freaking crazy.
 
It might have been a positive addition to the PC community in the US. Howerver, we in Europe are getting shafted.

I cannot, in good conscience, support steam as long as they continue to have the 1$=1€ policy. Paying up to 30% more for a digital distributed product is outrageous. No country in Europe have VAT that high, and some of us have no VAT for digitally distributed products.

Thankfully, there are other options available to us.
 
Number 2 said:
Wouldnt that open you up to getting scammed if they do an account recovery?
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I've never sold an account before but I did give away my old account with Half Life 1 with all the addons and CS 1.6. It was from when steam first came out and everybody registered their old Half-Life 1 / cs into steam.Since those games weren't purchased I had nothing to worry about.

If I remember right I just had them send me the email address and password that they wanted it changed to. The only risk was on their end because I knew the email address, user name, and password. Of course they could change all of those things to something I didnt know after they accessed the account.
 
Oli said:
Without Steam I wouldn't PC game.
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This...but for possibly other reasons. Without Steam, i don't think i'd bother trying to play games on my laptop. With indie games and really good deals on older games that can run on my PC, i now look forward to SOME pc gaming whereas before i just avoided it for the most part.
 
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