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SteamWatch Offers Forum for Displeased Customers
paniq writes "SteamWatch has opened a forum to discuss the pros and cons of Valves online distribution software Steam 'due to constant deletion of complaint threads in the official Steam forum', as the site states. Installation of Steam to play Valves newest cutting edge shooter Half-Life 2 is mandatory, but forum members criticize Valve for meager Support, violation of consumer rights and formulate alternative ideas for Steams implementation. A 'Steam Watch' news section covers articles and rants about Steam found on the net."
the consumer rights violation complaint was about the original HL and how Steam was forced on the individual after the fact when WON went down. 5 years is a bit too long to return the game. As for the merit of the complaint, unless these people are lawyers, why should we give them the time of day? put up or shut up --- file a damn lawsuit and quit whinging on the 'net.
There are still people in the world using modems.
Those people - particularly the ones who can't manage 33.6k - are pretty much fucked with a knife if they bought Halflife 2 with some expectation of being able to play the game from the crap that's in the box.
That's a VERY legitimate complaint about Steam. Last year - I couldn't get broadband before October 2003 - I tried to play Counterstrike over ~44k and I was absolutely outraged that the only thing out of that box that was useful was the serial number. If I installed the game that was in the box I didn't have a way to connect up-to-date to CS servers. In order to download the updates I either had to let steam run for days to download the required updates, or download a lump installer from a registration-only game site. Steam literally locked me out of a game that I owned.
Objection to steam is NOT just about pirates wanting to pirate. I own multiple copies of HL2 (ATI coupons) and I won't install it unless I can install the *SINGLE PLAYER GAME* without all the steam bullshit.
-- I wanna decide who lives and who dies - Crow T. Robot, MST3K
Do you have anything to back up your statement that "Steam is doing absolutely nothing to piracy"? Because it doesn't seem that everyone else agrees with you link.
Quote from that article: "Valve is taking really effective steps against people using illegitimate copies of Half-Life 2 "
I don't own a PC powerful enough for HL2, and so it doesn't really affect me, but surely each time a game goes online for multiplayer sessions, it identifies itself? In which case, Valve can do all sorts of checks.
I can't say much for petty complaints claiming that 'when a thief returns the goods to pay for them, he ceases to be a thief', but steam does offer some very real problems which should be addressed by valve with priority.
:)
For example, right now i'm typing in slashdot because the HL2 SDK is "updating" with no evidence of progress...
Meanwhile, i'm unable to *play* HL2, let alone download the HL2 update while playing a different game (CS Source or Codename Gordon for example) because valve have decided to set us back 20 years to the days before multi-tasking.
"Cannot Run Game. You currently have another game in progress, please quit this first"
Last time I checked, waiting for a massive *questionmark* sized download over ADSL wasn't much of a game... but what do I know?
Not to mention the conflict of interest brought up by the posting of ads on steam update pages when coupled with the potential(?) for product usage and market information harvesting.
If I was commercially developing a mod for HL2 and I was physically unable to access the SDK or HL2 until it had finished updating, I would be furious... as it is, I think i might take a nap
'plex
Rich Gentlemen Hide - The Existential Comic