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SteamWatch Offers Forum for Displeased Customers

Posted by Zonk on from the letting-off-a-little dept.

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."

6 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Consumer rights... by elmegil · · Score: 3, Insightful
    violation of consumer rights

    Last time I checked, nobody was holding a SPAS-12 to your head and forcing you to buy the product. Get your money back, don't play the game, and quit yer fucking whining.

    --
    7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
    1. Re:Consumer rights... by squiggleslash · · Score: 4, Insightful
      If you read the link, you'll see that the complaint was that the goods had already been bought, and Valve was imposing new terms and conditions for continued usage of a critical part of the game to people who'd bought the game and agreed to fairer terms and conditions in the past.

      Seems sleazy to me. If I were in the same boat, I'd try to get my money back. I may be likely to be unsuccessful, but I can make it time consuming and thus expensive for Valve in the process.

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    2. Re:Consumer rights... by Marc_Hawke · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Since when was a lawsuit the FIRST option? And what makes you think some 15 year old kid could file one?

      No, really, the first thing you do is express your complaints to the company. When the company starts silencing those complaints (terrible move there) you move to an outside channel. (Which is what this story is about.)

      Once you've gotten a critical mass of like-minded people, you use a class-action lawsuit if the company hasn't addressed your concerns yet.

      --
      --Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
    3. Re:Consumer rights... by Khuffie · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Except it forced people with the original Half-Life to install Steam in order to play the game and counter-strike.

      How the heck are those people gonna get their money back? When they bought Half-Life Steam didn't exist.

  2. Not impressed so far... by eviltypeguy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm not terribly impressed with all the "poor victims" so far that have posted on the forums.

    Most of them are people that tried to use an illegtimate CD key or cracks, then bought the game when they couldn't get that to work, or felt guilty enough and bought it, and then got shut out of the game.

    Gee, screw someone over, then try to play nice and they don't react nicely to you? Never saw that coming...

    About the only legitimate post (obviously IMO) I've read there so far covers some of the interesting legal entanglements that come from Valve's EULA for Steam. Personally, I hope EULAs are abolished, or if not, that they would come back in a much simpler form.

    I think it's absolutely ridiculous to expect anyone but a lawyer to have to read through and understand the pages and pages of legal drek that come with each new game. How can anyone in their right minds expect a person who isn't an expert in contract law to fully understand and comprehend all their rights with a EULA. Nevermind the questionable legality of EULAs to begin with. Of course one might argue that an expert in contract law already knows that EULAs can't be legally binding since they don't fulfill many of the basic qualifications of a legal contract, but since IANAL I digress...

  3. Re:Not all it seems... by Night+Goat · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Agreed. The open letter is a laugh. "We're not pirates, we're future customers!" Oh, you plan on buying the product later? Oh, OK, in that case go ahead and play it now. That just doesn't make sense. I've pirated software in the past, and I had no delusions of being in the right. I knew it was wrong, I was stealing plain and simple.