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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."
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
Don't be fooled, this website's open letter hides the fact that it is more dedicated to "people who haven't bought the game". -- ??? WTF is that?
In other words, Steam gets in the way of pirating HL2 and they're pissed.
Fuck you, buy it.
They say it's for all those with grievances, but I highly suspect this is the nearly the same as a certain site promoting hacked UT/UT2004 servers (which believes that people who don't buy the game have a right to play online too...).
For the record, few if any threads have been deleted on the Steam forums and the ones that have were complicated by people posting links to material that falls outside the forum T.O.S. and rules. I post there regularly and overall they are very leniant.
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...
However, I think one of the reasons this forum is a good thing is because Valve has screwed up royally. Many of their once happy customers are pissed. By letting them know, and letting other businesses know, we have an effect on the way things will turn out, however minor it may be.
This frankly, is a good alternative to just not buying the game. Because if you don't buy the game, they have no reason of knowing you decided not to buy it because of Steam. They might just assume you didn't like the game.
Which leads me to my next point. Instead of just not buying it, if you want to do something more effective, buy it and immediately return it, and be CRYSTAL CLEAR when you explain why to the person that it is because you are unhappy with Valve's choice in requiring Steam for this and you do not find it a satisfactory product. State this clearly and loudly.
I know its wishful thinking, but at least you can DO something instead of just getting angry.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
If the software is indeed totally unusable or any kind of serious hindrance, then it won't last. Sure, games like HL 2 and Doom 4 will sucker gamers into buying them regardless of the distribution methods used, but games that aren't sequels to classics won't have this luxury.
:P
Ultimately, the consumer will decide whether these systems fail or succeed, and because of this Developers (or Publishers) will have to ensure that the consumer is satisfied with their online distribution (or, as you put it, Steam-esque system). Besides, this isn't exactly a cheap system to implement. Valve spends loads of cash on bandwidth for Steam, and many titles simply can't afford the kind of infrastructure this kind of system requires.
In the end I don't think these systems will impede my enjoyment of games, and if it does get out of hand.. well.. Agh, time to play pirate!
Oh, and it won't take some bug-ridden piece of spyware to keep me away from DNF
In case the forums site goes down, I found a mirror here....
I like steam. I bought HL condition zero just for the CS:Source beta. I didn't mind just paying for the Beta, because I figured I had gotten my moneys worth x 10 out of HL1 with the CS mod.
I wasn't going to buy HL2, but a friend called me up one night last week and said he had HL2 and wanted to start playing CS:Source. I went onto steam and bought HL2 so I could play online with him. The nice thing is since I was in the Beta it was preloaded on my computer already. It took me about 10 minutes to be up and playing, where as if I could only buy the game in the store it would have had to wait until the next day never mind dealing with the sub-humans that work at my local best buy, or the fan-boiz at the local gameshop.
I think steam is a great delivery system for games.
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