It’s a pretty famous quote and he’s correct. Steam has DRM aspects but is pretty seamless. It is entirely way more work to look for cracked games and download those than to just buy it on steam.
The UX is crap; the info architecture is obscure; it doesn't work well on macOS (or at all if I use the wrong file system); it uses confusing labels for the stash of stuff I've already bought. I don't use it often enough to know if my usr/pwd is still valid (it is, fortunately). It had some slightly odd 2FA type thing the last time I logged in. It just gives me the impression that it wants to hide games from me that I've already bought and to make new ones hard to find. I'd rather have discs in boxes taking up space (tbf I also collect vinyl so maybe I'm just anachronistic?)
The only good thing going for it is that it doesn't ever email me junk.
I was terribly skeptical to Steam when it launched, as I am to all online/hosted services. What if they just remove a game I'm using? Does all my games stop working if they turn off their servers? Am I really going to have to be online whenever I want to play?
But I gave in after several years, and now I'm a quite happy Steam user on Linux. It works as advertised, and the only issue I have is that I haven't found a way to filter games for «Linux support» and a genre at the same time. I've used EXT4 and BTRFS as file systems while using Steam, and never had any issues with that either.
I'm inclined to agree with Gabe. I've never spent as much money on games as after I got Steam. It makes it really easy to get a new game. Without Steam, I'd probably just go without. I have lots of things to spend my time on, and sometimes I'm even a little bit bummed that wasting time on games is an option on Linux these days...
You aren't the only one. Steam is DRM with good PR. Much of the goodwill gamers have for Steam is based on misconceptions, rumors, or delusions, particularly: "If Valve ever goes out of business, they said they'll lift all the DRM for the games I've bought" I've heard that from so many gamers it isn't even funny, it's a widespread misconception and it's obvious horse shit. Maybe Valve has or once had that intention with their own in-house games, but they wouldn't even have the legal right to do something like that for 99.99% of the Steam catalogue.
Even for the in-house games, you have to be naive to trust any sort of promise from a commercial software product that isn't in a contract. Notch supposedly once promised that Minecraft would eventually become open source; well that plan evaporated when Microsoft waved a few billion dollars in front of him. Maybe he meant it at the time he said it, but that doesn't count for anything.
I agree that promises from these companies mean nothing.. but how much of a problem is this in todays gaming market though really?
many new games are free and rely on in-game transactions tied to an account outside of steam
There are no restrictions on the games I bought through steam that actually get in the way of me playing them - and there are a lot of conveniences offered like having access to my entire library on any machine with steam installed, or playing the games installed on my machine pretty much indefinitely offline. And being able to verify my game files and have them automatically fixed / updated
The games i bought a long time ago and still play have more than earned the money i spent on them anyway. if steam dies and i need to buy them again, i will and i will be happy to. if i cant find them anywhere because the games themselves died, ill make an image of my PC before upgrading it or uninstalling them and play them offline in a VM
there might be an itch here or there i cant scratch for whatever reason, but i can always buy a new game inspired by the same genre which is usually more fun than trying to recreate a nostalgic feeling anyway
Valve makes a lot of money from the steam store. They’re not going anywhere. There are competitors like gog games that sell them without DRM. You download the games anyways so I’m sure a solution will be figured out if Valve starts to have issues.
Steam provides a pretty seamless experience for gaming, and it provides useful services to developers as well. Then you have things like the steam workshop and marketplace.
And for minecraft being open source: who cares? Gamers want games that are good and fun to play. There are very few open source games that are actually fun to play.
Well, the huge dicourse in consoles atm is digital and ownership. There were several scares over the years (some that went through, some that backpedeled) on storefronts closing down and no longer being able to buy older games as a result, in a market where retro gaming is being flooded by scalpers selling stuff at 20x markups. Console players are feeling uneasy with the advent of there being "digital only" variants sneaking back in, and cloud gaming is getting bigger each year.
Maybe this is just a cacophony of old fans not getting with the times, but it seems like a signifigant enough sentiment that "so what" seems overly dismissive.
>And for minecraft being open source: who cares?
older minecraft players apparently. Granted, it hasn't really stopped their creativity and servers, so in practice it doesn't change much. But I wouldn't be surprised in some microfose move years down the line angering that playerbase.
Again, an oddly dismissive take for something that has historically happened. It's easy to say "I don't care it's convinent" until it isn't.
Granted, you have to buy the game to make use of these open source engines legally. But these open source engines free you from the limitations of DRM, Windows/Wine and run better than the original engines (support modern resolutions, innumerable bug fixes, etc.)
Our use-cases must be vastly different. steam is actually one of the few applications my friends and i talk about as having good design.
I've been using steam for over a decade and have always enjoyed that it works the way i expect a computer application to work. i can right-click on things to get to their properties and other options, i can point it to games i have installed that i didnt buy through steam and they appear next to my steam games in my library seamlessly
the store UI is.. not the most intuitive thing for me, but it seems consistent. it is very rare that i am browsing steam store to begin with, though. I am usually searching for a specific game directly, which i never have trouble finding if it's in their collection. I also like that i can add any games im interested in to a wish list and they notify me when it's on sale
i used to edit my settings in a config file in counterstrike, which required "tampering" with local files but in a way that ultimately resulted in compliant files. Finding that file was an obscure path to navigate, ill give you that - but again the organization is still consistent. all files for one game can be found in one folder with the games name on it. you can manually delete that folder and effectively uninstall the game. you can even do a custom reinstall by selectively deleting files from that folder and ask steam to replace the missing items and it will. For example, to reinstall a game without losing your save files.
Not trying to invalidate your experience, but your comment caught me by surprise because your dislike seems to be well rationed and thought out - ie genuine - so i just found it interesting
I'm curious how old you are. I remember the days of when you had to travel to a brick-and-mortar store to purchase a physical copy of a game (if it was in stock). Then, you travel home, install it, and play it, saving your local saves on your computer, backing them up manually on an external drive so that you don't lose your progress in the event of a system failure. Oh, and writing your CD Keys in a notebook, and carrying that with you (along with your physical games) wherever you move. I don't remember how patches were managed, but I don't recall there ever being a 'day-one' patch of fixes, or being one message away from the developers.
No, you are not the only one. Fellow macOS Steam user here. Whenever a game I'm interested in comes out, I first go to the AppStore to see if it's available there, then to the developer's web site, and only as a last resort to Steam. The UX is some of the worst I have to use in a given week. It constantly shows me games that don't run on any system I've ever used (Windows exclusives, but I've never used a Windows machine since I signed up for Steam, for example). It's just awful all around.
I love steam. And the revenues from steam allow valve to experiment and explore (and support my favorite esport Dota2). The Valve Index and Steam Deck would not exist were it not for revenue from Steam. Not to mention Proton. As long as they keep doing interesting things, and allow me to play the games I buy offline (which they do), I will continue to be a Steam fan.
I don't hate it, but I'll admit that the Valve worship is some of the most cultish I've seen in video games. To the point where I feel gamers work against their best interests whenever they see a "threat" to their beloved library not having every game in history under one launcher (nevermind that Steam users can add non-steam games to their virtual library). You'd think Youtube and even Spotify lately would show the dangers of lumping all your eggs in one basket.
But, I will also admit that I'm a bit biased against steam due to using PC's for a lot of Visual Novels. And their VN submissions have always been a lottery of some sorts, to the confusion of readers and developers alike. Nothing worse than having an existing product on the store and then suddenly having a sequel to the product rejected, while the first product still sits on shelves.
>the other problems are personal preferences that aren't universal
few things in life are. But we're on the internet, so we inevitably here a lot fo "personal preferences", often exagerrated to the point where it sounds like it's the worst thing in the world.
> "Piracy is a service problem." Valve's Gabe Newell said that years ago, touting the success of Steam, his online video game distribution service.