Steam was till the other day the devil which we dreaded.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson in “Fate,” The Conduct of Life (a few weeks after Steam was publicly released by Valve).

Well, it sounds like this thing isn't just a piece of vaporware...

I'm all for having patches delivered to me but I also prefer to keep 'hardcopies' to get games up to speed as fast as possible after an OS reinstall. Otherwise it becomes very time-intensive to install and update all your games... broadband or no. As long as Steam doesn't become yet another piece of ad-filled bloatware I have no problem with it. I've always used Sierra's autopatcher for Tribes2 and it was never a problem (though some of the patches turned out to be).

---------------------------------------------
Supporter of the "a happy fredster is a fredster in a bathtub full of gasoline smoking a cigar" fanclub.

Steam does nothing but create a lot of hot air as you can see in the comments below.

Love,

Dan
xoxo

"Life is such a sweet insanity, the more you learn the less you know." ---Hogan

I think the people on this forum just need to blow off some steam.

The stupid analogy contest is on!!

Ok...

How much Steam can a Valve spew?

Supporter of the "A happy fredster is a muted fredster" fanclub.

http://www.hybrid-group.com/

I think Steam is going to land Valve into hot water!!

I think this Steam thing might just suck, and Disappear like a wisp of smoke!


The stupid analogy contest is on!!

"Plaque is a figment of the liberal media and the dental industry to scare you into buying useless appliances and paste. Now I’ve read the arguments on both side, and I haven’t found any evidence yet to support the need to brush your teeth. Ever."

That was the most poignant observation ever. Way to contribute.

Seriously, though, besides the minor memory hit of Steam running in the background, what's the problem with it? You sign on to it with your old HL CD Key, and boom, you can get access to all the latest (theoretically cheat-proofed) mods, new patches, previous games from Valve that you can download and install right on to your computer...I just don't see the problem.

Granted, those on 56k connections are screwed...but hey, it's time to upgrade, people.

Yes, Valve's next product will be a superpowerful robot that hunts nonSteam users (known as the Rebellion).

Soon the SteamBot will develop consciousness (thanks to user mods) and decide to rebel against its creators. Valve will fight valiantly, but soon it will be forced to desperate measures.

Valve will begin work on a secret project to counter the SteamBot. After half a year of work, Valve will unveil, Half Life 3! The sudden release will catch the gaming world by suprise. Every steam user will scramble to download the install simultaneously, clogging the massive steam network so badly, that even the mighty SteamBot will be unable to sync with the master server.
While it lays dormant, attempting over and over to reach the steam servers, Valve engineers will destroy the SteamBot, once and for all.

A happy ending! See? Steam isn't so bad after all!

I think Steam is going to land Valve into hot water!!



Love,

Dan
xoxo

"Life is such a sweet insanity, the more you learn the less you know." ---Hogan

Well I think it's a good idea if they can get rid of the piracy and cheaters. I just don't like being stuck with a title I've bought with zero recourse for a refund or sales to another person. That is one reason I will now always order software from the mail, and from out of state, due to Federal mail fraud / refund laws. May take an extra day or three, but I *will* be able to refund it if it's a garbage title.

You gotta be careful with steam, it can burn you!

AHAHAHAHAHAHA....hah....ahah......errrr

*gets booed off stage*


"Plaque is a figment of the liberal media and the dental industry to scare you into buying useless appliances and paste. Now I’ve read the arguments on both side, and I haven’t found any evidence yet to support the need to brush your teeth. Ever."

From the article, it seems like steam is a pile of steaming shit!

This comment was edited on Sep 7, 17:08.

Funny, when I installed the Steam beta, it not only set itself to run on startup, it also didn't bother telling me it was doing so (my security app notified me).

Just check the settings menu...

This won't stop piracy anyway, at least not for single player.

That is true, it will not influcence pirates who only play single player. Aside from system configuration specific activation, not much can.

how long does it take to download hl2?

You don't have to run steam on startup.

Funny, when I installed the Steam beta, it not only set itself to run on startup, it also didn't bother telling me it was doing so (my security app notified me).

This won't stop piracy anyway, at least not for single player. HL2 is such a long awaited game that it'll be cracked and online probably before it hits the shops. Personally I want to buy it, but Steam makes me slightly uncomfortable - I hate software running on my machine that I'm not in control of, and something quietly deciding to download stuff in the background sounds like the kind of thing i detest.

Yes, Valve's next product will be a superpowerful robot that hunts nonSteam users (known as the Rebellion).

Soon the SteamBot will develop consciousness (thanks to user mods) and decide to rebel against its creators. Valve will fight valiantly, but soon it will be forced to desperate measures. (to be continued)

To all ASE fans like myself, ASE will work with games running on steam. I'm almost sure about it.(I think it was Gabe Newell(valve) that said something like "we look at 3rd party server browsers as mods, we support mods.)

I hadn't heard that. Well, it shortens my list of valid disadvantages.

great, now if I have 5 different games from 5 different manufactureres... They'll all be trying to talk back to thier "update servers" whenever I turn on my computer ... this assumes steam is a success and saves them money as always the others will follow. Imagine EA doing the same thing, blizzard, ID, ect..

You don't have to run steam on startup.
You only have to run steam to connect to a game server.

A suggestion to everyone: Dont worry , be happy.

This wednesday Steam will launch whether you like it or not. And you wont know whether you like it or not until that has happened. My guess is that steam will have both ups and downs, but it will have a lot more ups than the current HL version.

To all ASE fans like myself, ASE will work with games running on steam. I'm almost sure about it.(I think it was Gabe Newell(valve) that said something like "we look at 3rd party server browsers as mods, we support mods.)

BicycleRepairMan

Yes, Valve's next product will be a superpowerful robot that hunts nonSteam users (known as the Rebellion).