Nice rant MeatFarts, and you actually do make some very valid points.

However, like you, Valve doesn't give a fuck. While I don't know the underlying thought behind Steam (it might very well be that they want everyone to start paying monthly to play their games), it's easy to see why NOW is the time they come up with this.

Because, admit it, despite all your hatred towards Steam, you're still going to buy Half Life 2. Valve and their marketing monkeys know this. Which is why they use the release of the most eagerly anticipated title in a decade as a way to get Steam rammed down everyone's throats.
The only way you can make Valve pay attention is by NOT buying Half Life 2. And just saying that makes it tantamount to heresy I believe.

Personally, from what I've read and heard about it, Steam is a pile of fucking bloatware / spyware crap. It wouldn't surprise me to see Ad-Aware's next update actually delete it. But people accept it, and all the shit it entails, because they want Half Life 2.

Microsoft has been playing this game for years. Everyone screamed bloody fucking murder when Microsoft announced that whole product activation nazi'ism for Windows XP. Two years later, and guys call Microsoft 8 times a year to please be allowed to install the software they paid a couple hundred bucks for,
AND THEY FUCKING THANK MICROSOFT FOR THE FUCKING PRIVILEGE

If people want something bad enough, they'll give up whatever's needed to get.

Sigh.

Creston

" I've had to activate the same CD key about 8 times in the last year, and never once have I had to have been on the phone for more than 5 minutes to do it."

Lucky you, took me at least 20 minutes. Making people call your company to activate a product is ridiculous. The last 2 times I've installed WinXP and Office (same copies I've had for at least 2 years) it's allowed me to do it over the net. I wonder if MS stopped insisting on phone activation because of the cost?

Gotta know that Steam is gonna suck like a turbocharged hoover come HL2 release day. Also gotta know I'll be in line with everyone else trying to make it work :).

Phone-in Win XP product activation? YES, I'LL HAVE ANOTHER! I've had to activate the same CD key about 8 times in the last year, and never once have I had to have been on the phone for more than 5 minutes to do it.

I agree. Activating XP over the phone is a totally painless procedure, whereas this Steam bullshit is the exact opposite.

I don't care what their reasons are for the launch being "pretty rocky". I DON'T CARE. From my point of view, unless what I'm dealing with is beta (which they've somehow determined it ISN'T), then either the software WORKS or it DOESN'T.

Hey, VALVe: If this is supposed to be working software then it's SHIT. It is totally fucking unnacceptable that I am supposed to believe that this SHITTY software represents what you consider to be working, usefull code. Your excuses fall on deaf ears. Not enough bandwidth? GET MORE SERVERS. I don't care why they aren't there already, or if you "grossly underestimated" the demand a release like this would create. I DON'T CARE. Saying things like that only serves to convince me that you really are as stupid as I am beginning to believe.

NOBODY ASKED YOU FOR THIS. As far as I know, you amassed a small country full of CS players who somehow managed to find the content they wanted themselves, and get it installed and running THEMSELVES. Yes, many many (way too many) of your customers are complete blithering idiots, but somehow they've coped without your miraculous "broadband business platform for direct software delivery and content management". I'll do it myself, thank you very much.

But you don't give one soft-fuck about keeping us up-to-date, really, except where that decreases your customer service load. No, you see this as an opportunity to usher in a new era where gamers are paying $9.95 a month to play your games just as if they were MMORPGs, and you are hell-bent on making things that way whatever the consequences to your customers. I bet the billing services built into Steam are working just fine. Well fuck off. Find yourself some suckers to sign-up for the mothly "service" you envision them wanting, and force Steam on THEM. Leave the rest of us alone.

All I want is a game I can hold in my hand on CD, install, update, and administer to MYSELF, which at the very most will let you know what my CD key is so that you can be sure I'm not stealing from you. I DON'T WANT A GAME PLUS THREE OR FOUR EXTRA GIGABYTES OF SHIT SITTING ON MY HARD DRIVE because you think you know what's better for me.

More to the point, I certainly don't want that stuff on my hard drive merely because you've decided to turn my hobby of gaming into some type of monthly subscriber service. Fuck off. Leave the future where it was, thanks.

why is there "Deus Ex" in the subject of your post?

ps: thats for #17

This comment was edited on Sep 16, 11:53.

On the Steam FAQ:
"Why is there non-Steam information in my Steam cache files? Is Steam Spyware?"

The question of "Is Steam Spyware?" isnt actually answered in the response. I sense government global type control going on with anyone who downloads Steam.

They said they're adding that in the next two weeks or so.

So, you want a company to give you a key based on your word? These keys are proof of purchases, worth the value of the game itself. Just because you have the box doesn't mean you don't have a key! It would be a very easy way to get two or more copies for the price of one otherwise.

Think of the key the item you actually paid for.

The key is your responsibility. Take greater care of them in future, they're more valuable than they seem.

Besides, Half-Life costs less than a tenner these days! I saw it a few months ago for £6 in EB!
This comment was edited on Sep 16, 11:40.

You idiots sound like typical slashdot posters.

valve are commited?
or valve should be commited?

www.orosian.org - What Am I?

God, we could only hope that Valve does things in the future as well as Microsoft has done in the past. Well, excluding their MMORPG ventures, of course.

Phone-in Win XP product activation? YES, I'LL HAVE ANOTHER! I've had to activate the same CD key about 8 times in the last year, and never once have I had to have been on the phone for more than 5 minutes to do it.

~anti steam mantra~

~valve are microsoft mantra~

They've already made me happy.

Happy that I stopped playing Half-Life after they refused to replace a legitimate lost CD-key. Nevermind the fact that I had a UPC and the cd, that wasn't enough. They wanted a reciept too from a game that was two years old.

This is just more crap from Valve. They've never even remotely understood the term 'customer support,' and they still fail to grasp the concept.

Make me happy, drop Steam and revert back to WON.

"and we're still committed to doing whatever it takes to make the community happy."

I WANT LAN SUPPORT {offline steam} X|! make me happy !

Actually, having used Steam up until the final release, most of the problems ARE new.

It was working very nicely up until 1.0 in my experience.

It WAS a little bloated in terms of footprint, I'll give you that, but otherwise, it worked swimmingly for me.

Also, if you click "Do Not Keep This Game Up To Date" then you can delete the local cache for the game and it won't take up any space on your drive.

Furthermore, most of the slowness being encountered is primarily due to the fact that the servers are being hit a little to hard.

I WOULD question the frequency with which Steam needs to contact servers as a valid concern about the application over all, however if they were working there would be a lot less complaints.

Anyhow, back to playing DoD.

You can stop Steam auto-updating by right-click on the game name int he game list, and selecting 'do not update this game'. Not sure how you clear the data files though...

This comment was edited on Sep 16, 10:19.

It might not be a router issue, I don't think Steam has worked reliably for most people, routers or not.

And at least they are admitting that the Steam delivery system has issues and offering alternatives rather than just making the community wait for a fix to steam.

Just bittorrent the .gcf's (from filerush or counter-hack.com), that's what I did and everything seems to be ok, although i havent had time to actually hop on a server.

Didn't they notice it was fecking shite after the beta test? It's not like most these problems are new.

How about a bit more feedback when you run it so it actually tells you what is going on instead of just freezing for half an hour.

we're still committed to doing whatever it takes to make the community happy.

Really? Hmmmm....whatever would make us happy, huh?




--
Tigger

'Got CS...gas?'
Edit: Had to fix my quote!
This comment was edited on Sep 16, 10:13.
Edit: Had to fix my comments - thought of something better!
This comment was edited on Sep 16, 10:14.

Ok I still want to know where in the options (I remember seeing them in the beta version) where I can subscribe and unsubscribe to the games.

I mean it's nice for all the CounterStrike fans to have the cache for that game but what if I don't want that one but TFC instead?

Plus say afterwards when HL2 comes out and I want to unsubscribe to HL (to save room), please don't just say to delete the files in the folder cause that is a stupid option.

Steam will see that I am still subscribed to it and will attempt to download the files to me again.