Why buy games from the store when Steam offers deals and price advantages? Preorders sometimes get a $2-5 discount, along with early access to the game (sometimes). Steam often has weekend specials ranging from 20-50% off popular / current games. Also, Steam offers bundles of games by publishers that can even further decrease the cost, but those bundles usually contain older games. If you're into older games, Steam is a boon for you!
I can't say Steam is without DRM because Steam itself is a form of digital rights management, but it is very lax... in other words, friendly. There are no activation limits or constantly running background processes. Steam is master so there's no need for additional software. All that is required is Steam needs to be running and you need to be logged into your Steam account. That's it.
One of the biggest annoyances in the PC universe is keeping your games up to date with the latest patches. Steam will patch your games automatically, so you will never have to worry about being outdated. Also, Steam defragments your game while it's installing, and you can even defragment your games manually from within Steam. This makes your games have better performance and load times than store-bought games or other download services (like Direct2Drive).
Once you buy the game, Steam automatically downloads and installs your game so that it's ready to play as soon as it's finished. You don't have to tinker with annoying installation dialogs or decide where to install your games, Steam does it all for you.
Unlike store-bought games or other download services like Direct2drive.com, you can never lose your games on Steam. If you reinstall Windows or go to a different computer entirely, you can just redownload your games without any fuss. There isn't a limit on the number of times you can download a game because Steam is simple. As long as you are logged in to your Steam name, nobody else can download or play your games from a second location. This eliminates the threat of illegally duplicating your games for friends, which lets you download your games an unlimited number of times from Steam. On the flipside, you can lose your entire collection of games by having your account hijacked, but Steam is quick to return your stolen Steam account if you can provide proof the Steam account is yours. I ran into this situation once and it took Steam less than a week to respond and they have a pretty much fool proof method of dealing with cases like that.
Steam takes care of the CD key hassle entirely, but if a certain game requires a CD key at first launch, Steam will prompt you with an "in-game" message containing your CD key. No need to write it down first, just look at the lower right corner of the screen and type what you see. Also, you can access your CD key from the properties of your game in the Steam program.
This is my number one annoyance in the PC universe. Virtually every game released for PC's nowadays requires the CD / DVD to be in the drive in order to play. If you're like me, you absolutely despise this... as a power user, I feel like I have been reduced to a console gamer, where disks will almost always be required. As a PC user, I have ample harddrive space, memory and ram and nothing annoys me more than having to put a slow disk in the drive... which isn't used for anything other than an antipiracy measure employed by nasty DRM software. Since steam is an all digital delivery platform, it's safe to assume a CD check isn't required, which makes Steam officially awesome.
Like any good persuasive essay (list form or not), it's a good idea to list the potential negatives.
Disadvantages to using Steam
It's a given that Steam requires an internet connection in order to download your games, but sometimes Steam goes a step too far and requires an active connection in order to play your games. An example of this is Half-Life 2. Valve has since relaxed its connection requirement for most of its games since Half-Life 2, including HL2 Episodes 1 and 2, but if you have this burning desire to play one of your games that is exclusive to Steam, you may be disappointed. Very rarely are games on Steam required to have an active connection, but when they do, you can find out by looking at the description of the game before you purchase.
Sometimes games can range from 4-15 gigabytes, which is almost too much to handle for slower internet connections. If you are a victim of slow internet, Steam may be a huge burden. This can be an all-or-nothing point that can sway you from choosing Steam, but it is also a hypothetical one. Slow connection or not, you will get your game eventually and I know plenty of people on wireless connections with Dialup speeds that still prefer Steam, but I can feel their pain!
In the end, it's up to you if you decide to use Steam. If you prefer the physical copy of a game over a digital copy, then Steam could never satisfy you.. but if you're warm to the digital revolution, Steam is a big step forward with some extremely prominent benefits for which its worth salivating.
List made by Neil with the help of Steven Michael Bryan, Erik and others.
Tuesday, 06 October 2009 00:19
I've been using Steam for several years now, but only recently have I begun to truly cherish the service it offers. In the early days, Steam was chastised by many gamers due to it's imposing-like nature, but over time Steam has earned a new reputation for being the best thing since sliced bread. It's impossible to emphasize how great Steam is without resorting to a list of points, so that's exactly what I've decided to do. This is my own, personal list of reasons to use Steam, with a few suggestions and influences from my friends.
Comments
But trust me, instead of buying from Steam, you can as well pirate that game. Maybe that's my opinion but I always hated buy to digital download thing. Well, ONLY one exception: Garry's mod because I wanted to play that game directly on steam (since there is no retail for that game).
Do you not see at all how your comment was misconstrued? (it was very very different) also steams only purpose isn't DRM it is now an update system, game manager, mod manager it is not a bad DRM by any means at all I think I prefer games to have steam than not, as the advantages MASSIVELY outweigh the disadvantages, I had BF2 as a child and lost the disc (which if for steam wouldn't have been a problem) so I bought it on steam and re-downloaded without having to track down a copy and sort out the secondhand key bullshit which gets on my nerves (I rarely buy EA games now because of this) but steam just says here you go have it for £5 (i got the game and all dlc for that) if you need a key its okay use this one as many times as you want on however many machines you want with as many EA accounts, it really is a more reliable system than disc's and it will more than likely be the future on all gaming platforms not matter if it is PC or Console , it also supports indie developers who cant afford to burn millions of disc's and trust me indie games are better than AAA games at the moment
Your point is invalid. I didn't say piracy is a solution, I only said I'd rather download games for free instead of paying on steam. I mostly buy games from eBay (I'm talking about old ones which I didn't had the chance to get them in '90s). Yes I know most newer games use DRM but I really hate the whole DRM thing, that's the only thing I hate. Yes I know I exagerrated a bit but screw the DRM bullshit! When I got all achievements on DNF and played multiplayer (I'm currently at level 31) I wanted to try out cheats and didn't work on steam version because was patched so I got a non-steam crack and played it without steam. I don't hate steam in general, only the DRM thing. IMO retail games shouldn't have DRM on them. End of discussion.
that whole comment was ridiculous you basicly said piracy was a viable option and trying to have your game be sold for a reasonable price with 'decent' security is wrong?
I mean come on Steam doesn't fuck you over at all to be honest and you 'graphics card issue' wasn't steam in the slightest, every PC Gamer knows that, your DNF is the reason the game didn't save, you only save on the client side with that game, unless you use the NEW system of steamcloud + achievements would not even be there if not for steam or another 'DRM'
Man, you obviuosly have a slow internet connection and storage problems on your computer, because otherwise you wouldnt be complaining. I have been a member since steam started with HL2, the bugs were fixed trough time and much of what you dont realise was improved.
I accidently damaged my HL2 CD, got shit scared i wouldnt be able to install it again back then. Yeah steam did its job well and still does.
You think, programs that are created each day are without faults?!? I dont say its better than buying a physical copy of a game cause you have something to hold, but its nontheless very good and much of the finances that had to be invested in making physical copies and booklets, promotion and so on, can be now invested into making the game better longer production time (i have to aplaude the many developers for their creativity!!!).
STEAM is fast! (i have fiber optics so it depends on your connection), its mostly secure, incorporated chat (never used it, but for gamers that are chating its a big +), secures achievements, it even has warning signs to explain if games are available in diferent languages optimization and so on..... and you can get games for the price of 2 COFFEES (atleast in my county).
So HELL YEAH i will buy on steam and if everyone would the developers would have the resources to make such breaktroughs, we havent even begin to imagine, and the motivation to do so.
And if you think the developers get anything because you play pirated games, cause its easier, youre living in a dream world. If youre not sure about a game, get a demo, try it, evaluate it and wait on steam sales if you like it. In fact the ONLY thing i dont like with steam, are the video presentation (something is seriously wrong with these streaming videos, they use too much connection speed, even tear apart, one even managed to use all my graphic card ram which was unbeliavable).
If every game was between 5 & 20 EUROS, mostly all gamers out there would buy a game that they like, rather then pirate it! Imagine the masses. Dude youre not thinking outside the box for possibilities.
Steam is a security vulnerability that open so many holes into your computer that it's just like asking to have everything you do monitored!
To all the game companies... if you sell only on Steam that prepare to lose gamers!!!
In the end, Steam SUCKS ASS! If you want to get ORIGINAL GAMES (psychical copies) which I recommend, get them cheaply from eBay or Amazon or something. If you don't want newer games to use Steam, try copying the contents from the DVD or use a crack or something. Never use Steam!
I didn't have that problem. I think because I didn't have Steam running when I installed it. I put the DVD in (Skyrim), installed the game from DVD. Then Steam handles the updates.
Hope that helps someone.
Furthermore, when was anyone ever bothered by "having to put a dvd in a drive"; it takes about 4 seconds from opening the disk case to actually loading the programme. I'd rather have a disk I could play and sell on later than a digital copy I could spend hours downloading wherever I am in the world, when I'm doing one of my frequent intercontinental excursions with my desktop PC. Most gamers BARELY TRAVEL so what is so great about having the ability to get at your games anywhere in the world? An easier way of doing it would be to just HAVE THE DISK WITH YOU, and maybe a savegame file ripped from your PC on a memory card. No, steam offers nothing except the occasional bargain bucket deal, ability to talk to 12year old russian kids with the mic too close to their faces, the ability to spend INFINITE TIME downloading all your games should you for some reason (maybe a steam-downloaded virus) need to reinstall windows, irritating patching of your games without consent, (what if I happened to enjoy the glitches? Do I get a choice?) And ARRRRRRRGGGGG!!! FUCK YOU!! IT JUST FINISHED THE FUCKING UPDATE AND FAILED!!! FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111
So why am I currently waiting for steam to update (my virus collection apparently) and have been doing so on a high speed broadband connection for the past 20 minutes. Its 60% done now. Piss take. Every couple of minutes my anti virus flags a new file in the steam folder as a trojan. I've also tried restarting in offline mode twice, however you don't get the option to do so until AFTER steam has started up, which it refuses to do because it needs to update. I've disconnected inet access, and it tells me "failed to connect to servers for updates". So no I don't think I really can access MY GAMES when I WANT TO because I'm having to wait around for steam to infect my computer, then I'll have to run a virus scan and undo all the damage it caused.
there are a 1000 reasons why you dont want to buy steam games, one is if you do your an idiot punk that cares nothing about the desturtive DRM put on your rig to data mine you or how steam limits their games because there all console ported crap.
or how you have to play with whinney little children, pros hate it and still dont use it.
I'm a retard and everything I say is meaningless.