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 Steam will patch your games automatically, so you will never have to worry about being outdated.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 01:19 | 
Written by Neil
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
This is a legitimate complaint about Steam. The real problem is the world's lack of broadband and reasonable monthly download caps. I live in America and I never do any traveling. As such, Comcast has an unwritten rule - 250GB monthly bandwidth cap. This is extremely reasonable. I have only ever hit about 200gigs per month, and that's due to some pretty heavy downloading. It's hard to accidentally go over that limit.
For somebody like you who travels a lot, you have to deal with some pretty absurd monthly bandwidth caps. Broadband isn't available in a near unlimited form around the globe unless you have the money to pay for it, and even then it's insanely expensive.
But I must digress, this is not Steam's fault. Steam is valve's attempt to piggyback on an existing technology--that being internet. Steam basically offers retail games in download form. Most modern games are 8+ gigs due to dual layer DVDs being the primary medium for PC games. I'm sure you know this already, I'm not trying to tell you something you already know as an answer. You have a valid argument that Steam is too bandwidth excessive. I agree whole heartedly about this one.
I've read about Steam insisting on trying to update the game. They really need to make game auto updating more accessible and effective. On top of that, the issue with Steam trying to download the game rather than install from a CD, I've witnessed this issue personally and I was able to get around it somehow, though I forget.
Steam isn't for everyone. If you have limited access to the internet, Steam really is a huge obstacle. If you have near unrestricted acccess, Steam is a godsend. If you feel this way, you should try to contact Steam and voice your opinion. Steam is usually deaf until lots of users scream about the same thing, in which case they fix it. I wish they had a more active tech support in the form of instant chat or phone support. That's one of my major gripes about Steam.
And yes, I definitely agree that if a legitimate PC gaming experience is hindered and can be resolved by resorting to piracy, then by all means, go crazy. Don't give them a dime. Vote with your wallet and get what you want out of it. It's just sad that game companies are unwilling to see the truth of the matter, that piracy isn't just about getting a game for free, it's the gamer's way of saying somebody fucked up.
-Neil
I have had ups and downs with steam since it came out back in the day.
I moved to the UK for a period of time where bandwidth was plentiful. I returned to my home country where bandwidth is capped, expensive and not so plentiful.
I am not a major user of steam, I play TF2 and L4D occasionally, but on the most part, I play single player games. I appreciate what steam does and what its core elements are, auto updating, auto installing, keep it all in one place, games management , I kind of ITunes for games, and on pen and paper it seems to work. But in reference to your post Neil, I believe your list would be compacted fist punched paper ball in the corner if you took into consideration the following MAJOR problem with steam and with many parts of the world - BANDWIDTH - you cannot understand the frustration when you take infinite bandwidth and connectivity out of the steam paradigm.
Let me vent.
I love zombies, I am on holiday, and am about to spend 5 days with the folks in a place where there is no connectivity, no reception ect. I bought left 4 dead 2 this afternoon, I live in a major city and we have connectivity here. I do not have ADSL, I am more of a business user on the move kinda user, my requirements are slim. This didnt hinder the first L4D for me, patches were in the MBs I recall. Back to L4D2, I have been wanting this game since it came out.
The box read "Left 4 Dead 2" and mentioned online activation. Not a problem, I have a 5GB monthly cap and can spare a few MB worth of activation packets, and I can skip the updates. Things were not so picturesque. If the box read "Left 4 Dead 2: Fuck with steam around all afternoon, disable all forms of auto update, reinstalling 3 times to try and bypass the auto update so I can play the game AS IS OUT THE BOX but get nowhere doing it edition" I would have put the box down, and purchased Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Metro 2033 from the bargain bin.
My outlook on steam has changed. I will hold a steam retail game as if I am holding gang rape in a box. I will not buy another steam/valve related product. It feels like betrayal, like a con. I buy the game single player game, I get the key, I put the cd in, I install, but I need to fucking wait 15hours for an undisclosed download which has no size indication ? Fuck you steam. You are not managing enterprise level software which require downloads of such magnitude, you are peddling video games FFS - like pacman. Sort your offline model out, customize the updates so a simple user can have control over this sort of thing. Even after disabling the 'keep up to date' option BEFORE I went online, steam immediately makes other plans. Why should a single player have to experience this?
I would bitch on their forums, but my account is not approved by their admin yet and their forum search facility is disabled. If I want a game which has a steam logo on it, I will get a hacked offline version of it in future.
Now with Call of Duty Black Ops (retail DVD) it was doing it again. I cancelled it, and started looking for a solution. Steam support is only available with a ticket and they will get back to you, perhaps in 48hours, with a stupid standard repsonse.
Here is the trick, remove any local cache already present (My games - right click game).
Uninstall the game, steam will say it will stay in your overview but not playable, that's fine.
Quit steam completely.
Run this command:
D:\games\steam\steam.exe -install F:
Adjust the path to your steam location, and adjust the drive letter to your DVD.
In windows vista or 7 with UAC on, you should open a command lmine (CMD) as administrator and then type in the command.
I had to try 5 times because it said steam servers are busy, apparently it first checks something online before it will start the install. But after 5 attempts, the servers were responsive and the installation started from DVD !
I can't tell if this issue is because of me using Windows 7 64-bit or because i have steam in a custom location instead of C:\program files, but the solution works, thanks to "AnthonyJAttard".
PS: I'm no novice when i comes to PC's, i do this for a living.
I have never had that happen to me and yes, I have installed games directly from the DVD even though it is a game that you can download from Steam.
It sounds to me like you don't know what you're doing or perhaps there's a bug in this current version of Steam.
With statements like that, there's no way I can respond without sounding like a Steam apologist.
But, seriously, that's hardly a reason to get mad at Steam when there are hundreds of ways that it's awesome.
At this point I would love to know how much you know about computers because I'm drawing a very distinct image. lol
How the FUCK is steam a benefit when it does this bullshit?
Quoting William:
In my experience, Steam for single player games has been a godsend to me. I'll respond to your more specific points below.
Quote:
I have no idea what you are referring to here.
Quote:
With steam, lets say a game is going to be released 10 days from now. Steam lets you buy the game now and predownload it. The minute it becomes available, you can begin playing it.
That's just one example, most games take around an hour to 2 hours to download. Sometimes longer depending on the size (FEAR2 is an example of a game that is retardedly huge and takes 4+ hours to download because it is 12gigs). For the most part, it's faster for most people to purchase a game on Steam, let it download in less than 2 hours, and begin playing it without every stepping foot in a store. Not to mention, some (not all) games can take more than 30 minutes to install.
Quote:
If steam gets corrupted, you can just reinstall Steam on top of itself. You don't have to uninstall it (in fact, you shouldn't as that will also uninstall your games). If you reinstall Steam, that will fix any corruptions with the Steam program.
Games are a different story. If your game corrupts, that may be due to several factors, most of which may not be the result of Steam. In any case, Steam lets you validate the game and if it finds any discrepancies, it downloads *only* the corrupted or mismatched files. Validating can take around 5 minutes and then downloading the specific files takes less than 10 minutes. This is very rare when it happens, but when it does, Steam can usually fix the game in no time flat. Not to mention, if a game is completely uninstalled due to you reinstalling Windows, Steam will also launch install wizards for things like direct X or third party audio engines, etc. Steam will never require you to completely redownload or reinstall a game because it version matches all of your files and detects what isn't and is installed.
You may be stretching the truth because you don't know that much about how Steam works.
Quote:
Steam sells new games at retail price, but the price of games on Steam decreases faster than it does at, say, Best Buy. Steam will slash the price of games by $10 within the first 6months-year. Eventually the game will reach $30 status and $20 status, it all depends on the popularity of the game.
But what Steam totally gets right is the occasional deals. It seems like every weekend, or once every few months, steam will have a huge blowout where some game or game pack is offered at a 30-50% discount. This sometimes includes new releases. When was the last time Best Buy did that.... or any local game shop for that matter?
But if you prefer having a useless manual, box art, and a DVD that you must always put into your comp just to play the game, then suit yourself. 90% of PC games simply do not require a physical existence. For the games that do (i.e. Starcraft II), they at least allow you to download and tie your game to Battle.net so that you aren't required to put the DVD in your PC in order to play the game. I actually purchased the collectors edition of Starcraft II rather than buying a digital copy from battle.net. It all depends on the game and whether it's worth it and quite frankly, most PC games are *not* worth having a physical copy.
Quote:
I whole heartedly agree. This is less of a Steam positive and more of a side effect of PC gaming as a whole. Steam has simply filled the gap. Whenever you buy a hard copy of a game, it comes with some form of DRM and it can only be avoided by using a cracked EXE. Steam is always online and if it isn't, you can go into offline mode and still play the game without an active internet connection and since it's digital, you don't need to put the DVD in the drive. Steam is so transparent, you never even know about the DRM if the game even has it. It seems like the DRM that comes with physical copies of games is so draconian that it affects legitimate buyers more than it affects pirates.
There are a few select games on Steam that do require an always active internet connection to play *cough*Ubisoft*cough*, but that's not Steam's fault.
Quote:
Steam lets you turn off automatic patching for certain games. It's on a per game basis, though. You have to right click the game and go to properties and then go to the Updates tab.
If you don't like automatic updates for your games, then turn them off. I do agree, Steam should allow you to set a time when updates are automatically downloaded... rather than, when it's least appropriate.
Except, here's the catch. This isn't really a big issue. It's a rare issue. I have tons of games on Steam and they are seemingly always up-to-date. If they're not, I'm willing to wait. Certain games take like 1 minute to update, and others take like 10 minutes. It depends.
One thing is sure though, games like Call of Duty World at War have 1gigabyte patches. Not only does it take for fucking ever to download, but it takes forever to install and uses up a whole gig in your temporary folder. I once had an issue because of that. With steam, those kinds of patches are always automatically downoaded and automatically installed and I never even know about it. I love it.
Quote:
I was pointing out that the installation wizard is 90% taken care of by Steam. You download the game and then play it. There isn't an install wizard unless some game has to install a lot of weird extra crap. I wasn't saying that because it saves time, I was pointing out the convenience of not having to fuck with installation wizards.
Quote:
And if somebody steals your game it's gone forever. Your Steam account can't be stolen. If it is, you can easily retrieve it by proving you're the owner, which can be done through various ways.
But regardless, if you lose your game, cd, or cd case, you're screwed. Not to mention, if the game becomes damaged, you're screwed. If you take care of your game, then it's not a big deal. Some people are wreckless and some people are careful. I happen to be careful, but not blind when it comes to seeing the finer points of using Steam over buying physical copies of everything.
Quote:
CD keys are fucking annoying. I keep my CD keys in a google doc and I never look at the printed key ever again. Most people don't do this. Most people just toss their game in some random corner and then it's gone forever. Steam was made for those kinds of people.
Quote:
I'm not one to advocate piracy, but I have done my fair share of it. I beat Crysis, the entire game. Most people hated that game, but not me. I love that game. I went out and bought a copy of it just to support the developers and then they shit on their target audience (PC gamers) by saying they have no choice but to seek an alternative platform for their future games. They designed a horribly unoptimized game, pushed Direct X 10 when it clearly wasn't the primary framework due to it being Windows Vista only at the time, and then have the nerve to blame their poor sales on pc gamers? They designed a game that runs like shit!
Point is, you pirate the games that suck and you buy the games that don't. It's the way the PC gamer works and if game developers are too cheap to support the platform, then maybe they shouldn't be making games for it. Piracy is here for a reason.
Quote:
Again, Steam will only download files for mismatched or corrupted files. If it has to redownload an entire game, maybe a virus corrupted every file. Sounds to me like it's anything but Steam's fault.
Quote:
Once again, if you buy a game purely for the single player experience, then turn off automatic updating for your game. Besides, a 15 minute wait is well worth it when you compare it to the shitty hand you are dealt by owning a physical copy of the game (e.g. DVD must be in drive, manual patching, cd key / DRM hassles, and fuck tons more).
In the end, if you want physical crap to go with your digital game, then buy the physical copy. But if you only care about the game, then all of that other shit is unnecessary. Steam is not for everyone.
-Neil
10. Steam chat system is completely useless for people who enjoy single player games. People like me want to play games as and when we are free, and we will close the game as and when we wish. We dont have to wait for other players/friends to come online.
9. I live in a place, where at least 10 PC game shops are within a mile radius. I can go for game shopping, have my lunch, shop groceries and come back and have the game installed...in like 2 hours...while steam supporters download their games for countless hours. If you live in a cave, where the nearest PC shop is like 3 days flight, maybe Steam is better for you.
8. Nobody reinstalls windows everyday. In fact, there is higher chance of steam getting corrupted, than microsoft windows. Really, windows get corrupt a lot, but steam does just a little more frequent than windows.
7. Maybe they offer cheaper... (maybe)... but i'd rather pay for a full DVD that comes with some nice printed cover, and manual, and some goodies.
6. No security rights management? who cares, I paid for the game. They should be after the pirated gamers. Dont bug the ones who bought the legitimate copies.
5. Automatic patching: the shittiest part about steam. It wants you to automatically patch it NOW!!!!!! No, you dont play the game!! PATCH PATCH PATCH!! NOOO NOT YET DONE!! STILL PATCHING... just another 5 more hours!!! ~ Why cant i download the patch another time when Im not playing the game? Steam wants to patch for you, right at the moment, when you click "PLAY GAME"
4. Yah right, no need to install.... just download for hours, while installation can be done within minutes. Hello? The read speed from the CD/DVD is still faster than downloading from your Cable/Fiber Optic/Super Duper Satellite Dish Connection!!
3. Cant lose the games? Again, who cares?? If you lose your game, its your problem!! If you're like some 13 yr old kid who cant keep his own PC Games in order, you deserve it!
2. CD Keys? They're always in the box!! Just dont lose them. Again, its more suitable for some messy people., or some kids.
1. Sadly, its not up to me to decide if i use steam. Its only whether to play the game with steam or not to play. Well, there is the other way, pirate it? I want to support original gaming industry. The developers deserve the money., but not steam!!
and more here...
- when steam corrupts on your com, your games die with it. Or at least, prepare to spend countless hours re-downloading the games which you already have on your DVD, but just steam wont let you re-install from the discs, because of that just 5kb update. Steam decides that you download both 4GB + 5kb worth of data from their server. What a great thinking!
- i play single player, and i paid for the dvds from the shop. I will update the game as an when I want. But steam (like your old granny) insists you must update NOW!!!! and you may never play the game. Sometimes, i just want a 15min play before going to bed, but steam insists the latest patch is available and you must download it for 15mins before you can play. F**k off steam!
I have over 100 games on my Steam account and every single one of them work great.
But just out of curiosity, can you elaborate? Which game did you try to install?
What exactly are you doing that is causing your Steam to behave this way? Have you tried formatting and reinstalling Windows?