steam to annoying or worth trouble

I am competely annoyed by steam it has bugged me alot with updates,log in problems etc
so i want see if everyone hates steam orits just me so please vote

tnks

 

It's fine.. some things like the messaging has never worked but when it comes to just playing games or distributing games. It works just fine.

 

This belongs in the gaming area.

I don't like steam. It is a pain in the butt.
Tim

 

It's completely fine to use. Although I don't know why it won't let me stay with mini-gui.

 

Hmm, depends on what you mean.

Is it annoying? Yes, very much so.

Is it worth the trouble? Um. I would not give up access to my Steam games, if that's what you're asking. So yes, I suppose it is worth the trouble

So, dunno what to vote here...

 

its completly fine with me. Ive never had any problems or annoyances with it, I actually think its a great program, and I wish more games used it. Ive never been annoyed by the updates. I guess having a 10MB/s cable connection will help with those, they never take more then 30 seconds to do, and the inital updates when installing it on my new computer took all but 5 minutes, along with the 10 minutes to install HL2. I really love steam.

 

It all boils down to what kind of Internet connection you have. If its nice and fast you are gonna love steam, much like Sheff here, because it wont give you much trouble and the whole automatic update thing means that you wont be looking all over the net for new patches and updates. But if you have a connection on the slower side, you are going to HATE IT! It toke me an ENTIRE DAY till I was able to play HL2. You'd think that steam would put into account that some of there consumers would be behind routers. So I had to resort to my dial-up connection. But in all honesty, it was very much worth it. HL2 is one of those gaming experiences that you must not let go by.

 

I haven't had any problems with Steam since I started using it in Dec. '04. What I find annoying about it (recently) is that I select the "Mini Games List" when it is open, but whenever I restart it, I have to do the same thing again. It used to just keep the settings. Agreed with xmen:

 

The only big problem I had with them was when I first bought half life 2 (my first steam game actually). I tried entering my registration code to activate it, and there servers were busy, and something got ****ed up and it wouldn't let me activate after that because the "cd key already in use". Ha, I just didn't touch it for like 2 months until I got pissed one day and mailed in my reciept and reg code, they fixed my acount up no problem. No trouble since then, its actually very convient, I don't even need to leave my house to buy video games! Now thats the life!

Chaz: In the steam settings you can set which window is your default when steam opens up, but it is a shame that it doesnt just open to whatever tab you had open last.

 

The only problem I have with Steam is the slow update download rates. I would much prefer a http download than whatever rubbish they have.

 

Like said before its all your connection speed. If you have a slow connection, its going to download slow. I know im lucky to have such a fast connection. I was downloading EP1 on my new computer since I temporarly lost the CD, and I was averaging about 800kb/s, and maxed out at 1200kb/s on steam.

 

i agree the slow downloads are realy annoying
most of my time is spent just waiting for an update to finish

 

It's not my connection speed, trust me.

I get 160KB/s on an http download, but only 40 through steam. So what should be acheived in the timeframe of the Firefly pilot takes The Fellowship of the Ring and half of The Two Towers.

 

What are you talking about, I have no idea what that means.

Ok so if its not your connection speed (would you mind telling us what it is?) what time of day are you getting these slow speeds? On a saturday afternoon? around 3 o'clock on a weekday? These are prime times when kids play games. At these times the servers are pretty busy with alot of traffic. But I still dont see how you can average 40kb/s if you've got a "fast" connection even during busy times, thats incredbly slow.

Oh and if you have DSL, thats not a "fast" connection. No its not slow like dial-up (56k) but DSL is still only what 512k? Thats nothing compared to cable, and cable is high speed.

 

I have 1.5Mbps.

EDIT: And with the comparison, I meant that what should take an hour and a half takes 5.

 

i dont like the whole idea of steam.

 

I downloaded the demo of Half-Life 2 and it reminded me of what I hated so much about Steam. While I remain unimpressed by the game, it's Steam that really kills it for me.

When a DRM scheme - and don't mistake Steam for anything other than what it is, a DRM scheme - forces me to have an internet connection to activate and continue using my single player SINGLE PLAYER game, I take issue. I take issue with the fact that I have to run this proprietary POS program, this resource hog, just to play their game. I'm glad you guys are willing to bend over for it, way to show big business how you really feel about DRM.

And what's worse, is that it's largely a method of advertising all the other crap they sell over it.

I hated that I downloaded the frigging 720MB demo, then had to wait for Steam to do ITS thing before the game itself launched.

I thought games that used a CD check were irritating. Steam sure showed me.

 

You dont need to be connected to the internet to play single player, you can just select to go in offline mode, and it still works. I know, ive done it on more than 1 occasion.

 

True, but people without internet access are still screwed by steam.

 

Only complaint I have with steam is the fact that it won't end properly on my desktop. Hangs on shutdown everytime, and if I'm not paying attention the desktop will never shutdown.

 

Yeah but people without internet connections usually dont have the money for a computer capable of playing steam games, so it dosent really matter.

I dont know why all of these problems are happening to you people. I can say that ive had no trouble with it at all. Im not saying that your at fault or stupid and cant get it to work right. Im just saying I think its great and love it, thats my opinion.

 

Yes, once you've been online to activate your game.

So? If it's slow, it's slow. If Steam can't handle the traffic it's getting, that is not an excuse. Rather, it is an example of its flaws.

And like said by others, my download speed on Steam is much lower than on virtually everything else. I can download with 400-500KB/s through http or ftp or other such, but on Steam, I'm lucky to get 100. Most likely, I'm around 50kb/s or so. If it works for you, that's fine, but apparently, it doesn't for a lot of others. I'd say that's a problem. Wouldn't you?

Not. True.

In any case, I like the idea of distributing games online, through downloads instead of boxed copies with half a dozen CD's inside. It's a great way of cutting costs, of allowing games to be marketed and seen without having to fight for shelf space at retail stores.

But the actual *implementation* is a different matter. Steam just doesn't work well compared to what it should be.

 

I agree with you completely.

Being able to purchase and download a game online is great. While it's a convenience I haven't personally taken advantage of, it's an excellent idea.

The problem is that Steam is NOT this. This is a function of Steam but I really don't think it's the intended purpose. If that were the case, games wouldn't be inextricably DRM-tied to it.

Think of Steam in these terms: when NetZero came out, you got internet access for free but had to deal with ads. Now, with Steam, you paid for the game, but you still have to deal with ads, and worse, MUST use the client to access the game for no other reason than because they decided so. Not because these games use a common library that needs Steam in the background.

But because they felt like tying them together. That's crap.

 

Well, right as of this moment - I am getting 41.6KB/s updating CSS.

 

Ok I understand that you people are getting crap speeds, fine. Im telling you that I get fast speeds on Steam, very fast. I get about 800kb/s average. So fine ill say it, either your connection is screwed up, or your computer is, because I use steam all the time and I always get great speeds.

 

Sheff is oblivious to the location difference of himself and Sylvain. I don't enjoy steam because it does not have the resources to make it work well internationally. I understand remote or underdeveloped areas, but Sydney? I personally understand the frustration due to my slow satellite connection but at least I know what the problem is.

 

LOL I just think the way Steam downloads is screwed. Well, atleast for Australians. The other people at my uni who use Steam also complain about slow transfer speeds.

180KB/s is the theoretical maximum for my ADSL line. I get 156KB/s on an http download, so neither my connection nor my computer is screwed.

 

Steam is fine... I use it just about everyday to play DODS. I hardly ever have problems...

 

Oh - I don't have any troubles actually PLAYING my games, just downloading patches and installing my games, I have to leave it on overnight.

A.C, I was posting up my rant when when I saw yours, I have to agree with you - it must be location.

 

To be completely honest the whole Steam concept wasn’t implemented to make it easier on people. Its there to stop people from pirating the games. Now, I AM NOT preaching anything here (mostly because I have pirated my fair share of games, but never anything I would willingly pay money for). Its designed to make it impossible for someone to steal a game from them, they only worried about the user after they solved that problem. As far as the download speed goes, it depends on 3 things: your location, your type of internet (probably dependent on your location), and how much of steams bandwidth is being used. Steam doesn’t really have control over most of that (other than there bandwidth, but I don't think that’s the narrow part of the pipe if people are getting 800kbps in some cases). The only other factor that should be included in the steam formula is the user. I have no problem with letting something download overnight, but I am almost always downloading large files overnight and it doesn’t bother me. Slyvain feels as though he should not have to wait, which is his right to feel that way, and he doesn’t want to wait. I really find steam to be really conveint way to buy/play games and a pain in my ass at the same time, its worth the trouble.

 

Ok well I find 180kb/s to be a pretty slow connection. But I guess its still a great upgrade from 56k. But for someone like me whos had a 10Mb/s connection for 3 years, anything else will seem slow. If anything I try and down/upload goes slower than 400kb/s I cancel it.

 

ROFL, I'm going to take a shot in the dark and say you don't use bittorrent too often, huh?

 

Meh. I personally just won't let their crap infest my computer. They've got way too many low-level hooks in Steam to make it worthwhile. One of my buddies was going to buy HL2, but because of Steam, he got the cracked version. And it runs better than the Steam version... it starts right when he wants it to. DRM schemes that penalize legit users just drive more people who would otherwise be legit to the "dark" side, and the people who are there anyway aren't gonna change. Games like Galactic Civilizations II have proven that a good game at a reasonable price will sell like hotcakes, sans copy protection.

 

When I first bought HL2, i installed it and I HATED steam because it was so slow,but now for some reason I always get at least 400kb/s on a 6mb cable connection

 

No ive never used bittorrent. I dont even know what it does. I've heard of it, but only bad things, so ive never even looked into it. If I ever want to download anything, images, videos, music, I use Limewire. But you need good security software if you use it, so Macafee is always on.

 

Yeah, I am so jealous of you American's connections! LOL.

Up until a month ago, 1.5Mbit was the fastest residential speed available. Now I'm just waiting for my exchange to be upgraded, then I hit the 24Mbit/sec mark.

 

Its pretty much the same concept as limewire, except its ussually slower, but you are almost ALWAYS going to find what your looking to download. Ha, yeah, I scan EVERYTHING with avast before I even open the folder its in when download from limewire or bittorent. To use bittorent you need a client, there are a few good ones like abc bittorrent and bitcomet (bitcomet is a little buggy, but has alot of nice options). Then you just go to a site like www.thepiratebay.org or www.isohunt.com and search for what your looking for. Once you find it, download the file and it the file extension should be associated with your client so it should just fire up and start downloading when you click on it. I ussualy get like 80kbps on a popular download but on something that isnt very common I might only get like 10kbps, ha, those are the all nighters.

 

Yeah usually great things get good where they were created and then slowly go out to the rest of the world. In the internets case its taken this long. I actually saw a "modern marvels" on the history channel today about how the internet was invented and developed. The guy who invented the first packet switch/router was standing next to it. He pulled out the CPU and said he calculator watch had more powe then its CPU. The thing was the size of a large refrigeration, and the CPU moduel was larger then my entire desktop. Oh how things chage. Then they showed CISCO Systems new exparamental "super" router. It could handle 92 terrabytes of traffic. Thats like downloading the entire US library of congress in 5 seconds, if you had a few hundred terrabytes of storage space Very interesting stuff.

 

I had always heard bad things about Steam, but I recently installed HL2, HL:S, CS:C, DOD:S, HL2: DM, HL2:LC, and HL2:EO without a single issue. Steam updated all the games and connects me to servers flawlessly... I'm not sure what the fuss is about. Thumbs up for Valve!

 

Never had one problem with Steam in the 2+ years I've used it. It is reliable, well coded, and decently fast.

It's really quite simple: just don't use it on 56k. Period. Issues with Steam are very likely to depend on one's own computer (which probably messes up in some other way) or cheap/poor connection.

C.

 

In fact it's so simple that it doesnt matter that the people in this thread who had problems were not on 56k. But of course, that doesnt matter because "it's really quite simple, don't use it on 56k. Period.

Or no, wait, maybe that is not the problem since those of us who have had problems weren't actually on 56k
And I like how you can claim it's well coded. I suppose you've seen the code?
Maybe, just maybe, it's not that simple. Maybe there are actually some problems with Steam. The fact that they don't affect everyone equally doesn't mean they don't exist.

 

I was always wary of it after hearing the stories but I find it no bother at all.

I'd still rather it wasn't there though.

 

steams fine