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RE: Stupid
By Thalyn on 7/15/2011 2:08:41 AM , Rating: 1
Ironically, I consider Steam to be a reason to not purchase a game. I have, on more than one occasion, picked up a retail box, read the blurb and been ready to put down some cash until I see the words "Steam" or "Steamworks". It's why I don't own Darksiders or Duke Nukem Forever, among others.


Because it doesn't work. I'm sure for some people it does. But for me, I gave up on it entirely after three events:

1) My brother bought Half-life. His PC at the time didn't have the power to run it, mine did, so we installed it on mine for him to play it. When it came time to uninstall it I removed the Sierra Utilities (the precurser to Steam) first - and it took 6gb of my other data with it. I had an 8gb drive at the time. Not impressed, and Sierra's response was "Next time, upgrade to version before uninstalling." No apology was given.

2) My brother, not having learned his lesson, was an early adopter of Half-life 2. He bought it, installed it onto his PC, and was subsequently not allowed to play it because of its online "protection" through an early incarnation of Steam. It was only a few days later when MadockX broke the protection and released the crack that my brother could play a game he legally owned.

3) My own purchase this time. I bought Mafia II. Thoroughly enjoyed the first one, figured I'd give Steam another go. It crashed no less than twice while trying to install Steam, and again when trying to finish the Mafia II installation. This is a supposedly mature system, and it was awful.

So, no, Steam is not done right. It's perhaps a step in the right direction as far as digital distribution is concerned, but it's not right.

If they really want to curb piracy, the first thing they have to do is stop assuming that everyone is a pirate. DRM, online only multi-player, always-active connection requirements... they all have to go. Next is to start pricing according to the actual quality of the product (something which will be much easier now that they're not paying for protection methods that don't work anyway). Lastly, they just need to release something worth playing - thus worth paying for.

It won't eliminate piracy (nothing will), but if you can limit it than so much the better.

RE: Stupid




