Maximum PC

Interesting read; http://www.mcvuk.com/news/41746/Retail-threatens-Steam-ban

I honestly feel the unamed director is jealous of Steam's success. I haven't used any of the other DL platforms. Is there a huge difference between Steam and Direct2Drive,... or whoever else is a competator?

The reason Steam exists is because we don't like going to the retail store in the first place. Last physical game I bought was... STALKER? 2007? That sounds about right. Oh, wait, I bought the Orange Box from Circuit City because it was like $15 off on launch day.

Anyway, Steam's great, I spent like $50 on games in the 15 months (and $64 total, including Minecraft) and still haven't finished all of them.

I buy from Steam because it is convenient but also because I hate physical media. It gets scratched, it needs to be updated when installed, etc.

For instance, when I was waiting for Fallout: New Vegas, I reinstalled FO3 and played it for a while. Great fun .. and I only had to download the game and run it. I didn't have to install it, hunt for patches, install those, etc. etc..

Hell, I didn't even have to go hunting through my gf's pile of Sims3 discs to find my game.

I prefer Steam as well. I've used other download services like D2D and had/have no problems with them as well, but I like Steam for the all-in-one factor so to speak. A lot of my gaming friends are on Steam and you have the ability for communities as well such as Maximum PC Community.

I got into Steam when Torchlight came out. Honestly, I would not be on it if Torchlight was 1st released on physical media.

I love Steam. Greatest fucking thing since sliced bread. I just wish Grim Fandango and Curse of Monkey Island would be released already.

And, Star Wars Pod Racer. Oh,... and Moto Racer 1 & 2.

I like the instant shopping experience through Steam also.
Like above statements, games can auto-update, etc. are amazing features not to mention the community of friends and family members I enjoy playing with.
Just wished that the new release games would be a bit cheaper at launch.
As most retail stores have them on sale at launch and Steam charges full price.
We just wait for sales.

In our home we just love it when hey run the 4-pack deals.
The sons and I are always hunting each other down in VS-mode in L4D2.
I believe that 4-pack was like $30 bucks a couple months ago.

Not spending $$$ on gas shopping the local retailers and purchasing the Sunday paper to "shop" through the ads are a fun way for us to feel like we're actively taking participating in the lower carbon movement.

I do understand that retailers don't want a product they sell coming with Steam integrated though.
Last game I bought at a retailer locally was also my introduction to Steam back in '05 when we bought CS:S from Best Buy.
Had to install Steam and then found many friends and relatives already using the service.
So in a way they sent me to Steam for all future sales.

There are also many genres of games we typically wouldn't be interested in if it was for Steam.
I'm still working on finishing Torchlight, Fall Out 3, and King's Bounty: Armored Princess.
We still enjoy versing each other in HL2:Deathmatch and CS:S.

I have my share of CD/DVDs collecting dust. Over the years I haven't reinstalled many of them simply because most require media insertion if I want to play them (Oblivion, Battlefield:1942, etc.) It's not that I don't want to play them it's just not as convenient now. As a stickler to protecting them their CD/DVD media is always put back in the jeweled cases and in retail boxes for storage and placed in the cabinet. What a pain...

Our household has no console systems and truly enjoy our gaming experiences together on PCs.
The best thing that Steam has going is it makes the PC "console-like" by speeding up the time it takes to get from:
"Hmm, I wanna play a video game"
-Press PWR buttom-
-get beverage-
-click Steam-
-wait ten seconds-
-List of all my games-

We're selecting a game from a massive list (with no media insertion let alone "Where's the f*****' disc at for...") and playing within a minute of setting down.

Wife wants to get the kids a Wii for Christmas but I'm not really excited about...
Neighbor kid is always bringing his over anyways.
Seems like a waste to me.
Let's just get the kids a pair of 6870's

Looks like I'm the oddball (yet again) that likes physical copies. Having the ability to DL the games you have registered on Steam is a nice perk, but I'd still rather grab the discs and put them in the drive. Just seems quicker when reinstalling the OS. I do like the settings being synched to the cloud though.

Either way, you're still stuck with the updates via Steam instead of hard copies of them saved on our drives. From my point of view, when I finally get a moment to play a game I really like, I don't want an 8 hour patch holding me up (LFD2). I know that's rare, but if I miss my 2hr window I may not get a game in that whole week. At least with hard executable patches, other sites can host or mirror the files. Take any other game and I can be patched up to date very quickly. I guess that's where DL'ing them and not using the disc comes into being a good thing :p
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On the article though, there's a huge "Who cares, do it" rolling through my noggin. Banning Steam games should have zero effect on their game sales. You're then just removing one option as how someone's going to get the game. With my want of discs and if/when Steam is banned from retails, I'd just move over to option two and not flinch one bit. Retailers would just not have to stock that game...not a huge deal for Steam or our end. BUT, banning Steam could prove to have horrible backlash in store for retailers. Valve/Gearbox could go ahead and back Steam and just not offer ANY of their games to retailers which would include Console ports (what places like Gamestop basically thrive upon for sales).

I'm not sure of the figures for how popular Valve or Gearbox games are for console users, but I don't figure it's too high. Games available on Steam are though, so I'd just fear these publishers and creators having the slightest hissy fit over a retail ban on Steam. Think about Borderlands not being in a store...or COD: Black Ops for that matter. We can just get it on Steam and not give a retailer one penny by doing so. If this ban starts to show fruit, I'm going to do just that. Not even used games...

[quote="Chumly"] Valve/Gearbox could go ahead and back Steam and just not offer ANY of their games to retailers which would include Console ports (what places like Gamestop basically thrive upon for sales).

I'm not sure of the figures for how popular Valve or Gearbox games are for console users, but I don't figure it's too high. quote]
Heck the last time I was in a Gamestop they don't even carry PC games anymore. There are so many gamestops in driving distance to me I can't count them all. But I know of the 1 that has a small section for PC games, all the others don't even bother.

Maybe Walmart,Target, and best buy are trying to throw their weight around. I can't think of many other places that carry PC games (sure their out there). But the buisness model is changing. I do like a physical disk (back up, reinstall, ect), but if I have to go to 100% steam no big deal.

I happen to like Steam, however I have a major problem with it, and a minor one.
First, we live where cable is not available, and our satellite Internet limits us ("FAP") to 200MB/day, except 2-7a.m. So for many updates I have to stay up into the 'wee hours' of the morning to do it, not something I can do just anytime. Buying a big game on-line is out of the question as I can only download about 100-200MB/hr during these times. DSL is not available here either. I could switch to another satellite Internet provider, at HUGE initial cost, but still my monthly FAP would not change much (nor my expensive monthly bill).

Then there's the minor issue: I don't want to install every game on my smaller-sized boot drive!
Dammit Steam, give us the option to specify where we install our games!
I want them on my RAID 10 drives.

You have the option to put your Steam directory anywhere you like .. you're not limited to the boot drive.

Not much you can do about your crappy ISP, though.

monthly FAP = effin hilarious!

It's not monthly, it's daily!!!!! Even worse.

I can't wait 'till I can switch to 3G, and even then I'll have monthly FAP with same monthly limit!

Remember those Comcast commercials they used to air, the 1's where they're showing the speed difference (like the running guy, etc.)? Imagine a "fap" version, lmmfao!!!

Steam has pretty good penetration world wide, but that's only from one sector (UK). Unless they can influence the rest of the world (primarily the US) its just not going to happen. They can go ban Steam games in store in the UK, but that honestly won't affect me.

On another note, one of the best things I've found are symbolic links. A bit more apparent in Windows 7, but it allows you to redirect a folder or a file to any other place. Then, I migrated my Steam folder on to a larger drive and made a link over to it from my original directory. So it still linked to the default install directory, just all my data is somewhere else. Neat huh? Anyways, this really made it all easy and possible.

Interesting link airheadq, that seems alot easier than doing it via the command line, especially with folders very buried in other folders and me making one typo and having to redo it countless times b/c I'm "sure" I spelled it right when I did not When looking at the page, I noticed one of the link options was a "DeLorean Copy" (the first thing that came to mind was back to the future lol), what is it, though j/c?

I just use the basic link since that's really all I need. That link should explain everything fyi. Its near the middle but:

ah thanks. ill check that link out next time i need to make a new symlink since it seems a lot easier than the command line!

Yeah, I was planning to do it for a while, but from what I had seen most of the methods were command-line. Then I found this and went ahead with it. It may clutter my already cluttered right-click menu, but it's worth it.