Why steam is a bad idea

(beute) #81

[QUOTE=brutt01d;266233]Hehe, a cheap way to make you their fanboi :slight_smile:

I agree with apples here. The reality of this world is, that all things that are good and free at some point, sooner or later, eventually become not free. And I believe it will be more so in the future, as the resources on our planet shrink and population increases. Everyone will be interested only in ripping off his own share of cabbage.[/QUOTE]

Listen carefully.
He explains how they’re fighting piracy.
They look at it as a competitor.
They know they have to keep the service high, they have to offer more than a pirated version.

It’s a dumb idea anyhow.
Valve gets a percentage from the games selling price.
Charging for the steam service would only decrease their customer base by a huge margin…
they may make up for that through the fee, but publishers/devs will be pissed to sell less copies and may drop steam and go to their competitors like d2d, onlinekeystores, impulse etc…

But it wont happen anyways.
they’re going into the exact opposite direction.
they’re going for the masses, they make less profit per copy than other services like GFWL or xbox live, but they make up for it by constantly increasing their userbase.
hence all the free DLC they’re giving us.

charging for steam would destroy them, I guarantee you that.

(Nail) #82

[QUOTE=Mustkunstn1k;266466]Nail - are you sure? It seems like this system would be very easy for cheating.
Like Mustang said, just copy-oaste the files offline. When going online does the system check if the files are valid or something?

This could be even take one step further by just hacking/editing the files.[/QUOTE]

yep, you can have ALL the fancy hats and funny pants you want

(LyndonL) #83

I think you’re being a little too flip mate. There’s plenty of abilities that in the hands of the right player will make a difference that are achieved through unlocks.

Still, I’m sure that it’s not going to be that easy to copy files from one players account to another, at least not without a hex-editor which the average Joe won’t bother with I would assume.

(Nail) #84

yes, but as they can all be had playing offline it still doesn’t matter

(SockDog) #85

I hope the unlock system is very easily bypassed so there is even less perceived value behind earning XP. The whole “I MUST GET THIS UNLOCK” is exactly what causes people to exploit the XP system and break pub games ruining it for everyone else.

Besides all we’ve been told since day one is that any substantial unlock was attainable after a very short time with the latter ones being more cosmetic and alternative.

(Nail) #86

I fear even the inconsequential unlocks (hat, belt etc.) will be played for by the OCD people, hopefully most of them will be in Challenge mode to keep them out of actual games

(Ashog) #87

[quote=beute;266492]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLC_zZ5fqFk

Listen carefully.
He explains how they’re fighting piracy.
They look at it as a competitor.
They know they have to keep the service high, they have to offer more than a pirated version.

It’s a dumb idea anyhow.
Valve gets a percentage from the games selling price.
Charging for the steam service would only decrease their customer base by a huge margin…
they may make up for that through the fee, but publishers/devs will be pissed to sell less copies and may drop steam and go to their competitors like d2d, onlinekeystores, impulse etc…

But it wont happen anyways.
they’re going into the exact opposite direction.
they’re going for the masses, they make less profit per copy than other services like GFWL or xbox live, but they make up for it by constantly increasing their userbase.
hence all the free DLC they’re giving us.

charging for steam would destroy them, I guarantee you that.[/quote]

(Weapuh) #88

[QUOTE=SockDog;266543]I hope the unlock system is very easily bypassed so there is even less perceived value behind earning XP. The whole “I MUST GET THIS UNLOCK” is exactly what causes people to exploit the XP system and break pub games ruining it for everyone else.

Besides all we’ve been told since day one is that any substantial unlock was attainable after a very short time with the latter ones being more cosmetic and alternative.[/QUOTE]

This was the reasoning behind 20 level cap right in place of the 50 level… x 15 times prestige? or wtv it is in blops (don’t actually own it) levels low, abilities numerous so you can think about the character you’re building instead of “yay I NOW HAVE EVERYTHING… but I’ll still pick the best 3 anyways…” garbage.

(1234567) #89

Can’t we talk about Charlie Sheen or something? All this talk about Steam is depressing me.

(CVIChEK) #90

The actor or the drug?

(Weapuh) #91

How much cocaine did Charlie Sheen do?

Enough to kill Two and a Half Men

(Herandar) #92

^^^ Truly awful.

(Tune) #93

You can just go to the Steam folder in your program files and go to the steamapps/common and you can launch game like that, instead of using steam.

(Weapuh) #94

I laughed more at your response to it <3

(Joe999) #95

Steam user violates subscriber agreement, loses $1,800 in games
By Andrew Webster | Last updated a day ago

What happens if you violate Steam’s Subscriber Agreement and you have a library of games worth nearly $2,000? As one user learned, you’ll lose access to all of those games.

The user in question, who has a total of $1,794.52 worth of games on his or her Steam account, decided to ask how much another person might pay for such an account. “Obviously I don’t want someone to pay $1,800 for my account,” the gamer wrote on Reddit. “I’m looking at money of course, not full price considering I bought most of them on sale, but maybe we can come to some sort of deal…Of course if someone actually takes me up I’ll be removing my credit card information from the account, along with my friends list.”

That was a month ago. A little more than a week ago the user was unable to connect with Steam, and was later informed that the account had been disabled for violating the Steam Subscriber Agreement, which explicitly states “you may not sell or charge others for the right to use your account, or otherwise transfer your account.” And according to this e-mail chain, the ban is permanent.

In a later Reddit post, the user claims he or she was simply “asking how much someone would pay for a profile like that” and that the account was never actually sold or traded. However, the intention to sell was clearly there, as another post reads “I WAS ‘trying’ to sell my Steam account on r/gameswap, but that was over a month ago, you can’t even access the post now. What pisses me off is that they waited an entire month, up to last night, before disabling my account. They didn’t even send me an email [explaining] why it was disabled, I was just logged off of Steam with no warning.”

Ars has contacted Valve for comment and will update the story if we hear back.

Update: Valve has since posted on its forum that the account has been re-activated.

i really don’t care that it’s been enabled again. why is it illegal that someone sells what he rightfully owns?

(LyndonL) #96

Technically they don’t. Everyone on Steam “Accepts” the user agreement. If you accept it and deviate from it, it’s your own problem.

I think it’s ridiculous that it happened, but I also see it from Valve’s POV in that they are a business and don’t want to lose revenue. They did everything above board.

Kids talking about doing Sheen

(Joe999) #97

no, it isn’t. valve can add whatever they want in their license agreement. that doesn’t make it right.

(Nail) #98

good thing she can play offline, Joe999, you don’t own the software, you are just licenced to use it, you can’t sell your driver’s licence either, same thing

(Joe999) #99

so in contrary to retail games, steam games aren’t yours when you buy them?

the driver license comparison is a bit far fetched, isn’t it? :wink:

(Senethro) #100

There are very few pieces of software you have “owned”. EULAs have stated that someone other than yourself retains ownership of the code and you are merely licensed to use it since the mid 90s. People didn’t fight it hard enough then and now that they have a means to enforce their EULAs, consumers are kind of shafted.

Much too late to be complaining about it now.