Amen!

An easy solution to this Steam controversy? Buy it on console.




I couldn’t resist.

Steam is fantastic. Even though my account was hijacked, then permanently disabled, resulting in 40 games gone forever. That's the only thing I don't like. Though, I've had that account since 2006, so of course I like it. Seems like the people who just recently found out about Steam because they bought a game which required it, are also the ones bashing it. "omf wtf is tis steam why i need it? it sux lol. windows live 4ever".

There is absolutely no DRM that is uncrackable and I doubt one will ever be made, DRM in itself is a fundamentally flawed concept. All it affects are the paying customers, whereas pirates do not suffer any of inconveniences of most DRM at all. DRM hurts the people whoa ctually pay for a game while doing nothing to pirates.

Out of all the DRM I've ever seen though, Steam is the least inconvenient, I buy most of my games through Steam anyway as there's usually great sales and it's convenient, so obviously I have no problem with it.

^What he said.

Sadly I agree - although being a huge fan of the series I refused to buy CIV V due to it being steam activated - if Skyrim is associated with steam I will get the 360 version

Uh-huh. You know, some of us have a problem with steam because we support the second-hand video game market, which digital distribution and steam are pretty much the antithesis of.

Digital distribution is the future, like it or not, it's here to stay. You can get on board or you can be left behind, that's simply something gamers need to deal with.

IF It's here to stay, we shouldn't tolerate the current digital distribution buisness model. Transferable licenses FTW!

First it's no way skyrim for pc can run Oblivion mods, you could not use Oblvion mod's in fallout 3, or Morrowind mods in Oblivion.
Yes lots of mods was ported from Morrowind to Oblivion.
This usually require serious rewriting.

Bethesda also follow the mod community and might include functions from mods.
One simple function I hope is included is that harvested plants look harvested, Point lookout had this for the fruit you harvested so it's hope.

There's nothing wrong with Steam. I have tried it with Left 4 Dead 2 (a gift). I hated the fact that I had to make an account but I did it anyway. I wish I didn't as the game svcked. Since I had my hard drive failed I've reinstalled windows and I have not installed Steam again. I won't support it if I don't have to. If you buy a game, you shouldn't have to install anything else to play it. You shouldn't have to get some account.

Personally, I consider steam just like the ask.com toolbar or the google toolbar crap that tries to install with other freeware programs. It's a nuisance. Also, I can sympathize with those without internet access or access so slow you might as well be without. One should NEVER need to go online to activate a single player game. I'd rather buy Skyrim, leave it in the package forever, and find some pirated version rather than install Steam again. I'll probably cave if it looks to be a good game, but I'll have to think hard about it.

There's nothing wrong with steam? pfft. Steam has the same problem as all digital distribution services. They won't let you transfer your licenses.

DRM's don't work. No matter how much protection people will always find a way to pirate it. And a DRM shouldn't inconvience the customer. Besides, the steam DRM won't stop anymore pirates than standard disk checks. So they should focus on what will inconvienence their consumers the least. Why should I, as a consumer, deal with 3rd party software that is totally unessential to the end goal of me playing my game. I have enough programs running in the background, I don't need another just so I can play one game.

The only real defense you hear in favor of steam is, "but it has these features I like..."
So I am in favor of the OP. It satisfies those who like steam, and those who hate it. And im a fan of options.

You know, we mods tend to lock threads about Steam. Mostly because people either don't read the forum rules, read the forum rules and ignore them, or don't think we're serious about enforcing them. Not because we're censoring anything or there is some conspiracy or whatever.

Could I please ask anyone from this point forward to read the forum rules, and please don't post stuff you really shouldn't just to prove a point about Steam? We really don't like to ban people, under most circumstances.

Some infractions will cause instant termination of your account, such as admitting you have pirated, will pirate, describing or linking to how to pirate any software/media, or causing a major disruption in the forums.

No DRM is pirate proof.

Steam is currently the most accepted form of DRM, a DRM system that is constantly being updated and refined to be more user friendly.

Steam may kill the second hand market for games......but considering the game companies dont get money when you buy second hand, Im pretty they dont care that you cant sell their game back.

Steam is not resource intensive, right click->exit and the entire program will close down if its that big a deal.

If Valve was to ever go bust and steamworks shut down, their would no doubt a patch before it locked us out of all our games, or it would be bought by another company :rolleyes:

Steam is very free with letting people mod the games, Oblivion has no problem on steam.


I think i covered all the complaints.....if you never want to use Steam, well you're missing out/going to miss out on some great games

If all they wanted to do was use the DRM portion, I'd be fine with that. DRM is here to stay, I'd prefer disk-only checks, but apparently those days are long gone.

It's the entire rest of Steam I want absolutely nothing to do with. Achievements mean nothing to me. Being able to get pestered by in-game ads (I've seen them, don't try and claim they don't exist), pestered by people on the in-game IM features, and in general pestered by it's background monitoring of your every habit is not cool at all.

If Skyrim must absolutely be infected with malware, then infect it with GFWL. That at least doesn't require that I register an account I'll never ever use and can also be removed from the system without damaging the game's ability to run.

Or use DRM like Two Worlds (the first one). One shot authentication request to the mother server, after that, done. No need to hear from them again on it. No nasty stuff running behind the scenes. Dragon Age used a similar system. If you didn't want DLCs and didn't want to participate in the social networking aspects, you simply never logged it in, although they did make you get the account for the DRM authentication to go through.

In-game ads? in my 2 and a half years of using steam i have never seen in-game ads....You do get them when you first load up steam (a popup that can be easily closed) but other then that you never have to see ads again.

And if you are being pesterd by friends on steam while you play, or dotn want them to see what you are playing, simply put yourself in 'appear offline' mode...just like any IM service.


is Steam perfect, No, is it as bad as some people say it is No.

I personally love Steam, I have no problems with it.

I have a bit of an issue with willingly installing adware on my PC. So every time I boot up my PC I would get a popup ad? that's nuts!

I do have a question about steam, does it or does it not collect any data about me, my PC, or how I play games?
I don't mind it knowing that I have this game and that game tied to my account, but if it's collecting any data other than that, that would be an invasion of my privacy..

I'm sorry, but how is this a decent response to concerns about threats to the second-hand market? Who the [censored] cares what the game companies thinks on this issue? What matters is the rights of the consumer, which Digital distribution hinders by stripping us of our right to re-sell. And truth be told, we don't need the Game companies to care. Only one entity needs to care about this, and support the right of re-sell, and then the game companies opinions don't matter. They won't have a choice.

edit: The worst part about digital distributors is that it's incredibly easy for them to fix the problem. They could simply let their users trade their licenses to other users of their system. THen boom, there wouldn't be a problem.

that's not true of everyone though, To me Steam is best as an option. If the Skyrim disc came with a disc check & an OPTIONAL Steam product key & had a disc2Steam patch available.

Bethesda, listen to this. It makes logical sense.

Yeah, I personally do not think Skyrim should be Steam only, but if it is its not the end of the world, I would buy it for Steam anyway, but for others sakes there should be more options available. But like the Xbox exlcusive DLC for Fallout New Vegas, I have a feeling they made another deal with Steam for PC exclusivity. Probably to get some fast money, but I don't blame them, like any other business they need to make a good profit margin.

Nah, jsut the first time you load up the steam window. You dont even have to load up the steam window to play the games if you use shortcuts.

It does record how many hours you have logged into a game....but other then that i dont think it records anything else.