Skyrim, Steam and You

Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:45 pm

If I buy a boxed copy of a game (always), then I want to install it off the disk. What if Valve goes down like Interplay did? Then I lose all my games that I've paid for?

Not happening in our lifetime.
Valve makes good/popular games that sell well.
Under the highly unlikely scenario that Valve does go down they will release a patch the enables your games, and I will hunt down and kill those responsible for Valves demise.
I have loved steam since that Holiday special that ended a week ago.

ANYWAYS, two words SCRATCH PROTECTION. My Oblivion disc got so scratched it won't install anymore. However, Steam sill let you download purchased games again and again.
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Anthony Diaz
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:54 pm

I have used Steam before and would reluctantly use it for a really promising game. In a perfect world, they'd also release a DRM-free version on gog.com. However, the world is not perfect, so I doubt they will.
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Austin Suggs
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:56 pm

I use Steam everyday to contact people all over the world.

I think it should be as it is now.
You can either buy it through Steam or in your local gameshop.

And about Steam and mods, atleast we wont probably need graphic mods for Skyrim :P (Maybe there will be a Ultra graphics patch for us with beast computers, as there was one for Crysis.)
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Kerri Lee
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:41 am

I really like Steam and use it all the time, I'm buying games on digital download only these days - too many scratched disks or manuals containing the product key destroyed by the cats, couldn't even play Oblivion when my DVD drive broke, I'd have had no problem with a Steam version, so for those reasons I've gone right off buying physical copies.

Oh and with regard to mods, I've never had any problem modding Steam bought games.
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dell
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 1:33 pm

I use to have a strong opinion about Steam (against), but it has improved. I'm fine if BGS wants to use Steam for online game activation, but be able to play offline (not connected to the internet) after software activation. Activation should not require the user to make an account with Steam to do so (activate the software).

Edit: I plan on purchasing a ROM version of the game. Unfortunately I don't have access/ privileges to better flat rate ISP prices. I don't want to have to pay my ISP on top of the game price to be able to play it (beyond simple activation).
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Carlos Vazquez
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:07 pm

Not happening in our lifetime.
Valve makes good/popular games that sell well.
Under the highly unlikely scenario that Valve does go down they will release a patch the enables your games, and I will hunt down and kill those responsible for Valves demise.
I have loved steam since that Holiday special that ended a week ago.

ANYWAYS, two words SCRATCH PROTECTION. My Oblivion disc got so scratched it won't install anymore. However, Steam sill let you download purchased games again and again.


We'll see -- there are a lot of companies that have come and gone that people thought would last forever and there will always be --- and what makes you think if a company goes under they'll spend $ on releasing a DRM free version -- Usually when a company goes away you only find out after it has happened and their servers have shut down never to be found again -- It's not like they are going to pay for extra bandwidth to download several million copies of every game they ever sold to help out the users of their service !

As far as scratch protection is concerned I've still got 5.25" floppies of games I bought back in the 80's that work perfectly fine and Cds from every game I have ever purchased on CD (once the game is purchased it is used to make a backup .iso on my HDD and that is used to play with and the original is only ever used to make new backups if the HDD crashes - ( Sure doing it that way might be against some EULAs but that's the good thing about physical copies once you bought it you control how you use it !!)
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Nicole Kraus
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:25 pm

I'm half and half on steam I wouldn't really want to use steam with skyrim
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Tracy Byworth
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 8:23 am

Automatic Updates - NO! Away with that BS!
Multiple Downloads - I don't download games if I can get a hard copy, anyway... And I can download any game as often as I want otherwise.
Online Activation - Silly.
Personal Gameplay Statistics - Singleplayer game. Statistics are in-game. In MP games statistics generally hurt gameplay.
Steam Client - A client that I don't need.
Steamworks (forced registration) - Why would I register for Steam if I want to play a game?
Title Exclusivity - A very negative thing, obviously.


Generally, steam is a pest. Most of its features are irrelevant to me, but it forces itself onto other peoples computers. I'd only ever use it as a messenger, but I already have enough of those that work just as good, I do not want to download Steam.


I would buy TES V anyway, but I'd be pissed.

As someone who owns about 30 games on steam I have to say that Steam is ABSOLUTE in its amazingness. First of all, having 30 physical copies would be terrible. I would need a significant amount of space just to keep the jewel cases, not to mention all of the boxes and manuals and other things that I would have to keep track of. Second of all, WHy the hell is auto-updating bad? Unless your own of the few people running a 52k connection or something (in which case your priorities should be less about games and more about the rest of your life), automatic downloads allow for a consistent, easy way to keep games up to date, which in the case of multiplayer games where the latest update is REQUIRED is a godsend. It means I don't have to hunt down the patch that turns New Vegas into a playable, working game, I don't have to go into Chrome every time TF2 updates, I get that update as soon as it is available, I get it quickly, and I get it without the hassle. It's just there. And the only reason I wouldn't want those updates is if I was trying to use an exploit that was in the game in a previous version (Like my brother did with Oblivion, he refused to update so he could keep duplicating). And you don't really have any reason to say "I deserve to be able to use glitches that ruin the experience!"
Another issue is that while many are adopting harsher and harsher DRM measures, Steam has stayed reasonable. If you can afford a $40-60 game, you should be able to get SOME kind of internet.
And dismissing the sales that they have is [censored] ignorance. I am sorry, but it is, plain and simple. Even if you don't like the service, you can't really say its bad that you can get 20 games for the price of 2. Seriously. I spent less than $100 this holiday on steam, I got like 20 games, all of them fairly recent (some brand new), popular, big titles. And they were going for next to nothing.
And being able to download (and from reliable, fast servers) anything at anytime anywhere with internet access is great. I reformat frequently. I could reinstall each game by hand. Or, I could use Steam, and have everything download at once, automatically installing. Plus, digital purchases are pretty much forever. You can't break the bytes or scratch your account. Until Steam goes out of business (which isn't going to happen any time soon, too many people like it too much) your games are yours.
The statistics are more than what are included in the game, and they don't ruin the gameplay.
Cloud saves are great. When you save, you will always have that save. As a gamer, I know I will go through multiple computers. I won't have to worry about the [censored] I used to have to deal with, manually moving save files (which were allllllll over the place usually) from one rig to another. With Steam, its just there.
It keeps all of my games organized, it keeps me connected (I can chat, browse the web, all within the game, without worrying about how support for alt tab is with that game {a lot of games do not work well or at all with alt tab} and it does it in a much better way than X-Fire ever has).
As far as title exclusivity, I don't really know of many games that are ONLY on Steam in a way that actually gets in the way of playing those games, and there are some games that NEVER would have been released and certainly never would have made any money for the devs if it weren't for Steam and Valve. I'd say supporting the indie developers is enough to balance the issue.
I also took the liberty of removing all of the "I don't cares" and "irrelevant" points.


For me, I'm going to buy the physical copy (because you know there will be a collectors edition), but I'll play it through steam. I love Steam, and I will always be loyal to Valve.
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stacy hamilton
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 3:40 pm

On the plus side cheap games.

On the negative Steam takes a minute to load when I could just pop the disk in and play. I can't bring my games with me to any other computer and have to redownload them every time. After hitting my internet cap it takes days for a 500 meg game to download. Steam seems like it would be perfect in America but over here we just don't have the download cap to fully enjoy downloading games.
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Prue
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:02 pm

On the plus side cheap games.

On the negative Steam takes a minute to load when I could just pop the disk in and play. I can't bring my games with me to any other computer and have to redownload them every time. After hitting my internet cap it takes days for a 500 meg game to download. Steam seems like it would be perfect in America but over here we just don't have the download cap to fully enjoy downloading games.


there are still many places here in America without reliable or fast internet connection, as a country in places we are spread out pretty thin so it may not be profitable enough to get good internet service & not everyone can afford whatever hi-speed may be available in their area.
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Jason King
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:05 pm

I have one problem with steam and other programs like it.

A game is a program. I shouldn't need one program to run another. One reason why I hate Java.

I want to play my game on another computer? I bring my disk. I want my save games? Flash drive.
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katie TWAVA
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:44 pm

We'll see -- there are a lot of companies that have come and gone that people thought would last forever and there will always be --- and what makes you think if a company goes under they'll spend $ on releasing a DRM free version -- Usually when a company goes away you only find out after it has happened and their servers have shut down never to be found again -- It's not like they are going to pay for extra bandwidth to download several million copies of every game they ever sold to help out the users of their service !
They will release a patch that frees your games from steam in the unlikely event of their demise. In such a case Someone, maybe Microsoft, will by the service. Steam is too popular to just die.

As far as scratch protection is concerned I've still got 5.25" floppies of games I bought back in the 80's that work perfectly fine and Cds from every game I have ever purchased on CD (once the game is purchased it is used to make a backup .iso on my HDD and that is used to play with and the original is only ever used to make new backups if the HDD crashes - ( Sure doing it that way might be against some EULAs but that's the good thing about physical copies once you bought it you control how you use it !!)

You, my good sir, are smart, safe, and many other things.
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Jimmie Allen
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 11:07 am

I don't think Steam is a good idea. Steam is easily cracked (Just look at New Vegas) and restricts users. I think it's better to sell 2 versions. One without Steam and a simple DVD check as copy protection, like Oblivion did and one version with Steamworks.

Egosoft did a great job with its game X3: Terran Conflict. You can buy the game as a retail version and you can (but you are not forced to) register it in Steam via the serial number. I don't think Bethesda will make it possible :/
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Amie Mccubbing
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:07 am

I'd rather not have Steam. I never have experienced using Steam before, and don't want to try it until I know for sure what I'm getting myself into.
It's mostly trust issue. I don't know them. Maybe I will try it later and like it enough and there would be trust, but not now.
Will it require my personal info?
Will it clutter my system resources when I'm not actively using it?
Will they be ethical enough in their business to not exploit me?
Will it work every single time the way it's meant to be, even with mods?

Besides these questions, by using Steam and registering, I'm creating a relationship which I don't need or want. If I know it's something that I'll actually use it regularly for good reason, I'm willing to create one. But chances are, it will be something that I'd be forced into just so I can play TES5. It's a clutter of myself that I don't want. I'd like to keep it tidy and simple.

I want a tangible retail package, usable offline -privately - without ever informing anyone. If I want to visit the forum and share my gameplay experience with fellow players, that's a different story.
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Stryke Force
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 10:28 am

Personally I don't see any "pros" in Steam - anything that requires Internet to install or play the game at any moment is unacceptable for me. I don't trust the servers to run forever, and I like to re install old games once in a while. Not to mention I don't want to be restricted by needing Internet connection - I can be away from any on line computers for a while, and I still want my option to install any old game I like to pass the time. If they want to include Steam as a bonus for thous who want it, I don't mind, but if any Internet connection is required I will not be pleased.

^This. If Steam is required or any internet activation, I will be skipping Skyrim without a second thought. I usually buy retail boxed versions of games, so nothing beyond a disk check or offline keycode would be acceptable to me.
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Gavin Roberts
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 5:20 pm

I persoanlly don't like using steam but I doubt it will have a big influence on my decision. I am sure there will be a way to play it without steam after a few months thanks to the pirates.
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Robert
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:55 pm

I've been playing a heavily modded version of Oblivion on my Steam installation and the only real difference I noticed is that I had to update the bash.ini text file for Wyre Bash to have the proper directory file paths. It took only a couple minutes to update the text.

I would prefer to only buy games via Steam because of (1) the convenience of Steam installs for a library of numerous games and (2) the amazing occasional sales. However, I plan to buy Skyrim whether it is available through Steam or not. I dislike fiddling around with stacks of discs and very much prefer Steam's convenient and fast digital download process.
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Markie Mark
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 11:48 am

I'd rather not have Steam. I never have experienced using Steam before, and don't want to try it until I know for sure what I'm getting myself into.
It's mostly trust issue. I don't know them. Maybe I will try it later and like it enough and there would be trust, but not now.
Will it require my personal info?

No. The only time Steam requires any personal info is if you're buying games through the service - if you buy a game at retail that uses Steam, you don't need to provide anything to them except an e-mail address.

Will it clutter my system resources when I'm not actively using it?

No. The application uses hardly any resources in general, particularly when it's sitting in your tray (which is the case when you aren't browsing through Steam's interface itself). If you close it then it actually closes, meaning there's no background process running when you think you've closed everything out, and at worst it'll try to update things automatically without asking you (a feature that you can turn off).

Will they be ethical enough in their business to not exploit me?

Yes. Valve isn't exactly an ethical company, but their less ethical decisions revolve around aggressive business choices more than around how they treat their customers. The closest thing to exploitation that you could expect is Bethesda using the service to portion off chunks of the game as DLC, and... well, if they're going to do that then using anything other than Steam won't stop them.

Will it work every single time the way it's meant to be, even with mods?

Yes. I haven't come across a game that had issues with mods on Steam but not in retail yet.

I want a tangible retail package, usable offline -privately - without ever informing anyone. If I want to visit the forum and share my gameplay experience with fellow players, that's a different story.

Aside from install, you can use Steam games offline and privately. The only time the program needs to connect to the internet is when you initially install the game.
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Shianne Donato
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 10:25 am

Personally I have no feelings about it either way for myself, but I'd be fairly mad if I didn't have an internet connection and was told I couldn't play a single player game that shouldn't require one. In fact, I'm pretty mad on behalf of everyone out there in that situation tbh. Not enough to buy the 360 version though (unless my PC won't run it) so I suppose I'm a bit of a hypocrite eh? :(
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Princess Johnson
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 6:46 am

I have one problem with steam and other programs like it.

A game is a program. I shouldn't need one program to run another. One reason why I hate Java.

I want to play my game on another computer? I bring my disk. I want my save games? Flash drive.


Same goes for me.
If I want to chat and brag about my top character, I'd do that somewhere else.
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brenden casey
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 9:04 am

snip

they were not dependant on steam and they were sold in stores like every other major pc title.
your poll is kinda biased.i dont mind if steam sells it through their service, but i dont want to have to go through steam to get my copy thank you.
i want a normal frikin disk with minimal drm and not have to worry about gfwl or steam.
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Mrs shelly Sugarplum
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:50 pm

they were not dependant on steam and they were sold in stores like every other major pc title.
your poll is kinda biased.i dont mind if steam sells it through their service, but i dont want to have to go through steam to get my copy thank you.
i want a normal frikin disk with minimal drm and not have to worry about gfwl or steam.


True, those games were sold on disc in retail stores, but they still require Steam to be able to play. You need to logon to Steam to activate the game and have Steam running everytime you play.

Out of curiosity, which questions do you feel are biased and which side are they biased towards?
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Leilene Nessel
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 4:28 pm

Looking at the numbers at this stage, it is interesting to me that the majority of respondents to question 4 said

Steamworks version sold through Steam, Non Steamworks version sold everywhere else (225 votes [63.20%])

Meaning, a majority would like to see Steam as one option. If we consider that, respondents saying:

Non Steamworks but Upgradable to Steamworks (34 votes [9.55%]) are endorsing a similar sentiment, that Steam should be optional that takes the proportion who expressed a desire for Steam to be optional to 254 votes, ~72.6% of all respondents.

The remaining 97 were divided more or less equally between those who, for whatever reasons, would prefer to see the game distributed by only one channel:

Steamworks version only (41 votes [11.52%])

Non Steamworks version only (56 votes [15.73%])

I did not run the Z-proportions test, but I'm just guessing that that 15 vote difference between those two poles is not so great as to exceed the P < .05 alpha level, meaning that the populations those two samples represent are not likely to actual differ in size.

What I take from this is that Steam being optional, and neither exclusive, nor excluded is what most fans would like to see.

ADDIT: with respect to question 5, it will be interesting to see if the poll I started today will reveal similar distributions for the three choices. Also interesting that, despite a majority of respondents expressing a preference for Steam to be optional, such a large fraction say that it ultimately will not change their purchase if it is required.

IMO what this shows is that, while most gamers tolerate Steam, and will probably still go ahead and buy the game, it does not ingratiate them with the publisher, and they use Steam in part only because they have no other choice. It might be easy for a publisher to look at that

No, I will buy it either way (280 votes [78.65%])

and say "Oh! Well then the benefits of Steam exclusive must definitely outweigh the costs!" but I would point out that

Yes, I will not buy the game if Steam is required (66 votes [18.54%])

Is a non-trivial proportion of TES fans saying that there consumer choice will be negatively impacted by Steam exclusive distribution. Bethesda should think carefully about the tradeoffs this suggests about Steam exclusive versus Steam optional distribution.
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michael danso
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 2:41 pm

Edit: Also, not to be offensive or anything, but, what is with all the lazy people who cite the benefit of "not having to swap out cd/dvds" out of their disc drive? I mean, is it truly such a chore/waste of energy to lean over, press the eject button, remove the disc, put it back in it's case, and then grab the game you want to play, take the disc out, and put it in the CD/DVD/Blu-ray drive? I mean, wow, that's not a benefit at all, that's honestly just plain old laziness.


I barely have enough space to store all the work related discs, videotapes and peripherals at my desk. I have no space and absolutely no interest in hoarding piles of game discs that will end up getting scratched and and become useless at some point. I only buy digital download games, never boxed versions. Also, I don't have an internal optical drive in my laptop.

I use my iPhone to play mp3s instead of buying CDs and I use Netflix instead of buying physical DVDs and blu-rays. After participating in a few of the crazy Steam package sales deals, I have around 60 games in my steam library and I have only installed perhaps 5 of them so far. I went through four or five different laptops last year (RMA'd my old laptop that came back broken and got replaced a few times) - Steam made this process a lot more convenient.
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Kari Depp
 
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Post » Sat May 28, 2011 12:37 pm

I really hope they don't make it mandatory like NV. I love opening FOMM and playing Fo3 quickly, it takes like 10 seconds from when I click the FOMM shortcut and I'm ingame playing. With NV, its open fomm, say play NV, wait 45 seconds for steam to open and connect and all, boot game through steam, load, play. It takes over a minute... Its annoying. I could just always open steam but it doesnt like my computer and whilst it running svcks a large amount of processing power, so I dont have it open unless I have to usually.
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LittleMiss
 
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