My first encounter with STEAM...

[the_shadow]

has me seeing red.

I recently purchased Deus Ex: Human Revolution as a hard-copy (ie. DVD). I don't purchase games online because I live in a rural area with unreliable and slow internet access. I did note that the game was the STEAM edition, but didn't really look into what that entailed.

So after installing the game, I'm all hyped up, ready to play. And then I'm required to wait hours downloading STEAM and its updates? OK, OK, fine, I've had to sit through some long installation processes, so what's a few hours of downloading? Then I have to make an online account and give away my personal details (why?!). And finally, I can't run the game without first downloading a 700MB update, which is chewing up my monthly download limit. Why am I forced to update the game first before I can run it? Do I have to go through this process every time I want to reinstall the game? This is ridiculous. I purchased a hard copy of the game precisely because my internet access is unreliable!

Now, I'm 28 years old and have purchased my fair share of games, yet this is the first time I have encountered something like this. I remember back in the day that if you purchased a game, you'd sit through a 5-15 minute installation, and then you'd be good to go. Is this a normal experience for gamers in this day and age? Do they have to jump through multiple hoops to play a game they purchased? Good god, kids these days are getting done dry, and they don't even know it.

 

[Ulminati]

You could've downloaded a 3½mb crack for your legally purchased game instead.

 

[Metro]

Welcome to the 21st century.

 

[the_shadow]

You could've downloaded a 3½mb crack for your legally purchased game instead.

???

The game didn't install on my hard drive until I had downloaded the patch. They have you by the short hairs.

I've also attempted to install Mortal Kombat (Komplete Edition), only to discover that I need to download a *2 gigabyte* update before I can do so. What the hell? I've activated the game online with STEAM, why can't I just play it in the state it was released, instead of downloading all this extra bullshit?

It's all so fucked up, I can barely comprehend it without having an aneurysm. I can understand activating a game online in order to ensure it's a legitimate copy, but if you're going to do that, make it a simple process. For example, it took me two minutes to activate Dragon Age: Origins online, and I didn't need to download *anything*. Some game distributors are completely out of touch with the consumer. Aren't they aware that not everyone lives in urban America? I used to think members on the 'Dex went overboard in their rants about DRM, but I've experienced first hand how this bullshit makes a chore out of playing games.

Well, they got me good on this occasion I admit, but I'm not purchasing anything associated with STEAM. They can go straight to hell.

 

[the_shadow]

Welcome to the 21st century.

Put me back in the fridge.

 

[LESS T_T]

For reinstalling problem, you could use the backup feature. Yeah, it's cumbersome and the backup file will take some of your hard drive or disc(s) anyway, but I guess it's better than re-download everything in your case.

 

[Jaedar]

The issue with HR is that some hundred mb's of content aren't on this disc in the first place iirc.

So yeah, you got fucked by DRM. My condolences.

 

[Astral Rag]

Well you shouldn't be surprised you were asked to create a Steam profile, I'm sure you weren't forced to provide any real info.

I do agree with the rest of your post, Steam games you buy on disc should at least install and launch without any further mandatory patching/ downloads. The user should definitely be notified in case patches are available but installing those updates should be 100% optional, at least in the case of SP games.

Also, it used to possible to prevent Steam from automatically patching installed games, unfortunately this has changed and I don't understand why we don't see a bigger backlash against this. I mean it's not exactly rare to see shitty and/or huge updates these days. The size of some of these updates can be beyond ridiculous, sometimes you even have to re-download the entire game because some devs just cannot into being competent. There is no "official" way to revert to a previous version of a game.

Is this a normal experience for gamers in this day and age?

You should check out Steam's Early Access section...

 

[Unkillable Cat]

Now, I'm 28 years old and have purchased my fair share of games, yet this is the first time I have encountered something like this. I remember back in the day that if you purchased a game, you'd sit through a 5-15 minute installation, and then you'd be good to go.

"Back in the day" must have been before you hit puberty. During the 00s the process was pretty much as you described it, plus the addtional step of going online and hunting for the mandatory patch(es) for the game, because by that time it had become an accepted policy that games did not work properly "out of the box" and that a patch was needed to fix the problem(s). If you were lucky the unpatched version of the game merely did not work, if you were unlucky it permantently screwed up your system with its mere presence (though that was rare).

Steam has made that last step a little less painless by checking for (and forcing upon) you whether new patches are available and downloading them. It's one of the few positive things about Steam as a digital distributor.

But yeah, I understand where you're coming from. I stopped buying PC games in retail many years ago, taking care only to buy games that were guaranteed not to require Steam. That's all but gone now, EVERY retail game I see in stores requires a digital distribution platform "for additional support".

The lazyness and incompetence of developers and publishers has become a "normal" factor of the retail end of video games.

 

[Khorne]

Learned the hard way about steamworks, wanted to complain, but I was told to read the small red label at the back of the box, written in fine print.
Furthermore, you will find that the DVD becomes utterly useless soon after relese, and steam client will download a full game instead of patching your local data files.
Not to mention it will log the geoIP location, times and dates of where and when you play, coupled with hardware serial numbers your system reports, and store this data on remote servers.
Personally I think we don't need this crap in europe, it may even be against the data protection law in certain countries according to recent studies.
Standard advice you will normally get around here is: support GOG because it respects your rights, ignore steamworks protected titles, torrent the stuff you already have bought, etc.

 

[Raghar]

FFXIII basically works out of the box. (They just added some additional GFX settings in a patch.)

On the other hand atelier Shallie, and Disgaea 4, required few patches on PS3. (Disgaea 4 patch is basically a whole game.)

 

[the_shadow]

"Back in the day" must have been before you hit puberty. During the 00s the process was pretty much as you described it, plus the addtional step of going online and hunting for the mandatory patch(es) for the game, because by that time it had become an accepted policy that games did not work properly "out of the box" and that a patch was needed to fix the problem(s). If you were lucky the unpatched version of the game merely did not work, if you were unlucky it permantently screwed up your system with its mere presence (though that was rare).

That's not what I have experienced in the past. There has been the odd occasion where I have needed to download a patch to get a game running due to compatibility issues, but never in the range of 1-2 gigabytes. My most recent purchases (Dragon Age: Origins and Witcher 2) both worked fine straight out of the box.

The lazyness and incompetence of developers and publishers has become a "normal" factor of the retail end of video games.

I'm starting to realise that. For example, I found myself thinking that while I didn't particularly like Witcher 2 as a game, at least it was a finished product. I was actually grateful that something I bought was completed on the day I purchased it. Holy shit, the gaming industry is turning into a load of bullshit.

 

[Excidium II]

Seriously dumb OP.

 

[Jick Magger]

Yeah, most retail PC games'll have a label on the back that says they require steam to run. There are a couple of games out there that don't require that or another distribution platform installed (such as Uplay or Origin), and some of them may even require two separate ones to be installed to run (i.e. pretty much every Ubisoft game released in the past five years will also require Uplay to run if you bought it from Steam), but they're fairly far and inbetween. The Witcher 3, for instance, doesn't require one, though it heavily 'suggests' you download GoG Galaxy so you can have it patched automatically.

On another note, GoG galaxy is phenomenally awful. It's fine with most of its smaller catalog of games that're at most only one or two gigabytes large, but it just can't handle anything larger than ten gigabytes. It failed on two seperate attempts to download and install SOMA when I bought it on GoG, failed to download just the installer and its files when I tried that, and when I gave up and installed it with the files downloaded directly from their website, it now utterly refuses to recognize that installation in Galaxy and just gets stuck in a loop when trying to apply an update to it. Had similar issues with TW3 when I first got it.

 

[Angthoron]

 

[the_shadow]

After a bit more research about DRM, I've discovered that I'm not in the minority in my disgust at DRM, even outside of RPGCodex. Hell, even the Steam forums has quite a few posters who disapprove of the thing, which makes me wonder why people keep buying games with it. I mean, let's be honest, are the games with this sort of stuff *that* good, or are they merely a bunch of cutscenes with sub-par gameplay?

I've noticed that the drones who argue in favour of DRM pigeonhole dissenters into one of two categories:

1. "Aww, DRM prevents you from pirating the game. Poor baby, no longer being able to pirate the game", which assumes that people who purchase games would have pirated them if not for DRM. Ergo: Anyone who complains about DRM is a likely software pirate.

2. "It's so much more convenient to have everything online instead of on hard copy. Get with the times, man. You're stuck in the past"

I'm amazed that there are consumers out there who argue in favour restricting their rights and inconveniencing them. How do people get to that point?

 

[Metro]

Probably because most people don't give a fuck if they don't technically 'own' a game they got on sale for $10. The average person's mobile phone bill is probably ten times that a month.

But yeah, I understand where you're coming from. I stopped buying PC games in retail many years ago, taking care only to buy games that were guaranteed not to require Steam. That's all but gone now, EVERY retail game I see in stores requires a digital distribution platform "for additional support".

We all know you stopped buying games because you can now beg them.

 

[the_shadow]

Probably because most people don't give a fuck if they don't technically 'own' a game they got on sale for $10.

That's $30. And while you can't 'own' intellectual property, if I'm spending money, I'd like the license to play the game when and however I see fit. If I want to play it on my laptop on the top of Mount Everest, the money I paid should allow me to do that without inconveniencing me. We are talking about a game for personal use, not business software intended to generate a profit.

And in hindsight, I would have paid an extra $10 to not have to jump through all those hoops, as well as actually have a complete physical hard copy of the game. Convenience and predictability have value to me.

 

[Excidium II]

That's $30. And while you can't 'own' intellectual property, if I'm spending money, I'd like the license to play the game when and however I see fit. If I want to play it on my laptop on the top of Mount Everest, the money I paid should allow me to do that without inconveniencing me. We are talking about a game for personal use, not business software intended to generate a profit.

And in hindsight, I would have paid an extra $10 to not have to jump through all those hoops, as well as actually have a complete physical hard copy of the game. Convenience and predictability have value to me.

Game was on sale for $1 with all DLC not too long ago, you dun goofd.

You a fool paying too much for AAA games and whining about being ripped off. Here in third world we have market stalls where people sell pirated game dvds, just install drop crack and done, maybe you should look if there's any in your area.

 

[Metro]

That's $30. And while you can't 'own' intellectual property, if I'm spending money, I'd like the license to play the game when and however I see fit. If I want to play it on my laptop on the top of Mount Everest, the money I paid should allow me to do that without inconveniencing me. We are talking about a game for personal use, not business software intended to generate a profit.

And in hindsight, I would have paid an extra $10 to not have to jump through all those hoops, as well as actually have a complete physical hard copy of the game. Convenience and predictability have value to me.

Well, you're only 28. When you're older you'll realize there's more important things to bitch about.

 

[the_shadow]

Well, you're only 28. When you're older you'll realize there's more important things to bitch about.

You don't think consumer rights are a pertinent issue? Oh well, to each his own I guess.

 

[Outlander]

Now go buy The Witcher 3 and have fun downloading 10 GB patches.

 

[Average Manatee]

Funny, back when Steam looked like this I never had problems with it. Nowadays its a performance hogging constantly freezing piece of crap.

 

[Metro]

You don't think consumer rights are a pertinent issue? Oh well, to each his own I guess.

Not really, no. You sell out another dozen different ways every day but probably don't realize it. Nothing to worry about.

Funny, back when Steam looked like this I never had problems with it. Nowadays its a performance hogging constantly freezing piece of crap.

Well it's no longer optimized for XP.

 

[Excidium II]

Funny, back when Steam looked like this I never had problems with it. Nowadays its a performance hogging constantly freezing piece of crap.

It takes forever to launch now, I'm not sure if it's something with Windows 10 but it takes a good 15 seconds even on an SSD.