Steam Deals - Good or Bad?

[J_C]

Steam: Click on buy, use paypal (or credit card). Download game. Play. Future updates are automatic.

You're forgetting something: These factors are NOT convenient to do out of the blue. Paypal is a royal pain in the ass, and getting a credit card involves having to go all the way to some store that sells these things so you can prepay them, and this part has ALSO become a pain in the ass as of late. A significant amount of effort is involved in setting this up.

Torrentry, on the other hand, has minimal setup cost: You get your torrentry application of choice, and you start running.

I set up a Paypal account years ago (it was just a simple registration, I didn't find it a pain in the ass), I assigned my credit card to it, and I can use paypal with a simple click from that on. I don't use prepaid cards.

Torrent: Search for torrent. If the game is not new, you might have to search longer for a torrent with enough seeds, unless you want to download with 10 kb/s rate.

If your game is not on Steam at all, you're completely SOL and must resort to this anyway. This is, of course, AFTER you have already invested all this effort in getting on Steam in the FIRST place. And it is not as if Steam downloads will somehow magically teleport themselves to your computer the moment you click on them. You're still going to be waiting for your download, and that's still going to take a bit, even on a fast connection. Unless you are in the habit of staring at the download progress, which, incidentally, makes it go slower, you're going to wander off and do something else anyway. Speed has thus become largely irrelevant. You queue it, you forget about it for a bit and check back later.

Of course you also have to download the game on steam. I'm saying that you have to search for good torrents, and the torrents of updates if you use TPB. The updates on steam are automatic. You boot up your windows, and steam runs in the background (depends on your setup), and the updates constantly download, while you are doing other stuff. You don't have to download the updates manually (although you can switch this option on).

You can hate Steam as you want, but saying that using torrents is faster and more convenient is bullshit.

No. No, it isn't. Torrents let you acquire your goods in a secure and anonymous manner, much like going to an actual store, but without the hassles of having to dodge gunfire and psychos with knives on your way there. To do the same thing in Steam requires that you engage in a lengthy mirror dance which ends up taking you to a store to acquire some kind of prepaid card that you can use on the Internet...and frankly, I don't trust those that much either, since surely they know where those things WENT, so at minimum, they can find your general location, unless you travel a very long distance to acquire one.

I agree that torrenting is anonymous. But I don't care about that. I'm a guy who is not afraid of buying stuff online, I'm not afraid of using my credit card in webshops, if they have a secure server. And all webshop offer secure server. The common argument is that those servers can be hacked, and then others might acquire your credit card number etc. This might happen, but the probability of this is so low, it is almost non existent. You are more likely to get robbed on the street. We are living in the 21st century, I won't be refusing online shopping because of fear. It's like not using air transportation because the plane can crash and you might die. It can happen, but people still take the chances.

 

[baronjohn]

Automatic updates aren't always good. I remember when a lot of STALKER mods only worked with 1.0004, STEAM was of course on the latest and you were fucked if you wanted to run them. You gain a tiny bit of convenience with STEAM but you lose all the control. And if you don't like control then you might as well admit you're a fag and buy a shitbox instead of a pc.

 

[Quilty]

I think you can tell steam not to automatically update your game, so you can keep using your mods. I'm not sure, but I think I even saw instruction on the internet on how to roll back the updates steam already applied to your games.

 

[J_C]

Automatic updates aren't always good. I remember when a lot of STALKER mods only worked with 1.0004, STEAM was of course on the latest and you were fucked if you wanted to run them..

I didn't know that. That sucks, but it is more of an exception, than the rule.

I think you can tell steam not to automatically update your game, so you can keep using your mods. I'm not sure, but I think I even saw instruction on the internet on how to roll back the updates steam already applied to your games.

Oh, and this.

And if you don't like control then you might as well admit you're a fag and buy a shitbox instead of a pc.

I have a PS3.

 

[reaven]

Digital distribution is all is going to be in some years, get used to it.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

I would like to hear the dissenting argument about why steam sucks and I am a total retard for buying anything from them.

Your insecurity amuses me.

Also those "oh yes i love steam let me suck ur dick gabe" dudes are funny. Metro is especially guilty of it. He is liek Pretty Princess, only existing in Steam threads. Ah and Multiheadedcow is also one of those. He even posts steam links that are supposed to images. Steams sucks so much, it wont let you embed.

 

[Quilty]

One thing I really dislike about Steam has nothing to do with money or with the games themselves. It's the Friends part of Steam. I hate it that the game notifies others whenever I decide to play a game, even when my status is set to Appear Offline. Surely you too have one of those douche bag "friends" who try to contact you the second you appear online and try to chat with you EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE PLAYING A GAME. I don't want to play every game offline, I have some friends who I actually want to know I'm playing something so they can join me, but the annoying ones see what I'm doing even when I block them. I guess I could just delete them, but that's seems like a dick move. Maybe I'm just unaware of an option that would allow me to fully block the annoying friends one accumulates over the interwebz.

 

[J_C]

One thing I really dislike about Steam has nothing to do with money or with the games themselves. It's the Friends part of Steam. I hate it that the game notifies others whenever I decide to play a game, even when my status is set to Appear Offline. Surely you too have one of those douche bag "friends" who try to contact you the second you appear online and try to chat with you EVEN THOUGH YOU'RE PLAYING A GAME. I don't want to play every game offline, I have some friends who I actually want to know I'm playing something so they can join me, but the annoying ones see what I'm doing even when I block them. I guess I could just delete them, but that's seems like a dick move. Maybe I'm just unaware of an option that would allow me to fully block the annoying friends one accumulates over the interwebz.

I say just delete those people. :D If they annoy you, there is no reason to keep them on your friends list.

 

[Pelvis Knot]

I'd say all of the deals are bad due to the fact if Steam goes defunct there goes your entire collection of games. I'd rather go to a site where I can purchase and download the game without having to worry about whether the site lasts for very long.

I wouldn't ever worry about that, since I consider piracy a safe recourse if those circumstances ever arrive.

Shocking news for retards: you can play steam games offline. And make offline backups.

Gotta launch the games once in online mode to activate them. Even if installed via offline backups. Doesn't really bother me but worth mentioning.

I never used the offline backup - if I'm about to reinstall Windows, I just copy the entire steam folder to a different location and return it after I finish Windows install. No activation needed.

I also believe legal games are much better for multiplayer, isn't that correct?

 

[Country_Gravy]

I would like to hear the dissenting argument about why steam sucks and I am a total retard for buying anything from them.

Your insecurity amuses me.

Also those "oh yes i love steam let me suck ur dick gabe" dudes are funny. Metro is especially guilty of it. He is liek Pretty Princess, only existing in Steam threads. Ah and Multiheadedcow is also one of those. He even posts steam links that are supposed to images. Steams sucks so much, it wont let you embed.

Your douchbaggery amuses me, as does your lack of ability to interpret obvious sarcasm.

Thanks for adding nothing closely resembling something helpful to this thread.

 

[Lesifoere]

Torrenting is much faster and more convenient than STEAM.

HAHAHAAHAA! No.

Steam: Click on buy, use paypal (or credit card). Download game. Play. Future updates are automatic.
Torrent: Search for torrent. If the game is not new, you might have to search longer for a torrent with enough seeds, unless you want to download with 10 kb/s rate. Download. Unrar iso file, use deamon tools, install, crack. Future updates: repeate the whole process.

Too much of a peasant to get into private trackers, where everything always has plenty of seeds and high download speeds, eh? Heh heh.

Btw, who are these non-entities that'd never posted before suddenly coming out of the woodwork?

 

[J_C]

Torrenting is much faster and more convenient than STEAM.

HAHAHAAHAA! No.

Steam: Click on buy, use paypal (or credit card). Download game. Play. Future updates are automatic.
Torrent: Search for torrent. If the game is not new, you might have to search longer for a torrent with enough seeds, unless you want to download with 10 kb/s rate. Download. Unrar iso file, use deamon tools, install, crack. Future updates: repeate the whole process.

Too much of a peasant to get into private trackers, where everything always has plenty of seeds and high download speeds, eh? Heh heh.

I'm registered to one private tracker, and I admit most things have many seeds on the site, but a) not everything b) I have to upload a lot to maintain a good download/upload ratio otherwise they ban me, which is an annoyance.

 

[KalosKagathos]

Digital distribution is all is going to be in some years, get used to it.

This man speaks the truth. For this very reason, owing to the tremendous success of PSP Go, Sony's next portable is going to use digital distribution as the sole medium. Oh, wait.

 

[Hobo Elf]

That's not why the PSP Go failed.

 

[J_C]

Digital distribution is all is going to be in some years, get used to it.

This man speaks the truth. For this very reason, owing to the tremendous success of PSP Go, Sony's next portable is going to use digital distribution as the sole medium. Oh, wait.

That's not why the PSP Go failed. It failed because it offered less than the original PSP for a higher price. Plus you couldn't use your disc based games you bought earlier on the Go. The new portable will offer more.

 

[torpid]

Digital distribution is all is going to be in some years, get used to it.

If retail dies, for me it'll be GOG or the high seas. I've progressively weaned myself from Steam, so I refuse to ever fall back into the clutches of DRM.

 

[Jaesun]

Enjoy your virus and spy-ware ridden computer then. r00fles!

 

[J1M]

I'd say all of the deals are bad due to the fact if Steam goes defunct there goes your entire collection of games. I'd rather go to a site where I can purchase and download the game without having to worry about whether the site lasts for very long.

I wouldn't ever worry about that, since I consider piracy a safe recourse if those circumstances ever arrive.

Shocking news for retards: you can play steam games offline. And make offline backups.

Gotta launch the games once in online mode to activate them. Even if installed via offline backups. Doesn't really bother me but worth mentioning.

Yes, because valve going out of business between the time you have paid for the game and finished downloading it is a very real concern...

 

[J1M]

Steam: Click on buy, use paypal (or credit card). Download game. Play. Future updates are automatic.

You're forgetting something: These factors are NOT convenient to do out of the blue. Paypal is a royal pain in the ass, and getting a credit card involves having to go all the way to some store that sells these things so you can prepay them, and this part has ALSO become a pain in the ass as of late. A significant amount of effort is involved in setting this up.

Torrentry, on the other hand, has minimal setup cost: You get your torrentry application of choice, and you start running.

One day you will be an adult and have a real credit card. lol

 

[baronjohn]

Steam: Click on buy, use paypal (or credit card). Download game. Play. Future updates are automatic.

You're forgetting something: These factors are NOT convenient to do out of the blue. Paypal is a royal pain in the ass, and getting a credit card involves having to go all the way to some store that sells these things so you can prepay them, and this part has ALSO become a pain in the ass as of late. A significant amount of effort is involved in setting this up.

Torrentry, on the other hand, has minimal setup cost: You get your torrentry application of choice, and you start running.

One day you will be an adult and have a real credit card. lol

One day when you attain an IQ over room temperature you'll realize that paying for things you can effortlessly get for free is retarded.

I bet you buy bottled water too, moran.

 

[Country_Gravy]

One day when you attain an IQ over room temperature you'll realize that paying for things you can effortlessly get for free is retarded.

Is that what the mugger told you? Why work for it when I can just jack your shit and get it for free? All it cost me was the price of an illegal pistol.

Thieves should have their tiny balls cut off and pirating software IS stealing no matter how you try to justify it.

When did this place get infested with thieves? They must be mostly kids who don't know any better or third world peasants. Poor bastards.

 

[Brotherman Bill]

If it costs as little as 10 cashmoneys there's no reason not to buy it off steam rather than torrent. Not only are you sure you get the latest version (the torrent version might be an old version, which means you'll have to track down the proper crack) but you can also play multiplayer hassle-free.

 

[Rogue]

Yes. I'd rather pay $5 or whatever for a game on GoG or Steam and play it once it's downloaded than be bothered by trackers, installs, updates, cracks, viruses, whatever ... But then again I'm not a little kid, not broke or homeless and not without a job.

you can also play multiplayer hassle-free.

this

 

[Lesifoere]

When was the last time anyone got virus/trojan infections through a torrent? You have to be fairly stupid to... oh, right.

And I don't even have anything against Steam in particular--I've bought a few games through them to support developers--but the "oh noes, torrenting is teh hard" bullshit flying around is irritating and says more about you than about pirates. Also, Rogue and Country_Gravy? There's a good chance I make more money than you. r00fles! Go back to lurking, non-entities.

 

[J_C]

Steam: Click on buy, use paypal (or credit card). Download game. Play. Future updates are automatic.

You're forgetting something: These factors are NOT convenient to do out of the blue. Paypal is a royal pain in the ass, and getting a credit card involves having to go all the way to some store that sells these things so you can prepay them, and this part has ALSO become a pain in the ass as of late. A significant amount of effort is involved in setting this up.

Torrentry, on the other hand, has minimal setup cost: You get your torrentry application of choice, and you start running.

One day you will be an adult and have a real credit card. lol

One day when you attain an IQ over room temperature you'll realize that paying for things you can effortlessly get for free is retarded.

Dirty thief.
There are times when pirating is excusable (shitty DRM, game not available otherwise, game doesn't worth the money), but generally saying that why should you pay for something when you can get it for free is childish. This is not how life works unfortunately.