Steam

[.Maleficus.]

What are your thoughts on Steam? Personally, I think it blows. In December, my gaming computer fryed. Well, only my mobo and PSU. But anyways, I bought a new mobo and found out I had to uninstall everthing and re-install Windows. I don't have a copy of Windows. I went with Ubuntu. I downloaded Wine. I installed Steam. Now, it has been 7 months since I last used Steam, so, naturally, I forgot my password and username. For the past 3 days, I have been trying to get Steam to e-mail me my username and password. No luck. I'm still trying, but I'm not counting on it. I can't get a new account (well, I could, but since my CDKeys have been used, it wouldn't do me much good). I've spent lots of money on Half-Life and Half-Life 2, and the expansion packs. And now because of Steam, I wasted my money. And that pisses me off.

[nil8]

Their support is piss poor. Like the worst I've ever seen in a functioning company.
Other than that I like downloadable games and a single interface for multiple gaming platforms.

[PauL]

Just go to there support page and send then an email that someone hijacked your account. If you have photos of proof you bought the games then you can send them to them also and they should definently make a new account for you with all your games on it. It worked for me. Hope you can get your account back.

[.Maleficus.]

Just go to there support page and send then an email that someone hijacked your account. If you have photos of proof you bought the games then you can send them to them also and they should definently make a new account for you with all your games on it. It worked for me. Hope you can get your account back.

That's a very good idea, but I still think Steam blows. I mean, I shouldn't have to lie about having my account stolen and send in photos to prove I bought the games. If Valve is worried about copy protection and such they should just get better software, not some crappy online service that makes you wait to play your games. I will admit I like having the option of buying games there, but that is the only plus. Also, what about internet connection? If you have no internet connection you're screwed. But whatever, I've said my peace, and now I will go back to hoping that Steam will just e-mail me my account info.

[PauL]

If you have no internet connect, you are able to start Steam still and it will let you choose to play offline.

[.Maleficus.]

But won't you not get updates? Still, the support is terrible. Yet another day has gone by and still no e-mail. But I still want to know what the rest of you think about it.

[AKA_RA]

i think steam has served me well. i dont really know whats up with them not responding to you instantly. its almost as if there were other people that existed besides you. but seriously, just give it some time and try not to bust a blood vessel in the mean time. ive heard a lot of people complain about steam and valve and how they absolutly hate the system. but you also have to realize that not everyones going to like it, and its not going to work for every single person 100% of the time. at least they update their software. besides, remember who forget their login, i dont think steam is the one to blame here.

[Rankenphile]

There is a perfectly simple solution to prevent this from happening in the future.

Write down important user names and passwords and keep them in a secure location.

I don't have a problem with Steam - they provide very simple updates, very easy online play, easy delivery and reasonable rates for entertaining games with a delivery and marketing mechanism that I find to be of very high quality. They are not without their flaws, but no system is and they are certainly better than they once were.

[.Maleficus.]

Well, the overall product is good, like nil8 said, I like the downloadable games and having all of my games in one platform, but otherwise I don't like it. But I find support very important, and so far I haven't been too pleased with it. On the support page, I couldn't even find a way to e-mail them without it being posted as a question on the page. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right area, but I would still like my e-mails to them private. So I guess I should rephrase what I said. I meant that I don't like the support (that's all I was complaining about in my first post), but the service is ok.

[nil8]

Steam is much better than WON ever was, although it is a little clunky and can be frustrating.

I helped a friend run a cybercafe a couple of years back and I can tell you that steam's support is pathetic and lacking, and always has been. If you have a problem, take a number and wait 6 weeks to forever. Business & users get shafted on troubleshooting in this regard.

Their system is quick, easy, and very efficent, except for when it screws up, and they need to focus on that instead of just pumping out games.

[In_Flames]

Anyone remember the good ole' days of MPlayer? They had the best set up for online gaming I've ever seen. You could create your own 'room' and start up a game whenever you wanted, for free. I used to play many a Quake 2 match in MPlayer. It was just nice to have a place where your clan could go and hang out, play some games, talk strategy, whatever you wanted. Too bad LameSpy had to take it over. Maybe one day something similar will come.

[monoflap]

I HATE GAMESPY! I have lost hours of my life that I can never get back trying to make it work. After about 5 min. my connection is lost. It's getting worse and worse because practicly every game is starting to use it. Sorry, couldn't contain myself.

[In_Flames]

Yeah, I know how you feel. GameSpy just killed MPlayer when they bought it, started changing things and charging fees, and now it's horrible. I wish someone would develop an MPlayer-like system again.

[Famous]

two words

steam sucks

[mikeroq]

Ive had no problem with steam, when I losty my password, I used to automated process to reset it, I dont know why its now working for you.

[nil8]

Famous' post will touch so many lives.

Seriously though, steam is great when it works.

[d_stilgar]

I like Steam really. I can log into any computer and play my games, how nice. I don't have to have my game CDs or CD keys. I just log in and choose which of my games I want to download. When I busted my video card in my computer, I just logged on to my home computer and downloaded the game onto it and was able to play HL2:e1.

My only complaint comes from the fact that if you are online, you must update before you play. The more I update, the less compatible my not-new computer is from the games that are being updated.

[simon275]

:mad: I hate steam. :mad:

Even when I only want to play single player HL2 it forces updates upon me.

When I first used it to register CS it wouldn't let me as my CD key was to old. And to prove it was a real copy I had to take a picture of the CD the box and the docket for the game which I had bought like 6 years ago after my last copy got scrathced. In frustatartion I went out and bought my third copy of CS along with CS Source. There valve I hope you are happy.

[nil8]

I never had a problem with my old cdkey. Never. I bought hl within 2 months of it being released and have used the same cdkey ever since.

[simon275]

Im talking about the old cs not HL2.

[nil8]

Yea, I'm talking about the old HL as well. When I changed to steam, it asked for my cdkey and I've done it twice now due to pc upgrades and haven't had a problem with it.

[.Maleficus.]

Yea, I'm talking about the old HL as well. When I changed to steam, it asked for my cdkey and I've done it twice now due to pc upgrades and haven't had a problem with it.

How did you do it twice? Like, you used the same one twice?

[nil8]

Yep. It was attached to my email address, so I used a the same email addy on a new box and it asked me for the cdkey again, then verified it.