I've seen lots of posts on this forum saying how they absolutely despise Steam, and that they refuse to buy the game because of Steam?

Honestly, why? It looks like people think Valve will sell your personal info (lol). I dunno, maybe I'm missing the point. In any case, why do you hate Steam, if you do? Has it prevented you from buying Skyrim?

I would think that number of people would be very low.

I got the game before I knew that it was tied in with Steam.

At first I was a little annoyed (My thought was if I wanted to buy it from Steam then I would have)

However that did not last long, now I am not bothered at all. It is nice to play the game without needing the disc in. I already had an account with Steam, so that was not a problem.

Yeah, I just wanted to hear from those, so I can know why they don't like the software.

I can't imagine playing games without Steam. I'm currently up to 44 games purchased through Steam. I have saved so much money buying games on sale through Steam for $5-$7 that I wound up liking and I would never have tried at full price.

Steam gets a big from me.

My main issue with steam is what if the servers go down or something happens w/ the steam site? Than I'm stuck w/ a $50 paper weight that I am unable to use because I am required to jack in through a third party. Guess I'm just a old school gamer, and am still used to the days that you could buy a game, and not worry about having to install other junk that you didn't want in the first place. Honestly, I have yet to really discover any benefit of having to deal with steam to run any of my games, other than a waste of my time and bandwith on my internet. Am I saying that my opinion cannot change? No.. Just that I don't see any value of having to wait for a 3rd party to give me the "ok" to play a game that I spent money on. Just saying.

Steam is well, its Steam.

I don't like it, don't think its necessary and haven't liked it since back when I played Counter Strike.

Its redundant, has trackers, and god knows what the hell they will do with that information.

You can say what you want about consoles, but at least I can eject my disc and play it in any other console without signing up for some nanny program.

The reason I don't like Steam, and won't buy a single product associated with it for my personal computer is the same reason I don't like Apple.

Steam is to the PC as iTunes is to the Mac.

I don't need to be told what I can do with the software I paid for, I'll do what I damned well please with it.

I bit my lip and bought Skyrim despite Steam but its the first TES my wife and my best friend haven't bought ( they started with Morrowind) because they won't have Steam on their PCs. My best friend is weakening though.

The only good thing about Steam is that it keeps us updated on sales and occassionally offers good deals.


However, everything else about it is just annoying.

I also despise how I can't play my own games if my internet suddenly dies.

its not so bad just keep it in offline mode so you never get screwed out of playing if your net goes down...yeah you have to be online to put it in offline mode...

This seems to be the main complaint I see from people, and I would completely understand it if this ever actually happened. In my ~2 years of using Steam, I haven't seen it go down once for more than a few minutes, usually when everyone's trying to get a hold of a new game or patch.

I believe running Steam in offline mode also takes care of any problems you're having with your own internet connection, provided you're just trying to play the games you already have and not downloading/installing any new ones.

You can play Steam games offline.

You are worrying about nothing, the steam site will never go down, and even if it does, you can still play your games in offline mode.


False, you can play most, if not all of your games in Offline Mode.

It's funny, but the people who hate Steam must also hate antivirus software... OSes... productivity software such as Adobe products...peripheral software such as Logitech controllers... oh, the list goes on! All of the complaints or perceptions about Steam also apply to all of these products.

I am not a HUGE fan of Steam, but I remember all the hate when Half-Life 2 launched without anyone considering how they were using the exact same technology with various other software installed on their systems. I don't like hypocrisy, so people didn't like it when I pointed out their behavior didn't make any sense.

I suppose everyone would prefer that Beth uses some form of DRM software?Hmm? Didn't think so.

Yeah, most of the people with that opinion are leftovers from the dawn of PC gaming, when there pretty much were no rules, no protections, and a game came on floppy disks or a raw CD and you could copy it a thousand times, give it away, give copies of it to all your friends, your whole school, sell it to someone, sell copies of it it to a thousand someones... whatever. Digital cowboys, gamer rebels who wanted the Wild Wild West/Web to stay the way it was, even as they saw inevitable and irresitable change rolling on in. Them days are gone, and they ain't never comin' back. Considering all the other half-arsed DRM abortions the industry's tried on us so far, I'll take Steam any day. Zero problems for me, agree with the guy.

Put Steam in offline mode and you can play your games even if their servers are down. I didn't realize that for a while either. Steam is great. I don't have to keep up with discs and I can download the games as many times as I need to. Updates to the games are automatic. I've never had any issues with it that made me not want to have it.

I don't like 3rd party software running needlessly in the background. Simple as that. This whole "offline mode" doesn't address this. I simply want an option to not have steam run at all.

The game has been on the Steam top sellers for like 2 months now, whoever isn't buying it must be a small minority.

This is a lie perpetuated by the Skyrim ruling elite. There is actually no offline mode... Neither is there really a steam

HOW FAR DOES THIS RABBIT HOLE GO!

Way back when, for the first couple of games I used through Steam, I disliked it, and had the same arguments as many people here. However, since then, I've had very little trouble with it, and a lot of benefits.

I do in-house beta testing for one company, on strategy games, and Steam is absolutely essential for that...when a major task is happening, the rate at which updates/patches/fixes come out is excellent, and overall the stability of the system is superb.

In general terms though, for the amount of people using Steam at any one time, even on any one game, Steam works very well. Keep in mind that a significant proportion of the problems people have with Steam are either caused by their own rigs/background programs, or have simple fixes...if a lot of people simply allowed their security suites to recognise Steam as a 'trusted' program, and played with their security in 'game mode', they wouldn't experience anywhere near the problems they do. Mods may also cause problems, but that isn't a fault of Steam's...it's just a side issue.

Yeah I thought it being tied in with steam was gay but I don't care as long as it works and I like the game. ^^ Some people are picky I guess..

Only for a couple of days; after a while you have to go online for verification. If Valve goes bankrupt we're screwed.

I don't see Valve going belly-up anytime soon, but fifteen years ago I thought the same thing about Interplay, Sierra and Westwood.

There is something fundamentally wrong with Steam that cannot be completely explained to those people that support it.

Steam supports a software philosophy which states that you do not own the software you buy, but are instead licensing it. Which, from a legal perspective, is completely true. Unfortunately, in many circumstances this thinking can lead to... problems. As some of the users mentioned here already, if Valve goes bankrupt, suddenly the future of Steam could be thrown into the air, and it's quite possible that no one will catch it. That said, there are those people who just aren't content to put their money on such a system, myself included.

In the case of Skyrim (and a few other select games), I am willing to bank on Steam to experience what are usually some really great games. But I am not happy with Steam overall, and usually if I have a choice I will avoid it entirely.

steam is a fine retailer, decent prices and keeps track of your purchases, that being said I think that it should ONLY be used as a retailer or games library, to make it mandatory for use of a game is a little rediculous.

It's no so much a 'philosophy' as an inability or reticence on the part of consumer advocates and their lawyers to take on the software industry...probably because the software industry has a never emptying pit of money to throw into any fight to change the laws in relation to software and ownership rights. Look at the fight the music industry is putting up to try and shutdown or control on-line music sales...think of the response if the software industry felt threatened like that.

Never in human history has so much money been spent on so meaningless or valueless a product, in concrete terms. Billions of dollars are spent on ideas, not actual physical property.