It seems that you're using an outdated browser. Some things may not work as they should (or don't work at all).
We suggest you upgrade newer and better browser like: Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera

×
Community
General discussion (archive)I hate Steam (long rant)(255 posts)(255 posts)
(255 posts)
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
10
17
This is my favourite topic
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
Neobr10: You clearly don't know how the market works. The fact that australians get fucked up prices is not Steam's fault. Do you know one of the reasons why publishers love Steam? Because Steam gives them the freedom to set the prices however they please. If they didn't offer such freedom, some publishers would not sell on it. This would be bad for Steam itself. And to be honest i would rather get a higher price than not having the option to buy the game at all.

GOG can't just pick a game up and set the same prices globally and say something like "fuck you publisher, i'll set the same price globally whether you like it or not". GOG has to come to an agreement with the right holders. And some publishers don't really like the idea of global prices.

Let's face it, GOG appeals to a niche market (DRM-free and old games), Steam is a behemont, they can't afford to make such policies at the risk of losing publisher's support.

By the way here in Brazil we get regional pricing on EA games from Steam. Again, i can't blame Steam or Valve. It was EA's choice. It would be dumb for me to blame Steam for that.
People can blame Steam for regional pricing and you can't stop them! :)

Whether its steam, apple or anyone else, the distributors have as much control over the pricing as the publishers. It is open for a distributor to say, "I will not sell your product unless everyone around the world pays the same price for it" just as it is open for the publishers to say "I want to charge different amounts to different regions". Steam has a fair amount of market power in the digital distribution sphere and is definitely able to control its own processes. Either the distributor or the publisher must concede and people are entitled to blame Steam for conceding. Who is to say what would happen if Steam stuck to their guns and refused to allow regional pricing? Nobody, that's who. So complain away, I say, but it's better to put your money where your mouth is and not support Steam at all if you have a problem with regional pricing.

I should say I don't have a problem with regional pricing. The average income in Australia is higher than most other countries and I have no problem with that being reflected in game prices, within reason.

Edit: Ninja'd by bloodygoodgames
Post edited August 28, 2012 by htown1980
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
hedwards: Perhaps I've been too subtle with my deep and abiding hatred for all things Steam. I do my best damn it.
We need an anti-Steam emoticon!
Posted August 28, 2012
Well, just don't use it then.
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
hedwards: Perhaps I've been too subtle with my deep and abiding hatred for all things Steam. I do my best damn it.
avatar
StingingVelvet: We need an anti-Steam emoticon!
An angry face with steam coming out the ears
Posted August 28, 2012
The way I feel towards steam is somewhat ambiguous...and ambiguous coming from me isn't exactly 'nice' considering that I am an unscrupulous whisky swiveling hedonist. Now, my problem isn't with drm but more so with the steam EULA and the tacky customer support that they have. Most of all it has to do with the regional restrictions that they carry...

As for drm, I am smart you see. I try and see if there is a drm free version available or else I get the disk version. If the game is a rare one like say kotor then I'd go to steam (Since the recent re-release isn't quite available here in Asia)

Anyway I have spent more money on gog than on steam.
Post edited August 28, 2012 by Lionel212008
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
Magmarock: People have told me that I should contact the Steam admins, but 3 things. A I shouldn’t have to, B I have contacted the admins about problems similar to this and they usually just give me the run around, by saying things like “contact the publisher.” I’m not going to waist my time on people who don’t care about their customers.
"3 things, A and B"? Did I miss something?
Otherwise: whatever.
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
SimonG: I'm currently playing DM of M&M on Steam. It works fine. Bought it a few weeks ago, installed it last week and currently playing it on Windows 7.
avatar
jamyskis: Odd. Possibly video driver related then, although downgrades haven't fixed the problem for me then. In Steam the intro video plays and then the game simply locks up with a black screen. I don't get this issue with the non-Steam version.

This wasn't always the case - I played it about a year and a half ago under Steam (with the same HD4890 card under WIn 7) and it worked fine.
That is strange. For reference, I last played Steam Dark Messiah in May on Win8 with a Radeon 4770. I played through the first few levels and it seemed fine.
Posted August 28, 2012
Dark Messiah works fine for me dude.
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
Magmarock: People have told me that I should contact the Steam admins, but 3 things. A I shouldn’t have to, B I have contacted the admins about problems similar to this and they usually just give me the run around, by saying things like “contact the publisher.” I’m not going to waist my time on people who don’t care about their customers.

The incident with Dark Messiah served only to remind me that I don’t own my games. Steam does and I can only play them when Steams feels like letting me play them.

However, with GOG.com I pointed out a problem with Painkillers Loading times compared to the Steam version and the admins made a patch.

Wow talk about actually caring about your customers, so that point goes to GOG.
avatar
Neobr10: That's true. GOG's support is much better than Steam.
avatar
Magmarock: Forums.
Steam Forums are utter crap. First and foremost if you read the TOS you’ll find that you can be banned from the forums for just about anything. I found out the hard way when I posted a comment about regional pricing (which I’ll get into later) and got banned as a result. So I wouldn’t be surprised if someone got into trouble for pointing out that Valve haven’t really been doing anything for the past 5 years or so.
avatar
Neobr10: Nope. They don't ban people that easily. And no, definately they don't ban people for criticizing Steam in a civil manner. There are a lot of threads filled with complaints about Steam selling "broken games" and people don't get banned for that.
avatar
Magmarock: The forum structure of Steam is convoluted mess and it’s hard to keep track of topics.
With the GOG forums, it is very easy to keep track of topics. Not only that if you have a problem with a game, finding the solution is very easy. In fact I was surprised just how easily I could find the solution to some complicated problems.
avatar
Neobr10: Honestly i don't see any difference in that regard. Both forums are pretty similar in structure (featuring a general forum and a specific forum for each game).
avatar
Magmarock: Regional Pricing
Finally, regional pricing, if you live in the US this isn’t much of a problem for you. If you don’t however, you maybe paying a lot more for a game then its’ worth because of how much the publisher thinks you owe them. Fortunately you can find out for yourself how much you’re being ribbed off by going here http://www.steamprices.com/us
However, before that site was set up, I did a little pocking and after I found myself having to pay an extra $80 USD for a game for no reason other then my region, I decided to take a screen shot as proof https://dl.dropbox.com/u/80908969/Both%20in%20US%20prices.png

After seeing this unconscionable display of greed I decided I was done with Steam.

On a final note I am fully aware that Valve doesn't control how publishers conduct busyness. However, they own Steam which makes Steam their responsibility. They are responsible for the polices that Steam bestows on it's customer as well as those looking to sell their product on Steam.
avatar
Neobr10: You clearly don't know how the market works. The fact that australians get fucked up prices is not Steam's fault. Do you know one of the reasons why publishers love Steam? Because Steam gives them the freedom to set the prices however they please. If they didn't offer such freedom, some publishers would not sell on it. This would be bad for Steam itself. And to be honest i would rather get a higher price than not having the option to buy the game at all.

GOG can't just pick a game up and set the same prices globally and say something like "fuck you publisher, i'll set the same price globally whether you like it or not". GOG has to come to an agreement with the right holders. And some publishers don't really like the idea of global prices.

Let's face it, GOG appeals to a niche market (DRM-free and old games), Steam is a behemont, they can't afford to make such policies at the risk of losing publisher's support.

By the way here in Brazil we get regional pricing on EA games from Steam. Again, i can't blame Steam or Valve. It was EA's choice. It would be dumb for me to blame Steam for that.
Well I haven't investigated the forums that well all I know was, that I was banned for talking about DRM and regional pricing contributing towards piracy.
Posted August 28, 2012
Let's face it, GOG appeals to a niche market (DRM-free and old games), Steam is a behemont, they can't afford to make such policies at the risk of losing publisher's support.

Of course Steam can!

Some publishers have said 75 percent of their game sales are now on Steam. For some, who insist on Steam-only, it's 100 percent.

You honestly think those publishers are going to give up Steam if Steam says "no more regional pricing"?

Steam is the one mainly at fault here, as they could refuse to do it. They don't. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. That's Steam and that's also GamersGate, who have also been weenie when it comes to standing up to publishers (look at how many Steam-only games that site now carries!)
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
StingingVelvet: We need an anti-Steam emoticon!
avatar
Barefoot_Monkey: An angry face with steam coming out the ears
Or monocledmarcin.jpg
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
Jernfuglen: I don't hate steam, but you can't say I was happy when I found out that my copy of Skyrim, that I bought in Russia, didn't work when I tried it in Denmark. And this is caused by their region pricing. If they didn't feel like selling the games at different prices in different regions, it wouldn't be necesary to control where they can be played.
if they didn't feel like selling games at different prices in different regions, gamers in poorer (poorer as in lower average income) wouldn't be able to afford games (legally).

think for 2.5 seconds. it's low enough to try and abuse regional pricing at the cost of somebody else's poverty. it's even worse to complain about it afterwards.
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
Bloodygoodgames: Let's face it, GOG appeals to a niche market (DRM-free and old games), Steam is a behemont, they can't afford to make such policies at the risk of losing publisher's support.

Of course Steam can!

Some publishers have said 75 percent of their game sales are now on Steam. For some, who insist on Steam-only, it's 100 percent.

You honestly think those publishers are going to give up Steam if Steam says "no more regional pricing"?

Steam is the one mainly at fault here, as they could refuse to do it. They don't. If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem. That's Steam and that's also GamersGate, who have also been weenie when it comes to standing up to publishers (look at how many Steam-only games that site now carries!)
This seems naive at best to me. Sure, there's some little guys that Steam could force-arm into having equal prices across different regions but the big boys wouldn't play ball, and more importantly, they don't have to. There's other DD portals, and if those don't feel good enough then it'll just push them to build stuff of their own, like is already happening to some extent (Ubistore, Origin).

Fact is, despite Steam's structuring, developers/publishers themselves are perfectly allowed to set regional prices and better, equalize them between regions. This is showcased by Stardock games being roughly equal across regions (EU/US at least), which is a company that is known for having said they believed in equal pricing. And they posted their games in the last year or so.

Steam is not a monopoly, it managed to get this big by giving publishers/developers more and more options, not by taking them away. That publishers/developers use those options to put unfair pricing between regions is at the very least equally the publishers/developers fault, if not a lot more.
Post edited August 28, 2012 by Pheace
Posted August 28, 2012
avatar
Fred_DM: if they didn't feel like selling games at different prices in different regions, gamers in poorer (poorer as in lower average income) wouldn't be able to afford games (legally).

think for 2.5 seconds. it's low enough to try and abuse regional pricing at the cost of somebody else's poverty. it's even worse to complain about it afterwards.
Is Australia seriously 4 times richer than US?

(Disclosure: I only bought the Orange Box on Steam, and it didn't have regional pricing at the time.)
Posted August 28, 2012
I like Steam for sales of stuff I don't want to pay full price for and a place to put all my bundle games.
avatar
StingingVelvet: . For the record my Steam copy worked fine on Win7 last time I played it.
Same for me but I last played it about a year ago.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
10
17
This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)I hate Steam (long rant)(255 posts)(255 posts)
(255 posts)