Did Steam Ruin PC Gaming?

[Guy]

So I was thinking earlier whether or not it's bad that I have been playing Steam less recently. That made me think about if Steam shifted the focus of gaming onto how many hours you put into a game than actually enjoying things about the real game. Or how about how many meaningless cards you craft for meaningless xp for meaningless levels that we stupidly continue to make go up for the benefit of Valve and a false sense of success. I have noticed that I'm having more fun with console games because I'm not constantly thinking about whether or not this session was at least an hour or something stupid. Thoughts?

[Albcatmastercat]

Originally posted by AYY LMAO:

So I was thinking earlier whether or not it's bad that I have been playing Steam less recently. That made me think about if Steam shifted the focus of gaming onto how many hours you put into a game than actually enjoying things about the real game. Or how about how many meaningless cards you craft for meaningless xp for meaningless levels that we stupidly continue to make go up for the benefit of Valve and a false sense of success. I have noticed that I'm having more fun with console games because I'm not constantly thinking about whether or not this session was at least an hour or something stupid. Thoughts?

Well, that is to be expected; this generation is too dumb to realize things in their noses...

[DirtyFishy]

Valve and Steam have made vast improvements for PC gaming. I don't specifically care about playtime or cards but if I get them then I get them.

[PsydeFX]

I couldn't care less about my steam profile level or cards, yet I craft badges and trade them, because... Why not?

I don't think many people care about how long each play session is, and those who do probably don't have anything better going on in their lives.

So, no, I don't think steam has ruined PC gaming. Steams impact on gaming is actually pretty minimal.

[Albcatmastercat]

What really -is- ruining PC Gaming, IMO, is the sheer amount of kiddies everywhere, everyday. This is bending the Luck/Skill scale, among Difficulty/Tutorial and other ones.
In other words: Luck factor too harsh, but easy games.
PS: This applies to Gaming in general, not only PC.

[PsydeFX]

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

What really -is- ruining PC Gaming, IMO, is the sheer amount of kiddies everywhere, everyday. This is bending the Luck/Skill scale, among Difficulty/Tutorial and other ones.
In other words: Luck factor too harsh, but easy games.
PS: This applies to Gaming in general, not only PC.

I agree that gaming has gotten way too easy lately. I play mostly shooters and I can't even find a challenge in them any more. I put evey game I play on the hardest difficulty setting and they still feel ridiculously easy. And i hear all these kids complain about how hard x game is...

[StunnzaJeth]

Don't play your PC games on Steam then?

I play tons of PC games not on Steam. Bnet launcher, Uplay, D2D are big examples.

So no. Steam did not ruin PC gaming. It can be argued that Steam itself shifted from PC gaming however.

[Quint the Alligator Snapper]

Originally posted by AYY LMAO:

So I was thinking earlier whether or not it's bad that I have been playing Steam less recently. That made me think about if Steam shifted the focus of gaming onto how many hours you put into a game than actually enjoying things about the real game. Or how about how many meaningless cards you craft for meaningless xp for meaningless levels that we stupidly continue to make go up for the benefit of Valve and a false sense of success. I have noticed that I'm having more fun with console games because I'm not constantly thinking about whether or not this session was at least an hour or something stupid. Thoughts?

I have noticed some of the thought patterns you've mentioned, and I'm inclined to agree, yeah, they've kinda "commoditized" gaming.

The biggest problem isn't so much Steam's trading cards or playtime tracking, actually. The biggest problem is how Steam sales have given so many of us these huge game libraries that we need help choosing something to play.

The best way I've found for dealing with this is to ask if there's any particular game I want to play, or to ask whether I really want to keep playing a game or if I just want some sort of diversion from something else.

It takes some introspection to really shake off this feeling of all games being compared to each other mercilessly and mechanically and being grinded into meaninglessness.

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

What really -is- ruining PC Gaming, IMO, is the sheer amount of kiddies everywhere, everyday. This is bending the Luck/Skill scale, among Difficulty/Tutorial and other ones.
In other words: Luck factor too harsh, but easy games.
PS: This applies to Gaming in general, not only PC.

I rarely play multiplayer games so I can't agree with this.

[agreeksailor]

Originally posted by StunnzaJeth:

Don't play your PC games on Steam then?

I play tons of PC games not on Steam. Bnet launcher, Uplay, D2D are big examples.

So no. Steam did not ruin PC gaming. It can be argued that Steam itself shifted from PC gaming however.

D2D? Are you referring to the digital distribution that was known as Direct2Drive which was shutdown sometime in 2013? I lost access to half of my digital copies of games. That really sucked because I didn't have sufficient internet access when it happened to recover my games before they shutdown. D2D is the reason I have trouble trusting digital distribution. Even Steam.

[iCeDrAgOn]

I think Steam has made it that we're now paying full market value for renting games indefinitly. when you went out and bought a physical CD/DVD of the game and if you did something stupid i.e. cheated and got banned from the game you didn't run the risk of ruining your online multiplayer in every game that you owned or outright losing all of your games. Also you had a lot more freedom to do what you wanted to do with your physical CD/DVD's of games, if you wanted to give them to a friend because you no longer played them, then that was your choice.

By using Steam, and now so many developers using Steam it is basically removed the options that that owning physcial copies of said game and or software allowed you to do.

[shiel]

Originally posted by Albcatmastercat:

What really -is- ruining PC Gaming, IMO, is the sheer amount of kiddies everywhere, everyday. This is bending the Luck/Skill scale, among Difficulty/Tutorial and other ones.
In other words: Luck factor too harsh, but easy games.
PS: This applies to Gaming in general, not only PC.

This is the downside to Steam, it creates a closed system which is relatively easy to understand... Similar to a console in that regard. Especially with things like Big Picture Mode and Steam Machines that basically turn your PC into a console. Before, PC gamers had to at least have a rudimentary knowledge of computers. Now, they get a netbook and think they should be able to run The Witcher 3 maxed out(because Steam doesn't explicitly tell them they can't) and are shocked when it won't even load up.

[Hannibal]

They didn't kill pc gaming, they think they are pc gaming. That's a whole lot of other trouble.

[EXE]

Steam's contributions to gaming are a net positive for me. I would rather not go back to the way things were in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

[shiel]

Originally posted by Tim:

Steam's contributions to gaming are a net positive for me. I would rather not go back to the way things were in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

This is true, generally it has been a postive thing. I do miss CD-Keys being the extent of drm though. The biggest thing holding PC back right now is the fact that once a game is redeemed by someone (pretty much any publisher), it's forever locked to that user. Mind you, if it was like it was now, noone would ever buy a game brand new which would screw devs/publishers and they would never support PC to begin with.

[Astraea Kisaragi]

While I don't like how Steam does thing recently, I considered them asctually the ones who saved PC gaming.

Steam creates a closed system similar a bit to consoles and thanks to them I can now enjoy console exlusives which I could not even imagine come to PC before.
When the PS2/3/X-Box era began, many great franchises swept away from PC and came back eventually to Steam - Mortal Kombat, Metal Gear, Final Fantasy.
Eventually even titles which where console exlusives now appear on PC, which as a hardcore anime fan without console ownership I can value a lot.

If somebody would have told me 3 years ago that Hyperdimension Neptunia comes to PC, I would have laughed him into the face. Yet they are soon releasing the fifth title and next month even Senran Kagura makes its debut.

[GRIDLINES]

I've started to buy games on GOG because I like not having to think about all the extra stuff that Steam injects into the experience. Being online, hours played, trading cards, etc... it's just something extra I constantly think about. I like starting up an isolated piece of software and enjoying it for what it is, not something intangible gained by playing it through a service. It ends when the program closes down. It is bound to the software it is used for. I've found it helps make playing games more fun and puts more focus on having fun in a game.