Stupid, Stupid Steam, updating games against users wishes

[SJWs R TRAITORS]

Time for a change Steam, Users should be given an option whether they want their game they've purchased to updated with Patches .. Yes, i know patches are GENERALLY suppose to improve a game but in some cases it actually works the opposite. Game in point - Cliffs of Dover Flight sim, originally designed to run on high end computers, this game when first released showed high quality graphics, sound and modelling ..and worked well on most high end machines but because of complaints from lower end machine users, and the GFC, and the Sacking of the lead developer, the engine was rewritten - PWNED, to run better on lower end machines and hopefully attract more sales .. it didn't work! Now CLOD is abandonedware and users are stuck with a poor quality game they cannot fix. Of course fixing would be easy if the original game on the DVD could be loaded WITHOUT PATCHES .. but .. steam .. etc Please give the user the option to load patches or not.

[Delph]

This will never happen - autoupdating of patches is one of the big advantages of steam. It means that all customers automatically have the latest patch allowing for ease of bugtesting/reducing of redundant support tickets as well as streamlining of multiplayer. It can cause problems at times but what you are suggesting is that steam carry a version of every single game for each patch. Some games release a patch every few days - there will be insane numbers of versions that steam will have to make available, offer support for, design a UI to navigate through the different patches etc. I agree that in the case above it sucks but there is no simple fix. Also I was under the impression that Cliffs of Dover was very buggy when it first came out as well - you'd want at least the first few patches anyway rather than direct from the DVD

[𝕊𝕋𝕌ℝ𝕄-𝕂𝔸𝕋]

Mhm...that's a bit of bad luck there, sorry to hear that :/
But that seems like a bad business decision, not a the patch's fault. Patches fix nearly all of the time. I am happy to have them on auto..because it gets done a lot sooner than if I had to keep trawling through websites looking for the latest patch...

I HATED having to do that with my games for years. And when you have got like 100+ games in your Library, er....nah..I don't wanna sit there manually finding patches, do you?...

[Spawn of Totoro]

You agreed to the updates in the SSA when you made your account and with every game purchase, there for, the up dates are not against your wishes.

The issues you are having is with the Developer, not Steam. I suggest going to their forums and complaining there.

[mlmbug]

but why does steam have an option to stop automatically updating games in the game properties tab, then stab users in the back by overriding that setting and having games patch anyway.
my opinion is that that setting is a lie. why did they bother putting such a setting in steam if they never intended to have it actually stop the games from updating!

i can actually understand why you need to update multiplayer games, but why does steam demand that many other singleplayer games be updated aswell?

[Spawn of Totoro]

Nguyên văn bởi mlmbug:

but why does steam have an option to stop automatically updating games in the game properties tab, then stab users in the back by overriding that setting and having games patch anyway.
my opinion is that that setting is a lie. why did they bother putting such a setting in steam if they never intended to have it actually stop the games from updating!

i can actually understand why you need to update multiplayer games, but why does steam demand that many other singleplayer games be updated aswell?

It does what it is suppsed to do. Stops automatic updates.

With the option enabled, it will not download the update untill you click to play the game. It is no longer an automatic update and has become a manual update that requires your interaction before it will download and install.

[[UFO] rad87gn]

Bring on the updates! I love that steam updates all my games automatically!

[sinbaadi44]

I think people on these forums totally lack empathy. It's a lot of "Well it hasn't affected me so you're wrong".
Put yourself in their place, one of your favourite games gets ruined and you have no choice about it because Steam does not have a simple option to decline automatic patches. How will it feel?
All it needs is a big warning message before you click the "deactivate auto patch install" box in the game options in Steam.

[Τhe Rolling Cheese Wheel]

Nguyên văn bởi sinbaadi44:

I think people on these forums totally lack empathy. It's a lot of "Well it hasn't affected me so you're wrong".
Put yourself in their place, one of your favourite games gets ruined and you have no choice about it because Steam does not have a simple option to decline automatic patches. How will it feel?
All it needs is a big warning message before you click the "deactivate auto patch install" box in
the game options in Steam.

What game got worse due to patches?

[Tito Shivan]

Nguyên văn bởi sinbaadi44:

I think people on these forums totally lack empathy. It's a lot of "Well it hasn't affected me so you're wrong".
Put yourself in their place, one of your favourite games gets ruined and you have no choice about it because Steam does not have a simple option to decline automatic patches. How will it feel?
All it needs is a big warning message before you click the "deactivate auto patch install" box in the game options in Steam.

Speaking of empathy. Do you know how many game issues are solved due to proper game patching?
Do you know how many support hours go wasted because the issue originates on a unpatched piece of software, despite user's swearing of the game being patched?
Do you know how many support efforts are wasted due to users not being bothered to run an update or patch a game?

That's why Steam forces updates. Because users wills and wants are not always on their own behalf. I know it pretty well from experience.

I'd personally force updates, making them mandatory not only on Steam, but on every piece of software.

Because whenever a user can choose between doing something and not doing it. He'll choose the later.

Steamguard made a pretty clear example of what happens when you leave something up to user's choice.

[Dark Lord Satan Visit Your Bum]

Multiplayer games should have mandatory patching, for obvious reasons. But single-player games? No freaking way -- that choice should be left up to the user.

When users complain about a Steam "walled garden", this is exactly the kind of thing they are referring to.

Nguyên văn bởi The Rolling Cheese:

What game got worse due to patches?

I can think of three off the top of my head: Skyrim, Sleeping Dogs, and Red Orchestra 2 at one point or another all had issues with poorly-designed patches. I'm sure there are about a dozen or so more examples.

[«Gғм» Kid Of The Century]

Nguyên văn bởi Tito Shivan:

Speaking of empathy. Do you know how many game issues are solved due to proper game patching?
Do you know how many support hours go wasted because the issue originates on a unpatched piece of software, despite user's swearing of the game being patched?
Do you know how many support efforts are wasted due to users not being bothered to run an update or patch a game?

That's why Steam forces updates. Because users wills and wants are not always on their own behalf. I know it pretty well from experience.

I'd personally force updates, making them mandatory not only on Steam, but on every piece of software.

Because whenever a user can choose between doing something and not doing it. He'll choose the later.

Steamguard made a pretty clear example of what happens when you leave something up to user's choice.

I agree 99%.

My only 1% is about those unfortunate situations where your connection is temporarily sub-par (as in "I'm moving out and I'll have a 56K connection for 1 or 2 months" not "I live on Uranus and I demand Steam to work!") and for certain single player games (e.g. Skyrim) having to download a 500 mb patch is basically getting booted out of your game.

An option, disabled by default, which every time the game is started (I'm fine being nagged) it checks for updates but asks if you want to patch the game or play right away would be the best, IMO.

[That Guy]

the option to not update should at least work but it isnt right now. 3 games i have that i have set to not update have updated.im not even sure how skyrim updated itself since there was no dowload prompt and the option to make level 100 skills legendary just apeared

if i had resident evil 6 on pc i would have a fit having to have that left 4 dead stuff in resident evil if i wanted to see left 4 dead monsters i would play left 4 dead and the user should be able to determine if they want updates/patches or not in genral

[Satoru]

Nguyên văn bởi «Gғм» Kid Of The Century:

I agree 99%.
and for certain single player games (e.g. Skyrim) having to download a 500 mb patch is basically getting booted out of your game.

Note the new content system means that downloading a patch no longer locks you out of your game. Ergo even on terrible links you can still play your game while it downloads.

An option, disabled by default, which every time the game is started (I'm fine being nagged) it checks for updates but asks if you want to patch the game or play right away would be the best, IMO.

If you set a game to 'do not update' thats pretty much how it behaves.

[Zefar]

Nguyên văn bởi Dirtman73:

No freaking way -- that choice should be left up to the user.

The problem that will arise when letting users chose to update or is that they will complain about an issue that has been fixed by a patch.

This was one of the reason Valve went with auto update as mandatory on all games.

So this change will not be a good one.

[Dark Lord Satan Visit Your Bum]

Nguyên văn bởi Zefar:

Nguyên văn bởi Dirtman73:

No freaking way -- that choice should be left up to the user.

The problem that will arise when letting users chose to update or is that they will complain about an issue that has been fixed by a patch.

This was one of the reason Valve went with auto update as mandatory on all games.

So this change will not be a good one.

That makes perfect sense from Valve's perspective, but it still takes the choice out of the user's hands. It's unfortunate there's no middle ground.