Won't be purchasing games on Steam any longer

[Why_I_Game]

Due to Steam's insane policy of not allowing people to play their purchased games on the OS they purchased those games on, I will no longer be supporting Steam via buying games.

I use Windows 10 for gaming, so dropping support for Windows 7/8 doesn't directly affect me, but I won't keep supporting a company that doesn't believe the customer should be able to access their purchased games collection on the operating system they bought those games on. Many games released on Windows 7/8 do not run properly on Windows 10/11.

I have almost 400 games in my Steam collection, but I'm done. Good Old Games (GOG) actually sells you games, you own them in perpetuity without DRM. You can download your game installers for offline access even if GOG goes out of business.

To those who are still on Win7/8 there are instructions in these forums for continuing to access your game collection by using an old client that is set to never update (which presumably violates the Steam TOS).

[Why_I_Game]

This wasn't a farewell post, just letting Steam know why I am discontinuing purchases from them. I will continue to play my Steam games on whatever OS I feel like playing them on. I think it is extremely immoral to tell people they can't play a game on the operating system they purchased that specific game for. That's as stupid as Nintendo saying you must buy a new console to play your original SNES cartridges on (and an inferior product), and that you're not permitted to use original SNES hardware to play your original SNES games. You should always be able to play a game on the platform you bought it for. Period. Anything else is ludicrous.

And to the person that said it's a myth that games for Win 7/8 don't run the same on Win 10... uh, what? Bugs absolutely exist when using games on other operating systems than the one it was designed for. Obviously not every single game will experience these bugs on every single other operating system version, but to prove my point I would only need to demonstrate a single game exists that has new issues on Windows 10 that it doesn't experience on Windows 7/8. I've personally encountered several of those over the last decade of using Steam, games that I had to web search solutions to work around issues on Windows 10 that weren't there on the operating system it was designed for. People should be free to run games on the OS they bought that game for. If they're using an old OS, they obviously don't care about the security risks.

Steam is not my nanny. I don't need it choosing my operating system for me, or banning me from activities that it deems "risky". Just pop up a notice when you load Steam that says "Support for this OS has been discontinued. If you use this version you will be exposing yourself to security issues. Use at your own risk." and give some checkboxes to opt-in to various Steam activities, with the safest being offline mode only.

[Thermal Lance]

Don't let the door hit you on your way out.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Автор сообщения: Why_I_Game

Due to Steam's insane policy of not allowing people to play their purchased games on the OS they purchased those games on, I will no longer be supporting Steam via buying games.

I use Windows 10 for gaming, so dropping support for Windows 7/8 doesn't directly affect me, but I won't keep supporting a company that doesn't believe the customer should be able to access their purchased games collection on the operating system they bought those games on. Many games released on Windows 7/8 do not run properly on Windows 10/11.

I have almost 400 games in my Steam collection, but I'm done. Good Old Games (GOG) actually sells you games, you own them in perpetuity without DRM. You can download your game installers for offline access even if GOG goes out of business.

To those who are still on Win7/8 there are instructions in these forums for continuing to access your game collection by using an old client that is set to never update (which presumably violates the Steam TOS).

OP this isn't first time Steam drop OS's it's been nearly 20 years from windows, mac, and Linux. Are you learning this today for the first time?

Also if know which game can't work on windows 10, can you give examples?

About gog, no you still don't actually own titles, it same policy on Steam, and everywhere else for buying a license, the differents is providing offline installer, and offering download via website instead of client.

Also last thing yes people can modify the client, but it's your own risk if it involves doing something that could cause problems to you, and also not everything last forever, so if it breaks down the road that be it basically.

[Haruspex]

Ok. Bye OP. We'll (sic) miss you.

[Monk]

Well OP, no one from steam will read this, or care and chances are, you will still buy games here.

Just upgrade to something that is not obsoloete.

Oh and the terms you agree to say they can make changes, so, nothing immoral, you just failed to read what you agreed to.

[nullable]

Автор сообщения: Why_I_Game

Due to Steam's insane policy of not allowing people to play their purchased games on the OS they purchased those games on, I will no longer be supporting Steam via buying games.

People are really stretching the definition of insane these days. Every Windows OS prior to Windows 7 has had support ended. Anyone who didn't think it would happen to Windows 7 may not be insane, but may be deluded.

Steam isn't hardly the only software maker, game maker, or launcher ending Windows 7 support. You're flying off the handle because you don't know you're gonna be calling the whole industry insane in the next few months when the reality becomes more visible to you.

Maybe educate yourself to the realities of what's going on before you moralize about the subject.

See all the future deluded Win10 users repeating this same claptrap sometime around 2029.

[Haruspex]

Автор сообщения: Monk

Just upgrade to something that is not obsoloete.

No, OP said they use Windows 10. They're just white knighting for the rest of the poor downtrodden complainers.

[Monk]

My bad, got the various posts of this ilk mixed up.

[Drago]

From what I understand, its more due to Steam using a version of Google Chrome for some of its features; and Google themselves no longer see the need to support Windows 7/8/8.1 and have decided to move on, and while Valve themselves could duct tape something into making it work; the decision was that it would take resources away from other products while encouraging use of systems which are probably going to get less secure as it goes with more developers pulling out.

This is a shame; for others and myself - my gaming system actually still uses Win 7 due to familiarity; less privacy violation; and having the features I need for my normal programs and usage cases - but it is understandable in this case. What I have been looking at for friends and myself is seeing which of those use cases can be switched over to open alternatives like distros of Linux; or setting separating their usage between an updated OS (say Windows 10 with attempts to strip it down of its more blatant ad services) and server/vm usage for must have obsoleted software. I know its not fun; but alternatives for the gaming environment are getting better; with a little help from Valve and the dedicated Linux community; so I wouldn't count out the Steam users yet.

[starmanjr]

Gotta love all the people coming into this thread to complain about your opinions on what steam is doing in regards to this. Personally I see Windows 10 as spyware and wont be using it. At some point people are either going to have to realize companies like Microsoft are in the business of selling your info ,communications, and access to your private data and stop using their software or be willing to give up their privacy entirely. I suggest people start learning how to properly use Linux and Wine or dual boot Windows 10 and Linux if Windows is something you cant live without.

I'm hopeful Steam will continue to invest time into making gaming more compatible with Linux for the average user.

[Monk]

I always have to wonder what shady stuff some people have to hide to be so paranoid about non personal usage data being collected or how they have such an ego to think anyone gives a flying monkeys left testicle about them.

Plus, I'd bet just about everyone complaining uses social media and a smart phone, but the usage data Microsoft collects.... Oh no!

[nullable]

I don't think it's that they have anything to hide. I think there's an aspect that they know better than most people.

Maybe some of them walk the walk and don't use any services or applications that violate their staunch privacy values. But I think for some it's just claptrap they're parroting. They do like two or three basic things and tell themselves they're invisible to the all seeing eye the Internet and technology has become.

Some people, like myself, just accept we're ♥♥♥♥♥♥ and the opportunity to put the genie back in the bottle sailed like twenty years ago.

The other 90% of people just don't care.

[Monk]

True, who knows, for myself, I don't use social media, don't have a smart phone and couldn't care less what annonomous data is collected as it has no direct impact on me.

As you said, we're already bent over and lubed up at this point, no way to put the genie back in so might as well live with it.

[Dr.Shadowds 🐉]

Автор сообщения: starmanjr

Gotta love all the people coming into this thread to complain about your opinions on what steam is doing in regards to this. Personally I see Windows 10 as spyware and wont be using it. At some point people are either going to have to realize companies like Microsoft are in the business of selling your info ,communications, and access to your private data and stop using their software or be willing to give up their privacy entirely. I suggest people start learning how to properly use Linux and Wine or dual boot Windows 10 and Linux if Windows is something you cant live without.

I'm hopeful Steam will continue to invest time into making gaming more compatible with Linux for the average user.

Naw see if wanna wear tinfoil hat, need go beyond, need to setup your own network, your own proxy, your own email service, your own anti virus, your own firewall, man need go whole 9 yard because your ISP watches you, the search engines that doesn't do privacy, the sites you sign up to, the apps you install, your bank, your credit card, your government, man everyone watching you...

Fun fact you can turn off, and block things on windows 10 & 11, so drama doesn't really matter, and what I find a bigger joke, if you're mad that microsoft only record error logs, and hardware specs, but happy that ISP, and so on take everything else from you such as name, address, what you into, the search results, yeah seem like there some condescending logic goonna on that my two cents, it's better to know what exactly collected comapre to blindly not knowing and allowing it, or just saying all things are spyware. Even on linux there spyware on some distros, but maybe you didn't know that yet.

[saucison78]

Valve has basically ruined pc gaming as it used to be, you know the old 40$ game 20$ actual expansion, and that was in a time when games came in physical copies that has more cost associated with distributing games.

They let all the shady rabble in that took advantage of consumers, don't get me started with the mess that was greenlight.

The 60/70$ game pricetag is not inflation its pure and simple greed, don't be fooled by that statement, digital distribution has little to no cost compared to physical copies.

I'm not surprised as Win 7 was the last Windows that offered full freedom, however you can just use win 10/11 ghostspectre which is what i use, i'll never go back to stock windows, it basically use 10-15% more ram when idling because of all the bloatware and apps, not to mention it collects data even if you turn of all the options in privacy settings.