Is Steam great?

[Loki Likei]

I'd love your opinions on the following questions:

• 1) What motivated you to use Steam for the first time?
  
• 2) What do you most like about Steam?
  
• 3) What do you least like about Steam
  
• 4) What would you most like to change about Steam?

I'm putting a couple of slides together as a project to explain why I think Steam is great but would prefer to get more opinions than my own to present a more objective view.

Thanks in advance for anyone who answers (re: question '4', I'm already looking at the list of feature requests but would still like your answers).

[100% Recycled Awesome]

Since the dawn of life, organisms have tried to get something for nothing. Bacteria that parasite each other, remoras that tag along to Great White sharks, it is the simple nature of life to acquire resources or reduce their consumption of them by using others. This struggle has extended all the way to today, with weeds sucking the life of the plants in gardens and people stealing software. Today, we classify the theft of software as piracy, even though the pirates no longer weld swords and sail the high seas. Corporations have attempted to deal with the problem of piracy in many ways. Arguably the best way is the platform known as Steam.

Steam is a software platform from the company Valve which consolidates gaming into a simple single program. You open Steam and all your games that run through steam are ready to go. Steam automatically takes care of patches and updates and serves as the method of multiplayer connections. Steam is also a form of digital rights management, or anti-piracy. Steam is particularly effective in winning over users by having a minimal DRM system, where users can play games offline, don’t need to remember game keys and are free from the worries of misplacing game CDs. Steam is also highly effective in that it has thousands of games and regularly holds sales of games that can be digitally downloaded. Also, a user can simply download steam on a new computer, log in, download the games they want to play on that computer and play them. The simplicity of a Google like experience is replicated on a gaming level.

Other options for anti-Piracy don’t work anywhere as well. EA in their ever draconian path, treats users like criminals. Simcity 5 required a constant internet connection to play. Spore had onerous code written in as well as a limit of how many times you could install the game. The worst part, is that the DRM EA tries doesn’t work. Spore was hacked in a day and released for public piracy. Simcity 5 was a disaster from release and prompted hackers to successfully attempt to bypass the always online to run the game as they saw fit. Steam has been so successful that virtually every major publisher of video games releases games on Steam for distribution and it has become the choice platform for independent developers.

Steam is not just a platform to launch games, but a community system for gamers to communicate. Every game has its own forum and general forums for things such as hardware exist to solve problems. Gamers are not gaming in isolation, but in the digital world they all share. Users can move from one game’s forum to another with a few clicks of a button, while making friends lists, recommending games to such friends and accumulating digital goods for use in their games. In many ways, Steam is the Facebook of gaming.

You can have that free and clear. I don't write much these days and I feel I gotta keep my skills up.

[Loki Likei]

Wow, thank you all so much for your replies and info. I have some great stuff to talk around and some brilliant quotes.

Last chance for anyone to chip in as the presentation is tomorrow.

[Reset]

@ 100% Recycled Awesome wow dude someone has skills =D I love the description, a pleasure to read.

[100% Recycled Awesome]

Thanks! A bit shorter than I would have liked, but sleep was calling.

Oh Sleep...almost as good a bacon.

[Reset]

引用自 100% Recycled Awesome：

Thanks! A bit shorter than I would have liked, but sleep was calling.

Oh Sleep...almost as good a bacon.

Great thanks now I cant choose between going to sleep or frying up some bacon =)

[Kenny985]

Steam is like the best thing in the internet :D

[pennarguy]

Steam is like something you gotta have, even if you don't want it.

[Mari]

1.Team Fortress 2
2.The ridiculously low prices and many ways to get a game cheaper.
3.Crashes in Valve games and currently that steam won't connect my account... and the community of both TF2 and Dota 2.
4.HALF-LIFE 3!!!

[Pocahawtness]

Motivated? How about "didn't have a choice". As is the case with so many interfaces these days, when you buy a game you aren't given any choice.
I do like Valve, but the recent trading cards worries me.
What would I most like to change? Steam is a mess. The entire interface is inconsistant and inefficient. I would really love to see it updated to be more uniform and consistant.

[sfnhltb]

1. Installed for Half Life 2 originally (and I think activated HL1 and so on keys on it around the same time), although originally I didn't use Steam for anything else really for years after that (partly due to the costs with my bank of paying in US$ making most of the deals not very good before 2009)
2. I have over 1500 games in all now and like to have them all installed and ready so I can swap at will, and I tend to get a new main PC every 2-3 years so the ability to just leave it overnight to copy the steam folder over and have Steam work out the details from then on is virtually essential
3. The built in browser for steam not support tabs, inconsistent back button, etc.
4. Fix the things in 3 I guess

[T@F]

1) css had to use steam for that.
2) All the games in one place rdy to download when needed.
3) A few things tbh,i hate we cannot skip updating and able to still play the game,but most of all i hate the facebook wanabe that happing at the mo as well as wanabe pokeamon card game.
4) I would have a steam light so ppl like me just want a steam client to play our games and able to join and talk online easy nothing more nothing less.
(btw Small mode don't count still has the bloatware.)

[pennarguy]

引用自 T@F：

1) css had to use steam for that.
2) All the games in one place rdy to download when needed.
3) A few things tbh,i hate we cannot skip updating and able to still play the game,but most of all i hate the facebook wanabe that happing at the mo as well as wanabe pokeamon card game.
4) I would have a steam light so ppl like me just want a steam client to play our games and able to join and talk online easy nothing more nothing less.
(btw Small mode don't count still has the bloatware.)

Big yes from me for Steam Light.

[Kupo]

1. My PC that I recently purchased. Before this I used to play all things on my PS3. Was pretty psyched about the PS4, but then my friend showed me the way and here I am now :) I love it.

2. Oh man... I guess I could say that the deals they run sometimes are fantastic. Can't wait for the Christmas sale. And besides this, I would say the amount of friends I have made on here. Everyone is just so nice.

3. Added protection kind of like what Blizzard does when you log in. Of course, that would kind of be a hassle at times, but if you have more than 700 games (I'm not at that point yet of course), added security is a nice thing.

4. The ability to level up more depending on achievements and etc instead of just badges.

[Dellicious]

Steam is good, I wouldn't say great, it's just a DRM afterall! But it has nice features.

[Red Diablo]

loving steam