Steam Release

[eddieballgame]

When is this great game coming to Steam.
I have friends who are waiting & will only purchase from Steam.
Please hurry for me...for multiplayer.

[mroyer]

I've never used Steam. What value does it add? (Just wondering.)
-Mark R.

[eddieballgame]

ORIGINAL: mroyer

I've never used Steam. What value does it add? (Just wondering.)
-Mark R.

The choice of many per Steam is convenience, particularly when games are updated.
I am not a fan of Steam, personally, but some of my friends are & most games do appear on Steam before other venues, such as GOG.
Also, for games that are multiplayer & require a game lobby...Steam does offer some nice features.
I will add, per Slitherine & Matrix, I will always purchase from them (while almost always receiving a Steam Key).
I like more control of the games I purchase, though some games take a very long time to update per downloads; for example a 50 mb update on Steam might be packaged as a 1+gb update on the Slitherine/Matrix membership page.

[AKicebear]

Matrix/Slitherine tend not to use the feature, but Steam's Workshop functionality for mod discovery, installation and update is excellent.

[Twotribes]

Steam REQUIRES a third party ( them) to run the game and if they are down NO game. And unless they fixed it occasionally they screw up and wipe your account, you lose all your games and have to work with them to get them back if you can at all. Happened to me twice, I will NEVER use steam again.

[AKicebear]

This is false. Some games may require this, but it is up to the developer. Other games, especially indies, will play fine without the Steam client running - you need only navigate to the correct exe.

[eddieballgame]

ORIGINAL: AKicebear

This is false. Some games may require this, but it is up to the developer. Other games, especially indies, will play fine without the Steam client running - you need only navigate to the correct exe.

Not entirely false as there are even 'indie games' that require Steam to be running in the background.
The 'non-indie games' primarily do require Steam to be running in the background...even when going 'off-line'.
There is a way to bypass (legally) many Steam games so as not to require Steam running, but that is for another topic & may not be deemed appropriate for this forum.
I am not referencing 'piracy' btw, you must legally own the game.

[wodin]

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

Steam REQUIRES a third party ( them) to run the game and if they are down NO game. And unless they fixed it occasionally they screw up and wipe your account, you lose all your games and have to work with them to get them back if you can at all. Happened to me twice, I will NEVER use steam again.

You can play offline.

[Twotribes]

ORIGINAL: wodin

ORIGINAL: Twotribes

Steam REQUIRES a third party ( them) to run the game and if they are down NO game. And unless they fixed it occasionally they screw up and wipe your account, you lose all your games and have to work with them to get them back if you can at all. Happened to me twice, I will NEVER use steam again.

You can play offline.

Not most of the games they require Steam to be active to access the game from their server. Further they erased my games twice in a year. First time I never got them back second time I got them back but the site was wonky.

[beldurax]

I have over 200 games on Steam and have had my account for almost 8 years. No issues with Steam, whatsoever. A thing to keep in mind with Steam, it is not just a "web site", it is an entire gaming platform. Some people, who do not like the DRM (Digital Rights Management), that Steam imposes on it's customers, opt for other platforms such as GOG.com where you buy the game, you own it outright.

[andyinkuwait]

No issues with Steam. Updates all of my games regularly automatically.

If I change my PC, no need to reinstall or re download from Matrix or even if I use a different computer (laptop etc).

Secure and can play totally offline if I want to.

Far, far better than owning a ton of games each requiring a manual update every so often.

[TheSquid]

IMO Steam's "convenience" doesn't add anything from my POV. But then again I'm old-school, someone who prefers to explicitly download a game (and any updates/patches/etc) manually rather than have it done automatically by something like Steam.

More to the point, the fact is you do need to have Steam installed on your PC, at least for the initial download and run. Some games, if set up properly as such by the manufacturer, thereafter no longer require Steam to be running for subsequent plays of the game in question - IF properly set up. Most of the time, games will still require the Steam client to be running, even if it's running the game in "offline mode" - though there are exceptions (i.e. companies/games that decouple this better).

IMO something such as GOG is infinitely preferable, as they do not impose any 3rd-party components on you to download or play the game, and you can freely transfer the installation files to other PCs you own once you download it without having to go through various levels of bullshit.

So, TL;DR: My two cents: I actually prefer to grab stuff via Matrix Games website rather than Steam. Although they have DRM of sorts, the Matrix DRM that I've experienced (and possibly this is all their DRM is?), is serial numbers that you need to use to unlock encrypted installers. Which is fine by me, as this isn't locked to an individual PC or anything, it's locker per user as it should be. And AFAIK the Matrix DRM stuff doesn't require any online crap either.

[andyinkuwait]

Yeah, not sure you understand how it all works. Steam or GOG is not locked to an individual PC either.

I use a laptop, two PCs and an emergency older PC. All have Steam installed and I don't need to bother with all that serial number crap or limits on downloads or reinstalling or any of the other myriad issues. In addition, if I play on one machine the saves are accessible on another machine without me doing a single thing.

Most companies prefer to have Steam coupled in so that modders can change their game if you want. This workshop feature is vastly underrated but has totally changed many games for the better including a ton of Matrix Games which are now simply modded using the Steam Workshop facility to make a better AI, for example. This is hard to do outside of Steam unless you are au fait with modding. So Steam is perfect for the non-modder who would still like to change some of the features in a game.

Not all games open themselves this way but many do. This is much harder to do with a separate installation from GOG or anywhere else. This is a prime reason to use Steam.

There are no 'levels of bullshit' as you so aptly put it. There is setting Steam do download it and there is you playing it. No serial numbers no checking for updates.

If you want to do everything manually then set Steam to not update automatically then you can patch to your hearts content but in the real world, I don't have time to do that and would rather spend my time playing the damn game.

[eddieballgame]

Entertaining discussion, which my original posting was not intended to trash Steam or the users views who prefer it over other outlets.
Bottom line...no 'internet', therefore no Steam, therefore no Steam games.
However...the 'internet' does appear to be everywhere, somewhat reliable, & here to stay... for now.

[mroyer]

...In addition, if I play on one machine the saves are accessible on another machine without me doing a single thing.

This is the first value-add element of Steam anyone has mentioned that I see as useful.

...But then again I'm old-school, someone who prefers to explicitly download a game...

Hmmm... I'm old-school; someone who prefers to peal the shrink-wrap from the box...
"download" seems new-fangled and modern to me. [;)]


But seriously, like eddieballgame said, interesting discussion - thanks for it. I have a better understanding of what Steam is now.

-Mark R.

[andyinkuwait]

One other thing worth mentioning and that is you don't need to be online to play. You need to login ONCE and then set Steam to offline.

Play as much as you want offline. All the files are on your computer anyway.

[gamer78]

Steam's best advantage for non-US players is to buy at a better price. I like Steam's price policy for weaker country economy players. I was able to buy Warplan in Steam- in Matrix store for me price 4* higher- Waiting to see this game in Steam. Hopefully this year.

[Dan1911]

They just announced on twitter the date, December 3rd

[Tchey]

For Linux users, Steam also comes with the power of Proton, a kind of WINE to run non-Linux games.
Not all games runs via Proton, but it clearly make the choice huge (from 6000+ native, to maybe 20K+ via  Proton).

[TheSquid]

ORIGINAL: andyinkuwait

One other thing worth mentioning and that is you don't need to be online to play. You need to login ONCE and then set Steam to offline.

Play as much as you want offline. All the files are on your computer anyway.

This is a very good point and worth mentioning, as I'm sure Matrix would undoubtedly set up their games to allow this (but someone can correct me if I'm wrong?).

It's probably also possible to manually move all your Steam files + install Steam on a new computer and it then works without requiring an initial online connection for the new computer - but I haven't personally tested this so not sure if it's a guaranteed thing.

It's definitely also possible - if a game is set up this way by the developer - to also not even require the Steam client on subsequent launches, which then makes the installation quite close to (if not technically identical to) an install from somewhere such as GOG.

My issue with Steam is not so much Steam itself per se, but the fact that many games actually require the Steam client to be active in order to play the game. While it's great that "offline" mode exists, there shouldn't be any reason why a legitimate purchaser should require running an additional program such as Steam, unless of course they wish to take advantage of other Steamy benefits (e.g. achievements, cloud saves, etc. - which of course also need games to be configured for these, but these tend to be the norm anyway).