I don't play Steam. Is that bad?

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Most people I know who are true gamers (Bro gamers don't count) play Steam but I myself do not. Is this a bad thing? I know it exists but I have never felt the desire to try it for myself. It doesn't help that I don't have a PC anymore and I barely touch my laptop. I am also the odd man out in pretty much everything. I've been playing Final Fantasy IX since last year since I didn't give it a chance until my younger brother got it for me because we both wanted to play old PS games to make up for lost time.

Well considering you don't use a PC or laptop much it makes sense you wouldn't be using Steam. I can tell you it does give you easy access to a bunch of games and they do have some good sales from time to time.

It's not a bad thing. It's only the trolls who claim it is that's a bad thing. If you're not interested in playing such games, there's no law anywhere that you must be, or else...as far as I know, anyway.

It just depends on what you're after.

You say "play Steam" as if it's a game itself, but it's really just a vendor. You buy whatever games from it, and launch them from the program. Frankly it's alot easier to deal with than.... anything else.

It's not really any different than, say, going to Gamestop to buy a game; you're just doing it over the internet. And usually at a *dramatically* lower price, which is a huge part of why it's so popular.

That, and LOTS of games are available only there. Thousands.

So, Steam isnt about any single specific thing... it's just the biggest store of all of them. That's why so many use it.

That's not what I thought it was. I know it isn't a game called Steam but a program you use to play the games on.
When I say I don't play Steam, I mean I don't play/use the program.

It's also a social place where you can communicate with you're friends in the steam chat and even meet up in virtual reality I even have a home in there I have decorated. It looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfPhJZ4JmCE

It's also a place to share and make things, like mods for your favourite games. You can even make your'e own games and sell them trough steam.

I'm in the process of learning how to build and upload photogrammetry models of real life places. When I'm finished with my project people from all over the world can visit the place in virtual reality. It's the future! https://developer.valvesoftware.com/wik ... nvironment

Other things people here have not mentioned here is that you can refund games for whatever reason if you're not happy with you're purchase. It's very convenient. Another feature is you can share you're game library with friends and family to let them play the games for free.

Steam is great, but it doesn't have everything either. Suppose I want to get Star Wars: Battlefront 2 on my PC? I think I would have to go directly to Electronic Arts' website.

They used to have Battlefront 2 on Steam, I think I might actually have it and/or the first one.

But you are right. They also don't usually let you buy the original version of the game, and then install your own patches. This is fine for most games, but some, like the first Far Cry, you wouldn't want to play fully updated.

I've had a few other Steam games like that, where I owned them but had to find a pirated copy because of certain issues...but I can't think of what it was at the moment...

If you're into Strategy and Simulation games (Like those made by Paradox Interactive) then I would highly recommend you get Steam.

If you want to play E.A games (FIFA, Battlefield etc), use Origin. While if you like Ubisoft games, download the U-Play client.

Hopefully this might be helpful!

I desperately hope that gamers will stop glorifying Steam and Valve at some point and realise that they are no longer the underdogs who made Half Life and went on to revolutionise how we buy and play games, and are instead a company that produces little of value and sacked all of the creative talent because they've realised that sucking value out of other developers' hard work is much more profitable. One company having monopolistic control over the infrastructure of PC game sales isn't something to be celebrated, even if the alternatives are usually worse (with the exception of GOG)

I'm sorry but you are a bit mistaken there. I'm guessing you don't see or care about what they do produce of value. If you owned and used a high end SteamVR headset I bet you would have changed you're mind

They are still revolutionising how we play games but now with VR and they make content for VR like SteamVR Home, The Lab and DOTA 2 VR Viewer and they got 3 full games under production for VR. They researched the tech and licensed that tech out for free to hardware developers like HTC who produced the Vive. They also make tech themselves in house like the knuckle controllers (use you're hands and fingers in VR) and lighthouse 2.0 tracking for next gen VR headsets. I'm having a blast with the tech and the software. Gaming was getting boring and predictable before VR! Now the rules has changed. I demo my VR tech everyday to new people at my local makerspace. And people are very surprised when I show them what Valve has worked on these last years. The Lab is one hell of an experience! If they dreamed up something like that just think about the 3 VR games they are making! They also have been hiring some new people over the years, like the developers of Kerbal Space Program

I'm very happy with Valve and steam. Games has never been so available and cheap as they are now and easily updated. Playing with my friends is super easy trough steam. Before Steam I and everyone I knew used to pirate games, now we buy the games because it's much more easy.

Really I don't see what you're complaining about. Being a gamer has never been this exiting and convenient.


Valve defence force signing off

Steam is just a storefront. Given that Origin, Uplay, and GOG all exist (to say nothing of the fact that at least some games can still be bought physically, either online or in brick-and-mortar stores), it's pretty hard to argue that Valve or Steam has a monopoly. Sure, some games are available only on Steam (or only on Origin, because EA can't play nice with others :p ), but that doesn't make Steam/Valve any closer to having a monopoly.

As someone that has actually worked on a game that is now on Steam, as well as having dealt with numerous developers directly who also have games on Steam (typically projects I've somehow had involvement with, and so I know alot about what happened with each) I can honestly say that Steam isnt exactly a BAD thing for devs. Far from it. There are reasons, quite a number of them, as to why damn near everyone puts games on Steam. There are also why many of the other vendors DONT get many games.

Understand, Steam simply being "big" doesnt make them bad. The other vendors being small doesnt mean they have some moral high ground. It doesnt work that way.

What Valve does AS DEVELOPERS is very, very different... and very very SEPERATE... from what they do as the owners of a storefront, which is what Steam actually is. And nobody is sucking the creative anything out of anyone. For MANY devs... and I mean *many*... Steam has given them the opportunity to be creative in ways that nobody else would.

GoG for instance? You want to know one of the reasons they're not as big as Steam? One of the sorts of reasons they dont tell you? It's because they're PICKY. It's not that nobody submits games to them: It's that they dont ACCEPT many of them. And I dont mean curation here, no. This isnt about "cutting out the crap". They'll refuse even really good games. Why? Because those specific games dont pander to current trends. Or sometimes it's because "Well we already have too many of that genre". Many devs, now, dont even want to deal with GoG (or others) because it's just too much trouble, time, and money, for what ends up being not actually all that much benefit. And understand, this stuff isnt just me pulling things out of thin air. Not only has this all been explained to me DIRECTLY by the head developers that end up dealing with these groups, but I've also had the chance to see internal emails (normally, NOBODY outside of a dev team gets to see such things unless there's some very close affiliation that has some real importance) that comprised the interactions the devs had with GoG and others. That's why I know this. And this sort of thing isnt exactly a good thing.

Think of Gamestop, right? Before these digital vendors became big, they were THE place to go for games. For those that dont like digital downloads, they still are. Imagine if THEY did that... particularly back then. "We have alot of FPS games, we dont want to sell anymore, sorry, you guys are screwed. We wont allow you to sell your game here. Go sell at Best Buy only." Think of what that would do to some developers out there. What it'd do to MOST of them.

Again, these groups arent perfect. And the reason why everyone uses Steam is because it gives *everyone* a chance to make and sell something (or even give it away for free, if the developer wants to do that, Steam wont stop them). Even I could make a game *entirely on my own* and put one out. The one that I HAVE put out was done with a team... but I really could put one out that I did entirely myself. And it wouldnt even matter what TYPE of game it is... I could do one that's an established genre, or I could make something seriously weird and experimental... the most creative sort you can get. I could do any of that. But at those other vendors? Wouldnt happen. I know enough now to be 100% sure of that. There are numerous things I would need in advance, and I cannot get them. Even many established devs cant do it, and not for reasons that are good or even make that much sense.


Not only does Steam not have a monopoly, as Zaarin points out, but they also arent the big giant evil group that you seem to think they are. Everyone uses them for very good reason. And the smaller vendors arent as wonderful and generous as they might appear... not towards the developers themselves anyway.

It's not a bad thing. I don't even have my own laptop. You aren't alone.

Probably a good thing, for your wallet. I cannot turn off the past of my brain that tells me to buy games in each steam sale that I think I will play but don't get around to.

you can fall in the trap of buying cards for badges or games to just increase your level to further increase your friends list capacity, there are some pretty insane high level people who either have nothing else to use their money on or are born into a rich family. and also theres the case of security which has been questionable in the past regarding account hijacks and vac bans which are permanent and they'll give no reason for it - unable to play multiplayer on certain games until opening a new account and buying them again.