Steam Opinions (Personally I'm Steamed)

[AerynSedai]

i saw this on another thread and decided to start my own.

i have to admit, i like the concept of steam. with broadband being more prevelent, ideas like steam are now feasible. i got it to play ns3, which is also a really neat concept. i am not sure if it is the new gl or dx, but it certainly looks nice.

the ui for steam is clean, simple, and elegant, something which i have not seen for a while. it also does a reasonable job of integrating multiple programs, again, something i have not seen for a while. not exactly lightweight, which makes me wonder what the bloody hell it is doing.

while i like the concept of steam, i am not a fan of steam myself. you need to be on the internet for single player hl? you need to use cheating-death for single player? (took me a while to figure out why i was actually kicked out of my single player game!) can you even play the games without steam afterwards? what is steam sending to valve?

for a multiplayer doodad, i think it is pretty cool and doubtlessly valve only released it to gear up for hl2 so i bet steam will be around and that other producers/developers will mimic. but for a single player swiss army util, i think it sucks. that's my post mortem. i am curious about how others feel.

AS

[CrazyMike]

Yeah, Steam is way to dependant on the internet. I'm going to keep using WON until every single Half-Life server is using Steam. Most of my friends have been put off by CS after Steam was released.

[kram 2.0]

Is it still free (in other words, Beta)? I needed a CD key the last time I played so I just ununstalled it. But until then, it was Beta = free.

kram

[ghost2003]

oh common. its not that bad. I always play online so I dont care about that being on the internet for single player, even if I do play single player, im always connected on the net. WON doesnt exist anymore, sry

[CrazyMike]

Actually there's quite alot of WoN servers still around, especially for custom mods like Tour of Duty and The Specialists.