The Steam discussion topic! Joy and happiness, right here, folks.

[quote name='Megazell']Does Valve focus on their own games too much?

Personally, I don't think they focus enough.

Blizzard has a great track record and history of how properties should be treated...with the exception of Starcraft 64 (CONSOLES LOL).

I think all of their titles should be like worlds they develop or support with easy to read sites on what's going on with those games.[/QUOTE]

I meant on steam. Like are there too many adverts and sales on Valves games vs other developers.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']I meant on steam. Like are there too many adverts and sales on Valves games vs other developers.[/QUOTE]

Well, in that case...I am not sure. I never seen ads on STEAM unless I got looking for them. I have it setup so that it goes straight to games and friends online...that's it. I usually don't head to the store section unless I see it posted on a forum by others.

I just went to the STORE now since the X-Mas sale. Looks fine. I only saw one thing for TF2.
 
[quote name='Megazell']Well, in that case...I am not sure. I never seen ads on STEAM unless I got looking for them. I have it setup so that it goes straight to games and friends online...that's it. I usually don't head to the store section unless I see it posted on a forum by others.

I just went to the STORE now since the X-Mas sale. Looks fine. I only saw one thing for TF2.[/QUOTE]

See that's why I would say its too much though. Usually there are about 4 featured games....and atleast one of them is a Valve game. It also seems like recently we have seen Valve games on sale time and time and time again. TF2 alone I know iv seen on sale like 40 times.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']See that's why I would say its too much though. Usually there are about 4 featured games....and atleast one of them is a Valve game. It also seems like recently we have seen Valve games on sale time and time and time again. TF2 alone I know iv seen on sale like 40 times.[/QUOTE]

You tease me...
 
To answer the QotD, I remember the creators of Borderline criticizing Valve for catering to their own games on Steam, moreso than any other games from other developers.

That being said, I don't really notice much of a "focus", per se, on Valve games. Sure, Steam is a Valve project, and the criticism and solution of spinning Steam off as a separate entity and business should happen just to remove any lingering fears from both developers and the consumer. Is it ever going to happen, I'm not putting money on that.

Steam is still a the best digital distribution system that I've ever seen, and as far as I could see, they are trying to give the spotlight to a lot more developers and game, moreso than Impulse, from what I could see. I guess what I'm saying here is that: I think Valve is somewhat entitled to highlight their on games on Steam, but I don't think they do it to a detriment, which is the important part.
 
I don't have any problem with it...

I mean just look they host Zombie Panic! on Steam a free mod for Source games that directly competes with one of their main IPs.

(Actually Valve ripped L4D off from Zombie Panic! but who's paying attention right..? lol)

If they started strong arming the competition then the other developers and users would run away from the service. I think Valve runs it in a professional manner even if I am still mad at them for dissing the PS3 and putting out a terrible port of the Orange Box.
 
I'd say yes and no. They do advertise other games and promote other games well (KF comes to mind as does that cart racer and a few more things), but at the same time the appeal for other games isn't there as much as it is for their own games. I know it is completely out of their control, but it just seems there are more mods, ads, larger communities etc, for their own games.
 
Frankly, if Valve didn't focus on their own games, I'd think they were bad businessmen. Steam is a great platform for them and they should use it. Absent some evidence that they're not playing fair (resisting developers' price cuts, saving Steam-related innovations for themselves, etc.), I've got no problem whatsoever with their treatment of their own games.
 
I just got FUEL and Burnout from the holiday sale, I don't need more driving.

On that topic, does anyone know of a good semi-cheap racing wheel?
 
Are any of these mods worthwhile? All of them are Free on Steam.

Steam delivered MODs:
Age of Chivalry (requires Source SDK):
D.I.P.R.I.P. Warm Up (requires Source SDK):
Darkest Hour (requires Red Orchestra):
Defence Alliance 2 (requires Killing Floor):
Dystopia (requires Source SDK):
Eternal Silence (requires Source SDK):
INSURGENCY (requires Source SDK):
Mare Nostrum (requires Red Orchestra):
Smashball (requires Source SDK):
Synergy (requires Half-Life 2):
Zombie Panic! Source (requires Source SDK):
 
[quote name='Hydro2Oxide']I just got FUEL and Burnout from the holiday sale, I don't need more driving.

On that topic, does anyone know of a good semi-cheap racing wheel?[/QUOTE]

Thrustmaster Ferrari Universal Challenge 5-in-1 - Racing Wheel with Pedal - $9.99 at Amazing Savings in NYC. You can get one online for about the same.
 
[quote name='thebusoftheundead']Don't really care for the weekend deal but I did just pick up Alien vs. Predator Classic 2000 for $5.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/3730/[/QUOTE]

I have tried to play that game like 5 - 10 times over the years and I always end up making it a few levels in and then giving up.
 
[quote name='Megazell']Thrustmaster Ferrari Universal Challenge 5-in-1 - Racing Wheel with Pedal - $9.99 at Amazing Savings in NYC. You can get one online for about the same.[/QUOTE]

Online seems to be in the $35-$40 range, 9.99 is an insanely good price! That was actually the one I had stumbled upon while doing a little research, it seemed to be a good bang/buck ratio.
 
[quote name='CheapLikeAFox']...but at the same time the appeal for other games isn't there as much as it is for their own games. I know it is completely out of their control, but it just seems there are more mods, ads, larger communities etc, for their own games.[/QUOTE]
I think a lot of this is because Steam is required with Valve games. Non-Valve games aren't going to be as active on Steam, just because it's not necessary to have Steam to play them.
 
AOTD: It's Valve's service. They can do whatever the hell they want. I'm no bleeding heart for these companies, but I'm so sick and tired of antitrust crap about Microsoft not including competitor's web browsers in their own OS. It's their own OS. They made it, they should be able to put whatever they want in it. Valve owns Steam. They should be able to put whatever they want in it.
 
Can I just say that this is a ridiculous thread? It's impossible to see what people are saying to the QotD if we just keep updating the title. I have no desire to read 28 pages of thread to hear what people think about this or that question (but I would be interested in hearing the answers people have). Personally, I really don't like that thread titles are changeable so far after the thread's been created. It makes no sense.
 
I love Steam. I really do. When it's not encumbered by publisher's DRM, it's my dream of how downloadable services should run. Download the game on your desktop, your laptop, the computer you have at your parent's house. Whatever. You can play them wherever you want. But only on one computer at a time. Add in Steam Cloud and I don't think there's one single thing I'd change.

So, does Valve focus too much on their own titles? Maybe but only because those titles foster the ideal vision that I and many gamers aspire towards. Overall though, I don't see too much of an emphasis on Valve games - I've got L4D, L4D2, HL2 and episodes in my games list among 20 other non-Valve games.
 
[quote name='torifile']Can I just say that this is a ridiculous thread? It's impossible to see what people are saying to the QotD if we just keep updating the title. I have no desire to read 28 pages of thread to hear what people think about this or that question (but I would be interested in hearing the answers people have). Personally, I really don't like that thread titles are changeable so far after the thread's been created. It makes no sense.[/QUOTE]

...
 
I like the thread format... feels like a daily discussion... and just like in real life, I guess if you weren't there, you missed it...

But if you are really only interested about what certain people said... just check their messages... I think most people active on the PC forum just stick mostly to this forum... so it's not like you'll run into 100's of random posts.
 
[quote name='torifile']Can I just say that this is a ridiculous thread? It's impossible to see what people are saying to the QotD if we just keep updating the title. I have no desire to read 28 pages of thread to hear what people think about this or that question (but I would be interested in hearing the answers people have). Personally, I really don't like that thread titles are changeable so far after the thread's been created. It makes no sense.[/QUOTE]


I think thats what makes it interesting, and nothing like missing a topic, and having said topic go on for 200 pages, with no hope of jumping into the conversation, or having everyone say that was already addressed x pages ago...
 
[quote name='VGmnk']I think thats what makes it interesting, and nothing like missing a topic, and having said topic go on for 200 pages, with no hope of jumping into the conversation, or having everyone say that was already addressed x pages ago...[/QUOTE]

Just because a QotD has passed doesnt mean we cant still discuss it. The QotD is here not to say THIS is what we are talking about today or to direct the conversation but instead to give a general topic to get things rolling/keep things rolling. Only reason I did/do it is because I have seen topic after topic after topic only receive a post or two a day and most of the time about "im playing this game" then no one responds. The topic lives, but its essentially in a coma. I thought giving a QotD would keep people coming back daily and if they come back daily it means not only might they discuss the QotD...but they might pose questions of their own or have something they want to rant about. So far id like to think its successful so ill keep doing it, where as the review I wrote not a single person showed interest in so I probaly wont do that again ;)

So like I said if you have a question or something you want to ask ask it! If its been asked before I doubt people will snap at you and if they do ill punch them! Or conversely you can always feel free to PM your question and ill make it QotD.....its not easy coming up with a QotD every day after all...each day it gets a little harder!
 
Yeah I don't see this as a thread in which I would go back and read the pages of what I missed, if I missed it I missed it.

Anyhow on to the QotD, I love Steam's IM service. It's very simple and straight to the point. The only thing I'd like to see is the ability to IM people if they're not on your friends list but I don't know how they could do that and stop spammers.
 
[quote name='MSI Magus']Just because a QotD has passed doesnt mean we cant still discuss it. The QotD is here not to say THIS is what we are talking about today or to direct the conversation but instead to give a general topic to get things rolling/keep things rolling. Only reason I did/do it is because I have seen topic after topic after topic only receive a post or two a day and most of the time about "im playing this game" then no one responds. The topic lives, but its essentially in a coma. I thought giving a QotD would keep people coming back daily and if they come back daily it means not only might they discuss the QotD...but they might pose questions of their own or have something they want to rant about. So far id like to think its successful so ill keep doing it, where as the review I wrote not a single person showed interest in so I probaly wont do that again ;)

So like I said if you have a question or something you want to ask ask it! If its been asked before I doubt people will snap at you and if they do ill punch them! Or conversely you can always feel free to PM your question and ill make it QotD.....its not easy coming up with a QotD every day after all...each day it gets a little harder![/QUOTE]

I'm not sure if what I typed came across as something other than what I intended to say, but yes I'm in complete agreement with you--as long threads that are dedicated to one topic continue, they eventually evolve into something else, and you are at times berated for not "following along" with the thread, or reading umpteen pages of whatever to get to the so-called topic at hand. As I see it, it's a casual continuation thread of Steam holiday sale victims...er...buyers who enjoyed the original sale thread :) And I like the current format of "you can talk about QotD, but this isn't a set in stone rule." Not sure how someone would consider it chaotic or ridiculous, but to each their own....

As far as QotD goes--I like the IM system, especially when you want to send a message to someone you know in game (and they are on your friends list), and you aren't familiar with the game's private tell/message system (or it simply doesn't have one). The overlay doesn't appear to ruin or slow down games, so quickly hitting shift-tab to communicate with someone whenever you are playing something works well imo...and you can turn off the notification too, so if you don't want to be bothered, it doesn't have a "do-not-disturb" mode that people usually ignore anyways...it shows you as offline.
 
I use Steam's IM service all the time. If it had file transfers, I would never have to use AIM again--but of course, I wouldn't want the Steam servers to be clogged up with people's personal transfers, so I'm fine with things the way they are.
 
[quote name='Kenrik']AWWW... Where is my Weekend deal??? >>>> Steam! I'm dying here.

Side note..

Zombie Panic! is 10000x better than killing floor and it's free.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNMcoD4KDMo[/QUOTE]

Someone needs to come play this with me now.


....now.


ALMOST FORGOT AOTD:

Steam's IM service is pretty good. I would like to see some integration into other platforms though, maybe a iPhone app or a Gmail app would be nice to have. I also think in this day and age that not having the option for webcam chat is ridiculous, I mean it's 2010 people and Avatar got released finally.
 
I haven't tried the steam IM service... I guess I need more friends... but I am in the process of downloading and installing Zombie Panic, Zombie Master, Insurgency, and DipRip.. all for free.
 
I have used the IM service a ton. I actually have started using the voice chat feature in it a lot more and find that it is quite good. My only complaint is that you can't have group chats. So if I play a game with 1 other person I can voice chat with them through that, but more people it has to be through game and I am not a fan of doing that.


One helpful thing with this thread is that when the QotD changes the OP could make a post stating the question (along with changing the title). That way people could see what the previous questions are and then there would be a more defined line of the when the new question comes into play. Unless you are already doing that in which case I am just missing them all and now feel like an idiot.
 
[quote name='Kaltic']I have used the IM service a ton. I actually have started using the voice chat feature in it a lot more and find that it is quite good. My only complaint is that you can't have group chats. So if I play a game with 1 other person I can voice chat with them through that, but more people it has to be through game and I am not a fan of doing that.


One helpful thing with this thread is that when the QotD changes the OP could make a post stating the question (along with changing the title). That way people could see what the previous questions are and then there would be a more defined line of the when the new question comes into play. Unless you are already doing that in which case I am just missing them all and now feel like an idiot.[/QUOTE]

Well whenever I post the daily update ill also say what yesterdays update was. So anyone that wants to find past QotDs can just look at my posts and find them easy enough.

On today's subject, I use the IM service all the time and cant really think of a lot of ways to improve it!
 
[quote name='KaOTiK']Anyone wanna do a 4 pack for Zero Gears? It is like $7.50 a person iirc[/QUOTE]

Nah it was way too buggy for me.
 
I think Xfire is perfect, so I've tried to compare the Steam service to Xfire, and what I came up with for improvements:

Streamline the Interface-
With the avatar's turned off, the steam friend list just looks like a mess of text. Add some columns or visual cues to suggest form to the list. With the avatar's on, it takes up too much space, forcing me to scroll endlessly to find friends.

Integration with other Messengers-
I used to use Trillian since it allowed for MSN, AIM, ICQ, IRC, and Yahoo! accounts all to be linked into a single attractive interface. However, I soon found Xfire to be more suited for gaming, since it records you hours, allows you to join other's games with a single click, and tells you what other games people are playing. So, for awhile I used Trillian with Xfire. However, I hate having multiple chat programs open, so when Xfire included AIM integration, I ditched Trillian since the majority of my friends used AIM. If steam would all integration with MSN, AIM, and other popular messengers, it would be a great improvement.

Promote Steam as more than a Gaming Platform-
The biggest problem with Steam in terms of being used as an IM service, is that the majority of people with Steam only have it to play Steam games. That's a very narrow market compared to a regular IM client. If Steam was marketed at a wider audience as something more than a content delivery platform with a built in messenger for convenience, it would attract more people to get the service to use as a messenger, while expanding the Steam userbase with potential future costumers. A GUI overhaul would be required as well as a creative marketing team.

Expand the Messenger's Options-
Another fantastic feature of Xfire is the ability to stream any game that Xfire: In-Game works on. It automatically sets you up with a channel and a webpage to let people watch you play a game. Other features such as the ability to take screenshots and have them automatically uploaded to a webspace is nice, as is the ability to record video and have a webpage open without ever having to alt-tab out of your games, perfect for strat-guides as you play. Features like these with good support could improve the Steam IM client.

Make Voice Chat not Suck-
Both Steam and Xfire offer voice chat through the IM service itself and both of them suck. The quality is terrible, calls drop often, and its generally a pain in the ass to use. My group of friends use Skype for our gaming voice needs. The call quality is fantastic, very rare is a call dropped if ever, and since its a program dedicated for voice chat, it is very intuitive with a range of options for adjusting volume and quality. Make the built-in voice chat for the IM client close to Skype quality, and it would eliminate the need for a 3rd party program like Skype, or Ventrillo, or TeamSpeak, and make me happy.
 
I loved AvP "classic" back in the day. Aside from it being incredibly atmospheric (to me), I had hours of twisted fun spawning bots (a Predator here, a few Xenomorphs there, and a whole mess of terrified screaming humans in the middle) to watch them go at each other.

As for the latest QotD, I use the Steam messaging service so much, I have to turn it off when I want some quiet time to play something single-player and not be interrupted. I just wish it was less resource-intensive because I have an old system.

Also, I agree with the above user that the quality of the voice chat in Steam is awful. It would be nice if it were on par with a TS/Vent but I'm sure that to do so would require a lot of material investment (that they wouldn't see financially justifiable) on Valve's part.
 
In terms of IM service. Xfire and SeeMePlayMe are ideal that only difference being the two is that Xfire has to be installed and SeeMePlayMe is HTML based.

The IM service that STEAM offers is OK...but not great.

Personally, I use Pidgin...very much like Trillian except it checks all of my email accounts, social networking sites and Xfire.
 
I got a question for those who got Mass Effect on Steam. I've downloaded it but haven't played it yet. Does SecuRom silently install along with it? It doesn't mention anything about DRM on Steam's Mass Effect page like other games like GTA4 and Batman:AA does, but I just want clarification. thanks
 
New QotD posted. Below is yesterdays QotD

Simple question today. Do you use the steam IM friends list service? Or does having people on there just mean people are bugging you while your playing games so you keep it empty? How would you like to see the IM service improved?
 
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