Something I’ve noticed in this community is that whenever I criticize Steam, or point out something I don’t like about the platform, I tend to get a ton of downvotes.

And honestly, I’m just curious why.

This is a piracy-oriented community, so I find it kinda interesting that Steam seems to have such a strong positive reputation here. I’m not saying people shouldn’t like Steam, obviously everyone has their own reasons for using it. Steam is convenient, has huge sales, supports Linux, has a massive library of games, etc. I completely get why people use it.

I’m just wondering where the line is for people.

For example, do you like Steam despite the DRM because the convenience outweighs the negatives? Do you see Steam as fundamentally different from other forms of DRM? Do you consider Valve one of the “good guys” in the industry? Or do you simply see Steam as a convenient storefront and don’t really think much about the DRM side of it?

Or maybe you actually agree with some of the criticism of Steam, but just think it’s being exaggerated.

For me personally, I don’t use Steam because I don’t really like having my games tied to an account and a platform. I’d rather have the actual files, be able to back them up, move them around, mod them and know that I still have them years later. That’s basically what I was getting at in that video I made about Steam as well.

But I’m not trying to start another “Steam bad!” argument here. I’m genuinely curious because sometimes the reaction seems surprisingly pro-Steam considering the nature of this community.

So what is it about Steam that you guys actually appreciate?

  • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
    2·
    15 hours ago

    Old man pirate here too. Arrrrr

    While I understand your ways, Steam is nice. And you do get the files.

    Give it a go! Paying small sums for convenience is nice.

    • PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      1·
      13 hours ago

      Having to download, install and run their launcher just so I can download, install and run the game I want to play is a huge inconvenience for me. I’d rather pay a small sum on GOG and just actually have the game instead of leasing it.

      • locuester@lemmy.zipEnglish
        1·
        7 hours ago

        U don’t need their launcher to run games. You have the exe. It puts in start menu and desktop optionally.

        Unless you’re curling your games onto your drive, you’re already using an application to download a game. All you’re looking at with Steam is having a game-library-aware application that’s downloading the game.

        • PiraHxCx@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          1·
          6 hours ago

          You actually need for most games unless you cracked them or they are DRMfree and got no integration, their client opens and run in the background when you launch the game.

          For GOG the only application you need is a web browser, you download the games directly from the site and don’t need to install or have anything else running. For me a launcher is just bloat, I can browse my library just fine on the site without having to install any program.