Open Letter to Steam and Firaxis Games

[dannubis]

Mind the blood pressure dear...

[Ming]

Wow. doors and locks???? really?

Firstl: I am not a STEAM hater. I am begining to hate this analogy, tho.

The analogy was in direct response to the specific comment... "The fundamental, underlying premise is that you're a thief that is assumed to have stolen the software until proven otherwise." Just because they want to protect their product, doesn't mean that they are calling EVEYBODY a thief until proven otherwise... kinda of like you wanting to protect your own possesions by locking them up

It has nothing to do with the different issue that you raise... which is the steam requirement printed in "fine print".

[notyoueither]

Actually, it would be more like somebody stole something from you in the past, and you know that some people now steal, so you pat down all the visitors to your house before they leave. I'd imagine you would have a lot fewer visitors pretty quick.

Not a Steam hater either. It is easy enough to disable, but I get why it creates a poor impression for many people.

[Asher]

Some people just aren't bright enough to play Civilization.

People who freak out about Steam are probably in that category.

[rah]

As much as I'm not a fan, it is nice to see how it has facilitated some quick patches. And I know more are on the way.

[Ming]

Actually, it would be more like somebody stole something from you in the past, and you know that some people now steal, so you pat down all the visitors to your house before they leave. I'd imagine you would have a lot fewer visitors pretty quick.

I disagree... all they are doing is locking the door, not frisking their vistorrs when they are ready to leave. I think it's only fair that legitimate customers have full access, and others don't. They indeed have been burned in the past, and I don't fault them for wanting to protect their product from thieves.

Not a Steam hater either. It is easy enough to disable, but I get why it creates a poor impression for many people.

I agree with this... it is easy enough to disable, so I just laugh at the people whining about "resources" and "another program running in the background". As Asher implys, if you are more interested in whining about something that you can control but don't, or don't know how... Maybe you shouldn't be playing Civ

[Argus]

steam sucks 'nuff said.

[notyoueither]

I disagree... all they are doing is locking the door, not frisking their vistorrs when they are ready to leave.

It's much more personal than locked doors on buildings you are walking by on the street. Hense people being pissed off by the pat down.

I think it's only fair that legitimate customers have full access, and others don't. They indeed have been burned in the past, and I don't fault them for wanting to protect their product from thieves.

I agree with you on this. However, there is good server activation security, and there is bad. Steam is good and bad. Some of the bad is it requires perioodic checking in, if not disabled it is quite intrusive, it does require resources as a default, and it pushes ads at users.

I understand what 2K wants. I think Steam is a poor idea for implementing it. These are locks that reach out and feel up the guests.

I agree with this... it is easy enough to disable, so I just laugh at the people whining about "resources" and "another program running in the background". As Asher implys, if you are more interested in whining about something that you can control but don't, or don't know how... Maybe you shouldn't be playing Civ

Many people don't know how to control it, don't know that it can be controled, and/or may be sensitive (perhaps overly in this case, maybe not) about security.

I don't blame them for any of these cases. Computers are very complex. I don't expect a high percentage of the population to know much about them. I'm sure that Civ is not published with just the digerati as a target audience, and even if it were many (some?) of the members of that group have problems with Steam on principle (intrusiveness, ads, and the fact that it requires managing to begin with).

[Ming]

It's much more personal than locked doors on buildings you are walking by on the street. Hense people being pissed off by the pat down.

Whatever... they've made it so you need a "key" to get their product... I sure as heck don't take it personal

I agree with you on this. However, there is good server activation security, and there is bad. Steam is good and bad. Some of the bad is it requires perioodic checking in, if not disabled it is quite intrusive, it does require resources as a default, and it pushes ads at users.

I've never claimed that Steam is the best... I just think the constant whining about how it's the "devil" and whatever is simply silly and way over the top.
And much of it is based on not having a clue

I understand what 2K wants. I think Steam is a poor idea for implementing it. These are locks that reach out and feel up the guests.

Just protecting their product, just like you protect your home and car.

Many people don't know how to control it, don't know that it can be controled, and/or may be sensitive (perhaps overly in this case, maybe not) about security.

Gee... people whining about their security and not giving a damn about the companies security

I don't blame them for any of these cases. Computers are very complex. I don't expect a high percentage of the population to know much about them. I'm sure that Civ is not published with just the digerati as a target audience, and even if it were many (some?) of the members of that group have problems with Steam on principle (intrusiveness, ads, and the fact that it requires managing to begin with).

Oh PLEASE.... the average 8 year old can manage steam. All you have do is OPEN YOUR EYES. I would say the majority of people who play computer games could figure this one out. Again, you can play the game offline... NO ADS... NO INTRUSIVENESS... NO RESOURSES... NO INTERNET CONNECTION... and when you see that a patch is available, log in and get it, just like you would have to get any other patch... This is not rocket science. All the complaints are meaningless and just pure whining. And again, as Asher says, if you can't figure it out, maybe you shouldn't be playing a game like Civ

[Adagio]

I don't like Steam either, I would sure as hell prefer not to have Steam, but it's not that bad

One of the things that annoys me at the moment is that it doesn't know what "Remember my password and login automatically" means, when I'm using two computers. I have two computers with Steam (a desktop and a laptop). If I log in to Steam from my laptop, when Steam is running on my Desktop it logs out from desktop (fair enough) and erases my password (not fair!!!)...
Sure, it's only a minor annoyance, but it completely kills the point of having a "remember password" checkbox

The thing I hate most about Steam though is that it's extremely un-userfriendly, is quite confusing and doesn't give a good quick simple overview with the few information I need. The "small mode" in Steam is ugly and has no information at all. If it looked good I could use that as a shortcut to my games (but I haven't been able to make it work by adding none-steam games to it), by showing that on the Desktop all the time, but it looks like something even the cat wouldn't drag in (ugly + no info = no go! Twice as ugly + info = Well... kinda have to use it)

Are there skins to Steam?

[SandMonkey]

I've had steam since 2003, and I honestly can't remember having any issues in the past 4 or 5 years. For those of you looking at steam strictly as DRM software, how is this any worse than SecuROM or the other equally horrible options for DRM? And companies like Firaxis use the Steamworks suite for more than just DRM (Day 1 patching, multiplayer implementation, etc). Add to this the awesome deals you can get during their crazy sales and I think steam is a pretty awesome deal, on the whole.

If this is your first exposure to the steam I guess I can see how it would be annoying to have to install a third party program. But can you imagine if they had bundled Civ V with something like GFWL? I shudder at the thought.

And for those of you who take offense to the initial "yawn" comments, this love/I'm okay with it/hate argument has been raging since it was announced that Civ V would be bundled with Steam. Some people said they were going to refuse to buy, most didn't care. It's been argued ad nauseum, which is most likely why the initial post was met with boredom.

[Ephack]

I don't mind about Steam, I can not say I like it, but I don't think it's a big annoyance, only one risk more of failure.
I'm actullay experiencing this: I am in holidays and there is internet in my hotel. It can do anything with my browser, with Skype, etc... but somehow Steam won't connect. The message saying "connecting to your account" appears and stays there for eternity. In the plane, I could play offline without problem, but here it says that I can't play offline because my account needs update or whatever. I'm in holidays, when I have more time to play, and I can't because of Steam. So yes, I'm angry and have the impression that it would be better without Steram...

[jckline]

If Steam would get with the program and not be so ass-backwards with their client, it wouldn't be nearly the issue it is. There's no reason not to support customizeable ports, and no reason that account verification couldn't take place over 80/443.

[Quick]

I had never heard of Steam before looking at this game. I saw that the subscription was needed for install and had no cost. It looked to me a lot like needing Direct X 9. (Which is by the way a third party software that is required to run the game.) At first I was very upset with Steam as it took more than an hour to install the game. Most of that was downloading the game over my high speed internet. But after the game was installed I found that my system was just short of giving smooth game play and bought a new computer. On the new computer it installed much faster. It turned out that my old system just didn't have the power for the install.

Now I am debating using Steam offline to ovoid the advertising. But I want the updates as they come available.

As to comparing Steam to a lock on your house or car, the owner of the game is the manufacture. We buy a license to run the game. The owner of the game is using Steam to protect their property. I have seen that some load companies will give a car loan to high risk customers with a condition of a remote disablement system that they can use if a payment is late. I have also heard of a similiar system for leased cars. This is a much better analogy. If you don't want Steam, then by the rights to the game in full. IE: buy the copyrights, registrations, and pattents. It will cost a lot more, but you can then do what every you want with it.

[MxM]

I do not think that it is fare analogy with Direct X. You NEED some graphical system, be it Direct X or open GL, there is no way around it. You do NOT need steam. And it does not matter that some people like steam and actually prefer steam. There are customers who does not. Giving option of not having to install steam would be better.