STEAM

[rumblemilitia]

Guys i m preaparing a research paper about marketing success of STEAM for e-business lesson.

I m still gathering information about it.If you are a member of steam please tell me how steam satisfied you about computer games.For example when you change your computer is it really easy to transfer all game datas to your new computer etc.Also i need to know if prices are cheaper than your country or not(tell me which country you are living).

I completed everything except user opinions.I found a few but i need to add some.

Thank you.

[MrTwilliger]

Steam lets me buy pretty much any game I want, without having to move off my fat lazy ass. I don't need CD's, I can't lose my installation files and I can access all of my games from an easy, central location. Also, with the steam sales that occur all the time. they are generally cheaper than any stores here (australia). Also steam has a lot of titles not available in retail outlets (the cat and the coup anyone?). Steam is brilliant and I wouldn't game without it.

[rumblemilitia]

Thank you for answer.According to my research steam has a limited install for certain games like crisis.It means you cant actually own the game.Is it bothering you?I mean you are buying a game but game has a limit.

[woutR]

I've never bought anything through steam, but I started using it before there even was a steam store. I think the concept is great: all my games wherever and whenever I want. The download speeds are really high.
As for the price I think it's always reasonably priced. Not sure if cheaper, but definitely if you factor in convenience.

Really happy with Steam

[Shomari]

Ease of use and management.

[Toshiharu]

I used Steam since 2005 because of Counter Strike. It was shit back then. Service wasn't as awful, the client, etcetc like it was a couple years back. The reason why Steam became so successful is because it's created by a guy that loved video games and thinks more of it's customers than anything else. A new computer? Sure no problem just redownload it. Steam doesn't care unless you purchased a game that has another layer of DRM installed. Ubisoft is guilty of this and which is why their games do so poorly in the PC section.

Steam is DRM itself, but the good kind. The least intrusive one. Getting banned from Steam? I've haven't heard of anyone getting banned from Steam lately. 3 years ago accepting a gift from stolen credit cards? Yeah. Now? Game is removed and carry on. Exploiting that sale with thousands of coal? You don't lose your games. You just lost your privileged to trade and participate in future events.

If you live outside of America then prices of some games are silly due to VAT and publishers. Perfect example is EA with their games

Over the past couple years Steam in terms of quality just sky rocketed. Records stats, achievements, community page became better, better response, support, more video games on the store, a place for indies to start, Gaben, cloud savings, cloud screenshots, and a bunch of other things. And sales. I guess Gabe realized everybody would be willing to buy that game for $5 over $30 which is why they have constant sales. Almost every week now you have a midweek and weekend sale. Used to happen a couple times a month a year or two ago.

Which is why many prefer Steam over Origin beyond the "it can scan your computer."

[takolin]

I don't always buy games for PC with steam but whenever I do it, I'm always satisfied with the pricing and the service. That and their constant sales are a great incentive to try certain games which you always wanted to play but never were sure of if they are worth your money.

That and losing/scratching/breaking/... your discs are no longer an issue.

[LillDev!l]

Steam is a good and easy platform to download / update games and to play with friends. I personally never buy a game on steam though, as it seems that everything in Europe is always most expensive. A new game will be 60 dollars in america (47 euros), 40 pounds in England (48 euros) and 60 euros in Europe. Luckily you can simply buy games elsewhere and activate them on steam.

The only real problem i have with steam is the fact that it's not to reliable, sometimes there will be no chat, i've even had times when it said that it's servers were to busy "please try again later", when trying to run a game. Of course, when you pay for a game you want to be able to play it, at any time.

In general i do like steam though, they have really good sales once in a while and it is indeed easy to be able to play your games from any pc you like.

[The Invisible]

Thank you for answer.According to my research steam has a limited install for certain games like crisis.It means you cant actually own the game.Is it bothering you?I mean you are buying a game but game has a limit.

Not really bothering, of course it depends on how many times are allowed (anything +3 is good for me though).

Well normally when you lose (accidentally delete, lose of Cd, etc.) a game you can't take it back, with steam you can take it back a couple of times (sometimes way more than just a couple).

[rumblemilitia]

Some games are cheap but some games are more expensive than physical media.

Another thing is there are some sites to sell steam game keys.This is a bad sign for market success of steam.Because when free keys grow, companies that contracted with steam will think that platform is not safe anymore right?

[Toshiharu]

Some games are cheap but some games are more expensive than physical media.

Another thing is there are some sites to sell steam game keys.This is a bad sign for market success of steam.Because when free keys grow, companies that contracted with steam will think that platform is not safe anymore right?

No. The reason why other sites sell these keys for cheap is because the developers/publishers of the game gave them the keys for whatever they bought them for. Another thing is that there are A LOT of Russian keys being thrown around. Why Russian? Russians don't have a lot of money which is why they end up pirating everything, but Steam offers many games for practically half the price in USD. I also do believe they're boxed copies made for russia or something.

Steam doesn't care if you sell your product elsewhere.

The only real problem i have with steam is the fact that it's not to reliable, sometimes there will be no chat, i've even had times when it said that it's servers were to busy "please try again later", when trying to run a game. Of course, when you pay for a game you want to be able to play it, at any time.

Good thing and a bad thing. If it's down then you know Valve is doing something to improve, fix, or whatever the issue may be. The servers being overloaded is quite funny actually. Valve upgrades them right before every new sale. Problem is they're not even to predicting the amount of traffic they'll have. It's embarrassing to have the servers not respond during a major promotion. Overall I'd say there was a massive improvement from summer to winter sales. Summer I couldn't get a stable connection. Winter? Constantly at least 750kb/s with my speed being 1.5mb. Too bad the community and trade servers couldn't handle all that traffic throughout the pretty much the first few days.

[satman83]

While Steam is easy and simple to use with a nice layout it has one feature i do hate beyond anything else.

Which is the lack of a “customer service” feature? I say this because the same stock automated reply to any problem does not count as any form of service at all. No matter the problem the first automated (copy and pasted) response Steam send suggests that the problem is on your end and there is nothing wrong at all with Steam and implying to do so is meet with the same response that it is a problem on your side and not the Steam servers.

The only time i have spoken to an actual person is by stating as clearly in my error/bug report that i want to speak to a person and not an automated system, even then its like trying to get blood from a stone to get them to admit it’s a problem on their side (they persist on making you try steps to solve the problem that don’t actually work). Even when admitting it’s a Steam server problem they wont/cant do anything about it.Also lets not forget that Steam do NOT even have a telephone number for you to contact in relation to their customer support or an email address.
For a company as big as Steam, the way it treats its customers is shocking and disgusting

[Toshiharu]

Valve isn't big. Valve has around 300 employees and you're forgetting they have developers, artists, networking, steam, and many other jobs.

I never had an issue with Steam. Like over the sale Renegade ops came with the DLC free if you bought the 4pack for whatever reason why and I traded coal for a copy thinking it would redeem itself with DLC. It didn't, talked to support, and the game was repacked into a gift. Every reply was a human reply besides the initial "blah blah we'll get back to you" message. Problem is it took a day in between every reply. Support is slow, but has always been helpful to me.

[Goseki]

Steam is a success because it is a gaming company run by gamers and enthusiast. Sure there are business people in there, but the community and employees are much friendlier, helpful, and nicer than any other company out there. *cough shitbag EA*.

[rumblemilitia]

I got BA from the project.Thnx a lot guys.

[Goseki]

I got BA from the project.Thnx a lot guys.

what's a BA?

[dom]

I got BA from the project.Thnx a lot guys.

what's a BA?

Blatantly Average

[curvekiller]

THREAD RES
Just discovered Big Picture mode on the PC. Amazing concept, even if it still has a few bugs.
The UI design is just fantastic