Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: nolalou]
#960285
06/03/14 06:43 PM
06/03/14 06:43 PM
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Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 5,818 Beverly Hills, Florida
kjos
BAAG Specialist
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BAAG Specialist
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 5,818
Beverly Hills, Florida
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I use them all and never had any problems with any of them. I use steam a lot. Richard
***To Error is Human**To Forgive is Divine***
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: nolalou]
#960293
06/03/14 07:30 PM
06/03/14 07:30 PM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644 southeast USA
Jenny100
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
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GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
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Posts: 40,644
southeast USA
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You can read about Steam at the Wikipedia Wikipedia article on SteamIt is not just a downloader. It's more of a management system for whatever software or games you buy on it. If you intend to use it, you should take time to read about how to use it -- how to use the offline mode, for example (unless you want it connecting to the Internet every time you play a game). https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-AGCB-2555&l=englishSome people like how Steam automatically patches your installed games by default, but this may not be convenient -- especially if you don't have a very fast Internet connection and by the time Steam downloads and installs a large patch you're out of time to play the game. Read more about Steam on the Steam website. For example, Steam Account information https://support.steampowered.com/kb_cat.php?id=94Knowledge Base https://support.steampowered.com/kb_cat.php?id=3Sometimes Steam has "exclusives" for a while, but most games eventually become available elsewhere. Check out the Steam catalog of games and see if there is anything there that you want, and that you can't find anywhere else. I do not use Steam myself. Some people find it convenient, but it's not for me. I think you really have to do your own research and decide for yourself.
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: nolalou]
#960310
06/03/14 10:43 PM
06/03/14 10:43 PM
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Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 83,353 In the Naughty Corner
BrownEyedTigre
The Sassy Admin and PR Liaison
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The Sassy Admin and PR Liaison
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In the Naughty Corner
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oldbroad, I believe Jenny means that if you have an hour free to play and Steam updates your game and you have a slow connection that your free time will be spent waiting for the update rather than gaming. Ana
Don't feed the Trolls
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: Pokey]
#960330
06/04/14 04:29 AM
06/04/14 04:29 AM
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 3,293 Rivellon
traveler
Addicted Boomer
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Addicted Boomer
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Rivellon
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Here are GOG's Terms of Service and here are Steam's. You can judge for yourself which is clearest and most inspiring of trust. As an aside, I found it interesting that GOG's can be copied and Steam's cannot. Games from GOG are DRM-free. There are an appreciable number of games on Steam that are not DRM-free, I gather, and some, like me, consider the Steam Client itself a form of Digital Rights Management (DRM). This third party client stands between you and your games. You must have it installed to download your games. Not so GOG. It is wholly up to you whether you use their downloader or not; it greatly increases the speed of your download but you can use your browser to download games if you'd rather. I don't know how Steam treats their users since I am not one but I know that GOG listens to theirs and makes a concerted effort to be straight with them. They themselves make old games, classic games playable on modern machines. Steam does not. If the publisher/developer doesn't do it, it doesn't get done. Of course, that may not matter if you have no interest in games older than yesterday and want the newest games now, although the specific game you mentioned, nolalou, BS 5, is available on GOG and so are a number of other newer games. Translating legalese is not my forte, but just from reading the two TOS, I'll say this: Steam's explicit warning that they take no responsibility for games which may include viruses or Trojans doesn't make me any more tempted to make use of their service. Having been a member of GOG since early 2010, I feel fairly safe in saying that GOG makes sure nothing of the sort is ever included in a game they sell. In the end, it's up to you. Some people use both, some prefer one over the other. I prefer dealing with people who are gamers and actually care about gamers. I use GOG. Gil.
"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: traveler]
#960385
06/04/14 09:35 AM
06/04/14 09:35 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 34,390 United Kingdom
Mad
Sonic Boomer
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Sonic Boomer
Joined: Nov 2000
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United Kingdom
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I only use Steam if I can't get a particular game anywhere else and I'm absolutely desperate to get it !! However, I use GOG all the time. I really like GOG. For me it's so much easier and non-interfering to use. And I can always put a game from them onto a disk - which is something I much appreciate
Time : The Most Precious Commodity
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: oldbroad]
#960395
06/04/14 10:06 AM
06/04/14 10:06 AM
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Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 40,644 southeast USA
Jenny100
GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
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GB Reviewer Glitches Moderator
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southeast USA
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"you're out of time to play the game." What does this mean Jenny? I've not seen any time limits anywhere on Steam. oldbroad, I believe Jenny means that if you have an hour free to play and Steam updates your game and you have a slow connection that your free time will be spent waiting for the update rather than gaming. Ana is correct. Some patches can be quite large, which is an issue for those with slow connections where it may take an hour or more to download and install the patch. It is especially bad if your playing time is limited. But even if it isn't, waiting around when you feel like playing isn't fun. Updates that invalidate your saves are another issue. Actually, if you right click on each game, you can set it to not do any updates. You can configure Steam, but it's not set that way by default. That's why I said that a new user should take time to read about how to use Steam. Using Steam is not as simple as using a site where you simply download a game and install it. They may do an update even though the game is not set to update, but that is rare. I was not aware that Steam would ignore your settings like that. Does that only happen with multiplayer games or does it apply to single player games too?
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: oldbroad]
#960537
06/04/14 11:27 PM
06/04/14 11:27 PM
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 3,293 Rivellon
traveler
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Addicted Boomer
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Traveler - I do not find the GOG downloader to be any faster than the IE browser downloader (if that is what is being used if I'm not selecting something else?). For me it takes about an hour per GB to download with either of those downloaders or the BF or my MSN Explorer downloader.
I'm not sure what you mean by "selecting something else?", oldbroad. If you're using IE as your browser, though, and the GOG downloader is set to OFF, I'd imagine it is IE's download function you're using. One of the few extravagances I allow myself is a fast internet connection, a near necessity on the web these days. (Try accessing a graphic intensive, all bells-and-whistles website or watching a video without one.) So anyway, just out of curiosity, I re-downloaded a game from my GOG shelf just now that is 1.22 GB. It took me slightly less than 8 minutes using the GOG downloader. The default is 6 concurrent connections and the download speed is steady at 2.85 MB, which is not always the case with my browser, though I'm sure that it depends often enough on the site's server if a dl takes forever - as for instance, a hundred kilobytes per sec. Seriously, that happens and when it does I usually throw up my hands. Gil.
"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: mj2c]
#960562
06/05/14 06:22 AM
06/05/14 06:22 AM
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 34,390 United Kingdom
Mad
Sonic Boomer
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Sonic Boomer
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 34,390
United Kingdom
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I have a super fast internet connection and just use Chrome or IE (Win7) to download anything from anywhere. I've never bothered with "downloaders" from particular sites - except for BigFish, where I don't think I am given a choice and Steam, of course, on the very rare occasions I ever go there
Time : The Most Precious Commodity
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: mj2c]
#960605
06/05/14 09:44 AM
06/05/14 09:44 AM
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 3,293 Rivellon
traveler
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Downloaders only make a difference if the place you are downloading from throttle their connections in the first place. If an individual connection downloads at whatever your bandwidth is then a downloader (which just uses multiple connection) won't make a blind bit of difference. When I download from Steam I get my bandwidth which is 30meg. I'm surprised you need 6 connections to get 2.85MB. What do you get with 1 connection? Obviously I don't explain things well but I was not expecting a technical discussion to arise in this thread when I answered oldbroad. I'm not very good at technical stuff anyway but I'll try again. If I fail again, maybe InlandAZ or Draclvr or Jenny100 could address the question in Glitches. Why do six hoses fill a barrel with water faster than one? As I understand how a downloader/installer like GOG's works, the download is broken into parts, the parts checked for validity along the way and repaired if they are faulty, then reassembled when they reach your computer. Each 'connection' is downloading a piece of the whole, not the whole thing. I speculate that GOG sends out so many games that it would be a huge stress on a single server to do it for a single game of size and multiple servers sending out smaller pieces reduce that stress to manageable loads; but, as I say, I'm not remotely a geek and while that is the way I think of it, it's always possible I'm off target. I'm surprised you think 2.85 MBS is slow or those multiple connections for file parts are unnecessary. It's enormously fast for all the games I download as far as I'm concerned since I still remember the day when I downloaded a game demo that was 50 megs on dialup and had the download time out two minutes before it would have been complete. Almost undoubtedly it came in one big lump from a single server which I seem to recall was CNET's. I had to dl the demo all over again...and wait another 8+ hours, nervous as a cat when the download approached the critical two minute mark. Now, how my browser's downloader works, I have no idea. It generally works quite well but in the instance of games from GOG, it definitely takes second place to the GOG downloader. Gil.
"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: traveler]
#960611
06/05/14 10:05 AM
06/05/14 10:05 AM
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Joined: Dec 2007
Posts: 1,052
mj2c
Addicted Boomer
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Why do six hoses fill a barrel with water faster than one?
It doesnt quite work like that because the overall speed you can get is limited by your bandwidth. So if the barrel can only take water at 1 pint a second then the number of hoses is immaterial If you have a 6Mb bandwidth that downloads something via 6 connections then each connection is only downloading at 1/6th of it's capability because you can't go over the initial 6Mb. It is true that these systems will use load balancing but at the "relatively" slow speed you have I doubt that will come in to play, at least I would hope that is the that they could service a 2.85 connection
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: mj2c]
#960625
06/05/14 11:00 AM
06/05/14 11:00 AM
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Joined: Jan 2010
Posts: 3,293 Rivellon
traveler
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Addicted Boomer
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Well, I suppose it is relative if you think downloading one meg+ in -8 minutes is slow, mj2c. To me, it's blazing. Btw, how does that affect the argument that the downloader/installer prevents the head-banging frustration of broken connections? Gil.
"Best not to think about it. I don't want to fall to bits 'cos of excess existential thought."
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: traveler]
#960626
06/05/14 11:05 AM
06/05/14 11:05 AM
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 48,431 near Yosemite
Marian
Global Moderator
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Global Moderator
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near Yosemite
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Well, I suppose it is relative if you think downloading one meg+ in -8 minutes is slow, mj2c. To me, it's blazing. Gil. Same for me, Gil.
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Re: what's the deal with Steam?
[Re: nolalou]
#960628
06/05/14 11:24 AM
06/05/14 11:24 AM
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 20,123 Near St. Louis, MO
Draclvr
Reviews Editor - Hints/Glitches Mod - Site Support
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Reviews Editor - Hints/Glitches Mod - Site Support
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Near St. Louis, MO
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Ah, but mj2c said his bandwidth is 30 Mb. He lives in a part of the world where 30 Mb is considered the norm. Here in the US, we are chopped liver to the big telecom companies and they have conditioned us to think 2.85 Mb is fast!
My older son does have a 30 Mb connection. But he is building a new house on a piece of property where he will no longer have his 30 Mb connection - which even requires a special modem to accommodate those speeds. When I had to download a 3 GB+ Windows 8 update, it would have taken me at least 18 hours, but I took it over to his house and I had it in 40 minutes. He will be relegated to my world of wireless broadband through a local ISP. Their customer service is fabulous, but their speeds BITE! I would even be happy with the top speed of 500 - 600 Kb (yes, that's a "K"), but I get throttled after 65 MB of a download to about 50 - 60 Kb/sec. An 8 GB game from Steam or GOG takes me several days.
I notice no difference in using the Steam downloader and the GOG downloader or my browser. I've never really "tested" it, but as mj2c says, everything is dictated by my ISP anyway. The maximum is 500 - 600 Kb/sec and when it's time to throttle me down, it doesn't matter which one I'm using.
Once again, weeds are my life!
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