what's the deal with Steam?

My new computer came with an app for Steam, which looks like a game sharing, downloading platform. I see some adventure games like Broken Sword 5 are on Steam (at least from a google search , it appears that way). Have any of you used it? Any advantage over any other site, like Gog.com ? I havn;t decided if I should create an account or not,

Thanks!

I use Steam a lot for newly released games but a lot of the members do not use it because they prefer DRM free games sites like GOG or ShinyLoot.
Since I do not use GOG - other members that use both can give you more comparisons.

I don't have a problem with Steam either.

I use them all and never had any problems with any of them. I use steam a lot.
Richard

I've been using Steam for a couple of years now (at least). It's never caused me any trouble. I do prefer the DRM-free nature of GOG, but all too many of the newest games aren't on there yet, and as a reviewer, I generally need access to the newer games

Steam has some great game sales. There should be one coming up in June, so check it out. The prices on many of the games are amazingly low.

You can read about Steam at the Wikipedia
Wikipedia article on Steam

It 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=english

Some 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=94

Knowledge Base
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_cat.php?id=3

Sometimes 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.

"you're out of time to play the game." What does this mean Jenny? I've not seen any time limits anywhere on Steam.

I actually like Steam. I have less trouble downloading from there than I do from GOG and Big Fish. I like Shiny Loot too but they don't have enough Adventure Games for me. Very good sales sometimes though.

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

Actually, if you right click on each game, you can set it to not do any updates. That is the way I have set my library up, especially when it is an older game or one I have already played and don't want to update. A brand new game might need an update. They may do an update even though the game is not set to update, but that is rare.

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.

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

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.


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.


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?

I'm not sure why it happens. I read on a board that it has happened to others. I believe it only happened to me once, so no big problem. It is annoying to have games you have already played be updated while you are waiting to play, so I make sure they are all set to prevent updating.

Thank you Ana and Jenny100 for clarifying that. I have not yet encountered that issue but I can certainly see how annoying it will be when I do.

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.

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?

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

I download from the site that has the game I want, I have a lot of games from GOG & also from steam. if all sites have the game I will use steam because they do update your file automatically with gog you have to download it . With gog I copy to dvd disk so I don't have to download again & on steam I back up the download file to either external drive or dvd & just use steam's built in restore function. The site I find most painful is big fish as you cannot back up your games & have to download again when you change pc's

steam have a new feature that you can play on another pc on your home network that will play your game without having to install the game on the second pc, this will be very handy especially if your 2nd pc is not up to the full game specs. this feature is available to use now but it still has a few bugs to sort out.

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.

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

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.

Same for me, Gil.

Aye internet speeds is one of the few were we seem to get the better of it over Americans:-) If only I could say the same about computer hardware and software prices - we take a good kicking there;)

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.

Oh, yeah.
You live in a metro area here if you expect to get anything but internet connections coming through on turtle back and believe me, we pay through the snoot.
(We need a turtle icon!)

Tell you what, you come over here and help us rise up against our ISPs and we'll come join the low-price, high quality hardware/software revolution over there.
Deal?

Gil.

"Red - the blood of angry men!
Black - the dark of ages past!
Red - a world about to dawn!
Black - the night that ends at last!"

;-)

"We must hang together, gentlemen...else, we shall most assuredly hang separately."

And what that has to do with Steam I don't know but it's fun.


Gil.

Well you lost me ages ago !!

Count me in!

Excellent!
Draclvr is on the barricades for the ISP-low price hardware/software revolution!
Mad, you sure you won't join in?



Gil.