7 ms·

steam was terrible when it came out however it was still miles better than "Games for Windows Live", which was so bad I don't even try replaying the games that

steam was terrible when it came out however it was still miles better than "Games for Windows Live", which was so bad I don't even try replaying the games that still require it

dcdc123 3y ago
Steam came out almost 5 years before GFWL.
- blibble 3y ago
  probably about the same time they managed to get the Friends service to work
- dspillett 3y ago
  Giving GFWL less excuse for being as bad as it was. They'd witnessed Steam's early problems, yet repeated them (and added more besides).
Insanity 3y ago
I remember using Steam for the games library and using Xfire for the ingame chat features. At some point steam because the only survivor there.
- HeckFeck 3y ago
  Xfire is something that died a sad death. Used it to chat with many people I met playing Star Wars Galaxies and Empire at War - think it was actually bundled with that one. The profile pages and screenshot uploads were fun too. Another online community lost to the sands of time, alas.
  - Arrath 3y ago
    Don't forget GameSpy. Many, many rounds of multiplayer C&C: Renegade played through that back in the day.
waymon 3y ago
> steam was terrible when it came out Do people really think this? I remember applying updates to CS before steam and it was awful. Steam streamlined that and gave us a much needed friends list. I never ever thought steam the application was a bad.
- blibble 3y ago
  the friends list didn't work for 5 or so years and neither did the download limiter (not a big deal these days, but on dialup... yeah) the UI was exceptionally slow and it took forever to do anything this wasn't a meme for no reason: https://imgur.com/a/bpGpe0o https://imgur.com/a/bpGpe0o
  - waymon 3y ago
    ha, im just forgetful. thank you.
  - jonatron 3y ago
    I spent ages looking for that meme recently, thanks!
- wredue 3y ago
  Internet and DRM back then were absolutely shit. So a company coming along and embracing DRM in a consumer friendly way during a time where DRM was rightfully a major topic of contention put a lot of negativity out there. Few people then knew that it was way ahead of its time, and even fewer knew how much of a fight valve would be putting up against capitalist regimes trying to kill gaming.
mpixel 3y ago
Just to clarify, Steam came out in 2003 and GFWL in 2007. Initial Steam was a horrible horrible experience, it also didn't have a store, and it was mainly just something you had for Counter Strike. Now, CS was MASSIVE, it still is, but that was enough to get a whole lot of people experience Steam. It didn't help the internet connection back then was, to put it mildly, shit for most people, so a constantly disconnecting program wasn't a shocking outcome in hindsight, remember, this is 2003-2004. It also felt unnecessary, you bought the game off Steam, Steam didn't let you buy anything and then anything not-made-by-valve, so why couldn't you just play CS directly, why did you have to install an additional app on your limited hardware? And then things have changed. It's my go-to shop, and their contributions to the Linux ecosystem is much welcome. There's self interest, since operating a shop on Windows comes with inherent risks, but I don't see the same interest in other parties, so I'll take it over anything else today.
- ta1243 3y ago
  It's odd seeing Counterstrike because I haven't really done gaming (and certainly not FPS) since Counterstrike was a free mod to Half Life. Wikipedia tells me that "window" of time was a year or two
  - internet101010 3y ago
    It's crazy that it came out before the bulk of its professional players were born. It is truly a timeless game.
  - bravetraveler 3y ago
    One nice thing about Steam (back then, maybe still now?) was after the mod status left. One copy of the Half Life box set (with Blue Shift, Opposing Forces, etc) could basically become as many copies as the whole thing. I turned that one box set into several Steam accounts for my friends/I to share. Each 'mod' (turned game) basically granted a new Half Life license and cloned the derivatives
    - gabereiser 3y ago
pradn 3y ago
It seems like any product named "X for Y" is terrible enterprise-y drivel. It means the project is part of some umbrella corp, which ofc means they can't possibly actually care about anything by profit, move slow, and are un-responsive.
- beebeepka 3y ago
  I have heard nothing but good things about skype for business!
  - stonogo 3y ago
    Hearing nothing was a pretty widespread feature of that product!
    - gabereiser 3y ago
      suppose no news is good news, I think I see the mouth moving but the picture froze.
elesiuta 3y ago
> "Games for Windows Live", which was so bad I don't even try replaying the games that still require it If it's even still possible to install/activate them. Whenever any of them became available on Steam I would rebuy them there just for the convenience.
the_biot 3y ago
The Steam client was always, and is still, a gigantic pile of shit. The massive CPU usage when idle, the crazy game start delays, it's all plain and obvious to anyone who installs it. But for some reason people will insist on ignoring those problems, or instead compare it to some earlier experience with standalone games or some Microsoft pile of garbage, and will defend Steam in places like this. Valve's Steam service is super nice for consumers (though developers get squeezed terribly), but the client is just horrible.
- deelowe 3y ago
  Odd. I have no issues with the client and it's miles better than any other client out there.
- Kuraj 3y ago
  I wonder if it's going to become even more web based but it has also accomplished things like a sorta unified desktop/web/mobile experience and the steam deck. So there's that.
- vunderba 3y ago
  When I ran Windows 7, I was pretty fastidious about cpu consumption, and never observed Steam consuming more than 1-2 CPU percent on average assuming it was collapsed to the system tray and wasn't downloading game updates in the background. I don't think there's any grand conspiracy like you make it out to be, perhaps you've had an outlier experience.
- reactordev 3y ago
  Wait, how do developers get squeezed? As a developer I need to know if I’m standing in quicksand. Having access to so many gamers, at once, without me having to setup a storefront, and pci compliance, and credit card data, is actually good for me. If you live in part of the world where there isn’t a tax treaty with the United States, that’s not exactly Valves fault. Blame your government for the squeeze.
- dpkonofa 3y ago
  I disagree wholeheartedly here. The Steam client has its problems but it's not shit. I use Big Picture mode exclusively on my gaming PC that's hooked up to my TV and I never have problems with Steam unless some other garbage launcher (I'm looking at you, Ubisoft) crashes and doesn't return focus. That's it. Other than that, all my games stay updated, the client updates on restart, and I never have to mess with it. I'm not sure what more you can ask for.

steam was terrible when it came out however it was still miles better than "Games for Windows Live", which was so bad I don't even try replaying the games that still require it

dcdc123 3y ago

Steam came out almost 5 years before GFWL.

blibble 3y ago
probably about the same time they managed to get the Friends service to work
dspillett 3y ago
Giving GFWL less excuse for being as bad as it was. They'd witnessed Steam's early problems, yet repeated them (and added more besides).

Insanity 3y ago

I remember using Steam for the games library and using Xfire for the ingame chat features. At some point steam because the only survivor there.

HeckFeck 3y ago
Xfire is something that died a sad death. Used it to chat with many people I met playing Star Wars Galaxies and Empire at War - think it was actually bundled with that one. The profile pages and screenshot uploads were fun too. Another online community lost to the sands of time, alas.
- Arrath 3y ago
  Don't forget GameSpy. Many, many rounds of multiplayer C&C: Renegade played through that back in the day.

waymon 3y ago

> steam was terrible when it came out Do people really think this? I remember applying updates to CS before steam and it was awful. Steam streamlined that and gave us a much needed friends list. I never ever thought steam the application was a bad.

blibble 3y ago
the friends list didn't work for 5 or so years and neither did the download limiter (not a big deal these days, but on dialup... yeah) the UI was exceptionally slow and it took forever to do anything this wasn't a meme for no reason: https://imgur.com/a/bpGpe0o https://imgur.com/a/bpGpe0o
- waymon 3y ago
  ha, im just forgetful. thank you.
- jonatron 3y ago
  I spent ages looking for that meme recently, thanks!
wredue 3y ago
Internet and DRM back then were absolutely shit. So a company coming along and embracing DRM in a consumer friendly way during a time where DRM was rightfully a major topic of contention put a lot of negativity out there. Few people then knew that it was way ahead of its time, and even fewer knew how much of a fight valve would be putting up against capitalist regimes trying to kill gaming.

mpixel 3y ago

Just to clarify, Steam came out in 2003 and GFWL in 2007. Initial Steam was a horrible horrible experience, it also didn't have a store, and it was mainly just something you had for Counter Strike. Now, CS was MASSIVE, it still is, but that was enough to get a whole lot of people experience Steam. It didn't help the internet connection back then was, to put it mildly, shit for most people, so a constantly disconnecting program wasn't a shocking outcome in hindsight, remember, this is 2003-2004. It also felt unnecessary, you bought the game off Steam, Steam didn't let you buy anything and then anything not-made-by-valve, so why couldn't you just play CS directly, why did you have to install an additional app on your limited hardware? And then things have changed. It's my go-to shop, and their contributions to the Linux ecosystem is much welcome. There's self interest, since operating a shop on Windows comes with inherent risks, but I don't see the same interest in other parties, so I'll take it over anything else today.

ta1243 3y ago
It's odd seeing Counterstrike because I haven't really done gaming (and certainly not FPS) since Counterstrike was a free mod to Half Life. Wikipedia tells me that "window" of time was a year or two
- internet101010 3y ago
  It's crazy that it came out before the bulk of its professional players were born. It is truly a timeless game.
- bravetraveler 3y ago
  One nice thing about Steam (back then, maybe still now?) was after the mod status left. One copy of the Half Life box set (with Blue Shift, Opposing Forces, etc) could basically become as many copies as the whole thing. I turned that one box set into several Steam accounts for my friends/I to share. Each 'mod' (turned game) basically granted a new Half Life license and cloned the derivatives
  - gabereiser 3y ago

pradn 3y ago

It seems like any product named "X for Y" is terrible enterprise-y drivel. It means the project is part of some umbrella corp, which ofc means they can't possibly actually care about anything by profit, move slow, and are un-responsive.

beebeepka 3y ago
I have heard nothing but good things about skype for business!
- stonogo 3y ago
  Hearing nothing was a pretty widespread feature of that product!
  - gabereiser 3y ago
    suppose no news is good news, I think I see the mouth moving but the picture froze.

elesiuta 3y ago

> "Games for Windows Live", which was so bad I don't even try replaying the games that still require it If it's even still possible to install/activate them. Whenever any of them became available on Steam I would rebuy them there just for the convenience.

the_biot 3y ago

The Steam client was always, and is still, a gigantic pile of shit. The massive CPU usage when idle, the crazy game start delays, it's all plain and obvious to anyone who installs it. But for some reason people will insist on ignoring those problems, or instead compare it to some earlier experience with standalone games or some Microsoft pile of garbage, and will defend Steam in places like this. Valve's Steam service is super nice for consumers (though developers get squeezed terribly), but the client is just horrible.

deelowe 3y ago
Odd. I have no issues with the client and it's miles better than any other client out there.
Kuraj 3y ago
I wonder if it's going to become even more web based but it has also accomplished things like a sorta unified desktop/web/mobile experience and the steam deck. So there's that.
vunderba 3y ago
When I ran Windows 7, I was pretty fastidious about cpu consumption, and never observed Steam consuming more than 1-2 CPU percent on average assuming it was collapsed to the system tray and wasn't downloading game updates in the background. I don't think there's any grand conspiracy like you make it out to be, perhaps you've had an outlier experience.
reactordev 3y ago
Wait, how do developers get squeezed? As a developer I need to know if I’m standing in quicksand. Having access to so many gamers, at once, without me having to setup a storefront, and pci compliance, and credit card data, is actually good for me. If you live in part of the world where there isn’t a tax treaty with the United States, that’s not exactly Valves fault. Blame your government for the squeeze.
dpkonofa 3y ago
I disagree wholeheartedly here. The Steam client has its problems but it's not shit. I use Big Picture mode exclusively on my gaming PC that's hooked up to my TV and I never have problems with Steam unless some other garbage launcher (I'm looking at you, Ubisoft) crashes and doesn't return focus. That's it. Other than that, all my games stay updated, the client updates on restart, and I never have to mess with it. I'm not sure what more you can ask for.