Something I’ve noticed in this community is that whenever I criticize Steam, or point out something I don’t like about the platform, I tend to get a ton of downvotes.

And honestly, I’m just curious why.

This is a piracy-oriented community, so I find it kinda interesting that Steam seems to have such a strong positive reputation here. I’m not saying people shouldn’t like Steam, obviously everyone has their own reasons for using it. Steam is convenient, has huge sales, supports Linux, has a massive library of games, etc. I completely get why people use it.

I’m just wondering where the line is for people.

For example, do you like Steam despite the DRM because the convenience outweighs the negatives? Do you see Steam as fundamentally different from other forms of DRM? Do you consider Valve one of the “good guys” in the industry? Or do you simply see Steam as a convenient storefront and don’t really think much about the DRM side of it?

Or maybe you actually agree with some of the criticism of Steam, but just think it’s being exaggerated.

For me personally, I don’t use Steam because I don’t really like having my games tied to an account and a platform. I’d rather have the actual files, be able to back them up, move them around, mod them and know that I still have them years later. That’s basically what I was getting at in that video I made about Steam as well.

But I’m not trying to start another “Steam bad!” argument here. I’m genuinely curious because sometimes the reaction seems surprisingly pro-Steam considering the nature of this community.

So what is it about Steam that you guys actually appreciate?

  • Iunnrais@piefed.socialEnglish
    0·
    9 hours ago

    I’m pro piracy, and anti-copyright (or at least, anti copyright as it exists today). That said, steam is a legitimate competitor to piracy AND can coexist with it.

    Steam— Cons: it costs money. DRM exists. Pros: the majority of the money goes to devs, great ui, fantastic networking tools (they literally have invested in additional physical networking wires (OSI layer 1) to expand bandwidth for use in gaming on their platform), consumer oriented discovery of new titles, consumer oriented review tools, useful socialization functionality, automatic updates, easy and simple access to developer communication, easy mod support, customer support/service, and there’s probably more I haven’t thought of off the top of my head.

    Piracy— Pros: free, no drm Cons: less convenient than steam, have to be scam/virus aware, needs privacy protection to be safe and to keep up with what the minimum requirements for being safe are, requires technical skill and know-how, lacks all steam’s pros.

    And the nice thing is, piracy still exists, so if you need a drm free version for any reason at all, it’s still there!