So I should pretend to not be annoyed by it to fit in? I'm not sure where I made any statements about people in general, I thought I was talking about myself.

HOW DOES IT FORCE YOU TO DO ANYTHING??

i actually am very curious.

The thread is about people in general responding to convenience. Steam is super successful because people find it more convenient than piracy. Your personal aggravation with it, whatever the reasons, are outlying opinions that don't change the core point.

That's all I was saying.

Yeah, but I have many computers, and some are more powerful than the others. Some games won't let me have different graphics settings on different computers if the cloud is on. I should probably just turn the cloud off, since the cloud saves rarely ever work.
When the cloud is on, upon trying to start the game, it states that the settings on the cloud are different than on the computer I'm using and gives me the options "Upload to cloud", "Download from cloud" and "Cancel".

It doesn't force me to do anything, since I can turn off the cloud, and nothing's forcing me to play games anyway.

What I tried to convey, though with some personal bitterness, was that I don't get why people find it convenient.

and when you press cancel game quits? thats indeed a fucking annoying thing.
you said that it forces you to either upload new details or download them.
getting very confused.

It does. This happened to my son yesterday (and he's never logged onto Steam anywhere but on that specific computer). The popup window even explicitly stated that without choosing one of those options (upload to cloud/download from cloud) the game would not be able to start.

That is because many games save their settings in the same places as the savegames. Sometimes even in the same file. That is a developer issue and is probably going to resolve itself once developers will notice this more and more.

The service Steam offers is better than piracy. That is the reason why they are so successful.

Yes. It's a minor annoyance, but completely pointless as far as I'm concerned.

I'm just getting frustrated by the responses I usually get when I tell about the problems I have with Steam. It adds up over time. Though my posts aren't exactly neutral either. If you consider "playing the game" a necessity, then it forces me to either download, upload or turn off the cloud.

which i agree is fucking annoying. not a deal breaker but still so stupid. give you option (without a pop out. a button in steam overlay is enough) but stopping you from playing it? needs fixing.
which it will be... i mean offline mode was broken in 2004 and that was fixed quickly.


I haven't experienced that myself (i have cloud on.) so i was curious. My exp. only is related to screenshot upload which then they appear as a background in library. which is pretty cool.

To get back on topic, it is refreshing to hear an insider to the industry that actually understands customers and can rub some braincells together. Make the game available and provide a better service then people will pay. I think most people would prefer not to pirate because it isn't the right thing to do legally or morally, but if you don't supply the demand or make it really inconvenient than people will turn to the pirates http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones

Duh. And for all the complaints about Steam they are adequately reliable for most people and they do supply something the pirates can't a dedicated community, easy patching, and one convenient place to manage your game. Same with gog, yes you can pirate the old games but then you would have to do the work of getting the game to work yourself and no official support you can turn to.. Plus, you can't use the DRM are evilz excuse with gog and they usually do go out of their way to assist their customers. Good luck getting that service with the pirates. The point is, no duh, of course you got to compete and find innovative ways to motivate people to buy from you.

The patching thing is a bad example. Providing easy access for developers to patch up their games is good in theory, but in practice it promotes lazy AAA developers (like Bethesda and others) to make crappy broken buggy games and release them in that state, and then gradually start patching them up but only when the dough is flowing.

Point taken, but the point is at least Steam is trying to compete, but what publishers do on their own end is beyond Steam's control. Although, it does irk me as well how AAA developers abuse this.

I don't see much abuse in this. Granted, I hardly buy AAA games on release day. But those I recently bought (Far Cry 3 and X-Com) where perfectly playable without issues. I have more issues with indie developers, tbh. Understandable, as they hardly have the time and resources to properly test a game.

And Skyrim is a really bad example, as it was the most stable initial release of any Elder Scrolls game. And the more complex a game gets, the more bug prone it is.

Maybe it's because I use Steam now and don't have to look after games manually. But comparing this with the late '90s, I don't get the feeling that games are released in a better state. Heck, the most revered games like System Shock 2 or Fallout needed some serious patching before playing.

Whenever I get the feeling I'm playing an obvious beta, it usually never sees the proper work to "finally finish" it. Like Far Cry 2.

bethesda games were always full of bugs. even 15 years later they are broken.

So, always choose "Upload" on every computer?