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PostPosted: 07 May 2010, 17:54 
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Browsing the Just Cause 2 forum, I've seen quite a few threads asking the very same question actually... so the game is probably a determining factor, indeed (recent, successful titles = overloaded syncing servers I suppose).
Steam Cloud is certainly a great feature, it's just annoying not to have full control over the stuff you use, and to be constantly forced into using mobile/social services when you don't use them, like, at all... 'cos that's how social I am. :twisted:


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PostPosted: 07 May 2010, 19:48 
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Yeah Steam Cloud is sadly wholeheartedly a game feature, not a steam feature. In that it can have different implementations between games and there is no global way to manage it.

The developers simply have to add the Steam function calls as they see fit. And as we all know very well, what developers see fit is quite often not the ideal solution.
/wave to vert-


So Just Cause 2 is using Steam Cloud for everything? Can you not play when you have no internet access?


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PostPosted: 08 May 2010, 16:54 
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Oh yes I can, no problem. I just had to quit and restart the game a lot lately, because savegames were not in sync (and thus not loaded) upon intial launch, despite my always-on broadband connection. No biggie, just the mild annoyance of not knowing the cause (sync'ing is supposed to happen when you quit the game, right?) and having no workaround. Hence, another irky quirk.


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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 02:44 
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Not interested in Steam. I want to buy games, not rent them.


No such thing as buying a game. You rent all your games, no matter what, in the form of a license to use one. Which according to most all game company's dubious EULAs, can be revoked at any time.


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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 03:48 
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[quote]Not interested in Steam. I want to buy games, not rent them.


No such thing as buying a game. You rent all your games, no matter what, in the form of a license to use one. Which according to most all game company's dubious EULAs, can be revoked at any time.

Yep, sadly with that mentality one will soon no longer be playing games as it is only going to get worse :(


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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 08:57 
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I'm not a lawyer nor am I an expert, but current softwares that come with EULA or something equiv thereof usually dictates that the software you install is for you and for that computer only, unless stated otherwise within that EULA. It is there as some form of agreement that you have a legal copy of the software for which you will use it for your computer and for your own personal use. It covers the idea that you're not going to install it and then hand the copy over to a friend/whoever to install too. It also covers the idea of taking said software, installing it, and then reselling it or returning it to recoup the cost.

Licensing agreement can also cover the unnatural side, whereby the software may somehow screw up your system thus rendering your computer unusable. America has a lot of idiots and money-grubbing morons that at the first sign of disaster or abnormality they'll launch some sort of lawsuit against the company that developed the software. It's to protect the publisher/developers from any form of oddball liability due to some freak-of-nature incident.

Steam is a favored solution to the old problem where your original installation disc is lost, stolen, or broken, or that the CD key that is printed on the manual is somehow missing or misplaced. It is an alternate solution for which people can simply install it and not worry about keeping track of where their game CDs are at. And should a hard drive crash or go bonkers on you, then Steam is at least there and available for you to reinstall your games.

Sure, people are paranoid about the future of Steam and what would happen if some disaster strikes. That's why there are data centers and backups, so that if one goes down, there are other machines/servers available to take its place. And I'm sure the folks behind Steam have a backup plan should the worst happen (ie. Steam shuts down due to poor business).

Steam is a service. What Steam provides is both convenience and games. For titles that support the registering of CD keys to bind to a Steam account, the cost is just the game. The service is free. And with it, you get the convenience of not having to keep the box, the game disc, the manual, or the CD key itself. The game is then bound to your account and you can play it many years from now, if Steam still exists.

Not many complains about it because the benefits of using Steam for some of their games and purchased games outweigh the disadvantages.

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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 10:52 
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For me steam has one advantage left : the price through its time based deals ...
some of the 50% off & 75% off limited special offers are really totally awesome and sometimes even available for not so old software ...


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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 15:54 
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Which Steam games have been revoked to date? It's not a 'challenge' question btw, if there are some I'm curious about which ones.

Anyways, the days of owning games/music/movies on physical media are numbered. I live in a small town in the west of Ireland, the newsagents used to have a fairly impressive array of CD's for sale, he used to rent DVD's and he sold a few console games too. He doesn't do any of that now due to the town getting broadband enabled there maybe 6 years ago. People DL their media now, they do it coz they choose to and because of the greater selections available.

Prior to the advent of Steam and teh likes I had to travel 30miles to Galway city to pick up a game. A sixty mile round trip. In my case and for this reason alone Steam is worth it's weight in gold.

Anyone want a copy of Westwoods Kyrandia, I own it real good, it's on 3 floppies and I have no prehistoric floppy drive at the moment to re-install it. I might as well throw it in the bin.


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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 16:16 
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You can't really call it revoked, but Max Payne 2 was taken down and then put back up (at an earlier version) because somebody at R* used a no-cd crack to make it work with STEAM.

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PostPosted: 27 May 2010, 22:45 
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Not interested in Steam. I want to buy games, not rent them.

No such thing as buying a game. You rent all your games, no matter what, in the form of a license to use one. Which according to most all game company's dubious EULAs, can be revoked at any time.

Yep, sadly with that mentality one will soon no longer be playing games as it is only going to get worse :(

Soduka, whose mentality? Mine? Do you really think it's cool to pay full price for something that you can't have?

Are you agreeing with companies, DaFox??????

Just think. No one will invade my home and take back my Master System games, Game Boy cartridges, Music CDs or books I've bought. No one will "revoke" my guitar. No one will "revoke" my magazines or my camera. I bought them. I have them. Now that companies are free from the burden of hardcopies, so they will play 1984 with us now?

What next? Force us to have our webcams on all the time while we play?

I can play my old 8-bit games that were manufactured in the 80's. I have property of them. I can play them forever.

Why can't I have the property of the games I buy NOW so in 20 years I can still have and play them. You know, Hard Drives crash, and without a hardcopy it is lost forever!

Of course what we have is just the LICENSE... Damn.. or do you think I'm going to release and sell Michael Jackson's Moonwalker as if it is my IP? I'm not even a programmer, I just PLAY games. But at least from the good old times of cartridges and CDs, I'll always have the hardware. No one will invade my home and prevent me from enjoying them.

But this damned "digital distribution" world is fucking with us all.

Damn. No one complains, no one protests. Why this damn conformity? Will you all just let your games be taken from you?

But then, in a world where people actually LIKE Steam.... what can I expect?


Calm down Gandhi. And I didn't mention the word mentality once. That was in reply to me.


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