Full Steam Ahead

[Munro]

We have a new article for you to read entitled ‘Full Steam Ahead’ by Chris_D. It’s a short article that talks of the Steam delivery platform and how it will benefit the gaming industry in the future. Something many people overlook the possibility of.

Also, if you haven’t already seen we have many other articles available on some interesting topics so check them out here.

 

[63]

Very nice Chris, but I'm 100% against Steam. It might work for you guys but not me. I can't play CS for more than 15 minutes without getting a serious error or a restart. I payed for the game, I expect it to work.

 

[Chris D]

I hope the article didn't seem at all like I was trying to force my opinion down their throat. My opinion is Steam does work for me and I'm fully behind the concept. I'm sure we can find another writer to make an objective article about Steam.

At the moment it's Marmite, you either love it, or you hate it.

 

[63]

I hope the article didn't seem at all like I was trying to force my opinion down their throat. My opinion is Steam does work for me and I'm fully behind the concept. I'm sure we can find another writer to make an objective article about Steam.

At the moment it's Marmite, you either love it, or you hate it.

What are your specs Chris? Drivers too if you'd be so kind...

 

[Chris D]

Intel P4 2.66GHz
768mb PC2700 333MHz RAM
Radeon 9800 np (4.4 Catalysts)
120GB HDD
Windows XP Home
5.1 surround sound system

Which other drivers did you want to know about?

 

[63]

Intel P4 2.66GHz
768mb PC2700 333MHz RAM
Radeon 9800 np (4.4 Catalysts)
120GB HDD
Windows XP Home
5.1 surround sound system

Which other drivers did you want to know about?

Oh, no other drivers. I just cant figure out why NO games will run for more than 10 mins on my computer. A clean install of winxp, clean install of drivers and still nothing ;(

 

[Wesisapie]

Cutting out the middle man usually means more savings for the producer rather than the consumer.
Steam doesnt "do it" for me right now, because i prefer having more control over things.

 

[Varsity]

I'm all for the concept of Steam, I think it's great. If only it would work a little more reliably. In some ways I'm dreading the release of HL2 because of the very high chances that I won't be able to get a stable enough connection to the completely demolished content servers to play it.

 

[Mechagodzilla]

I do like how steam auto-updates the games on it, but that's really the only part I'm not ambivalent about.

 

[Mr-Fusion]

Bringing down the price of games = win.

I'm sick of these evil publishers taking a percentage of the money from the hard working developers.

 

[Krusty]

I think Steam's a great concept myself, I agree Chris. Especially if it brings down the price of games.
It's always worked fine for me too...

Oh and Six Three, if you can't play any games then sounds like you're overheating to me, or you have some bad memory. Doesn't sound like Steam fault to me
Can you run 3DMark in a loop?
Try it with the case off perhaps...
Also try running Prime95 for 24 hours.

My 2 penneth,
Krusty

 

[ComradeBadger]

Steam's worked for me since it got out of the beta

Anyway, it's bad for mapping however :hmph:

 

[Nukedukem]

I dont really want to buy games online, i want a lovely box, i want a cd with a nice cdcase around it, i want books and leaflets, not just some download.
I dont really like the whole "forcing people to download stuff" attitude of steam or the advertisements with BUY CS:CZ!!

Only good thing of steam in my opinion is chess

 

[Kadayi]

Nice article Chris. Couldn't agree more. I like the fact that you are looking at things in the wider context, and the gradual move away of 'media' delivery from physical formats. It is a broad subject and throws up a lot of interesting questions, some positive, some negative. It will be interesting to see whether other developers follow suit in creating their own systems or if Valve will allow other developers to utilise steam for direct sales delivery (Bloodlines for example).

 

[Mr. Redundant]

It will be interesting to see whether other developers follow suit in creating their own systems or if Valve will allow other developers to utilise steam for direct sales delivery (Bloodlines for example).

agreed, Im hoping we see more titles move over to the steam platform... simply because it would make the friends network that much more useful
ala xbox live, where you could find your friend no matter what they were playing.
its great already, being able to do it between mods for HL... but Im hoping they expand on it.

oh BTW, Chris_D very well thought out article nicely done.

 

[Chris D]

I dont really want to buy games online, i want a lovely box, i want a cd with a nice cdcase around it, i want books and leaflets, not just some download.
I dont really like the whole "forcing people to download stuff" attitude of steam or the advertisements with BUY CS:CZ!!

Only good thing of steam in my opinion is chess

Thanks for the feedback guys, all of the writers appreciate it.

 

[FISKER_Q]

Good article, where did you steal it from?

Anyways a couple of pointers and opinions. Steam kinda isn't 1.0 Steam was tested before, which were steam engine 1.0. Not many had the beta(I did). (They were testing the unreleased 1.4 sofar i remember)

Then a long while after when 1.5 had been out for a while they launched a new beta with 1,6. This one was steam engine 2.0.

I don't know how valve calls it though, but basicly the real "beta" was the 1.0 and the more end user based product was 2.0.

Anyways, you hope this becomes the future, and i agree. Although what does sound bad is that other companies license it.
(I don't know if it's this way you imagine it).

Which would just lead to another bunch of the same apps where you can get games, and have serverlists etc.

So the company contacts valve, buys a content delivery system(Steam). However they have their own servers. Which then afterwards act as a global authing system, and a game content provider. And if they willingly want to, also as a game content provider for other games than their own.

They can then make their own client, which of course is compatible with the other clients and server, but to make them compatible with steam client patches, it will of course only allow a cosmetical change.

And after that they can work on other licensing plans, but the point is that they should license the whole technology, but rather add it as some kind of component to the current steam.

Which would mean that Steam would be a global content delivery system.

Of course that might make some trouble with monopoly, so alternatively they might even have to make it opensource.

 

[Chris D]

Good article, where did you steal it from?

You could at least make that sound like you were joking. If you weren't joking, it was actually my own work.

Anyways a couple of pointers and opinions. Steam kinda isn't 1.0 Steam was tested before, which were steam engine 1.0. Not many had the beta(I did). (They were testing the unreleased 1.4 sofar i remember)

They released Steam Beta 1.0. They then released Steam Beta 2.0 which included CS 1.6. The Beta then ended and they released Steam 1.0 FINAL on September 12th 2003.

I don't know how valve calls it though, but basicly the real "beta" was the 1.0 and the more end user based product was 2.0.

Beta 1.0 and Beta 2.0 were completely public betas. There just wasn't much need for a large user base during the 1.0 beta. Beta 2.0 brought something new though which was CS 1.6.

Anyways, you hope this becomes the future, and i agree. Although what does sound bad is that other companies license it.
(I don't know if it's this way you imagine it).

Which would just lead to another bunch of the same apps where you can get games, and have serverlists etc.

So the company contacts valve, buys a content delivery system(Steam). However they have their own servers. Which then afterwards act as a global authing system, and a game content provider. And if they willingly want to, also as a game content provider for other games than their own.

They can then make their own client, which of course is compatible with the other clients and server, but to make them compatible with steam client patches, it will of course only allow a cosmetical change.

And after that they can work on other licensing plans, but the point is that they should license the whole technology, but rather add it as some kind of component to the current steam.

Which would mean that Steam would be a global content delivery system.

Of course that might make some trouble with monopoly, so alternatively they might even have to make it opensource.

I think that if the Steam technology is ever licnesed it will be a more compact version. Some companies may choose it solely for the purpose of delivering games and remove the server browser and friends browser. Others may license the whole and customise it to their needs. Other companies may just create their own delivery system. Valve may not even licence it at all.

Time will tell.

 

[63]

Is Fisker_Q, Fisker of Schroet Kommando?

 

[Varsity]

I think that if the Steam technology is ever licnesed it will be a more compact version. Some companies may choose it solely for the purpose of delivering games and remove the server browser and friends browser. Others may license the whole and customise it to their needs. Other companies may just create their own delivery system. Valve may not even licence it at all.

I thought the idea was that Steam became one single, unified base for content delivery, and that you would only ever need a single install of it.

 

[FISKER_Q]

You could at least make that sound like you were joking. If you weren't joking, it was actually my own work.

Yeah i were joking. It was more just a quick remark about the time you took my information about gcf and used it yourself.

Indeed not the best comeback. Sometimes i go "Once a thief, always a thief". But anyways, lets move on.

Modules would be good. Like instead of Friends they could use their own little system. But still so that the patcher could patch the main code.

I hope it could be licensed, it might end a lot of that slavery from the distrobuters.

Six_Three
Nope i'm not Fisker from Schroet Kommando, and before you call me a fakenicker, consider that i've used "FISKER" for about 8-10 years now. I don't know how long he used his, besides i have the _Q after it. And it's also all caps.

 

[Chris D]

I have no recollection of what you're talking about. There was a public discussion about the .gcf files started by somebody which is how everyone realised the BINK videos were in there. Then me and somebody else called Chris pretty much simultaneously found out two different methods of getting the Docks video out of there.

I can't remember consulting you about it at all. I really don't understand what, or why you're implying.

 

[FISKER_Q]

We announced it in public how to "break" it while others were as well.

I remember posting in your thread way back when you got that t-shirt(it consumes me ) i told you that you got it from me, and then you said to me that you just saw the information and forwarded it.

Or else we got that sorted out on the steam channel. I probably even have a backup of the old picture where i described what to do.

I also posted it in a thread(on the official steam forums) which a lot of people requested me to delete cause the ***** community was using it to crack the gcf files, i thought it was just a matter of time or a couple of minutes until people found out, but i deleted it anyways.

 

[Chris D]

I vaguely remember you saying stuff in that thread so I just went in there and checked it out. You're getting me confused with someone else. I've never been to the Steam Hangout or wherever. All of my revelations were made from posts on this forum and my own work. I never discussed it with you at all.

Sorry matey, you're talking about someone else.

 

[FISKER_Q]

I vaguely remember you saying stuff in that thread so I just went in there and checked it out. You're getting me confused with someone else. I've never been to the Steam Hangout or wherever. All of my revelations were made from posts on this forum and my own work. I never discussed it with you at all.

Sorry matey, you're talking about someone else.

Well i'm probably mistaken, so i'll take your word for you did yourself, and as long as you didn't steal it i don't care who was first or who weren't.

It's more that i hate thieves that takes other peoples hard work and takes credit for it.

I once ran a gamesite where like 50% of the news was posted on another gamesite which had removed sources and basicly just copy/pasted the article.

Heh they even translated a IGN article about the Phantom console word from word.

Anyways lets just stop it here and not let the thread go too much out of hand glad i got it cleared out.

 

[Voodoo_Chile]

If anyone wants to see what Steam(or its offspring) could achieve I advise everyone to read "Mispent Youth" by Peter F. Hamilton(Also read his other books,brilliant Sci. Fi.)
The Datasphere is only a small part of the story but it'll give ya an Idea of what Steam or a Bigger more comprehensive version could accomphlish

 

[dys-Fuzzy]

Steam Dream

The Steam Dream

When most gaming sites on the web post up articles regarding steam, Valve's content delivery system, they focus only on one slice of the whole picture. This is to be expected, since the only side of steam which most people have seen is the client. The pros and cons, from the client side are pretty easy to fathom and can be broken down as such:

Central point to download any Valve product or modification of Valve product.
Automatic updating of Valve games and mods.
Server browser.
Instant messenger, even when in game.

Looking at just this set of features Valve's strategy with Steam is simply to make it easier for new players to get into their games. While online gaming has come a long way it's still a steep learning curve for new players, and I'm only talking about getting into the games here.
A big part of Steam is its DRM. DRM--Digital Rights Management--is the digital lock on an application, stopping a user from running the applications without a proper license. Only with a trusted DRM solution can Valve offer a new way to purchase their content.

Gamers can now pay via credit card, download the required files, install and play. This is much simpler than the old system of, buy game at store, install from cd, patch to latest version, find servers, play. Steam of course doesn't kill off the old fashioned retail solution, but rather than buying a stand alone game you're now buying a Steam login and the cache files for a game. These are installed from the CD and the patches downloaded and installed automatically.

While this system does make the entire ordeal of getting online to play games as simple as possible, the system does impose limits which the previous generation of gamers had come to take for granted. Automatic updates mean that players no longer have the choice of which version of the game to play. A vocal minority of current players were also outraged by early problems with the Steam system, which they witnessed "break" their gaming environment rather than "enhance" it.

Looking at the Steam system from Valve's side of the fence is where things start getting fun. Obviously selling direct to their end users can be seen as a massive win for Valve, cutting out the middle man should allow them to make more of a profit from each sale and ultimately should keep the prices of content down. Also another win for the customers. On top of this Valve have a captive audience; every single gamer who plays a Valve product is reachable through the Steam interface. The advertising potential is enormous.

Valve have proven time and again that they understand the power of the modding community. We've witnessed numerous mod teams being supported by Valve, most successfully in the cases of Counter Strike and Day of Defeat. Of course the first mod team picked up by Valve was Team Fortress Software, who after releasing Team Fortress Classic went on to work on the Source engine development. Some time in the future we can expect to see Team Fortress 2, a version of Counter Strike and Day of Defeat all built on the source engine. These will all be available via Steam.

But it's not just these "officially" supported mods which will have the advantage of the Steam system, every 3rd party developer producing content on the source engine will have the power of Steam. The same auto patching and messaging systems will be available for all mod teams. Valve will be able to monitor the public's responses to these mods, at a glance they'll be able to see the number of downloads, the number of unique players, the amount of servers running the mod and the demand for these servers. It'll be a simple matter of approaching the top ranked mods and offering them further support services, perhaps even picking them up and taking them commercial.

Valve have consistently shown that they watch the gaming community very closely. In hind sight it's obvious that leveraging off the work 3rd party mod teams produce, for free, was a smart move. Steam may not have had the best reception but the features which it's offering to the players, to the modding community and to Valve themselves can not be ignored. For the online gaming market to continue to grow ease of use needs to be improved. Mod teams, which for a long time have been producing content at a commercially acceptable quality now have teams access to a state of the art content delivery and digital rights management system. On top of this they have a direct system of contact with their player base, making it simple to distribute information to players and receive feedback.

This all harkens back to the shareware era which saw id software grow from a single coder and an artist to the empire it is today. The problem was that in doing so they closed a lot of doors behind them. Valve, through Steam, seem to be trying to open these doors back up. Steam will make it possible for a small, dedicated team to produce a quality addon for the bleeding edge source engine and advertise it to the entire possible player base. Valve simply keep an eye on the stats and step in to pick up the mod teams which make an impact and gather support from the gaming community.

Fuzzy
http://fuzzyslogic.com
http://dystopia-mod.com

Related links:
http://www.valvesoftware.com/
http://www.steampowered.com/
http://www.steampowered.com/index.php?area=features
http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2003/9/13/03945/7308
http://www.halflife2.net/article_fsa1.php

 

[Spiffae]

Oh, no other drivers. I just cant figure out why NO games will run for more than 10 mins on my computer. A clean install of winxp, clean install of drivers and still nothing ;(

Your graphics card is broken. Try to borrow a friend's card. I was having a similar problem.

 

[Varsity]

But it's not just these "officially" supported mods which will have the advantage of the Steam system, every 3rd party developer producing content on the source engine will have the power of Steam. The same auto patching and messaging systems will be available for all mod teams.

Messaging yes. Auto-patching no. That only happens if your mod gets support from Valve. Great article anyway!

 

[jet jaguar]

Why is it so hard for Valve to realize that maybe people might not want a particular game to be d/l onto their hds without their permission? Would it have been terribly inconvenient to prompt the user to give permission to trickle d/l CS:CZ? If Valve 'knows' it's consumer base they should know that these same people also desire a certain degree of control over what gets d/l into their pcs. Lack of control on the user's part is my biggest criticism of Steam.

 

[Brian Damage]

You all know about that RPG-ish Pirates game that's supposed to turn up on Steam sooner or later, don't you?

There's a thread about it in the gaming forum somewhere...