Playing games without Steam?

[hdrisc]

Hear me out.
This is not a post on how to get around DRM or any type of illegal stuff.
I buy a game, requiring Steam or not, install it, enter the CD key and play it (even if I have to have the CD in while playing). Can't Steam authenticate my CD key (buy going online for that one time) actvating the game, and then doing nothing else. Didn't Steam start as a DRM only type of thing and then someone said "let's add this, and this, and this, and now it's the peice of garbage it is today?

The sales are good, don't get me wrong, but you don't need an "app' to find/download them. They should be listed on the website for anyone to find. You may like Steam, but I don't anymore, used to, but it's become too much. I just want DRM, that's all.

Remember "less is more".

[NoBridges]

Steam = In your face DRM. However you can fire up your chosen game, alt tab out and close the steam process along with the other bloatware it brings.

[Vizari]

Yay, another whine thread.

I could hardly consider Steam to be bloatware.

[puffincat]

Steam started off as a piece of crashing garbage in the days when a lot of us still had dialup. It was forced on everyone who bought HL 1, and if we wanted to keep playing HL, mods (and/or including CS depending on how you define it) we had to install Steam to keep using our game.

Now Steam is pretty good, and it's also a good store. It's also DRM. So, in answer to your main question: short answer, no.

EDIT: Just compare it to the worst thing in the world ever: iTunes.

[hdrisc]

Originally Posted by Vizari

Yay, another whine thread.

I could hardly consider Steam to be bloatware.

So you use everything Steam has to offer? Well I don't.
I need my CD key to be authenticated (if it's through Steam, that's OK) and that's it. All the other stuff is "bloatware" to me. I buy a game to play that game. Not to have "news" pop up when I close a game. Steam pops up when I want to uninstall a game. Steam downloading what it thinks I want. The "community" and "achivements" are useless. If I wanted all of that I would have bought an XBOX and I'm a PC gamer not a console gamer.
There is a difference Steam.

[derrman0426]

Originally Posted by puffincat

Steam started off as a piece of crashing garbage in the days when a lot of us still had dialup. It was forced on everyone who bought HL 1

You mean Half Life 2, right?

Originally Posted by hdrisc

Hear me out.
This is not a post on how to get around DRM or any type of illegal stuff.
I buy a game, requiring Steam or not, install it, enter the CD key and play it (even if I have to have the CD in while playing). Can't Steam authenticate my CD key (buy going online for that one time) actvating the game, and then doing nothing else. Didn't Steam start as a DRM only type of thing and then someone said "let's add this, and this, and this, and now it's the peice of garbage it is today?

The sales are good, don't get me wrong, but you don't need an "app' to find/download them. They should be listed on the website for anyone to find. You may like Steam, but I don't anymore, used to, but it's become too much. I just want DRM, that's all.

Remember "less is more".

To me Steam isn't just DRM, it is a whole experience, and platform, much like Xbox Live. You have a community, a store, a whole library of games to play, it is one of the best services as a PC gamer, and it has united the PC community like nothing ever has. The experience is always improving so there is plenty of hope for the future.

As for the bloatware statement, how is it any different from having a web browser, IM program(Skype, MSN), or email program, running in the background? At the moment Steam is using 38MB, while Chrome is using well over 150MB, and MSN 60MB with one chat window open.

Also i'm pretty any game that doesn't require Steam to run can still be launched from its executable.

[SaLaDiN]

Originally Posted by hdrisc

So you use everything Steam has to offer? Well I don't.
I need my CD key to be authenticated (if it's through Steam, that's OK) and that's it. All the other stuff is "bloatware" to me. I buy a game to play that game. Not to have "news" pop up when I close a game. Steam pops up when I want to uninstall a game. Steam downloading what it thinks I want. The "community" and "achivements" are useless. If I wanted all of that I would have bought an XBOX and I'm a PC gamer not a console gamer.
There is a difference Steam.

Oh my god, you can turn off friends, pop ups, ingame steam community, do not set up you community profile and play in offline mode. Problem solved.

[puffincat]

Originally Posted by derrman0426

You mean Half Life 2, right?

I don't remember the exact timing, but people who bought HL2 knew what they were getting into. I bought HL 1 on a CD in a cardboard box.

True story: I was so raged about Steam being buggy that I didn't buy HL2 until it was about 3 years old.

[Zephon]

Originally Posted by hdrisc

So you use everything Steam has to offer? Well I don't.
I need my CD key to be authenticated (if it's through Steam, that's OK) and that's it. All the other stuff is "bloatware" to me. I buy a game to play that game. Not to have "news" pop up when I close a game. Steam pops up when I want to uninstall a game. Steam downloading what it thinks I want. The "community" and "achivements" are useless. If I wanted all of that I would have bought an XBOX and I'm a PC gamer not a console gamer.
There is a difference Steam.

The easy solution would be to purchase games that do not require Steam from other DD sites or retail stores.

That way you dont have to deal with the Steam client and we get one less of these threads.

You may not want the community features Steam offeres but a good many of Steam users do.

there IS a difference.

[MADDOGGE]

Steam started life as a means of digitally delivering content and to provide for automatic updates for the original Counter Strike I believe because of issues with people playing with different versions. When no one else would provide this service Valve wanted, they created it themselves. It hasn't really changed in purpose since it's creation other than adding additional services.

Steam is absolutely necessary for the vast majority of games Steam sells. Yes, it also serves as a form of DRM. If you don't want Steam , buy elsewhere and avoid SteamWorks games all together as they absolutely require Steam to run.

This is the same type decision that someone has to make when they refuse to buy games for example from Ubi-soft because of their online all the time DRM. One either wants the game or they don't. Drm while annoying isn't going to keep me from buying a game I really want to play. I just may wait til it's $5 or less to mitigate the hassles of a particular DRM such as Ubi's in my case.

[Nielk1]

Some Steam games do not use Steam for anything more than launching. Other use it for anything from DRM to full integration with SteamWorks API. Those games that use Steam only for launching, I have found, can be started manually by running the EXE directly from their install folder.

Personally, I like it when games use the SteamWorks API, it always allows nice little features.

[hdrisc]

Originally Posted by Nielk1

Personally, I like it when games use the SteamWorks API, it always allows nice little features.

"Features" that I don't want. Steam doesn't need to be running in the background. I chose "offline" mode. Disabled everything else. Right clicked on the Steam icon and clicked exit. Started my game, and guess what? Steam had to start up.
The game is activated, I paid for it, it's updated, why can't I play it? What does Steam need to do with the game every time it's started? Nothing! Even though all the options in Steam are disabled, the "news" still pops up. When I go into Control Panel to uninstall a game, Steam still bothers me about game files. Now you'll say "Oh, but Steam makes so and so easier", it wasn't diificult in the first place.

[Trent_Robertson]

Originally Posted by hdrisc

"Features" that I don't want. Steam doesn't need to be running in the background. I chose "offline" mode. Disabled everything else. Right clicked on the Steam icon and clicked exit. Started my game, and guess what? Steam had to start up.
The game is activated, I paid for it, it's updated, why can't I play it? What does Steam need to do with the game every time it's started? Nothing! Even though all the options in Steam are disabled, the "news" still pops up. When I go into Control Panel to uninstall a game, Steam still bothers me about game files. Now you'll say "Oh, but Steam makes so and so easier", it wasn't diificult in the first place.

Then I think you should stop whining, and start buying your games through Amazon or someplace else instead of Steam.

Also, you should know that most of the shortcuts your are launching are steam://rungameid/##### protocol. So that's why it has to start Steam when you play it.

[kyrillbosch]

If you even buy games there they need to be played trough steam. Since allot of people now got problems getting on the steam client people can't play there bought games. It's utterly bull♥♥♥♥.

[Silicon Vampire]

Originally Posted by kyrillbosch

If you even buy games there they need to be played trough steam. Since allot of people now got problems getting on the steam client people can't play there bought games. It's utterly bull♥♥♥♥.

Funny, the stats pages tell a different story...

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/