Questions about Steam

[tpugmire]

So I've been looking into purchasing a few games from steam and I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions?

1.  Aside from convenience, is there any real benefits from using Steam over just buying a disc?

2.  Does Steam support their own online multiplayer, or is it dependent on another system? (The closure of gamespy still bothers me.)

Any opinions or other info about Steam would be great.

[kamikazekeeg]

So I've been looking into purchasing a few games from steam and I was wondering if anyone could answer a few questions?

1.  Aside from convenience, is there any real benefits from using Steam over just buying a disc?

2.  Does Steam support their own online multiplayer, or is it dependent on another system? (The closure of gamefly still bothers me.)

Any opinions or other info about Steam would be great.

1. Mostly just convenience really.  That and Steam sales cause there are major sales multiple times a year along with others strewn in there.  There's always a big sale going on for something.

2.  Steam does work with a lot of games using their own service, usually for things like matchmaking or connecting with other players in the games that don't have dedicated servers, such as Dark Souls 2, or the games will just use whatever service they have to connect to the dedicated servers such as playing Battlefield Bad Company 1 or 2.  It's an overall mixed bag when it comes to this as others will utilize their own connections for finding servers, but also supplement it with using Steams VAC for banning and hack support.

I use Steam all the time, I have a ton of games on there I've bought through sales or out of convenience, though I'm going back to more physical stuff for new releases for collection purposes.

[badATchaos]

Not sure if I understand the second part.

Valve, being the developer of Steam does provide some dedicated servers for the own games, but it's not they're responsibility to provide servers for all games on Steam. That's up to the developer and publisher of the game, not Valve. Most games rely on dedicated servers hosted by gamers and developers alike.

There is some Steam integration that the developers can take advantage of if they choose to; such as Friends, Workshop, and Matchmaking. Since a lot of games use dedicated servers, matchmaking isn't used that often. Now-a-days most multiplayer games do take advantage of Steam Friends, so you shouldn't have a hard time finding your buddies.

[tpugmire]

That's pretty much what I was asking. I just didn't know if they had a substitute of their own for gamespy or other services like it. I've done some more research into the individual games I was looking at, and most of them actually mention that there won't be multiplayer after a certain date due to the gamespy shutdown.

[foxhack]

Some games have Gamespy alternatives via third party software.

Seriously, Gamespy always blew. I never understood why so many people used it.

[tpugmire]

The thing is, some of the games I was considering, I already own discs of. I was just wondering if it would make it easier (or possible in some cases, since everything I'd buy is really old) to play multiplayer, or any other great benefits. It's looking like I'll just stick with the discs, since I don't see any point besides convenience.

[foxhack]

The thing is, some of the games I was considering, I already own discs of. I was just wondering if it would make it easier (or possible in some cases, since everything I'd buy is really old) to play multiplayer, or any other great benefits. It's looking like I'll just stick with the discs, since I don't see any point besides convenience.

I've been buying games that I own physical copies of when they go on sale.

And sometimes the Steam versions have other added benefits... like free updates that fix bugs. The older Civilization games are getting rid of GameSpy in the future, for example. It's up to you to decide whether or not to grab the games on Steam if you already have them on disc.

[kamikazekeeg]

Basically if you buy new games, just buy the disc so that you have something for the collection and mostly just go with Steam for the sales.  It's great for getting really good deals on things you wouldn't normally buy at the higher prices or if you are just looking for a sale since physical copy deals tend to take a lot longer to happen.

[MJMaranan]

If you do buy with some regard to your VGCollect collection, buy the games that are digital-only.  Most of the games today that do have physical releases for the PC will have the Steam or Origin key for you to redeem anyway.