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Zitat:
Before you read this long post, which may bore the pants off of some of you, depending on whether or not you're into CS, I suggest you go to the following sites and see some of what's happening for yourselves:
- http://www.caleague.com
- http://www.counter-strike.net
- http://www.steampowered.com
Ever since I heard about steam, I have thought it was a bad idea. The fact that the current wonid system is working without problems, just as efficiently as ever, makes me ask the question: Why Steam? The real question from Valve's perspective is: Why not? Steam is nothing more than potential advertisement software, made mandatory for all players of valve games in order to make more money.
The steam website, as any company/business website, has all the right answers for your important questions. The most commonly asked question, of course, "What is Steam?"
Steam is Valve's new way of getting games into your hands ASAP. Games like Half-Life, Counter-Strike, and Counter-Strike Condition Zero are all being made available through Steam. (http://www.steampowered.com)
Wow! A system that's made to get games into my hands as soon as possible. Titles like Counter-Strike! Hey wait a minute... I already have Counter-Strike, and have had it for some time. In fact, it's been working like a charm since the day I got it. So what is Steam really? Advertising.
But you're saying, valve would never do that to it's loyal customers. Guess again. It shouldn't be any amazing news to you that counter-strike.net has been affiliated with gamespy for the past few months. Gamespy (a.k.a. Fileplanet), for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a "gaming" site, dedicated to bringing you the newest and hottest game downloads onto your computer ASAP! For a price, of course. The only other option is waiting for 45 minutes to start a download on a file that is exclusively located on FilePlanet. Of course, valve and counter-strike have ties with gamespy : cs gamespy.
Now unless you've put the pieces together already, you're probably wondering, "How are steam and gamespy connected?". Simple. Fileplanet is slowly gaining more and more files for their site exclusively. This means control on their part, allowing them to charge money for a gamespy membership to get the files you want without the hassle of a lifetime. What is Steam? A central means of controlling any and all content/updates/etc. you receive for any valve game ever, from the date of its official release. If they have exclusive access to the 1.6 patch, and all other future patches (which they obviously do, as valve has control of CS and Steam), what would stop them from simply putting up ads and making users wait to download the files they need? Will the user be able to get the content they need elsewhere? No, of course not, it's much easier to get it from one source, right?
Steam would have no problem doing this, and given some of the information from their FAQ and Privacy Policy, it would seem that this is almost entirely their plan: business provider? user info.
I don't know about you, but if I was trying to run a successful business, I wouldn't waste time and money on providing content to a program that's simply built to get players the games/updates/content they need as soon as possible. Not unless I could make a profit. If it is merely bandwidth Steam is after, why not simply purchase it directly, rather than look for businesses to provide that service for them? This takes us back to control. Imagine yourself running a business, and you have the opportunity to have your ads on literally hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of computers? If Steam has complete control of updates/patches to games as widely played as Counter-Strike, what's to stop them from going even a step further, putting ads and waiting times all over the place, except for users willing to pay for "download priority" and an "ad-free Steam"? Am I making sense so far?
Then of course, the 1.6 patch. Ah yes, by far the worst possible thing to happen to Counter-Strike since... well... OGL. Though there is some argument over the matter, just simply taking a look at how many cash tournaments and competitions there are for Counter-Strike 1.5 reflects a well adjusted, balanced, and excellent game. 1.6 takes that game, and rapes it. Over and over. If any of you have not yet experienced the joys and wonder of 1.6, I highly recommend you try it, just for a laugh. Without going off onto too much of a tangent, let me just say that all changes to the game are a waste of a good game. The new guns are worthless, the riot shield is laughable, and the newly modified maps are just there to "look prettier". But then again, if valve simply introduced Steam without creating something equally as newsbreaking to simply... keep Steam out of the big picture for everyone, you'd think everyone would probably question valve's intentions. "Give them their patch, and take control" is essentially what it is boiling down to.
But it would seem that internet control of Counter-Strike is not nearly enough for Steam. What about LAN events such as the CPL, World Cyber Games, or other smaller but still equally profitable tournaments? Don't worry, Steam has this one covered too. That's right, no more LAN tournaments unless there is an internet connection available in order to give Steam the control once again. Do you get your content? Are you allowed to play Counter-Strike? Don't worry about that, let Steam do that thinking for you! I realize I sound a bit cynical, but companies in general are after one thing: profit. Will valve really profit by creating this software, paying for all the bandwidth necessary, and continue to keep everything up to date without so much as putting up an ad? It doesn't take a whole lot of thought to figure this one out...
Steam is going to take over, and take control in order to take advantage of a good time/situation where gaming is reaching a new level. A new level of potential profit, that is. All I have to say is, I desperately hope that these assumptions are all false, and that Steam and 1.6 will truly end up benefiting the gaming and Counter-Strike community. Otherwise, things might never be the same.
I thank you if you've managed to read through this whole thing. Please give me your thoughts/feedback/etc. on the forums, or if you would even like to disprove some of the things I've said with some hearty evidence (I do enjoy a good debate). Thanks.
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