Man, steams user base has more than tripled since I started using it... and I thought I came in a bit late.
Using it in 2004 was like a dream. It was already incredible to have all my valve games in one place that I can redownload whenever (overnight slowly on DSL) without having any discs and it just worked. Didn’t have to insert a disc just to play the installed game via activation, didn’t have to clone the disc and mount the iso to pretend the same. It just worked and has just worked ever since.
I was also using it then and most people hated it at the time. People generally saw it as useless DRM they had to install to play the games they had already paid for. The biggest complaint was needing to install it and register Counter-Strike to get the 1.6 update.
This gif comes to mind:
many youngns here are missing this bit of context.
it was also very prone to endless issues at the time.
Absolutely it was. It’s definitely had its growing pains, but I was in a generally advantageous place where most of the issues hadn’t caused problems for me. In this case, I was sorta golden path user.
I joined Steam when I bought Portal on disk from a store and couldn't play it without signing up for Steam and installing Steam just to play my game.
And looking for some good low latency servers to play (CS at the time for me) before even opening the game....only to have to choose 150-200 ping ones with the fun mods I wanted to play and be booted from them from for having high ping 🤣
Shit Steam has gone up almost 30x since I started using it and even I feel like I was late to the party.
The fuck happened in 2006
You don't remember the year of the rapture? Thankfully we all got sent back when God got sick of all of us being there at the same time. It was crowded and bonkers.
Not enough data for that part for some reason ig; only one data point
Everyone uninstalled Steam because the PS Triple was coming out
Steam: More like steamy pile of shit
Oh wow, it's Chad Warden.
I am an avid steam user today, but I'm still bitter about valve requiring you to connect to steam back when Half Life 2 came out to "decrypt" the install from CD. I bought it launch day and couldn't actually play it for 2 days because steam was essentially DDOS'd
I remember when they shut down the WON servers and forced me to migrate to steam. I could have had a 4 or 5 digit steam account number if not for resisting the migration.
R.I.P. counter strike 1.5.
To be fair, Steam was terrible on launch. IIRC the friend system didn't work at all for months.
You'll still have the email as username which newer users don't have.
Damn, I've been on steam for over 20 years....and I thought maybe like 15 tops. Now I feel old 😑
Wish steam would have a way to play offline like galaxy gaming does. Doesn't have to be all like on gog but just would be nice. I would love to have USB keys with games on them.
You kinda can? You can register your USB as a storage and use steams offline mode. You just need internet once to log in
Be careful if you ever do reconnect to the internet. I had games stop working after a patch doenloaded because you have to start it at least once for the patch to finish or something.
I'm doing my part
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