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[Holammer]

I'm not sure if "more modern" is how I'd describe a giant ass pop-up taking one third of the available surface in the middle of the screen.

The Steam achievement system needs to be overhauled tho. With a 1440p or 4k screen text is tiny and it's difficult to read in the bottom corner, plus if you have multiple games (like an idle/clicker) in the background, achievements may be displayed there instead of your active game.
Make it customizable so you can select where you want it, size and accompanying sound, or just turn it off.

Dramatization of me trying to see what achievement I got in Spongebob Squarepants: BfBB-R

 

[Joyful]

its pretty quick for me

i recommend going to settings>library and checking the low performance/bandwidth modes, this will speed up the library page.

also on the settings>interface has some options that will speed up loading

 

[Mercador]

It's the first one. That's why.

 

[-tetsuo-]

It takes like 20 seconds for steam to load for me. And lol@ the old way of installing games. Those days can go straight to hell and stay there.

 

[Kacho]

It takes like 20 seconds for steam to load for me. And lol@ the old way of installing games. Those days can go straight to hell and stay there.

Uhhh when did tetsuo return?

 

[marjo]

1. Easy to backup games;
2. You can play from external mídia;
3. Steam mapper allow you to use any controller;
4. Big Picture;
5. Easy to use mods;
6. Family share;
7. Fast and responsive UI;
8. Cards and itens you can trade or sell;
9. Good prices and deals;
10. The best gaming library.

This plus Steam in home streaming and Steam Works mod support. It's by far the best launcher on any platform.

 

[Vaelka]

I don't even really care.
I just want to buy my games and not have to use a billion clients.

Steam feels very simple tho it doesn't try to be '' sci-fi '' and overcomplicate things.
The Origin launcher for example looks like it's trying too hard to be '' sleek '' and feels like it belongs on a phone.

 

[Notabueno]

This is the biggest centralised, legal (although they have illegal EULAs) library of game. It has a few, tiny bit of useful functionalities.

You are right on the rest, but that's Valve, it's probably the worst video game company in terms of design wether it's ux, ui or hardware.

 

[CitizenZ]

No circus barkers, provide solid service where I can do what ever I want. I mean, no one else provides that kind of service. None.

 

[Brofist]

Slow? Better check your PC if Steam is slow

 

[LazyParrot]

You are right on the rest, but that's Valve, it's probably the worst video game company in terms of design wether it's ux, ui or hardware.

How can you say that with a straight face when their biggest competitor launched a store without a shopping cart and still hasn't added one over two years later?

 

[Fare thee well]

It's not really. It just has all my games over many years and a sizeably reliable monopoly. I don't like epic either. They both kind of suck. Do I wish some better looking, more optimized, and developer-supporting platform exists that lets me keep all my games? Hell yes, but I fully admit that I probably won't rebuy all my games for some client trying to just look better or be more altruistic.

But to answer your question of going back to physical merchandise? I'm all on board for that again. For reasons I've stated before, it supports local economy, removes bot-scalping, generally forces games to release less broken (at least it used to), and I always felt stores were much easier to deal with as middlemen if you aren't satisfied. There are more reasons.

 

[dorkimoe]

It has never been bloatware, a lot of these apps are pure bloat and advertisements for shit. Steam is minimal, its also extremely outdated at this point though

 

[ClosBSAS]

Why is steam NOT great, is the question. It has everything. Ppl that say egs is better or other clients are better cause steam has too much they don't use...bullshit. every single one of you has used steam functions, from taking screenshots to looking at ur friends activity, to family sharing.

Also, steam market...I've made so much money buying and reselling items. Fuck the steam haters. They probably want to see egs succeed and they are the ones pretending to care about the cut developers receive lmao.

 

[Mister Wolf]

It was the first successful PC game client.

 

[theclaw135]

Vendor lock in. Valve had everyone hook, line, and sinker, by selling AAA games that require Steam activation.

 

[IFireflyl]

Is the OP actually Tencent Tim?

Nah. If he were Rat-Faced Sweeney he would have blocked me by now.

 

[PhaseJump]

OP making entry level noob pebcak posts, feigning preferable nostalgia for the olden days which were somehow better, riddling off a problems about multiple launchers in specific games, the ugly UI, etc. ... Yet is somehow too stupid or naive to apply a skin to the steam UI or set the library as it's default tab and remove the grievances being complained about; A feature in a ton of applications that handle and launch your media for decades, including Steam?

I'm not buying it OP. You're baiting weak willed PCMR zealots into a platform war.

 

[Gamezone]

I'm not sure if "more modern" is how I'd describe a giant ass pop-up taking one third of the available surface in the middle of the screen.

It doesn't look like this at all when playing on a computer. That video must be a mobile screen with the original achievement pop-up. On a computer monitor it's about the same size as PSN and Xbox achievement notifications.

 

[Sentenza]

The Steam achievement system needs to be overhauled tho. With a 1440p or 4k screen text is tiny and it's difficult to read in the bottom corner,

Frankly the only change I'd want to see in the visualization of Steam achievements is that I'd like to be able to set them exactly as they look in "big screen mode" even when using the desktop mode.
It's a bit annoying that you can't have that visual style without relying on the Big Screen mode (which I hate) or using some weirdly specific custom controller setups.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Vendor lock in. Valve had everyone hook, line, and sinker, by selling AAA games that require Steam activation.

Back when they were the only actual digital store, yes. I think their only 'lock-in' examples are from back when the only alternative was physical copies.

 

[SoloKingRobert]

For those who don't like what steam looks like, you can use a skin like Air for Steam.
Now the library updates and such have disabled most of the skin features, but it still looks calmer/cleaner than the default.
It also gives you more options in the settings menu directly:

What is that? That's one ugly looking dated UI.

 

[Mabdia]

To me, the best thing about Steam is that they don't treat everyone as an 5 years old child. You can consume any kind of content you want.

Sometimes they censor somethings, other they don't. But to be honest, they treat gamers as adults most of the time. To me this is a big differential and make they better than the console makers. That's why i'm also really happy about Steam Deck and I really hope that it works for them

 

[Notabueno]

How can you say that with a straight face when their biggest competitor launched a store without a shopping cart and still hasn't added one over two years later?

Steam is horribly fucking designed, period. I don't give a shit that a pseudo-competitors misses a cart (granted that yes, they storefront is not great either).

 

[fermcr]

Steam isn't great... it's ok.
The problem is that they don't have much competition in the PC market.

 

[Ev1L AuRoN]

it is, it doesn't even need to be an argument since it's a measurable factual statement. I remember posting a video months ago where I compared their startup time and Steam even after the recent redesign that according to some made it "heavier" was by far the quickest of the bunch.



This is almost two years old at this point, but things didn't get better for the competition.

The startup time, how smooth it is to navigate, the memory footprint are all parameters where Steam is better than the ones mentioned, and this while still dwarfing all of them combined in terms of integrated features and functionality.
And while this is more subjective, I'd argue also while having a far prettier (and more practical in terms of actual use) UI.
Spoiler: EGS was unsurprisingly complete trash tier under any metric I checked.

But you know what's up. A lot of the people commenting here that Steam is "ugly" maybe want to imply that the Playstation Store is better.

• Epic is awful, slow, and it needs to reload every time you close and open the window;
• Origin is slow and unresponsive, I hate the layout;
• Battle.net is actually okay, is fast enough, its easy to move and backup games, BUT, it has the worst DRM, no offline gameplay, and just a bunch of games;
• Windows Store is tolerable because of the Game Pass, but I hate how I can't backup my games, no mods, unreliable downloads, problems with corruption etc;
• Ubi Connect, Rockstar Social are cancers that begs for Apocalypse.

 

[LazyParrot]

Steam is horribly fucking designed, period. I don't give a shit that a pseudo-competitors misses a cart (granted that yes, they storefront is not great either).

You can say it's horrible all day long, but there is no fucking way you can say it's "the worst" in terms of UI and UX when their competitor requires anyone buying more than one game to go through the entire checkout process multiple times just because the store missing a basic feature that has been standard in online stores since the 90s. There is absolutely nothing Steam does that even comes close to this in terms of bad design and sheer user hostility.

 

[-tetsuo-]

Uhhh when did tetsuo return?

 

[Sentenza]

Steam isn't great... it's ok.
The problem is that they don't have much competition in the PC market.

It's not like things are any better outside of the PC market.
Steam can comfortably squat and take a shit over the Playstation Store's head, for instance.
Who's there to beat them at their own game? NINTENDO?

 

[Rest]

Steam is a piece of shitty DRM, there's nothing great about it. The fact that it has been sold to the gaming community as some kind of beneficial anything is the saddest sham ever foisted on players. Direct installation and launching was and is better, but sadly will not come back any time soon.

 

[IFireflyl]

Steam is a piece of shitty DRM, there's nothing great about it. The fact that it has been sold to the gaming community as some kind of beneficial anything is the saddest sham ever foisted on players. Direct installation and launching was and is better, but sadly will not come back any time soon.

Show me on the doll where Gabe Newell touched you.

 

[Notabueno]

You can say it's horrible all day long, but there is no fucking way you can say it's "the worst" in terms of UI and UX when their competitor requires anyone buying more than one game to go through the entire checkout process multiple times just because the store missing a basic feature that has been standard in online stores since the 90s. There is absolutely nothing Steam does that even comes close to this in terms of bad design and sheer user hostility.

I can agree with the fact that other stores aren't that much better, difference is the scale: Steam is horrible platform compared to any other of that scale. The interface is quite ugly, they made step-backs with the new one, it's slow as fuck especially when you have lots of games, and not actually useful at all to manage games which is why I buy and hack whenever I can to get around the launcher.

They should do way better. But also generally Valve is terrible at design, from the Steam controller, to the Vive (HTC alone makes an better jobs with the Focus and Flow) and the Deck, those are horrendous and they just won't learn.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Steam is a piece of shitty DRM, there's nothing great about it. The fact that it has been sold to the gaming community as some kind of beneficial anything is the saddest sham ever foisted on players. Direct installation and launching was and is better, but sadly will not come back any time soon.

Heh, found the guy too young to have seen SecuROM and Starforce.

Sorry, but thinking that DRM would have not been a thing if it wasn't for Steam, is just so absurd it's funny. At least with Steam the "DRM" gives you something in return, like multiplayer matchmaking through centralized servers with friends lists, modding support, communities, streaming, etc. And the games that don't use any of it, work perfectly fine without Steam running or installed at all. Just because the DRM-free games aren't specifically advertised, doesn't mean they aren't there, or that there isn't a lot of them.

They should do way better. But also generally Valve is terrible at design, from the Steam controller, to the Vive (HTC alone makes an better jobs with the Focus and Flow) and the Deck, those are horrendous and they just won't learn.

No, there's really no accounting for taste. The UI design in Steam is in flux right now, but it's always been solid, and the only reason the new one is worse is because it's moving towards the "modern" UI styles (which is unfortunately inevitable thanks to the Deck). The Index is a great piece of design work. The Steam Controller only looks weird because it challenges the controller paradigm, and so does the Deck - they are both great as far as design goes. Valve doesn't need to "learn" from everyone else, much like Nintendo they'll be quite fine doing their own thing.

 

[Rest]

Sorry, but thinking that DRM would have not been a thing if it wasn't for Steam

Are you talking to me? When did I say anything resembling that?

DRM is bad. Steam is DRM. Steam is bad.

And the games that don't use any of it, work perfectly fine without Steam running or installed at all.

This is a lie. I can't play Skyrim on my computer without Steam. And I have to connect Steam to the internet every few months or get locked out of it, which means I can't play Skyrim, an offline only game, on a computer that doesn't connect to the internet.

Steam is DRM that makes my gaming experience worse. There is no excuse for the problems Steam causes. The "features" that you like about it are things that I have never used, will never use, don't want, and don't need. Where is the benefit to me for having this DRM required for games if I want to play them on my computer?

 

[Kagoshima_Luke]

I agree, everything you mentioned are the same reasons I don't like steam. The UI/UX is worse than origin, uplay,etc and it's bloated and slow, the only reason it is popular is because they got started first in digital for pc games and sort of locked people in leaving no choice for customers to buy a lot of games elsewhere.

Today I learned that someone in the world thinks that Origin’s UI/UX is better than Steam’s.

 

[crozier]

Convenience. Pretty much everything it does it does better than the competition.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

Are you talking to me? When did I say anything resembling that?

DRM is bad. Steam is DRM. Steam is bad.

Steam is not DRM, and not all DRM is bad. Restrictive DRM is bad. And the Steamworks DRM layer is DRM. Developers are not forced to use it. Quite the opposite, they are discouraged from using it, because DRM is easy to crack and adds nothing. Online features like leaderboards and modding are far better.

This is a lie. I can't play Skyrim on my computer without Steam. And I have to connect Steam to the internet every few months or get locked out of it, which means I can't play Skyrim, an offline only game, on a computer that doesn't connect to the internet.

Steam is DRM that makes my gaming experience worse. There is no excuse for the problems Steam causes. The "features" that you like about it are things that I have never used, will never use, don't want, and don't need. Where is the benefit to me for having this DRM required for games if I want to play them on my computer?

Conversely, I can play Dominions 5, a game only available through Steam, in online multiplayer, and using user-made maps distributed through Steamworks, completely without Steam. I can copy the game off to another drive, bring it to another PC, plug it in there, and play.

Steam is not DRM. Steamworks is not DRM. Steamworks is a toolkit. The decision to use Steamworks as DRM lies completely on the developers and publishers. If Steam were not available, some other means of DRM would have been used. That is what I meant. You said that "Steam is a piece of shitty DRM". Indeed, the DRM there is shitty. But Steam did not worsen the DRM problem, in fact it made it much more tolerable. At the height of the DRM Wars, before Steam, something like Denuvo could have been seen as mild. How do you like physical discs you can only install a game from a limited amount of times, huh?

 

[DGrayson]

Easier question is why ISNT steam so great tbh.

 

[Pejo]

Are you talking to me? When did I say anything resembling that?

DRM is bad. Steam is DRM. Steam is bad.



This is a lie. I can't play Skyrim on my computer without Steam. And I have to connect Steam to the internet every few months or get locked out of it, which means I can't play Skyrim, an offline only game, on a computer that doesn't connect to the internet.

Steam is DRM that makes my gaming experience worse. There is no excuse for the problems Steam causes. The "features" that you like about it are things that I have never used, will never use, don't want, and don't need. Where is the benefit to me for having this DRM required for games if I want to play them on my computer?

Even if it's the illusion of anti-pirate measures, DRM was necessary for the PC platform to start getting ports of popular console games and franchises. You can hate it all day (and I do too, for shit like Denuvo that affects performance and shits everything up), but it's ultimately the reason why we have big franchises on PC to begin with. Years after Steam, platforms like GoG opened up, but even then the bigger publishers just aren't willing to put a DRM free game out there because they perceive it as a loss of revenue.

I'm not sure what kind of Utopia you envision where we get day 1 AAA 3rd party release parity on PC with no DRM to prevent easy access to piracy, but I don't think it could exist.

 

[LazyParrot]

I can agree with the fact that other stores aren't that much better, difference is the scale: Steam is horrible platform compared to any other of that scale.

Not much better? None of them are better at all. 99% of the things Steam does the other stores do worse, or not at all. And what other platforms are there on PC that can compete with Steam in terms of scale?

The interface is quite ugly, they made step-backs with the new one, it's slow as fuck especially when you have lots of games, and not actually useful at all to manage games which is why I buy and hack whenever I can to get around the launcher.

I don't think the interface is ugly at all, but stuff like that is subjective, so I'll give you that. Steam definitely isn't slow, though. In the time it takes me to open Steam, find a game and launch it some of the other platforms haven't even finished loading, and that's with a collection of several hundred titles. Or is that too small to count as "lots of games" in your eyes?

Also, it's not like you need to start games via the launcher at all. Steam gives you the option to create normal Windows shortcuts for them, just like you would for any other game.

They should do way better. But also generally Valve is terrible at design, from the Steam controller, to the Vive (HTC alone makes an better jobs with the Focus and Flow) and the Deck, those are horrendous and they just won't learn.

What's wrong with those products? Weren't those all pretty well received? Do you just dislike the way they look?

 

[Notabueno]

No, there's really no accounting for taste. The UI design in Steam is in flux right now, but it's always been solid, and the only reason the new one is worse is because it's moving towards the "modern" UI styles (which is unfortunately inevitable thanks to the Deck). The Index is a great piece of design work. The Steam Controller only looks weird because it challenges the controller paradigm, and so does the Deck - they are both great as far as design goes. Valve doesn't need to "learn" from everyone else, much like Nintendo they'll be quite fine doing their own thing.

Indeed taste doesn't matter, but first let's differentiate industrial design and ergonomic aesthetic. In terms of industrial design the products are, well functional. In terms of ergonomic and aesthetic I don't need argue. You either know, work or have a minimum of culture on these topics on which I guarantee you there's no debate, or it is indeed pointless since ergonomic and aesthetic are objective, as long as you naturally, by training or practice you know how they work.

 

[Notabueno]

Not much better? None of them are better at all. 99% of the things Steam does the other stores do worse, or not at all. And what other platforms are there on PC that can compete with Steam in terms of scale?


I don't think the interface is ugly at all, but stuff like that is subjective, so I'll give you that. Steam definitely isn't slow, though. In the time it takes me to open Steam, find a game and launch it some of the other platforms haven't even finished loading, and that's with a collection of several hundred titles. Or is that too small to count as "lots of games" in your eyes?

Also, it's not like you need to start games via the launcher at all. Steam gives you the option to create normal Windows shortcuts for them, just like you would for any other game.


What's wrong with those products? Weren't those all pretty well received? Do you just dislike the way they look?

No other platform on terms of scale which puts the weight of responsibility on them. Otherwise Origin and Gog Galaxy are better, but that might be because I can't compare at scale since if have 10,000s something games on Steam (one of the reason why it's slow). And not there is not subjectivity in design and aesthetic, they're different from taste but that's a debate I don't want to get into.

And no you can't start a steam game without the launcher and shell starting, unless you crack the game. As for the product, they're disgusting in terms of ergonomics and aesthetic, the Steam controller was, the Vive pans are, the Vive and Pro are (the Index and Knuckle are okay), I'm waiting to test the flow but one thing is certain about the Deck: it's the most goddamn ugly thing I've ever seen, and no it's not subjective, you're either a designer or someone with a training or sensibility to it or not, because again in this case: there's no argument, they just don't seem to know what they're doing although I hear the ergonomic was okay.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

And no you can't start a steam game without the launcher and shell starting, unless you crack the game.

You... absolutely can? As mentioned, a good many games - most of them the same sort of games that are on GOG - are completely DRM-free on Steam, and do not require the client. And even games that do require the client, will launch the client quietly in the background if you launch them from a desktop shortcut or the tray icon's favorites/recent games drop-down.

As for the product, they're disgusting in terms of ergonomics and aesthetic, the Steam controller was, the Vive pans are, the Vive and Pro are (the Index and Knuckle are okay), I'm waiting to test the flow but one thing is certain about the Deck: it's the most goddamn ugly thing I've ever seen, and no it's not subjective, you're either a designer or someone with a training or sensibility to it or not, because again in this case: there's no argument, they just don't seem to know what they're doing although I hear the ergonomic was okay.

There is indeed no argument, there is no better way of fitting three distinct control groups on both sides of a controller that allows no space in the middle due to having, i.e., a screen. The thumb functions like a lever, it can reach in an arc, and the positional priority of the controls is expertly chosen. The thumbpads require the most space and full range of the thumb's movement, the sticks need vertical space above the surface and second-most movement range, buttons and d-pad require the least thumb movement range and the least space. Any controller configuration you can come up with for the Deck, will end up either even uglier, even bigger, or far less comfortable to actually use.

If you can't appreciate functional design and would rather just look at something rather than use it, that's on you.

 

[IFireflyl]

The issue with a lot of anti-Steam users in this thread is that they're comparing Steam to a make believe launcher/storefront that exists only inside their head. Does Steam have things that could be improved? Absolutely. But people need to be comparing Steam to other existing launchers/storefronts. When you compare Steam to every other launcher/storefront out there, there really isn't a comparison. It doesn't matter that Steam has been around longer. At the rate Epic Games Store is moving our grandchildren will be in their late 90s before they catch up to Steam's current feature-set.

Also, if your biggest complaint about Steam is the way that it looks, that already tells everyone that Steam is doing pretty great. As has already been stated, Epic Games Store doesn't even have a shopping cart. Now that's a facepalm if I've ever seen one.

 

[LazyParrot]

No other platform on terms of scale which puts the weight of responsibility on them. Otherwise Origin and Gog Galaxy are better, but that might be because I can't compare at scale since if have 10,000s something games on Steam (one of the reason why it's slow). And not there is not subjectivity in design and aesthetic, they're different from taste but that's a debate I don't want to get into.

And no you can't start a steam game without the launcher and shell starting, unless you crack the game. As for the product, they're disgusting in terms of ergonomics and aesthetic, the Steam controller was, the Vive pans are, the Vive and Pro are (the Index and Knuckle are okay), I'm waiting to test the flow but one thing is certain about the Deck: it's the most goddamn ugly thing I've ever seen, and no it's not subjective, you're either a designer or someone with a training or sensibility to it or not, because again in this case: there's no argument, they just don't seem to know what they're doing although I hear the ergonomic was okay.

You know, I'm beginning to think you just hate the concept of launchers in general.

What does it even matter if starting a game opens Steam in the background? Is having to wait 5 additional seconds the first time you launch a game for the day really such a tragedy? Is it killing you that Steam is idling in the background while you do other stuff? Do you need those extra 100 MB of free RAM that badly?

And it's not like that shit is even required by Valve. There are plenty of games on Steam that will launch just fine without the client running.

 

[noise36]

As someone with a large steam library, steam is not great, games are full RPP and a ripoff. I buy keys elsewhere and activate there. Dont mind running a bunch of different launchers depending on best prices.

 

[Keihart]

I am probably out of my element here, but man its ugly as sin, always looks like a store front rather than my library of games.

Its slow as shit to start.

You have to double load different storefront systems when you play certain games. Takes forever to start.

I honestly dont see the benefit of this vs the classical way of installing games on pc?

It's faster than every console storefront.
And in the PC space, the universal controller support makes every other store irrelevant in usefullness.
The steam controller support and big picture are so good, that whenever there is a problem the simplest solution it's launch the shit throught steam, it's kinda ridiculous.

There are several other cool features on steam, but controller support it's the number 1 for me.
Remember PC gaming before steam? i do, it was shit.

 

[sunnysideup]

I might be wrong but i doubt its faster to cold start a pc and launch a game on steam than it is to do the same PS5.

Mine certaintly is not.

And I have a pc that is faster than 99% of all pc acording to timespy.

 

[Sean Mirrsen]

I might be wrong but i doubt its faster to cold start a pc and launch a game on steam than it is to do the same PS5.

Mine certaintly is not.

And I have a pc that is faster than 99% of all pc acording to timespy.

Cold start the PC, probably not. But keeping your PC in full power-off isn't necessary most of the time, much like the PS5. Cold-starting Steam (i.e. from the client being fully closed and no services running), on my Win8 tablet with a 1.7GHz dual-core CPU, takes 9 seconds. This is from clicking the desktop shortcut to game loading. It doesn't open any windows, just shows a dialog for logging you in and starting the game. If the client is already running (and the game doesn't need updates), you get less than a second of delay.

I dunno, it seems plenty fast to me. And my PC is definitely not a powerful one, heh.

 

[darrylgorn]

The new data management system is pretty revolutionary.