It scares me a little to say thins, but it's amazing when a software company actually does what they say they're going to do. As usual, good on Vavle for delivering ;)

back in the day, when I was playing CS 1.5 and 1.6 was in beta via STEAM and valve was testing out steam etc, I NOT ONCE said that steam was a bad idea or was a horrible platform... why? because its an amazing platform!

I can remember everybody in 1.6 servers talking about how they hated steam this, hated valve that, yet I would always be like "you people are morons, steam is going to revolutionize the online gaming community"

Of course it hasn't really "Revolutionized" the gaming community, it is getting really freaking close.

I'm just glad Valve had the balls of steel and were able to truck on through all the crap they were getting the first few years, and in a few more years, it will only be more polished.

Thanks Valve / STEAM for sticking in there!

*Bows* Valve are gods *Bows*

The TF2 update then Steamworks SDK ? they are in really good shape. Cheers VALVe....

Originally Posted by www.steampowered.com/steamworks

Steamworks offers a solution for integrated in-game voice communication, including technology to connect peers directly across NAT devices. This provides a dependable framework for players to communicate.

Peer to peer is there, it's just advertised...
Lots of interesting stuff to read, but you have to contact them to be able to download the SDK. (I guess a NDA might be involved)

https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/running_on_steam Steam stuff explined and detailed (inner workings and developer/Valve relation)
https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

Originally Posted by zero0ne
back in the day, when I was playing CS 1.5 and 1.6 was in beta via STEAM and valve was testing out steam etc, I NOT ONCE said that steam was a bad idea or was a horrible platform... why? because its an amazing platform!

I can remember everybody in 1.6 servers talking about how they hated steam this, hated valve that, yet I would always be like "you people are morons, steam is going to revolutionize the online gaming community"

Of course it hasn't really "Revolutionized" the gaming community, it is getting really freaking close.

I'm just glad Valve had the balls of steel and were able to truck on through all the crap they were getting the first few years, and in a few more years, it will only be more polished.

Thanks Valve / STEAM for sticking in there!

Steam pretty much killed off my cs community, they should have made the change from cs1.5 to 1.6 mandatory completely fragmented the communities.

its had its ups and downs but they seem to be doing well with it now. I do find it easier than using cds/dvds etc.. lets hope they don't go down the pay to play route some companies have.

Originally Posted by phat-ant
Steam pretty much killed off my cs community, they should have made the change from cs1.5 to 1.6 mandatory completely fragmented the communities.

its had its ups and downs but they seem to be doing well with it now. I do find it easier than using cds/dvds etc.. lets hope they don't go down the pay to play route some companies have.

well with steam you dont get infected with copy protection, steam will allow you to play your own games on any computer with a steam client and with your ownb steam account, so it wont force you to ONLY use ONE computer, this is also one of the points of steam being teh best, CS 1.5 to 1.6 wasnt realy madatory also, they didnt shutdown the old 1.5 servers and steam WAS realy needed, as the 1.5 master servers sucked so bad they went down half the time, valve wont go pay per play route, if you notice that they relese new updates and gameplay types, heck TF2 goldrush update could have been a NEW chapter, and chould have costed to and its 100% free update for TF2 owners now, steam have had its downs but atm it works way better than any other, dont forget the EAs Link thingy that was should i say "crap" if you compare it to steam

my point is can people find anything that is better than steam?
my answer is "NO!" you wont find anything that allows you to play your own games on vaction in another country :P

my 100 cents :D

The more I hear about Steam, the more the concept intrigues me. I will have to wait until I make my next move though. No highspeed here...I'm still on dial-up. :(

Wow dial up. Haven't had that since 1999.

I would make some joke about how the 90's want their technology back but I just feel too damn sorry for you.

Originally Posted by LordPyrinc
The more I hear about Steam, the more the concept intrigues me. I will have to wait until I make my next move though. No highspeed here...I'm still on dial-up. :(

Rejoice...the day you'll get broadband everything will be so shiny !! You won't have to live in every beta site, and you will enter straight into te Web 2.0 ! [/rubbish talk]
Steam is the way to go. If a game I want is on Steam or retail (for approx the same price) I'll take Steam without doubt.
My only concern is what type of info is actually collected by it...it is supposed to collect quite a bit.

I think the olive color scheme might be putting people off a bit.
I've found (and am using) a neat skin to counter that.

I wonder how many more games we'll start seeing show up on Steam now .. will be interesting to watch