News Update On Steampowered.com
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Anime Encyclopedia Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1111Members, Constellation
Anime Encyclopedia Join Date: 2002-08-08 Member: 1111Members, Constellation
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<div class="IPBDescription">Disturbing PR.....</div> <!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->STEAM NEWS
LATEST STEAM NEWS
Status Update; New Installers to be Released Tomorrow
September 15, 2003, 5:18 pm · Greg Coomer
Well, the release process last week and over the weekend was pretty rocky. The community managed to get 500,000 accounts created and are currently seeing about 15,000 people playing Counter-Strike 1.6 at any given time. We know that the conversion process has been anything but smooth for many of our users. We're going to get this fixed. We've done our best to support the Half-Life community over the past 5 years, and we're still committed to doing whatever it takes to make the community happy. We've listened to the response, and we'll be repairing the problems with Steam until it performs the way we all want it to.
Tomorrow we will release new installers which include the cache files for all of the games available via Steam (Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, the dedicated server, etc). If you haven't already done so, please use the installer that includes Counter-Strike and Half-Life.
Here's what's going on at Steam HQ:
- We ran into some pretty serious bandwidth and server limitations after the release last week, which has caused several other problems like long wait times and UI unresponsiveness. The load is starting to die down now and we're getting more content servers lined up, so these problems are becoming less frequent. As more people begin using the new installers which include the game caches, their experience using Steam will improve greatly. If you're having problems connecting to Steam or launching Counter-Strike, please download the latest version of the installer and give it a try.
- Some other Steam problems -- "JIT" error messages, expired ticket errors, etc -- will be fixed with a Steam update this week.
Other stuff:
- Counter-Strike 1.5 is still available, and will be for a couple of weeks. After we're confident that the Steam authentication servers are functioning as they should (and not before), we'll be turning off the WON servers and migrating everyone over to the new system.
- There have been some reports of the Conversion Wizard failing during account creation. If this happens for you, please try downloading and installing the most recent version of the Steam client from one of the mirrors listed on this site.
- We're preparing a new installer on CD for cyber-cafe owners. Contact biz@steampowered.com if you're interested in receiving this.
- We've heard from several people who are having trouble getting their MODs working with Steam. We've updated our FAQ with new information about this. Check it out and then email us if you're still having trouble.
Feel free to get in touch with us you're having difficulty, or for whatever reason. Thanks for hanging in there with us through these first few days.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now I've pretty much gotten past the 'Steam is the devil' stage, but this post still annoys me on a PR level.
Just the whole... "CS is our only game and we'll take down WON when the CS players are happy" vibe I'm getting from this post... Like... hell, I know they're going down. I got no problem with that. But the way it has been written just screams "We don't give a damn."
This makes for a rather large Public Relations s***storm...
Anyone elses thoughts on the subject? Or perhaps I'm interpreting it the wrong way.... I just didn't think it was the correct.... 'PR' move to appeal to the fans.
LATEST STEAM NEWS
Status Update; New Installers to be Released Tomorrow
September 15, 2003, 5:18 pm · Greg Coomer
Well, the release process last week and over the weekend was pretty rocky. The community managed to get 500,000 accounts created and are currently seeing about 15,000 people playing Counter-Strike 1.6 at any given time. We know that the conversion process has been anything but smooth for many of our users. We're going to get this fixed. We've done our best to support the Half-Life community over the past 5 years, and we're still committed to doing whatever it takes to make the community happy. We've listened to the response, and we'll be repairing the problems with Steam until it performs the way we all want it to.
Tomorrow we will release new installers which include the cache files for all of the games available via Steam (Day of Defeat, Team Fortress Classic, the dedicated server, etc). If you haven't already done so, please use the installer that includes Counter-Strike and Half-Life.
Here's what's going on at Steam HQ:
- We ran into some pretty serious bandwidth and server limitations after the release last week, which has caused several other problems like long wait times and UI unresponsiveness. The load is starting to die down now and we're getting more content servers lined up, so these problems are becoming less frequent. As more people begin using the new installers which include the game caches, their experience using Steam will improve greatly. If you're having problems connecting to Steam or launching Counter-Strike, please download the latest version of the installer and give it a try.
- Some other Steam problems -- "JIT" error messages, expired ticket errors, etc -- will be fixed with a Steam update this week.
Other stuff:
- Counter-Strike 1.5 is still available, and will be for a couple of weeks. After we're confident that the Steam authentication servers are functioning as they should (and not before), we'll be turning off the WON servers and migrating everyone over to the new system.
- There have been some reports of the Conversion Wizard failing during account creation. If this happens for you, please try downloading and installing the most recent version of the Steam client from one of the mirrors listed on this site.
- We're preparing a new installer on CD for cyber-cafe owners. Contact biz@steampowered.com if you're interested in receiving this.
- We've heard from several people who are having trouble getting their MODs working with Steam. We've updated our FAQ with new information about this. Check it out and then email us if you're still having trouble.
Feel free to get in touch with us you're having difficulty, or for whatever reason. Thanks for hanging in there with us through these first few days.
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now I've pretty much gotten past the 'Steam is the devil' stage, but this post still annoys me on a PR level.
Just the whole... "CS is our only game and we'll take down WON when the CS players are happy" vibe I'm getting from this post... Like... hell, I know they're going down. I got no problem with that. But the way it has been written just screams "We don't give a damn."
This makes for a rather large Public Relations s***storm...
Anyone elses thoughts on the subject? Or perhaps I'm interpreting it the wrong way.... I just didn't think it was the correct.... 'PR' move to appeal to the fans.
Comments
And yes it seems Valve think the only mod in existance for HL is CS, despite now being the owners(?) of DoD now.....oh wellseeing as 75% of the players on HL are cs players, who cares about the other 25%? That's what I think valve is thinking at the moment :/ But that's just me.
Oh and believe it or not there was an error in checkers that caused a fatal crash. This is checkers!!! If valve cannot get a working version of that who can expect them to have a working HL2? (thinking here from a "public" perspective - "OMG VALVE CANT MAKE CHECKERS WORK OMG THEY SUCK")
It is good however that valve is getting more content servers. About time.
How many games have Valve created, fully, by themselves: 1
Track record of awesome games versus crappy games: 1/0
How many years has Valve been riding the success of other mods: 4-5
They have provided support for Half-life, the 'official' mods and 'non-official' mods for the full length of Half-life's life. There is no debating it.
HOWEVER, why have they strayed from the 'If it's not broke, don't fix it' strategy? I simply cannot answer this question... There does not seem to be any good solid reasoning to it. I'm starting to develop this.. theory.. that Valve may actually hold the opinions of CS players in a much higher regard than any other mod. Well.. that pretty much goes without saying.. there are 20 trillion CS players...
But I don't play Half-life for Counter-strike. I play it for stuff like Natural Selection. I don't play DoD anymore, not because Valve acquired it, but because it stopped being fun.
*rubs back of head*
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->"we're still committed to doing whatever it takes to make the community happy"<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Right now on Planethalflife.com there is a poll running. Out of 16696 people who have answered
16% Like it
57% Hate it
28% Have no clue what it is or haven't tried it
Of course this is just 1 poll, on 1 website. But still... It gives a fairly rough estimation of the public opinion on Steam.
Hypothetically, using Beast's statistics of 75% CS players, 25% Non-CS Players. Only 16% of both groups are running Steam properly AND are enjoying it at this point in time.
Valve have a very long way to go to start making Steam appeal to the larger community.
Of course that is just a bunch of numbers pulled out of thin air really... It's just a good way of getting a very very very rough look at the public perception.
That said, even after my constant bitching and carrying on, I still know Valve will fix this. It will all calm down and life will go on, etc, etc. I just hope it's with a slightly less... 'restrictive' version of Steam.
As gamers we've benefitted quite a bit from Valve's willingness to push the envelope, and a lot of that pushing has come in forms that cost absolutely nothing to people who already own Half-Life. Remember when voice comm first arrived? I know from my perspective it changed the entire face of online gaming - the first night it was out, I played the most coordinated and satisfying games of CS I had ever played. And I had to pay NOTHING for what was essentially an entirely new game.
Well, Steam is another way Valve is trying to push the envelope - it's just in an even more radical direction than anything they've done with Half-Life so far, and it's hitting a lot of snags along the way as a result. As I've said before, if you don't like Steam, don't pay for it.
the won system seems to be fine, but valve wanted to change it, and we can't do much to stop it
might as well go along with it for as long as possible
if they truly mess up then they should notice it and try and fix it.
oh well
Yeah... honestly though, I have to wonder about the CS population... I've seen a TON of people drop off due to being 56k'ers or just giving up on Steam. Maybe they'll come back when all the issues have been worked out? ^^