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Free Cake! It's true, I swear.
05-13-2010, 10:49 AM
I'm not sure how many of the regulars have not heard about this. But I'm just trying to spread the joy.
Sorry if what follows comes across as a bit biased, but I honestly feel that this is one of the best things to happen to mac gaming in quite some time.
So without further ado:
Steam now has a mac client (direct link to .dmg)
And they are giving away Portal, for Free (as in beer). Offer good until the 24th.
If you already have a steam account, you probably already know. And if you don't this is very good reason to be sucked in.
And the coolest thing (at least in my opinion): If you own a copy of a game on the pc, and they are making it available on the mac, you get it on the mac. No extra charge.
Obviously not all games are going to be ported, but anything that is running on the source engine (portal, team fortress 2, half life 2, etc) is already ported or in the process of being done.
A word of warning though. They have sales most weekends that make it very hard not to separate money from wallet. (right now torchlight is $10, it will probably stay this way until sunday.)
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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Can you just get the game, or does the whole network/mmo/marketing thing have to be installed with it?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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That's more an aspect of Steam, if I understand what you're asking about, Bob. Games from Valve use steam to update their code, so when you launch a game, it will launch Steam first to download any updates. The recent stuff about Portal 2 and the updates to the original Portal occurred much in the same way that a security patch might occur for Windows. You just don't get a say in whether or not you can download it in order to play the game (unlike the Windows updates).
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com
"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
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ya, updates are forced. But I have yet to run into a problem with it.
You can run the client when you are offline.
The mmo/social network thing is entirely optional (don't enter anyones name as a friend and you don't get bothered by who is playing what)
As for the marketing aspect, the worst part is maybe once every week or two I get a window that pops up when I start up steam pimping the newest sales/upcoming releases. 1 click to close.
I don't view these downsides as anywhere near bad enough to offset the benefits (great games for cheap, no disks to scratch/lose, saved games across computers, etc)
you don't even need to associate any personal info with your account if you never plan on buying anything (well aside from an email address).
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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Mm. And I can always use a SpamGourmet disposable address for that. I might just do this, then. Thanks.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Bob, ordinarily I'd be with you on that, but I really can't recommend a disposable email with a Steam account. In ... almost 4? years of being on Steam, I have yet to receive any spam from them -- or for that matter, due to them.
However, I've had to recover my password several times, and you quite simply can't do that without access to your email account.
Basically, Steam ties the games you buy to your account, and your account is defined by your username and password. Lose either and you have to fall back on your email address, and if you don't have that, you're hosed -- and out the $$$ you've spent on the games.
They don't share your email and they don't spam you. Valve is playing it legit.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Ya, I'll second useing an actual email address for this. All the email I have gotten from steam falls into 3 categories:
1) welcome message (one singular mail)
2) gift notifications (when my friends buy me something)
3) recipts (when I buy something)
if you have a gmail address google supports postfix pluss addressing, so "username+steam@gmail.com" and it makes it dirt simple to filter things and figure out who sold/rented your email address.
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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I'll third that, I have had no problems from Steam whatsoever. No spam, they don't take advantage, etc.
(I only have one minor annoyance about Steam - I downloaded Mass Effect 2 from steam. And there's an interesting difference between that and ME1. Since ME1 I bought the disk - I can play that anytime, even when I'm not online. With ME2, I HAVE to be online because Steam has to connect and verify before the game will start. 99.9% of the time, having a net connection is not an issue for me. (Especially for MMOs like Champions Online and Star Trek Online that I got through Steam). But it feels "odd" to have to be online for a game that itself is not an online game. YMMV. )
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The only issue I have with steam is they can take your stuff away. At anytime. It gives me some small sense of injustice.
That and I don't really buy much, so I haven't really had reason to branch out.
---
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
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Re: taking stuff away, this is true of any of the modern content delivery services. While I can't say I *like* the concept, I rest comfortably knowing that Steam is large enough that it's both unlikely to happen *and* punishable by a class-action suit, assuming they were pikers enough to take away the game but not restore the funds.
--sofaspud
--"Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Hm. I'll look into it then, perhaps.
Any experience with pushing steam through Linux?
---
The Master said: "It is all in vain! I have never yet seen a man who can perceive his own faults and bring the charge home against himself."
>Analects: Book V, Chaper XXVI
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I have no idea about emulation via wine/other software.
I would suggest starting here:
http://developer.valvesof...m/wiki/Steam_under_Linux
They have said that they are working on an official client, and given the hints found in the mac client people believe an official announcement should arrive shortly.
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
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I would expect so, given that modern Macintosh OS is built off of Debian (hence why a hacked version of OS X can run on a PC).
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In re: permanency of Spamgourmet addresses -- I can make the address permanent for a single trusted sender, and I can reset the address after it "runs out" whenever I want to however many emails I want. And Spamgourmet forwards messages to my regular email account transparently. So... not an issue.
However... I tried signing up, and I just got annoyed after fifteen minutes of filling out forms and whatnot. I don't want the game that badly, to go through all that irritation.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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huh, sorry for the irritation then.
I honestly don't remember them asking for more than name/password/email
-Terry
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"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
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Likewise. Fifteen minutes? Are you sure you didn't stumble onto some evil pirate duplicate site?
--Sam
"The device has been modified."
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Thirded.
For me the process was to download and install the client ( www.steampowered.com, big green Install Now button on the right), provide username and password, and validate same by checking my email.
Pfft. Done.
--sofaspud
-- "Listening to your kid is the audio equivalent of a Salvador Dali painting, Spud." --OpMegs
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Okay, then, I wonder what I did wrong.
I'll try again later tonight, after the line of thunderstorms with the lightning and the hail and the tornadoes passes.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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this link should work:
http://store.steampowered.com/join/
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy
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