# Why I won't use Steam ... again **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** video-games-e-games\ **Created:** [August 1, 2021, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782 "2021-08-01T18:25:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/41 "2021-08-03T17:26:42Z")
As an aside, GMG used to have their own game download client (Capsule). If Valve _didn’t_ allow for third party keys or otherwise made things hard, it’s likely that places like GMG would continue to run their own clients and distribute the games directly. Likewise for Impulse (Gamestop’s old client) and other bygone digital download stores. By tying all these games back to Steam, Valve managed to quash a lot of smaller independent clients because it was easier for everyone to just sell Steam keys than to all independently sell and host copies of the same title. Even larger companies like Electronic Arts (Origin; now selling again on Steam) and Ubisoft (Uplay; still active but they used to sell on Steam, now on Epic) never really got the foot in the digital distribution market they might have if not for Steam’s dominance. Much of that dominance came from making Steam the default client of digital titles and that included making all the games you bought elsewhere accessible through Steam. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/42 "2021-08-03T17:31:27Z")
> [@Babale](#): > > As noted, developers who coordinate with other sellers to make a sale or offer a game free must do the same thing for Steam customers too. I have a feeling that there is a very liberal interpretation of this requirement. Or maybe publishers sell keys directly to places that then put them on sale themselves thus circumventing the publisher’s obligation to meet the price on Steam. And also, GMG can _technically_ sell a game for 20% off but then also make a stacking 15% off coupon available for extra savings. Because, in my many years of buying games, I see prices not matched on Steam all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Kron](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kron/32/12444_2.png) [@Kron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kron)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/43 "2021-08-03T17:32:07Z")
Steam is so big because… _it is good at what it does_. I have 544 games on it, currently. I like that it records my stats, I love my cloud saves, love that I can share my library with family; it’s just an all-around good platform. And yes, I am certainly getting tired of the ol’ trope of how “Steam running in the background brings my PC to its knees!!!” Steam is not a heavy-weight program. The browser window I’m typing in now uses more resources than Steam does. My mouse/keyboard software uses more resources. As others have said, Discord uses more resources. A close second is GoG Galaxy; it is also great at what it does. Some things are actually better than Steam. I absolutely love its unified library interface; it also does all the same stat tracking, and also has cloud saves. I also like that it is DRM-free, just because I find some DRM to be intrusively annoying. I will often pick up games on BOTH platforms, if I like the game enough, just to support the developer. And nothing else even comes close, platform-wise. U-Connect (Uplay, whatever they decided to call it next), Origin, Epic; they all pale in comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2021, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/44 "2021-08-03T19:37:56Z")
So explain why you believe steam “bricked your hard drive” a decade or so ago or why you believe Steam is randomly taking screenshots unprompted by user input? This latter behavior you’re asserting, why has no other Steam user reported it? Is Valve only taking these automatic screenshots of your game play? To what end? Is it not far more likely you accidentally hit a keybind that takes a screenshot, and then out of confusion and lack of interest in figuring out what happened, jumped to an incorrect conclusion about what Steam was doing and why? Someone who is technically literate doesn’t assert random things that are extremely unlikely to be true about computer Software, especially without any compelling evidence. ---
**Author:** ![Askance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/askance/32/8281_2.png) [@Askance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Askance)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2021, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/45 "2021-08-04T01:10:17Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > Out of curiosity, how is there any money at all in legitimate sales of Steam keys through third-party vendors? Seems others have answered more thoroughly than I could have. I don’t know the exact economics but we as a publisher run our own store which only sells Steam keys (which as said above we generate via a Steam interface, and pay them for). We also have around 12 other authorised resellers such as GMG mentioned above who resell those keys. We get a larger cut of the customer’s money if they buy from us rather than directly from Steam, but that’s offset by the cost of running our store, having to use a payment agency to reduce fraud, and extra support costs. As to the OP’s issues: I have been doing computer game tech support for over 15 years, helping 20-50 customers a day, almost all of whom are Steam users. Not once in that time has Steam bricked a drive nor taken unsolicited screenshots for my customers. Despite your impression, I am certain that something else damaged your disk drive, and that you hit a screenshot key accidentally - and that it did not actually go to Steam. The impact of the Steam app on your machine is minimal. As I write it is using less than 200mb of memory and 0% CPU on my modest rig. There are reasons not to use Steam - disagreeing with their refund policy perhaps - but the impacts mentioned in the OP were not caused by Steam, I am certain. ---
**Author:** ![DreamsOfACheetah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/45deac/32.png) [@DreamsOfACheetah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DreamsOfACheetah)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2021, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/46 "2021-08-14T23:59:05Z")
The key swiping thing was never a problem for me, but I don’t use keys on Steam too much anyway (I wait for the next sale). But I’ve had Steam since around 2000, am up to 400 games, and never had issues with Steam itself. Switched to new comps a bunch of times without any probs. I can still download and play my first steam games - Might @ Magic & Half Life. Wish they’d make the friend list show up in my steam window automatically instead of having to open it and have it be its own little window. But that’s not a huge problem. I don’t think the OP’s issue is Steam related. But hey, you don’t like it switch to GoG or go back to boxes, whatev. ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2021, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782/47 "2021-08-15T17:40:53Z")
> [@Martin\_Hyde](#): > > So explain why you believe steam “bricked your hard drive” a decade or so ago or why you believe Steam is randomly taking screenshots unprompted by user input? I remember a while back when some were claiming that Valve was spying on your browsing history. Gabe Newell responded that he had absolutely no interest in the porn habits of his customers and was not collecting that data. Even thinking about it was disturbing to him. > **[Valve doesn’t track your browsing, or care about your porn, Gabe Newell says](https://www.geekwire.com/2014/gabe-newell-valve-doesnt-track-browsing-care-porn/)** > > Does Valve collect the browsing history of its users as part of its efforts to thwart cheating in games? No, says Valve's Gabe Newell, taking the unusual [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-i-wont-use-steam-again/947782.md?page=2)