• Yokozuna@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    71
    ·
    edit-2
    2 months ago

    Man, steams user base has more than tripled since I started using it… and I thought I came in a bit late.

    • astrsk@fedia.io
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      22
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Using it in 2004 was like a dream. It was already incredible to have all my valve games in one place that I can redownload whenever (overnight slowly on DSL) without having any discs and it just worked. Didn’t have to insert a disc just to play the installed game via activation, didn’t have to clone the disc and mount the iso to pretend the same. It just worked and has just worked ever since.

      • gaylord_fartmaster@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        30
        arrow-down
        2
        ·
        2 months ago

        I was also using it then and most people hated it at the time. People generally saw it as useless DRM they had to install to play the games they had already paid for. The biggest complaint was needing to install it and register Counter-Strike to get the 1.6 update.

        This gif comes to mind:

        • umbrella@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          24
          ·
          2 months ago

          many youngns here are missing this bit of context.

          it was also very prone to endless issues at the time.

          • astrsk@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            2 months ago

            Absolutely it was. It’s definitely had its growing pains, but I was in a generally advantageous place where most of the issues hadn’t caused problems for me. In this case, I was sorta golden path user.

        • Dave@lemmy.nz
          link
          fedilink
          arrow-up
          7
          ·
          2 months ago

          I joined Steam when I bought Portal on disk from a store and couldn’t play it without signing up for Steam and installing Steam just to play my game.

      • xploit@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        2 months ago

        And looking for some good low latency servers to play (CS at the time for me) before even opening the game…only to have to choose 150-200 ping ones with the fun mods I wanted to play and be booted from them from for having high ping 🤣