Won't you mind if I ask in what circumstances your account was deleted? Because it is quite scary (I have put some money into steam). And to be honest I don't think it's common because as I heard even cheaters don't get their accounts closed (they are only banned from multiplayer parts of their games).
Also I think it would be hard to prove that Steam destroyed your hardware. Like all applications it uses some of windows api to create files and as I know there is no "MessUpPC" function. So if it was simple harddrive failure blame is on manufacturer (if it was under warranty ofc).
And you are right there are many valid reason to hate Steam. It is DRM (so there is one more thing that stands between you and your game), customer support is lacking. But it's hard to judge service without looking into positives especially when there are as many. It's hard to argue against Steam when software is 75% off and I can buy 2 AAA titles for 7 euro. Also it is great for developers because you have massive customer base that will know about your game existence without need to spend millions on marketing.
But still if I had to chose between sites like gog.com (no DRM games) and Steam I would pick first option.
Since you asked politely & in a non-biased way Maciej then sure, I can briefly outline what happened.
But first I'd like to say to others out there that Im NOT intending to start or restart any 'flame-war' or whatever it was before & that I was very much on the verge of either deliberately having myself bannd from RD or requesting my account be deleted along with having any entry I'd made on this site purged from RD's servers due to the abhorrent behaviour of a few immature people here & that if I feel Im under another unwarranted attack on myself again I WILL be doing so.
I felt like I was attacked for nothing other than asking a couple of simple (if badly worded) questions as there had been no more information made available that I had seen anywhere on alternative downloads since the Steam announcement was made.
The original questions were posted in a Facebook RD posting on this subject & no-one there (at this point so far) has done anything but post civil & informative replies.
Anyway, hopefully that's enough of that.
In 2007 I 'inherited/was given freely a slightly older PC, which was my first ever PC at the age of 32 & started immediately upgrading it through a trusted computer shop in town here as I knew NOTHING at the time about PC's (& still am a bit of a noob with them & the interwebs).
One night sometime around mid 2009 (I guess by my join date here but possibly slightly earlier) while drinking with friends & after kicking their arse's all over Gran Tourismo3&4 I was lamenting the lack of tracks in that game when a friend suggested I try rFactor on the PC as their was 'someway' to build tracks for it.
Being that Im a driving/riding addict, & that games were my methadone, this news was like heaven on a stick coated in chocolate sauce! (Seriously!)
So with this good friends help I started to investigate & learn.
Previously to this all I'd ever used my PC for was storage for photo's & music & avoided the internet like my life depended on it.
Fast forward a few months & I had BTB & Piddy's site recommended I come to RD for more info which I did in 2010 (I could have sworn it was earlier than that)
Not too long after joining here I tried my mates Race07 & liked the feel & look of it even more than rF so decided to get it for myself but was told (quite rightly) that I'd need either GTR2 or GTL to create HAT files for R'07 & 'the best way' to do so was with Steam.
My friend again helped me with getting sorted with Steam & I downloaded/installed those 3 titles.
R'07 was the only one which seemed to work properly on my system no matter how many times I took it to the PC shop or how much I spent on it.
A couple of months later I had made my first experimental track which worked fine in rF & managed to make an Export from BTB to the Simbin titles to sample in R'07 after making a HAT in GTL.
When I tried it in R'07 a notice from Steam came up stating something like I had 'hacked content in game files' & everything froze & eventually crashed.
On restarting PC eventually there was NO Simbin folder or anything other than Steam on my PC & Steam declared I was blocked from my account, but worse than that my PC was now having HUGE troubles running!
On taking my PC to my PC shop I was informed that the HDD, less than a year old Seagate, had 'corrupted sectors' & that there was diodes or pots that had overheated & 'popped' from forcing restarts with a faulty HDD (How was I to know, I was a noob).
On getting everything fixed/replaced I tried contacting Steam to see what had happened & possibly to seek compensation.
I received a couple of Emails but was basically fobbed off with what seemed like generic copy & paste replies.
The PC shop suggested (along with others) that I seek legal advice & as I was cashed up at the time, legal action was started.
At no time did my solicitors have any luck with Steam & I eventually found, not long after my solicitors offices had served their paper work, that my account had been deleted.
The only answer my solicitors ever got FROM Steam was that I "held no account with Steam" which was what caused me to check my Steam account the last time to find that it was true.
I tried to go through other legal avenues here in Australia that are supposed to guard the rights of consumers but found very little help there as it wasn't an Australian company & it traded via the internet & they were basically of the opinion that the company (Steam) was a disreputable scamming site that they'd never heard of before & that it was my foolish fault for dealing with any company via the internet.
I would have continued trying to take Steam to court as a matter of principle but during this time, & continuing for some time after, I had serious health issues causing me to lose my job & income & needed any savings I had left just to survive & pay doctors bills.
I won't denigh that I shouldn't have restarted my PC when this first happened or that it worked fine before I had Exported a track to the games installed/downloaded by Steam or that many others find the system works flawlessly for them.
BUT, for THESE reasons above, even IF they were to let me start another account, I will NEVER deal with these cowardly thieves again!
I would also like to add that whether Kunos DO or DO NOT make alternate systems of installing their brilliant game available, I wish them all the best in their endevours & in NO WAY do my views & stance on Steam reflect my view of their company OR their work.
In fact, I believe that this simulator WILL be the great 'game changer' of sim-racing which will cause all other companies in this genre to re-evaluate their own products.
I just hope that they can at some stage confirm that those alternate options will be made available & that details will be released soon so that those of us that choose to gain access to their awesome software can do so at the same time it released with the same pre-order bonuses as on Steam.
If I could pre-order now without Steam I would have done it already!
) ....
