Steam BETA & FileShack

[CSN NewsBot]

Steve from ShackNews sends word that the Steam 2.0 BETA is now available for download exclusively for FileShack Mercury (paying) members. Now, you can get Steam 2.0 BETA from any joe on the street, but this is a more official release.



I am conflicted about the paying members-only release. On one hand Steve is a great guy, FileShack is a great service, and I myself pay for the Mercury plan. On the other I believe that any sort of limited release based specifically on subscription is unfair and crappy. I don't mind too much: Steam 2.0 BETA is already in the hands of most of those interested. I personally believe, however, that FileShack should 'win' based on its superior performance and nothing more.



Anyway, if you do happen to get a Mercury subscription and you're a big fan of our Skin of the Day, good things will happen.

[superman782]

bah, shouldn't have to pay to get steam, but hey if they're making a buck and VALVe says it's cool... I suppose

[cheetarah654]

yah, but fileshack is great and steve and maarten are nice, it is too bad that you have to use mercury tho

[ozmer]

Sellouts!

[Cyfun]

[Spoonman]

I noticed the banner on the "queue window" I was on for 3dmark03. (I got a measly 708 3dmarks) As for making it subscription-only deal... Well it's the smart move. It prevents your site from getting bogged down in tens of thousands of people trying to download it. Also it reduces the stress on the Steam BETA servers and content providers. Plus you get profit from new subscribers. All-in-all a good strategy. Makes me want to take back all the bad things I've said about Fileplanet... almost...

[McDeth]

I remember when fileplanet was the first to implement a "member's" section, where you had to pay to not wait 50 hours in a long line. Personally, I think this is a huge assramming we as computer users are taking. I pay for both a fileplanet and mercury account (gee gee financial aid :P) but the minute its actually coming out of my pocket, I am canceling both accounts. Just read the "bonus's" about the Mercury account! It made me sick to throw down 5 dollars just so I could download 3dmark2003 in under 2 hours, and I'm sure alot of gamers don't want or have that extra cash to throw down. It actually insulted me to read the Mercury users bonus section, it talked as if everybody but Mercury users would be able to download files within a reasonable amount of time. I like one quote, it went something like this, " With Fileplanet's Mercury account, subscribers are given an all access pass to unrestricted bandwidth and no-line's downloads, while the rest of the public is left to wait in long, conjusted, crowded lines." Wow, what a load of bs. Talk like that more and I won't even bother to renew my susbscription. I wonder when game company's are going to start sueing fileplanet and fileshack for making a profit off of their patches, games, and demos?

Oh ya, 3dmark2003 sucks ass for not allowing you to change the demo and benchmark settings, I'm not sure about anybody else, but I didn't even get to see the infamous "Nature demo...." And they say they are the benchmark for gamers. Ya fuckin right! They need to change their slogan. "The benchmark for (PAYING) gamers."



3DMark2003<3DMark2002

[mouth]

You need to settle down. The 'shack is hardly making a profit off of patches. The money they make from Fileshack is from offering you the service of being able to download it faster. Non-mercury users are simply on a "first come, first serve" basis, which makes complete sense.



Second, i have never noticed Fileshack to be as congested as Fileplanet. Then again, i have enough of a clue to realize that free downloads of popular files is going to take a while on release, so i generally wait a day or 2. Even still, it's flat out faster. Alternately, you could get your head out of your ass and look in the comments for the inevitable mirror postings.



Third, it's readily apparent that Steve and the rest of the crew actually give a fuck about increasing capacity and stability for even the non-mercury users. THEY GIVE A SHIT. This is a big part of what makes the 'shack the 'shack. There's a lot more involved with your $5 than there would be with anything GSI operated.



Don't make me come back here, fucker.

[Hybrid^KmA]

man...to me it goes like this.....if you are going to say for the past forever that you are going to release a BETA to the public masses and then go ahead and give the rights/not complain that some people are making money off of it then just make people either pay for it to begin with or only give it out to a select number of people...ie like other betas



on one side i see the point after what happened to the whole "leaked copy" problems they had before but the second i read this post i was like .... wtf am i not good enough for this ??? i refuse to pay for anything online but an internet connection...i feel its pointless because the internet harbors a "open source" vibe.....albeit a normally illegal open source



point being...why should i have to pay for something that was promised to be released to all to test......the point of a beta is not to play but to find bugs and report them .............why pay to find bugs....blah im done

[McDeth]

Oh hisss hisss, I can see somebodies panties got in a fuckin twist......somebody needs to cool it, and its not me. I was just posting my opinion.

[Darkhorse]

wot a crock

the community is in uproar

[CmdrFlesh]

pay for downloads? lol

[PCF|Herman D]

Yo, youre paying for the bandwidth & space (I run a fairly high profile site, bandwidth & space be expensive) not for the file.

[Shadow-Dragon]

lol I can't believe you guys are arguing over fileshack. Geeks are pathetic.

[RaptorRage]

On one hand it makes sense to limit the number of additional people to get the file so as not to bog down the Steam servers as happened during release, but on the other hand it is silly to have to pay even for the service if you are looking only for the Steam file which was initially meant to be available to everyone for free.



People either have to look up the Steam file in a search engine and get it from an unofficial mirror as most have done that missed the release and subsequent "suspension", or wait a few weeks for final release after presumably all the bugs are fixed.