Question Steam turns 20 - What was your first Steam game?

[neogunhero]

Steam turns 20 today: "We've had to try a lot of different things over the years"

Steam turns 20 years old today and RPS looks back at its storied history with some reflections of our own.

www.rockpapershotgun.com

Steam turns 20 years old today. For many of us, Steam has become second nature much like breathing air is. It’s intertwined with our gamer DNAs. If Steam were a liquid, it might as well be water as it is essential for every gamer’s lives.

When did you make your first Steam account? What was the first game you ever bought on Steam?

I don’t remember my first ever Steam account. I might have made it around 2007, but quickly deleted it because I was dumb and believed it was the cause of my computer slowing down. My current Steam account has been active since August 10th 2010, and I made it because I bought The Orange Box that summer specifically to play GMod. You have to remember, 2007-2010 was peak GMod machinima era, and I was an impressionable middle schooler. I NEEDED to pull G-Man’s face apart. I eventually actually played The Orange Box and have been in love with the Half Life series and Valve games ever since.

 

[Jörmungandr]

My steam account is also from 2010 my first game was Supreme Commander 2 i got it because i was really in to rts at the time and while it's no masterpiece it's still fun. Probably got the orange box around the same time too but for me half life 2 was the selling point.

As for steam it self it was and still is a performance tank so just like the EA program i only run it when i need to so i use Playnite to organize my game library instead.

 

[D10S]

cod advanced warfare iirc

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

The first account came with the Orange box ina round 2007, said it before here but I was annoyed I had to install extra bloatware to play the game. Lost the pass to that one, my PC blew up sometime around 2009 and I was without one for 3 years. Then in 2012 I built a new PC, ordered Far Cry 3 and Metro 2033 from Amazon to see what it could do, went to install them and they were basically Steam codes in the box. Been stuck in the bloatwear ever since. Sales are pretty good though.

 

[Colif]

Audiosurf in 2008

 

[Jörmungandr]

The first account came with the Orange box ina round 2007, said it before here but I was annoyed I had to install extra bloatware to play the game. Lost the pass to that one, my PC blew up sometime around 2009 and I was without one for 3 years. Then in 2012 I built a new PC, ordered Far Cry 3 and Metro 2033 from Amazon to see what it could do, went to install them and they were basically Steam codes in the box. Been stuck in the bloatwear ever since. Sales are pretty good though.

I have to agree i didn't chose to have a steam account when i got Supreme Commander 2. It forced me to make one even though it was on cd and I was not a fan of that and Im still not tbh.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I have to agree i didn't chose to have a steam account when i got Supreme Commander 2. It forced me to make one even though it was on cd and I was not a fan of that and Im still not tbh.

Its a mixed blessing for me at this point, if I have to buy from a digital store I'd rather it be Steam. A lot of that is that I'd like to have all my games in one place, and Steam got there first.

I cant tell if I would have spent more on games over the years with or without the sales, though I don't think they're as good as they used to be.

 

[Jörmungandr]

Its a mixed blessing for me at this point, if I have to buy from a digital store I'd rather it be Steam. A lot of that is that I'd like to have all my games in one place, and Steam got there first.

I cant tell if I would have spent more on games over the years with or without the sales, though I don't think they're as good as they used to be.

I don't go looking at sales I just find something of interest and if I can get a good deal I take it but I don't buy games just because they are on sale if that makes sense.

And I've always preferred to get games from gog if it had to be a digital copy because it doesn't require its own program to run the games least not yet and they are DRM free. They also have a good reputation of making old games run on new computers for you.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I don't go looking at sales I just find something of interest and if I can get a good deal I take it but I don't buy games just because they are on sale if that makes sense.

Fair enough. seems sensible. I only buy things I intend to at least try but if its dirt cheap then I'm likely to bite. I dont have the massive collection that some have but if you'd told 13 year old me that I would own over 300 games at the same time at some point in my life I wouldnt have believed it.

And I've always preferred to get games from gog if it had to be a digital copy because it doesn't require its own program to run the games least not yet and they are DRM free. They also have a good reputation of making old games run on new computers for you.

GOG does great work for older games, have a few there. I use Galaxy when I want to see my full library as I have a few games in other launchers, Epic freebies, a few in EA and Ubi that came with graphics cards that I always forget I have. Wasnt aware of it back in 2012 though, and I had quite a collection in Steam after a couple of years already.

Guess Valve got me by making Steam as a really good way to organize my library as much as a launcher and store after a while. In the old days a 'Games' folder on the desktop with shortcuts to all my games was good enough. I'd need to buy a couple more hard drives at least
to keep everything installed these days.

 

[Jörmungandr]

Guess Valve got me by making Steam as a really good way to organize my library

And that's where Playnite comes in for me not to sound like a advertisement for a free open sorce program. But it makes more or less everything steam does in terms of library and in some cases better with no adverts, login or other blotewhere and you can easily add any game (or program really) you want. It even comes with a better version of "big screen" and controller configuration if you're in to couch play.

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

And that's where Playnite comes in for me not to sound like a advertisement for a free open sorce program. But it makes more or less everything steam does in terms of library and in some cases better with no adverts, login or other blotewhere and you can easily add any game (or program really) you want. It even comes with a better version of "big screen" and controller configuration if you're in to couch play.

I've heard of it and heard its good before, mainly I'm just lazy about it and the status quo works for me. The idea of DRM kind of annoys me, but at the same time its never really had any direct effect on anything I've played so I'm pretty apathetic about it as long as its not causing any problems.

 

[Ryzengang]

My first account purchase was the Fallout 3 GOTY edition back in August of 2013. I'm actually a relative newcomer to PC gaming on a consistent basis. I probably didn't start regularly gaming on PC until about 2018 or so.

 

[OsaX Nymloth]

*checks*
Oh.
F.E.A.R.2 together with Total War: Empire and Portal seem to be the very first games I owned/activated on Steam. It was back in February 2009.

I remember being vaguelly sceptical of opening an account, in the end, it definitetly became my main platform of choice by miles. And hell, F.E.A.R. 2 multiplayer was fun, even if incapacitated by some decisions.

 

[Pifanjr]

I apparently made an account on 26 October, 2007, but didn't buy my first game until 26 March, 2010. The first game I bought was Titan Quest: Gold, which I didn't really like, though apparently I have played for about 30 hours total.

There's a bunch of questionable purchases in the first few years... actually, there's questionable purchases up until 2016, after which I only bought a handful of games.

I tried to figure out why I joined Steam almost 2.5 years before buying a game there, but I don't have anything from that time to remind me what I was doing then. Though since it's only 16 days after The Orange Box was released, I can only assume it had something to do with that, even if I didn't buy it.

 

[Brian Boru]

2007, I got The Orange Box for Christmas to interrupt my Civ4 addiction
Half Life 2 was incredible, Portal was incredible—so yeah, Steam made a good first impression, and has continued to raise the customer experience bar very high since then.

Supreme Commander 2 … it's no masterpiece

Have you played SC1 Forged Alliance? Most regard it as much better than SC2—which was good, and maybe very good if it didn't carry the SC name.

Steam … sales … I don't think they're as good as they used to be

I agree, very little temptation for a Patient Gamer these days Can usually get better Steam deals on the 3rd-party sellers like Humble, Fanatical etc. Maybe the one area where Steam still has occasional good deals is in bundles.

Makes sense Steam deals are worse than they used to be. Steam is now close to a monopoly due to its excellent customer experience, and that always works out badly for consumers' pockets.

I've always preferred to get games from gog … good reputation of making old games run on new computers for you

Me too, if I don't need the Steam extras—mainly the Workshop mods. I have nearly as many on GOG as Steam…

Store Games​ BigFish 503​ EA 35​ Epic 409​ GOG 968​ Steam 1,014​ Ubi 33​ Total 2,962​

…altho many of those are older purchases. I've experienced the fine work GOG has done making old games run on new systems, it's why I joined them originally in 2010.

I use Galaxy when I want to see my full library

that's where Playnite comes in

I use both, but mainly Galaxy.

We have an old thread about launchers…

Game Launchers—combine your Libraries

Many seem unaware you can combine many different retailers' Libraries into one Launcher—no more having to launch individual Launchers for each different retailer where you have games. I use either GOG Galaxy or Playnite… there are others like LaunchBox and Photon, which I haven't tested—if you...

forums.pcgamer.com

…and a newer one:

Rank the Launchers/Stores

Rank the game launchers/stores that you use: My rankings: 1) Steam: From adding non-steam games, to store curation and trading cards, Steam does it all and it does it all well. Um...mostly well. Adding non-Steam games is a huge pain compared to GoG, but at least it's possible. The Steam...

forums.pcgamer.com

 

[Zloth]

Going by memory, I got Steam so I could play Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. Steam says I joined in 2004, though, which is two years before that game showed up. The purchase history only goes back to 2008 (DMoM&M isn't even on it), so I don't know what my first game was. I don't think I just sat on my account for two years. <shrug>

Late edit: A ha! Steam only had two games show up in 2004: Counterstrike and Half Life 2. I own HL2 on Steam. That must have been it!

 

[Colif]

2962 games? I think its time for Brian to retire so he can start working on playing those games.

I don't look at sales. I am like Jörmungandr, just look when I want something specific and if its on special, bonus. That can apply to everything I buy really.

 

[Brian Boru]

2962

Yeah, I picked an Australian number—looks the same upside-down 🙃

I haven't bothered with my Amazon digital, I think they're all free app games, and lost my login on an ancient email address for GameHouse years ago—BigFish has that side covered anyway so I'm not bothered. Write it all off to the badstars who never returned books or vinyl last millennium

 

[Konquerah]

I don't have the account to check, but I would probably safely bet on Day of Defeat and Counter-Strike v1.6 being my first games on STEAM.

I haven't played a War-FPS game as fun as Day of Defeat since, still looking for that feeling lol.

 

[DXCHASE]

Didnt start my steam journey until i had a gaming pc. I was fully aware of it from its inception but didnt actually make my account until i built my first ACTUAL gaming pc so around 2013 or so. My first game was Counter Strike because well i had been playing it on consoles for years lol.

 

[Brian Boru]

Day of Defeat since, still looking for that feeling

Longshot: Day of Infamy

 

[Colif]

Yeah, I picked an Australian number—looks the same upside-down 🙃

you have very strange looking 2's there then. looks more like a 7 with a curled tail.
↊

 

[mjs warlord]

I cant remember my first steam title but i do remember opening the first game i had to activate on steam.
I was not a happy chappie cos all i got was a registration card in the box and no physical disc in my hand so i felt cheated. The shop assistant then explained how to get my steam account onto another pc in the future. No more ....... your the licence holder so no refund,

I realised how good the steam set up was when i got a new pc because i have lot of games on disc that i can never use again due to the fact they had already been actived .... by me

 

[Jörmungandr]

Have you played SC1 Forged Alliance?

not sure if i ever did was mostly caught up with wc3 at that time and just wanted something new it have also been like 10 years since i played SC 2

 

[neogunhero]

Longshot: Day of Infamy

Day of Infamy during its peak playerbase days in 2017-2018 was AMAZING. I had played and loved Day of Defeat Source earlier before that, so when Infamy came out it was a dream come true. It managed to capture that feeling but better and more realistic. It’s like when you have really great memories of an old game but you play it today and it’s nothing like what your memory felt like, but opposite. It was like the Day of Defeat of my dreams. Too bad barely anyone plays anymore… they should make it free.