Here's why I love Steam

Steam is Valve Software’s (makers of Half-Life and Counter-Strike) digital distribution platform. In one fell swoop, they offer the infrastructure for online content distribution and provide a secure means to thwart pirates. Both of these are lofty goals, in my opinion, but their implemenation can sometimes be a bit rocky.

Take for example the following screenshot. I’ve been recently playing a mod for Counter-Strike called Gun Game. When Steam “streams” an automatic update to all of the game servers, then sometimes the user connection can get a bit wonky.

In this screenshot, this poor, hapless counter-terrorist is about to feel the wrath of my jihadi steel. Instead, if you look at the upper right corner of the screen capture, you’ll see a blue circle (added by me in MS Paint!) surrounding the “Connection Problem” warning. He survived. The server crashed. It was a super day.