Hello fellow Vizzards and Vizzettes! I have come here today to rant about my very first experience with using Steam, and I absolutely hated it.
Let me break down what happened:

Prologue: During Easter 2016, I was at my Aunt's house, because she always has holiday feasts at her house. My cousin who is much older than me, was trying to get rid of old things of his. One of these things was a copy of Counter-Strike 2, compiled with Half Life 2, and Death Match. It is from 2005.

Present Day: I had almost forgotten about the game, because I was never a PC gamer, and it took me a long time to get to it. So about 4 months after I got it, I finally decided to install it, because I wanted to try it out. After staying up until three in the morning to install 4 discs- worth of data, and apply all the updates, I finally got some sleep (all 5 hours of it). So this morning I wake up with the intent to try out Counter-Strike for just an hour or 2.. But can I do it? NOOOOOOOO! I have to waste time and set up a stupid Steam account. And I have to figure out how this Steam thing works because I have absolutely no idea what to do. So half of my day has been wasted trying to get this game ready to play so that I can actually play it. I could not understand why I was unable to launch the game. Then the Steam app told me that I had to put the registration key in for my game. So I ran up to my room and searched for the box, because I couldn't remember where I put it. I got the code and put it in the stupid code box and hit "Install" And what happens next? I launched the game and started playing, right? Nope. No. Nyet. Never. It told me that I could not play the game because somebody else already activated the game (my cousin). And I went on the Steam FAQ to see if there was a quick solution to this, and the answer was basically that there is no solution.

Conclusion: Steam is a major deuce bag and I hope they get a severe illness that lasts for a long time, and causes them pain and suffering, but then wears off before it can kill any of them. I mean what the H-E- Double Hockey-sticks am I supposed to do now? I got a gift and I can;t even use the stupid gift. And that makes too valuable to me to just sell or throw away. Gifts are priceless to me.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. Steam is that way for a reason, though. Since they are a digital storefront and people take advantage of things for better or for worse, the registration keys are not allowed to be reused. Once they are used, they are tied to an account permanently. With the rise of digital gaming, CD-based games are pretty near a niche market now. When you do get a CD, it's likely to help download speed, rather than to have something you can share with your friend to let them play. There is such a thing as "family sharing", though. You can share an account with family/friends, and they can play your account's games from their account when you aren't using your account to play. It's pretty restrictive, but it's there for reasons. Perhaps the first reason is "profits". I don't know. But adapting to the system might be worth it. Bundles, such as Humble Bundles, Indiegala bundles, etc. give games or software for much (often very much) cheaper than if bought separately. For example, there's a Gamemaker bundle on Humble Bundle's website now, $15 for the highest tier. If bought separately, these things would normally cost as much as $1885. Not all bundles have such dramatic discounts, but I hope you get the idea. If you're a big PC gamer that likes playing a variety of games but have a limited budget, you're likely gonna have to deal with Steam. When I first used Steam, I thought I could trade the games from my library. This led to awkward experiences. Steam can really be difficult to deal with. But it might be worth dealing with it.

I use to have a hatred for Steam until 3 or so years ago, back when it first came out I use to have issues with my anti virus saying it was full of viruses, and it even caused my computer to crash to the point where I had to do a factory restore. Now I have no issue with it, I mean they have given away free games, and I like how they do digital gaming, especially since finding physical copies of digital games these days is very tough. Although damnit I miss the days of big box PC games lol. Sorry to hear you had a bad impression of Steam.

That's unlucky that you had a bad experience but you have to realize it was more like your cousin, activating a game, than Steam itself doing things wrong. They have rules and guidelines and they want to run things a certain way. There's nothing wrong with that.

It's too bad though that you didn't find the experience you were looking for. Did everything get solved and have you had anything positive happen on Steam lately? Or have you completely abandoned it for other games?

The obvious answer is that keys can only be redeemed once. Otherwise you might as well give everyone in the world your key so everyone gets the game for free. Your cousin already redeemed it, that sucks. Blaming that on Steam isn't the smartest thing to do, though. I don't really think anyone is at fault. We all sometimes go through tedious work only to find that something doesn't work.

Also, I'm not sure if your conclusion is a joke or not, but it contradicts itself. First off, how is any of that Steam's fault? Their account setup process is very straightforward; just sign up, verify your email, and install the client. Bing bang boom. Then with the key not being redeemable, that's definitely not Steam's fault. That's a universal thing with older games. Many years ago, CD games required a special key. These keys can only be redeemed once. This was so that you couldn't just copy a disc's contents and email it to the world. You would need a unique key.

Second, you say that all gifts are priceless to you, yet you're complaining that you can't throw it away. Those two emotions conflict with each other. If all gifts are priceless and sentimental for you, why should you need to play the games anyways? There's really nothing to complain about here. Your thread summed up in a few words: "Cousin gave me used game, game was already used so I couldn't play it."

Yeah I'm failing to see how the fault is on steam. Every program takes learning and Steam is a program.
Sorry you had a rough time but there's a ton of games on there and a bunch of free ones too, maybe you can find something else to bide your time with. Or you could even buy those games during a sale or something. Steam's pretty well known for their huge sales where you can get a bunch of games for fairly cheap.
Also another option could be if your cousin has a steam you guys could game share with each other and you'd be able to have access to his whole library.

Guys, I know that Steam isn't really at fault for what happened. I just wanted to explain what happened, and decided to turn it into a rant, because yolo. I have actually fallen away from console gaming, because I don't have the money to buy anything. However, I already have a perfectly good Computer and Laptop right at home, and I decided a little while ago that I might as well become a PC gamer because I hate feeling left behind on the gamer band-wagon. Every console game I bought when I was a child was usually already out for a few years, and the rest of the world had moved on to newer and better things. I am finally reaching a point where I can keep up with the kardashians. Woops, I meant gaming community..

I kinda agree with you. I think steam is an awful system but it's better than the alternatives.

I miss the days of installing a game without having a front-end and pointless overhead.

I will say, I remember a time without steam, and if was a bit better of a world. At the same time, over the years, Steam has really grown on me. That does suck you had a bad experience, but to my knowledge they are few and far between. It really does make it easier to buy games, and they also have killer sales. I bought the entire Left 4 Dead series for 7 bucks.