I am a big fan of the Steam game buying, and playing, platform and have been a user for some time so it was nice to see this news coming out from the company that it had set a new record.

It seems that over the holiday’s Steam recorded the momentous number of 5 million concurrent users logged into the system at one time. Of course part of this surge could be attributed to their big holiday sale which apparently has left some users less than happy.

Now with over 35 million active users this marker was bound to happen sooner or later but with the added benefit of two top games: Skyrim and Call of Duty:MV3, being launched just before the holidays this record was almost guaranteed to happen sooner rather than later.

With Bioshock Infinite, Metro: Last Light, and Darksiders II pegged to launch in 2012 bets are that they will see this record beaten at some point but for now congratulations to the Steam team for reaching this goal and doing it with some equally great low number of hours of server downtime.

via PikiGeek

Steam hits a milestone: 5 Million simultaneous users is a post from: The Inquisitr

My wife isn’t much of a tech oriented person which makes it difficult to explain sometimes why I spend so much time on the web other that telling her “it’s work honey”; which much of the time it is but that isn’t the case with everyone.

With all the studies spouting numbers about how many people are already on the web as well as the projected number of people expected to join the online world at any given point one has to wonder what it is  that everyone is doing here.

This is a question that the good folks at Flowtown and Column Five decided to answer with the help of the infographic you see here.

via The Next Web

We have the lowdown on what people are really doing online [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Wow have things ever changed when it comes to having, or talking about, online relationships since I was a young lad. At one time even mentioning the fact that you were involved with an online relationship could subject you to all kinds of derision, not to mention ending up on some daytime talk show telling horror stories.

Now however it seems that just about everyone is involved in some sort of online relationship and unlike before we have no problem sharing that information with anyone who will read a status update on some social network. In fact is seems that thanks to the proliferation of Facebook one in every three relationships these days starts online.

It is such a popular way for people to hook up that Lab42 decided to do some looking into the phenomena and put together this infographic with the information that they found.

via Bit Rebels

A Status Update of Online Relationships [Infographic] is a post from: The Inquisitr

When you hear cries and rants against bandwidth caps, which are becoming more popular in the US but standard in Canada, it is usually from people like myself and others that depend on web access; and lots of it, on a daily basis. The argument used by the ISPs to back up this ridiculous state of affairs is that they are just trying to protect their networks from undue congestion caused by the bandwidth hogs.

As cute as that argument might be it is also a fallacious argument that unfortunately is swallowed by the majority of people, so it was really nice to read this smack down of ISPs by Mark Rubin, executive producer at Infinity Ward; one of the video game companies responsible for the Call of Duty video game franchise.

In the post at Huffington Post Rubin says that ISPs are holding back innovations with their predatory practices.

Mark Rubin, executive producer at Infinity Ward, the studio behind the ‘Call of Duty’ series, says Internet service providers are holding back innovation with restrictive practices. Both usage-based billing, where customers receive monthly download limits, and throttling, where certain applications are slowed down, are proving to be obstacles to the games industry’s advancement.

“We’re trying to progress and move into those new areas of downloading content and full games and streaming live. We’re pushing forward and it seems like they’re going backwards,” Rubin said in an interview at this past weekend’s inaugural Call of Duty XP fan convention in Los Angeles.

“I don’t know what they’re afraid of that they have to do all this capping. If they have serious problems with bandwidth, they need to solve that because society is moving forward.”

It is one thing for people like myself and other tech writers to decry things like caps but it is another thing altogether when the man responsible for one of the most successful game franchises, and part of a company that makes billions of dollars due to people being able to access the web, says it.

‘Call of Duty’ chief smacks down ISPs says they are moving society backwards is a post from: The Inquisitr

Ever wonder what happens once you’ve paid for all those virtual goods in thos silly ass social games that you waste your life away playing in Facebook and the company diceds the game isn’t popular enough, or making enough money?

Well wonder no longer, just ask the people who played Street Racer by social gaming favorite Zynga. The short end of the story is that you get screwed.

Yup, come August 2 Zynga will be shutting the doors on a game called Street Racer with no explanation as to why or refunds for any money spent in-game.

According Rob Crossley at Develop-Online customers will be offered credits to be used in other games

Zynga, which has been valued at $5 billion by independent analysts, did confirm that it will not be refunding its fans. It will instead be offering free credits that can be used in a selection of its other money-making titles.

“As an acknowledgment of the inconvenience these changes may have caused, we have offered credits to all players who have made a purchase in the last 90 days,” read a company statement sent to Develop.

While Speed Racer may not have been a well known game from the company that brought you such mind-numbing time wasters like FarmVille or FrontierVille  I still think this is a pretty lousy way to treat your customers. Would it really have hurt to offer them a choice of a cash refund or credits?

image courtesy of joystiq

Zynga says screw you to its customers is a post from: The Inquisitr

found via Sunbelt Software – thanks guys

You know you’re spending too much time online when …. is a post from: The Inquisitr

The 2008 Kids and Family Reading Report by Yankelovich and Scholastic, however, is telling me otherwise. Take a look at these findings:

• 75% of kids age 5-17 agree with the statement, “No matter what I can do online, I’ll always want to read books printed on paper”

• 62% of kids surveyed say they prefer to read books printed on paper rather than on a computer or a handheld device.

The national survey covering children age 5-17 and their parents also revealed that kids who go online to extend the reading experience are more likely to read books for fun every day.

Watch the Kids & Family Reading Report presentation

Kids Believe Technology Will Supplement (Not Replace) Books is a post from: The Inquisitr