Civ 5 digital deluxe coming exclusively to Steam! Steamworks confirmed!

Very funny. Steam check home when internet connection exists. You can't even play the games if steam detects updates being available until you allow updates. There probably are games on steam that reguire constant internet connections due to steam or 3rd party drm settings (I've read not all games support offline mode). Games have to be verified when installing and when setting offline mode (automatic probably but require internet connection). Backups probably can't be restored without connecting steam network either.

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False. You can choose for any game to accept automatic updates. I played the SGOTM with STEAM while an updated patch was avalible for CIV4. Backups only require an offline-mode STEAM client to use. I had for a long time a 4 compy lan with CIV4 installed in offline-mode for playing LAN based MP games. Never any trouble.

As far as I know (I've read number of complaints about this) some of the older games are never patched and some games can take months to patch after developer releases the standalone patches. GOG games rarely need further patching as no more patches are coming to them, pathces are always already integrated to installer files.

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It is purely up to the distributor to supply STEAM with any patches. As an example, Evil Genius downloads to version 1.01 on STEAM. My D2D version DL's to 1.0, and cannot be patched. The only games that experience delay with patching due to STEAM are older games that are not in high-demand. In many cases, due to auto-updating, STEAM users are the first to find out about new patches.

n other topics people claim that steam calls home the moment it finds open internet connection and if there are steam or game updates you must allow those first before you can play any games. Also have anyone actually tested if the offline mode has any time limits (will it demand connection at some point)?

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Entirely bogus. It does check for updates when launching, but again you can choose not to allow automatic updates for any game in its launch settings. Refer again to my 4 computer lan, which ran for 2 years without any STEAM based internet contact, and still worked till i disasembled it when i moved.

As for reason for prefering standalone games and patches. Thats just the way I like them and I like to have controll over the process. Automatic updates can sometimes fail (last one was actually Civ4BtS patch; it got stuck and never completed and I had to do full reinstall. I also like to feel that I own and have controll over the games I've bought so I've cracked most games I've bought ever since I encountered first one probably around decade ago. I feel it's within my rights to do practically anything I wish with the software I've bought; It's mine the moment I handed over the cash. Only thing I don't do with them is distribute copies of the games I own, pretty much anything else goes.

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I at one time had 5 copies of CS:S on my computer all in different modded states. I never need a no-cd crack when i lose my cd anymore. STEAM simply asks for my Username and Password and i can download TF2 for the 17th time this month. The only trouble i have ever had with STEAM downloads was with Call of Duty 4, in which so many people were d/ling it, the data became corrupted on the steam server i was accessing. It was easy enough to re-d/l it and i was ready to play.

There is only 2 downsides to STEAM i can list as an Active user of its product.
1. It is impossible (as far as legally) to regress to an older patch without personal backups. This was an issue for me once when trying to play a GOTM in the HOF section here. I turned off autoupdates and it never happened again.
2. They are a company and of course they are going to advertise. You will get the occasional popup after restarting steam telling you whats new, whats on sale and whats coming soon. Its a small price to pay to have total access to my games as much as i want.

There are 2 gripes i cannot stand about STEAM.
1. "I have to connect to the internet and logon" Unless the date is 1995, whats the problem? And further, you don't have to logon unless you close the app. Logging on is the new CD check of DRM. Once your loged on and STEAM is open, your net can drop. I went 2 days on my gaming computer without knowing my internet was down, and played STEAM games the whole time.
2. /tinfoilhat conspiracy. You know what i mean.

For all those worried about the "Steam must always be on and connected" thing, this is from Civ5's Twitter feed:

@Valandir You can definitely play Civ offline - don't worry about that.

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http://twitter.com/CivGame

Reading this is like banging your head against the wall. Neither side will submit to the other. One will likely go without CiV as they will not buy it if it requires Steam. The other side will play CiV and not give a damn about the former.

Just look at their twitter feed http://twitter.com/CivGame:

# Will #civilization V be bound to #Steam even when buying a physical box? And will there be cool stash in the box? @civgame #CIVV @2KGames about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck (MrMamen)
# @MrMamen Yes, all copies will have Steam! about 9 hours ago via web in reply to MrMamen

@Valandir You can definitely play Civ offline - don't worry about that.

See https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

ArcadicGamer said:

False. You can choose for any game to accept automatic updates. I played the SGOTM with STEAM while an updated patch was avalible for CIV4. Backups only require an offline-mode STEAM client to use. I had for a long time a 4 compy lan with CIV4 installed in offline-mode for playing LAN based MP games. Never any trouble.

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Problem is even steam users seem to give contradictory statements about steam functionality. No wonder there's lot of confusion Oh well, I think I'm of to bed.

Avs said:

Reading this is like banging your head against the wall. Neither side will submit to the other. One will likely go without CiV as they will not buy it if it requires Steam. The other side will play CiV and not give a damn about the former.

Just look at their twitter feed http://twitter.com/CivGame:

# Will #civilization V be bound to #Steam even when buying a physical box? And will there be cool stash in the box? @civgame #CIVV @2KGames about 10 hours ago via TweetDeck (MrMamen)
# @MrMamen Yes, all copies will have Steam! about 9 hours ago via web in reply to MrMamen

@Valandir You can definitely play Civ offline - don't worry about that.



See https://partner.steamgames.com/documentation/api

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I think the easiest way to say this (which will take more than 140 characters, and that probably will help things a bit) is that while all versions have Steam, and so you need Steam to play the game, having Steam does not mean you need to be online. You will need to be online to install the game (for an activation) but after that you can go offline and play the game. A persistent internet connection isn't necessary. I think some people might be confused and think that because a lot of Steam games are online games, that all of them must be - and that's not the case.

2K Elizabeth said:

I think the easiest way to say this (which will take more than 140 characters, and that probably will help things a bit) is that while all versions have Steam, and so you need Steam to play the game, having Steam does not mean you need to be online. You will need to be online to install the game (for an activation) but after that you can go offline and play the game. A persistent internet connection isn't necessary. I think some people might be confused and think that because a lot of Steam games are online games, that all of them must be - and that's not the case.

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Are you confirming that Securom will not be a part of this games DRM. If so I better start looking for a new computer post haste. Excuse me I'm off to do my happy dance.

Because the other thread got closed...
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?p=9165243#post9165243

Tamed said:

You probably don't understand how Steam works or you wouldn't dislike it.

Try it yourself, there's over 1000 free demos on the service and you can connect with friends and social media really easily.

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Are you affiliated with Steam?

from the closed pool thread

Hm, as i can see half of the potential customers won't buy it if it comes with Steam enforcement. You're right, a little majority will still buy it - but notice, half customers, half income.

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So....... about 10,000 active Civ members here, with maybe a couple thousand more at other sites (assuming no double-ups). Civ4 sold millions of copies.

That translates to "half customers" how?

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the main question to answer this is, considering the millions of buyers how representiv are the persons who voted in the pool. The number of 100 participants would be high enough to get more than a guess. But because nobody knows how representiv the pool is, there is no real way to use this figures without guessing and assumption. I wouldn´t expect the impact to be 50 %, the no steam fraction had a much higher probability to participe at the pool (so i expect the pool to be biased), but i think a drop up to 10 - 15% considering the more classical gamer type (at least i believe the typical civ player differs slightly from the typical FPS gamer) for civ style games can be possible. But like said without real figures it is like reading the future in bones. But the appearance of a take2 official in this thread to clarify things and - i think - some opinion influencing volunteers, i also think that there exists at least the fear to loose customers. The entire thread seems to me it´s a "forced steam registration isn´t that bad, so don´t worry and buy the game" opinion war.

I had hoped the take2 changes his DRM policy again after DOW2. But it´s seems it will be the new take2 standard DRM. And because of this, like already Dow2, i will not buy civ5. Who knows perhaps in 3 - 5 years there will be no steam version of the games. I have time. Even if the entire develpment is a bit disappointing because with relic and firaxis there are two of my top5 game produces concerned.

On my side, it´s no personal cursade against steam, it´s simply the lack of opt in of the registration. I will simply buy no game which requires registration to a third party side to play the game (even it´s only one time to install the game), also the need of a registration will result in a much lower probability to buy a game (i must really adict to a franchise to buy a game the eg requires registration on a developer site). I don´t like this development and i will not support it with my money. It´s the only way i can try to influence the publishers DRM policy

It seems there will some more unexpected years for civ4 modding

No Steam for me, thanks. I don't need or want a middleman when I play PC games.

It will be the first game of the series I haven't bought since the original Civilization was released in 1991.

Yep, Civ IV it is
Hundreds of the biggest fans of the civ series who are still modding Civ here on CFC are already said they won't get Civ V with steam...

Btw noone else got pissed because they closed the poll thread????
They feared the outcome of the poll or what?
Ridiculous

IN all earnest I can say that I never had any problems with steam. I have had access to a stable internet connection for close to ten years now, so having to be online is a non-issue. Even though I know being online is not needed, I still would not be concerned if it was.

All in all I am one happy steam user and see the requirement of steam as no biggie. The only gripe I have with steam is that it seems to invite companies to advertise special features that are not available in boxed versions. For example, civ5 has a bonus leader when you order from steam. Call of Duty 4: modern warfare 2 has released an extra mappack for $15 as DLC through steam, whereas CoD4: MW had a free extra mappack... These are the things that annoy me, but I highly doubt steam is at fault there. Steam surely would not enforce this, it is the companies that use steam that suddenly see the potential and then abuse that.

So yeah, steam is fine by me.

Greybriar said:

No Steam for me, thanks. I don't need or want a middleman when I play PC games.

It will be the first game of the series I haven't bought since the original Civilization was released in 1991.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us​

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With major released steam tends to get a bit flooded so the registration for the major popular titles is not always as fast as it could be. Get some coffee, read the newspaper, watch a movie with the missus and when you get home the problem is probably over. I had trouble with registering Half-life 2 when it came out, but the very next morning registring the game was over without any hassle.

If you are not a patient person then I can see how this would annoy you, but I am not sure it is fair to blame steam. If your local store hold a sale of any kind and that sale draws a lot of attention, would you blame the store that you need to wait in line at the checkout register? If a movie theatre shows a new movie, would you get mad at the theatre when it turn out the movie you came to see is sold out?

These things happen, go do something else for an evening. It will be better soon and then you can play all you want. What is the problem?

Shurdus said:

With major released steam tends to get a bit flooded so the registration for the major popular titles is not always as fast as it could be. Get some coffee, read the newspaper, watch a movie with the missus and when you get home the problem is probably over. I had trouble with registering Half-life 2 when it came out, but the very next morning registring the game was over without any hassle.

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Or unpack your Spectrum 48K and wait for 5 minutes to load a game from your tape recorder.

We are going backwards.

Urh. Steam. Hng.

Greybriar said:

No Steam for me, thanks. I don't need or want a middleman when I play PC games.

It will be the first game of the series I haven't bought since the original Civilization was released in 1991.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us​

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Must have really upset you to have to wait a whole few minutes.

Wow, lots of people with strange ideas about Steam.

Okay, I was skeptical the first time I had to install it, too -- this was Left 4 Dead. First thing I checked is if you can play offline. Yes, you can, it is called (uh) "Offline Mode". In the end, I never have needed it, even here in Germany, where they are more likely to offer you free beer than free WiFi. Now I have L4D2 and the Orange Box (Portal et al). Everything works beautifully, except when DLC for Left 4 Dead is released. Then the download speed for the new files slows to a crawl for a few hours.

What was really impressive is that one day I typed in the registration code of the original HalfLife CD (yes, I am that old), and it recognized it immediately and gave me a bunch of related, old games for free. Mind you, this a twelve-year-old game by now. No hassle. Nice. Finally got to play BlueShift. Still suck at the game.

Yes, Steam asks you if they can check your hardware so they know what machines their customers are using. This is the Steam Hardware Survey. I not only agreed, but whole-heartedly support this, because I am convinced this is one reason why Steam is now going to be offered for OS X: Valve realized that so many of their users like me were dual-booting, and decided to make a Steam client for the Mac (five days and counting). This is a win for everybody involved.

There are a couple of advantages. I have it installed on an iMac (dual boot, for another five days) and on a Quad Core XP machine, in both cases from the DVDs I bought. The DVDs are now gathering dust on a shelf. Not having to worry about which machine it will run on or is "registered" for the game is great -- you just sit down and play. Not having to fool around with updates is great. And after getting badly burned by the Civ IV: BtS update bug, I'll be more than happy to have this handled in the cloud.

Summary: I'm very, very happy with Steam. If you are worried about your privacy, first check to see if you have a Facebook account. If yes, so sorry, you are a fool. If no, okay, it's your call. The advantages of Steam for me have been so beyond the disadvantages, I'm very happy about Firaxis' move.

Uh. Now, if they are going to be on Steam anyway, can we talk about a native Mac version again?

Chalks said:

Must have really upset you to have to wait a whole few minutes.

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Not me. I never installed Steam on my PC and I never plan to. That screenshot is one someone posted on another forum I visit. Of course, if it weren't for Steam there wouldn't have been a wait involved.

You like Steam? I don't. You got your preference but I was not offered a choice. That doesn't make customers like me happy.

Chalks said:

Must have really upset you to have to wait a whole few minutes.

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You're missing the point.

People like WalMart. They have good deals, are close by for many people, etc., etc.

Maybe you don't like WalMart. Lots of people don't for a bunch of different reasons.

What if they told you that you HAD to go to Wal Mart to buy the physical version of this game? Would you like that exclusivity? Why not--what's the big deal? 2k has heard from many of their customers that they'd like WalMart as an option. Some other poster here goes to WalMart all the time and loves it. Some other guy thinks that if you don't like WalMart buying it's because you're an idiot and have never tried it.

Greybriar said:

Not me. I never installed Steam on my PC and I never plan to. That screenshot is one someone posted on another forum I visit. Of course, if it weren't for Steam there wouldn't have been a wait involved.

You like Steam? I don't. You got your preference but I was not offered a choice. That doesn't make customers like me happy.

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Ah, so you're posting second hand screenshots without context in an attempt to mislead when in reality, you know nothing about Steam and have therefore had no bad experiences of it what so ever.



If you fancy actually trying to use Steam for a little while then talking about it, please feel free.

They're currently selling Civilization 3 complete edition for £0.75. To be absolutely honest...I already own Civ 3 and all the expansions but I might just buy that so I have it bound to my Steam account. 75p for gods sake. How can you not?

Strangely, I find conversations with people who have no clue what they're talking about to be frustrating and stupid.

SammyKhalifa said:

Maybe you don't like WalMart. Lots of people don't for a bunch of different reasons.

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You know what, if I took that stance without ever entering a WalMart store, buying anything from them in my entire life and not even understanding anything about how the stores work, perhaps I should shut the hell up?

The majority of people in this thread complaining about steam have never used it and don't even understand how it works. Quite frankly, I have no interest in what a bandwagoning ball of ignorance has to say.

Have you used Steam? Have you had consistently bad experiences with it? That would be interesting to hear about. It would also put you in a tiny minority in a group of 25 million active accounts.