Steam is OK as long as you buy with HEAVY discount.
I like to buy used boxed games and being spoiled of the right to sell/buy used products bought at full price, seems not fair to me.
So i bought civ5 boxed but it still got associated with steam, dunno if i'll be able to resell if one day i will grew tired of it (don't think but still i quit purchasing from some publishers for the same reason >_> if i'll discover i won't be able).
You can't resell Steam games, they are tied to your account.
These threads never get old.
You can just smell the ignorance and fear.
Steam is awesome.
Back in the day I preferred to buy physical copies. I had physical copies for Civ 4 and all the expansions. However anytime I had to format or got a new PC, it was a lengthy process of finding all my disks then a lengthy install and patching process. Essentially it took longer to install Civ 4 than to play a game.
Last time I went on a CD search it took me half an afternoon to find one. Turns out it was still in the drive of my old PC. Digital distribution??? Yes please!
Instead of making valid comments, some here simply leave the same posts such as:
If you don't love Steam, you are ignorant and fearful.
You are a hater.
You are an Anti Steam-monger.
And a bunch of other non-sense. It gets old listening to it.
And then I remind them, that Steam is only a DRM software piece designed to advertise to people to sell software at prices that are Not better on average than anywhere else; but just made to look like they are (this was shown in another thread, and is true; higher reg prices with occasional sales).
It's the reason Valve hired mind doctors, so they could pull mind-jobs on gamers to get higher sales... I have no problem with that though, it's capitalism at it's best!
I don't understand where the 'love' is coming from? Do you love the DRM? or the ads? When I get a game, it's to play the game, not to love the Forced Digital Rights Management Distribution Platform.
Steam is great. I buy twice as many games because of it, it delivers weekly bargains and all my updates, I talk to clan members on it, I get messages on my iPhone when stuff I'm interested in is happening,
You own an iphone, says it all. Enjoy your DRM!
And it seems that with Civ V, Firaxis has joined this sea of mediocre crap that you mention.
I didn't try but I suspect it would be impossible with Steam.
With Civ IV, I was able to play from the same DVD with my wife (start Civ on a PC with the DVD, when it is loaded put the DVD in the other PC and you can play together).
I didn't try but I suspect it would be impossible with Steam. May I ask, who will pay 2x for the same game just to play with wife/children ?
For me, Steam is just a useless bloatware used because of piracy paranoids.
I bought a box version of the game, why force me to use Steam ???
Hardly. Steam is pure garbage, its one of the buggiest programs i've ever used. I use my pc for music production, and have premium software like ableton and cubase running just fine. I also use photoshop 64bit and have no problems whatsoever.
Tried installing steam the other week, came up with a bunch of random errors, after reading a few forums and trying loads of things i eventually got it installed in safe mode. Only took me about an hour and a half. Then it took ages downloading the Civ V demo, said it was at 30% then suddenly let me play it. A really awful buggy load of crap, i've since uninstalled Steam and will not be using it on my system again.
For the record i was an IT professional for 5 years, and still keep up to date. I think it is you who is the ignorant one to post such a comment.
What you are describing is in fact piracy.