Danthor
Warlord
How does Steam work on our PCs? is it a service running in the background?
Can it be disabled mos of the time and enabled only to play?
Can it be disabled mos of the time and enabled only to play?
Civilization 5 and Steam(works)
- Thread starter ori
- Start date
Senethro
Overlord
Yes. It runs when playing the game, you can close it or leave it running when you've finished.
I'd recommend Steam's own site if you're wanting more information as this thread is huge and ranty.
danjuno
Cole Phelps, Badge 1247
I definitely won't buy Civilization 5, but steam doesn't affect my decision.
Steam is but one minor annoyance among several I have with Civ5.
1.The Siamese leader looks like a cross between Civ4 Suryavarman and Frank N Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture show.
2.Religion has been removed. Not so much a problem, but the Dev's excuse for doing it was lame.
I could go rambling on all day, but I have places to be now.
Steam is but one minor annoyance among several I have with Civ5.
1.The Siamese leader looks like a cross between Civ4 Suryavarman and Frank N Furter from The Rocky Horror Picture show.
2.Religion has been removed. Not so much a problem, but the Dev's excuse for doing it was lame.
I could go rambling on all day, but I have places to be now.
Senethro
Overlord
Thats great, mate. This 1 month old thread really needed bumping about something offtopic. You should have just gone straight to those places.
So, Steam now comes with Civ5..
I will buy the game but I'm unhappy about having a strange piece of software (steam) lurking about. So, to any problems with Civ5 (which are bound to happen), I will add my little unhappy thoughts about steam, increasing overall frustration rate.
Collectively, we are the reason companies exist and continue to exist, however, to them, individually, we are tossers. We know that by the feeling of helplessness - I don't want steam; is there anything I can do about it? I doubt it. Not good PR for Civ..
I will buy the game but I'm unhappy about having a strange piece of software (steam) lurking about. So, to any problems with Civ5 (which are bound to happen), I will add my little unhappy thoughts about steam, increasing overall frustration rate.
Collectively, we are the reason companies exist and continue to exist, however, to them, individually, we are tossers. We know that by the feeling of helplessness - I don't want steam; is there anything I can do about it? I doubt it. Not good PR for Civ..
Mercade
the Counsellor
No, you cannot do anything about it. It's an essential part of the game. See the stickied FAQ.
danjuno
Cole Phelps, Badge 1247
A. Bumpings of greater proportions have gone unnoticed.
B. I listed those reasons because I voted for an option that said, "I will not Buy Civ5 for other reasons". There for, I definitely felt it necessary to post some of those reasons.
I hate steam, I don't know if I want this game anymore. I don't like the fact that the game is not completely mine, and I cannot play it whenever I want, and in whatever computer I want. What if I want to play on my laptop in an area with no internet? I just would not be able to. I do not like this one bit. I pay $50 for a game I want to COMPLETELY own it, I don't want to have to get permission to play it. I HATE STEAM.
Let me also add that I did not get Empire total war for this very reason. I miss the days when all I needed to do to was the buy the game input the CD key and play the game.
Let me also add that I did not get Empire total war for this very reason. I miss the days when all I needed to do to was the buy the game input the CD key and play the game.
wrong, you can play without internet - thats what Offline Mode is for. You need internet access only for installation and activation. Also if you read EULA you would know that you dont "completely own" úretty much any game released in last 15 years - only thing that changed was that before services like Steam is was much harder for publisher to enforce EULA.
anandus
Errorist
You only have to connect to Steam during install.
Then you can play Civ offline for as long as you want to.
I prefer Steam above obscure dll's (Securom of Tage) or even worse DRM's, like Ubisoft.
And to be honest, I also was very much opposed to Steam, but when I started using it, it turned out not to be that bad in the end.
Although I have one big complaint about Steam. And that is that a lot of games which I own ánd are available on Steam (like Civ4) can't be linked with the old serial code. I'd love to see all my games under one roof.
But I think that's more the publisher's fault than Steam's.
ClasuSiosa
Thespian of the Sword
What is steem-works any whey???
Ill buy regardless but...?
Ill buy regardless but...?
EmpressCaesar
Chieftain
I will probably buy the game, Steam does not influence this decision either way.
I guess it's a serious question?
Steamworks is a part of the code of Civ5, which ties Civ5 to Steam (which is owned by Valve; you may know the company, Half Life, Counterstrike).
Steam is a digital distribution service (= game downloading service) and a copy protection tool (and more, provides online match making, online friends list, etc).
So to play Civ5, you'll need to have a steam account to activate it, and for this activation you have to go one time online.
Additionally, patches are only available via the steam service.
Many people (or maybe some, depending on how you see it) complain about the service, because in fact you don't buy the game, you only rent it, and you have to sign a contract with a third party (Valve) to be able to play it.
Additionally, their terms of use include some things, which are rather unclear (data collection), or sound horrible (your account might be terminated at any time; they can change their terms of use at any time they want to).
The other people, who like steam, see more benefits in it, like that you can't lose your DVD (just download it again), you have a build in and well developed multiplayer and community system, you can even store your savegames in the steam cloud and access them everywhere at any time (like also the game, which is not tied to only one computer and can be installed as often as you want to).
If it's something serious for you, or if you welcome it, is up to your personal preferences.
Very disappointing that I will miss the first Civ purchase in the history of the game. I refuse to use Steam after the horrible experience with Empire: Total War. When you live in a rural area and only have satellite internet, it totally disrupted my service for 24 hours because the patch ate up all maximum permitted bandwidth, slowing me to dial-up speeds for 24 hours.
Nothing on the retail box even mentioned Steam or showed the trademark. Very deceptive.
It's a shame that such a successful franchise as Civ has now taken a distribution channel that leaves me no choice but to walk away as a long-time, loyal consumer.
Looking at the poll, I can't believe any company would give up 15 percent of its loyal customer base in this economy.
Nothing on the retail box even mentioned Steam or showed the trademark. Very deceptive.
It's a shame that such a successful franchise as Civ has now taken a distribution channel that leaves me no choice but to walk away as a long-time, loyal consumer.
Looking at the poll, I can't believe any company would give up 15 percent of its loyal customer base in this economy.
well, its really a question of whether it generates new customers (which it might) and whether other DRM schemes wouldd drive away less customers (which I am not sure about).
I canceled my pre-order when I found out that Steam was required to run the game. I do not want to run another program to play a game, and, frankly, don't see the point in why I should. I've bought every Civilization game for the PC before, but this I WILL NEVER BUY because of Steam. Sorry Firaxis, you really screwed things up with this decision.
SeismoGraf
Warlord
- Joined
- Jul 17, 2009
- Messages
- 169
None of the options. I have pre-purchased the game on Steam when it was available and expect a good and reliable multiplayer experience like in most other Steam games. Without hesitation I buy every Civilization title that comes out, because no other game has given me so much worth.
Mercade
the Counsellor
So basically you don't buy any games anymore? Because every game has 3rd party software integrated into it. DirectX is another program required for many games. Most companies don't have their own DRM and buy it 3rd party (and I'd rather have Steam than some rootkit garbage). Etc.
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