Civilization 5 and Steam(works)

[Wotan]

My issue and the reason this will be the first civ iteration I will not buy is the plain fact i want to be able to play the game even if it is discontinued from service sometime in the distant future. I still play all my civ versions including sometimes opening a game of civ 1 on an old 25Mhz 486 "antiques show" PC.

With the inclusion of Steam I will be dependent on Steam being available in 20 years time. And I am not so sure about that....

Thus I will absolutely NOT buy it. Sad as it is.

 

[Grouchey]

Has anyone discussed yet the frequent phishing that takes place on Steam and the problem of losing all your games due to a hacked account? Try a search ("steam" "hacked" "account" in the Steam forums, there are some horror stories:

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/

 

[Toni1]

I will definitely NOT buy the game, because of Steam.

I've already provided my reasons several times before but in short I will never ever buy from steam nor buy any product infected with steamworks, period.

 

[JBConquests]

I will spend my money on Civ 5 regardless of Steam and hope steam via some miracle will allow me to play Civ 5. If steam won't, I will seek other workarounds.

One question.

It isn't clear to me how MP will work. I don't play Civ 4 MP via gamespy and have no desire to play over the internet - I only play MP in Civ 4 via LAN games.

Will this still be an option in Civ 5 - can I play MP privately via LAN game or will I have to go through steam and make my game appear on the internet?

 

[Senethro]

I will spend my money on Civ 5 regardless of Steam and hope steam via some miracle will allow me to play Civ 5. If steam won't, I will seek other workarounds.

One question.

It isn't clear to me how MP will work. I don't play Civ 4 MP via gamespy and have no desire to play over the internet - I only play MP in Civ 4 via LAN games.

Will this still be an option in Civ 5 - can I play MP privately via LAN game or will I have to go through steam and make my game appear on the internet?

There will certainly be some way to make the game private, either by passwording it or limiting it to SteamFriends only. I don't think we know if LAN play is available and if it can be used in Steam's Offline Mode.

 

[Grouchey]

Well, this is interesting:

I just bought a game called Stalker, Call of Pripyat for $9.97 on Gamers Gate. It's the "loyalty edition" which means it's discounted for people who own previous games in the same series. I owned Shadow of Chernobyl from a DVD and so I just installed the new game and it's good to go.

Apparently if I'd purchased the exact same "loyalty edition" game on Steam it would not have worked at all, because I didn't buy my other Stalker game on Steam.

Loyalty Promo grants a discount off Call of Pripyat if you already own the Steam Version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. Please note that you need to have Clear Sky or Shadow of Chernobyl registered to your Steam account before purchasing Call of Pripyat to receive the discounted price.

Now that is what I call a rip-off.
Caveat Emptor: be very careful before you buy anything discounted on Steam. I'm sure the apologists will let everyone know why it's really a good thing to have to buy the same game twice to get a discount edition.

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=13874163&highlight=loyalty#post13874163

 

[Senethro]

You found someone offering a better price on a single game than Steam. Whats that supposed to prove?

 

[tom2050]

There is a whole lot of stuff better price elsewhere than Steam. Steam is not exactly Walmart.

 

[Alki]

Indeed, I probably won't buy Civ 5 from Steam. I'll order it from Play or whoever will sell it to me cheapest. If Steam is cheapest then they'll get my €s.

 

[PieceOfMind]

Well, it's not unrealistic or exaggerating to call Steam's default behaviour (i.e. you don't change any settings) adware. It's no wonder people eventually believe it has the best prices. It does often have the best prices, but rarely are those prices significantly cheaper than elsewhere. And assuming there is a small but non-zero value to boxed copies over digitial downloads, Steam would often be worse value than other distributors, even when it is marginally better quoted price.
By building customer loyalty, Valve ensures people will tend to trust that Steam's 50 or 75% specials as significant price reductions. They are significant price reductions, but down from inflated prices based on the market value.

 

[Grouchey]

You found someone offering a better price on a single game than Steam. Whats that supposed to prove?

No you didn't understand -- which isn't surprising, as people get confused by Steam's terms and conditions.

Here's the rub: a person can buy a game on Steam that won't run at all unless the related game was purchased on Steam. By contrast, purchase the exact same game for the exact same price on Impulse in the same situation and it will run even though the related game was not purchased on Impulse.

This has not always been made clear by Steam. For example, several months ago Steam was pushing EU3's expansion, Heir to the Throne. It won't run unless you also purchase EU3 on Steam. Now there's a big disclaimer on Steam about this right now, but it wasn't there before -- you actually had to dig around a bit on the forums to figure out that the game wouldn't run. I know because I almost bought it.

So I will repeat what I said before -- be very careful buying anything on Steam, especially on sale. You may be ripped off.

 

[Tylerryan79]

@grouchey

Loyalty Promo grants a discount off Call of Pripyat if you already own the Steam Version of S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Clear Sky or S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Shadow of Chernobyl. Please note that you need to have Clear Sky or Shadow of Chernobyl registered to your Steam account before purchasing Call of Pripyat to receive the discounted price.


I dont use steam, or own these games, however I may have a work around for this problem. I have read on these forums the ability to have nonsteam games be added to your steam play list. Could that be what it means with having the games registered with your steam account also? I honestly dont know, but it seems probable?

Edit: Clearly I need my glasses, because it obviously states you need the Steam Versions of the game in the fist sentence.... Just disregard lol, no work around here, la la la....

 

[Senethro]

I'm pretty sure Steam always clearly states what you need with regards to expansions and stuff. I would have bought the Steam S:CoP loyalty promo except that I don't have a Steam version of S:SoC. The Steam store page told me what I needed to know.

 

[MaxCiv]

There is a whole lot of stuff better price elsewhere than Steam. Steam is not exactly Walmart.

That may be truth in some cases, but the problem with boxed games sold in the bargain's bin, is that you actually have to go around hoping to find what you are looking for. I don't have time to drive around all Walmarts, Bestbuy, EBgames, etc in my city just hoping to find a copy of Civ 3 or Cive 4 complete at ultra discounted price.

I recently got both of them from Steam for $1.75 and $14.99 with a few clicks. Convenience for me is a huge added value in my decision to buy games on Steam.

 

[Grouchey]

I'm pretty sure Steam always clearly states what you need with regards to expansions and stuff. I would have bought the Steam S:CoP loyalty promo except that I don't have a Steam version of S:SoC. The Steam store page told me what I needed to know.

Couple quick points 1.) Admit that it's ridiculous and unfriendly to consumers for any company to sell a widely distributed game edition with such pre-conditions. 2.) Only Steam does it afaik . 3.) I've posted about my experience with Heir to the Throne on Steam, you don't have to believe it, but I'm sure I wasn't alone. 4.) Hopefully Steam will be clear about their rip off from now on but they haven't always been-- so it's a hope nothing more. 5.) Grab the CoP game on Gamers Gate this week as it's compatible with any SoC version you have

 

[PieceOfMind]

MaxCiv, I recommend trying ebay, if you haven't already. It's a similar convenience level to Steam, and you can buy boxed copies. You pay postage but at least you don't have to spend time and money driving to the store. I agree with you it's impractical to seek out particular games by looking at bargain bins. That's why I use ebay. Civ4 complete, for example, I can pick up its boxed version for much the same price as what Steam offers when its on special (for its non-boxed copy). Remember that many ebay business operate with very low overheads. That means they are some of the strongest competition for digital distributors. The digital distributors like Steam are more likely to match or only marginally beat the price of retail stores. Retails stores do have higher overheads in general. That's why Steam is ripping you off most of the time, and when it has specials the price is actually fair.

 

[Gelvan]

since 59% of civfanatic forum members probably or definitely won't buy civ5, one could wonder, if the community (e.g. modding) will ever catch up with civ4's (modding) community. since most of the steam fanboys here are new users (mai 2010) to civfanatics, at least some of the skills will be gone. maybe some of the newbies will be the new civ5 modders, but still many fans of the old games, are lost.
if you talk about the "good things, halleluja, that steam brings, umpapah" then what about all the bad things it brings? not only the bad things it IS, but the "colateral damage" from the decision to make a steam only version of civ5. which could be that 59% of the civ FANS (and some modders) won't buy it, because it is a huge step in the wrong direction.
well, if we are unlucky it will be a Moo3 desaster anyway (macromanagement). if so, then Steam saved some bucks for the 59%...
from being very excited to completely disappointed in only 3 days.
thank you take2 - your marketing is overwhelming...

 

[Senethro]

Where are you pulling the 59% from?

 

[eireksten]

@Gelvan:

Right now I'm just wondering where you got that 59% number from?

 

[mjs0]

since 59% of civfanatic forum members probably or definitely won't buy civ5, one could wonder, if the community (e.g. modding) will ever catch up with civ4's (modding) community. since most of the steam fanboys here are new users (mai 2010) to civfanatics, at least some of the skills will be gone. maybe some of the newbies will be the new civ5 modders, but still many fans of the old games, are lost.
if you talk about the "good things, halleluja, that steam brings, umpapah" then what about all the bad things it brings? not only the bad things it IS, but the "colateral damage" from the decision to make a steam only version of civ5. which could be that 59% of the civ FANS (and some modders) won't buy it, because it is a huge step in the wrong direction.
well, if we are unlucky it will be a Moo3 desaster anyway (macromanagement). if so, then Steam saved some bucks for the 59%...
from being very excited to completely disappointed in only 3 days.
thank you take2 - your marketing is overwhelming...

Uhh....let's do a quick math check shall we...

59% of 185 is 109 (ish).
I see 40+9 = 49 people that voted they probably or definitely will not be buying the game.
(49 out of 185 is 26%)

I suspect the other 60 (to get to 109) came from misreading the bottom two options which are actually definite buys