Steam Q&A and FAQ

[Rebel44]

1. That's pretty shoddy customer support. The fact a Valve employee doesn't know Civ5 is a Steamworks title (and hence whether you registered a cd key from a retail copy or bought directly from steam is irrelevant) is, while understandable, a bit embarrassing.

2. I'm also surprised they go so quickly to offering you a refund, calling it a "one-time customer service gesture". Perhaps you can politely ask them that they save that one-time gesture for another occasion.

1. I agree that its embarassing (but at least they have excuse that they offer over 1200 games).

2. its their standart copy/paste for refunds

 

[PieceOfMind]

1. I agree that its embarassing (but at least they have excuse that they offer over 1200 games).

That's not an excuse though. Surely any customer service employee should have the skills necessary to check such a thing before stating it as fact to a customer.It looks as though he or she has observed the person's account record, seen that civ5 was attached to steam via a retail key, and from there made the big assumption that the retail version is incompatible with the steam version and its DLCs (which I guess is true for a lot of games, but any person working in this area should know it's not true for all games).

It's just a mistake, but there's no excuse for it (apart from 'everybody makes mistakes').

 

[Senethro]

So whats the actual explanation for why its not compatible?

 

[Maniacal]

The hell? If you want you can bring this to the attention of someone actualyl at Valve (iirc custoemr support is contracted out), like Gabe newell (the CEO and owner, he replies to almost every single e-mail from what I've heard and seen although I've never contacted him myself). That rep is doing a pretty lousy job there. Although afaik they are contracted from a separate company.

http://www.valvesoftware.com/email.php?recipient=Gabe+Newell

There is no difference between Civ5 bought retail and Civ5 bought on Steam.

 

[The_J]

Might be a version problem. e.g. the Civ5 SDK had not been available in the first days for the people who bought the complete edition, so i guess it might probably be something similar here.

 

[Maniacal]

Once its updated it should be exactly the same though. Either way, the map packs are a waste of money.

 

[Aaeamdar]

They replied back today, correcting themselves. Things are now working as intended.

 

[spider1]

There is no difference between Civ5 bought retail and Civ5 bought on Steam.

Exactly, and Steam recognized that on my PC. After I installed Civ V (from my original CD I bought from Amazon) on my new PC, activated my Steam account, all my previous DLCs and patches downloaded and installed on my new PC. Worked just fine.

 

[PieceOfMind]

The Cradle of Civilization maps are hard to find, look at this post: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=9995997&postcount=2

So whats the actual explanation for why its not compatible?

The most likely explanation (by Occam's razor)is provided in the link Furiey provided.

 

[grandad1982]

So what do I do when I can't access my steam account, the retrival process won't work and when I try to sign up to steam support it won't send me the activation email? I feel like I'm dangerously close to not being able to play civ5 or any of my other steam games ever again.

I hate you whoever was involved in making steam part of civ5!

 

[Rebel44]

So what do I do when I can't access my steam account, the retrival process won't work and when I try to sign up to steam support it won't send me the activation email? I feel like I'm dangerously close to not being able to play civ5 or any of my other steam games ever again.

I hate you whoever was involved in making steam part of civ5!

1. make sure that support@steampowered.com is whitelisted in your email spam filter.
2. if that doesnt help, try to register support account to another email address.
3. if that doesnt help contact "BurtonJ" at Steam forum (he is Valve employee) via PM.

 

[grandad1982]

Thanks Rebel44. I tried a new email account (had to start a new steam support account as it wouldn't let me alter the old address) and got the activation/welcome email. Not sure whymy gmail account would work as it isn't filtering steam as spam.

This was 4 hours ago. Anyone know how long steam support generally take to reply?

In fact doe anyone know a phone contact number for them as I can't see one. Or am I just being beong far to optermistic?

 

[Rebel44]

Thanks Rebel44. I tried a new email account (had to start a new steam support account as it wouldn't let me alter the old address) and got the activation/welcome email. Not sure whymy gmail account would work as it isn't filtering steam as spam.

This was 4 hours ago. Anyone know how long steam support generally take to reply?

In fact doe anyone know a phone contact number for them as I can't see one. Or am I just being beong far to optermistic?

no phone number to Steam support

average ticket take 1-2 businnes days. If you provided all required info needed to restore your access to original account you will likely get response next business day (monday).

 

[grandad1982]

Thanks again.

This is all very frustrating. The first time in weeks I've had a chance to put some work in on my LP and I can't play!

 

[Rebel44]

Thanks again.

This is all very frustrating. The first time in weeks I've had a chance to put some work in on my LP and I can't play!

Steam support work even during weekend (but with less people), so if you are lucky your ticket might be resolved today or tomorrow.

I worked as Tech Support for several years and in my experience Steam support is pretty good as long as people provide all necessary info into their ticket.

 

[BluebeardRex]

Bafflingly enough, this afternoon, I am not allowed to use Dx11 on Civ. Just tried to load the game, it tells me I require Service Pack 2 or higher. I'm on a laptop with Win 7 and I was playing the damn thing since the patch without any problems last week. When I look at the compatibility thing on props for Steam, it tells me I am running the program in compatibility mode for Vista???

Any idea anyone?

 

[The_J]

click me.

 

[BluebeardRex]

click me.

Grazie, Maestro!

 

[Strongunit]

I bought the Mediterranean add-on and it does not appear in my Scenarios unlike 1 other that somehow made it there. I see the money for it has already been charged to my credit card. What is the trick to make it appear? Thanks!

 

[The_J]

You have to restart Steam (-> and Civ), else it will not appear. So if you haven't already, then try this please.