what Steam means for me

[gps]

Where else can you get up to %75 off in the summer/winter sales?

Maybe in local stores or at Amazon???
Just an example: Civ IV Complete regularly costs 6,99 in my local store. Steam want's 19,99 for Vanilla, 4,99 for Warlords, 9,99 for BTS and 19,99 for Colonization. Oh wow, what a GREAT deal if I get a 75% off in a summer sale - still is twice of what my local store or Amazon want...

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=civilization+iv

http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_sa...efix=civ+iv+co,aps&rh=i:aps,k:civ iv complete

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb...fix=civ+iv+com,aps&rh=i:aps,k:civ iv complete

 

[anandus]

Maybe in local stores or at Amazon???
Just an example: Civ IV Complete regularly costs 6,99 in my local store. Steam want's 19,99 for Vanilla, 4,99 for Warlords, 9,99 for BTS and 19,99 for Colonization. Oh wow, what a GREAT deal if I get a 75% off in a summer sale - still is twice of what my local store or Amazon want...

I'd revise your math skills if I were you, 75% of 24,99 *is* 6,25. Which is cheaper than 6,99
(Also those Complete Editions don't have Colonization, where the Steam Complete Edition does)
So yeah, it is a great deal, plus you don't have to go to a store to get the box, etc.

 

[gps]

(Also those Complete Editions don't have Colonization, where the Steam Complete Edition does)

I save us the pun about your reading skills - this one has Colonization:

http://www.amazon.de/Sid-Meiers-Civ...id=1383728928&sr=8-4&keywords=civ+iv+complete
http://www.amazon.de/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-IV-Ultimate/dp/B00BLE7NBI/ref=dp_ob_title_vg

And this one as an added bonus also has Civ III Complete:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Civilizatio...id=1383728966&sr=8-2&keywords=civ+iv+complete

And the latter one even is DRM free, while a Steam purchase has as an added bonus, well, Steam customer paternalism.
I also wonder why this budget version you just dug up is not displayed prominently when one simply enters "Civilization IV" in the Steam store search field - as I did. There does seem to be an interest to not advertize that cheaper version too much...

P.S.: Actually it does not even show up (for me at least) if I explicitely enter "Civilization IV Complete":

http://store.steampowered.com/search/?snr=1_4_4__12&term=civilization+iv+complete

So sorry, but for me this version does not exist...

 

[ArtieEngineer]

The issue for me is I buy the game to play on vacation at the RV. Purchase the game on the way to the RV with the intent of installing it on the lap top and playing a bit while the kids do whatever. Only gee the thing wont even install without the internet much less play. So now I have spent some of my hard earned money on a game that I intended to play while on vacation only I can't play it until I get home. Boy that sure was an awesome discovery.

Ok I got over that... fast forward a few months.

Sitting there enjoying a game of CIV when some knothead knocks over the power pole knocking out the power AND of course the CABLE which carries my internet. Eight hours later the power comes back on BUT of course no internet yet and thus no STEAM and thus NO CIV V for me. Wont play until it connects and updates.

Not sure I will ever again purchase a game that has to update before it can play the first time. Which is kinda sad cause I was looking forward to some upcoming games BUT I find that everyone of them is that way. YOU may like Steam and I understand YOUR point BUT I do not like games that must update before I can ever play them or that I must purchaseand download online so that I never have the CD/DVD. I dispize games which the producers stop support of in a short time so that I must download a crack in order to continue to play them online.

 

[anandus]

I save us the pun about your reading skills - this one has Colonization [...]

Those weren't the links you posted earlier

I also wonder why this budget version you just dug up is not displayed prominently when one simply enters "Civilization IV" in the Steam store search field - as I did.

I believe it's only on during sales (which I agree is weird, as it's never on at full price).

But in the end Steam is mostly about ease of use, even more so than price (with new games it's often more expensive to buy through Steam than outside Steam).

 

[gps]

Those weren't the links you posted earlier

Not exactly sure what you're trying to prove - THIS:

http://www.amazon.de/Sid-Meiers-Civ...id=1383728928&sr=8-4&keywords=civ+iv+complete

...is #4 on THAT list:

http://www.amazon.de/s/ref=nb_sb_sa...efix=civ+iv+co,aps&rh=i:aps,k:civ iv complete

And if you click THIS:

http://www.amazon.de/Sid-Meiers-Civ...id=1383728928&sr=8-4&keywords=civ+iv+complete

...you get a link to THAT as cheaper/newer version:

http://www.amazon.de/Sid-Meiers-Civilization-IV-Ultimate/dp/B00BLE7NBI/ref=dp_ob_title_vg

 

[ToothedBomb]

The issue for me is I buy the game to play on vacation at the RV. Purchase the game on the way to the RV with the intent of installing it on the lap top and playing a bit while the kids do whatever. Only gee the thing wont even install without the internet much less play. So now I have spent some of my hard earned money on a game that I intended to play while on vacation only I can't play it until I get home. Boy that sure was an awesome discovery.

That's a shame, but it says on the box that the game must be activated online in order to play. You could have known. Otherwise it all comes down to bad luck in your story. Most people just go online and activate the game, never worrying about a thing ever again.

I can understand that people who don't play a lot of games are not thrilled with steam.
It's mostly useful for those who own a lot of games, so they can easily access them in one place where they also have a friends list and achievements.

 

[I was NC]

Thanks to those of you with helpful, constructive comments! This really can be a great community. Who knows, maybe I'll come around.

Regardless you're basically whining that you can't be inconvenienced to retrieve the password to your steam account either by email reset or calling their help line which is very easy I had to do so last time i forgot my steam password.

I suggest reading more carefully before being critical. My complaint is that a password is necessary at all.

I can think of no legitimate reason to "hate" steam

Never said I did. Again, read carefully before being critical.

With the wonders of steam I can buy things like a season pass for a certain game entitling me to all the DLC at a flat cost which is usually far less than what the things would have cost purchased individually. Better yet I can preorder the games expansion and I get a discount, and never have to leave my chair.

My very first comment was to acknowledge there being benefits. Notice a theme here?

Your explanation in no way explains why steam is bad for some unless you happen to forget your credentials and are not inclined to just go about resetting them.

I was unable to play the game. In my book that's bad.

 

[Shimmler]

I am in love with Steam and I always keep it online when my machine is on.

 

[Irkalla]

Where else can you get up to %75 off in the summer/winter sales?

My bugbear with steam is normally I log in via the client but purchase games via the steam web-site. Now steam thinks I've logged on from a different computer so i need to wait for that security pin via email....

You can disable that, it's called SteamGuard.

It's funny, most of the people that have problems with steam don't know how to use it at all, lol

 

[Sesquiterpene]

Offline Steam is useless for anybody who need to disconnect from the internet for more than few days.
I used to take a laptop to remote working areas in which I was disconnected for 2-3 weeks every time. After exactly one week Steam suddenly loses the login credentials and tells you that you won't be able to play anything till you connect to the internet.

That is very frustrating and almost amounts to fraud because Steam clearly states that you can play your games offline.

 

[Mudrac]

Thanks to Steam indie scene thrived and people are always ready to judge something instead of trying to see its good sides. Most of the people who hate Steam are forgetting that releasing a game as a retail and advertising it, is not really cheap. So if one man who makes a game or a small indie team with little money in their pockets who don't want to work for those big-ass companies and would have to bend to their stupid rules find Steam as great thing. It puts a small advertisement that their game is out, people see it and buy it and thanks to that we found out about great indie jewels and some of them became quite popular. I had Steam in off-line mode for more than a month and could play games with no problem just to tell people who seem to have a problem with that.

 

[BroOfTheSun]

Offline Steam is useless for anybody who need to disconnect from the internet for more than few days.
I used to take a laptop to remote working areas in which I was disconnected for 2-3 weeks every time. After exactly one week Steam suddenly loses the login credentials and tells you that you won't be able to play anything till you connect to the internet.

That is very frustrating and almost amounts to fraud because Steam clearly states that you can play your games offline.

I've had cases where I didn't login to steam for several months. So I try to start a game, only to find out steam won't let me without going online. I go on the internet looking for steam to update itself, seeing that instead it just crashes instead of updating. So I have to un-install and re-install steam, which also happens to delete every game that is connected through steam. Now, because of my internet, I have to install steam again (at least 1 hr), and download the game I want to play (at least 1 week with patches). Thanks Steam. Turning a simple process of starting up a game into a week long wait.

For all the people out there who love steam, I'm assuming you also have good internet connections. Not crappy connections where it takes 20 mins to dload an 8 mb update from steam. Or even 5 mins just to login to steam.

 

[Sesquiterpene]

I've had cases where I didn't login to steam for several months. So I try to start a game, only to find out steam won't let me without going online. I go on the internet looking for steam to update itself, seeing that instead it just crashes instead of updating. So I have to un-install and re-install steam, which also happens to delete every game that is connected through steam. Now, because of my internet, I have to install steam again (at least 1 hr), and download the game I want to play (at least 1 week with patches). Thanks Steam. Turning a simple process of starting up a game into a week long wait.

For all the people out there who love steam, I'm assuming you also have good internet connections. Not crappy connections where it takes 20 mins to dload an 8 mb update from steam. Or even 5 mins just to login to steam.

That's another big issue. I used to travel to countries where the connection is much slower, and sometimes it'd take hours to update steam because after each crash you must restart the download. It'd be easy to solve if the download manager could only continue the download from before the crash.
On the other hand, that's more understandable because I imagine that the vast majority of customers are in countries where fast connection has been the standard for a couple of good years by now.

 

[Socratatus]

DRM is a double edged sword. The forced-online is grating (was potentially a much bigger issue for the next set of consoles than Steam, but writing on the wall is that this will eventually become mostly standard, or they'll lock enough features from games to make playing offline unappealing and still claim offline mode exists). Now, if Steam can do what Microsoft has proven to be an utter failure at and prevent cheaters from hacking games, they might have more justification for themselves. I have a bit of a personal soft spot if steambox becomes cross platform compatible, too. Pushing developers out of directx could be useful.

Unfortunately game companies are going to get their way with this, because enough people accept its existence. It's a little mini-study of the problem with politics in general; regardless of whether something is viable, simply limiting full details on its implications and forcing it on a populace with some promises will get you enough support to win. Steam is no different, and has managed to outplay its competition. Thanks to other gamers, your choices are to use it or not play, but maddeningly if other gamers didn't exist, the games wouldn't in the first place.

So we have to deal with suboptimal choices forced on us by masses of ill-informed consumers/whatever every day. The key word there is deal with it though; enjoy what you can and try to make the rest not affect you as much as possible.

wow. Well said.

Offline Steam is useless for anybody who need to disconnect from the internet for more than few days.
I used to take a laptop to remote working areas in which I was disconnected for 2-3 weeks every time. After exactly one week Steam suddenly loses the login credentials and tells you that you won't be able to play anything till you connect to the internet.

That is very frustrating and almost amounts to fraud because Steam clearly states that you can play your games offline.

This. I`ve had it happen to me again and again. Frustrating beyond belief when you`ve been on a long game. Should be illegal when you`ve paid for it.

However, for others, older games and GOG offers some relief. Not sure how much longer I myself will tolerate Steam mandatory games. It`s not fun if you`re a single player, especially if you lose net connection for any amount of time.

 

[Magma_Dragoon]

The options you have are not Steam or going back to CDs, but between Steam and a proprietary digital distribution system like Origin and Uplay.

I can't speak for Origin, but Uplay is godawful. HoMM6 for instance, months after release, upon activating your copy of the game, you'd get kicked off with a message that your license was already in use (by you, when you activated). And Anno 2070, they provided a corrupted copy of the game that constantly crashed on one of their download mirrors. And to top it off, you have to log out and log back in to switch to a different game. Really, I think we should threaten France with sanctions if Ubi doesn't get it's act together.

I have never had a problem with Steam... except Civ5 trying to dl the game files instead installing off the CD, and I didn't want to wait 30 minutes to dl and had to look up how to force install from the disc. But no biggie.

 

[NASAROG]

It a central clearing house for my PC games. I buy them on sale (always) and enjoy them when I feel like it. That's it.

 

[ArtieEngineer]

That's a shame, but it says on the box that the game must be activated online in order to play. You could have known. Otherwise it all comes down to bad luck in your story. Most people just go online and activate the game, never worrying about a thing ever again.

I can understand that people who don't play a lot of games are not thrilled with steam.
It's mostly useful for those who own a lot of games, so they can easily access them in one place where they also have a friends list and achievements.

It was indeed "bad luck". My friend wanted me to purchase CIV V so we could play only he forgot to tell me about steam and I didn't look. (I had wanted to have some clue what I was doing when we played so was intending to get a bit of experience while I was on vacation)

I'd love to say I went online activated and never had to worry again but it seems that sometimes it has to update before it will play and if for some reason my internet is balky that day well it wont update and thus I can not play until it can.

 

[RonMar]

My main computer was in the shop for more than two week. I used my wife's computer for that time. I had the shop send me my latest save game file, then reactivated Steam on wife's computer which had been mine before that.

I keep passwords in an encrypted password file because I knew I wouldn't remember it and would need it some time.

It took a while to update and add the expansions and I was able to finish my game.

My main computer is now back (yesterday). Yes, I had to enter the password again, but I am back in business.

 

[ragan651]

I understand it provides benefits to many of you. I've read about them on this very forum. However, for various reasons none of them apply to me.

Rather, what happens is the following sequence. I go to open Civ, and instead Steam launches. The dialogue box for on or offline appears. I choose the latter, and it immediately starts trying to connect to my account (thus indicating an... incomplete understanding of the term offline). Then nothing. I try again, and nothing. Maybe the third time is the charm? Nope, nothing.

Perhaps it's holding my playing the game hostage to going online? I pick that option instead. Then it asks for my password. The one I created almost a year ago as a condition of buying the game and haven't used since. Needless to say it's not at the front of my brain. Plus, again, I don't need it for ANYTHING.

After backing out and trying again, I don't even have the option of trying offline. The software goes directly to the password screen, but then disappears before I can even try it.

So there you go. No Civ for me.

The bottom line: I would pay Firaxis, or even Steam, $100 to not have to deal with this crap again. That's $100 more than Steam will ever make from me buying a different game.

Again, I get that Steam is great for many of you. Hopefully the above explains why it's not for some others.

What happened is your computer doesn't have your Steam credentials saved, for whatever reason. If you haven't used Steam in over a year, that might be part of it. Last year the offline mode was glitchy.

What you need to do is go online and open Steam and enter your password, and check the box to remember your password. Then when Steam loads, open the top left menu that says "Steam" and click "Go offline...". Steam will restart in offline mode, and you shouldn't have this problem again.

I recommend, in case it glitches out, logging in periodically and redoing these steps, every couple of months to make sure credentials are saved. But you don't have to.