Getting off on the wrong foot with Steam

I got a new computer recently and I was eager to put it through its paces. My friend lent me his copy of Empire Total War and I thought seeing as I love the Total War series and I had a couple of weeks before being paid to buy the game - I would borrow it first.

When I was trying to install the game before it could actually get to the install proper it told me there was a problem connecting to the Steam service and the install cancelled. I'm not much of a PC gamer but from my understanding Steam was an online game distribution service, so I was a bit baffled by this as it was a game on disc... Anyway, I tried the next day and it still couldn't connect. Then the day after it connected and installed the game! Huzzah. I put in the license key and got ready to play but when I tried to play the game a steam warning appeared saying that the key is registered to another machine and therefore was unable to start...

My friend however could still play the game even without the disc. So basically what I've learned from this experience is that unlike the days when I was young and me and my friends lent each other Master System games because we had no money to buy EVERY FUCKING GAME we wanted to try, we have to BUY a game if we want to play it.

Also, this means that if you don't have the internet, you don't get to play the game. I know that most people have the net these days, but there's far from everyone and I'm sure there are still PC gamers that don't have internet.

Basically, this is fucking bullshit. I've always considered game lending and borrowing an important part of being a gamer. Especially these days with games coming out left right and center, if there's an especially good line up of games coming out at holiday season it's not feasible from a financial and time perspective to buy every fucking one of them.

What's WATMM's view on this? I know that console gaming is still exempt from this online activation shit but it's only a matter of time before that changes too.

crass

Thanks for your contribution.

watch the ride prik face

well i'm surprised you're surprised with the whole "entering the same cd key twice = no no" thing...i can remember thing sort of thing being an issue long before steam

BL on the no internet thing. i know that steam DOES have an offline mode (or used to, havent had to worry about it for ages) - but ya, if the game (singleplayer or multiplayer) needs updating, pretty sure you cant play it.

you're right that with steam, trading games with friends is gone- but you can still trade steam accounts.

i'm a fan of steam (although in its early days it was a nightmare), and that is one of my favourite things about it, the games are tied to your account. reformat/new PC? log into your steam account and all your games are there - you just need to download them.

but yes. steam + no/shit internet = must be lame

seems odd that even with the actual game CDs steam needed to poke its nose in, are you sure having anything to do with steam was mandatory?

  thief said:

well i'm surprised you're surprised with the whole "entering the same cd key twice = no no" thing...i can remember thing sort of thing being an issue long before steam

 

BL on the no internet thing. i know that steam DOES have an offline mode (or used to, havent had to worry about it for ages) - but ya, if the game (singleplayer or multiplayer) needs updating, pretty sure you cant play it.

 

you're right that with steam, trading games with friends is gone- but you can still trade steam accounts.

i'm a fan of steam (although in its early days it was a nightmare), and that is one of my favourite things about it, the games are tied to your account. reformat/new PC? log into your steam account and all your games are there - you just need to download them.

 

but yes. steam + no/shit internet = must be lame

 

 

seems odd that even with the actual game CDs steam needed to poke its nose in, are you sure having anything to do with steam was mandatory?

Well, as far as same cd key twice thing, I wasn't really all that surprised I guess (although believe it or not I've not run into this before with two separate PC game installations). Stupid point there. My main point was that Steam was poking its nose in. That really is fucking stupid in my view. And yes, there was no way around that, apparently it's something happening more and more these days.

I won't deny that using Steam for game downloading is great though, I just don't use it for that. I prefer having physical media for some reason. Feels like I actually OWN it then.

  thief said:

well i'm surprised you're surprised with the whole "entering the same cd key twice = no no" thing...i can remember thing sort of thing being an issue long before steam

 

BL on the no internet thing. i know that steam DOES have an offline mode (or used to, havent had to worry about it for ages) - but ya, if the game (singleplayer or multiplayer) needs updating, pretty sure you cant play it.

 

you're right that with steam, trading games with friends is gone- but you can still trade steam accounts.

i'm a fan of steam (although in its early days it was a nightmare), and that is one of my favourite things about it, the games are tied to your account. reformat/new PC? log into your steam account and all your games are there - you just need to download them.

 

but yes. steam + no/shit internet = must be lame

 

 

seems odd that even with the actual game CDs steam needed to poke its nose in, are you sure having anything to do with steam was mandatory?

maybe you should have blocked steam with your firewall from autochecking the net ... that way maybe it would play in offline mode ... although perhaps you need online authentication for play nowaday ... i dunno .. last few years i've been playing games rately and only on the ps3 .. my brother has a lush steam account padded with every fucking thing ... i should play some stuff on the account but yeah whatever ... too lazy .. guitar to play ..

You definitely have to connect the first time you install a Steam game. I remember when I first bought Half-Life 2 and still had dial-up... WORST THING EVER. I waited and waited for that shit to authenticate. Steam is nice, but I agree about the fact that it is intrusive when it really shouldn't be ie. installing from physical media.

Well if it makes you feel any better empire kinda got fucked from the last patch, so you're probably saving yourself from a bit of frustration. New patch should come out soon tho and there's been a demo version out for a while.

Steam's been good to me, never had trouble with it. If someone doesnt have internet on their computer then sucks for them. Its no different than having a proper video card or processor required to run a game.

  delet... said:

  thief said:

well i'm surprised you're surprised with the whole "entering the same cd key twice = no no" thing...i can remember thing sort of thing being an issue long before steam

 

BL on the no internet thing. i know that steam DOES have an offline mode (or used to, havent had to worry about it for ages) - but ya, if the game (singleplayer or multiplayer) needs updating, pretty sure you cant play it.

 

you're right that with steam, trading games with friends is gone- but you can still trade steam accounts.

i'm a fan of steam (although in its early days it was a nightmare), and that is one of my favourite things about it, the games are tied to your account. reformat/new PC? log into your steam account and all your games are there - you just need to download them.

 

but yes. steam + no/shit internet = must be lame

 

 

seems odd that even with the actual game CDs steam needed to poke its nose in, are you sure having anything to do with steam was mandatory?

 

maybe you should have blocked steam with your firewall from autochecking the net ... that way maybe it would play in offline mode ... although perhaps you need online authentication for play nowaday ... i dunno .. last few years i've been playing games rately and only on the ps3 .. my brother has a lush steam account padded with every fucking thing ... i should play some stuff on the account but yeah whatever ... too lazy .. guitar to play ..

I've been told by people my Steam account is worth a lot because of the number of games/ old titles I have... IDK

  42Orange said:

Well if it makes you feel any better empire kinda got fucked from the last patch, so you're probably saving yourself from a bit of frustration. New patch should come out soon tho and there's been a demo version out for a while.

 

Steam's been good to me, never had trouble with it. If someone doesnt have internet on their computer then sucks for them. Its no different than having a proper video card or processor required to run a game.

What fucks me off is that my local exchange went down yesterday and we lost internet, I couldn't even fucking play the game I had installed. Playing with my disc and everything. It's so ridiculous.

Fuck Total War, get Plants v Zombies. I like Steam, without them there wouldnt be a market place for PC gaming. Im guessing you had trouble connecting at weekend as they were giving away trail UT and it clogged up the servers.

  Dirty Protest said:

Fuck Total War, get Plants v Zombies. I like Steam, without them there wouldnt be a market place for PC gaming. Im guessing you had trouble connecting at weekend as they were giving away trail UT and it clogged up the servers.

I have a special place in my heart for Total War since Rome. I fucking love these games.

It's just astounding that a game I have bought, installed 14GB of files and have the disc for won't let me play without internet connectivity. That is horse shit.

If there was some sort of offline mode to let me play it that would be wicked, but alas.. No such thing.

SHIT

You could just borrow your friends Steam password and as long as your not on at the same time it shouldnt be a problem.

send steam development team box of laxative chocolates in the mail

  Dirty Protest said:

You could just borrow your friends Steam password and as long as your not on at the same time it shouldnt be a problem.

Won't make a difference without internet though would it?

I should mention this is my copy of Empire installed now. And I have internet again today so it's not a problem. Still fucking frustrating though.

I'm with you obel. nobody so far in this thread seems to understand what a cock of shit that is.

you can restart steam in offline mode and play the game once you have installed/activated it online

  Hautlle said:

you can restart steam in offline mode and play the game once you have installed/activated it online

Nice one. But this still means if I'm in online mode and I randomly lose internet again (admittedly it's rare but it happens) then I'm boned because I can't connect to restart it in offline mode! So, I think that's a design flaw.

i miss the days when they just tried to stop you from photocopying the key sheet

i remember i had a photocopied version of the Spear of Desinty manual but very quickly memorized all the answers to the questions.

'Who is the most likely ID developer to become a weatherman?'

'KEVIN CLOUD' <---mother fucker yeah!

  Awepittance said:

i miss the days when they just tried to stop you from photocopying the key sheet

 

i remember i had a photocopied version of the Spear of Desinty manual but very quickly memorized all the answers to the questions.

 

'Who is the most likely ID developer to become a weatherman?'

 

'KEVIN CLOUD' <---mother fucker yeah!

Haha! You've gotta be kidding?

  Obel said:

  Hautlle said:

you can restart steam in offline mode and play the game once you have installed/activated it online

 

Nice one. But this still means if I'm in online mode and I randomly lose internet again (admittedly it's rare but it happens) then I'm boned because I can't connect to restart it in offline mode! So, I think that's a design flaw.

Actually if you lose internet in online mode just close steam and restart, if it can't connect after so much time it will ask you if you want to start in offline mode or try to connect again.

i was able to play half life 2 in offline mode easily. i think you just need to read the manual or faq of steam.