Would you buy Civ5 if it was only offered on Steam?

[rah]

My issue with steam was their support. I open a ticket and it takes them 3 days to reply. I don't have that big a problem with that. We we go back and forth a few times and they're averaging about 2 days to respond. Not great but not bad enough to get that pissed at. So finally they post for me to try something new, and the next day they closed the ticket saying that when I eventually get back to them they'll reopen it. Hmmm, they're allowed 2 to 3 days to respond but they only give me 1. That's the type of attitude that loses you customers in the long run.

[ahenobarb]

I travel a lot and end up bored in the hotel room late at night in foreign countries with only two channels I can understand (BBC and CNN), so I play games on my laptop.

That's relevent for two reasons:

1) I hate DRM on game CDs because then i have to carry these with me through airport security (to keep them getting broken by luggage handlers). If you have CDs in your carry-on, you get searched ... every time.

2) I hate steam. I mean, like I really, really hate it. However, if by using steam I can get past the need to carry the CDs with me, I'll take it.

my 2c.

[fetustoast]

Real solid Disc for me.

[Greybriar]

I will buy Civ5 when it doesn't require Steam to be installed on my PC.

[Azuarc]

Hmm, I've had Steam since 2003 and have had no problems whatsoever. It's pretty amazing that a lot of people have no problems, and other people have such terrible experiences. I think that those people had one, maybe two bad experiences and never used it again, but I suppose that's a valid reason to stop using their service. To answer the question, I would absolutely buy Civ5 if it was a Steam only release.

My biggest issue with Steam games is that I have to run them through Steam. Someone recently convinced me to download Trine. Lovely little game, but I have to wait for about 5 minutes to start it because I have to very slowly initiate the Steam client first because it has to authenticate the game first.

Two years ago I bought a copy of Portal -- a hard-copy. The game installed, and then told me I could only ever play the game if I ran it through steam and redeemed the included code. Not only did I find that incredibly annoying, but I also didn't recognize what the "you may only install this game once" line meant -- shortly after installing Portal, my computer crashed and I started over. I thought I could never play again...and incidentally, since discovering that, I still haven't.

I'm very anal about certain things, and one of them is that I don't like background programs running. If Steam were an actual shell that was required to play the games, I might tolerate having it in the background. However, it's no better than a virus scanner -- something that insisted on hiding in the background, chewing up resources (mostly at start-up.) I'm sorry, but I don't want to go near Steam with a 10-foot pole. I have no idea what the hell it's doing while it's running, and it wasn't welcome in the first place. The only programs that will exist on my machine are the ones that I want there.

[wodan11]

Here's a question... is it possible to simply have another login for Windows where Steam (etc) is installed, but it isn't for my normal login? Having not used it I don't know, but I agree with Azuarc's comments.

[SpencerH]

I've never used steam but AFAIK there is an "offline mode" (or some such) that can be used after the initial login/authentication. Is the steam client still running in the background in that mode?

[Nikolai]

I've never used steam but AFAIK there is an "offline mode" (or some such) that can be used after the initial login/authentication. Is the steam client still running in the background in that mode?

If the game supports it, you don't need Steam to be open. Actually, as Steam uses its own DRM and not CD-check, we might be so lucky as to not having the need for neither the CD or Steam open, if the game is bought on CD.

[Azuarc]

If the game supports it, you don't need Steam to be open. Actually, as Steam uses its own DRM and not CD-check, we might be so lucky as to not having the need for neither the CD or Steam open, if the game is bought on CD.

O rly? Do you have any games that do this now? I use Steam so infrequently that I've never tried, but my Portal does force me to deploy Steam, and I've never looked into the offline thing.


Also, to the ~31% who picked the "no way" option, how many of you are gonna cave after the game comes out? It's one thing to say you refuse to buy a game because it's on Steam, but it's another for someone who posts on a dedicated fansite (and by extension, then, is a dedicated fan) to not purchase the next sequel in the series.

[Aro]

I've never used steam but AFAIK there is an "offline mode" (or some such) that can be used after the initial login/authentication. Is the steam client still running in the background in that mode?

Yes.

[SpencerH]

Yes.

Thanks, I guess the question I was actually asking was whether the client is running when the game is not?

[Guynemer]

You can turn it off.

[wodan11]

Here's a question... is it possible to simply have another login for Windows where Steam (etc) is installed, but it isn't for my normal login?

Nobody answered my question... anyone who's used Steam before know?

[ColdWizard]

Also, to the ~31% who picked the "no way" option, how many of you are gonna cave after the game comes out? It's one thing to say you refuse to buy a game because it's on Steam, but it's another for someone who posts on a dedicated fansite (and by extension, then, is a dedicated fan) to not purchase the next sequel in the series.

Some of us remain on the forums for reasons other than civ. For various reasons there's no game that will be a must-buy for me. I see no reason to install and run Steam for a game at this time.

[Closey]

Nobody answered my question... anyone who's used Steam before know?

Don't really see the point tbh.. just turn configure Steam not to auto start with Windows and you won't have it running when you're not playing? If you're going to play you'll have a slight delay while the client starts before you get to start the actual game, that's it.