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

[2K Elizabeth]

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.

Steam games tie to your Steam account, so if, for example, you installed Civilization V and your computer crashed, you could reinstall it again when you fixed the computer or got a new one. You'd just have to reinstall the game and log in with your Steam account.

You can also use the offline mode for Steam if you want to play single player - but if you don't have Steam running in the background it will have to boot up, that's true.

[SpencerH]

Fresh meat.

[Beatie]

you can play offline if you want with steam these days, but is not as easy as a regular brought game. Offcouse shall I buy the game!!! even if threre is a crack version as well. This kind of games should be supported so that they keep making add ons, and other games like this.

[1Razor]

Securom or DRM are bad enough but having to register online before you can even use a legitimately purchased game is just laughable. It is bad enough having to have the CD/DVD in the drive, but just about acceptable.

Any need to register will void this punter making a purchase!

[Dinner]

Real solid Disc for me.

Same here.

[Dinner]

You can also use the offline mode for Steam if you want to play single player - but if you don't have Steam running in the background it will have to boot up, that's true.

Which was my entire objection to begin with.

[Thoth]

If it isn't available on CD/DVD I won't be buying it.

[Nikolai]

I doubt they'll skip CD/DVD. This is an AAA title after all. They can still use Steam if they sell it on DVD.

[Ghaladh]

Something that most people do not consider is the fact that companies can go broken any time. What if I want to play again Civilization V in twelve years from now and Steam no longer exists? Should I throw away the game just because I have no way to activate it?

[Nikolai]

Steam has said they'll release patches for such a situation.

[Greybriar]

Steam has said they'll release patches for such a situation.

But in the Steam Subscriber Agreement (which Steam users MUST agree to) it states:

....C. NO GUARANTEES.

VALVE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE STEAM SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS(S)....

Which do you believe, hearsay or official information?

[Nikolai]

I believe official information, given by Valve funder Gabe Newell. It's not 100% sure, but it's the official line as far as we know.

Source

The source of that statement is a reply that Gabe Newell sent to a user who e-mailed him asking what would happen if Steam closed down. He posted the reply in a thread titled "I emailed Gabe Newell about what would happen if Steam went down" (the thread used to be located here, but this posted was years ago, and the thread no longer exists).

Gabe's response was:

If you right click on a game in Steam, you'll see that you can back up the files yourself. Unless there was some situation I don't understand, we would presumably disable authentication before any event that would preclude the authentication servers from being available.

We've tested disabling authentication and it works.

Of course, this isn't a written-in-stone, legal guarantee. It was just Gabe theorizing, basically.


Now hear this, everyone. The answer to this, and every other thread asking "What happens if Steam closes down?," from here on into eternity, is, concisely and conclusively:
NOBODY KNOWS, NOT EVEN VALVE.

[Roman]

Something that most people do not consider is the fact that companies can go broken any time. What if I want to play again Civilization V in twelve years from now and Steam no longer exists? Should I throw away the game just because I have no way to activate it?

I do consider it. In fact, I place a huge amount of weight on this and refuse to buy any games that require any external activation on install/start-up/etc. for precisely this reason.

[Roman]

Now that we know that Steam will be compulsory on Civilization 5, I can say with confidence that I will not be purchasing the game. It's a pity, but this is my policy with all games that require online activation/connection to work/start/install/activate and I have applied the rule to other games I would have otherwise been sure to purchase, so it will be no different this time. Thankfully, Civilization 4 BTS is such a strong version of the franchise that it will be easily sufficient to give me my Civ fix.

[Ghaladh]

Anyway, although I do not endorse piracy in any way, we still have hope for the future ;-). If Steam goes down, I think there will be "alternative" solution...