Steamed!!!!!!

[NBK]

Hi

Can i buy the Civ5 at Amazon.com and not have to have steam on my computer?

Thanks
NBK

[·Imhotep·]

You'll need Steam in any case, whether you buy Civ V at Amazon or via download.

[NBK]

You'll need Steam in any case, whether you buy Civ V at Amazon or via download.

Thanks for responding,

I guess i will not buy it...

NBK

[Nostromo]

I don't understand why some people are making such a huge deal about this...

[self biased]

don't let the screen door hit you in the ass on the way out.

[Hauldren Collider]

I just bought two games on steam yesterday. It was painless and easy and I don't need a CD to play them. And if I want to put them on another computer I just download steam and all my games there. It's great! I love it.

[Proteus_MST]

So (assuming I buy the DVD version) is it necessary to have a live internet connection every time I want to play?

Or only the first time I start it, for authentification, and every time I want to check for updates?

[vulture]

So (assuming I buy the DVD version) is it necessary to have a live internet connection every time I want to play?

Or only the first time I start it, for authentification, and every time I want to check for updates?

You need an active connection when you first install to activate the game. After that you can set the game to offline mode and play without an active internet connection.

In theory.

Some people have had problem with games refusing to work in offline mode, although I don't know to what extent that has been fixed or how many people have problems.

In offline mode the steam client still connects to the internet if it can to check for updates and (and this is a downside IMHO) if there is a patch for the game, it won't let you play until the patch is downloaded. Which can be annoying if you have a slow connection (or happen to be in the middle of a game and don't want to be forced to abandon it due to incompatible saves, which has happened on occasion with previous civ releases). Or if you plain think that an earlier patch is better (which has also happened, when a new patch happens to break something that particularly annoys you).

[Hauldren Collider]

So (assuming I buy the DVD version) is it necessary to have a live internet connection every time I want to play?

No.

[Proteus_MST]

You need an active connection when you first install to activate the game. After that you can set the game to offline mode and play without an active internet connection.

In theory.

Some people have had problem with games refusing to work in offline mode, although I don't know to what extent that has been fixed or how many people have problems.

In offline mode the steam client still connects to the internet if it can to check for updates and (and this is a downside IMHO) if there is a patch for the game, it won't let you play until the patch is downloaded. Which can be annoying if you have a slow connection (or happen to be in the middle of a game and don't want to be forced to abandon it due to incompatible saves, which has happened on occasion with previous civ releases). Or if you plain think that an earlier patch is better (which has also happened, when a new patch happens to break something that particularly annoys you).

Oh...
does the client have to be running to play the game,
or could I decide to play the game with the steam client being deactivated?
(so that with civ in offline mode and without the client being active, there is no danger of an update (that I don´t want) being applied)

[self biased]

Steam does have to be active to run Civ V, but as it has been said; it doesn't need to have an internet connection at the time and can be set to "offline mode." Steam also doesn't take up too many resources either, so performance issues shouldn't be a factor.

[Guynemer]

Seriously, I don't get the anti-Steam faction. Can someone explain this to me, logically? As just an average, run-of-the-mill computer game consumer, I don't see what the big deal is.

[Proteus_MST]

Seriously, I don't get the anti-Steam faction. Can someone explain this to me, logically? As just an average, run-of-the-mill computer game consumer, I don't see what the big deal is.

Lots of things...

• that you have to have a separate client running, while playing the game, which, as laid out in the thread, will (no matter if you want it or not) try to establish an internet connection if internet acces is available
• that, according to the thread, it might even cause your current game to stop working if a new patch is available and hasn´t been applied yet
• (in most games) that you cannot apply manual patches that you have downloaded from the game developers website, but instead are forced to apply the patches steam provides (AFAIK already has led to many problems, concerning the speed of steam providing you with patches, concerning the quality of the patches [vs. the quality of the patches the developer itself provides] and also multiplayer problems between people who bought their games the "normal way" and people who bought the same game from steam (with game versions patched by steam sometimes not getting recognized as the same versions as games that were patched with "normal" patches)

That´s, at least, what comes into my mind at once.
But if the things you can read in the wikipedia are correct, there are some other things to criticize:
For example, that steam forces people to buy the games with the currency of the country of their origin,
while at the same time offering unfavorable exchange rates from these currencies to US-$ (according to Wikipedia 1 € = 1 $ which makes games ~30% more expensive if you buy them in europe.
According to wikipedia you are also forced to register the game in the country where you bought it, which obviously means that, for example, if I buy a steam game in germany, and some month later emigrate to switzerland, I probably wouldn´t be able to reactivate the game on another computer (probably it also means that I will be forced to buy the DVD version of the game in germany and not be able to, for example, buy it via eBay in the UK, where often, you could get games cheaper)

Wikipedia

[Dinner]

Thanks for responding,

I guess i will not buy it...

NBK

I'm kind of in the same book in that I despise, despise, despise steam as it takes control from me and requires me to log in every single time I want to play the game but in the end I know I'll buy it just like I bought the Civ3 with all of its expansion packs even though Civ3 was a steaming turd.

[Hauldren Collider]

Guys, steam is not a big deal. It connects to the internet, but so does my IM client. Whoop de ****ing do. It logs me into something that gives me a convenient way to get online multiplayer and download DLC, how is that bad? You guys have something up yer asses if you think Steam is a problem.

Also patching in steam is probably the single least intrusive patching process I've ever seen. It's completely painless and automatic. It rocks.