Cant play Civ V. Waiting on help from Steam

[Lesbaker]

Bought CD of Civ V today (in UK) loaded on successfully with all the appropriate registrations. When I click on the "play" button (in steam) I get a brief black screen pop up followed by a return to the steam screen. Of course my e-mails to steam support remain unanswered. (had to create two sets of logins to access "support"
My main question, (unless someone can troubleshoot my problem in this forum) is why is this all so ******* complicated for a PC game. Why has SM made us register via Steam in order to be able to play a game on our PC?
Les (still a Civ II & IV lover until I can give Civ V a chance)

[Snotty]

Did the demo work for you?

[Lesbaker]

Did the demo work for you?

Demo? How do you access the Demo?
Les

[Dinner]

I got it on steam. Turn Steam on, go to demos, scroll down to Civ5.