Rant about Internet activation of games

[Egbert]

I was in the games store today.

I saw "Goat Simultor" for A$16 and reached for it with excitement. Reading the system specs I saw it needed Internet activation via Steam.

Next I reached for Europa Universalis IV. That also needed Internet activation via Steam.

I don't want to pay money to whoever "Steam" are to play my games, I paid good money for those games. They're mine I tell you, mine, yes mine, all mine.

I presume if Steam shuts down I can't activate the games again.

I did not buy these games. I will not buy these games if I must use some thoroughly useless third party service to play them.

After all I am still playing Master of Orion 2, some 20 years after I bought it. Good job I don't need to activate on the internet every time I get a new computer.

Did I mention that I loathe internet activation.

<< That icon is insufficient. Imagine it to be "Wiglaf angry".

/ end of rant

[kentonio]

I was in the games store today.

I saw "Goat Simultor" for A$16 and reached for it with excitement. Reading the system specs I saw it needed Internet activation via Steam.

Next I reached for Europa Universalis IV. That also needed Internet activation via Steam.

I don't want to pay money to whoever "Steam" are to play my games, I paid good money for those games. They're mine I tell you, mine, yes mine, all mine.

I presume if Steam shuts down I can't activate the games again.

I did not buy these games. I will not buy these games if I must use some thoroughly useless third party service to play them.

After all I am still playing Master of Orion 2, some 20 years after I bought it. Good job I don't need to activate on the internet every time I get a new computer.

Did I mention that I loathe internet activation.

<< That icon is insufficient. Imagine it to be "Wiglaf angry".

/ end of rant

You don't pay money to Steam, its free. It's also awesome, as your games are all kept in a single launcher, they auto-update if you want, and Steam do endless sales allowing you to buy games for next to nothing. Also after you've installed them through Steam, you don't need Steam to actually play them anymore, they run fine in offline mode too.

Oh and Steam isn't going to close any time soon, as they're the monopoly provider for online PC games and are owned by Valve who are majestically rich.

Oh and I <3 Steam in case that wasn't clear by now.

[Egbert]

You don't pay money to Steam, its free. It's also awesome, as your games are all kept in a single launcher, they auto-update if you want, and Steam do endless sales allowing you to buy games for next to nothing. Also after you've installed them through Steam, you don't need Steam to actually play them anymore, they run fine in offline mode too.

Oh and Steam isn't going to close any time soon, as they're the monopoly provider for online PC games and are owned by Valve who are majestically rich.

Oh and I <3 Steam in case that wasn't clear by now.

Thanks Ken. What you said made sense.

Sounds like your almost ready to go to Gretna Green with Steam.

I am however a pigheaded crotchety old bastard who wants nothing to do with all this internet activation stuff.

[Apocalypse]

I was about ready to boycott steam a few months ago, but their refund policy they implemented is very consumer friendly. Also many companies seem to have a high rate of replying to negative reviews, at a better rate than Amazon.

I'm also going to bypass Fallout 4 and wait for Fallout 4: New Vegas so I don't care about the paid mods issue.

[kentonio]

Thanks Ken. What you said made sense.

Sounds like your almost ready to go to Gretna Green with Steam.

I am however a pigheaded crotchety old bastard who wants nothing to do with all this internet activation stuff.

I hated it when it first launched (it had an awful launch), but its just become central to PC gaming for me now. A few times I've bought stuff that isn't on Steam on PC, and its been annoying as hell not having the convenience. Yeah, I'm a full on fanboy these days.

[Proteus_MST]

I have to agree.
I was rather sceptical when I first joined Steam around 5 years ago.
(and rather reluctant to join it firstplace because of privacy considerations)

But since then I have begun to like it.
They are reliable and their prices during Summer, Fall and Holiday Sales, even for newer games, are definitely great (I am 100% sure that I would have bought less than 1/4 of the games I bought ... and I would probably have paid double the money for each game.

I can also say nothing bad about customer support.
I once bought a DLC in presale on Steam ... and then found it cheaper at another location. It was no problem for me to cancel the sale on Steam, order the DLC at the other location and then reregister the key on Steam.

[Aeson]

I only mobile game now, PC games are for dinosaurs

[Main_Brain]

I was about ready to boycott steam a few months ago, but their refund policy they implemented is very consumer friendly. Also many companies seem to have a high rate of replying to negative reviews, at a better rate than Amazon.

I'm also going to bypass Fallout 4 and wait for Fallout 4: New Vegas so I don't care about the paid mods issue.

More likely it would be Fallout: Atlantic City

(also the paid mods concept is dead atm)

[grumbler]

Mobile games are terrific! They keep the kids too busy to bother the adults playing real computer games.

[Sava]

if steam shuts down, the entire landscape of pc gaming will change and activating your game would be the least of your/our worries

[Dinner]

I only mobile game now, PC games are for dinosaurs

A lot of mobile gaming sucks. I bought the Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition and the interface is so god awful on an Android I have hardly played it at all. This is a game I used to love back in the day.

[Sava]

maybe if your fingers werent so fat

[rah]

I might like steam if I used it more. But as it is as just a casual Steam user, almost every time I go in to play a game from there, I find I'm stuck waiting for steam to update their software.
These steam updates have 0 impact on the game I'm playing. While I'm over the "what if steam goes out of business" fears, that doesn't mean that nothing could ever go wrong. I've had one online vendor sold that caused me some considerable time with their customer service department to get my games to run again. This type of thing should not be necessary. Nothing ever stays the same.

And I'm an old man that doesn't like change

[Dinner]

I used to not like Steam but now I am resigned that everything will use this spyware.

[OneFootInTheGrave]

Steam - reason why I have 91 games that I never play instead of 4 that I actually did... nevertheless, I got them as a bargain. :watdo?!?:

Off I go to play a bit more of New Vegas, which I think is not very good, but as I have had enough of E: D... I have run out of options.