hunteriv4

Medieval armor wasn't actually that heavy nor particularly difficult to put on. Most actual combat plate armor weighed roughly 45 pounds, which is less than a modern soldier's combat load. Granted, people weren't quite as strong back then, but you can do quite a bit with 50-70 pounds of weight on you, especially if it's evenly distributed around your body and primarily supported by your hips. But yeah, "realism" in video games is pointless unless it's a fun gameplay mechanic. If we wanted a realistic, say, modern military shooter about 90% of the game would be spent walking around in the woods and many players would never even see a single enemy. But that isn't as fun as the completely unrealistic rush of fighting that is your typical Modern Warfare campaign. I'll take dragons and fast travel over walking slowly for hours without any combat, thanks.

Less than 30% of the U.S. has a broadband connection. With forced updates, dialup is largely unrealistic for Steam. Free tethering is all well and good, for those on the only major carrier that still allows it. Otherwise, it's going to $20 extra a month or more and you're going to quickly run afoul of the caps. Sprint 3G Data Used 8,110,403KB That is what it looks like when you tether. That is 4 fold the cap of all other major providers. The only things I have downloaded for this billing period, were the update, the CK and some mods(mostly just .esp/.esm files). Everything else is normal browsing and a Youtube video here and there. If I had a good 4G connection, that would easily triple. My computer isn't useless without internet access. It greatly limits what I do with it, but I still have my games, which is the entire reason I have a highend system. There might be a Starbucks out there I can connect to Steam at, but I'm sure as hell not about to drag my oversized tower into one. Actually, over 68% of the U.S. has broadband, and about 72% of the U.S. plays video games, meaning that only about 4% of all U.S. gamers do not have broadband internet access. And that percent has probably become smaller in the last two years. As another user pointed out, you can disable automatic updates for Steam, meaning that dial-up will work fine for single-player games. Although I do agree that the phone carrier data limits are ridiculous and it's one of the main reasons I'm still with Sprint. For sake of argument, though, I'm fairly sure there isn't a single place in the country (or anywhere that I know of) that gets 4G but not broadband internet, so it's kind of silly to throw that in there. Are there some people in the U.S. with high-end systems that don't have reliable internet access? Sure. But let's face it, if you can afford a high-end system and a cell phone, you can probably afford internet access. As Blizzard said, the market for the high-end-computer-but-no-broadband is so small it's not worth marketing towards it. Does it suck for the less than 4%? Sure. But I still feel that if you can get by without internet you can deal with the relatively minor Steam issues. And for the 96% of us who do have internet access, automatic updates, game sales, preloaded preorders, indie games, and universal access to our games makes Steam a pretty sweet deal.

So everyone who doesn't say always "YES" when Valve says something is an evil,illegal,daedric,demon ? Give me a break. Perhaps somebody has 2 computers,one in his home and another somewhere else. And the one in his home has Skyrim installed,but guess what,this person has to spend time outside his home. Like his work,or a long trip,or just being outside with some friends. And carries a laptop. He would like to spend his time working on the Creation Kit making some mod... But he CANT,because Bethesda decided so,and it's pretty obvious there are some brainwashed robotic people who where programmed by Valve in the internet,who call whoever doesn't want to be a costumer of Valve an evil illegial bad person. People don't wanna steal Valve. They just don't want their products. How on Earth some of you people support this ? Forcing people to be costumers of certain private companies against their will ? You are undermining other people's freedom,yours gets too,and worse of all you feel proud that you loose your consumer rights. I mean come on,we said there are fanboys out there,but things like that go beyond fanboism,cross the line. You should fight those who take your rights and treat you like a stupid,not support them. None of the scenarios you mentioned have any problem with Steam. I'm writing this on my laptop in North Carolina. I have Skyrim installed on both this computer and my desktop in Hawaii. The ONLY restriction is that I can't play on both computers at the same time if they're both online. Otherwise it just logs me in on my laptop and plays like normal. The issue you're talking about doesn't even exist. Valve didn't create Skyrim. In fact, only a couple of games on Steam are created by Valve. They're a distribution service. It's like you guys are complaining about Spore's DRM after buying it from Gamestop and blaming Gamestop. Gamestop didn't make the game, and they didn't add the restrictions. And that's a bad example because the DRM in Skyrim is pretty non-intrusive as they go other than Steam functionality. At least I don't have to worry about the authentication servers shutting down because Steam doesn't care if you're online or not. The workshop is an option. NO ONE is forcing you to use it. When you make something with the CK it is saved to your hard drive and you can upload your mod to Skyrim Nexus or Rapidshare or anywhere else and Valve and Bethesda don't care. I don't know why people keep complaining about an optional service that isn't going to affect them anyway because they've already decided not to use it. For the less technically savvy, who find installing 3rd party mod managers or dealing with compressed files intimidating, a one-click option in Steam is a great alternative. If anything it will only increase the popularity of modding and may turn people initially nervous about modding towards looking online for more sources. I'm not a Valve fanboy, although I'm sure I look like it, I just hate it when people rage about something they've obviously given little to no thought about. Steam has some of the least intrusive DRM out there (*cough* Ubisoft *cough*). They offer games cheaper with more money going back to the developers than just about any other service. Could it be improved? Absolutely. There are some definite issues with Steam, most noticeably that it's poorly optimized and prone to crashing and locking up. It's still 10x better than Origin and I never have to worry about losing my disk or it being scratched to unplayability (RIP Master of Orion II, RIP). Or, the most annoying, losing the stupid serial number. I'll take some minor online activation over serial numbers, disks, and constant online internet connection any day.

I was referring to Kingdoms of Amalur, not Skyrim, but Skyrim is nearly as bad. The favorites bar has quite a few limitations and annoyances; for example, it's difficult and counter-intuitive to equip a sword-and-shield combo along with bows or magic. Not to mention I shouldn't have to pause the game every time I want to use a different combat ability. The favorites menu system was specifically designed to deal with a complex system being utilized on consoles. With a PC I should just be able to assign all my favorite combinations to a separate key, or cast magic while using a bow or dual weapons. The famous "dual wield" system for Skyrim is purely a console improvement...it does nothing to improve combat for the PC and having to click both mouse buttons all the time is kind of frustrating. Don't get me wrong, I love Skyrim, but the majority of my complaints with the game (inventory system, dual wield clunkiness, difficult to navigate perk tree, low resolution textures, and poor shout implementation) are all directly related to design limitations enforced by console requirements. None of these decisions would make any sense if this game was designed primarily for the PC. Heck, until the recent patches basic keybinding implementation didn't work correctly, but the game worked fine if you plug in an XBox controller. The only XBox controllers I ever use are my Rock Band drums and guitar. But yeah, there's no reason for a PC game to do like Kingdoms of Amalur and require me to right click to cast lightning bolt, press two, right click to cast fireball, press one, right click to cast lightning bolt again. Such a gameplay setup is purely designed based on a gamepad. I doubt we'll have the next gen consoles come with a mouse and keyboard but I can always hope =).

Exactly, which is why it boggles the mind as to why companies spend millions of dollars each year researching and developing new DRM technologies, only to have their money wasted in what can be as quick as days or even hours after the software's release. You can always download cracked copies of the game whilst buying an actual copy of the game so that you still support the developers but avoid the messy DRM. I don't know how the courts would feel about this though (even though the developers aren't really losing out on this) and you'd also still be stuck with no updates and the possibility of malware due to infected downloads. I honestly don't think publishers are so stupid that they believe DRM actually works. I prefer to think that they know damn well DRM sucks but to keep their idiot shareholders happy they keep using it. But frankly, if you're investing money into any company or into any R&D project (like into DRM) then wouldn't you actually spend a little bit of time researching whether the crap you're spending money on is effective? That's an easy one...it makes CEOs and shareholders happy. DRM is a check in the box for "tried to prevent piracy!" Whether or not it works is irrelevant; their bosses, who likely know about as much about computers as the U.S. Congress, are happy and they don't have to try and explain the uselessness of it all. I don't think the entire motivation about Steam games is piracy, though. It's also convenience. The developer can upload patches, DLC, and other content directly through Steam without having to have users go through download pages or connect to FTP servers. Not everything developers do is designed to make our lives miserable, even if sometimes is can seem that way. Sometimes they just want to make things easier on their customers, and when they look at sales, the majority of customers buying games have at least a semi-reliable internet. I'm sorry you found the one place on Earth with a library, a university, and no Starbucks. Or airport. Or cell phone service. You can check out this tool if you're in New Zealand to find a decent internet access point; from what I understand they are greatly expanding the 3G network there, and you can get free tethering capabilities on Android phones and Jailbroken iPhones with a little research. Also see if a decent proxy or TOR can get you around the library restriction on Steam. You're right, the entire world doesn't have internet access, but I have a hard time believing that the majority of the world with computers capable of running games like Skyrim or Deus Ex doesn't. The internet is such an integral part of what makes computers useful it seems kind of like saying that the majority of people have TVs but not access to Cable or Satellite. Considering how many games are now becoming free-to-play and online only, and being widely successful, the fact that some users aren't going to be able to use their service is unfortunately rather minor in the grand scheme of things, especially since internet access is only going to become more and more available as time goes on. So, like DRM, publishers have to work much harder to convince their bosses to cater to the powerful-computer-but-no-internet-access crowd, especially for a U.S. company primarily focused on U.S. customers, the vast majority of which have access to some sort of online connection. This isn't a problem limited to Steam, it's a problem in the entire games industry. At least you have the option of cracking; I doubt many console gamers without internet access can bring their XBox into the library to get day 1 DLC.

It's kind of nice for playing Skyrim when on an airplane, or when the internet goes out. It's not really designed for people without an internet connection, it's designed for unreliable internet connections. As for the poster who lives out in the middle of nowhere with no internet (why would you do that!?), do you get cell phone service? If so, you can fairly easily tether a Sprint phone (or some carrier with unlimited data) and download smaller mods and updates. If you have to go into the library, you could also download the creation kit and any mods you want and then bring your computer back...the game will still run in offline mode. Lack of internet access really isn't that great of an excuse any more. If you absolutely cannot get internet access EVER on your PC you can buy the retail version of the game, install it (I'm fairly sure it will install offline but then requires Steam to run), then crack it. You can get a cracked exe from a legal game copy site (yes, cracked exe files for backing up games you own is legal) and put in on a flash drive. This is assuming you have a desktop; if you're playing on a laptop, go find a library or Starbucks, activate it, and play in offline mode. Easy. Still, it seems a bit...suspicious...that someone without internet access is worried about access to mods considering you need the internet to get the mods in the first place. As for the Steam workshop...you don't have to use it. At all. I don't get why people are bothered by this. They didn't remove any normal modding functionality (in fact they added extra functionality by allowing .ini changes to be incorporated into mod packs). You can still get files from here or other modding sites and install them the same way. The only things you'll lose are mods that are loaded exclusively to the Steam Workshop, but hey, that's up to the mod creator. They don't have to upload their mods here or at all if they don't want to. And let's face it, if they did implement some "Steamworks Only" requirement someone will hack that requirement out. It's virtually impossible to lock down non-server based resources (and even server based games often can have their client modded). They're doing this stuff to make it easier to mod the game, not harder. It's a win/win situation for smart game creators; the game lasts longer, meaning people are more likely to buy it months or years down the road, and they get free ideas of how to improve their next game based on the most popular mods. Not to mention using them as a recruiting tool for new talent, which Valve in particular is famous for. Valve lives off mods. Counter-strike, Left4Dead, Portal, Team Fortress, Day of Defeat...if you look at all the Valve games sold on Steam the only games that aren't Half-Life mods are the Half-Life games themselves. Discouraging mod creativity is the last thing these guys are going to do. If anything, Steamworks is their plan to get MORE people into modding, for free, in order to do something that LONG TERM will pay off WAY more than charging people for mods or forcing them into their system. What is the biggest competition for Valve right now? Besides EA, who frankly is so far behind with their Origin system they aren't really a threat other than taking some big EA titles to themselves? Consoles. What's one of the biggest advantages PC games have over consoles (well, besides lacking discs, load times, texture resolution, advanced graphics technology, control precision and versatility, and online capabilities)? Mods. PC gamers can alter their games, which is why you still have Oblivion being sold to PC gamers but hardly ever to console gamers. And let's face it, the guy who buys Oblivion for the PC is potentially getting WAY more bang for their buck. If Valve can make modding more mainstream they could potentially take a big bite out of the console market. It's a perfect time, too, right as the current consoles are deep into their twilight days. There's no reason for them to risk alienating PC gamers by making things more restrictive when they can gain a potentially huge console market by taking out the technical complexities of modding and giving it to the less tech savvy. I don't see the reason for the complaints. Heck, even pirates shouldn't be complaining because let's face it; it's only a matter of time before pirates get the creation kit, and they don't really need it to leech mods anyway. Seems like a lot of paranoid effort for something that's potentially a huge boost to PC gaming, which I'm all for, because more PC gamers means less crappy console ports. I'm still waiting for my action games that actually use multiple keys rather than just letting me equip stuff to my left and right mouse buttons like a console tard. Yes, I'm looking at you Kingdoms of Amalur, and although you are fun, I'd much rather have a World of Warcraft-style action bar where I hit an ability and activate it right there rather than basically use two abilities and only switch for certain types of enemies. Sorry, /rant off.

You obviously A) pirated the game or B) don't have it. A retail copy, purchased from a store, still requires Steam activation, whether you have the creation kit or not. All patches are loaded through Steam as well. If you did, in fact, buy it from a store, it should be in your Steam account and you can download the Creation Kit. And if you pirated it, I don't know why you're upset, because it's only a short matter of time before the Creation Kit is put out on pirate sites as well. If you absolutely hate Steam you can always buy the game, install it from Steam, move it, and then crack it. Breaking the EULA is not piracy nor copyright infringement and modifying a program you legally own is protected under the fair use and reverse engineering sections of the DMCA and Copyright Act. I feel that's way more trouble than it's worth, plus it makes patching annoying and voids your rights to tech support (although it's unlikely to be enforced). But it isn't illegal to modify a program you bought any more than it's illegal to draw mustaches on Superman if you bought the comics. DC would probably prefer you don't do it, but even if they put a big "DO NOT ALTER THIS COMIC! By purchasing this comic you agree to these terms!" sticker in the back of the issue they can't legally enforce it. Like the old FBI Warning about copying VHS tapes it's a scare tactic that has no actual legal backing. Game "leasing" arguments usually fail in court except in fairly extreme circumstances and usually because another law was broken in the process. I would still recommend just sucking it up and using Steam. It's a pretty decent service and all the big brother paranoia is a little ridiculous; the second they get too restrictive someone else will come out with a service that has less restrictions and they'll lose a huge portion of their customer base. Valve is a company that literally lives off customer trust; they certainly don't go out of their way to advertise. I'm fairly sure they'll think very hard about implementing policies that destroy that trust, and considering their habit of constantly reducing the price of games with constant sales and bundles all this worry about them selling mods, especially since we could still get them for free here at the Nexus sites, seems a bit misplaced. And hey, if you did pirate it, they slashed the price down to $40 so now's a perfect time to support a great game. Just sayin'