FO:NV, Steam, and Pirating

[kaburke]

FO:NV is a Steam-only game, and yet I am seeing multiple requests for support with getting mods to work without Steam. In some cases, the requesters are claiming they have purchased the game, but are circumventing Steam. To me this creates a dilemma. If you got a non-Steam version, you are pirating and shouldn't be discussing it on the forums. If you buy the game, and then circumvent Steam, you aren't pirating per se, but you may be circumventing the law in your country (for example, USA), which is a grey area to me with respect to the forum rules. Further, asking for help with a non-Steam copy does not make it clear if it is a pirated copy or a circumvented copy.

 

What should I be doing? Should I be treating all discussion of non-Steam FO:NV as against forum rules, and be reporting the posts? Or is there some leniency in this regard?

[Vagrant0]

Regardless of any criminal laws you are still violating the EULA that the game makes you agree to when you install the game. As such, any discussion of a non-steam version, even if you legally own the disc, will result in a ban from this community. This is because steam is required as part of the games native copy protection and because of this, any means to install without steam is in fact a means to go around copy protection which is not allowed within this community.

 

For those who have major gripes against steam, there are plenty of legal ways of blocking steam connection, or bypassing the steam launch that can be done after you have installed, registered, and patched the game. Bypassing the launcher itself is not circumventing the copy protection since you would have initially had to verify your copy to even have the game installed. As for concerns regarding steam, I have not yet personally noticed any issues despite steam being installed on my system, nor have I seen anyone coming forward describing recent issues related directly to the steam client. Any talk of steam being malware is mostly unfounded and mostly used as a justification for pirating steam games.

 

All that aside, as all patches are done through steam, and mods will require a patched version to work, playing with an unpatched game will likely prevent any mods from working properly, especially ones which make use of NVSE or similar large changes. So in not using steam, you are really only hurting yourself...

 

If you see these persons, be sure to report them so that they can be promptly booted. Thanks.

[kaburke]

Thank you very much for your response. What is and is not acceptable is more clear to me. However, I am still uncertain how to make the distinction. For example:

 

The only issue I am having is that this release is Steam only. I am not running Steam, so I cannot use it. Also, it isn't making the ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated! for me.

It is unclear if the game has been registered and pathced with Steam, and then Steam has been disabled, or if there was piracy. Should comments of this sort be reported?

[Pushkatu]

Thank you very much for your response. What is and is not acceptable is more clear to me. However, I am still uncertain how to make the distinction. For example:

 

The only issue I am having is that this release is Steam only. I am not running Steam, so I cannot use it. Also, it isn't making the ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated! for me.

It is unclear if the game has been registered and pathced with Steam, and then Steam has been disabled, or if there was piracy. Should comments of this sort be reported?

 

 

Vagrant0 said:

As such, any discussion of a non-steam version, even if you legally own the disc, will result in a ban from this community.

 

My answer is, without a doubt you should report such posts.

[Vagrant0]

Thank you very much for your response. What is and is not acceptable is more clear to me. However, I am still uncertain how to make the distinction. For example:

 

The only issue I am having is that this release is Steam only. I am not running Steam, so I cannot use it. Also, it isn't making the ArchiveInvalidationInvalidated! for me.

It is unclear if the game has been registered and pathced with Steam, and then Steam has been disabled, or if there was piracy. Should comments of this sort be reported?

If the person didn't use steam, things like the .ini likely won't be generated properly. There is no way to run this game without steam and make it work properly without resorting to illegal and often dangerous means (since you don't know who the people are who made those cracks/exploits you are using). Even if you are using those illegal and dangerous means, chances are that it is screwing up something somewhere, and will continually screw up things somewhere every time the game is patched. If pirated games worked, there certainly wouldn't be so many people with pirated copies who have severe and unique issues.

 

Even if you are unclear, chances are that the moderator who responds to the report is versed well enough about what is and is not piracy related.

Edited November 14, 2010 by Vagrant0

[FlyingHigh10000000]

IEdit: Decided to leave well enough alone. Dragging up every body in the closet causes more problems than solutions.

[ZombieUK]

I use steam for getting NV working and the latest pacthes tho I dont say I have to Like it.

[JimboUK]

I don't see why anyone needs to workaround Steam, it can be used offline and it uses less than 15mb of memory when minimised.

[ginnyfizz]

That messing with the .ini that it does is a pain though, even when you do go offline. I use some mods that require NVSE so I launch with FOMM, and have just had a bit of a tussle getting my .ini changes for DarnUI to stick. The general rule of thumb seems to be to edit all the ini files - Fallout.ini, Falloutprefs.ini and FalloutDefault.ini - with the changes that you require.

[Surenas]

That messing with the .ini that it does is a pain though, even when you do go offline. I use some mods that require NVSE so I launch with FOMM, and have just had a bit of a tussle getting my .ini changes for DarnUI to stick. The general rule of thumb seems to be to edit all the ini files - Fallout.ini, Falloutprefs.ini and FalloutDefault.ini - with the changes that you require.

 

Darn is still in v.1.4beta, NVSE in v.1.5beta I think.The present workaround is thus always somewhat shaky regarding the ini files. Only time will change that. Give the guys a go or two more or wait for the first final versions. That's what I'm doing.