Skyrim and Steam...

[Arcadiast]

@Roltak

 

I am simply using my own right to complain about a situation that is annoying me or do not have that right out of some reason.

 

Your right complaining about something that annoys you is absolutely not in question here. Nonetheless, I would like to point out that neither this Forum nor this particular topic forces itself on you. It gets your attention no doubt but you will be missing nothing at all if you decide to absolutely ignore it. That is also strenghtened by the fact, that you think that all those complaints here will make no difference at all. So from your point of view, you have the absolute freedom to ignore this here and lose nothing at all.

 

On the other hand, we have a piece of Software that is mandatory if you want to play the game you have been probably made so hot for for long long months. Now at last you can play and you find out that there are issues with the software you don`t need but you have to use. You can just say "Bugger it, I just wont use it" but this means effectively that you will not be able to play your game, which, by the way, you still want to play.

 

True, you knew it beforehand and its also true its "their" game but you are the customer, you are the one who is paying for it and the moment you pay with your hard earned money you have the right to play the game and to complain about issues that keep you from playing your game or lessen its "Fun".

 

How much Money does Bethesda make with Skyrim? as far as I know it is a lot (one source claims at least 450 Million Dollars LAUNCH Sales)! can you still say they havent been compensated for their hard work? can you still say that those who payed that sum of Money have no rights to complain? that they have to pay and be quiet?

 

There is an Argument some people make which is pure nonsense which says "If you dont like it dont buy it!" This is always used when Publishers decide to implement features which Gamers dont like.

 

I can make a counterargument which makes equally less sense "If you dont like it dont make it!". This Argument can be used when Gamers do things Publishers dont like!

 

Would you like us to go down that way? I certainly hope there is a better Publisher/Customer relationship possible without resorting to nonsensical Arguments.

[sedeslav]

Steam is a "Big Brother" from the movie , but you don't figured out yet.

The bigest achivement of the devil is that he actualy convinced people that he don't even egsist.

[Jackal2233]

I was hoping for a good discussion here, not flames or accusations of being fanboys or anti-fanboys. Anyways for people having problems with Steam like I used to, here's what to make sure:

 

Run steam, make sure your account/password is saved.

 

On the account page:

- Make sure "dont save credentials" is unchecked.

- On friends page, make sure everything is unchecked

- On ingame, uncheck everything

- On Steam Cloud, disable it

- Make sure steam doesn't automatically run on startup

 

Run the game fully updated once online, that will prep it for offline mode. After it's loaded, quit the game, then quit steam, never run steam with your internet running (you can stop the internet flow using firewall locks etc) as it will automatically sign into online mode. Click offline and it should work everytime.

Also, for people outside of the US, keep using Steam's US servers for downloads no matter where you are, every other server is pffft

 

Personally I feel these settings should be defaulted instead of assuming everyone is an online gamer (or at least ask!). Anyways once it works, it works, and you have the convenience of playing any of your installed games without switching DVDs etc and all offline. You can't do this with Ubisoft or EA. It's the lesser of 3 evils in my opinion (only after it's configured of course and one knows how to work with it).

 

But it can at least be a bit more user friendly and offline-mode better documented in this department though judging by how many problems people are having with it.

Edited December 15, 2011 by Jackal2233

[spikies]

Well, after 180 hours of Skyrim, and getting the more pissed with Steam by the second, all I have to say is , I never had so much problems with a game before. Should have bought Batman?!, is over for me and Skyrim, will never buy again a game that is attached to the steam powered engine. Bye, bye Skyrim. So, for the time being, I guess is time to go back to Oblivion which never bored me and had something new to do all the time thanks to this community. And, by the way, never made me have to mess with the firewall and setting things this or that other way. :wallbash:

 

Thank you anyway, for the solution mentioned, I'll check back on that 6 months from now.

Edited December 16, 2011 by spikies

[hector530]

its not that simple, a game developer makes way less money than steam do, and we all know nowadays, money = power. when Bethesda want to publish their game, they have to go through steam. and steam forces all Bethesda gamers to have steam installed and there is nothing Bethesda can do about it. As the number 1 game distributer in both american and europe they have enough power to illegalise your game if you dont publish on their software.

Origin is kicking steams ass right now, having all the top games like batman ac and bf3 and at some point they both will be f*ed by onlive anyway.

 

LOLOLOLOL how... how can someone complain about steam but like origin? wtf, you think steam is bad but not origin? LOLOLOLOL but onlive taking over steam and origin was the best part because no real PC gamer would use that POS.

 

also by "all top games" you mean only EA games

[DrunkPirateRobert]

I was new to Steam until purchasing Skyrim recently. Never had a game that required it before.

 

After spending hours and hours of NOT BEING ABLE TO f***ing PLAY AT ALL BECAUSE OF GODDAMNED EVIL STEAM , count me in with the steam HATERS.

 

I simply cannot understand how anybody could like a system like steam, where what is supposed to be an OFFLINE SINGLE PLAYER GAME is required to contact internet servers before playing.

 

I do not like not being able to play what is supposed to be an OFFLINE SINGLE PLAYER GAME because some damned internet server is down or I am unable to connect to the servers for whatever reason. STEAM IS EVIL.

[Kendo 2]

I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I learned my lessons with Steam installing and playing Fallout New Vegas. I had never used Steam before and when I installed it my security went nuts with warnings about malware and a virus. Yep, Steam. So I turned off the firewall long enough to install Steam and the game and then I went off line on Steam, not that it mattered because Steam updated itself and New Vegas without asking me. Okay, I turn off the updates on Steam. And it does it again. Okay, now I'm mad that I have this stupid and pointless 512MB hog on my otherwise clean computer. FINE, so I castrated Steam. I took ownership of the entire Steam directory and removed the Owner/Creator permissions and gave myself the permissions. Now Steam is what it was meant to be, a game installer that I control. If it wants to do anything it must ASK ME.

 

When I installed Skyrim it was just a repeat of the NV installation and I had to restrict Steam again once everything was set back in order. As a funny aside to this, after I installed Skyrim the first player made content I added was the Skyrim 4GM mod available here at Nexus. Now I can launch Skyrim and play and Steam is nowhere to been seen. It's actually nice to be free of it.

[FireBug3]

LOLOLOLOL how... how can someone complain about steam but like origin? wtf, you think steam is bad but not origin? LOLOLOLOL but onlive taking over steam and origin was the best part because no real PC gamer would use that POS.

also by "all top games" you mean only EA games

I dont say i like Orign, i dont like all downloader that i am forced to install.

 

And why not use onlive ? its very cheap, no downloads, no installations and the best thing about it, there is no cheater.

[spikies]

I guess I was one of the lucky ones. I learned my lessons with Steam installing and playing Fallout New Vegas. I had never used Steam before and when I installed it my security went nuts with warnings about malware and a virus. Yep, Steam. So I turned off the firewall long enough to install Steam and the game and then I went off line on Steam, not that it mattered because Steam updated itself and New Vegas without asking me. Okay, I turn off the updates on Steam. And it does it again. Okay, now I'm mad that I have this stupid and pointless 512MB hog on my otherwise clean computer. FINE, so I castrated Steam. I took ownership of the entire Steam directory and removed the Owner/Creator permissions and gave myself the permissions. Now Steam is what it was meant to be, a game installer that I control. If it wants to do anything it must ASK ME.

 

When I installed Skyrim it was just a repeat of the NV installation and I had to restrict Steam again once everything was set back in order. As a funny aside to this, after I installed Skyrim the first player made content I added was the Skyrim 4GM mod available here at Nexus. Now I can launch Skyrim and play and Steam is nowhere to been seen. It's actually nice to be free of it.

 

 

Can you PM me the details on how to do that. Please asume I'm ileterate and tell me how to do it step by step. I too enjoy having a clean (I control) computer. I know Steam has been hacked a couple of times and don't want it around me.

[PR4Y]

im just coming to add my 2 cents here, so flame away if you want... but after reading all this anti-steam Propaganda, i'd like to take a second to share the perspective of a LONG-TIME steam supporter.

 

 

wayyyy back in the day (cs 1.6 days) steam was THE platform for online gaming distribution. my steam account is actually one of the VERY few and VERY rare 5 digit steamID accounts, that's how long I've been using steam.

 

steam brings MASS community gaming to another level. back with counterstrike, if you didn't have steam, you (obviously didn't play) but you just couldnt get involved with clans and communities and such. steam was a great way to meet / make / communicate with friends.

 

over the years (we are talking 10+ years here) with my use of steam, I've activated 50+ PURCHASED games with steam. I never ONCE bought a game through steam, but steam offered me something that retail stores and game publishers couldn't... and that was lost disk prevention. out of the 50+ games I have activated on my steam account, I have maybe a handful of the original disks left. so what happens if I want to play those games? OH SNAP NO DISK!?!?!??! ah well guess I'll hop on ebay and get a cheap used disk for $5 plus shipping... OH WAIT, steam knows that I have a legit copy of this game, and all I have to do to install it is click a single button? sweet!

 

 

I'm a pretty hardcore gamer, and every single one of my friends IRL use steam, have used steam, and will continue to use steam... forever. they actually provide a great service once you stop poking at some half-ass flaws that really aren't that big of a deal.

 

 

Look at other major games out right now, for instance, Starcraft 2 / WoW... when blizzard patches their game, does every1 freak out calling blizz the devil and claim they are ruining the game just for continuing to support it? NO!

 

 

Why everyone here is SO hell-bent on hating steam is beyond me... because I've NEVER had issues with steam and will continue to activate EVERY game that I buy a physical copy onto my steam account because it just makes my gaming library organized and available.

 

 

add to that the fact that I have a friends list of over 100 people (20-30 of which are IRL friends) that I can communicate with, start pickup games, ect...

 

 

 

 

Steam isn't the bad-guy here. Bethesda didn't NEED to license Skyrim to steam to sell the game... and anyone here that argues that is either misguided misinformed or simply following the trend of anti-steam flame wars on this website.

 

Flame me all you want... all I wanted to say is that I think some of you guys are being WAY too bandwagon-ey and critical of steam when they are actually providing a great service for FREE that will NEVER die. Steam will take care of my games library no matter how bad I am at losing disks.

 

 

 

 

 

OH AND ONE MORE POINT before I end this:

 

To the people complaining about steam being a resource hog. Seriously guys? This is 2011, almost 2012. Steam uses 100MB of RAM. If you are pinching RAM so hard that you can't run a single 100MB application in the background because it will tank your FPS, then buy a goddamn XBOX or something and stop complaining about the way computers work.

 

Skyrim = $60

2GB RAM stick = $10-20

 

........... some people make me O____O