Play Games WITHOUT Steam!

[Stardust260]

Some games can be run without Steam, such as Thief Gold.
Just leaving this here.

[Kidofthecentury]

People don't realize that digital distribution is what publishers (and to an extent, developers too) always dreamed of in the first place.

Increased savings by not producing hundred of thousands supports, crushing second-hand market and hampering piracy.

Steam, Origin, Impulse, GamersGate, Desura... the list goes on and on. Once most of the world will be connected to an internet capable of decent connection (it'll take a lot, I agree) you can bet ther'll be no more CDs or DVDs around.

[leveller]

O M G

Necro thread was resurrected ...

OP probably now playing on console games ...

Ignore.

deleted.

Actually, I'll put the post back because I love the sound of my voice when I'm ranting at a ranter.

---------------------------

Originally Posted by Racarooni

... sniiiiiiiiiip ...

Madness.

You say you've invested £2500 in a video "composting" PC, and then post a rant that embarrasses me for being in the same United Kingdom as you.

Some points to pick up, in no particular order.

1. Goodbye then. I guess you'll be illegally downloading PC games from now on then?

2. Gamers aren't forced to do anything. You could play games on console if you prefer. Otherwise just accept that devs/pubs do things the way they do. Actually, saying that - you are actually blaming Steam, which is in effect a PC games store front (like Game) for something out of their control. They don't force devs/pubs to release games on Steam. Maybe you want to take your energy, put it into an email and send it CC'd to all the devs and pubs in the world?

3. You're right on the holes in the piracy argument. MASSIVE holes in yours specifically. Steam offers features and benefits, community groups (although much more needs to be done with them), friends lists with which to build relationships, storage of game settings, download anywhere, games are safe, all neatly organised - to name a few. Now, the point is that you give gamers these benefits, constantly building on them and improving (although much more needs to be done, Gabe, call me man! I got so many ideas...), you give them a SERVICE as a wrapper to the games and it encourages the gamers to use the service and enjoy the benefits.

So, rather than just having gamers buy a game, play it, move on. You give them more. It doesn't stop at just a game, it becomes more. Which you don't grasp yet. And tbh Valve could do much more with Steam. Therefore to conclude this point, it doesn't eliminate piracy, it offers benefits for not pirating.

4. Your right, Steam HAS eliminated the need for discs and cassettes and vinyl. It's awesome. Glad to get rid of it all tbh, it was such a nightmare dusting it all. Awesome feature.

5. Stolen your rights to use your games the way they were intended ... wow, so much emotion. Have a tissue. Have you tried reporting the incident to your local constabulary? Human rights lawyer? Citizens Advice Bureau? You are not a number, you are a free man (?) - buy a console. Honestly, buy one. The future of the PC is digital delivery in one form or another. You really need to get to grips with tech, especially as you are splashing out £2500 on PCs! Any way in which piracy and second hand sales can be destroyed, the devs and pubs will champion - yeah you will hear otherwise from a few dissenters - but the point is that we all have a price we WILL pay for games. Even pirates.

As for your right to use the game as you intend. No. Where you see that label that says "Online Connection Needed", guess what that means? You don't spend your money on it if you don't agree to it. Buy a console. Seriously.

6. Achievements. Awesome feature. Love them. Especially the season sale times when everyone goes achievement mad and everyone is happy, and the world is too busy collecting achievements to war with each other. You don't like them - TURN OFF - the notifications. I want more. I want an achievement every day for getting out of bed. I want an achievement every time a politician denies wrong doing. I want an achievement every time a Labour supporter says austerity is more harmful than borrowing MORE money to employ more people in the public sector ... oh and I want an achievement every time a public sector worker says "we're tax payers too" ... actually I want a gold friggin medal when I hear that one ... SORRY, calm ... calllllm. Phew.

Achievements - yes. Awesome.

7. I don't own Skyrim. Therefore I can't empathise with you on that. Nor obviously on your emotionally charged rant at Steam. I would suggest you take your technical issues to the Skyrim sub-forum, or the devs/pubs website. And stop blaming Steam, as explained previously, it IS NOT Steams fault that they offer a cracking service which the game utilises. Steam is a service that offers a lot more to some of us than just a DVD in a box ... a DVD in a box, I remember the days ... "whoop de dooo!" - shoot me now.

8. Does Steam understand the PC gaming market at all? I think they might do. Do you? You sound like a 60 year old die-hard veteran of 3.5" floppies and DOS games. Either that, or an employee at GoG. Actually! Google GoG - I reckon you'll be right at home there. They got what you need. GoG is the dealer and what they got is your kinda crack pipe.

9. Hardcore gamers ... you class yourself as a hardcore gamer? I'm unclear what you are saying. You are appealing with hardcore gamers to side with you in a battle of emotion vs gaming-service. I honestly think you should link your Steam ID to your forum account and let us witness your hardcore-iness. You need to buy Diablo 3. Seriously. On console. Is it on console?! Just buy it. Do.

10. Your old games - that were released before Steam ever existed - magically wake Steam up, and Steam demands that you take your medicine and be a good boy?! Doesn't make any sense whatsoever. You put the disc in and launch whatever.exe and it launches Steam.exe magically ... no, no matter how many times I repeat it, it doesn't make any sense. Have you tried turning it off and then on again?

lol

I liked your post. I got your emotions. I see your pain.

PC gaming might not be for you. But, at the very least try GoG.

[tommytlolz]

I do agree with the OP to an extent, I mean I like Steam, but having the option to use a disk if I want to would be nice, I mean, I bought Dead Island and had to use Steam, I mean it's not a problem, but maybe give us the option to use the disk's, especially with older games and singler player, and really they need some sort of "Offline" mode, ya' know? What if I don't have internet at the time I want to play a game? I should be able to, but can't since it's Steam only therefore I can't access it! As well as what the OP said before about there being many players that don't have internet, they can't play games since they're Steam only... Anyway, there need's to be some in between...

[JakePember]

I agree with you. I am not a fan of Steam. I am personally a person who likes to actually OWN a copy of what I have purchased. For instance what if the Steam system is shutdown for a bug or something. Will I be able to play my game still? or am I at the mercy of the steam engine to be up and running. I for one would enjoy playing my games on my time, not Steams time. Not everyone has internet connection 24/7, so does that mean I cant play a single player like Skyrim? It makes me sad to see a company limiting our rights to a product we bought ad paid full price for. To be honest with you, companies like this make it more appealing and enticing to pirate their games, because pirates get around steam, therefore can play the game on their time and not steams. Its said to see this because a lot of people I know would like to actually buy the game legit but doesn't like to deal with the extra hurdle steam provides.

Oh boy, I can't wait to see all the comments to trash my comment, lol.

[Zefar]

Originally Posted by JakePember

I agree with you. I am not a fan of Steam. I am personally a person who likes to actually OWN a copy of what I have purchased. For instance what if the Steam system is shutdown for a bug or something. Will I be able to play my game still? or am I at the mercy of the steam engine to be up and running. I for one would enjoy playing my games on my time, not Steams time. Not everyone has internet connection 24/7, so does that mean I cant play a single player like Skyrim? It makes me sad to see a company limiting our rights to a product we bought ad paid full price for. To be honest with you, companies like this make it more appealing and enticing to pirate their games, because pirates get around steam, therefore can play the game on their time and not steams. Its said to see this because a lot of people I know would like to actually buy the game legit but doesn't like to deal with the extra hurdle steam provides.

Oh boy, I can't wait to see all the comments to trash my comment, lol.

Steam has Offline mode. Read up on it.

[GDL]

Originally Posted by Zefar

Steam has Offline mode. Read up on it.

Steam sometimes works in offline mode you mean. /jk.

[leveller]

For the first time, I had a power fluctuation which put my router in error mode and no broadband until I reset it, and I tried to launch Steam without realising this error had happened. Steam actually launched and let me play a single player game.

Ironic really that when I moaned about it, I was supporting frustrated forum posters, and at the same time I had not actually used it. When I genuinely needed it and I was forced offline by this fluctuation, it worked!

That made me feel warm and fuzzy inside.

[JakePember]

So what you are saying is that all games will work offline? So if I have no connection to the internet I will still be able to play all titles? I want to get borderlands 2 (the legit way) but If I wont be able to play borderlands 2 offline, I wont get it through steam.

So if someone could answer these that would be great.

- Can you play with no internet connection?

- Can I have my borderlands 2 copy on more than one computer? for instance on my desktop computer and on my laptop?

Thank for your time, I just want to make sure before I lay down the cash.

[GDL]

Originally Posted by JakePember

- Can you play with no internet connection?

- Can I have my borderlands 2 copy on more than one computer? for instance on my desktop computer and on my laptop?

Thank for your time, I just want to make sure before I lay down the cash.

- You can play without a connection, however:

1 - The game must be run at least once while Online and the client has to be put into offline mode.

2 - You can install the game on to more then one unit of hardware, however, the client can only be open in online mode on only one unit of hardware at any one time.

[JakePember]

Alright, Thank you for the response. I think that's reasonable. I am usually really against other companies making me use a third parties software, I find it very invasive and hurtful to paying customers. I guess if there is no choice around it, this is not too invasive. I have more to say but this is not the place. So again thank you for the responses!

[geraltofrivia]

Originally Posted by Racarooni

Sorry, but what a load of rubbish!

By forcing gamers into downloading their games you move everything online, this leaves the game market WIDE OPEN TO PIRACY! Really, there are so many holes in this 'anti-piracy' argument it is simply laughable!.

Trust me you have no idea what you are talking about, don't talk about piracy if you don't know what you are talking about, What Mr Gabe said is true 'steam is providing a better service than pirates' . you have it the other way around.

[AgileBeast]

Originally Posted by Racarooni

Yes today I had to wait 15 minutes for tyhr game to launch.

i've never had to wait that long even for first time launch