A Steam question

[thestaggy]

I bought my first game that requires Steam; Mafia II.

Now, I created an account to play the game. My brother wants to try it so I allowed him to log into my Steam account to play it as well. Will this cause any problems?

 

[Wyzak]

It won't cause any problems. Unless you try to manipulate Steam into allowing both of you to play at the same time from one account.

 

[Chevron]

Yeah.

Will be fine as long as you both aren't logged in at the same time.

 

[Avenue]

you can launch in offline mode, but only one account can be active or should I say online at a time

 

[thestaggy]

Ah, thanks guys. What are your thoughts on Steam in general? Not sure if I'm such a big fan of "asking for permission" to play a game I paid for.

 

[Chevron]

Ah, thanks guys. What are your thoughts on Steam in general? Not sure if I'm such a big fan of "asking for permission" to play a game I paid for.

When does steam ask for permission?

Steam is awesome. Best thing to happen to gaming ever. Just picked up the latest Hitman for less than R150 on the last weekend special.

 

[Avenue]

I like steam. Its probably the least intrusive form of DRM. If you think about it, most games cannot be played without the disk being in the drive. At least with steam you can start in offline mode and then you and your boet can play at the same time.
Apart from that its a pleasure to reinstall your collection of games if you format, and for the games that support it, your saves are stored online.
But best of all are the steam sales. I've stopped buying physical copies.
You can also thank steam for the renewed interest in PC gaming, and it's given the indie developers a platform to compete. Dungeon defenders, torchlight, orcs must die would probably never have found an audience if not for steam.

Edit* oh yes and none of that "you can only install this 5 times cr@p"

 

[lroachl]

Lost all my DVD games when I came back from overseas, but the ones I bought from steam over the years just asked me to reinstall them. No hassle no fuss.

 

[thestaggy]

When does steam ask for permission?

Steam is awesome. Best thing to happen to gaming ever. Just picked up the latest Hitman for less than R150 on the last weekend special.

Well, all the registering for an account to play a game you have already paid for and limiting that one game to a single account. I recall when myself and my friends could just purchase games and exchange. To me it just comes off as a limiting factor. But then again I'm no longer a serious gamer.

EDIT: I'm not questioning the value of Steam, just that for an occassional gamer it was a little frustrating that I had to install Steam, create an account, update (which damn near killed my cap as I was on the limit) and THEN finally get to play my game. Insert disc, enter product key, install, play is how I was used to doing things.

 

[MisterFiftySomething]

Steam is great. Apart from some of the newest releases, it is much cheaper than other stores. And then you just wait for a sale as Qwikslver said.
Would have been nice to have the games DRM free ala GOG.com, but since steam lists all the newest AAA games, that would probably never be an option

 

[Avenue]

Well, all the registering for an account to play a game you have already paid for and limiting that one game to a single account. I recall when myself and my friends could just purchase games and exchange. To me it just comes off as a limiting factor. But then again I'm no longer a serious gamer.

That's exactly why they do this. Some of these titles cost over $100 million to make, and they have to make their money back somehow. At least now they have enough peace of mind to port their games to PC- something they stopped doing at one stage.
If you enjoy a game then its only fair to support the developers- most fairly new games can be bought for under R50- which is the price of a happy meal and it gives you hours of entertainment.

 

[Avenue]

EDIT: I'm not questioning the value of Steam, just that for an occassional gamer it was a little frustrating that I had to install Steam, create an account, update (which damn near killed my cap as I was on the limit) and THEN finally get to play my game. Insert disc, enter product key, install, play is how I was used to doing things.

yeah steam is meant for uncapped.

 

[thestaggy]

That's exactly why they do this. Some of these titles cost over $100 million to make, and they have to make their money back somehow. At least now they have enough peace of mind to port their games to PC- something they stopped doing at one stage.
If you enjoy a game then its only fair to support the developers- most fairly new games can be bought for under R50- which is the price of a happy meal and it gives you hours of entertainment.

Well, yeah, you do make a good point.

 

[Chevron]

Well, all the registering for an account to play a game you have already paid for and limiting that one game to a single account. I recall when myself and my friends could just purchase games and exchange. To me it just comes off as a limiting factor. But then again I'm no longer a serious gamer.

EDIT: I'm not questioning the value of Steam, just that for an occassional gamer it was a little frustrating that I had to install Steam, create an account, update (which damn near killed my cap as I was on the limit) and THEN finally get to play my game. Insert disc, enter product key, install, play is how I was used to doing things.

1. You need to stop buying games at the shop.
2. Get uncapped.

If you do those two things you will love steam.

 

[Stõrmza]

Steam saved me when my house was broken into. They stole everything out of my office DVD's cd's and my PC. I have been purchasing games through steam for ages, I just logged onto steam from my new PC, downloaded them all again and most games supported the cloud as well so my save games were also intact.

That reason and that reason alone is justification enough for me to use steam especially in ZA.