Civilization 5 Installation (box DVD through Steam?)

[jstevenson]

Hi, I am brand new to this community and this forum, so please be gentle.

I am a long-time "Civ" fan but only recently decided to upgrade to Civ5. I purchased what I think is a "boxed version" of the game through Amazon and now trying to install it. I was surprised when it instead installed this "steam" business.
There seemed to be no way to simply install the game from DVD without first installing Steam.
So I proceeded and so here I am.
The problem is, I still cannot Run the game!
I now get an error message suggesting that the "Steam Servers are too busy" and an error code (53). Its been doing that now for several hours. I know its Friday night and maybe the Steam servers ARE too busy, but could there be something more serious going on?

My laptop is fairly new, based in an i7, and running Windows 8.

[Twelvefield]

Sometimes the STEAM servers are busy... however, you should be able to get the game going after trying again once or twice.

Are you running real-time antivirus scans? God help you, CrapAffeeMacAffee? If so, active antivirus scans will return Error 53. Turn that off, restart STEAM and try again. That should do the trick. You don't have to shut antivirus off completely, just the active stuff. Unless you are running that junk software I mentioned. That should be turned off, uninstalled, and never used ever again, even if John MacAffee has a gun to your puppy's head.

[jstevenson]

I am running McAfee. Ive been very happy with it for last 20 years. Once I get the game running can I run it 100% locally and therefore without ANY internet? I don't like the idea of running my PC without some form of virus scanner active. especially if permanently attached to some online server like \steam!!!!

[Burbot]

You could try Steam in offline mode and disconnect for comfort sake. I don't know if Mcafee is interfering with Steam or the CIV exec though. So you may have to try a few things. Might do a 'CIV 5 McAfee' google for solutions. It should be possible to add exceptions to McAffee.