When is Steam going to fix the issue with hours played while offline?

[deoxxys]

This has been an issue for years with Steam. Its a rare occasion I dont have internet on my desktop but with the portability of the Steam Deck its a far more common issue to not have an internet connection.

Ex:
I've played over 3 hours of Shotgun King but my profile only says I have played 6 minutes.

[Prezidentas]

it's not an issue if's it's done on purpose

[deoxxys]

Originally posted by Vairuotojas-Kontrolierius:

it's not an issue if's it's done on purpose

How does that even begin to make sense? Like I swear people just look for reasons to argue.

Why would I not want my library to accurately portray how long I have played a game? I need to know how much of my life I have put into each title thank you very much.

[ginger_nutz]

I suppose it would be handy to know how long it took before some hardware piece died. But then Valve and the manufacturer probably already know.

Isnt time in game in some achievement folder?

[invision2212]

i dont think game time is tracked using offline mode

[deoxxys]

Originally posted by ginger_nutz:

Isnt time in game in some achievement folder?

That would be useful info if anyone knows.

Then, while annoying, I could still "farm" for hours and leave a game open while online.

[scjay]

Originally posted by invision2212:

i dont think game time is tracked using offline mode

It used to be but i'm having problems as well (Using a PC).

[Prezidentas]

the whole offline hours thing is to make sure people don't fake their hours, right now valve can trust your hours since their servers themselves can verify it, but with offline tracking you could report any amount of madeup game time.

[ZombieKidzRule!]

Originally posted by Vairuotojas-Kontrolierius:

the whole offline hours thing is to make sure people don't fake their hours, right now valve can trust your hours since their servers themselves can verify it, but with offline tracking you could report any amount of madeup game time.

I could be completely wrong, but from a developer standpoint, wouldn't it be better for Steam to accurately track how much time a player has on any specific game and not just online?

Because right now, and again, I could be completely wrong, but if a game does not require you to be online to play, a player could simply play as much as they want offline and then request a refund because they are under the 2 hour limit.

It would seem that developers/publishers could lose money by players getting refunds even though they far exceeded the 2 hour limit by playing offline.

Also, as a person who plays way more on their Steam Deck than they ever played on their laptop, I would kind of like to have a total numbers of hours played on my Steam Deck. Especially now that I play a lot more away from home and away from an internet connection. I pretty much never did that before.

I like accuracy in those pesky, damn statistics.

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by ZombieKidzRule!:

Originally posted by Vairuotojas-Kontrolierius:

the whole offline hours thing is to make sure people don't fake their hours, right now valve can trust your hours since their servers themselves can verify it, but with offline tracking you could report any amount of madeup game time.

I could be completely wrong, but from a developer standpoint, wouldn't it be better for Steam to accurately track how much time a player has on any specific game and not just online?

Because right now, and again, I could be completely wrong, but if a game does not require you to be online to play, a player could simply play as much as they want offline and then request a refund because they are under the 2 hour limit.

It would seem that developers/publishers could lose money by players getting refunds even though they far exceeded the 2 hour limit by playing offline.

Also, as a person who plays way more on their Steam Deck than they ever played on their laptop, I would kind of like to have a total numbers of hours played on my Steam Deck. Especially now that I play a lot more away from home and away from an internet connection. I pretty much never did that before.

I like accuracy in those pesky, damn statistics.

indeed, however you could also change the time played offline to any arbitrary number anyways (like 0) before reconnecting and still get a refund. games without steam integration can be launched thru the EXE and then no time is recorded even when steam is online.

There was no real reason to track offline play before the Deck. maybe now something will change.

[deoxxys]

Also its a pain but you CAN just farm for hours by opening a game and leaving it there so anyone can potentially fake that they have played more hours then they actually have.

Heck I used to bug my brothers when they left a game running because I said they were farming hours and sometimes would even leave up a google search of a dairy cow on their screen

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by deoxxys:

Also its a pain but you CAN just farm for hours by opening a game and leaving it there so anyone can potentially fake that they have played more hours then they actually have.

Heck I used to bug my brothers when they left a game running because I said they were farming hours and sometimes would even leave up a google search of a dairy cow on their screen :lunar2019laughingpig:

it's not faking if you need to actually run the game for all of that time.

[deoxxys]

But it is faking...you arent playing that game, its not time invested in it. You arent even present to stare at the menu screen. Heck I could be sleeping on the couch nearby for 8 hours, its still not playing it. I think most people would agree with this.

[deoxxys]

Okay I don't understand why your hours aren't updated when you re-sync your cloud save

[Prezidentas]

Originally posted by deoxxys:

Okay I don't understand why your hours aren't updated when you re-sync your cloud save

hours aren't related to your cloud saves

[tomk1]

As I use a mobile hotspot, walking with my dogs yesterday through a forest, the majority a network deadzone.
Woolfe - The Red Hood Diaries on Steam-Deck it did say 2+ hours [think 2.3 or 2.5 when I switched Deck on]
Steam profile today on PC: activity 1 hour.
The Steam Deck updated playtime to 59mins (steam cloud up to date).
Same with Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes, sure there were another hour before sync.
So what is the point of playtime if its not the playtime, it's some meaningless number.
Honest no idea how long I was playing a wandering along under an umbrella in the rain.
Playtime is pointless.