Does being invisible count hours in games?

[-Floki-]

Does it show if im currently playing the game?

[Count_Dandyman]

it does track your playtime and show it if you have that set to be visible on your profile yes.

[ShelLuser]

It shows, yes. It'll even show if you set yourself offline.

Don't forget that those modes are only used with the friends module, it does not affect your games.

[Eldin]

Only if you run Steam in Offline mode (Click Steam in top left corner and Go Offline) then your playtime won't count.

[Dr. Sinister]

Originally posted by Eldin:

Only if you run Steam in Offline mode (Click Steam in top left corner and Go Offline) then your playtime won't count.

Oh I doubt that. That would allow people to buy a game. Go into offline mode, play it until they finish and hopefully it'll be done within the two weeks before they could refund. Valve isn't that dumb to allow this

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Dr. Sinister:

Originally posted by Eldin:

Only if you run Steam in Offline mode (Click Steam in top left corner and Go Offline) then your playtime won't count.

Oh I doubt that. That would allow people to buy a game. Go into offline mode, play it until they finish and hopefully it'll be done within the two weeks before they could refund. Valve isn't that dumb to allow this

^ This.

It's not true. And I have proof from other regions of Steam ;) I sometimes play games "not suited for minors" (it sounds more dramatic than it is) and I know that there are several players who'd love to have an option to hide their gaming preferences.

Well... it doesn't work that way, as has been proven time and time again. Ergo: the above statement isn't true.

[Darren]

Originally posted by Dr. Sinister:

Originally posted by Eldin:

Only if you run Steam in Offline mode (Click Steam in top left corner and Go Offline) then your playtime won't count.

Oh I doubt that. That would allow people to buy a game. Go into offline mode, play it until they finish and hopefully it'll be done within the two weeks before they could refund. Valve isn't that dumb to allow this

To be clear it doesn't count to the playtime visible on your profile but they do count it for refund purposes.

[Zekiran]

^^ Yeah it still 'counts' internally, Steam absolutely can detect that play time. What shows on your profile is another thing *entirely*, and 'offline' precludes hours from being shown.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Darren:

Originally posted by Dr. Sinister:

Oh I doubt that. That would allow people to buy a game. Go into offline mode, play it until they finish and hopefully it'll be done within the two weeks before they could refund. Valve isn't that dumb to allow this

To be clear it doesn't count to the playtime visible on your profile but they do count it for refund purposes.

Utter nonsense, apologies for my harsh pick of words, it honestly is.

So Thursday is my Arma 3 evening (Arma 3 & GTA 5 are my top 2 games). To prove you wrong I set myself offline and then started GTA 5.

Guess which game is suddenly moved on top of my recent activity list and thus counting for hours? Hint: not Arma 3.

[Zekiran]

Recent activity =/= hours played. It will show what you most recently played regardless of whether you were on or offline.

An exception to this, seems to be when using a non-steam LAUNCHER program - such as F4SE or the Arx Libertatis launchers to play Fallout 4 or Arx Fatalis - those remain unbumped.

[ShelLuser]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

Recent activity =/= hours played. It will show what you most recently played regardless of whether you were on or offline.

Good point.

Well, one way to find out. And for the record: if I'm wrong I'm wrong and I have no problems eating my own words because of that. I'm 754 hours in right now, onto an hour (or more) of GTA grinding and we'll see what happens next :)

[Zekiran]

lol Well have fun :)

All I know is my own recent list, which hasn't moved off of Plants vs Zombies, even though I play Arx Libertatis - launched from its own launcher - more recently.

I mean, plus... *shrugs* computers. ;)

[ShelLuser]

756 hours in right now. I never went online.

[Menzue]

Originally posted by Dr. Sinister:

Originally posted by Eldin:

Only if you run Steam in Offline mode (Click Steam in top left corner and Go Offline) then your playtime won't count.

Oh I doubt that. That would allow people to buy a game. Go into offline mode, play it until they finish and hopefully it'll be done within the two weeks before they could refund. Valve isn't that dumb to allow this

hate to break it to you man but ive done it accidentally. Bought a game for a road trip and the save file kept getting corrupted. All in all after about 12 hours of playtime and 4 save files later the game only registered 50 minutes and I could get a refund on the thing.

[KrilMun]

Originally posted by Zekiran:

lol Well have fun :)

All I know is my own recent list, which hasn't moved off of Plants vs Zombies, even though I play Arx Libertatis - launched from its own launcher - more recently.

I mean, plus... *shrugs* computers. ;)

I had this same issue. I believe Steam doesn't count the hours IF you are INDEED offline, not just in offline mode.

I know this because at a time in my life I only had internet during the day, and during the night I had to play totally offline, without internet access. Guess what? Some games I had even finished were still at 0 hours played.

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Darren:

To be clear it doesn't count to the playtime visible on your profile but they do count it for refund purposes.

Utter nonsense, apologies for my harsh pick of words, it honestly is.

So Thursday is my Arma 3 evening (Arma 3 & GTA 5 are my top 2 games). To prove you wrong I set myself offline and then started GTA 5.

Guess which game is suddenly moved on top of my recent activity list and thus counting for hours? Hint: not Arma 3.

Do not ever think of every case as it were you in that position, as not everyone is like you, my case I've described as an example.

[Jentry]

Originally posted by ShelLuser:

Originally posted by Dr. Sinister:

Oh I doubt that. That would allow people to buy a game. Go into offline mode, play it until they finish and hopefully it'll be done within the two weeks before they could refund. Valve isn't that dumb to allow this

^ This.

It's not true. And I have proof from other regions of Steam ;) I sometimes play games "not suited for minors" (it sounds more dramatic than it is) and I know that there are several players who'd love to have an option to hide their gaming preferences.

Well... it doesn't work that way, as has been proven time and time again. Ergo: the above statement isn't true.

"it sounds more dramatic than it is"

(goes to profile and it is actually more dramatic than it sounds)