Does Playing While While No Internet Count Playtime ?

[Bravo Phantom]

Well, I know the answer to that question as...

1. Steam does calculate playtime either online or offline.
2. Steam only shows to us and to our account/profile the playtime we had while being offline.
3. Steam has our offline playtime as well so that is someone tries to play a lot of hours while offline, he/she can't claim refund then.

But I read on reddit that if somehow we start our game while being online, and our internet goes. We can simply keep the game open until our internet comes back, this way when game closes our playtime will be counted and added to our steam account. We can simply do other tasks till then by simply pressing Alt + Tab.

I just played Call of Duty MW 2, I didn't had internet a few minutes ago, but when I closed the game after playing some missions, the internet was back. But I don't think it added the time, as I can't see Playtime history per hour.

Does this actually work ?

[Crazy Tiger]

Both, actually. Offline it will be counted and visible for Steam Support, but it won't be added to the playtime displayed in the library or on your profile.

It's not a way to circumvent the refund policy, for example.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Both, actually. Offline it will be counted and visible for Steam Support, but it won't be added to the playtime displayed in the library or on your profile.

It's not a way to circumvent the refund policy, for example.

Makes me wonder about games that done require Steam to play.

Does it track that even though Steam is literally not running?

[Bravo Phantom]

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Both, actually. Offline it will be counted and visible for Steam Support, but it won't be added to the playtime displayed in the library or on your profile.

It's not a way to circumvent the refund policy, for example.

Makes me wonder about games that done require Steam to play.

Does it track that even though Steam is literally not running?

As far as I know, when we close Steam while a game is running, the game also closes. Game is dependent upon steam

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Bravo Phantom:

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Makes me wonder about games that done require Steam to play.

Does it track that even though Steam is literally not running?

As far as I know, when we close Steam while a game is running, the game also closes. Game is dependent upon steam :csgohelmet:

Not all of them.

There are many games that you can launch without steam ever being open.

For example, Stardew Valley and Shadowrun Returns do not require Steam to be open to play. You can create a shortcut to you desktop directly from the exe(not the Steam generated shortcut) and run the game without ever opening Steam.

I do it all the time for cases where I can't open Steam.

[cSg|mc-Hotsauce]

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Originally posted by Crazy Tiger:

Both, actually. Offline it will be counted and visible for Steam Support, but it won't be added to the playtime displayed in the library or on your profile.

It's not a way to circumvent the refund policy, for example.

Makes me wonder about games that done require Steam to play.

Does it track that even though Steam is literally not running?

No. People abuse those to get free games.

Originally posted by Bravo Phantom:

As far as I know, when we close Steam while a game is running, the game also closes. Game is dependent upon steam :csgohelmet:

All CoD titles require Steam but many other games do not, like games made by CDPR.

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by cSg|mc-Hotsauce:

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Makes me wonder about games that done require Steam to play.

Does it track that even though Steam is literally not running?

No. People abuse those to get free games.

That's unfortunate.

[Bravo Phantom]

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Originally posted by Bravo Phantom:

As far as I know, when we close Steam while a game is running, the game also closes. Game is dependent upon steam

Not all of them.

There are many games that you can launch without steam ever being open.

For example, Stardew Valley and Shadowrun Returns do not require Steam to be open to play. You can create a shortcut to you desktop directly from the exe(not the Steam generated shortcut) and run the game without ever opening Steam.

I do it all the time for cases where I can't open Steam.

Oh Yes, indeed I would say pretty much all single player games would run without Steam if we run the .exe. I remember last month I downloaded remastered mod of Assassin's Creed. And when I opened it from the .exe it was running the same as if I opened from the Steam

Well, I think we can save the whole game folder then to a external hard drive to preserve it. Maybe one day Steam dont let me download my Assassins Creed, but if I paid for the game in the first place, then I should be able to play it

[Brian9824]

Originally posted by Bravo Phantom:

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Not all of them.

There are many games that you can launch without steam ever being open.

For example, Stardew Valley and Shadowrun Returns do not require Steam to be open to play. You can create a shortcut to you desktop directly from the exe(not the Steam generated shortcut) and run the game without ever opening Steam.

I do it all the time for cases where I can't open Steam.

Oh Yes, indeed I would say pretty much all single player games would run without Steam if we run the .exe. I remember last month I downloaded remastered mod of Assassin's Creed. And when I opened it from the .exe it was running the same as if I opened from the Steam

Well, I think we can save the whole game folder then to a external hard drive to preserve it. Maybe one day Steam dont let me download my Assassins Creed, but if I paid for the game in the first place, then I should be able to play it

Not quite accurate, you can run almost any game from the exe but MOST require steam to be running in the background. There are SOME games that don't require steam to be running at all.

Most require steam however as a very basic form of DRM to prevent widescale piracy like gog has with someone who will d/l a game and then share the files

[Boblin the Goblin]

Originally posted by Bravo Phantom:

Originally posted by SlowMango:

Not all of them.

There are many games that you can launch without steam ever being open.

For example, Stardew Valley and Shadowrun Returns do not require Steam to be open to play. You can create a shortcut to you desktop directly from the exe(not the Steam generated shortcut) and run the game without ever opening Steam.

I do it all the time for cases where I can't open Steam.

Oh Yes, indeed I would say pretty much all single player games would run without Steam if we run the .exe. I remember last month I downloaded remastered mod of Assassin's Creed. And when I opened it from the .exe it was running the same as if I opened from the Steam

Well, I think we can save the whole game folder then to a external hard drive to preserve it. Maybe one day Steam dont let me download my Assassins Creed, but if I paid for the game in the first place, then I should be able to play it

It isn't a huge list and mostly contains indie titles.

Just clicking the 'X' does not close Steam. For it to be deemed DRM free, Steam must be completely closed and the game will run. This means no back group processes or anything related to Steam is running.