Never buying anything from steam again

[Awptik]

I bought Prey on the 19th. Waited a day for it to download (I have slow internet). Started playing and I can't get past the first chapter without the game crashing.

I've tried all the common suggestions. I should have never tried to fix the issues myself. Because I did, I spent beyond 2 hours of the game running, in which I tried to play the game without it crashing.

Apparently Steam wants you to refund your games the very moment they crash, and you better hope that it was less than 2 hours of gameplay.

I have 1 achievement in the game. I have no interest in playing a game that keeps crashing. I haven't hoodwinked the system into getting 'free game experience' or whatever it is that Steam thinks as to why it needs the 2 hour time window.

I've explained this in a support ticket now. It has been blatantly ignored with a cold robotic response of copy/pasting the 2 hour policy.

Well I don't care. I'm reclaiming my time. I didn't spend 4 hours and 6 minutes playing this game. I spent the majority of it changing video settings and replaying the same part over and over until it crashed.

To anyone who says, "well they have your money and they won't refund it", I don't care either. I will make a support ticket every time they close it. I will post in this thread every time I want to remind myself and others about the deceitful practices of Steam.

Edit - I've also never refunded a game before. I stated that in my support tickets. I will no longer ever buy anything on steam again. I am contemplating also selling my account with around 100 games.

[Forcen]

Ok, that's fine. Except the account selling part, don't do that. Poor buyer might get banned.

So that refund will not happen, but you might get that game running without problems again. It's not like the game is defective, it had some problems but it got patched I heard and it should be fine.

It could just be your PC, did you ever solve those crashing issues with Skyrim?
Can you do this so we get some more info about your PC?
In Steam click Help>System Information. Then right click the text and click "copy all text to clipboard" and then paste it in here.

You can still contact Bethesda and get their support to help you figure out what the problem is: http://help.bethesda.net/

In any case the game will be there in your account if you get another PC in the future, maybe it will work without crashing then.

[Awptik]

Maybe it's my PC. Maybe it's not.
http://help.bethesda.net/app/answers/detail/a_id/38728/~/what-do-i-do-if-prey-is-crashing-on-pc%3F

Of course I can't fix crashes with Skyrim, it's another Bethesda game.

No I will not keep jumping through hoops. I will simply never buy anything on steam again. GOG, Origin, and my consoles all work fine. Bye.

[Heffebaycay]

Hello,

If Steam Support decides not to refund your purchase, your next course of action could be to contact the support staff of the game publisher. Given the right crash logs and description of the problem, they should be able to pinpoint where the problem is coming from.

[Forcen]

The games use totally different engines though. Sounds like your PC is the problem here, lots of people play skyrim also without crashes.

Maybe a windows reinstall or a driver update might do it.
Worst case get a new PC or wait until you do. You should post the specs via the steam thing.

[Awptik]

Originally posted by Forcen:

The games use totally different engines though. Sounds like your PC is the problem here, lots of people play skyrim also without crashes.

Maybe a windows reinstall or a driver update might do it.
Worst case get a new PC or wait until you do. You should post the specs via the steam thing.

Yes, I'll buy a new PC, and not install steam or ever purchase anything from it again. I don't really need to care if it's my fault or their fault. The point is simple, the game crashes on more PC than one. My PC plays other games that don't crash. A correlation by searching my post history is nothing more than pointing more fingers.

I have never refunded a game, ever. Steam couldn't play nice just this once, so I'm done. I don't care how many people claim the game runs fine for them, a simple google search of "Prey game PC Crash" brings up almost 11 million results. Done.

[Satoru]

The refund policy is clear

LESS than 2 hours of playtime and LESS than 2 weeks since purchase

The rules apply equally to ALL users. Whether you're a first time purchaser, or have been on Steam for 13 years.

That doesn't change because you think you're a special snowflake that deserves something you're not entitled to.

If you want a refund, then don't go over the refund policy. Dont blame steam when your refund is CORRECTLY rejected because you went over the policy. No one made you play more than 2 hours. You did that. You.

[Forcen]

Yeah, it's totally fine to refund crashing games but they have to draw the line somewhere.

The opposite side of this situation also is true, you can refund any game for any reason as long as you fall under the 2 hours.
There are games sold on Steam that are shorter than 2 hours and yet the 2 hour limit is the same. Some people just get what they need from a game in that time and they still get a refund.

It's not a perfect rule, there are flaws on both sides but it is at least clearly defined.
Most of us here are used to no refunds at all what so ever, this used to be true for digital purchases on consoles also until recently so the refund rules feels pretty fair to me and might be a bit lax in certain situations.
Steam is also pretty generous in letting you lend games out to people around the world with library sharing.

[Awptik]

I don't care how clear the policy is. I didn't buy the game with a stop watch next to me expecting crashes an hour after I started. And then timing every re-launch of the game while also hoping this time the brand new product I just bought would be worth its value. I spent time trying to fix the issue and evidently that was where I went wrong. I've learned DO NOT TRY TO FIX STEAM GAME CRASHES, just refund ASAP.

I've also pointed out how I've never asked for a refund before. Look at my account. Look at my years. They lost me as a customer for the rest of my life over $30 instead of treating me like a human. And if you can't accept that people make mistakes and sometimes go outside of arbitrary policy, then fine, you're a robot, but I'm human and every human is a special snowflake.

[Satoru]

You're not a special snowflake

You're just whining that you aren't getting a refund you're not entitled to

The policy is clear

Oh and tell me since you're whining you "won't buy on steam", so tell me what store are you going to buy from that magically gives refunds.

Oh that's right! No one does! Please enjoy screaming at your imaginary other store when they do the same thing

[Awptik]

wait you said i am a snowflake then said i'm not, please go rally somewhere i think your people are planning meetings again.

I don't expect to be requiring refunds from other stores, i've never bought games that repeatedly crash from anywhere else, and if I did I probably wouldn't anyway, since this is the first time in 11 years I did here.

Whine about me whining some more.

[Awptik]

Originally posted by Riedy:

Refunds are quaranteed if you played under two hours within the last two weeks.
If you played over it, you can still try and succeed, but four hours is pushing it.
To Steam, you already spent 4 hours in the game and were able to gain an achievement.
They can't just grant refunds to everyone, four hours is a lot of time to spend in a game.

Ok that's insanity. 4 hour is not a long time for any game, and most of that time was relaunching the game and trying different settings. Are you aware steam tracks the time it takes for logos and menus to appear? What about the 5-8 minute loading screens in Prey? Please.

Just a reminder with physical copies you can play for years and still get a couple bucks back from Gamestop.

[Satoru]

So you're saying Prey would magically start working because you bought it from a different store. That magically if you bought it from amazon/Best Buy/GameStop/Walmart it was going to magically work.

Please tell me what alternative dimension that logic applies

[Awptik]

Originally posted by Satoru:

So you're saying Prey would magically start working because you bought it from a different store

Please tell me what alternative dimension that logic applies

once you tell me if i am or am not a snowflake

[Satoru]

Originally posted by Laid Off Gamer:

Originally posted by Satoru:

So you're saying Prey would magically start working because you bought it from a different store

Please tell me what alternative dimension that logic applies

once you tell me if i am or am not a snowflake

You're a whining special snowflake if the distinction makes any difference

[Awptik]

Originally posted by Satoru:

Originally posted by Laid Off Gamer:

once you tell me if i am or am not a snowflake

You're a whining special snowflake if the distinction makes any difference

ok because you said i wasn't but knowing that someone keeps taking time away from "Dungeon Hearts" to come whine at me what a whiner i am and use contradictions then ok, hope your rallies go well

(P.S. The game would work perfectly well if I bought it off the PSN or XBOX game stores. Enjoy the spaz attack trying to do the mental gymnastics to tell me how I'm wrong or that implies it's my PC that is the problem despite 11 million google results and patches from Bethesda showing the PC version of the game has issues)