Why Do I Have To Keep Logging Online To Play Games Offline?

[TH885]

I would like to know why I have to keep LOGGING ON here about every third time I try to run a simulation. I am NOT interested in playing sims online, period! And I choose simulations that I KNOW are normally able to be played OFFLINE! What is the problem? Is this just yet another internet spyware site?

[Mr. Smiles]

Steam is a DRM platform, it has to be online to verify your game licenses.

[Judgmental Amaterasu]

Originally posted by TH885:

I would like to know why I have to keep LOGGING ON here about every third time I try to run a simulation. I am NOT interested in playing sims online, period! And I choose simulations that I KNOW are normally able to be played OFFLINE! What is the problem? Is this just yet another internet spyware site?

Spyware doesn't mean what you think it means.

[ReBoot]

Use Steam's offline mode.
That said, if you think Valve spies on you, delete your Steam account RIGHT NOW.

[TH885]

Then what good is the "Offline" button?

And I do "try" to use the "Offline" button every time I can get to it. Unfortunately Steam doesn't often allow me to get to it.

And I know quite well what spyware is bud... A program that first of all, "requires" your presence online.

BTW, I won't delete anything, anywhere, until I get a full refund for everything I've purchased... Nor would you.

[Mr. Smiles]

Oh dear, someone didn't read the SSA...

Here, I'll help:

Section 2.A subsection (b):

"To make use of the Content and Services, you must have a Steam Account and you may be required to be running the Steam client and maintaining a connection to the Internet."

You are welcome.

[ReBoot]

Originally posted by TH885:

And I know quite well what spyware is bud... A program that first of all, "requires" your presence online.

Yup, that's totes he definition of spyware.

[Haruspex]

Originally posted by TH885:

I won't delete anything, anywhere, until I get a full refund for everything I've purchased.

Then why did you sign up and keep buying things on such an obvious spyware platform? If it's so bad you should have skipped it entirely and gotten your games exclusively from DRM free sources like GOG.

[zaphodikus]

Um, is this not an issue with the specific game, not all games require you to be "online" in order to play.

[TH885]

I don't "play" games bud. I design mods and major features of simulations. And when I first got on here, the "required" logons only happened once in awhile. But they are getting more and more frequent. Yesterday, I tried to get on here with one of my sims, and it took me "five" logons before it would let me use it! Check my logons if you don't believe me! Why would it take that much wasted time that I don't have to use a sim I've paid for?

[Silicon Vampire]

Only way I know how to keep Steam pretty much offline is to disconnect from the Internet.

Steam is an online platform at it’s core. If it thinks you’ve got a connection, it wants to login.

[TH885]

Yet another definition of spyware, eh...

[my new friend]

A few good posts to look into.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/3155312274941890537/#c3155312274942189832
And a former Valve employee about how offline mode was supposed to be.
https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/864969953572102601/#c864969953730401285

[zaphodikus]

Basically very many components we use these days to build software systems will be making either an analytics, a stat check or some other fetch for consistency checking purposes to the web, and hence will be online, not always intentionally, but simple because a developer consumed a component in their app or plugin. Some simple things to you and I might be to check a certificate of a package, where the entire certificate chain will not be stored in the cert, desktops will tend to download that entire chain, but not always cache it, and so on. It's often not spyware, it's often just how apps are made.

I mean our world has changed a lot autoexec.bat and config.sys was the easy days - but would hardly call computing offline as no accident.