How does the hours played timer work?

[dyxxander]

Having purchased XCOM 2 I started it up with the intentions of playing it. I let it do its initial things and went in to choose the controller and found it was not there. Started a game and the controller didn't work. Quit the game. I start the game every few days to see if a patch downloads that supplies controller support. If no patch I then quit the game. I am patient and can wait until the controller support patch comes out. M&KB are fine for those that have wrists that can take a lot of hours. The timer says I have played for 4 hours? Does the timer add an hour everytime the game is opened? Total time I have opened this game is less that one hour so where the four hours comes from I have no idea. Is this a timer glitch? Does the time logged into Steam to check the boards count against game time played? Just was wondering what was going on. Thanks.

[J4MESOX4D]

It counts when the game is running. If the process is not closed in the task bar upon exit or if a game has a launcher that is not closed; despite not being in game and playing; it will count towards hours played.

[dyxxander]

So it's a bug? When you 'quit to desktop' the game should quit and the counter should stop. I know that Xcom 2 has a bunch of bugs but hanging threads really shouldn't be one of them in this day and age. So how does one get the counter set to actual 'in game' time? Thanks.

[Ogami]

As long as the process is running the game counts as being played and the timer advances. Say you start the game, a launcher window opens but you do not press start. Then you got away for 2 hours. When you come back the gameplay timer will have advanced 2 hours since the game process was running. Steam does not care if you really are playing. Same if you pause the game and do anything else and so on.
Most games have internal timers, displayed on the save game description or some status page.
If you care for the "real" time you spend in the game.

[dyxxander]

Actually, I start the game and see if a patch downloads. When I get to the startup screen and no patching has occured I quit to desktop. The only thing I can figure is that the time that Steam is running gets counted since I did quit the game. There is no way that I have multiple hours 'played' from just getting to the startup screen and quitting from there. If I were to total the actual time the game itself was open it would be less than 30 minutes. How I have hours of playing time on the counter is beyond me.

[Darren]

You don't need to start XCOM 2 in order to see if it's been patched, the patches happen automatically to keep it up to date (it's not like an MMO).

As for controller support you could be waiting awhile, although apparently some people have had some success with controllers (it somewhat works supposedly you just can't control the mouse pointer with the controller, and definitely if you've got the ability to map your controllers controls to keyboard/mouse commands).

[boatskip]

"Ogami Feb 14 @ 4:05pm
As long as the process is running the game counts as being played and the timer advances. Say you start the game, a launcher window opens but you do not press start. Then you got away for 2 hours. When you come back the gameplay timer will have advanced 2 hours since the game process was running. Steam does not care if you really are playing. Same if you pause the game and do anything else and so on.
Most games have internal timers, displayed on the save game description or some status page.
If you care for the "real" time you spend in the game."

So, I have been playing Skyrim for over 6 months and my timer only has 2 hrs. played. I know I have played over 30 hours and yet, the timer does not show it. Now, I do play offline. I don't like having the change of anything coming down the pike from the internet. So, I kill my network connection and just play offline. I do connect to steam about once a week. I figured the game would upload my time whenever I did this. But, to no avail. If it only counts "Online" time, that can be the problem. It should collect from the game when you connect to steam and update the hrs. played. I am currenttly at level 26 and am in the finishing of the dark brotherhood quest. Have finished the Dragon born and most of the College quest. Thanks for the info.

[dyxxander]

Darren - I guess the patch must have been pulled. Nothing downloads when I open Steam which is why I open the game to see if a download occurs. Unless it is a very small file that goes by too fast to register on the screen. Is there a way to tell if the patch has been downloaded? It would be great if there was a version number in the game that you could tell if it is the current version. I don't mind waiting for controller support as long as I know it is coming. I have other games that use keypad only or controller to keep my wrist from in one piece. XCom 2 would have no enjoyment for me if I could only play it for fifteen minutes at a time because of having to use a mouse with a bad wrist.

[Darren]

Right-Click->Properties
Got to the Local Files Tab
There is a Current Content Build ID on the page. Mine says: 981411

[dyxxander]

Actually if I rt. click and get properties on the .exe file it tells me I have file version 1.0.0.33124
Not sure if this is the latest or not. I am not sure what you are pulling the properties from.

[TombRaiser]

You right click the game in the Steam Library, then go to Properties. That's where you find Local Files tab.

[dyxxander]

I just came across that. I was looking on the local system. Thanks for the response.

[Chris]

quite a scam - you only get two hours to qualify for a refund and then after failing to get a game to work properly you leave and try another time only to find out you are now over the limit of play time to qualify for a refund and stuck with a game you can't play. This is my current experience in DayZ and I was so looking forward to playing it but it's totally impossible for me after an hour I might get in and then within a couple minutes i'm kicked due to unstable. Epic let down and 60 bucks down the drain = very disappointing.

[J4MESOX4D]

Originally posted by curious rebel:

quite a scam - you only get two hours to qualify for a refund and then after failing to get a game to work properly you leave and try another time only to find out you are now over the limit of play time to qualify for a refund and stuck with a game you can't play. This is my current experience in DayZ and I was so looking forward to playing it but it's totally impossible for me after an hour I might get in and then within a couple minutes i'm kicked due to unstable. Epic let down and 60 bucks down the drain = very disappointing.

You can submit a manual ticket instead by choosing this option in the Support wizard https://i.stack.imgur.com/tGEEH.png instead of going through the automated refund process.