Some Points to consider Before Buying Games on steam...

[kuminda]

Hi All
I've made the mistake of buying my games on steam. Fortunately I bought only two titles so far and will not be buying any more, in any case I thought its best to post this, so people will not make the same mistake I did.

1. If you ever plan to have more than one computer in your house hold and letting your (wife, son, Daughter, Mother, Friend etc.) to lay a game on one computer while you play another (YES, not the same game). Do not buy that game through the steam account. Steam would not allow you to do that. It seems you don't own the game any more. Steam owns and they lend it to you. (one game at time)

(my point is that stem should not charge us for individual games in this case, they should ask for a monthly fee, where we can play ay game in the catalogue as long as its, one gam at a time, like the Old video rentals/book libraries etc.)

2. If you don't like programs running in the background of your PC, then do not buy games on steam. It seems unless you specifically go and disable steam service. Its running on your PC. God knows what holes it makes in your PC. Why cant it simply load when I start a game and shut down when I exit the game. I don't see the point of background service.

3. If you like the programme to run in the background of your PC and don't bother you at all, then don't go with steam (or at least don't install the same in multiple PCs.) Because steam account keep on asking you for your user ID and password each time

Regards

Kuminda

[⚡🍉OverlordTomala🍉⚡]

If you're looking for a place that uses the monthly fee thing I would suggest gamefly or gametap (if gametap is still around)

But my entire family games on steam (we've either bought games for ourselves or for each other) and have had no issues.

[aWildSkitty]

All these faults are of your own accord, not Steam's.

1. Have your family members make their own steam accounts to play games. If people could log onto the same account at the same time and play online then why would each person need to make their own? A group of friends could make 1 steam account and all together making them lose hundreds of dollars from lost sales. If you really want to play games on the same account, you could always use Steam in offline mode so you can log onto the account on multiple computers multiple times.

2. All it takes to stop Steam running is to exit the program. The Steam client remains open after playing a game so you can browse various things like the Store, Workshop, Discussions and Guides just to name a few besides from communicating with friends. It's one of the main features of Steam, nothing is stopping you from closing it once you are done playing a game.

3. If you hit Remember Me before logging into Steam, then the next time you log into Steam it will automatically connect your account, this will work unless someone else logs into your account from another computer or you log out of your account, in which case you will need to re enter your Username and Password for security reasons.


You really seems like you don't know what Steam is at all and just complained about things that you should have known about.

[Tito Shivan]

You should have read the Steam ToS before starting to invest money on it. You'd been aware beforehand that only one login can be done per account and such.
I understand how it can be a nuisance within a family the way steam works. Feel free to take your business where they best suit your interests.
But sadly, the way steam works is a growing trend on the industry.

I personally purchase DRM-free copies of my game whenever possible.

[kuminda]

Thanks for the Comments guys and gals.. Yes I agree with you its my fault. I should have read the ToS (and I wonder who does read those agreements before hitting "I Do"). This post was for the people who don't read the details of the agreements Like you guys...

To make it clear. I did not choose steam. I purchased Civilisation online and it was delivered with Steam. If I knew all this before I would have taken the trip to local virgin store...


@Skyler: I have no problem for steam blocking some one from playing the same game two instances. My problem is they stop different games (ex: me playing Tomb Raider on one and my wife playing civilisation in another computer). Some one else has pointed out in another forum "Its like when buying a DVD movie home movie studio asking to pay for watching it"

So more games I have on steam, less time I can play each game,

if steams game prices justify that I have no problem. But its not. If I buy the DVD and pay 100% of the price. I can play it and once I am done many others can play it (no licence infringement) while move on and play different games. but even if steam provides 50% discount. Once I play it, the game is useless (unless I want to keep on playing the same game).

If steam is ready to rent, or charge me "Pay as you play" for the games. Then One game, one user, one computer make sense. But considering I am paying for the game upfront (supposedly a perpetual licence) this does not make sense.

In any case, As I said before this is my fault , not reading the Terms and Conditions. (at least when I went and purchased a second game through steam) This post is for people like me...

[ManiacMal]

The reason for this is you are not suppose to share your account. By Steam's standard your wife should have her own account. My fiance and I each have our own accounts, now it goes without saying our game tastes are largely different however if there is a game we both want to play I buy two copies, it's as simple as that.

Steam gives you a limited liscense to play the game whenever you want on your account, whereever you want until the service is canceled. You never own the game, this is so they don't have to abide to the selling/trading of games or be legally bounded to do such a thing.

As a long time supporter of Steam through multiple accounts (All you have to do is check my library to see that) I approve this method cause Steam is not going anywhere soon.

As for your computer related issues well that just seems like a lack of knowledge on your part. To take Steam out of the background you have to go in it's settings and turn off "Start Steam when PC starts up" that is common program settings. Also saving all your credentials will instantly log you into Steam every time without bothering you. If you are account switching on the same PC then ya it's going to ask as the sessions are changing.

I will just say in the futrue before using a service do some research, a simple google search would have got you the answer you were looking for. Steam would not have so many millions of members if people didn't believe in the platform. Steam is the reason PC gaming bounced back and I will thank them with my wallet.

[Anarchisteve]

kuminda님이 먼저 게시:

To make it clear. I did not choose steam. I purchased Civilisation online and it was delivered with Steam. If I knew all this before I would have taken the trip to local virgin store...

This wouldn't have helped, Civilization V is a Steamworks game, all retail copies register to Steam whether you use an online store or a bricks-and-mortar one.

[aWildSkitty]

kuminda님이 먼저 게시:

I have no problem for steam blocking some one from playing the same game two instances. My problem is they stop different games (ex: me playing Tomb Raider on one and my wife playing civilisation in another computer). Some one else has pointed out in another forum "Its like when buying a DVD movie home movie studio asking to pay for watching it"

So more games I have on steam, less time I can play each game,

if steams game prices justify that I have no problem. But its not. If I buy the DVD and pay 100% of the price. I can play it and once I am done many others can play it (no licence infringement) while move on and play different games. but even if steam provides 50% discount. Once I play it, the game is useless (unless I want to keep on playing the same game).

As Hashbrick said, this is because Steam discourages sharing accounts, they want you to make a seperate account for each family member so they can buy their own games (So if you all want to play the same game you have to purcahse it several times which means more money for them)

A solution would be when you log onto Steam, Click on "Steam" in the top left corner, then click on "Go offline". This will disconnect you from the Steam Servers completely. You can then play Tomb Raider in offline mode. However since you are offline, your wife will be able to log into the account and play Civ V either online or offline.

I have never personally had to do this myself, so I do not know if there are any drawbacks, I think however achievements don't save and your session times won't be added. But in my opinion it's worth a shot since you already have the games :)