WTF

[stevious1956]

I am a devotee of Fallout 3 who is one of the few people left on the planet without an internet connection. So when I go to buy this MUCH anticipated release of the latest installment of Fallout world, I am informed that I can only play this game while connected to the net. I nearly lost the plot!!!

If Fallout is a stand-alone, single player game; my question is... why do I have to be connected to the net to play?

Could it be that the developers are only concerned about maximizing profit?

Or could it be that; as with many other aspects of our culture (as we move forward); something that works perfectly well is hijacked by **** whose sole purpose is to take a good thing, and either complicate it beyond recognition, or **** it up completely?

In either case; I (as a meaningless and irrelevant consumer) can only boycott ANY product offered by the developers, and urge anybody I come in contact to do likewise in the future.

Have a nice day

[Gorth]

1) The choice of DRM is the publishers, not the developers

2) If it is Steam you are thinking about, it has an offline mode (need to be online once when installing, after that it isn't needed)

 

If it is on a console, no idea. Haven't heard anything about those requiring a connection.

[Purkake]

You could try reading the requirements on the box the next time...

[Nepenthe]

I am a devotee of Fallout 3 who is one of the few people left on the planet without an internet connection.

 

The game also requires electricity to play. Should we take up arms on behalf of those without access to it?

[Atreides]

I can certainly understand the rage.

 

On my PC Civ5 box the "Internet connection and acceptance of Steam Subscriber Agreement required" is among the blocks of small text at the back of the box. Although I have internet and used to be able to connect to Steam (before I got my modem-router), it turns out Steam doesn't connect well over routers. It was very frustrating/heart-in-mouth but I managed to get through enough just to register and activate offline mode, which isn't exactly conspicuous on their troubleshooting pages.

 

Steam offline mode:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article...=3160-AGCB-2555

[Humodour]

Steam connects fine over routers.

 

Your problem is particular to you.

[Kaftan Barlast]

Steam in itself is a pretty smooth bit of kit, it ****s up about once a week and you'll have to do something else for a while until it fixes itself, but other than that its fine. Whats not fine is when you have 3-4 games installed and each of them uses a different system like GFWL, Steam, EA download or that other thing. Thats when you begin to have collisions and connectivity and stability goes off

[LadyCrimson]

I'm not sure what is meant by 'modem router' but I don't have any trouble connecting to Steam through our network, firewall, router etc.

 

In terms of the OP...I can empathize. Offline mode means nothing if he has no home internet to connect with to initially install Steam/authorize in the first place. If he has a friend w/internet, he might be able to take his rig there to do it, but then he still can't download the patches from home either. Sucks, but oh well. Someday maybe you'll have the net at home perhaps & you can get the game then. Bright side:It'll be a lot cheaper!

[Humanoid]

Yeah, no fan of Steam either but looking at the bigger picture, it's for the best that a relatively small company with a narrow scope runs it, instead of bigger evils like say, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Apple, etc.

 

 

The biggest irritation is not being able to readily specify the installation location for each game. I'd love to install New Vegas on my SSD but it's not going to work if all my Steam games live there. I did accidentally install Steam on multiple disks on my old PC though, and each copy just saw the installed games in its local directory - thinking that might be the way to go.

[Atreides]

Steam connects fine over routers.

 

Your problem is particular to you.

Not just to me, apparently

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article...=6776-MYXU-0480

[Humodour]

Yeah, no fan of Steam either but looking at the bigger picture, it's for the best that a relatively small company with a narrow scope runs it, instead of bigger evils like say, Google, Microsoft, Sony, Apple, etc.

 

Indeed. Something like Steam was bound to happen. I think we should be very grateful it was Valve that built it first.

[Morgoth]

Imagine EA or Activision have made Steam, we'd be all screwed.

[Atreides]

Yeah, besides the obvious distribution benefits it seems to be evolving into an outsourced verification and patching system for publishers that don't maintain their own. Helps that it should be around for a very long time too.

[Purkake]

Imagine EA or Activision have made Steam, we'd be all screwed.

Have you already forgotten EA Link?

[Maria Caliban]

I always think it's odd when someone hops onto an internet forum to post that they have no internet.

 

I would never want a gaming computer without an internet connection. I wouldn't be able to update my drivers or direct x, and so my games would be much harder to play. That said, I'm sorry this happened Steve.

 

 

Imagine EA or Activision have made Steam, we'd be all screwed.

 

I don't think publishers would agree to use an EA or Activision Steam.

[HoonDing]

The game also requires electricity to play. Should we take up arms on behalf of those without access to it?

Strawman of the week.

[Nightshape]

I can certainly understand the rage.

 

On my PC Civ5 box the "Internet connection and acceptance of Steam Subscriber Agreement required" is among the blocks of small text at the back of the box. Although I have internet and used to be able to connect to Steam (before I got my modem-router), it turns out Steam doesn't connect well over routers. It was very frustrating/heart-in-mouth but I managed to get through enough just to register and activate offline mode, which isn't exactly conspicuous on their troubleshooting pages.

 

Steam offline mode:

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article...=3160-AGCB-2555

 

"Steam doesn't connect well over routers."

 

Biggest pile of horsecrap I've ever read. Never had a problem.

[Tigranes]

The Nightshape has Spoken, clearly all routers in the world have no problem with Steam.

 

I agree that it's great that Valve has made Steam as opposed to some other possibilities, but that shouldn't blind anyone to the fact that Steam very very clearly and obviously has a long-term strategy geared towards getting more Steam exclusives, making Steam a necessary part of every gamer's computer, discouraging Offline Mode, making Steam the one-stop shop, etc... in other words, exactly what Games for Windows Live wanted to do but wasn't as good at doing.

[Nightshape]

Steam connects fine over routers.

 

Your problem is particular to you.

Not just to me, apparently

 

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article...=6776-MYXU-0480

 

Still user failings. DMZ is more to do with how one has setup the network.

[Nightshape]

The Nightshape has Spoken, clearly all routers in the world have no problem with Steam.

 

Oh come on Tig, it's about setup, not the hardware itself.

 

except for very specific cases, alot more work than don't thats my point.

Edited October 24, 2010 by Nightshape

[aries101]

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/...itches-to-Steam

 

In this, Jason Bergmann says that 'Senior Producer Jason Bergman revealed that the PC version of the upcoming RPG will require Steam activation.'

 

It clearly means that this game needs activation over Steam. You can play it without being connected to Steam....

 

A quote

 

And yes, you will have to be online at the time of that initial install," he continued. "However you can install the game on as many systems as you want (with no restrictions!), and you do not have to be online to play the game after your initial activation.

 

For Fallout 3, the game used Games for Windows Live... a very intrusive system that didn't work; Steam is way more unobtrusive...

[CoM_Solaufein]

Having Steam and registering, whatever happened to disk check?, defeats the whole purpose of having a closed system, which is what my primary gaming machine is. Or was.

[Purkake]

We have consoles for that now.

[Nepenthe]

The game also requires electricity to play. Should we take up arms on behalf of those without access to it?

Strawman of the week.

Captain obvious of the week.

 

But no, seriously, I think that expecting to play games these days on a computer without internet access is not far removed from expecting to play them on a computer with no power. Of course, my perception could be coloured by the fact that I live in a country where it's possible to get (3g wireless) internet access without actually having electricity.

[Purkake]

Sick burn at whatever country Virumor is from?