I keep hearing people say 'Oblivion on Steam'. What the hell does it mean? confused.

Steam an online company/ store you can purchase and then download games.
http://store.steampowered.com/search/?term=Oblivion

Playing "Oblivion on Steam" means playing the Oblivion version purchased through Steam. It's virtually exactly the same as the one you can buy on disc, but I hear the Steam version has problems running mods

Thanks for the reply.

So steam makes the game worse, is that what you're saying?? Why is this?

thats a myth, steam has no problems with any mods....it even runs OBSE.

Oh. My bad. I suppose that myth originates from Steam on Oblivion requiring a special OBSE mod to work? I thought origionally OBSE didn't and they had to make a special version of it just for Steam.

Just curious: why do so many people seem to be obsessed with steam? I've heard so many people go on about it, but I always thought Amazon were the best.

Steam is becoming much more than just an online distribution company, they're also becoming a form of DRM (Digital Rights Management), or copy protection for other games. Fallout: New Vegas will require you to activate it through Steam in order to play it as will Civ 5. It's because of this aspect of Steam that many people have become obsessed with it, not just the online distribution part. There's been lots of debate as to whether this trend is a good thing or bad, both in the Fallout forums and the ones for Civilization, which is probably why you've been seeing it come up so often lately. As for Amazon, you can't buy digital versions of games there that transfer directly to your hard drive. They only sell disc versions that you need to install like a normal game. So you can't really compare the two as they essentially deal with different products. Steam is also exclusively games, Amazon sells almost everything. It's like comparing apples to oranges basically.

Originally there were some problems with mods and Steam, especially those that required OBSE. But Steam worked on the issues and came up with a version that allowed OBSE to work with it. I believe you do need to use a special Steam launcher for OBSE though, but everything else is the same AFAIK.

Not really. Both sell games. Plus, I dont know why anyone wouldn't want to install via CD. It's worked pretty well for years now, thats my preferred method anyway.

But thanks for your detailed explanation as it was an interesting read

Steam is awesome. They have some amazing sales. Plus they are kinda like Live, or PSN. But better. They have acheivments, matchmaking, dedicated servers, DLC, and much more that developers can use with their games. Steam is one of the best things that have come to PC gaming. They often sale games for 75%, plus have great support. Not to mention that they are also owned by Valve.

I use Steam and the only thing I have to say is make sure you have a fast good internet connection :brokencomputer:

I feel like being pedantic now. Steam is a service/application. Valve is a company that built Steam. Steam has always been a sort of DRM mechanism for Valve and their games, but it did add nice conveniences. For example, with my Steam account I can download and play my Steam games on any computer, as long as I only login on one at a time. What's not cool is forcing activation of games you buy on disc. Maybe that's part of a scheme to stop people from buying games on discs. Valve makes more money if you buy games on Steam (especially their games) than they would if you bought them in the store.

google is your friend...

For disc version, OBSE is launched trough OBSE_launcher.exe, for Steam it is launched with OBSE_steam_loader.dll file. That is the only difference. The Fallout 3 equivalent FOSE works with Steam version just like in the disc version.

However i did notice few days ago that Steam community must be enabled in-game for OBSE to work with Steam version of Oblivion, and it must be disabled for MGE to work with Steam version of Morrowind :banghead:

Think I'll just stay with my disks, thank you!

I prefer discs too but some Steam deals are too awesome to ignore. Like Mirror's Edge for 3 euros.

I'm lazy, so for me, Steam is a dream-come-true. No more having to put disks in and take them out when I want to switch between games.

Yep.


Maybe, someday, when the US has a modern broadband system, I'll think that downloading stuff 1GB+ is a workable plan, but...... nah, I'll still probably want discs. Physical media just feels more secure.

(Of course, the new push toward online DRM means that even if you still have your disc 20 years from now, you can't run the game you bought because the DRM authenticator died 5 years earlier. Sigh.)

A word of caution. It's not that simple any more. Awhile back I got the Orange Box from Amazon only to discover that it was Steam-powered. This meant that I HAD to have Steam on my drive and use Steam to operate the game. This involved going online and hours of updating to get everything operable. I say "hours" because I am stuck with dial-up Internet service. I have no way around this. Steam took it into its head that I wanted to download that game. I ALREADY HAD IT ON THE DISC. The support guys at Steam were terrific in helping me solve this but it took about a week to get everything straight. But Steam persisted in wanting to go online for updates. I ended up throwing the Orange Box in the garbage.

Now you won't necessarily go through that agony. You probably have a speedy online connection. But the thing is: new games come from Amazon with Steam attached. I won't get Civilization 5 because it involves Steam. Even if the game developer is using it only to simplify authentication and supplying patches, it's still part of the operation of the game. Amazon does not tell you when a game is Steam-powered -- at least, I can't see it for Civ 5 anywhere on the site.

I should say, in conclusion, that there are lots of game players who think Steam is great. And for them I'm glad. Just be aware of what you're getting -- and getting into.