That sounds reasonable. People aren't supposed to be able to play the games before the official release date.


That's what patch notes are for, so you know what you are installing. To be honest, I don't see any reason for developers to allow you to choose what parts of a patch to install.

Come back to me when you have a 26.4k dial-up internet connection, and we'll talk about how "Steam will work for anyone" ><

I don't have any of those misconceptions, yet I still refuse to install third party software for online authentication of an offline game that I bought in the store that should, in a perfect world, require nothing but the disc for me to install and play it.

Didn't have any either. My former study laptop still has Steam in offline mode, I've never attached the wi-fi plugin card since I switched, not connected the laptop to the web with a cable, and Steam still runs every game fine.
That's not to say that nobody has problems, but that Steam should work that way.

I live in Iceland and not even in a city, I live in the middle of nowhere and I'm using the cheapest internet deal I could find and I still have 2Mbits down. :huh:

So I find it hard to believe that anyone still uses dialup.

it's not about installing part of a patch but installing the desired patch as opposed to just installing the latest.

If you buy a physical copy of a Steam requiring game then it still installs from disc.

Well I've never seen that myself, but that's not such a bad thing. Initial patches are usually the ones that help make the game playable, so getting them is something that you really need. When NV came out it had a lot of glitches, not patching it was almost not an option. In the case of Skyrim it will also probably force initial patches, which is also a good thing. Sense Skyrim has a new engine and is the biggest game they've made up to date it will probably be the most glitchy game they've ever made when it first comes out. Trust me, your gonna want those first patches.

It's perfectly reasonable for developers to force people to use the latest patch, it's their product after all.

Civilization 5
Fallout: New Vegas

Physical copy's contents? InstallSteam.exe

That's it. Part of the reason why I didn't buy F:NV.

Here in the US, the majority of the land area does not have access to high speed internet, only the densely populated areas.
Even areas that do have high speed internet access, it is spotty and unreliable.

It is possible. Just until last year I had dial up, and even now my internet isn't that great. It is only good for browsing, but it will run steam.

About 1 in 2 people I know in my area still have a dial up connection.

Ya know, it wasn't until I came to this forum did I find out how much of a hot topic Steam (and digital distribution in general) is.

I have Fallout NV as a retail disc version and it installs from the CD completely.
No downloads other than patches.
Maybe you have a different version?

that's [censored]



The average speed in Maryland is 13.69Mbps

The average speed in the entire USA is 10.41Mbps

Steam should be optional. End of story. If consumers like your games but some have issues with third-party software like Steam, aren't you pretty much side-lining the 'some' when you force it on them? 'Some' who would otherwise buy your game. Digital distribution software blows as far as I'm concerned. Both GFWL and Steam, I could live without either and would rather have a choice when it comes to installing and using it. I wouldn't install either.

My Fallout: New Vegas play-time according to Steam is '2 minutes'. I got the game the day of the Europe release and have played hundreds of hours. That "2 minutes" is what I think of Steam. It hink it's obvious I've never had a problem with Offline Mode. lol I'd rather there was a Uninstall and never firckin' bother because what's the damn point if you don't frickin' use it..."mode". :dry:

And there are some people who do not like Steam because it works. Maybe that is misconception #7?

Misconception #7 you must like Steam if it works perfectly.


I like to install my games in a certain order, in certain directories. I cannot do that with Steam. It forces me to install my game in the directory it wants me to install it.

When I put things "offline", I really, REALLY mean offline, as in I don't want to hear from you or see you ever again, until that time I decide I want to hear or see you again. Can I do that with Steam? no. Every time I reboot my box (which I have to since Windows is just a slice for gaming, my main OS is OpenSolaris) to play a game, here's this message telling me "hey, you put me offline". Well, no crap, Sherlock. I know , I know, is just a pop-up...right? Do you have pop-up blocker disabled on your browser? I didn't think so.

All the other "benefits" that people perceive as such, to me, are unnecessary annoyances.
I don't need nor want a "social network", phrase coined early by the phone companies looking to sell you cool phones.
I don't need nor want a chat client (got one, thanks) and especially not while I playing a single-player game.
I don't need nor want another internet browser (got one of those too, thanks) and especially not while I am playing a single-player game.
The last 3, funny how people go on and on about game immersion, and there are 3 "benefits" right there that basically break it.
I know, I know, turn them all off... sure.

And digital distribution is not a benefit either from the Steam client. Sure you could use it that way, but digital distribution has been around since before lots of people on this board were born, and I have been using it that long too, so don't tell me I am some sort of "dinosaur" because I am not "up with the times". Given my working experiences/record, must of the stuff that's "in" today, believe it or not, came about over a decade ago.


And please, no one draw comparisons between the Steam client and an OS. Don't ridicule yourselves in public like that.
Although, Windows can be VERY annoying, but that is unfortunately a necessary evil, as of today...

So it would be a solution if Steam would allow you to play the game during downloading the patch?
Then everyone is happy, you could download the patch for 2 weeks if you have to and still enjoy the game.
Or do I miss something?



I'm wondering, in the areas you spoke of, is there UMTS (or better) available?
Maybe the people can connect to the internet through this?

Lol, I live in Western Maryland on TOP of a MOUNTAIN . There is no other internet available except satellite, and that's A: Incredibly expensive, B: Incredibly limiting(7.5gig cap) C: only 10x Faster then my dialup(dial-up is 26.4k, Satellite is 250k), D: I already suffer frequent breaks in my satellite TV service because of trees blocking the signal, up to half a dozen breaks on a bad day, at least with dial-up, I have none. So, yeah, Dial-up is my only option. Not sure why that would be quite so hard to believe though, there are many people in the U.S. that still have to deal with dial-up, just their phone lines actually support a slightly better 56.6k whereas my phone lines don't.

Not really, or at least not really well.

I have access to very low end DSL at my house, I can access 3G with my phone, but it drops in an out constantly.
My parent's house (a mere 500 feet down the road) has no access to DSL and I cannot get a 3g connection there either.

I used to have satellite (until about a year ago when DSL became available) and it was just as bad as dial up since programs like Steam would not be able to mitigate the latency problem and would hang on nearly all attempts to login. You would then need to force close the application, wait for the connection to stabilize, and try again.

Then you are a part of the unlucky minority that can't be a part of the ever-changing gaming world due to their location. I get it, it svcks.

Also, I'm sure you are really browsing these forums on a 26.4k internet connection from your house on the top of a mountain. According to your profile, you're also browsing Allakhazam, the Bioware forums and the Blizzard forums. On a 26.4k dial up connection. That's entirely plausible.

The main thing that I dislike with Steamworks is that it requires you to activate the game online to play it, even if it's a single player game you buy in a retail store. That doesn't make me boycott the games though, I just wait until they get dirt cheap instead

In this country there's hardly a place where i couldn't connect to the net via 3G cellphone network. In fact, every one is by law quaranranteed access to a reasonably priced broadband connection.

That obviously would be ridiculously expensive for a country the size of USA.

Most people work in urban areas... urban areas have internet. This is currently during normal business hours in the US so it is a reasonable assumption that the poster is using internet at their place of employment.

They could also be browsing (albeit very slowly) on their dial up at home.

Finally, over 65% of the world's population does not have access to high speed internet. Over half have no access at all. The internet is growing vertically (i.e. improving content and speed to those who already have it) not horizontally (i.e. expanding to new markets).

My gripe is that I have to install MORE software to play the game I want. And it is bloatware to boot with messy subfolders. I downloaded some demos, played them, then told Steam to remove them. Guess what? The files were still sitting on my harddrive, even though the demos no longer appeared in my list of dl'd and accessible stuff. Way to go Steam, way to go.

I don't need what steam offers, and I don't want it. I play my games one at a time, so disc-swapping isn't a frequent event. I only play on one computer, my gaming PC, so I always have the disc nearby and I don't need to be able to access my games from different PCs. I don't play online multiplayer, so I don't need that service. I know how to search for updates and apply them myself, should I desire to update the game. I am very finicky when it comes to games, and if I buy a game, I want it to be in a format (physical) that I can sell/trade should I not like the game. Lastly, I do not want my access to a game to be based on the whim of someone else. Steam is stable and success at the moment, but what about in 5 years? 10 years? Technology advances; the next big break-through could make Steam a less attractive/profitable option for publishers.