Is steam the only place to get a copy of the creation kit? I don't relish the idea of creating an account with Steam.

It is.

But since you need a steam account in order to play Skyrim, whats the problem?

Unless, you don't have the game on Pc, then whats the point since you won't be able to do anything with the CK as it needs the game files.

Yes, and you need a Steam account to play Skyrim on the PC.

This is where the OP accidentally tells us that he or she has the pirated copy of Skyrim, and the subsequent closure of the thread.

::runs away::

So, I came from the Fallout 3 world and in that world, one needed a Games for Windows Live account, but there was a work around so that one need not be logged into Microsoft to play the game. Am I to understand that there is no work around for Steam's involvement in playing Skyrin then?

In all seriousness, there is a "workaround" that involves simply having Steam in offline mode. You don't have to keep Steam online to play steam games. But you'll need it to receive updates.

There wasn't a workaround needed for Fo3. GFWL wasn't mandatory use, it was only needed for Achievements and the like. The 'workaround' was simply a use of FOSE that disabled GFWL and stopped it interfering with FOSE. This was allowed because GFWL wasn't the DRM.

Skyrim is a Steamworks game. It's tied into Steam regardless of whether its a retail disk or digital copy. Removing that requirement for Steam is NOT allowed as Steam is the DRM.

Hey pkleiss, nice to see you showing an interest in Skyrim modding. As has been said already, Steam is required to get and use both Skyrim and the Creation Kit. You might be happy to know, however, that you don't need to have Steam running in order to write and compile scripts. Although the Papyrus compiler and Papyrus source files are bundled with the Creation Kit, the compiler can be run independently of the Creation Kit.

Cipscis

Hey Cipscis. Long time no talk man. Yeah. I had recently been in talks with my old protoge, Gunmaster... er. Alexander, and he was keying me in to playing and modding some Skyrim and his Falskaar. I don't have the game yet, but he was telling me of some changes to the creation kit and I wanted to take a look. Looks like I'll have to get a copy of the game before I can take a peak then.

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Its just a form of drm. They could have done something worse and connected it to an always on drm like EA did with Sim City. Its just to discourage pirates.