Questions About Steam : Othor Games

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:42 pm

I have a few questions about Steam. When I buy a game from steam is it mine forever as in I can install in as many times on as many different pcs as I want? Also what are some good games to get from it around 25$? Im looking for some older games to get currently I plan on getting The Oddbox since it has 4 Oddworld games for 25$

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:46 am

You can install the games on any PC that also has Steam, but must be logged in to your account to play them.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:31 pm

Just be warned that Stranger's Wrath and Munch's Oddysee are nigh on unplayable atm, terrible ports.

Hopefully the PS3 version (which will be released on PC as well, free if you have the Oddbox), will be less disappointing.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 5:26 am

I have a few questions about Steam. When I buy a game from steam is it mine forever

It's not yours at all. You merely have a non-exclusive, revocable license to use the game. That's true for most commercial games though.

as in I can install in as many times on as many different pcs as I want?

Yes, so long as the following is true:

1. Steam stays open
2. You don't get banned from Steam.

If you get banned from Steam you lose all your games and if Steam closes, obviously you can't use it. Oh, and while you can install it as many times as you want on many different PCs you can only use it on one PC at any given time.

Im looking for some older games to get currently I plan on getting The Oddbox since it has 4 Oddworld games for 25$

If older games are what you are after, check out http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/. No DRM means that you never have to worry about not being able to play them.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:38 pm

Yes, so long as the following is true:

1. Steam stays open
2. You don't get banned from Steam.

If you get banned from Steam you lose all your games and if Steam closes, obviously you can't use it. Oh, and while you can install it as many times as you want on many different PCs you can only use it on one PC at any given time.

Note that being banned from Steam is seperate from a VAC ban, a VAC ban is for cheating in game, a steam ban is for something like credit card fraud, or bypassing a VAC ban somehow.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:37 am

Just be warned that Stranger's Wrath and Munch's Oddysee are nigh on unplayable atm, terrible ports.

That really svcks they where the ones that I wanted to play the most. Whats the problem with them buggy or bad controls or both?

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:11 pm

That really svcks they where the ones that I wanted to play the most. Whats the problem with them buggy or bad controls or both?

The controls aren't bad, but they are pretty buggy, I can't get past an elevator a few minutes into Strangers wrath before the frames stop refreshing, and everything just turns into motion trails.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:50 am

The controls aren't bad, but they are pretty buggy, I can't get past an elevator a few minutes into Strangers wrath before the frames stop refreshing, and everything just turns into motion trails.

Any news of a patch or what?

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:42 pm

It's not yours at all. You merely have a non-exclusive, revocable license to use the game. That's true for most commercial games though.

I'd say 99% of commercial games, though there are a few that have wacky EULAs.

Yes, so long as the following is true:

1. Steam stays open
2. You don't get banned from Steam.

If you get banned from Steam you lose all your games and if Steam closes, obviously you can't use it. Oh, and while you can install it as many times as you want on many different PCs you can only use it on one PC at any given time.

My guess is that if, tomorrow, Valve disappeared from the face of the Earth, a few resourceful individuals would find a way to get us all our gaming fix. As we've all learned, no DRM is safe.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:56 am

I'd say 99% of commercial games, though there are a few that have wacky EULAs.

My guess is that if, tomorrow, Valve disappeared from the face of the Earth, a few resourceful individuals would find a way to get us all our gaming fix. As we've all learned, no DRM is safe.

Gabe Newall also says that they have a working method to completely disable any Steam content protection, though then again he also said Ep 3 was coming soon...

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:40 am

It's not yours at all. You merely have a non-exclusive, revocable license to use the game. That's true for most commercial games though.

And unlike with physical copies, they can actually revoke it with ease, instead of having to locate you and send someone to take the physical copy away from you. The moral of the story being, if you're going to do naughty things with your games, do it in somewhere that nobody will want to travel to just to get their disc back. :spotted owl:

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 9:44 pm

Oh, and while you can install it as many times as you want on many different PCs you can only use it on one PC at any given time.

I'm not sure how this can really be construed as a particularly bad thing. After all, you can only use a physical copy of a game on one machine at a time. I wouldn't recommend trying to split the disc in two. And I'm no Pro 1337 Gamer, so I'd probably struggle to play the same game at the same time on two different computers. Unless I was playing myself at some turn-based game, I guess, but I don't much see the point in that...

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 1:35 pm

I'm not sure how this can really be construed as a particularly bad thing. After all, you can only use a physical copy of a game on one machine at a time. I wouldn't recommend trying to split the disc in two. And I'm no Pro 1337 Gamer, so I'd probably struggle to play the same game at the same time on two different computers. Unless I was playing myself at some turn-based game, I guess, but I don't much see the point in that...

It's negative because you can't idle for hats in TF2 on two computers at the same time, silly.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:44 am

You can install the games on any PC that also has Steam, but must be logged in to your account to play them.

You can also play them when in offline mode.

I'm not sure how this can really be construed as a particularly bad thing. After all, you can only use a physical copy of a game on one machine at a time. I wouldn't recommend trying to split the disc in two. And I'm no Pro 1337 Gamer, so I'd probably struggle to play the same game at the same time on two different computers.

The general idea is that your friend plays the other game

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 12:18 am

The general idea is that your friend plays the other game

He should buy his own damn copy!

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 5:06 pm

They can also disable your account without explanation. And then re-enable later, again with no explanation. It happened to my brother a few weeks ago. Weird, huh?

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 8:17 pm

I'm not sure how this can really be construed as a particularly bad thing. After all, you can only use a physical copy of a game on one machine at a time. I wouldn't recommend trying to split the disc in two. And I'm no Pro 1337 Gamer, so I'd probably struggle to play the same game at the same time on two different computers. Unless I was playing myself at some turn-based game, I guess, but I don't much see the point in that...

I didn't mean to imply it is a bad thing, just stating a fact. The way the OP worded it was ambiguous as to how he planned on installing it on multiple PCs, so I wanted to make sure he knew only one computer at a time can be the active PC.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 1:00 am

One computer at a time can be logged on to online Steam. However, if one of the computers is in offline mode you can play a Steam game on both at the same time.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 2:04 pm

One computer at a time can be logged on to online Steam. However, if one of the computers is in offline mode you can play a Steam game on both at the same time.

Or three at once. Unless Steam is telepathic.

@The Gate Keeper,
Keep in mind, some games in Steam's catalog force 3rd party DRMs, those games may have some restrictions. They are very few. You can get this information on games' store pages.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:37 am

I didn't mean to imply it is a bad thing, just stating a fact. The way the OP worded it was ambiguous as to how he planned on installing it on multiple PCs, so I wanted to make sure he knew only one computer at a time can be the active PC.

The way I ment it was if I go a new computer I can install the games and such on it.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 6:08 pm

I'm not sure how this can really be construed as a particularly bad thing. After all, you can only use a physical copy of a game on one machine at a time. I wouldn't recommend trying to split the disc in two. And I'm no Pro 1337 Gamer, so I'd probably struggle to play the same game at the same time on two different computers. Unless I was playing myself at some turn-based game, I guess, but I don't much see the point in that...

Say I have a desktop computer that is always on. I leave steam running in the background. If I then install steam on a laptop, take it on vacation with me, or even to school and want to play a game in my downtime, I would not be able to log on to Steam to play my games. There may be offline mode, but that doesn't help if Steam decided to try and patch it, or I want to play a game that I don't have installed. I would need to remotely shut my computer down, or log off steam.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy steam, but the way it handles things bugs me.

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 11:45 pm

Say I have a desktop computer that is always on. I leave steam running in the background. If I then install steam on a laptop, take it on vacation with me, or even to school and want to play a game in my downtime, I would not be able to log on to Steam to play my games. There may be offline mode, but that doesn't help if Steam decided to try and patch it, or I want to play a game that I don't have installed. I would need to remotely shut my computer down, or log off steam.

From my experience, if you have two computers, with one connected to the Steam service, and you login to Steam from the other machine, your 1st machine is logged out of Steam and the 2nd is logged in.

» Tue Mar 15, 2011 4:19 am

From my experience, if you have two computers, with one connected to the Steam service, and you login to Steam from the other machine, your 1st machine is logged out of Steam and the 2nd is logged in.

This is correct

» Mon Mar 14, 2011 10:56 pm

You can install the games on any PC that also has Steam, but must be logged in to your account to play them.

You just have to be online the first time you play, to activate the game, or if you need to update a patch or something.

Then you can select "play in offline mode" and play without any Internet connection whatsoever. You can also select "Do not automatically update this game." if you're worried about new patches affecting your mods, etc.