Will not purchase a game using Steam

[earldarlington]

I recently bought Civ V. I enjoyed the other Civ versions, and realized that it required Steam. How bad could that be, I thought.

I found it was dreadful. Not only is the idea of DRM embedded in a third party rather than in the game a poor concept, but it is horribly inefficient. I am not sure if Civ V is inherently inefficient and bloated, but it takes at least 15 minutes to load initially. Each turn can take a couple of minutes. All in all, it turn a game into a marathon.

I have not yet decided whether to just uninstall both Civ V and Steam, but I have determined that I will never again purchase another game that depends on third-party platform.

Perhaps DRM is the way of the future. However, I am sure I can find enough interesting games from other sources that I need not ever use Steam again. I have already rejected a couple of other titles that now use it.

[IllusionOfLife]

Moving to Civilization V General Discussion.

[AeEsBii]

Steam should have little to no impact on Civ V's performance (or the performance of any Steam game) unless your system is extremely tight on resources. (I had a PC like that when I first got Civ V. My current PC has none of the issues of my old one.) There are reasons to dislike Steam, but this shouldn't be one of them. What are your specs?

[MPE]

It does take awhile to get going, about 7-10 minutes for me,which seems like an eternity when you just want to play a game...and you also have to sit through an intro video every time. :rolleyes:

[tempshemps]

I love Steam :). It's so nice to have all my games launch-able from the same online library, accessible from any computer with internet. Also love how most of my friends are on Steam as well, and Steam's in-game instant-messenger doesn't require me to alt-tab, and the in-game browser, and trying to get Steam achievements, and the benefits of Steam cloud and the multiplayer aspect of Steam, not to mention it's community. I also love how I don't have to keep track of CD keys when I use Steam :D.

If Civilization V used SecuROM instead of Steam, there's a good chance I wouldn't have bothered trying it out. Steam doesn't use any significant amount of system resources. CIV5 is kind of demanding, but that's not Steam's fault. If you can't run the games you want to play, you just need a new PC, or need to upgrade. You shouldn't expect to be able to play new-release games smoothly with aging hardware. :rolleyes:


Steam should have little to no impact on Civ V's performance (or the performance of any Steam game) unless your system is extremely tight on resources.

And if it's that tight on resources that it can't handle Steam, you will probably have even more problems regardless of Steam as soon as the game starts getting to any reasonable length anyways, as units, cities, etc start accumulating on the map.

[Shiav]

what i love about steam is that when i get a new computer i dont need to hunt down all my old disks and keygens, i just plop everything on to download and leave for work, and its all ready once im home.

[CptSupermrkt]

Steam has many positive aspects --- particularly the DRM is not forever. Steam has openly stated that if for some reason they ever went out of business, they would unlock all the games purchased from Steam. And by having a digital copy that will never go bad, you don't have to worry about CD scratches, losses, theft, etc.

[anandus]

Yeah, I really like Steam too, it has some good advantages.
and to be honest, it's one of the least annoying DRM's (of which most are third-party by the way, Tages, Starforce, Securom, etc.)

But the problem the TS has isn't connected to Steam, Steam is hardly a resource hog.
Waiting 15 minutes to start and each turn taking a couple of minutes is not how it's supposed to go.
On a decent computer the startup is about twenty seconds and turn-times differ from a second in the beginning to two minutes in late-game on huge maps (which is way too long, by the way).

What is your system specification? :)

Oh, and this thread is probably better off in the support section.


Steam has many positive aspects --- particularly the DRM is not forever. Steam has openly stated that if for some reason they ever went out of business, they would unlock all the games purchased from Steam.That's an urban myth ;)
I doubt the publishers would allow that, all the games becoming freeware.
If they go out of business you contract with them is annulled. End of story.

[Lopendhoofd]

I just went to check how much memory steam uses during a game of civ. It was 60 MB, which is less then firefox. The game was using 1400 MB at the same moment. I doubt that 60 MB is going to make any impact. I would very much like to know what your specs are.

But if that's the main reason you hate steam... I still buy games using steam, even though they don't perform particularly well on my Gameboy...

[oblio]

I recently bought Civ V. I enjoyed the other Civ versions, and realized that it required Steam. How bad could that be, I thought.

I found it was dreadful. Not only is the idea of DRM embedded in a third party rather than in the game a poor concept, but it is horribly inefficient. I am not sure if Civ V is inherently inefficient and bloated, but it takes at least 15 minutes to load initially. Each turn can take a couple of minutes. All in all, it turn a game into a marathon.

I have not yet decided whether to just uninstall both Civ V and Steam, but I have determined that I will never again purchase another game that depends on third-party platform.

Perhaps DRM is the way of the future. However, I am sure I can find enough interesting games from other sources that I need not ever use Steam again. I have already rejected a couple of other titles that now use it.

Welcome to the forum. Might have been useful before first posting to look at the hundreds of prior threads on exactly this topic. While you may not like Steam, it is what it is and is required to play this game. Been in your local software store lately looking for PC games.... this is the way it is and will be for this platform.

[stethnorun]

I recently bought Civ V. I enjoyed the other Civ versions, and realized that it required Steam. How bad could that be, I thought.

I found it was dreadful. Not only is the idea of DRM embedded in a third party rather than in the game a poor concept, but it is horribly inefficient. I am not sure if Civ V is inherently inefficient and bloated, but it takes at least 15 minutes to load initially. Each turn can take a couple of minutes. All in all, it turn a game into a marathon.

I have not yet decided whether to just uninstall both Civ V and Steam, but I have determined that I will never again purchase another game that depends on third-party platform.

Perhaps DRM is the way of the future. However, I am sure I can find enough interesting games from other sources that I need not ever use Steam again. I have already rejected a couple of other titles that now use it.

Everything you wrote here implies that your PC is the problem. Steam has some issues, to be sure, but they do not include degradation of game performance. Perhaps next time, you could investigate your troubles in a more scientific way before coming to a conclusion.

[Nintz]

Well, your first (and possibly last) post has shown that you are looking for issues in Steam.

Now, don't get me wrong. Steam is, IMO, a very flawed "service" whose real purpose is anti-piracy. Everything is built around that. Of course, it dosen't work that well for that purpose considering that most PC games (even Steam ones) are hacked in only a day.

That aside, Steam works horribly on spotty internet connections, like mine. Even with the disc, I was unable to install Total War: Shogun 2, also a Steam game, without carting my laptop to a place with good internet.

I should also mention that Steam was a pain to install on my family's desktop computer, which we did to install Rage. Also a Steam game, wanted to play offline, couldn't do it without Steam.

That said, Steam works passably if you have a fast, reliable internet.

[stethnorun]

Now, don't get me wrong. Steam is, IMO, a very flawed "service" whose real purpose is anti-piracy. Everything is built around that. Of course, it dosen't work that well for that purpose considering that most PC games (even Steam ones) are hacked in only a day.

You don't understand the business model at play here. Steam isn't anti-piracy in that they have an unbreakable, uncrackable system. That's the methodology that Ubisoft uses in their DRM and you can see how well that's worked for them.

Steam's anti-piracy comes in the form of cheapness, availability and convenience. Sure you could pirate a game, even a Steam-exclusive game, but it's a hassle. It's much easier (and cleaner) to simply wait for a sale and buy the game you want for $5-$20. They aren't thwarting piracy with an iron fist. They are thwarting it with shrewd capitalistic enterprise.

[Davor]

Now, don't get me wrong. Steam is, IMO, a very flawed "service" whose real purpose is anti-piracy. Everything is built around that. Of course, it dosen't work that well for that purpose considering that most PC games (even Steam ones) are hacked in only a day.


Steam is not about anti-piracy as you have said. What Steam is about is removing 2nd hand sales or "reused" games. Steam bascially prevents people buying Used Computer games now. So if anyone wants to buy a game it has to be "brand new" so each sale goes to the Producer. So no more going to EB Games/Gamespot buying used computer games anymore.

[mandead]

If you refuse to use Steam you are seriously missing out IMO, but it's certainly your prerogative not to.

[Yaca]

Steam has many positive aspects --- particularly the DRM is not forever. Steam has openly stated that if for some reason they ever went out of business, they would unlock all the games purchased from Steam. And by having a digital copy that will never go bad, you don't have to worry about CD scratches, losses, theft, etc.
For some reason the line "And by having a digital copy that will never go bad..." cracks me up. Makes me picture finding a moldy old CD in my basement.

[Maktaka]

For some reason the line "And by having a digital copy that will never go bad..." cracks me up. Makes me picture finding a moldy old CD in my basement.All optical discs degrade over time, particularly if exposed to light, although exactly how LONG it takes them to degrade is another matter. The technology hasn't existed long enough to find out what the actual degradation rate is, although it's estimated at 20-100 years for RW media and 100-200 years for R media. The bigger issue is that the media formats cycle very quickly. I no longer own a 5 1/4" drive to read the discs my first computer games came on. I have a 3 1/2" drive of unknown functionality stored away that I could plug in (and hilariously my i5-supporting motherboard even has the pins for the data cable), but good luck finding a new one nowadays, so there goes another generation of software. We've been fortunate that Bluray supports DVDs supports CDs, but already laptops and even some desktops are shipping sans optical drive. A decade or two from now it likely won't be possible to replay that old copy of Civ4 if you haven't purchased it at a digital retailer yet due to a lack of a media reader.

[_Pax_]

I am not sure if Civ V is inherently inefficient and bloated, but it takes at least 15 minutes to load initially. Each turn can take a couple of minutes. All in all, it turn a game into a marathon.
Nothing to do with Steam.

Quick question, what are your computer specs?


I have not yet decided whether to just uninstall both Civ V and Steam, but I have determined that I will never again purchase another game that depends on third-party platform.
Your choice, but you're going to turn away from an entire distribution outlet, because of ONE bad experience with ONE game ... an experience that has nothing to do with the distributor / DRM, anyway ...? Doesn't seem like sound judgement, to me.

[Shiav]

If your never going to buy a game with a third party platform youre only going to be playing console games.

I will pay you ten internet respect points to name ten PC games released in the past year that dont have 3rd party drm like origin or steam or impulse.

[headkase]

This thread is a rehash of a rehash and will certainly go around in circles. Closing.