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Sid Meier's Civilization V shipping with Steamworks

Wow, I can't believe I almost paid $40 for Civilization IV Complete (on Steam, even) just last week...and now here it is on my HD for $10. Phewwwww. Glad I spotted this thread, thanks. :D

Never really gotten into a Civ game before, looking forward to sinking my teeth into this one.
 
Some may call me paranoid for worrying about Steam, but after reading the reactions of some other people (<3 Joseph Merrick), I think I'll look normal in comparison. ;p I don't know how often I try deleting local game content from within Steam, so maybe that actually does crash Steam a lot, but other than that I don't remember Steam crashing much at all in the last few years. Sometimes games are not available when it's super busy during a release or something, and Valve does tend to screw up stuff with TF2 updates.

Anyway, I will agree with one concern that's really my only Steam complaint -- the possibility of being locked out of your game. The chance of that is very low, presumably even lower if you don't try to pirate games or run cheats on VAC servers, but if something ever does go wrong and there's a bug on a Steam server, I could completely lose access to all my games for days. If someone managed to steal my credit card and do something nasty, my account might get flagged -- I'm pretty sure I heard that doing a chargeback will get your Steam account permanently disabled.

Long story short, if any bug ever happened in the future, I could instantly never be able to play some 100 games again, on any PC, without buying them all again or learning how to pirate them. I would probably be concerned about the possibility of viruses with trying to learn about pirating them, plus in that case it would only be a moral, not legal, justification. The only backup plan I can see is to literally install and activate all games on some backup partition (including account info or whatnot in offline mode), so that you can boot from that partition and play the games without having to contact the store.

I don't remember if it was Stardock or Impulse, but I thought one of them encrypted game files so that they weren't compatible with mods. I would prefer the more normal game files, and yes no DRM would be ideal, but for now I guess I just trust Valve and roll on hoping that I don't win some random account disabling bug lottery. :lol
 
PoweredBySoy said:
I think I took a wrong turn somewhere.

Steamworks
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:lol :lol :lol

I also just wanted to chime in and say that yes, I love not having to load DVDs. I think I even copied my own install disks from a couple of games (Myst comes to mind) to my hard disk since the DVD was so loud when I'd play. And I have shoeboxes full of CDs/DVDs, so I hardly boycott them. I bought STALKER when it showed up cheap on Steam, despite having a STALKER DVD lying around.
 
As someone who has never played a Civ game before and don't really know what they're like, should I go for the ten-dollar Civ 4 Complete back, dispite having a shitload of games on Steam already that I haven't played?
 
pirata said:
As someone who has never played a Civ game before and don't really know what they're like, should I go for the ten-dollar Civ 4 Complete back, dispite having a shitload of games on Steam already that I haven't played?
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Yes.
 
pirata said:
As someone who has never played a Civ game before and don't really know what they're like, should I go for the ten-dollar Civ 4 Complete back, dispite having a shitload of games on Steam already that I haven't played?
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Yes.

It is a great game.
 
Spire said:
No, they won't have sales on new releases, the sales target the crowd on the fence or who wouldn't normally buy the game. How is that a negative thing? How would that change if Steam was the monopoly? Steam doesn't offer sales on new games now, are you suggesting they would if they were the monopoly? Offering sales on older games to attract customers who wouldn't normally buy the game is good business whether Steam is the monopoly or not. They wouldn't just leave money on the table because their competition was gone, that makes zero sense.
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But they do offer sales on new games all the time, it's just most of the time they aren't that good, but every once in a while there is a decent one. If they were the only game in town, that incentive to offer those new release discounts are going to decrease, esp. considering the lost profit due to those who are going to buy it on release day no matter what.
 
Peronthious said:
Steam is fine.

Paying extra for the Babylonians is not.

>:
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Having only one DD platform= more paying extra.

Another factor= if Valve screws you over, and you put a chargeback on them, they lock your account out.

Yeah, you should go for the $10 Civ 4 complete pack.

As I've said, I don't hate Steam- I hate Steam exclusivity for non-Valve games.
 
I would be very happy if all games were released on Steam. Heck, I'd be happy if Valve locked down PC gaming and we forced to use Steam. Every time I turn on my PS3 I quietly wish that Valve was running PSN.
 
pirata said:
As someone who has never played a Civ game before and don't really know what they're like, should I go for the ten-dollar Civ 4 Complete back, dispite having a shitload of games on Steam already that I haven't played?
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If you have any interest into strategy games at all then by all means get it, a lot of gaming for a great price.
 
Twig said:
Yeah this is what people should be complaining about. Also the preorder bonus.

Idiots.
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I'll complain if they prevent modding. If they allow modding and want to sell "pro-mods" then I have no problem at all. In fact, that is a good idea for them.
 
fatty said:
But they do offer sales on new games all the time, it's just most of the time they aren't that good, but every once in a while there is a decent one. If they were the only game in town, that incentive to offer those new release discounts are going to decrease, esp. considering the lost profit due to those who are going to buy it on release day no matter what.
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Those sales are like 10% or 15% off smaller titles that are looking for more attention when they launch. And please remember, Valve doesn't set these sales, the publishers do. The publishers incentive to boost sales of their game isn't going to disappear because Steam's competition is gone.
 
YuriLowell said:
Love Steam. I dont even want boxed copies of games anymore. All Hail our new PC gaming overlords.
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Fuck that, a proper PC game requires a proper PC game manual.

14t1v1d.jpg
 
Man, people sure are quick to bust out the word "monopoly" or "monopolize," to the point where I'm pretty sure people don't know what the word means anymore.
 
Valru said:
easy solution: buy retail CIV5 & activate on steam as required.

best of both worlds
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There is also the option of using some shady methods to just rip the DRM out of the game bypassing Steam if you just want to play the game instead of not buying out of principal.
 
Valru said:
easy solution: buy retail CIV5 & activate on steam as required.

best of both worlds
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I have no issues with that, I was replying to his comment about not wanting boxed copies. :lol
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Fuck that, a proper PC game requires a proper PC game manual
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I remember reading the Civilization III manual in my gradeschool class, and my teacher thought I was reading a history novel and was quite impressed. :lol
 
Spire said:
Those sales are like 10% or 15% off smaller titles that are looking for more attention when they launch. And please remember, Valve doesn't set these sales, the publishers do. The publishers incentive to boost sales of their game isn't going to disappear because Steam's competition is gone.
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No they're not. After updating this thread for the past few months, most of the 'new release sales' are for the higher profile titles.

I do wonder how DD services determine prices, because if it was publisher only then these sales would be reflected across all DD services at the same time. Sometimes they might, or maybe lag a week or 2 behind another service, but most of the time the games on sale aren't consistent across the board. If it was the publisher's choice solely, why wouldn't the sales be reflected across the board? I'm not sure how it works exactly, just from what I've experienced in the past. Otherwise all of my other games would have just been purchased from Steam and not D2D and Impluse.
 
fatty said:
No they're not. After updating this thread for the past few months, most of the 'new release sales' are for the higher profile titles.

I do wonder how DD services determine prices, because if it was publisher only then these sales would be reflected across all DD services at the same time. Sometimes they might, or maybe lag a week or 2 behind another service, but most of the time the games on sale aren't consistent across the board. If it was the publisher's choice solely, why wouldn't the sales be reflected across the board? I'm not sure how it works exactly, just from what I've experienced in the past. Otherwise all of my other games would have just been purchased from Steam and not D2D and Impluse.
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The services can choose to unilaterally drop prices and eat into their own profits.
 
arstal said:
The services can choose to unilaterally drop prices and eat into their own profits.
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I'm guessing they probably work some sort of deal out with the publishers as well on an individual basis.
 
I have more than 200 games on Steam, but I too think Steamworks exclusivity is bad for the industry. Having Steamworks versions is cool, but if a game is only available on Steam and can only be played through Steam then that kind of kills the open-ended nature of PC gaming.

Also, what the fuck on the Deluxe Edition. I really hate this trend of holding back content just to charge $10 more. I had expected better from Cvilization V and 2K in general.
 
Zefah said:
I have more than 200 games on Steam, but I too think Steamworks exclusivity is bad for the industry. Having Steamworks versions is cool, but if a game is only available on Steam and can only be played through Steam then that kind of kills the open-ended nature of PC gaming.

Also, what the fuck on the Deluxe Edition. I really hate this trend of holding back content just to charge $10 more. I had expected better from Cvilization V and 2K in general.
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better steamworks with drm than some bullshit GFW: Live or Gamespy multiplayer

as for other DD etailers like Direct2Drive and Impulse refusing to sell steamworks titles, fuck em!
 
Valru said:
better steamworks with drm than some bullshit GFW: Live or Gamespy multiplayer

as for other DD etailers like Direct2Drive and Impulse refusing to sell steamworks titles, fuck em!
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Amen.

It's not like other DD services can't sell games with Steamworks, its because they don't want to, as they've already made clear.

I don't think its exactly anti-competitive of Steam to offer a better service that developers would rather use for their games and that consumers would rather be subject to.

Steam isn't a near-monopoly now because they had shady business practices, buying out competitors and shutting them down, or anything - they're where they are because they were the first to do it, and they did it well.

As much as I like Impulse, their half-assed tray icon friends / instant messenger thingy is at best a hasty afterthought, and their actual client is pretty crappy trying to decide if its trying to sell me games or trying to sell me OS GUI customisation tools.

D2D require their own special patches for games, which often come months after retail patches have been released.

I have never used gamersgate.
 
Zefah said:
Also, what the fuck on the Deluxe Edition. I really hate this trend of holding back content just to charge $10 more. I had expected better from Cvilization V and 2K in general.
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I know, right? I had more faith than was deserved, I suppose.
 
I have a good solution for all the people hating on Steam and Steamworks: don't buy the game. Just leave us while we play Civ5 and you can sit there and watch.
 
Joseph Merrick said:
what do you mean can, that's the only way to install :lol personally I don't give two shits about competition or pricing crap. the steam client program itself is my only problem with steam. it's still even after the interface update thing an absolute complete pile of shit. I swear the program didn't have as many problems and small constant annoyances to it a couple of years ago as it does now. valve's steam engineers are a bunch of fucking morons, every time they add anything they manage to make a thousand other small bugs

yesterday I was just going to delete some games from the steam on the other machine and steam being such a fucking douche had to start its slow update bullshit for the program and of course that just had to fail. seriously I ended up having to purge the program completely and reinstall from the single exe, because steam managed to kill itself trying to update. and no this wasn't an old version of steam, it was maybe a couple of weeks back I ran it last time. so it killed itself from the last few weeks of updates. after a complete program reinstall it loads up and lo and behold I manage to delete just a couple of games before it completely chokes and program crashes. and it fucking keeps crashing for every other 3-4 game I delete off the list. that's only for deleting shit. trying to load games you have to constantly babysit those fucking authentication files or whatever the hell those are and delete when a game fails to launch or update properly which is all the fucking time. the system is completely worthless and using it pisses me off so much if I ever saw gabe newell in real life I'd tear him apart and grind him to sand with my teeth
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Wow, you're one unlucky dude. I've never had ANY of these problems, and I've used Steam since 2004 and have ~70 games on there.
 
MrNyarlathotep said:
I have never used gamersgate.
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gamersgate is only a download program of 66kb and an encrypted setup.exe. you decrypt the .exe file with your site login and from there the install folder for the game is completely free of anything to do with gamersgate.
 
Ledsen said:
Wow, you're one unlucky dude. I've never had ANY of these problems, and I've used Steam since 2004 and have ~70 games on there.
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Yeah I can safely say the game has never once crashed on me when I tried to delete a game, and I do it often enough that if it was a real problem with Steam, I'd have been a victim.

But this is Joseph Merrick we're talking about. He probably blames Steam for the death of his great great great great grandfather.
 
Rubezh said:
I have a good solution for all the people hating on Steam and Steamworks: don't buy the game. Just leave us while we play Civ5 and you can sit there and watch.
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Hopefully enough people do it that the game flops, but I know that's not going to happen.

I'll put that money towards something else instead that deserves my money more.
 
Ledsen said:
Wow, you're one unlucky dude. I've never had ANY of these problems, and I've used Steam since 2004 and have ~70 games on there.
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you're not annoyed at all by these constant small issues? about the same stats on my current steam account, except permanently 159 games, regretting every single one :lol

Rubezh said:
I have a good solution for all the people hating on Steam and Steamworks: don't buy the game. Just leave us while we play Civ5 and you can sit there and watch.
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I'm not going to buy it, don't worry

Twig said:
Yeah I can safely say the game has never once crashed on me when I tried to delete a game, and I do it often enough that if it was a real problem with Steam, I'd have been a victim. But this is Joseph Merrick we're talking about. He probably blames Steam for the death of his great great great great grandfather.
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I would blame steam for the death of my great great great great grandfather if steam killed him. let me look into it. I will take my revenge on gabe newell one day even if steam didn't though, I promise
 
Joseph Merrick said:
gamersgate is only a download program of 66kb and an encrypted setup.exe. you decrypt the .exe file with your site login and from there the install folder for the game is completely free of anything to do with gamersgate.
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Does that mean you can back it up yourself and never have to download it again if you need to reinstall (like after a format?)
 
You are just going to have to deal with DRM. Too many pirates out there. If someone is going to use DRM, I'd rather it be Steam than some shitty non-standard solution like Ubisoft.
 
MoxManiac said:
Does that mean you can back it up yourself and never have to download it again if you need to reinstall (like after a format?)
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yes, all you need is the cdkey if that's required. I've got all my 326 gamersgate games on an external all decrypted and it's a sight to behold :O
 
speculawyer said:
You don't value your own time? (The time it takes to find and apply updates when it is not done automatically.)
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I'll enjoy it even more now I don't have to spend hundreds of hours playing the game. And all this for free.

LovingSteam said:
I am curious. When was the last time you purchased a game via Steam?
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shattered horizon preorder might have been the last one. love that game, but I can't make myself play it because of steam :lol
 
Hari Seldon said:
You are just going to have to deal with DRM. Too many pirates out there. If someone is going to use DRM, I'd rather it be Steam than some shitty non-standard solution like Ubisoft.
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Sadly Steam games are not that hard to Pirate, but that's a different story. For consumers sake though Steam is better than Ubisoft drm that's for sure. I thought CIV 5 was gonna be DRM free just like CIV 4, but I guess they changed their mind.
 
thefil said:
I remember reading the Civilization III manual in my gradeschool class, and my teacher thought I was reading a history novel and was quite impressed. :lol
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haha yes I remember that manual. It's fantastic.
 
Joseph Merrick said:
I'll enjoy it even more now I don't have to spend hundreds of hours playing the game. And all this for free.


shattered horizon preorder might have been the last one. love that game, but I can't make myself play it because of steam :lol
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So I assume you won't be buying any games on Steam for a VERY long time, if at all?
 
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