Don't blame CA, blame Steam

[kafka]

hi,

though I don't post here very often I'm a regular reader here. After having had a lot of initial troubles with empire and finally having been able to play the game yesterday for hours without any problems I'd like just to report what I have experienced, maybe it will help any of those still having problems

First of all I attribute the core of the problems I initially had to steam.
I purchased the box version and installed it wednesday on my new game pc on which I had only installed fallout 3 before. The install was without problems until the point where steam decided to update the game. Updating took a long time but eventially it was complete.

I started the rti campaign to get familiar with the new features added to the game, and had two freezes in two battles having me to hard restart my pc.

I updated my graphics nvidia drivers I started the long campaign. I got another freeze on the campaign map in my very first turn during the AI turn resolution . After restarting my pc and then the game I went on a few turns and got a second freeze on the campaign map when trying an agent mission.

After four total freezes in so short a game time, I was very disappointed about the state of what I thought CA had released the game. Well I got the suspicion the the problems I had migth be due to a corrupt installation so I decided to reinstall the game. Reinstalling was a nightmare, I took me almost a whole day to so it because steam didn't work, crashed, was unable to connect or ignored installing from dvd, finally it worked, at least I thought. I started a new long campaign as france and experienced no more crashes on the campaign map. Though when the first battle occurred I saw that the textures were missing. The steam install was not complete. So I reinstalled a third time. Luckily this time steam immediatealty installed from the dvd though installing the update afterwards still required me to stop the steam process and restart it a few times, eventually it worked. And since then I have been able to play the game for hours without any problem or crash except for one moment when I thought I would have a freeze during a battle. I decided to test to see what happens if I disconnet from the internet, since I was online so steam was. I unplugged the network adapter and in the moment I did the freeze was away (steam went offline).

Anyway I don't regret getting empire now which I immensely enjoy because its a great game, the best by CA after shogun, but I regret CA has decided to go with steam which in my opinion is the root for all the troubles a lot of people experience

[sillyfrenchman]

Steam(ing turd from hell) is another nanny that will:

1) Not stop piracy
2) Not improve performance
3) Cause many problems for gamers of far greater magnitude than piracy losses

Valve should be convicted of fraud for peddling the newest "great white hope" of the ultimately-doomed piracy crusade. CA: On the next installment of this series, flush it back to hell where it belongs.

[The_Dude]

Valve should be convicted of fraud for peddling the newest "great white hope" of the ultimately-doomed piracy crusade. CA: On the next installment of this series, flush it back to hell where it belongs.

do you even have the slightest idea how long steam has been around ?
steam has been around for more then 5 years now ...
and it works a lot better then crap like securom, you can install a game as many times as you like, dont have to take care of your old install media, and so on.

[Cynik]

do you even have the slightest idea how long steam has been around ?
steam has been around for more then 5 years now ...
and it works a lot better then crap like securom, you can install a game as many times as you like, dont have to take care of your old install media, and so on.

Steam ever since it came out has been dampening my gaming experience whether it be CS. Mostly because of the TERRIBLE support system they have though mind you they've improved it a lot since the old days and some of the features I really like like chatting in game with friends as you play a game, sending/receiving game invites etc.

[sillyfrenchman]

do you even have the slightest idea how long steam has been around ?
steam has been around for more then 5 years now ...
and it works a lot better then crap like securom, you can install a game as many times as you like, dont have to take care of your old install media, and so on.

Well, the theory is the latest. :hmmm:

Online registration/verification is the final frontier (currently possible) of the piracy struggle. It has not stopped piracy. Piracy = fact of life and cost of doing business. If a company makes a good game, it generally gets good reviews and, from that exposure, generates good sales.

Steam = SecuROM 2.0 = more bugs, headaches, and bloody foreheads/walls for many well-meaning fans. At the very minimum, people should be able to voluntarily download Steam and purchase whatever they want, if that is their (misguided) desire.

[Abraxis]

Steam(ing turd from hell) is another nanny that will:

1) Not stop piracy
2) Not improve performance
3) Cause many problems for gamers of far greater magnitude than piracy losses

Valve should be convicted of fraud for peddling the newest "great white hope" of the ultimately-doomed piracy crusade. CA: On the next installment of this series, flush it back to hell where it belongs.

you forgot

4) Push gamers towards piracy

[boofhead]

It would have been SEGA who chose the Steam platform I think, not CA.

[bobfish]

I'd rather have Steam than any other DRM and you will never get a major publisher to release a game without a DRM.

[Tepok]

Steam was a good idea to start with. It's a place for game companies to put ads, half prevents piracy (one game on only one account), puts a gaming community and stuff together, plus some other stuff. But, and there's a big but(t), the way it's been done is just ed. Bad servers (well, not good enough for the demand), kind of a spyware, complicated, and just plain badly made things (like the OP's freezing problems).

[GustavusAdolphus]

Steam was a good idea to start with. It's a place for game companies to put ads, half prevents piracy (one game on only one account), puts a gaming community and stuff together, plus some other stuff. But, and there's a big but(t), the way it's been done is just ed. Bad servers (well, not good enough for the demand), kind of a spyware, complicated, and just plain badly made things (like the OP's freezing problems).

I don't agree. I usually download games and updates at maximum capacity for my connection (3 mpbs). How is Steam "kind of a spyware"? As for complicated, the last thing Steam is is complex. You go to the store, purchase the game, wait for it to download, go to the games tab and start the game. It's no more complex than installing a "regular" game off of a DVD. As for the OPs problems, not everyone is seeing his problems. Every computer out there is completely unique and you can't expect every single machine to behave perfectly. Some people are going to have issues.

[Aegrim]

i quite like steam, i've got alot of games on it now that only take a few hours to download if i ever feel like playing them again, i don't need disks to run them anymore (i know, lazy). I'm also not sure what exactly you guys are unhappy about with it. Most of this thread (i think) just seems to bashing steam for being steam.

The only bad thing is everything seems to be RRP, and more expensive that it is in the shops, even though i'm told it costs them more money for the logistics to get the game into the shops.

It also has some good special offers and large game packs.

[The_Dude]

Online registration/verification is the final frontier (currently possible) of the piracy struggle. tIt has not stopped piracy. Piracy = fact of life and cost of doing business. If a company makes a good game, it generally gets good reviews and, from that exposure, generates good sales.

not arguing with you there, yes, it is an effort to prevent piracy. im indifferent towards that tbh. wanna know why ? cause i tend to by my games and dont give a rats a** about copy protection aslong as it doesnt up my system like securom does. steam does nothing in the likes.
you activate your game and thats it. that info gets saved to your harddrive(so after you activated you dont need to have an internet connection to play) and thats that. no drivers messing with my virtual drives or anything.
copy protection, as far as games go, is a fact and its not gonna go away anytime soon.
steam is a lot less restrictive then any other copy protection mechanism out there. you can install a game as many times as you like on as many machines as you like. you just logon with your account and thats that.
when you look at for example gamergate, there you have only 3 activations for some games ... then you have to ask for a new key, would you prefer that ?

Steam = SecuROM 2.0 = more bugs, headaches, and bloody foreheads/walls for many well-meaning fans. At the very minimum, people should be able to voluntarily download Steam and purchase whatever they want, if that is their (misguided) desire.

as i said above, if i had the choice between steam and securom id take steam any day of the week. yes, the distribution upon release was utter crap(not that i noticed anything cause i was downloading while i was asleep) but apart from that what impact does steam have on your game ? none...

anyway, im growing tired of this whole pointless discussion.
the game uses steam, love it or leave it, end of story.

[sillyfrenchman]

How is Steam "kind of a spyware"?

Steam collects and reports anonymous metrics of its usage, stability, and performance,[39] all, with the exception of Valve's hardware survey, without notifying the user at the time of collection or offering an opt-out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steam_(content_delivery)#Privacy

as i said above, if i had the choice between steam and securom id take steam any day of the week.

Just give me the choice any day of the week. I'd prefer that to the unauthorized transmission of my data. Personally, I've never once had an issue with SecuROM (or just a plain old registry database). I know it is evil as hell for many, but for me it's been good (lucky?).

[Slappfisk]

Just give me the choice any day of the week. I'd prefer that to the unauthorized transmission of my data. Personally

Didn't you authorise it when you agreed to the EULA when you installed the software?

[The Count(er)]

do you even have the slightest idea how long steam has been around ?
steam has been around for more then 5 years now ...
and it works a lot better then crap like securom, you can install a game as many times as you like, dont have to take care of your old install media, and so on.

so what if it's better than SecuROM, I could say that I smell nicer than a piece of crap and I may have not had a shower for a week, what I said may be true but no one's going to say "Wow, you smell nicer that what comes out my ass" there probably going to go with something insulting about how bad I'd smell, just because Steam works better than SecuROM does, in no way, make it good

[Beggar]

Funny how it turns out all is steams fault. I've never had a single problem with it, and yet I got over 10 games installed with it.
Anyways, I don't understand why we should blame anyone. Sure people have had problems but making "Blame them and flame them, burn them from alive and then throw them to the dogs, after dogs have eaten them burn the dogs, too!" threads sure aren't going to help anyone. Lock, please.

[Warboss]

I have never had a single problem with Steam.

[Tepok]

Didn't you authorise it when you agreed to the EULA when you installed the software?

Right. so you buy a software. any software. And it is written in the middle of all that mass of crap no one reads (and everyone should) that thay are permitted to take 20$, £, or € everyday from your bank account...

Seriously, those "to read" should be there to defend the software. not to give the software's owner the right to do as he wants on your private properties as soon as you clicked once, and your game's box been opened so no refundable if you disagree. (edit: I'm not angry, it's how the world turns. Can't do much about it, so I just agree )


from XKCD.com

Back on topic, more or less: Securom is one of the worst anti-piracy systems. why? because if you read securom, and only know a bit about it, you're not going to buy the game (except of course if you don't give a rat's a$$). So effectively less sales

[Slappfisk]

Seriously, those "to read" should be there to defend the software. not to give the software's owner the right to do as he wants on your private properties as soon as you clicked once, and your game's box been opened so no refundable if you disagree.

Generally, if you disagree with the terms of the EULA you can receive a full refund via the publisher but by all means don't let that get in the way of your righteous anger.

[Selahedîn]

]Funny how it turns out all is steams fault. I've never had a single problem with it, and yet I got over 10 games installed with it.[/B]
Anyways, I don't understand why we should blame anyone. Sure people have had problems but making "Blame them and flame them, burn them from alive and then throw them to the dogs, after dogs have eaten them burn the dogs, too!" threads sure aren't going to help anyone. Lock, please.

Never had any problems with it either, and I have quite a lot of games in my Steam collection, thanks to the their great promotions and packs.