Steam should be optional for Total War: Rome 2

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

Besides, Steam makes the game a lot harder to pirate. A plus for them.

The problem is that they need some kind of protection against people who torrent the game.

Oh gods, I think Im crying tears of laughter.

No, no it doesn't. Steam games are pirated and cracked just as easily as non-Steam games.

As to whether or not it should be an option? Yeah, it totally should. I wouldn't even have Steam on my computer if it weren't for Total War.

[Rewjeo]

Steam works for me, but I would like to get Rome II outside of Steam if I could. My internet, while pretty fast, doesn't work with Steam (or gaming at all) so Steam is never connected to anything except when I go to a friend's house and connect Steam to download something. All it really does is use up power. In many ways, Steam is good, but it's a pain in certain circumstances. I couldn't get Steam working until I had a laptop, and I can't really do gaming at all on a desktop.

The awesome sales, however, are nice.

[daelin4]

The last time I had an internet conkout, Steam couldn't try to connect to the internet, even though I opted for Offline Mode.

That was very disappointing. I couldn't go online to find out why or how to fix, for obvious reasons.

Last I heard, Company of Heroes had Steam optional.

[Narf]

2. This is part of the problem, they don't take it in to account that for a lot of people, there is no better connection, I have literally by far the fastest connection available in my area, and its download speed is 15kbps. There is no better internet to be had this is what I'm stuck with. Luckily its JUST enough for me to register my game in the first place, without connection I couldn't even play it at all which again is an absolute disgrace.

Wait, what? I have lived years on a boat, at sea at times as far from anything as the Faroe Islands, And I have had a faster connection. Where on earth can you live that is worse than he Faroya Islands?

[magpie]

Tell me chaps, Is the model/option CA are useing with Steam the same as all the other developer,s who use this service.
Or has CA contracted for a method of their own choice regarding downloads and patch rules for the TW games.

[Adufka]

Steam is all right....i like it

[Armatus]

I have to sympathize with the people who don't have Internet or want to play the game where they don't have access to the Internet, they should be able to do so.

Personally while I primarily play online, I just don't like the fact that I'm constantly connected to a 3rd party monitoring my "gaming experience".

[Asgaroth]

But steam is great!

Steam sucks. I have lost my original Napoleon Total War game because of it. And I payed the game really high in my country.

I want them to get back as they were. You buy a game and the game is on the CD, not you buy a game and then you need to download it from the net or something.

[Ballacraine]

I do wish the Steam fans would get it.

It is not that Steam is the spawn of satan & we hate it.
If it works for you great, enjoy it.
Please accept though there are lots of people for whom it doesn't work.
For those people it is a major problem as there is often no alternative method for them to play a game they have bought.

All we are asking for is to make Steam optional.

Balla.

[Armatus]

If everyone doesn't already know Steam tracks your usage of the game, this provide CA with all the juicy statistical information about how their fans use their product.

It's too bad that there wasn't a way they could still log this info and upload it at a interval of time so that it would not inhibit people with no Internet.

[Alpha TWC]

Internet has become necessary nowdays.

I am really sorry for those without an internet connection but this is the truth.

...even without steam

non-steam game using internet, account, registrations, etc . What were we talking about?

at least with steam, you do not do one thousand different acccount

without steam ----> no internet connection required is a FAIL reasoning, because all the games today require at least an initial internet connection as steam.

and then again people who criticize the fact of the autoupdate when there is an option to disable it. bored, bored bored.

Steamin the the worst case is the lesser evil, otherwise we will have strarforce, secureroom, permantly online, 5 installation limit, ecc.

instead steam allows, offline, mod, etc..

PRO >>>>>>>> cons

* about the anti-piracy, steam simply gives more guarantees to publishers and SH and
no harasses honest users with real evil DRM. yes, steam game are pirated but not as in the past, when you only had to change a file.

[Bobz]

Oh gods, I think Im crying tears of laughter.

No, no it doesn't. Steam games are pirated and cracked just as easily as non-Steam games.

As to whether or not it should be an option? Yeah, it totally should. I wouldn't even have Steam on my computer if it weren't for Total War.

It's not meant to make it impossible to pirate, nothing can do that, it's just meant to make it as hard as possible to dissuade people from doing it. If you take a look round the torrent site of your choice, there's certainly plenty of people complaining about not getting games to work.

I have to sympathize with the people who don't have Internet or want to play the game where they don't have access to the Internet, they should be able to do so.

Personally while I primarily play online, I just don't like the fact that I'm constantly connected to a 3rd party monitoring my "gaming experience".

Well there is an offline mode for a reason, though I understand some people have problems with it. If you have no Internet connection whatsoever, and can't gain access to a connection just to activate the game, unfortunately you won't be able to play Rome II. Given how most companies now use some form of DRM that requires Internet access in some way, you are probably in a very small minority.

Also what date do you think they collect? I know there's basic things like computer specs and gameplay time, but what else will be that useful?

[♘Top Hat Zebra]

It's not meant to make it impossible to pirate, nothing can do that, it's just meant to make it as hard as possible to dissuade people from doing it. If you take a look round the torrent site of your choice, there's certainly plenty of people complaining about not getting games to work.

Well, then, they're failing. Steam games aren't that hard to crack, really. Look how fast Total War games are cracked and then uploaded.

A game that came out recently called Wargame: European Escalation was much harder to crack, due to some sort of company DRM. It took months for it to come out.


Er, uh, not that I know anything about that kind of stuff, or anything.

[Jaketh]

You people do realize that you can get retail disc's of total war games that you can install on steam?

[Raimeken]

You people do realize that you can get retail disc's of total war games that you can install on steam?

That's not the problem, the problem is patching and even then, lots of TW games have come out with day 0 patches. With some people on horrible connections, those patches can take hours or even days.

[Rewjeo]

If everyone doesn't already know Steam tracks your usage of the game, this provide CA with all the juicy statistical information about how their fans use their product.

I don't know about other people, but the time tracker for me is weird. It currently says I have two hours on RTW and zero hours on everything else. That is very, very false.

Internet has become necessary nowdays.

I am really sorry for those without an internet connection but this is the truth.

...even without steam

non-steam game using internet, account, registrations, etc . What were we talking about?

Unless you just don't do multiplayer, like those people with bad internet already most likely don't.

without steam ----> no internet connection required is a FAIL reasoning, because all the games today require at least an initial internet connection as steam.

Not in my experience.

and then again people who criticize the fact of the autoupdate when there is an option to disable it. bored, bored bored.

Steamin the the worst case is the lesser evil, otherwise we will have strarforce, secureroom, permantly online, 5 installation limit, ecc.

instead steam allows, offline, mod, etc..

I've heard that the no autoupdate thing is broken, but I'm not sure.

I don't think being limited to 5 installations would be terrible, or they could just do the old fashioned thing and make you have the disk in. And why on earth would CA add another option that requires constant internet access as a solution? If CA is going to offer something to help people, they'll probably be decent enough to offer something to get around the heart of the problem.

Steam's offline mode isn't the most reliable thing, and I can't think of a situation where having Steam has made using mods easier for me.

[Ballacraine]

Steam's offline mode isn't the most reliable thing, and I can't think of a situation where having Steam has made using mods easier for me.

'Offline' has never worked for me, despite 'Help' from 'Support' & several re-installs.

Balla.

[Bringer Of Storms]

Also, this will affect newcomers to the series as it did me, I got Empire, hadn't heard of Steam and when I installed it, it immediately started a 2gb update which took 4 months to complete on my internet

I've had Steam since Empire came out and have 22 games installed on it and this has always been the case.

If it took 2GB four months, then I'm having a hard time believing you have 22 games installed on Steam.

its so gay man :/

I think I know why you can't acquire a better internet connection. From your use of "gay" as an adjective of how stupid your internet connection is, it is clear that you are probably a child. Therefore, you probably lack a job and live with your parents, and they are the ones paying for the internet.

On topic, I just got steam a month ago during a Mount & Blade sale, and so far, I haven't experienced any problems with it online or off. Even still, I like to have the Total War games on disk because they're just that more important.

[SonOfCrusader76]

The cons of steam outweigh the pro's.

Other way round. Before Steam, did we ever get games on sale at such great prices?

[Irishman]

I may be missing something, but even with the slowest internet connection, you should be able to play.

1) Turn off cloud sync, 2) turn off automatic updates, and 3) install from disk. If you do all these things steam should make no difference to you.

I could understand if you have no internet connection, but a slow one shouldn't stop you from playing any offline steam game. I should know I have very slow internet.

Also as has been brought up, most games now (even those off steam) require an internet connection to test validity of the product code.