Steam question

Ok so while I've been playing games etc for 200 years, I've never actually bought a download game. I'm a physical disc man, but I decided today since it's getting harder to find PC games on shelves I guess I need to move into the 21st century :-D

Anyway, so if I buy games through steam and at some point I reformat my PC (which I do every 8 months or so), do I have an install file I keep or do I have to re-download the game from steam?
Also how many times can I do this, obviously there must be some form of protection so people can't just keep downloading it and giving it to there friends.

I'm assuming they give you activation codes etc....

Anyway, if someone wouldn't mind explaining this system to me I would be most grateful

 

Alright, here we go... :-D

Steam is a store and service. You sign up here, and then you download and install the Steam client to your computer. Once that is done, you sign into the client with your account, and set your options and preferences.

IMPORTANT: Verify your email address. I go into great detail about why in the sticky up above us. You can skip all their other security measures if you want, as long as you use a good password, but verify your email address. If you don't you have no way of getting your account back if someone takes it from you. Verification has to be done from the client.

You can install the Steam client to as many computers as you want. I have it on three of mine. You can access your game library and account info from any computer that runs the client, just log in. You can also access everything by logging in to your account on Steam's website, but the client has to be installed and running before you can play your games.

Once you've bought a Steam game, it gets added to your library, but won't automatically start to download and install. Once you tell Steam to start download one of your games it adds it to the list of downloads (separate tab in the client) and start downloading. You can pause and restart it as much as you like, but generally I leave it uninterrupted. Once downloaded the game automatically installs and then asks if you want to play. I have my games set to "always keep this game up to date", which is what it defaults to. As long as you leave it that way, the client will automatically apply patches as they are released. Steam will refuse to run a game that is not fully updated, so it's a good idea to let it auto patch.

Now, to try to cover your questions:

You do not get an install file to keep. Steam handles all that differently, with the client's download manager. The files you download are immediately installed, and you can't just copy them to another system. I don't know the exact mechanics of it, but I do know that it just doesn't work that way. However, there is no limit to installs, not in how many you can do, or how many computers you can install your game to. I have New Vegas installed on this laptop, and The Guy is actually playing it on the desktop in the other room as I type this. So you can re-download and reinstall a game as many times as you want, and they will keep letting you do it.

The client has a backup function, that lets you back up your entire library in the event of a reformat, and you can restore everything from that backup without needing to re-download everything. If you have a very large library, that's obviously quicker.

You do not get an activation code when you buy through Steam. You get an email confirming your purchase, and you want to keep all those emails. If you ever need to reclaim a hijacked account, those emails are one of very few ways to prove that you're the rightful account owner.

Another cool feature is that Steam lets you add some non-Steam games to your library by registering the product key with the client. IMPORTANT: If you do this it becomes a Steam game. You will never again be able to play that game without running the Steam client and logging in to your Steam account. But you will never again need the game disk either.

And that answers your other question; yes, there is protection. Steam is at its very core a DRM system. It's an ingenius form of DRM, that offers so much else that most PC gamers who are hooked on Steam forget that part, distracted by the shiny and positives, but the heart and soul of Steam is DRM.

What is stopping you from giving your copy of your new Steam game to your friend is simply that your copy only works in your account. Steam does have a gift function though, if you really want to give him the game you can buy it a second time, tell Steam that you are buying it "as a gift". Then put in your friend's Steam name and the game will be added to his account after purchase, instead of yours.

Now for things you didn't ask, but probably will appreciate knowing:

Off-line mode
Steam has an option to run the client in off-line mode. You can't be fully off-line, that would mess with the DRM, but close to. Obviously you need to be online to install a game, and the first time you launch that game the client does a verification check with the servers to register the game. After that first time the client no longer needs to do online checks to run the game and you can play in off-line mode as much as you want.

Note that if the game publisher has added frequent/constant online checks as part of their own DRM, this won't work. And if they have, Steam always tells you about that before you buy the game. Here's an example, and if you look under System Requirements, they have a note about UAC as well as the fact that you have to have an internet connection to play the game, because EA thought that was a good idea.

Important to note is that practically all features that makes Steam what it is and worth using, requires an internet connection. The only thing that you can do in off-line mode is playing your games, nothing else will be available.

Community
Steam has been around for a while now, and a as result has a very large and active community. The client has a friend list, with Ignore and IM feature, as well as voice chat to help you coordinate those Call of Duty ambushes a bit better. There's a screenshot-taking ability that will automatically upload screen shots to your account, and in-game achievements unique to Steam.

The client has a "community overlay" that lets you bring up your friends and chat with them in the middle of a game. I think the default key-combination is Shift+Tab to open the overlay. When you do, the game automatically pauses until you close the overlay again. I never use it, partly because I don't use the community features much. I play video games to get away from people, not to socialize. But a more important reason I don't use it is because the community overlay can cause issues in games that pre-date it, or that were not made for Steam at all. If a Steam game gives you issues, turn off the community overlay and see if it gets better.

There are of course the standard privacy settings on your profile page, you can set avatar, info about yourself, and all the usual stuff. You can also join groups of like-minded players. So if you don't know anyone else who plays Call of Duty, you can join a group of other CoD lovers, and the client friend list will let you know when they're online and what they're playing. Makes it way easier to get matches in your favorite online games. Steam recently released a trading beta, that lets Steam users trade items between games, and of course there are forums for each game.

I don't do much with the community features, but I do have my profile page set up.

Cloud
More and more Steam games now have cloud support. The cloud is where your screenshots go, and by allowing a game to sync with the cloud, your saves are available from any computer that runs the client. As long as you log in to your account, of course. So with the cloud, I can play portal on my laptop and when I move to the desktop, I can load my most recent save there and just keep playing.

Mods
Yes, Steam games are moddable.

I think that covers everything important. Any other questions?

 

lol I had a feeling you would be the one to answer :-D

Thank you Mimsy, thats an awesome description/walkthrough.

I have a steam account already but only because I had to for COD Black Ops, not looked at it or explored it at all lol.

I will take a better more in depth look later today when I have a bit more time and double check email etc.

Once again thank you very much, if I have any issues or questions I will post back in here.
Oddly enough I posted in here knowing YOU would reply because I trust you a lot more than Steam help or pretty much any other source of info lol

 

A growing number of game developers are making Steam registration mandatory with their games, and using that as the only DRM. Since I already have an account, I'm sort of okay with that, it's a lot less intrusive than other DRM methods out there. At the same time, I don't like being forced to use it. Steam should be my choice, not theirs. It's a very good choice, I love Steam, but taking the decision from me is not good.

And by all means post back with any other questions when you've played around with it a bit more. Steam really is one of the better DRMs and digital stores out there, it's worth getting into.

Almost forgot! This is very important: Never buy a game from them at full price if you can avoid it. Steam does some of the most insane discounts you'll ever see on holiday sales or with weekend specials, and practically any popular game goes on those sales eventually. The sold The Witcher for $4 their last Summer Sale, and anything Bethesda gets a 50% discount or more every two months or so, same with their EA and Rockstar catalogs.

 

Ok, so I've played a little..... and I mean "a little" lol
Actually sitting here on my laptop which doesn't have Steam installed but logged in through the site.
Added some funds to my account through paypal.
It asked me to verify my email, so I did.

Very impressed how fast it moves, adding funds was instant (and I do mean instant, under 5 seconds) as was verification.

Funny you should mention Fallout New Vegas because it's the addons I want lol.

I'm assuming there's a newsletter I can sign up for, just not checked yet.

Thanks again Mimsy, you're a diamond

 

Once you get the client installed, you get the news updates there. When you start the client up, it will show you all news updates that appeared since last start-up, and you can go to the next one or click to read more details. Or you can read the news on their website.

Also, my husband wants you to stop saying nice things about me because my ego was already out of control, and I'm really intolerable now.

 

lol, well tell him to get on here and help more than you do, you guys could start a competition :strong

Ok so I done the deed, made a minor mistake when downloading, this was more of a "I'm not paying attention because I'm half watching the TV" mistake :-D
Yeah I wanted the FNV DLC addons and accidently bought the whole pack including the main game which I already have :-D
Oh well, maybe I'll give my disc to my mate who wanted to try it out.
I'm assuming it's all finished since it was pretty late I left it rolling overnight and I can't check right now 'cos the missus is on the main puter.

But yeah, so far so good

 

Here's a question, I did look through and may just have missed it or maybe it's not there, but I like to install y games on a separate physical HDD yet I see no option to change the install path.

Am I just missing it or does everything have to install in Steam on C drive?

 

Actually, that was probably a good thing. DLC and add-on content on Steam almost always requires the original game be from Steam as well. So if you bought the retail version of Dragon Age: Origins and you buy the expansion DA: Awakenings from Steam, it won't work, and you have to re-buy Origins from Steam. Proof, in the notice underneath the video.

This can be a problem, but like extra DRM is easy to avoid and work with if you just read the full description and system requirements before buying the game. You really want to make a habit of that, by the way. Steam does not do refunds. Ever.

You're not missing it. Steam installs everything on the same drive that the client is installed to, and that can't be changed. However, the client doesn't have to be on C:\... On the desktop my C:\ is an SSD, so not at all very big. I have Steam on E:\ so the library can grow without me having to worry about losing space on the boot drive.

 

Thats what I figured, I will be formatting soon anyway when I get my new bits and when I set it all up I will have everything Gaming installed on it's own drive.

Grabbed the new DLC released today too, the Long Road I think it is and in a few days is the armor/ammo pack, I got into this at the right time lol

 

In case you haven't found them yet, you might want to take a look at these links:

Mod Manager to make modding easy

Stutter remover Port of the stutter remover for Oblivion.

Better Performance, v. 4
New Vegas isn't exactly well optimized. As is to be expected from an Obsidian game published by Bethesda... it loads a large number of processes that it ends up never using. Not once. But they load and chug resources. This mod stops them from being loaded to begin with.

Texture Pack
Even if you don't want the improved textures (yeah, right), there's a link below the installation instructions that might interest you. It lets you download a patch that increases the memory addressing abilities of the game. So instead of forever being limited to using only two of your may installed gigabytes, the game can use 4GB RAM. Muchly improved frame rates.

 

I use Steam for games and they do have an incredible range however I do VERY often find that alot of them are cheaper on the larger websites by a considerable amount to.

As always shop around for games and you won't be disapointed.

 

@Mimsy... Thank you, am going to do all that very shorty. Getting into this steam thing, but man I can see me spending ore money than I should because it's just too easy :-D

Hows this.

Total War:

Rome (Plus everything)
Medieval 2 (plus everything)
Empire (plus everything)
Napoleon (plus everything)

Aliens vs Predator

Alpha protocol.

All for $24..... are you serious!!..... already paid for, gonna have to clear off a serious amount of space before I download it..... but you know what?... I can do that any time I want

Now I realise I already own the Total wars but I don't have all the expansions etc and I have to install the fixes etc which steam does for me, I think I'm gonna throw all y discs away and never leave the house again! :-D

@Void... Dude, it took me this long to finally sign up for steam, to be honest Mimsy is the main reason because she's always going on about it lol besides, $24 for all that, any cheaper and they'd be paying me! :-D

 

Yes they do have some very good deals, im not saying all thier games are more expsensive lol

Elder scrolls V on steam is £34.99 (39.99 is crossed out for a pre-order discount i imagine)
Amazon is £27.89 (and you get an actual disc)

Both Pre-order...

Like i said it does pay to shop around

 

I understand what you are saying, but that price is UK only. Here it is $59.99 both Amazon and Steam.
The disc itself doesn't really phase me, since all my games will be stored on Steam.
6 of 1, half dozen of the other, discs get scratch/lost/stolen..... Steam could lose my games.
The latter is less likely.

But yes, shopping around is good but taking an hour to save a fiver is something I'm far to lazy to do :-D

Having said all that, I should check Amazon once in a while.

 

Fair enough yeah i was going to check the US prices but that would require too much effort lol. Was just an example.

I generally have 3 or 4 of the UKs most popular media sites to check prices before i buy and takes under a minute to check them all quickly. I have saved a considerable amount doing so.

Steam is incredibly convenient though and i have spent a fair amount on a large collection that really would take ME a couple years to actually get through. Just watch those very tempting publisher packages that pop up... i've got 2 lol

 

I see you discovered this weekend's special deals. LOL

Well, yeah. Never pre-order from Steam, and never buy a game at full price from them. The starting point for any game price there is not very competitive.

But Skyrim will be at least 50% off on their big summer sale next year, and include all DLC. You saw it here first.

 

Ok another question, is there a way in steam to limit the download speed?

It's nice that it goes a full pelt but when you have a 9 hour download and it's eating every last bit of bandwidth ..... well that can annoy other PC users who are trying to use the net :-D

Just bought "From dust" , looks fun..... also entered the "Lonesome Road" last night, it's not a nice place.... people keep shooting me with large explosive devices lol
20 minutes in and used 7 Docs Bags.

 

Not that I know of. There is a setting where you tell it what connection you have, you can try playing around with that and see if that makes a difference?

 

There use to be at least 10 second hand stores here in East TN that sold PC games. Now days.... there aren't ANY!!!!! I was so disappointed when I went to Mckay's last year and they stopped with all PC software. I use to buy all of my games second hand simply because there is nothing worse than spending 50-60 bucks and the game be total garbage. Even the gaming stores at the mall stopped selling PC games. The only place you can even buy pc games around here is WAL-mart <<--(only best selling titles) and at Best Buy. My self, I've had to resort to...questionable methods to obtain PC games.. but any game that I like I do go out and buy the software to support the company.

 

I know man, all I ever see on shelves, EVEN EB games is like the latest and greatest 10 titles and World Of Warcraft.

Probably because of all the easy to use downloadable stores like Steam etc, it IS so much easier and it's pretty much instant so I guess less and less people were buying off the shelves, no point in stocking what doesn't sell.

@Mimsy... Yeah that's not a bad idea. Otherwise I'll have to get a bandwidth monitor or some such.
Just thinking more about when I build my new PC and wipe it all clean I will be grabbing my entire steam collection for install and is probably going to take 3+ days with it eating 99% of my bandwidth.
I know I can leave the installs I have but I am getting new drives, my C drive is 8 years old now and probably due for retirement/backup/storage rather than main drive.

 

And that's why you play the demo first, or rent it first if there is no demo.