Why did I buy this off Steam?

[vaalen]

I would suggest that those of you who like Steam take the time to carefully read the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

Not to render a legal opinion, but it appears that you do not own the game, only a qualified right to use it, and the terms and conditions can be modified or changed by Steam at its discretion.

Certainly Steam will keep those terms favorable while they are trying to capture the market, but what will they do if they get an actual monopoly?

Convenience is not everything, and Gray Lensman's suggestions above are an excellent way to preserve access to your games.

[Michael Hopcroft]

I would suggest that those of you who like Steam take the time to carefully read the Steam Subscriber Agreement.

Not to render a legal opinion, but it appears that you do not own the game, only a qualified right to use it, and the terms and conditions can be modified or changed by Steam at its discretion.

That is pretty much standard with all software licenses I have encountered. You always buy a license to use the software as opposed to buying the software itself; one of the consequences is that it's illegal to make multiple copies of your game CDs or DVDs and give them and your serial number away to your friends. That way anyone who wants to play the game legitimately must buy their own license.

So Steam does nothing that Microsoft and the other big software houses don't do routinely.

[vaalen]

That is pretty much standard with all software licenses I have encountered. You always buy a license to use the software as opposed to buying the software itself; one of the consequences is that it's illegal to make multiple copies of your game CDs or DVDs and give them and your serial number away to your friends. That way anyone who wants to play the game legitimately must buy their own license.

So Steam does nothing that Microsoft and the other big software houses don't do routinely.

Michael, I have no problem with the standard software license. Have you actually read the Steam Subscriber Agreement? It goes far beyond the standard software license.

[Greybriar]

....So Steam does nothing that Microsoft and the other big software houses don't do routinely.

Wanna bet?

9.C. NO GUARANTEES.

VALVE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE SOFTWARE, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTIONS(S).

[ERISS]

That is pretty much standard with all software licenses I have encountered. You always buy a license to use the software as opposed to buying the software itself;
Steam does nothing that Microsoft and the other big software houses don't do routinely.

But we don't care licenses if they are not enforced by drm. Steam may have the same as others, but who will take back in my house my CDs if one decide he does no longer want to give me his license?? Steam can: end of account, you're legally owned.

[Generalisimo]

But we don't care licenses if they are not enforced by drm. Steam may have the same as others, but who will take back in my house my CDs if one decide he does no longer want to give me his license?? Steam can: end of account, you're legally owned.

Well, that's not entirely true....

I have Steam on my notebook, I take my notebook on vacations... and I can play the games on the beach if I want... obviously, I have no WIFI on the beach so, I play with Steam on "disconnected status".

In the end, it is just the same as any other digital platform... the games are there in your hard drive... for example, with PON, you can take the whole game directory, copy it outside the Steam directory, apply a beta patch and play without Steam normally.

So, nope... I do not see the "big problem" that you mention... and I have a bit of experience on this, according to Steam, I have 157 games on that platform.

You could only have problems with games that FORCE you to use steam to play... but even with that, I could play Napoleon Total War on disconnected status without a problem.

So, I really think, for example, that the Ubisoft DRM system (like the one used on Assassins Creed 2) is muuuuuch worst than Steam or any other selling platform.

[pesec]

The way I see it is:

- If the game is available outside Steam, get it outside Steam. Especially old games - some Steam offers are plain broken (Jagged Alliance 2 for example).

- If game requires Steam, it is a pretty safe bet. If Steam goes down, companies will probably release "Steam-free" patches since otherwise they will alienate 100% of their customers.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Stryder99]

Dear stryder had you any problems with your anti-virus-proggie the scanner with a false message that the AGESettings.exe was falsely descripted as infected with something like a Trojan virus or worm , because in former times I got such messages once with Norton Antivir and even later with Avira Antivir Scanner some years ago...Thus it could be possible that you will be not able to use the config utility...

You should also regard to minimze or end any other application beside Internet access proggies to reduce possible problems and even if no other solution will be possible to deactivate for a short time your virus scanner or you can use Microsoft Security Essential because it is very games friendly and do not pop up with wrong messages related to usual games.

Otherwise you should do a total check if you have some hidden proggies working...eventually a bot like system proggie. Do not underestimate nowadays such possibilities as I have learned on the hard way...

greeting

Hohenlohe

edit: please be careful and kindful with words here...we want still the same: playing good games and to get good infos about them and some help...

Hohenloe, good questions, and to answer them I will say, when I play a game I have nothing but the applications needed for the OS and the net to function, nothing else, no TSR's or such. So there was no conflict or false positive from the AVI.

As for the AGEsettings, the one for PoN works perfectly. In fact, the updater for WiA works too. So as to the reason why the WiA AGEsettings application not initializing, I have no idea.

Since a person would expect any conflicts it would have would affect the updater or the PoN AGEsettings app.

So I have no idea why the app for WiA is not working. But since I can now play the game, and what a great game it is, I am not as irritated.

BTW, Playing the Revolutionary War scen as the Brits, bloody good fun that!

Stryder

[ERISS]

If Steam goes down, companies will probably release "Steam-free" patches since otherwise they will alienate 100% of their customers.

Then, may Steam die, for we then may at last buy those patched games out of Steam.

But if for now you buy on Steam, it won't die. So, buy absolutly nothing on Steam if you aim to buy its games freed out of Steam.
Be patient. To help waiting for its death, you can buy other games (see the websites on one of my posts), or/and play still good old games.

[black56]

so I bought it off steam. But does your's start giving you french for "we can't seem to find have enough memory" (4GB) and trying to shut down the game after 5 or 6 turns? Then it tells me after the 28th save and reboot, that my computer is trying to use the .trn files and won't progress any farther...4 times I've gotten to 1852 on the Grand Campaign scenario and it just dies at the same point...what is the point.

[Gray_Lensman]

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[Citizen X]

YOU are the customer. Stop buying or stop whining.