Purchaseing from steam

rubin1961 · 14 Sep 2009 at 11:57

Never purchased from steam before so do you just download it from them and they send a copy through the post.

Frapple · 14 Sep 2009 at 11:58

Download only, no physical copy.

Can do it as many times as you like on that account & the game is permanently tied to that account.

rubin1961 · 14 Sep 2009 at 12:11

Thankyou very much sir

ic1male · 14 Sep 2009 at 12:17

It's a wonder they are still in business. I must have downloaded GTA:IV on three computers now at 15GB a pop, it must cost them a fortune in bandwidth charges whereas I've only paid for the game one time only.

NB. And no, I don't mean three computers for three different people to play - I just move around a lot.

Rezident · 14 Sep 2009 at 13:50

yes the steam aservers are normally very reliable.

Gimpymoo · 14 Sep 2009 at 14:25

ic1male said:
It's a wonder they are still in business. I must have downloaded GTA:IV on three computers now at 15GB a pop, it must cost them a fortune in bandwidth charges whereas I've only paid for the game one time only.

NB. And no, I don't mean three computers for three different people to play - I just move around a lot.

I have done the same, great service.

And in my opinion, this alone makes it worth paying an extra fiver or so per game.

Bandwidth is not free but most people forget this when slagging off STEAM.

platypus · 14 Sep 2009 at 15:02

ic1male said:
It's a wonder they are still in business. I must have downloaded GTA:IV on three computers now at 15GB a pop, it must cost them a fortune in bandwidth charges whereas I've only paid for the game one time only.

Hmm? They don't pay for hosting other publishers games, just the cost of valve games. And other producers on steam pay them to carry the game, and provide content servers..

Gimpymoo · 14 Sep 2009 at 15:35

I thought they took their cut from each sale and that was it?

The devs do not receive a monthly statement saying "this game has been downloaded xxx times, you owe us £xx.00 in bandwidth charges?

bledd · 14 Sep 2009 at 15:39

ic1male

steam is portable, just copy your Steam folder onto an external drive, then run steam.exe from that folder, it'll just 'work'

no need to waste time downloading again

dr4g0nf1y · 14 Sep 2009 at 15:43

well I've only downloaded some games twice for a new pc but when crysis comes out in the next few days you can only download it 5 times, so if that's the case then I might have to be careful when buying from them.

I'll buy the big combination packs but I still think it's better paying the extra £5 to purchase the disc

Gimpymoo · 14 Sep 2009 at 15:47

dr4g0nf1y said:
when crysis comes out in the next few days you can only download it 5 times, so if that's the case then I might have to be careful when buying from them.

Be nice.

It is a:

3rd-party DRM: SecuROM™
5 machine activation limit

Has stated here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/17330/

and here:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/17300/

Exactly the same as the disc version if I am not mistaken.

dr4g0nf1y · 14 Sep 2009 at 16:49

Gimpymoo said:
Dont be a clown.

Clown? I'm sorry but I find that a bit personal and totally pointless :confused:

The links you gave is what I saw to back up what I said. What is making what I said wrong?

You can download as many times as you want if you delete it from your account but with what ic1male was saying he was using different computers, like me thus you can only download it/use it on 5 computers while using the same account.

confused

iviv · 14 Sep 2009 at 16:54

Download limit != activation limit.

Though I agree that you shouldn't need securom on steam, it ruins the ease of steam.

Gunni Parker · 14 Sep 2009 at 17:18

ic1male said:
It's a wonder they are still in business. I must have downloaded GTA:IV on three computers now at 15GB a pop, it must cost them a fortune in bandwidth charges whereas I've only paid for the game one time only.

NB. And no, I don't mean three computers for three different people to play - I just move around a lot.

As long as you are not loging in on the same account to play the game on numerous computers, there is nothing wrong with what you are doing. If you do though you will get banned.

Deadbeat · 14 Sep 2009 at 18:09

Be warned, I find the interface disagreeable. The download queue is extremely sketchy on details, and unreliable at that - no info beyond whole digit %, no data size downloaded and there's often confusion at the last. I had Titan Quest hit 100%, continue downloading for over 2 hours before resetting Steam - then it aligned itself to 57% and continued. I'm also disappointed to hear about activation limits - not that I've had problems with them so far, but I intend to keep these games forever. What happens after I buy my 5th machine?

Disclaimer: I'm unhappy about the INTERFACE. The presentation. NOT the d/l speed. I'm not going through that crap again.

Gimpymoo · 15 Sep 2009 at 02:59

My appologies if my using of the word "Clown" offended you.

I still think the post I quoted of you was VERY mis-informing.

"when crysis comes out in the next few days you can only download it 5 times"

That is simply NOT true, you can download it a million times from STEAM if you like.

ACTIVATION is another matter but Download and Activation are not the same.

Valve (STEAM) provide the DOWNLOAD while E.A power the Activations.

TheVoice · 15 Sep 2009 at 06:30

Gimpymoo said:
Bandwidth is not free but most people forget this when slagging off STEAM.

Cases, booklets, discs and transport costs aren't free either. Their bandwidth costs per unit sold are likely to be peanuts.

Gimpymoo · 15 Sep 2009 at 10:58

Those costs are not recouring though are they?

If you scratch your disc, break your case or loose your booklet you HAVE to buy a new one, you rarely get one for free.

You want to re-download the game as many times as you like, no charge.

platypus · 15 Sep 2009 at 11:12

But for most games on Steam, Valve aren't paying for the bandwidth.

Kenai · 15 Sep 2009 at 11:23

Deadbeat said:
The download queue is extremely sketchy on details, and unreliable at that - no info beyond whole digit %, no data size downloaded and there's often confusion at the last.

Not true, it has a pretty little graph and everything.