I hate Steam. Can someone explain if Gamefly is the same or different?

I hate Steam because of reasons that need not be discussed. It will certainly anger some people, but I had to say it to avoid people just telling me to buy it via Steam. Please leave Steam out of this topic as much as possible. Thank you in advance.

Will Gamefly allow me to buy the game and just download it via an account with them in the browser? Or must I install and use their junky program at all times forevermore to get another copy of DoD+RotDG?

If so then their program, for whatever reason is malware to my eyes. No point arguing with me about it. I do not let programs I am not currently using run in the background, nor have a "Service" loaded in the background either. Doing so would in my never humble opinion compromise my system.

So in reality, the only answer I need is "Can I buy the game, and download a copy of it and never use their program?" Thank you for helping me figure this out.

 

I know you said not to mention steam...however you do not need steam running to play DoD. Go to where ever your steam folder is saved and you should find a folder called 'steamapps" then proceed to the "common" folder find DoD and run the executable from that location. The game will launch without steam. Only you wont earn achievments.

if your on windows it will look similar to "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\dungeons of dredmor"

 

Lol. I should have explained better. I do not have Steam installed at all. But if I have to install it to get the next patch I will break out a separate partition and install Windows there for it alone to run on and then delete the partition after I get what I seek.

I love the game and would not mind buying it again to have a means to avoid a reinstall that takes hours.

Thank you though Aquaman. I appreciate your advice.

 

I bought it on Gamefly and only afterwards was told I have to use their program to download what I bought. So that was a waste. Oh well. It was only $3.75. (Yes, I tried searching through their worthless help information and FAQs for details, but they use clever wording to avoid saying how the downloads happen. I will never claim my downloads at all.

 

Consider this a warning if you like myself hate vampire programs that suck CPU cycles and leave open ports at all times. You are probably better off with Steam since 99.99% of people trust it and they do not sell used games. Gamefly may as well be a pawn shop with a trojan to distribute.

 

Desura is better in that respect. There's already a DRM free zipped download of the Linux version available, and I'm pretty sure the Windows one is going to be added shortly if it's not there already.

 

I checked first. It is still lagging behind at the moment. But on a bright side of things, I was able to Sandbox the installer and extract the files it uses a dozen times in a row to get the most up to date version of the Gamefly client working in a Sandbox. If no-one objects, I can post the files zipped for anyone to use without "Actually" installing Gamefly at all.

It obviously still requires Adobe Air. So grab that first. But this version is the most up to date Gamefly client at current and works just fine.

 

Note that if you lack Sandboxie then you simply cannot do what I just did. And you still have to put up with no less than five installs of the Gamefly client in a sandbox before you get the most up to date one.

And can someone confirm that the bundle actually works? I keep getting this regardless of how I install the mess:


Yet:


So do I need to add the underscore for every image? That would be torture.

Ignore the errors above. They went away once I renamed my current user and settings/mods/saves directory. I guess this version got confused.

 

Sigh. More Chaos. I have the RotDG splash screen but none of the skills, nor an expansion directory... I guess I broke something doing this. Back to step one. I hope some of you are ROFLing at me... You really should.

 

I have tried and retried. Something is broken with Gamefly. Anyone buy the bundle, download and install both and manage to get them working while showing the expansion skills? If anyone can say yes to that then I will have to admit defeat. But at current it seems that Gamefly has broken filesets for the bundle.

 

I will buy a copy from Desura too as soon as it is available there.


I am just glad to hear I was not missing something obvious. I feel victorious for having gotten what I paid for without having to ever install the client though.


Sandboxie has saved my paranoid arse a thousand times or more. And to all who would say Gamefly is not malware I have but one several questions: Why did it install over itself several times for no reason when the finished product runs perfectly in an empty sandbox? They could have offered a self extracting archive in place of an installer. It even remembered my downloaded games since I recovered the files to the location it put them in. So what was it secretly doing while it installed over and over?


I do not expect any real answers to those questions. But I now trust Gamefly even less.


The initial installer they offered was 23 MB. It included the required Adobe AIR junk that was half the size of that. But the Gamefly stuff was only 5MB. So what was the rest of it? And why install one version while requiring Internet access to even manage the install, just to redownload another version to install right over it?


Something smells lutefisky at Gamefly...


Thank you for the replies Nicholas. I really appreciate the confirmation that I am not entirely insane on the cause of the problem. (I downloaded it another few times and tried using the Gamefly client to launch the installed game in case it required some sort of activation nonsense. Then I tried again doing the same for the expansion. Then both. Then both in the reverse order... I was going even more insane than I already am.)


I will cut the rant short. Presumably the Gamefly bundle will work later. I can wait. And it will be nice to be able to upgrade to the newest version without Steam installed. (Currently I am fine with my backup 1.09RevB and the RC9 zip to fix it.)

 

As I said, it required Internet access to install, and THEN downloaded the updated version to AGAIN install over itself. This is probably just a stupid update method, but it is also the way all trojans work. (Bear in mind I am not saying it is a trojan. I am only saying this is how they work.) It also never started the first version it installed. It just continued after installing it to download and install the next.

 

...If Gamefly's game service used to be Direct2Drive, I may be able to partially answer your installation questions. See, D2D does some kind of encryption on its games. I'm not entirely sure how it works, but I do know that many of the most popular mods for Morrowind, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and such games don't work with copies of said games obtained from D2D.

The multiple installation thing could be the partial or total removal of said encryptions.

 

I should have been more specific. I mean Gamefly itself. (The client, not the game in question.) It installed over itself after presumably checking to see there was a newer version of the client. There could be a good reason for this behavior. I just fail to see what it could be.

Step one. Install sandboxed copy of Gamefly client. (Freshly downloaded from Gamefly, so it should be the newest version.
Step two. The initial installer ends installation without an error and calls another installer that then installs it again. (Presumably a newer version. Otherwise why bother?)
Step three. I get it running and kill it immediately. I retrieve the files it kept in the temp directory under my user documents subdirectory. (I later found I could abort the final install entirely once it started, as the files it would install are already extracted and can be copied over wherever I want.)
Step four. Copy the files out and run the Gamefly client standalone sandboxed. It clearly has no idea it has not been installed. It just needs Internet access and a username/password to work.
Step five. Download and install the games. That is as far as I can go at current since the Gamefly version is not currently working as Nicholas confirmed.
Step six. Patience. I can wait and will update this if I am not asked to discontinue the thread for some reason.

The "Activation" stuff is where it verifies you are authorized to use the game and replaces the executable with another one that is not encrypted. That is optional and up to the game developer, not Gamefly/Direct2Drive.

I rather doubt GLG will bother with encrypted executables. It prevents only rank novice pirates and their game is not expensive to the users, so even the most rotten and cheap bastards would be unlikely to bother to steal it. I could be wrong though.

 

Humble Indie Bundle wants to have a word with you.
Explanation: even though the HIB uses "pay what you want", the games from the first bundle appeared on warez sites almost instantly.

As for your concerns about Steam/Gamefly clients with their open ports and such....did you try to block their internet access in the firewall? They shouldn't be able to do anything that way and if you want the update, just give them internet access for the while.

 

Steam is a "Content Protection Service" pretending to be a "Content Delivery Service".

In short, most games installed via Steam will not work in any way without Steam running in the background. And steam shuts itself down when you remove Internet access via a firewall or blocklist. (I use both a firewall to block them, and a blocklist to block anything that may manage to get past my firewall.) (I could be mistaken. My information is out of date. Last time I used Steam it was on a separate partition that I installed Windows on and Steam, then downloaded the games and copied them off to a USB drive before rebooting and deleting the partition.)

The Humble Bundles were pirated. That in no way means that the majority of the people choose not to buy them. But it says something when people trust Pirates more than HIB.

As for Gamefly, I never touched it until yesterday. I still do not have it installed. If I cannot run it in a sandbox then it is worthless to me. I will give it Internet access so long as it downloads the games. (And hopefully I will be able to get them running once the mess is straightened out.) But after I get them running, I will discontinue the sandbox and delete it's contents until next time I need to update.

People also steal software they have no desire for. Why? Just because it is there. But not everyone is a thief. And some of the reasons thieves list for software theft are telling. They doubt that the software will do what it claims to do. They doubt that it will run well enough to play on the hardware it lists as required. They doubt that they will get enough enjoyment from the game as they hype suggests. Usually, these feelings are justified. Even if the actions they take are not.

But this topic should not descend into arguing for/against piracy. I support game makers that are not rotten bastards and I am wary to buy or even try games that are made by EA and such swine. (I have EA blacklisted for any new releases. I will only buy used copies of their games, and even then only if I can find a way to make it work.)