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

Then either my memory is flawed or there was something plainly wrong with my install at the time.

 

I agree that it's tricky to get things to run without Steam (in fact, it's sometimes even tricky to get programs to run even with Steam
if it's in off-line mode). But there's a lot more to it than that.. Content protection is certainly one of many functions that Steam provides. It's really disingenuous to dismiss out of hand everything else that steam does.

For me, it's also a social networking service where I can discuss games. For a game vendor/distrubutor/developer, it's also a content delivery service -- why say that it's just pretending to distribute games? That's like saying that a hotel just pretends to supply bathrooms, when what they are really is a bed provider. (I'd hate to stay at a hotel that only pretends to supply bathrooms -- I don't think I could hold it in that long).

 

DRM haters: standalone downloads are now up on Desura for all three major OS's.

 

This topic was started in the attempt to understand. Since then every other person either says I am wrong about Steam or that I do not acknowledge the benefits it has.

So let me dissuade you from further such replies. I do not Hate Steam and want it to be crucified. I just hate Steam on MY PC. My PC, much like yours, does what I want. When it starts doing things on its own I get upset.

I have already said I will buy yet another copy of DoD+RotDG once it hits Desura. But RotDG is *NOT* there yet.

I will thank you for not presuming I lack good reason to do what I do on MY PC.

Read the following post again if you have not or somehow forgot since then:
http://community.gaslampgames.com/t...ain-if-gamefly-is-the-same-or-different.2865/ (First post in this thread.)

 

OH GOD

SPOOLSV.EXE

That beast is made of hatreeeeeed.

 

Lol. Nice one Fax. You made me laugh again. But the print spooler is pretty ugly at the best of times. And when things go wrong, there seems to be no cap on how rotten and unfixable that part of Windows can be.

I predict the next version of FaxPax will include a Spoolsv.exe monster that will be made of hatred and errors.

 

I just wanted to follow up and say that the Gamefly version of DoD and RotDG is now working. (I did not test them separately though.)

I used a sandboxed version of Gamefly to download it, and copied the install directly to an archive that I can now install from at any time if I should need to for some reason.

All skills are present as they should be, and it is the proper 1.0.10 version with no detectable DRM.

Thank you Gaslamp Games. I appreciate this alternative. I was about to attempt a sanboxed Steam install to obtain my copy, but now I have no reason to make that attempt.

If anyone has any questions about how exactly to do this without leaving any Gamefly data on the system, post here and I will explain in a ludicrous level of detail that should only leave you wondering why I would spell out every last step in such detail.

On a completely different subject, I have recently read that Steam can be ran sandboxed without problems. I could possibly have saved much toil in that. (It failed last time I tried that years ago. I do not recall why exactly.)

I deleted my savegames so I will not have any unexpected issues with the new version.

Really. No kidding. Thank you Gaslamp Games. I love the game. And I love being able to get it without too much nonsense. I just wish your distributers had the same policy against DRM and such as you clearly do. The game is truly portable.

 

I realise you dislike steam but you do realise you can just run steam, buy it and then never open steam again right? There is no need for you to be on steam to play steam games - only when you buy them or if you buy games with online mandatory multiplayer (or certain - usually Bioware or ubisoft - games. These are few and far between though)

Edit: Just glanced over your posts. If you just run your games from the /steamapps/common/GAME/GAME.exe you dont need steam running at all. I often play games like this if I dont feel like getting spammed by mates when I enter steam.

 

Sorry for doublepost - just to prove a point I just killed off all STEAM processes and ran DoD from C:\Stuff\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\dungeons of dredmor and checked the processes again. Not a single steam process running.

I dont get why you dont just make a shortcut to the exe file and place it somewhere accessable and forget all about steam when playing DoD - especially if you already have it there.

 

I know. But I hate to be rude, this is the third time in this very thread I have had to explain that I simply do not want Steam installed at all.

I know you mean well, but I am just a crazy person. Toil not for my benefit.

That said, I have recently found articles suggesting that modern versions of Steam will work fine in a sandbox. (But as you pointed out, some games will not. DoD is not one of those though.)

DoD from Gamefly worked fine from my sandbox. I grabbed the DoD + RotDG bundle and zipped it up for if I ever need it again. I can even reproduce the install again if I need to update. And if that ever fails again I will just attempt the sandboxed Steam again. I do not recall why it failed last time I tried a few years ago. It could just as easily have been something I did wrong as an actual incompatibility between Steam and Sandboxie. (And it was a different game too. It could have been the game in particular.)

My hatred for Steam precedes Valve buying them. I hear that improved things greatly too. But I maintain a blacklist of certain things never to trust. Steam is one of them. Half the reasons something is on that list may well be irrelevant now. But I never remove something that earned a spot on my blacklist. For example, Facebook once told me that a few people I know "Invited" me to facebook. So I joined and asked them why they invited me. They said they did not. And then they were sent invitations by me without my knowledge or consent. I have not used facebook since then. I never will. They betrayed my trust and misrepresented my will with regard to my friends. It was not harmful, but it was unacceptable and unforgivable.

I hope this makes my reasoning a bit more clear. I have reasons. I do not always remember what they are. But I certainly have them. I never add something to my blacklist unless they have really crossed the line.

That said, thank you for the attempt to put me at ease Shadowplay. It is just not possible to achieve that goal however. Luckily Gaslamp Games made other options for people like me.

 

I understand though don't necessarily agree. There are definitely some companies that I won't do business with anymore -- Best Buy is one because they shared my credit card info with a business partner of theirs without my permission. There's bad manners, and then there's the illegal, and that certainly goes beyond bad manners. To me, what Facebook does is just extremely bad manners. So I don't update my status there, but I have to maintain my account, since it is the only way my brother and his family will communicate on-line. I don't know why e-mail or a telephone is so horrible but no one apparently uses it anymore.

I've also had problems with a local health clinic(?) that I was using but they lost my paperwork one too many times sending me each time to their wrong office because they couldn't bother to share those records on their computer, plus having to sit 4 hours twice in a hot office because the dentist loved to overbook patients. That's simply a case of fool me once, shame on you, fool me a half dozen times and I'm a total idiot.

I also won't do business with Bank of America because they lost my Aunt's paperwork so after she died, I ended up having to drive about 45 minutes twice to their most local branch for me, and then causing me to have to talk to an attorney in order to straighten things out (thus costing my brother and me money).

Bank of America may be bad, but Citibank is a close second. I won't do business with them either because of unethical billing practices with their credit cards, such as waiting until the last minute to actually send out a bill, so that you can't help but be late in paying them. They may have gotten better since that happened, but destroying my credit card from them still felt very good at the time.

My experiences with Steam has mostly been positive, on the other hand. Only problems I've ever had were some recent harassment from a troll. But you can get that almost anywhere.

 

Omni, I know you don't like Steam, but I think you got Steam confused with something Valve bought. Like Team Fortress 2.
"Steam is a digital distribution, digital rights management, multiplayer and communications platform developed by Valve Corporation."
Steam was created by Valve, with it's initial release on September 12, 2003.

Regardless, I can understand your unpleasantness towards Steam.

 

Hmmm. You are right that I am mistaken. The Wikipedia page clearly says what you quoted.

But I also know that I blacklisted Steam. Not Valve. I will do business with Valve if they offer something I want. I just will avoid Steam unless there is no choice to use them.

I still have no idea what it could be since the timeline does not match what I thought I knew.

 

I suspect that you are getting close to my age, since that tends to happen to me a whole lot nowadays. I really shouldn't make fun of that, I know (people who live in glass houses...).

Anyway I've been having brand new problems lately with yet another company (verizon), but I'm not dropping them as they are still the best that actuallly have what I need. They are the best internet and phone service provider around here, yet I've had to spend HOURS AND HOURS on the phone with them dealing with problems. Part of my problem is that I simply refuse to deal with AT&T (they screwed over a business I worked for years ago, plus their coverage around here is horrible)..

 

Just a bump post for a certain someone who also hates Steam. (Did I mention how much I hate Steam?)

 

Purely because the patch feedback thread seemed to need a reminder that there was already a thread for this sort of thing.

 

I was reminded of this today.
Awfully large link.

 

Now that us "steam fanboys" do not smear our oppinion in your face, could you kindly return the favour? Stating you dont like it is one thing but actively doubleposting instead of just editing your last response does make it look like you are just out self bump until someone else posts to validate your oppinion.

The reason Steam is popular is that it has a ton of great games, you save the hassle of having to save CDs and CDkeys all over the place, you can install your games with the click of a button and you dont even need to go to a store to get your games. On top of that comes the recommendations system, the voip, auto update, social system and so on and so forth. It is basically all of the benefits with piracy without the legal issues which has had the added benefit of turning many pirates into paying customers instead.

Some games require you to be on steam but that is the developers choice and not steams. You can easily play most steam games just by running the .exe in the appropriate folder if that is what annoys you. In other words: your "always online DRM" argument is pretty much a moot as an anti-steam argument. On the other hand it does have to do with the developers who implement it themselves so if that is your problem, kindly direct your frustration that way instead of repeatedly having to shove your oppinion in the face who does not answer and thus should probably be regarded to not care too much.

Sure steam is probably not perfect but the single time in 6 years I have had any issues at all, customer service replied the very next day and solved my issues so from an emperical standpoint I find it a great service and no amount of doubleposting will change that.

/rant

And no I am probably not going to reply to this thread any further.