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Question on that...

How DO you get retail games to play on steam without the disc? I can't seem to get them to install properly. Every time it asks me for the CD Key from the retail packaging/manual, it says the key isn't valid despite trying all 3 configuration examples.

I'm sure I'm just doing something wrong.

metallifan wrote:How DO you get retail games to play on steam without the disc? I can't seem to get them to install properly. Every time it asks me for the CD Key from the retail packaging/manual, it says the key isn't valid despite trying all 3 configuration examples.

Depends on the game. Steam only accepts CD-Keys for certain games at certain times. They should have a list available online.

Hmm... Thing is, even games like Dragon Age, SPORE, and the Mass Effect series won't work. Games that are -on- Steam. Like I said, chances are I'm just getting it bungd-up (like my steam name ) so I'll fool with it more.

metallifan wrote:Hmm... Thing is, even games like Dragon Age, SPORE, and the Mass Effect series won't work. Games that are -on- Steam. Like I said, chances are I'm just getting it bungd-up (like my steam name ) so I'll fool with it more.

Call up their offices, it doesn't work 100% of the time.

You mean like, with a phone?

Awww, but that takes effort!

metallifan wrote:Hmm... Thing is, even games like Dragon Age, SPORE, and the Mass Effect series won't work. Games that are -on- Steam. Like I said, chances are I'm just getting it bungd-up (like my steam name ) so I'll fool with it more.

Check the list of CD-Key's they currently accept. Just cause it's on steam doesn't mean they're accepting keys for it: Steam CD-Keys, Steam Support

I've been using steam for quite a few years now, and the only problems I've ever had with it are:

No inbuilt download scheduler - annoying as I have alot more offpeak quota than peak; easily solved by using windows task scheduler, so no biggy anyway.

When I was without internet for a coupla weeks after moving; Dragon Age somehow worked out it was supposed to have a patch, and stopped working, even though it had been working for a few days already.

solon, correct me if I'm wrong, but your problem is as follows:
You don't want to have to patch a game (DoW2), because you don't want to play online.
Whenever steam updates, it resets the game settings that tells it not to auto update, so the game automatically starts updating again; resulting in you not being able to play while that happens.

Why is auto updating such a big deal? If you left it on, the game would generally update while you aren't playing it anyway (ie: Over night, while your at work/school etc.)

On a side note, wouldn't setting Steam to run in offline mode prevent it from updating anyway? I'm not sure on this, since I've never bothered with it.