Any way to play without steam?

badger906 said:

Well that would leave my game choice to EA and well that's it..

And joe when you install most new games they installer runs through steam.
Its just a way for developers to have their products regulated (via steam) and to aid in the distribution of patches ect, to make all games the same version for online play.

Very few games are stand alone. EA uses origins instead.

Well, tough diddly for the companies then. I refuse to use Steam. Period. Games can gtfo my system if they want Steam.

I don't have anything against steam, I think its a good concept, and keeps the community together.
Its also a great idea that my games are saved on my accout even if I loose my original media.

I just wish you could install games and play them without having to patch them first. Until my internet is fixed I'm stuck with 200-300kbps, so online gaming I a no no.

But without steam you'd miss out on half life, portal, counter strike, skyrim, red orchestra 2 and may other great titles.

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Also steam is a means of safe guarding games from piracy. If steam is required to play the game then it creates more work/barriers for the coders trying to pirate games.

it used to be so simple to get games to work without buying them and without downloading them!

When I was younger and call of duty 2 was released my mate went out an bought it, he then lent it to everyone in the group and we then all installed it (as the mp didn't need a cd) a quick google search gave us all cd keys and away we went.

Now I bought a full version of it, because I was paranoid I'd get caught lol, but we didn't intend to "steal" it, felt just like borrowing a dvd or cd from someone.

Steam stops that happening, which is a good thing for the pc gaming scene, its the act of piracy that's killing the pc gaming market and causing us to just get crappy ports, as the real money comes from consoles, where piracy is much harder.

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I just want to chime in here and say once again as I always do that it is NOT illegal to "crack" games so that they will behave and/or install how YOU want them too on YOUR PC. Not even a tiny little bit. It is only illegal to use and play games that you have not paid through the nose for to obtain it's license and key. If you own a legal copy, whether digital or physical, and have obtained the license and key to use that game, then by all means go and apply cracks and patches to your heart's content. It is on YOU PC and YOU have sole discretion on what to do with it and how you want it to behave, and no amount of DRM bullshite is going to change that.

I also do not like Steam, therefore I go and obtain a clean copy of JUST the game itself on an ISO from a torrent (which is again, also legal because I have purchased to end-user license for it) and then I apply the new exe. and other "cracked" files required for it to run OFF of Steam (as well as to disable the other DRM bullshite they try and sneak onto your system invisibly off of the game disk, which is another reason I do not use the game files off of the retail disks or downloaded files) and without it trying to force me into applying patches and other trash I don't want on it. Once again, this is all entirely legal as long as you own a purchased license and key for that game (or any other software for that matter).

By the way, if you ever were to get a letter or other such actions against you for torrenting game files or anything else (to avoid the sneaky trash on the retail disks), but you have a legitimate copy of that game which also proves your license to use it, NO legal actions can be taken against you and any such cases would have to be thrown out of court.


Because of the rules here... I can't tell you step-by-step where or how to apply these files, other than what I've already said. But I don't think I can get into trouble for pointing you into the direction of Demonoid.Me or ThePirateBay.Org (that's what I use, never had any problems - cracked files are in the ISO you need to use something like Daemontools to look into those files to get the ones you need for the game to run off of Steam, if the game requires that type of bypass).


P.S. apologies for any typographical errors... I can't see very well right now because my eyes are recovering from surgery. But as far as I'm aware, what I've said is 100% factual and cracking games is NOT illegal so long as you have the end-user license and a key.

Also, you don't need Steam for Skryim or any other Steam-activated game, thanks to torrent people and their magical coding prowess (as I've said, no matter the game or it's age, they're all cracked and running off of Steam and that goes for my Skyrim too). IMO, Steam being a requirement should be illegal because that's kind of bordering on fascism and monopolizing and forcing people to use something they may or may not wish to have to use (Steam sucks down more system resources than even my FireFox and that's saying something), but that's digressing...

Be that as it may, just saying there are indeed ways of getting around having to use Steam and letting it do whatever the heck it wants to your computer (and by the way, you don't HAVE to download the entire game with the cracked files in the ISO, they're available separately I just prefer to use the ISO from the torrent itself as well because usually all of the Securom and other trash is removed from them by the torrent uploaders). And regardless what is in the fine print, most of that isn't actually legally binding (if you can't use third-party files, then I wonder how that works when the programs themselves generate such files that never existed before without them - would they also not technically fall into that same category? I think so). Basically I'm just saying that if you've bought their software, you're free to use it as you see fit (so long as you're not using it for illegal purposes on a federal level anyway - like say, laundering money). And as far as them trying to tell you what you can and cannot do to those files on your own PC, to stop it from making your PC do something you don't want it too, well... that simply doesn't fly with me and thousands of other people and I'm sure it wouldn't hold up in a real court of law. I just don't see people getting arrested for not wanting their computer games being hijacked and locked into a buggy, unstable and resource hogging application like Steam (which I hear is being hacked left and right and people are getting their bank accounts and credit cards stolen off of thanks solely because of this "HAVING TOO" use Steam thing these days).

Suit yourself though, I'm just giving you the info you asked for. Not telling you to do it or anything like that. I just personally feel that the end-user should have more control over what is on their computers and what this software and other applications make it do, rather than these developers and their bloodsucking lawyers who forget we're the ones who're responsible for their success in the first place and who should treat us all better than how they are, like children who need their games locked away forever tied to this "Steam" crap.

Or some such.

badger906 said:

Also steam is a means of safe guarding games from piracy. If steam is required to play the game then it creates more work/barriers for the coders trying to pirate games.

it used to be so simple to get games to work without buying them and without downloading them!

When I was younger and call of duty 2 was released my mate went out an bought it, he then lent it to everyone in the group and we then all installed it (as the mp didn't need a cd) a quick google search gave us all cd keys and away we went.

Now I bought a full version of it, because I was paranoid I'd get caught lol, but we didn't intend to "steal" it, felt just like borrowing a dvd or cd from someone.

Steam stops that happening, which is a good thing for the pc gaming scene, its the act of piracy that's killing the pc gaming market and causing us to just get crappy ports, as the real money comes from consoles, where piracy is much harder.

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This "safe-guarding" only works to a certain degree. Piraters are very easily able to crack games within HOURS of the game being created, or within the first day or two. Skyrim isn't any different than any other game. They cracked Skyrim within the first day it was released. So their anti-piracy crap doesn't even really work, except making people WANT to crack their game. And I sure as hell don't want cd-checks either, even if I do own the original.

I also agree with Ozz 100%. I don't want some "3rd party program" running my game either. If the company don't like it, the game can gtfo of my system, simple as that. Or I just won't get it, either way works.

Edit: Btw Ozz, wtf happened to you? Did you break your eyeballs by reading too much? "Aww crap, my eyeball gone and got all busted up by readin' too much! Snap!" LoL :P

Go to the settings tab at the top left of the screen and select "go offline"

This will prevent Steam from doing any connections with the Internet.

You have to have an internet connection to even change that setting in the first place, from my knowledge. Can't do that without the internet.