Question about games on STEAM

[OldGhost]

Hello Ghosts.

I’m hoping you can answer some questions about two games for PC for me. They are “Call of Duty MW3” and “Battlefield 3”.

First some background information.

Both of these games require you to at least register them with STEAM. And some games require you to play just the single player part of the game online on the company servers. Well, I have had nothing but bad experiences with putting my gaming computer online. I contract some kind of virus and end up having to “ Flush the whole Toilet” and start over loading in all the drivers, settings, games, mapping the keys, playing all the missions, and when I get it all back just where I want my computer to be, here comes another virus. So my gaming computer just doesn’t see the internet.

But I still want to play computer games. Soooooooo..........

Question: I dropped in to the STEAM website and red the licensing and registration agreement. It said...”YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE SECURITY OF YOUR COMPUTER”. Well, sooner or later a virus or something worse will find us all. And if my account and password gets out, STEAM will try to prosecute me? Do I really need to be concerned about this or am I just making it more difficult then it needs to be? And just how difficult is it to open a STEAM account?

Question: If either or both of the games above require you to play the single player part online, I just won’t buy them. But if either or both games require that you only need to register them online and then you can play the single player part OFFLINE, then I would consider buying them and taking my computer in to my local computer shop and using their very good anti-virus protection to register the games and bring the computer home to play. So, what are you required to do before you can play these games offline?

Thanks for your time people.

OldGhost.

[Pave Low]

Well, I have had nothing but bad experiences with putting my gaming computer online. I contract some kind of virus and end up having to “ Flush the whole Toilet” and start over loading in all the drivers, settings, games, mapping the keys, playing all the missions, and when I get it all back just where I want my computer to be, here comes another virus. So my gaming computer just doesn’t see the internet.

It sounds like the problem is that you haven't had a good quality Anti-virus program and it's not regularly updated as nowadays that shouldn't happen if you follow the basics:

*Make sure you regularly downloaded all the free Microsoft updates for your PC
*Have a good quality Anti-virus AND make sure you very regularly D/L it's updates (AV is only as good as it's last update)
*Understand and actually use good practices for handling emails and local media (CD's DVD's, floppy disks, Flash drives Etc)
*Don't turn off the AV for reasons like "because it slowed things down" or "gets in the way" or "oh i know this disk is safe so don't need to check it" or "I don't have time to check/update" (as that is just rendering it completely pointless and leaves the door wide open)
*Don't download or use dodgy or pirated software or "free stuff" from suspicious or unknown sources

I would suggest that you really need to look at addressing the real issue of How and Why you were getting viruses and do something fix that, rather than penalize yourself by hiding from the net or doing lots of unnecessary other stuff

taking my computer in to my local computer shop and using their very good anti-virus protection to register the games and bring the computer home to play

YOU should already have "very good anti-virus protection" on your PC. that you are considering taking it somewhere else to use "their" AV (which actually would have to be installed on the PC to do anything) really does suggest that you already know what&where the problem really is...

Normally the only time you should need to take your PC anywhere like that situation is for using a faster download connection (EG if you don't have broadband and need to download a huge game)

For a decent quality anti-virus with a years protection I can highly recommend Norton Internet Security 2012 and so long as you regularly let it download the latest updates (at a minimum weekly) you wont have any need to worry about viruses for only $26 / £30 a year

And if my account and password gets out, STEAM will try to prosecute me

Nah, so long as you don't go mad and post the password somewhere publicly or tell people, you are fine

*and even then, the worst they would do is just disable the account

Do I really need to be concerned about this

Nope

or am I just making it more difficult then it needs to be?

Yes

And just how difficult is it to open a STEAM account?

Not difficult at all, just download the STEAM client, register and fill a few boxes and click enter

So, what are you required to do before you can play these games offline?

Install the game, validate it and apply any patches/updates, then can just set STEAM to offline mode.

but unless you are playing somewhere without internet connection you should just get a quality Anti-virus and leave STEAM in online mode and it will download patches and updates as necessary.

[OldGhost]

Thanks Pave Low.

So, I take it that both games will let me play them offline, and that the downleaded STEAM client in my computer is the key that unlocks that ability?

OldGhost.

[Pave Low]

Yes, once the game has been installed, validated and updated in "online" mode

What is Steam's Offline Mode and how do I use it?

Important:

The Steam client application's files must be updated to allow for the use of Offline Mode. If your game's status is "100% - Ready" but you receive the message "This game cannot be started in Offline Mode" when attempting to play offline, the Steam client application's files need to be updated.

Firewall settings preventing Steam from updating itself are the most common cause for this problem. Please see the Troubleshooting Network Connectivity topic for instructions to configure your network so Steam may update if you encounter any difficulties with Offline Mode.

What is Offline Mode?

Offline Mode allows you to play games through Steam without reconnecting to the Steam Network every time you wish to play - this is particularly useful if you do not plan on playing over the internet and would prefer not to download new updates for your single-player games.

Please note that you must connect to the Steam Network and test each of the games you would like to use in Offline Mode at least once to set up your account and configure Offline Mode on your machine.

Using Offline Mode on a PC.

Please follow the instructions below to configure Offline Mode on your PC:

Start Steam online - make sure the Remember my password box on the login window is checked

Verify that all game files are completely updated - you can see the update status for a game under the Library section (when the game shows as 100% - Ready it is ready to be played in Offline Mode)

Launch the game you would like to play offline to verify that there are no further updates to download - shut down the game and return to Steam once you have confirmed that the game can be played

Go to Steam > Settings to ensure the Don't save account credentials on this computer option is not selected

From the main Steam window, go to the Steam menu and select Go Offline

Click Restart in Offline Mode to restart Steam in Offline Mode

[petsfed]

Battlefield 3 is emphatically NOT on Steam. It uses Electronic Arts' digital delivery client, called Origin. I can't speak for its reliability, its pretty young. Steam, though, is rock solid.

[OldGhost]

This is why I Love posting such questions on GHOSTRECON.NET.

I'm going to copy these highly to another file and print them out so I can take them in to the local computer shop with me.

Thanks for your time people........and keep the thoughts and comments comming.

OldGhost

[Rocky]

A shop is just there to make a profit, take the advice above, it doesn't get better.