I understand your points, but if you are missing out on some of your favorite games because of steam, you're overreacting. Install it, play with it, see all of its perks and features. Play Civ 5 on it! If it's still not for you, its a quick uninstall away from being history. Like it or not though, this is the future of PC gaming, and compared to all other DD services out there Steam is, in my opinion, the best of the bunch. And this is coming from an old gamer with a closet full of game boxes and will still choose the hard copy over data on my HDD. TheCrazed420

I do regret not getting to play Civ. 5 and the new installments of the Total War series.I am also afraid your are right about Steam and similar services being the future of gaming. It is probablyenivitable, but I won't make it any more likely than italready isby giving Steam another account, even justfor the purposes of trying it out, or reward the behavior of the publishers by buying their games they have linked to Steam. I never thought I would pine for the days when we had to look to a specific page in the manual everytime you loaded a game asDRM.

Replying to various posts.

Sorry if I hijacked the thread. I thought the OP was saying that you shouldn't need Steam to just install and play a game, which is the way I feel so it seemed germane. On re-reading the OP's post, perhaps he was saying he should be able to put the disk and Steam should work well.

Used PC games are bought and sold every day on Ebay.

I've never tried Steam. That is the point. I don't want to or more precisely, I shouldn'tbe forced to. It sounds like a PC version of Xbox Live, which I like. But I am not forced to use Xbox Live. I use it by choice. It is not about the load on the system, which I agree is minimal, but rather being forced to have it on your system.

I was aware of Offline Mode in Steam. However, I still have a problem with it. As I understand it, to play a game with Steam DRM, you have to create an account, registerthe gamewith your account, keep the program on your computer, and run the program every time you play a Steam DRM game. So even with offline mode, I still have to keep the Steam DRM program on my computer and run it everytime I play the game. To me, that is way too intrusive DRM. Online activiation is annoying, but not as bad as Steam DRM.

I have a question about offline mode, perhaps someone can help me with. Can you place and keep Steam in offline mode even if you have an always on internet connection? Also, can you keep Steam in offline mode permanently? Assuming that is the case, I assume there is no problem configuring Norton to block Steam from contacting the internet.

Thanks.

What's so bad about having one more process running in the background? You would see that Steam is a great fully-featured service if you would stop being so paranoid.TheCrazed420

I suppose its about control what is intalled on my PC.I shouldn't have to create an account with a service I have no interest in just to play a game I purchased legitimately at retail. Additionally, Steam prevents players from selling their games. This hasn't resulted in drop in price to the consumer, although it clearly makes the game less valuable. Its like leasing a car, but paying as much as the purchase price. If they are going to require this sort of teathering, games should be50% less and include a bold warning label that the game cannot be transfered or resold. Perhaps that is a reasonable compromise, you can buy the Steam version of a game for 25 to 30 and the full version for $50-$60.

The whole concept of Steam offends me.

I wasn't aware it existed until last summer when I bought Empire Total War. I was reading the package at home before I installed the game and read the note about having a Steam account. After reading up on Steam, and learned I had to keep this third party program on my system to play a game I had purchased, I was really shocked. I returned Empire Total War as a result. The next game I planned to buy was Civ. 5. Unfortunately, it is infested with Steam as well. So after playingvarious versions of the Civ. games since the early 90s, I have to sit out this version because of Steam.

I am beginning to worry that Steam will shut me out of PC gaming altogether.

There was an excellent article an issue or two back in OXM that told you how to tell if a particular box was one of the new "Jasper" models. The Jaspers have a 65nm cpu and 65nm gpu. The original xbox had 90nm cpu and gpu. There was an intermediate model (Falcon) that had 60/90.

The other difference in the various models is what size of theharddriveand the accessories that are included, but you are probably familiar with that.

My computer is currently in a CM Stacker 830. However, I need to get a smaller case for my PC so that it will fit in in a desk I just purchased for the home office. I was hoping to get some suggestions, particulary from someone who may have similar components. My CM stacker is just too tall for the desk.

The components I have that would matter as far as fitting in the case are: EVGA 680 motherboard, EVGA 8800 GTX, Intel Core Duo E6600, using stock air, COOLER MASTER Real Power Pro 850W power supply, & 2 WD 150gb raptors.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions you can offer.

Well soon like it or not you will have to. I cant remember where but microsoft said that it was a glitch that you were able to bypass the avatar making process. They are going to be updating it so everyone will have one eventually. Sorry dude look it up.jlm13

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up. I was not aware of that. Hopefully though, Microsoft won't get around to fixing that "glitch." I really doubt they will actually force people to make them. Time will tell I guess.

I didn't mean to engender so much hostility. I just don't like them, so I didn't make one. Not a big deal, I was just curious if any else made the same choice. I am gald most of you enjoy your avatars.

I don't see it as a maturity thing, but rather as a matter of personal preference or taste.

To answer Sluggo's question, the system prompts you to make one when you first launch the NXE, but if you hit the center button and go to the guide, you can get out of the avatar creation process. It doesn't prompt you again, although the option to customize is still there.

P.S. Perhaps 'refuse' is a poor word choice. I have change the topic title to "choose not" to better reflect my sentiment.

The WPA key is part of the security setting entered on your wireless router to keep your home network secure. You should be able to go into the router's firmware program to figure out what this is. If you didn't set up the router, ask the person in your family that did.