what is steam? no one mentioned anything about needing an online account to play this game. i bought it to get away from online games. the game didnt install when i refused to make an account though. is this malware or a virus?

Please read this http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1242199-skyrim-and-steam/ that will explain a lot.

Steam is needed to activate your game.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1242199-skyrim-and-steam/

No malware, not a virus. The game only installs if activated through Steam.

Steam has been a known part of Skyrim for quite some time. It's not malware or a virus, it's a form of DRM.

Perhaps you should start reading the back of the game box before purchasing a game.

http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1242199-skyrim-and-steam/ has been up for months now. No, it is not malware or a virus. Yes, you are entirely ignorant of the subject and quick to blame others for your lack of research.

Thanks for your speedy replies. i may reconsider playing this game if it must have some other program running online. i will read your links but this does not sound trust worthy.

thanks again for responding so quickly)

Doesn't sound trustworthy... IT'S STEAM! A widely respected utility.

Yeah, good bye...have fun not playing Skyrim^^

lol @ malware

Welcome to the demise of PC gaming!

Steam is trustworthy, I've bought loads of games from Steam and there's nothing wrong with it.

Yeah right, I've just looked on the steam store page and it says there are 2,666,873 people using it right now, demise of PC gaming my [censored], it's the saviour.

Except for when hackers stole everyone's credit card and login details yesterday.

You mean like anything else on the internet?

Lulz internet is death of PC gaming.

A couple points you need to take a hard look at

1) Banking services and credit card companies themselves get hacked, providing thieves with cc numbers and account information. This is news to you? Everyone with a credit card that has done anything online with it is at risk. This is not restricted to Steam

2) I use Steam. And they don't have my credit card number at all being that I never purchased anything through Steam. But since my cc company has undoubtedly been hacked once upon a time (or twice upon a time), just like everyone else's has, I am at risk. But not because of Steam

3) the fact that Steam accounts where hacked does not turn Steam into Malware. It makes it a vulnerable data mine just like countless other things you probably use every day without thinking twice about it

VALVE have not said anything about credit card info being stolen. They said it was possible that the hackers got a hold of encrypted data, but not likely. Either way, my bank will shut off my cards if they are suspicious of any weird behavior.

Still a bit scarry though. I mean I'm a fan of steam myself, I pretty much use it exclusively at this point, sometimes I won't even bother with a game that doesn't show up on Steam. But when I hear about hacking and stuff like that I definitly get nervous. I personally have over a thousand dollars vested in games on steam not to mention all the actual time vested in different online games. I'm all for anti piracy and DRM's, but from my perspective if you make it a requirement, it becomes your resonsibility to keep my information safe.

also, I don't know if you realise this, but you don't need to be constantly online to play Skyrim. You just have to be online for the duration of the installation process. After that, you can just go into offline mode and play it.

One thing to note is that the hacker group's main target was apparently defacement of the forums and harvesting forum account information. All Valve has confirmed so far is that the hackers go into the database and had access to hashed and salted passwords and encrypted cc information. They are still investigating if the hackers actually decrypted the cc information or steam client passwords and user info.

http://kotaku.com/5856975/steam-forums-apparently-hacked

Well if they where dumb enough to use the exact same login/password for both the Steam VB forum and their formal steam account then yeah.....

Loved by many . Completely loathed by many. Steam only was a polarizing choice and while I'm sure Steam gained them plenty of sales , Steam ONLY decreased them by 50% among the people I know.

Yes, products have polarized customer base, as well as those who just use the product because that's what is to use. Steam is not an exception to this. However Steam's success stands for a few reasons. How crappy it may or may not be is mostly opinion. The things it offers and doesn't aren't opinions.

Finally a use for Steam. It's been giving me annoying popups for a year because I never use it. Now I have o remember my password and username.

I get the game next week (in Japan). I foresee Steam and its silliness being the biggest obstacle to a smooth installation...