When I bought Skyrim I had no idea it was reliant on Steam... if I had known I would never had bought it.

Steam has caused game playing problems for me with other games I've bought which relies on them too and has caused problems before, now it has broken my Skyrim game for the 3rd and last time.

After this latest patch to 1.4 Steam will no longer work. Suddenly it tells me I'm not connect to my internet but that is not so, I have done nothing to change my internet settings, nor have I downloaded anything else that may cause problems, that includes any mods. Yet I'm still using my internet and able to go online and do everyting else normally, no problems. I was just playing the other night, went to bed after a long day of playing and got up early to start some more gaming... that's until Steam tells me I am not connected to my internet and doesn't want to turn back on. It shows that Steam is trying to update itself.

I've been looking all over the net for some help, and like so many others who are experiencing the same problem with Steam have been trying out all the advice given us to help fix the problem. Everything from checking our internet connection to uninstalling and re-installing the game and still nothing is working... Steam still tries to connect and says that there is no internet connection. All the advice given to all of us who are having this problem are telling us to do this and do that, and we have but nothing is working, even suggesting uninstalling and re-installing everything from scratch. I decided to try this last bit of advice and now I've lost my game and I had just hit level 60. Now Steam doesn't even want to work at all and I've lost my entire game


I remember the days when you could buy a single player pc game and install it straight from the disc to your computer, no outside interference by a 3rd party program relying on you're having to be connected to the internet. But now Steam has made that impossible. Why should we have to be forced to play our game through Steam? What is it really offering but more problems and more downtime. I will never buy any game that relies on Steam to let me play it, that's just wrong.

Please offer Skyrim and other future games with the option to use Steam OR not.

It states on the back of the box that Steam is required, and it was also widely known before release.

If it bothers you or you have issues with it, put it in offline mode. You only need internet connectivity once to activate it, that's it.

We keep asking; they keep ignoring.

Steam threads in the Bethesda forum, they are like tumbleweed in a classic Western movie.

When it's high noon on the forums and everyone's attention is focused does a Steam thread roll past.

And they wont because anti steam people are a minority.

If you bought it retail, the advice that Steam is required is written on the box. If you bought it digitally, there is either an advisory label with the game blurb, or your bought it off Steam.

Regarding the Steam no longer working issue, I have that too, and the options you have are to put your security suite into game mode which helps, and to keep attempting to run Steam...it usually kicks up after a couple of attempts. However, several other recent release games from various companies have also had this problem, so I'm assuming that there may well be a Steam issue that needs addressing.

On the long list of problems with Skyrim the fact that is apart of steam seems very small.

All advice about putting Steam in offline mode is well and good... and I have been playing that way for the past few weeks.
Sorry to say it just doesn't help when Steam suddenly goes belly up and stops working all together unexpectedly.

The last few days when I've tried to start Skyrim but Steam would pop up and ask me if I wanted it to be online or off... always 'off is what I'd keep been telling it. Now, after the latest 1.4 patch it suddenly it wants to update itself when I tried to start my game and then gives me an that 'Error' message that there is no internet connection and promptly shuts down without my being able to start my game. Now that I've gone ahead and followed suggestions to re-install Steam I can't even get that to work, so I'm basically out of being able to re-install Skyrim or play my game at all.

It's great that those who can still use Steam without problems are doing so but this doesn't help those of us who for whatever reason Steam has suddenly gone and died on us and ruined our gaming. I just want to play my game,

BTW, I bought my game legit from Best Buy with my credit card as I do with all my computer programs and games. I've played all my Elder Scroll games without problems AND without Steam until now. Skyrim has been hijacked. I just want it back.

p.s. Thanks VirusType2, wish others would just try to understand and try to help or let others offer help.

I agree with OP. I miss those days when you only need single disc for installation, too.

Well said.

In my experience, Steam is a crappy client that randomly ups and dies on one, regardless of their internet connection. It just randomly refuses to start up, or starts up and then says it can't connect, even after you opt to play it in offline mode--leaving you SOL.

As far as I'm concerned (and I hope I echo some of the OP's sentiments in this), the issue is that I paid for this game. I didn't pirate it, I bought it for the full retail price. I shouldn't *have* to go through 3rd party software, except maybe to verify the product key (even EA only went that far with the last game I bought from them, DA:O... and we all know they're evil). The fact that I can be prevented from playing a game I paid full-price for by a secondary app pisses me off to no end. My misgivings about the trend in software ownership aside, I hate Steam mainly because the client has so many issues. If it did what it was supposed to do, I wouldn't bother [censored]ing about it.

What about DirectX? And flash? FaceGen? SpeedTree? LipSync? Microsoft Libraries? GameBryo? Havok?

These are all third party software that are required to play the game, either to be installed as a prerequisite or included with the game. Without these, you couldn't play the game. A Steam game is no different to a game that requires Origins to run, or one that uses Activision's evil always-on DRM.

Yes, you do echo my sentiments, endotheroms... thank you for understanding.
I also agree Skyrim has quite a few issues to deal with, but they are not making Steam refuse to start my game and I was always able to find a workaround to fix those problems. Steam IS the problem by telling me I do not have any connection when I clearly do and refusing to re-install my game.

I bought 3 copies of Skyrim from BB for others who also love the Elder Scrolls but couldn't afford the games themselves. After all it was quite pricey but clearly worth it with all the mods and soon to give us the CK!
Still, game companies opting to offer their game to us through Steam seems strange and somewhat suspicious to me. Why should I suddenly have to go through an 3rd party online server to play what I'v been able to play 4 ES games before now?

Why does this this statement keep getting passed around? It "DOES NOT" state this. It only says it is needed to activate, not to continually play your game.

The whole reason I don't use Steam is so I don't get the troubles that others are having. I have to continually play my game without any patches because upgrading to a patch, means going to the current patch with an all or nothing process.

I will continue to play without Steam and without the Internet just so I don't have the same issues that you see being reported here.

My box states:

REQUIRES INTERNET ACTIVATION AND FREE STEAM ACCOUNT TO ACTIVATE
Notice: Product offered subject to your acceptance of the Steam Subscriber Agreement ("SSA"). You must activate this product via the Internet by registering for a Steam account and accepting the SSA. Please see http://www.steampowered.com/agreement to view the SAA prior to purchase. If you do not agree with the provisions of the SSA you should return this game unopened to your retailer in accordance with their return policy.

That page linked explains everything about the Steam process, and states you will need to create an account and log in to it to play the game. Just because you didn't read the agreement before buying the game, like it told you to, doesn't mean you can blame the game. You either go into offline mode, or deal with it.

BF3 required that you play through Origins which is worse than Steam in many ways.

Oh I wish I had known this

As soon as I patched my game I no longer could play it. I think now I could live with all the broken quests and odd glitches now having to go without playing Skyrim at all. And my character just turned lvl 60... and without any patch updates. Now I can't play at all.
I hate to say this but there has to be a lot more who are dealing with this to make them want to resort to 'cracks' to continue to play their games. I'm hoping something else will come to my rescue before I'm forced to do the same.

I know this much, I'll never touch another game that has a Steam Logo anywhere on the box.

It is not that we are anti steam. It is the people that are complacent to just take it and not say anything. That is what is wrong today, people are just willing to take what the industry hands us with a smile on our face. This is the reason IMHO why the entertainment industry is so generic now. Most of the games, music, and movies are just crap and people are just willing to take it in the [BLEEP] and pay out their noses without complaint.

That's rather [censored]. Especially considering some people have bandwidth caps.

Ok, let's go to the next step then. What part of that agreement does it state that they brand new game of Skyrim I just purchased, will need to have Steam running to play the game?

From what I saw on the box, I have to create a Steam account and have an Internet connection to activate the game. Can you pinpoint me in that agreement with Steam where it says that my Skyrim is only playable with Steam running and an active Internet connection?

Thank you, as I would really like to get to the bottom of this. Not just for me, for all the others who were hoodwinked into this since we didn't read all the fine print in 3rd party software's account page. My only thought at the time was that I have to agree to some kind of membership with them to create a Steam account. From there, I will activate my new Skyrim game. Then I can turn it off and not ever needed it again once my activation was done.

Even now, I am running like I thought I bought the program as. I am running Skyrim without Steam, and without an Internet connection; exactly what I thought I was buying.

But what I have at issue now is that in order to patch my game, the Ninja patch and all subsequent patches, have now made it a requirement that would have to start using Steam and have an Internet connection to 'continue' to play my game. If that is the price to get a patch, I will wait until the patches are near somewhat complete to see if it is worthwhile to turn Steam on or not.

It doesn't state that because that's not true. You need an internet connection to activate the game, as stated, nothing more. It does not require a "constant active internet connection". You also need to sign up for a Steam account, as stated, that the Steam client is required, and that

"Steam and your Subscription(s) require the automatic download and installation of software and other content and updates onto your computer ("Software"). You may not use the Software for any purpose other than the permitted access to Steam and your Subscriptions. You understand that for reasons that include, without limitation, system security, stability, and multiplayer interoperability, Steam may need to automatically update, pre-load, create new versions or otherwise enhance the Software and accordingly, the system requirements to use the Software may change over time."

Which tells you that you are required to use and install the Steam client (software). In addition to this, even if you didn't read the agreement or the back of the box, it was well known before release that the game required Steam in order to run, like New Vegas did.

You absolutely cannot throw the "but I didn't know!" card out there.

I don't know about all of them, but I can say there are open source alternatives to flash (and considering flash's recent issues, I may go that route before long). And none of those 3rd party programs have prevented me from playing my offline, single-player game.

As I said before, if Steam actually worked properly, I wouldn't bother complaining about it. I may or may not like it, but if it functioned (even if it bugged out less frequently than it does now), then that would be a separate issue. Skyrim is the only offline game I own that regularly forces me to have a connection to play, so I can't really comment on Origins or Activision's DRM, but I can say they sound terrible--and honestly, we as consumers should spend more time backlashing against [censored] DRM's than saying "Oh well, it could be worse. At least it's not Origins." When I've personally seen it done better... that's just not good enough.

Edit: Also, I wish it were so that it doesn't require internet after activation, but it sure seems to think it does.

Then we have to disagree. The wording in the Steam 'agreement' is for the membership into Steam. It is a separate agreement to have Steam on my system and has nothing to do with my separate agreement with using Skyrim from gamesas.

What you are linking to is an agreement about Steam's software, and that is it.

But, I did install the Steam software, and yes I understand that Steam may update my Steam application. It is also able to update any games I may have using their service that they have a contract to update for.

So until the day comes, I will continue to play the game as I bought it and intended per the box. I activated my game using what the box said, and now I don't run Steam since that was not a requirement.

One day though, it may be that I will have to make a choice. Turn Steam back on and let the game patch from 1.1.21.0 before the Ninja patch to whatever version is the latest, and be forced at that point to always have to have Steam on just to play.

This has been a recurring theme since launch, and people normally fall in line among 3 camps :

1. Steam is terrible.
2. Whatever.
3. Steam is the greatest thing since sliced bread.


I like Steam for it's multiplayer components, but it has absolutely no role in a single player game and has ZERO right to tell me what I want to do with my own game.

Steam has driven many a PC player to piracy, and you can easily read any thread on Steam here and tell that opposition to Steam is in no way a 'minority'.

Oh the irony involved in this Steam debate.

Lets see what 'Brave New World' Valve has in store for us.

Sigh, and we keep on flogging that dead horse.

This won't end well.