After being burned myself I unchecked automatic updates. When an update comes I back up my old version. No problem after that!

 

But I agree - if there is a boxed version, I'll go for that.

 

Kind of reassuring to have your DVD to hand...

I never had an issue with Steam - been a user for many years now. My Steam installation has travelled with me over various PC hardware upgrades and WIndows installations as well. On new machines I would restore my User folder, then just copy the Steam folder from external drive (or wherever) to the new machine. Simply run the Steam exe in the new location, and it will repair Steam. Running each game will update the DirectX installations etc and one can have games up and running without having to reinstall or download games again from scratch. That is awesome, especially seeing one don't have to hunt for patches anymore.

 

If something breaks after a patch update in Steam, I recommend running a "Validate Install" on your title. In most cases it may detect a botched update and fix it. Worst case the patch introduced something that is not entirely compatible with your hardware/drivers.

 

Good luck with your problem. I know many people don't want to trust Steam and they have their reasons, but there are many of us that do not have issues that are very happy with the service.

I know many people don't want to trust Steam and they have their reasons, but there are many of us that do not have issues that are very happy with the service.

 

It is not about Steam for me, but clouding in general. In just a few months my Adboe account has been hacked and my credit card tried emptied after info was stolen from a flight sim webstore. Before that I've had no incidents whatsoever, no viruses, trojans, or hacks, and I've been using the Internet since 1995. ###### happens, and speaking to a lot of folks I know working on the inside of things in banks and large corporations the number of attacks are increasing exponentially each year. 99,9% of the attacks avoids public attention. This is a house of cards waitng to crumble, unless some new tech is invented to fight this.

Steam has done more than just about anything else to keep PC gaming alive over the last few years.

 

Eagle Dynamics recently introduced DCS World onto Steam. It's a very useful way to put simulation poducts on the screens of literally millions of users. If flight simming is to survive then we need to keep bringing fresh blood into the hobby - Steam is a great way to do that.

Steam has done more than just about anything else to keep PC gaming alive over the last few years.

 

Eagle Dynamics recently introduced DCS World onto Steam. It's a very useful way to put simulation poducts on the screens of literally millions of users. If flight simming is to survive then we need to keep bringing fresh blood into the hobby - Steam is a great way to do that.

 

 

It is a paradox. Online safety is getting worse, yet physical distribution of software is soon defunct. Let's hope its just "growing pains" and that measures will be taken to fight this. The Internet is still a young medium. I'm sure the increasing costs of online security will force action from vendors, service providers and banks at some point.

It is a paradox. Online safety is getting worse, yet physical distribution of software is soon defunct. Let's hope its just "growing pains" and that measures will be taken to fight this. The Internet is still a young medium. I'm sure the increasing costs of online security will force action from vendors, service providers and banks at some point.

 

I dont think its online saftey getting worse rather the amount of bugs in the software we buy is getting worse, look at the java exploit its been around for years and i still dont know if its patched in the big fix they did. Some of the bigger companys are to big to care anymore, to make software idiot proof like they do also makes us vulnerable to bugs and flaws.. when we look at all the bloat thats added to software its no wonder there is issues.

 

People are getting smarter looking for bugs and exploits and the script kiddies are just going nuts laughing at everyone and how slow companys are at plugging holes.

 

 

This is a house of cards waitng to crumble, unless some new tech is invented to fight this.

 

Simple fix for me - I don't own a credit card.

I don't have a *huge* problem if my credit or debit card details are cloned to be honest - it has happened to me before with a debit card and the banks have a well trodden path on how to deal with it. Fraudulent transactions were not honoured, new card was despatched quickly. Very little hassle to me.

Back in 2010 I got a call from my bank to say someone in the US had tried to use my debit card details to buy $300 of clothes in San Diego. At the time I was in Weymouth in the UK. They caught it and blocked the card.

 

At the time I was active on a forum for scale modellers, and someone started a thread saying their card details had been stolen and it was a new card that had only been used to purchase some model kits from a well known UK mail order company. Lots of other guys piped up their card details had also recently been stolen and they had used this mail order company too. You guessed it I had recently used that same company.

 

It turns out the holding bank that handled this company's transactions - along with many other well known UK retailers - had been hacked and a huge number of card details had been stolen. It was kept very quiet because it was only a couple of months before Christmas and nobody wanted to cause a scare just before the Christmas spending spree, especially given the fragile state of the economy. Over the next three months my card was blocked a further five times after I attempted to use it online to buy FS related stuff from non-UK outlets. It was pretty clear the bank's security department was on a hair trigger.

 

Nowadays I don't use my main debit card for online purchases (I only keep a credit card for "get me home" emergencies). Instead I use the debit card from an old redundant bank account I have. I keep that account empty all of the time and just transfer the necessary funds in before I make a purchase. That way if the card details are stolen the account will have practically nothing in it.

 

 

As for the issue of Steam.....

 

It's been something of a saviour for PC gaming. I read somewhere that Steam has 27 million registered users. That's why so many publishers and developers are releasing stuff on Steam. They're also a pretty good vehicle for indie developers to get their stuff out there. It's also why guys like Eagle Dynamics and Aerofly have moved onto Steam - having your title on the front page of an online store viewed by nearly 30 million users is not an opportunity to be missed. Go and read the Steam forums for DCS and you'll see plenty of new people dropping in curious to find out about the sim who otherwise would never have known about it because they don't frequent dedicated flight sim websites or forums. The regular Steam sales also represent a really big draw as well, where you can get games for anything up to a 90% discount, and their "specials" are also well worth checking out.

 

There are some gotchas with Steam, such as the "disable auto updates" doesn't always work the way you think it should. The offline mode is also not really offline as a lot of the games will be disabled if you do not log on to Steam for more than two weeks. There is a workaround for this, but Steam have said a more robust offline mode is on their to-do list.

 

There's still a lot of misinformation floating around with regards to Steam, and plenty of people who simply refuse to even countenance its use. It's advantages far outweigh its disadvantages and if you've got a decent net connection and like PC games there's no real reason not to use it.

 

Steam is amazing, you just to set it up right. As others have said, turn off auto updates after you restore your original version and backup.

Folks using the Steam releases are constantly having to wait several days for Steam to get the update files and DLC content available, while those of us who d/l directly from SCS have been enjoying the new content for awhile already.

Huh? I'm pretty sure that I'm on the same version you're on...

Edited October 23, 201312 yr by linux731

 

 

Nowadays I don't use my main debit card for online purchases (I only keep a credit card for "get me home" emergencies). Instead I use the debit card from an old redundant bank account I have. I keep that account empty all of the time and just transfer the necessary funds in before I make a purchase. That way if the card details are stolen the account will have practically nothing in it.

 

Good idea!