Why does Steam Features Require Additional Purchase

[Mr Maison]

We must run our copy of Cities Skylines on Steam right? So why is it we have to make additional purchases just to be able to do things like make comments? I'm about to begin uploading some content and I have to spend $5 on something I have no interest in so I will be able to interact with the community there. It may seem like a little bit of money but still... Why not have a deal with Steam where all we need to do is show proof of purchase? I feel like I'm about to pay my way into an account where I already paid for the game. I just think this is not fair. Not saying it's your fault CO, just maybe you can do something about this for future players who buy the game straight from Paradox like I did.

*end of rant*

 

[Brazilian Joe]

The car analogy is flawed.

It's more like ... public transportation.

See, you have put your money on some equipment. but now you need to support it. You have to go to a store which is an authorized service center, and for that you have to use a third-party transportation service. You have to pay those people to take you from A to B, since it costs them to run their business.

Under the scope of public transportation analogy, suddenly it does not seem totally unreasonable anymore.

Steam does *a lot* for end users, and also for CO/PDX. It is an awesome delivery medium. It stacks a large audience, in a safe environment, and lowers the barrier for people to get in touch with each other and with the good they want (the games).

Managing all this has a cost, and there are so many people together that some bad apples came in too. And those bad apples are trying to exploit the others, and now Steam also has to act as a police, trying to catch the naughties and separate them from the goodies. This policing also increases the operating costs.

Steam is a vehicle, a distribution medium, which does the heavy lifting for us. "I want to ride my own car, I want to ride a bike, I want to walk, but I don't want no stinking public transportation from Steam". Fine, that would is the equivalent of doing all the workshop magic outside Steam. Create a forum, gather a community around, distribute the mods there. Simtropolis exists for this reason.

The barrier to mod installation is higher, the popularity is lower, it is harder to build trust but hey! Now you are riding your car.

Mods can be sideloaded into the game, it's totally viable actually.

The Steam restrictions are deterrents against the bad apples in the community. They are necessary, even if you don't like them, like paying taxes to have police. It may not be perfect with them, but without them many things taken for granted would just collapse.

The day you finally find a single other title you want to play available on Steam, this problem will vanish like a water drop in a hot pan, and all these sweat and tears are going to become a distant past.

I'd advise taking advantage of the Summer Sale right now, get something at a discount, and call it a day.

 

[Zed68]

You try to diminish the problem by all means

Yes, ok it's a distribution medium, but the purchase price of any game using it included the right to use it. And included the right to have access to all the game features.

You say it's a measure against the bad apples using it... I'm not a bad apple, you are not a bad apple either. It's their job to get rid of bad apples, and this should be included in the service they offer (and were already paid for).

 

[Brazilian Joe]

Well, they have limited means to confirm people's identites. One of the easiest ways to confirm human vs. bot identity is to see whether the account actually spends money.

Maybe if you open a support ticket they' ll grant you access to those features, who knows.

It' s stil something to do with Steam's policies and completely off-limits to CO/PDX, so this discussion is still off-topic in this forum...

You say I want to diminish the matter, but I just don' t see it as a hughe issue. I could argue that you are blowing the problem out of proportion... I guess we just have diferring views on the matter, and it's OK. There will always be common ground in loving the city-building genre!

I could also suggest you to partner with someone without the restrictions to publish the content on the workshop for you, but I guess you really want to do it yourself. At least there is still Simtropolis.

Maybe you can get your point across on Steam, Best luck to you!

 

[Zed68]

I still think this topic has its place here because if we have to use steam it's because we bought this game in the first place.

Anyway... I'll certainly buy something from steam in the future (after all, we have DLCs planned for Skylines)... so I will certainly put some dollars in my Steam wallet.

See ya !

 

[Phil V]

I feel I must comment as a month later I still can't log in to Steam on my original account, to date I received 4 e-mails from Steam, one asking for proof of purchase, result, no reply, thus I'm stuck with no game, no chance of a refund and that is Fraud plain and simple.

I've a new computer arriving this week, might add a new account using gmail instead of hotmail hopefully I can then purchase the game again and play.

In my opinion Steam was a bad choice to sell through.

 

[Zed68]

I feel I must comment as a month later I still can't log in to Steam on my original account, to date I received 4 e-mails from Steam, one asking for proof of purchase, result, no reply, thus I'm stuck with no game, no chance of a refund and that is Fraud plain and simple.

I've a new computer arriving this week, might add a new account using gmail instead of hotmail hopefully I can then purchase the game again and play.

In my opinion Steam was a bad choice to sell through.

That's sad to read, man.

 

[Brazilian Joe]

It's sad to hear you have been having problems, but the system has several deterrents against fraud from the consumers against steam too.
It's hard from their point of view to tell apart if you are having problems to even prove you are the owner of an account. Giving an unauthorized party access to a person's account would land Steam in hot water, that's one reason of the difficulty.
But if you be patient and give enough data so that they can verify your identity, you should have your account restored eventually, just follow through with the support staff.

If you think it's better off to just start anew, do the due diligence and enable all safeguards to be able to get back to your account if you ever forget your password, there are a bunch of recourses, so long as you complete your steam profile, add a secondary email for account recovery, etc.

It's true that Steam is regarded as having a bad support quality. Gabe has acknowledged it and pledged to improve, but such investments take time. Hope you can get your old account restored.

 

[Phil V]

I know there is a problem with Steam and hotmail, as they made changes and it has caused problems for, as far as I'm aware, some 100,000 players. me being one of them. I fully appreciate security, but this isn't a security issue, is more a lack of communication issue.

what more do I need to give them, I've given them my bank details, my Steam ID, my billing address, my C:Sl activation code and my e-mail address.

 

[Zed68]

DNA samples... they need DNA samples. Send them some hair.

 

[Mr Maison]

DNA samples... they need DNA samples. Send them some hair.

LOL!

What's wrong with verifying by way of proof of purchase? Perhaps at least a warning or info should be at Paradox's site so we can choose wisely. If I knew I wouldn't have access to all Steam features by buying from Paradox, I would've bought it from Steam instead and I would've done something more productive with my $5. This is a laps in communication for customers. Brazillian Joe, your argument would be valid if we did NOT need Steam to play the game and it was optional. Not being able to communicate and interact on the platform that is "needed" to play the game is basically being shut out from features you paid for in the first place. So either this should be fixed or a warning should be at the purchase page so customers can at least have a choice before they buy from either retailer.

 

[Brazilian Joe]

I think a proof of purchase could very well be a valid way to confirm a player's identity on Steam and unlock those features.
Currently it doesn't exist though.

This is something interesting to discuss in Steam as well, because it would be something *they* would have to implement.

But maybe, maybe if a developer such as CO/PDX could get in touch wit hthe powers that be in Steam and talk about this.

Are there any reasonable deterrents as to WHY a proof of purchase or a plain game code would be not enough to confirm a player's identity?

I think this should be an option at least for "premium" developers/publishers. It would require some maintenance in the publisher's side as well, to keep an up-to-date list of blacklisted game codes and feed them to Steam, in case of theft.

Otherwise, a proof of purchase would be at least part of a way to confirm an account' s identity and lift restrictions on its usage.

Zed68: what if you just add some credit to Steam? You can save it for later.

Or, hmmmm play some Team Fortress 2 and sell the cosmetics you earn, you should be able to make $5 in a short time with that.

I have 50% discount coupons for Endless Space and Endless Space: Disharmony if you are into 4X games. The AI is a bit limited but it' s still fun, it' s the first game from Amplitude Studios, the same makers of Dungeon of the Endless (dungeon-crawler/tower defense mashup) and Endless Legend (Civ V-like). I recommend them all.

I am a bit of a practical guy. I can see your points, but fact of the matter is that those policies won' t change overnight, and if Zed68 wants to contribute more to the community in the form of publishing mods/assets, hte way to go would be to bow to the current system' s restrictions as-is, the discussion can go on to propose changes and improvements, I agree that there is room for improvement in this regard. But how can you contribute to the workshop NOW? The only way is to fulfill the requirements, flawed as they may be.

 

[Phil V]

well my new computer arrived, I created a new account using gmail. got Steam and re-bought the game, so a lot happier now