Steam problem

I tried playing with Steam online but decided that I didn't want it taking up resources, so selected 'go offline'. I then double-clicked FM2012 and it came up with 'preparing to launch FM2012' and was just on that screen for 20 minutes, so I cancelled it and now all I get is 'the game is not ready to be played in offline mode'. Next to the game is 'update paused', but I can't resume it. Is there anyway to fix this?

I hope they never force the users to use Steam again.

It was obviously updating when you decided to go offline I'd say, go back online, complete the update and then try again?

Steam is fine.

Go online, download the update. Then you can go offline and play it as offline. It wont play because it needs to update.

Why mess with a winning formula?

Why mess with a winning formula?

Because they actually think that this will cut out piracy on the game. Fat chance. Even if they prevent the game being downloaded illegally, I would be amazed if anybody who was happy to play a cracked version will suddenly start buying the game.

One thing is for sure, they will lose players. I built a 2nd pc specially for playing FM on. It's not connected to the internet and I have no intention whatsoever of connecting it to the internet. Thanks to the enforcement of Steam I will no longer be able to play a new edition of FM.

Yes, I could disconnect my PC, carry it through to the other room to activate and update it. Will I? Not a chance. I would have been perfectly happy to fork out my money again if I didn't need to connect to the net everytime I wanted to play. I am really, really disappointed about having to use Steam. Looks like I am going to get to know FM11 very, very well.

Personnaly I hate steam, always caused me more problems when using it to not using it!!!

Hi Chris,

Did you realise that because of steam, you got a update today

Because of steam, today the game is a little bit better.

If it wasn't for steam, you'll have to wait 4 or 5 weeks, untill SI compile a full patch to solve N issues.

With steam, you can get various little updates to fixed (much faster) all the issues.

This is something that it's a huge advantage, and it's possible because of steam.

In 4 months time when your 2 year old daugher chews on your disc and it is no longer readable and a virus corrupts your hard drive and you cant find the game in a store so you have to order it online and wait 2 weeks for delivery but wait... you dont have to... its on steam, you can just download it with 1 click and its there!

Yay steam!

Yes, I could disconnect my PC, carry it through to the other room to activate and update it. Will I? Not a chance. I would have been perfectly happy to fork out my money again if I didn't need to connect to the net everytime I wanted to play. I am really, really disappointed about having to use Steam. Looks like I am going to get to know FM11 very, very well.

Could just move your router but lets not be logical about this by any means. You dont need to connect everytime you play. You need to connect just once, the first time. Thats it. Never again if you dont want any updates.

Because they actually think that this will cut out piracy on the game. Fat chance. Even if they prevent the game being downloaded illegally, I would be amazed if anybody who was happy to play a cracked version will suddenly start buying the game.

Going Steam has already prevented a leaked copy of the game to appear on torrents 2-3 days before the official launch of the game, which happened in previous years. This in turn meant no repetition of last year's wave of pre-order cancellations that hit retailers as people downoladed the stolen version of the game and decided to save a few quid. I'd say the decision to switch to Steam-only distribution for FM 2012 has already paid off for SEGA.

Playing via Steam in offline mode is such a small price to pay to ensure piracy doesn't kill off future development.

The only way steam is bad for anyone is if that person has mistreated their pc. I.E constantly installing and uninstalling programs.

I don't see how people have problems with it. It is one of the best pieces of software ever.

The only way steam is bad for anyone is if that person has mistreated their pc. I.E constantly installing and uninstalling programs.

I don't see how people have problems with it. It is one of the best pieces of software ever.

You don't see if you don't look. It clearly hasn't turned out to be 'one of the best pieces of software ever' for some. Fingers crossed that you never encounter a problem with it.

exactly this but add to that we're now 3 days after release and there is still no dodgy version available.

I'm not exactly knowledgable on these things but surely this has netted SI a raft of extra sales.

and as for the bitching about steam, its really getting tiresome

the OP- go on ebay and buy a decent length of cat 5 (last one i bought was 15 metres and £2.29 with free postage. run cable from router to your FM rig and install/update as required. 2 minutes to plug in a cable and trail it to your rig christ you could do this in the time it took to write your whiney post.

enjoy FM11 chris because nobody cares

I wasn't a fan of steam a few years back. It certainly seemed to grind my old Asus laptop spec'ced for gaming down to a near halt. Seems to be working just fine since FM12 release though on the new lappy.

I hate steam. I want to play software with the patch level I choose, when I choose. I want control over exactly what is installed on my PC and where it gets installed to, I dont want some meddling middleware deciding for me.

Steam adds an extra obfuscating layer, which I find does not fit well with the way I work because I'm an engineer and I like to know whats going on and why and I like to have some control. That said I can understand why people want the hassle taken away and for them I imagine steam is a good fit.

Take downloading a patch for example. I just clicked on the FM 2012 icon 20 minutes ago....still waiting for it to appear. What if I only have 15 minutes to play? What if I don't want the latest patch, because perhaps its buggy or my current internet connection is slow? Either I go learn how to configure steam and mess with steam settings or I wait...and wait.

I dont want to waste my life being bombarded with adverts for the latest games I don't want to buy, or spend several hours of my life learning to control this bloat-ware. I want to play FM2012, that's what I (thought I) bought.

If SI are so concerned about pre-release piracy, they should simply release it on steam for release time for steam fans, and offer the rest of us a DVD copy 1 month afterwards which we can purchase which does not require steam.

I think for 2013 if there is no-steam option, ironically they are going to see piracy rise as people look for a non-steam version. Alienating legitimate users like this is sad to see from a franchise I have supported since the very first version of champ manager on the Amiga.

Steam isn't resource heavy. I have Steam on permanantly, whatever I play, and never even notice it's there.

This is paranoia people. Steam is great...I wouldn't be without it.

I hate steam. I want to play software with the patch level I choose, when I choose. I want control over exactly what is installed on my PC and where it gets installed to, I dont want some meddling middleware deciding for me.

Steam adds an extra obfuscating layer, which I find does not fit well with the way I work because I'm an engineer and I like to know whats going on and why and I like to have some control. That said I can understand why people want the hassle taken away and for them I imagine steam is a good fit.

Take downloading a patch for example. I just clicked on the FM 2012 icon 20 minutes ago....still waiting for it to appear. What if I only have 15 minutes to play? What if I don't want the latest patch, because perhaps its buggy or my current internet connection is slow? Either I go learn how to configure steam and mess with steam settings or I wait...and wait.

I dont want to waste my life being bombarded with adverts for the latest games I don't want to buy, or spend several hours of my life learning to control this bloat-ware. I want to play FM2012, that's what I (thought I) bought.

If SI are so concerned about pre-release piracy, they should simply release it on steam for release time for steam fans, and offer the rest of us a DVD copy 1 month afterwards which we can purchase which does not require steam.

I think for 2013 if there is no-steam option, ironically they are going to see piracy rise as people look for a non-steam version. Alienating legitimate users like this is sad to see from a franchise I have supported since the very first version of champ manager on the Amiga.

You can turn off automatic patching.

I hate steam. I want to play software with the patch level I choose, when I choose. I want control over exactly what is installed on my PC and where it gets installed to, I dont want some meddling middleware deciding for me.

Steam adds an extra obfuscating layer, which I find does not fit well with the way I work because I'm an engineer and I like to know whats going on and why and I like to have some control. That said I can understand why people want the hassle taken away and for them I imagine steam is a good fit.

Take downloading a patch for example. I just clicked on the FM 2012 icon 20 minutes ago....still waiting for it to appear. What if I only have 15 minutes to play? What if I don't want the latest patch, because perhaps its buggy or my current internet connection is slow? Either I go learn how to configure steam and mess with steam settings or I wait...and wait.

I dont want to waste my life being bombarded with adverts for the latest games I don't want to buy, or spend several hours of my life learning to control this bloat-ware. I want to play FM2012, that's what I (thought I) bought.

If SI are so concerned about pre-release piracy, they should simply release it on steam for release time for steam fans, and offer the rest of us a DVD copy 1 month afterwards which we can purchase which does not require steam.

I think for 2013 if there is no-steam option, ironically they are going to see piracy rise as people look for a non-steam version. Alienating legitimate users like this is sad to see from a franchise I have supported since the very first version of champ manager on the Amiga.

I think you need a better connection. My game updated in no time at all. The patch was only 22.6Mb.

I hate steam. I want to play software with the patch level I choose, when I choose. I want control over exactly what is installed on my PC and where it gets installed to, I dont want some meddling middleware deciding for me.

Steam adds an extra obfuscating layer, which I find does not fit well with the way I work because I'm an engineer and I like to know whats going on and why and I like to have some control. That said I can understand why people want the hassle taken away and for them I imagine steam is a good fit.

Take downloading a patch for example. I just clicked on the FM 2012 icon 20 minutes ago....still waiting for it to appear. What if I only have 15 minutes to play? What if I don't want the latest patch, because perhaps its buggy or my current internet connection is slow? Either I go learn how to configure steam and mess with steam settings or I wait...and wait.

I dont want to waste my life being bombarded with adverts for the latest games I don't want to buy, or spend several hours of my life learning to control this bloat-ware. I want to play FM2012, that's what I (thought I) bought.

If SI are so concerned about pre-release piracy, they should simply release it on steam for release time for steam fans, and offer the rest of us a DVD copy 1 month afterwards which we can purchase which does not require steam.

I think for 2013 if there is no-steam option, ironically they are going to see piracy rise as people look for a non-steam version. Alienating legitimate users like this is sad to see from a franchise I have supported since the very first version of champ manager on the Amiga.

1. You can turn off automatic patches

2. The advert problem can be solved by pressing the 'Close' button

jesus smythw you claim to be an engineer but you cant grasp the concept of a couple o clicks to turn off auto updates or put steam offline

put steam offline then your problem is solved. turn off updates, no updates until you deem them suitable.

and as for wanting control over exactly what is installed on your pc you sound like a bit of a control freak. steams here deal with it. I really dont understand the hatred for steam, but it seems that on this forum at least its cool atm to hate steam

I tried playing with Steam online but decided that I didn't want it taking up resources, so selected 'go offline'. I then double-clicked FM2012 and it came up with 'preparing to launch FM2012' and was just on that screen for 20 minutes, so I cancelled it and now all I get is 'the game is not ready to be played in offline mode'. Next to the game is 'update paused', but I can't resume it. Is there anyway to fix this?

I hope they never force the users to use Steam again.

All you need to do is go on Steam, download the update, then when you exit Steam actually "go offline" in Steam- the problem will be fixed.

I hate steam. I want to play software with the patch level I choose, when I choose. I want control over exactly what is installed on my PC and where it gets installed to, I dont want some meddling middleware deciding for me.

Steam adds an extra obfuscating layer, which I find does not fit well with the way I work because I'm an engineer and I like to know whats going on and why and I like to have some control. That said I can understand why people want the hassle taken away and for them I imagine steam is a good fit.

Take downloading a patch for example. I just clicked on the FM 2012 icon 20 minutes ago....still waiting for it to appear. What if I only have 15 minutes to play? What if I don't want the latest patch, because perhaps its buggy or my current internet connection is slow? Either I go learn how to configure steam and mess with steam settings or I wait...and wait.

I dont want to waste my life being bombarded with adverts for the latest games I don't want to buy, or spend several hours of my life learning to control this bloat-ware. I want to play FM2012, that's what I (thought I) bought.

If SI are so concerned about pre-release piracy, they should simply release it on steam for release time for steam fans, and offer the rest of us a DVD copy 1 month afterwards which we can purchase which does not require steam.

I think for 2013 if there is no-steam option, ironically they are going to see piracy rise as people look for a non-steam version. Alienating legitimate users like this is sad to see from a franchise I have supported since the very first version of champ manager on the Amiga.

First, you can turn off auto-patching (although this doesn't always seem to take) and secondly, you can turn off the pop-ups with offers if you like.

I can understand your other concerns though. It gives little control over what version you actually want to play (although, I do think this would also be hard to implement) and I would love to be given a chioce as to where it installs everything. Things don't always work perfectly, but they wouldn't do that either without steam (ie, patch downloads could be slow without steam as well), so for me that evens out. I also appreciate having control over my games, but I also really appreciate not having to do anything for it to update.

On piracy, as far as I know, there is still no cracked version available on the interwebs, so this is a big win for SI. People who really want to play and don't want to wait, will be far more tempted to buy the game if they can't just download it right after (or even before) release. I don't think they will change their minds for next years version. I do actually like the option of a non-steam version released later. Would be quite a hassle for SI though, so seems unlikely.

Get over it. For years now Steam has been working fine on hundreds of thousands of machines and some of the best selling games are provided via Steam. The only people that complain are the slight few who are new to it and not all that familiar with it. It's not a resource hog, it doesn't hide under your bed waiting for the opportune moment to jump out and scare you as you go to sit down with a fresh cup of coffee and it does not create issues with your pc. Issues or more likely due to heavy downloading of stupid crap or hitting porn sites frequently and not using programs like a malware 1.46 or cccleaner to removed bad juju from the system.

Sorry, just growing tired of all these steam sucks posts. Go check out a Total War forum or a Team Fortress forum ... few if anyone spend time on complaining about a non issue.

Well I've been laughing at posts on various warez sites where people said they will buy FM, because there is no crack yet, so I thing it could well be a profitable move for SI this year. For me - I've been using Steam since FM09 and I'm a very happy customer

Steam is a resource hog?

It may be so for Pentium 3 era.

1. You can turn off automatic patches

2. The advert problem can be solved by pressing the 'Close' button

You can turn off the adverts too

Because they actually think that this will cut out piracy on the game. Fat chance.

Frankly they know full well that Steam is pants at anti-piracy, always was and probably always will (unless the platform gets Nazi about it, e.g. sticking a worm on every PC in the world and destroying the HD of any with pirated software on it). The fact that it is a pretty good analysis and DLC implementation tool was far more prominent on the minds of those who made the decision is the reason why we're forced to a) install a 3rd party product, or b) ignore the game.

While personally I've not had a problem with Steam myself I am severely opposed to being forced to do something (especially when lied about why) like installing extra software on a computer just to play a game. It will never happen for me, and I suspect, even if simply due to the profile of the average FMer, will never happen for a significant minority of SIs paying customers either.

steam is the root of all evil IMO

And round in more circles we go.

If you have a genuine problem with Steam, please post about it and we'll do our best to help you solve those issues.