How does Steam work?

[WabeWalker]

Here's the thing.

I have two computers, one for work, the other for gaming. My work computer is an Apple Titanium Powerbook, which I use every now and then to surf the net - my connection is a slow 56K one.

My gaming computer, a PC, is only connected to the internet when I need to download a patch for a game. Connecting my PC to the internet is a major, major hassle, because the phone jack is in a different room, and I have to lay down a long string of cord (not to mention the hassle of having to pull out my PC just to connect the phone cord in the first place).

Somebody at work said to me that if I buy Half-Life2, and install it, then I'll have to connect to the internet every single time I turn on my computer, REGARDLESS AS TO WHETHER OR NOT I ACTUALLY PLAY HALF-LIFE2.

Tell me this isn't true.

Okay, if I have to connect to the internet everytime I play Half-Life2, that, I think, I can deal with. Having to connect to the internet even if I'm not going to play Half-Life2 is just ridiculous. There's no way I'd buy the game if that were the case.

So what's the deal?

 

[MikeL15]

Well, when you first get steam, you must be connected to the internet (obviously). Once you finish downloding it, go into the settings option and somewhere at the bottom it will say "Log onto steam on Windows startup". Disable that, and then you wont need to get on the internet each time you restart. Then, you gotta go into the options of Halflife2 and set it to offline mode, so you can run it without steam.

But I suggest you find a way to always keep your computer connected to the internet because its alot easier that way.

 

[Link]

Just to confirm what MikeL15 is saying, you need an internet connection the first time you play, and sometimes it stops letting you log in in offline mode, so you would need to connect it to the internet then as well, but apart from that you should be fine.

And there is no way that steam will prevent your computer from working if a net connection is not present. Your friend is wrong

 

[Ultimape]

and sometimes it stops letting you log in in offline mode, so you would need to connect it to the internet then as well, but apart from that you should be fine.

In the steam help section at steampowered.com there are instructions as to how to get around this, it has somethign to do with backing up your clientregistry.blob. I made a batch file to do it for me.... Everytime steam is updated, you have to re-backup the clientregistry file. IT works wonders on my second computer... which is rarely online.