New steam user here with a question about playing games offline.

Earlier today our power and internet service was knocked out by the big midwest storm. Today was not a problem for me since I was working. Internet failure is pretty rare here, but I would like to be prepared for such an event.

I found the info below at the steam site.
It sounds like I need to be prescient and know when the internet service is going to fail and make preparations in advance to play steam games offline?
Do people play with the offline mode engaged all the time and occasionally checkin online to update games?
If one has not prepared to go offline following the directions below can we still access our steam games? I could not find any info on such a scenario.
thanks!



Using Offline Mode on a PC.
Please follow the instructions below to configure Offline Mode on your PC:

Start Steam online - make sure the Remember my password box on the login window is checked
Verify that all game files are completely updated - you can see the update status for a game under the Library section (when the game shows as 100% - Ready it is ready to be played in Offline Mode)
Launch the game you would like to play offline to verify that there are no further updates to download - shut down the game and return to Steam once you have confirmed that the game can be played
Go to Steam > Settings to ensure the Don't save account credentials on this computer option is not selected
From the main Steam window, go to the Steam menu and select Go Offline
Click Restart in Offline Mode to restart Steam in Offline Mode

I think it's just fearmongering on their part. I pretty much never log in to Steam and play titles offline.

Offline mode lasts a long time..

http://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/1/864969953572102601/#c864969953730401285

If your internet often goes down then just stay offline.

thanks for the link. So until a few months ago you had to check in with the steam servers every 2 weeks if you were running offline?

I'm certainly glad they got rid of that mandatory 2 week check in and went to a indefinite option (I wonder if the Xbone check in backlash had an effect on their decision?).

I can go offline and then check in from time to time. It is still lame that they don't have a more simple feature where if the members internet is down and they have not setup the offline feature they are not able to access their games (1st world problem for sure).

I can't remember the exact incantations but I think the offline can be forced even if it happens unexpectedly too - something like disabling the network device in the Network/Sharing windows thing. Worth practicing when online though

there is a txt file in the Steam directory with your offlinelogin info, once your connection gets severed - or after 4 weeks apparently - this file gets deleted, all you have to do is copy/paste it somewhere, then replace it whenever Steam autodeletes it.

Thanks for the help. for the life of me I cannot see why steam can't have a button or checkbox in the 'steam login' screen saying "offline play" or sumfink. This way if you get a connection failure message the player can repeat login and simply check the box for "offline play".

oh well...i guess that is why my game service doesn't have millions and millions of players and making millions and millions of dollars!

Well, they used to have that. Maybe too many users chose to stay offline for Valve's taste. After all, the value of Steam lies in the behavioral monitoring of its customers.

The few times my internet has been down and I try to get on Steam it simple says it can't connect and do I want to play offline. I've never set anything up to make it do that.

Just tested this by turning of my pc's wireless and it did this for me too.