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Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;)

Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:05 PM

Sorry for the title and partial rant; maybe someone has an idea what I can do:

1) I bought a key from cdkeys.com which so far has always been legit and worked.

2) On trying to activate it in the client I get an "unexpected error". Not an "invalid key" or "duplicate key" error

Now the part why Steam needs to burn in hell...

3) The support site doesn't let me generate a ticket trough their FAQs, because it references only retailer keys that give duplicate or invalid key errors and tell you to take it up with the retailer.

"Unexpected error" on entering a key is an option that doesn't exsist in the FAQ so you can't contact them.

I mean, how the hell does a company think about their customers to hide their ticketing/support contacts behind a bunch of predefined questions that are all designed to keep you away?

I suppose if I pack the question into another topic it will get flat out rejected?
Posted By: Bill_Grant

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:08 PM

Pulling this out of my hind end, but have you tried clearing your %TEMP% file and then trying it again?
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:10 PM

Worth a try, and maybe to reinstall the client.

Thanks Bill, good idea!
Posted By: Bib4Tuna

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:17 PM


I've seen "unexpected errors" with 3rd party key sellers on Steam's forum topics lately, and apparently, has to do with Steam changing its policy regarding regional gift keys. Hopefully, it's not that and you get it solved, but if it is, you will need a refund from cdkeys.
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:18 PM

Okay, solved.

After the client updated and I tried again it now has the game already in the list. So the three failed activations didn't actually fail, but didn't show the game activated either until the client was updated.

Anyone still wonders why I really dislike this software? But mostly I was stunned that their software produces an error message and doesn't allow me to open a ticket for that error message.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:19 PM

I just avoid that headache and order all my games direct from Steam. If a third party has the game cheaper then I just wait until the next Steam sale to get it.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:21 PM

I'm glad to hear that your issue got resolved RSColonel.
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 03:25 PM

Yeah Panzer valid point, but in this case it's 17EUR versus 49EUR.

I like paying for my games, but not a premium...
Posted By: DM

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 04:19 PM

This is what the wishlist is good for. You'll get an email notification when anything on your wishlist goes on sale. So you add it to your wishlist then you just sit & wait smile
Posted By: Chucky

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 04:37 PM

Wasn't there some problem recently with these sort of 'CD key' sites selling keys that were obtained fraudulently? Did that happen with BoS/BoM?

I did use one a couple of times but now,not a chance.

Steam is awesome btw smile
Posted By: - Ice

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 05:35 PM

DCS issue, Chucky.

RSC, I personally buy from other sites too, and never had a problem. Having said that, never bought from CDKeys before. Humble Bundle, GOG, Greenman Gaming, Games Planet, and at least 4-5 other sites too with no issues and even if I did, I'd take it up with them, not Steam.
Posted By: TychosElk

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 05:45 PM

Originally Posted by Chucky
Wasn't there some problem recently with these sort of 'CD key' sites selling keys that were obtained fraudulently? Did that happen with BoS/BoM?

I did use one a couple of times but now,not a chance.

Steam is awesome btw smile


There have been problems with people buying BoS keys from questionable third-party sources (i.e. G2A), and then finding that either they didn't work at all, or were for a 'Russian only' version that was on sale at one time with most of the content aircraft locked. Best avoided.
Posted By: Raw Kryptonite

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 06:23 PM

Keeping it up to date is the same as just about any software. If you don't do it and then it doesn't work, that's on you.
Same about buying keys elsewhere. They can't help it if you buy a key on Craigslist and end up down a well rubbing lotion on your skin.
I'm glad it was an easy fix though.
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 06:29 PM

Kryp, I generally agree about updating software, but if the software is so outdated (and it wasn't terrible old version either) that it starts producing an unknown error on a standard procedure, then it needs to recognize that and prevent the user from doing that action before an update.

I don't think it's good software design to throw some random error because you changed the backend without forcing a front end update and then let the user figure it out.

Regards key sites, this is my fourth or fifth game from them and never had an issue with illegitimate or "out of region" keys, all activated fine. But given my general stance on DRM, Steam, UPlay etc. I think most of you can guess that for me buying is more important than activating, if you get my drift.
Posted By: Flogger23m

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by - Ice
DCS issue, Chucky.

RSC, I personally buy from other sites too, and never had a problem. Having said that, never bought from CDKeys before. Humble Bundle, GOG, Greenman Gaming, Games Planet, and at least 4-5 other sites too with no issues and even if I did, I'd take it up with them, not Steam.


No, he is referring to Kinguin, G2A, ect. All of those sites sell games from stolen credit cards, or bought via the gray market. There are some good sites (Green Man Gaming, ect.) but many developers are disabling CD keys bought fraudulently. ED, Ubisoft, ect. The developers loose money from each "sale", which is far worse than piracy. Hence the backlash from developers. Not all keys on G2A and the like are fraudulent, but enough are that it is problematic. Best not to buy from those places. It is also immoral seeing that the developers likely won't make money but instead loose some. You're better off pirating.
Posted By: Raw Kryptonite

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 06:55 PM

If you don't have it set to auto update, then they assume you take on the responsibility. Considering how well they maintain it, you may have been dozens of patches behind.
Posted By: Master

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by RSColonel_131st
Yeah Panzer valid point, but in this case it's 17EUR versus 49EUR.

I like paying for my games, but not a premium...


That is because they are either buying a russian key (much cheaper because russian economy is trashed) or they are selling y ou a key purchased with a stolen card. Either way you really really really should not be buying from 3rd party key sites. You are basically paying criminals to keep doing criminal things.
Posted By: Brun

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 10:07 PM

I've used Green Man Gaming a lot and never had a problem, but cdkeys always felt a little dodgy. Maybe even just cos of the name.

It's like finding a 'good' deal on amazon but discovering the order is processed by some place in Hong Kong. You take your chances...
Posted By: Coot

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/24/17 10:11 PM

I've gotten a few games from G2A under a recommendation but the last time I did I got a bad key. Thankfully they refunded me but it was a headache communicating with them through multiple emails and the like and I just don't like the mess. From now on I think I'll just wait for a Steam sale or for Amazon. The whole idea of CD Keys is kind of creepy to me too.
Posted By: ADorante

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 09:29 AM

To reinforce RSColonel's aversion against Steam & Co:

From a Polygon article: Why at the moment even EA's Origin is better than Valve's Steam

Quote
Remember that even the retail version of Half-Life 2 required the installation of Steam, which means any store that sold PC software was selling you their doom with every copy of the game.

Anyone who wasn't immediately convinced it was worth it only needed a few minutes with Half-Life 2 to see the error of their ways, reaching for the gravity gun to hurl a toilet into the face of a Combine soldier, leaving the EULA unread and untouched but agreed-upon nonetheless. Innovative titles like Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead cemented the decision, reassuring us that our lopsided relationship with Valve had more benefits than it did drawbacks. It was convenient. It worked. We didn’t need to think about it.

Valve bought our loyalty with cloud-saves and claims of piracy as a customer service issue. Steam gave a lot back in the early days, even when it was laying down the tracks for a lot of questionable decisions in the future. We also didn’t want anything else once we were comfortable with Steam, which is a big problem for anyone who doesn’t want to give Valve a third of every sale.


Posted By: DM

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 09:49 AM

IMO the monopolisation is really the only problem with Steam, and that's more a problem for developers not customers. So if some new company wants to compete, they'll probably have to follow the Steam model, but not take such a large cut from the devs to promote shopping around. But, us Steam users are lazy smile I think we're in an Amazon-like situation now.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 11:01 AM

EA Origin is actually a pretty good software distribution client. Too bad there are no games on it though right now that I'm interested in getting. Maybe I'll get ME: Andromeda after it's been patched about 10 times.
Posted By: Raw Kryptonite

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 12:36 PM

Steam pretty much saved pc gaming in the age of consoles by taking the pain out of it. No more c++ redistributable errors, direct x missing .dll crap, searching for patches you didn't know existed etc. Not to mention indie developers have a platform to get noticed and can be successful, instead of just remaining obscure because big publishers don't take risks. All we'd get would be a few charitable console game ports. Indie games would languish in obscurity, lost on the internet, straining for attention.
Posted By: PanzerMeyer

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 01:36 PM

Excellent points you make there RK.
Posted By: rwatson

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 01:55 PM

I just had a hard drive go paws up..got the replacement in and set up and now heading to Steam for my stuff there,,,I like the convenience of it all have most of my games backed up but there's no muss or fuss with Steam just click install and away it goes..Same with GOG as long as i have Galaxy installed,,But still miss the box with a proper manual and key card and solid CD
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/26/17 11:27 PM

I checked up on CDkeys and I can't find any instance of any key there ever reported revoked.

As for Steam, what *really* bothered me about this experience was that according to the Google search results I had, it *was* possible once upon a time to directly raise a ticket with them by creating a support account. Now however the option to write to support only enables when you go a million times trough the FAQ and only on very specific questions. The Client and the Store Website both send you to this Help FAQ, and nowhere do you have even a plain evident basic "contact human" option. In fact there isn't a single FAQ entry for "I can't activate my game", only being told that if you have a problem with a retail key to report it to the store you bought it from.

And *that* to me is just disrespectful to the paying customer. If I pay money for a title and can't activate it (or get a clear error code that the key is invalid) then you are keeping me from playing what I paid for, and you can't even be bothered to offer help.

Alas as I said above, given my mode of operations it's not actually a problem because I know my way around. But it's one more reason why I hate this product, and the posted by Adorante lists plenty more problems.
Posted By: Old Dux

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 05:58 AM

Gents,

My MMORPG Steam game Sphere III has been almost continuously down for a month with just a very brief 20 minute access two days ago. It's OK until I reach the character selection screen and that's as far as I can get.

Particularly frustrating because I am only one and a half levels from the all-powerful 50!
Posted By: Airdrop01

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 05:30 PM

Every time I see a thread like this, I buy a Steam game (or ten.) right

Seriously, though, you're not a paying customer of Steam, RS. At best you're a customer of and paying someone undercutting Steam. No offense, but that's the truth.
Posted By: Airdrop01

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 05:37 PM

Originally Posted by Raw Kryptonite
Steam pretty much saved pc gaming in the age of consoles by taking the pain out of it. No more c++ redistributable errors, direct x missing .dll crap, searching for patches you didn't know existed etc. Not to mention indie developers have a platform to get noticed and can be successful, instead of just remaining obscure because big publishers don't take risks. All we'd get would be a few charitable console game ports. Indie games would languish in obscurity, lost on the internet, straining for attention.



thumbsup
Posted By: Flogger23m

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 05:51 PM

Originally Posted by Airdrop01
Every time I see a thread like this, I buy a Steam game (or ten.) right

Seriously, though, you're not a paying customer of Steam, RS. At best you're a customer of and paying someone undercutting Steam. No offense, but that's the truth.


Depends where you are buying from. Valve takes a 30% cut. Some of the good sites just take less of a cut (say 10%) which is why the price is lower. The developers will still make the same money.
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 07:32 PM

Originally Posted by Airdrop01
Seriously, though, you're not a paying customer of Steam, RS. At best you're a customer of and paying someone undercutting Steam. No offense, but that's the truth.


Explain that to me please.

Steam accepts these keys as legit. The site I bought them from is not making them up from thin air obviously so they must have come from somewhere at Valve in a legal way.

So, I'm guilty of a supporting a business practice that Steam also supports?
Posted By: ADorante

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 08:00 PM

Re: Undercutting ->

Steam and GOG take 30% cut of revenue vs. Humble Bundle 5% says Fez creator

Quote
Deals between distributors and devs tend to be secretive affairs bound by legal tape, unholy rites and signatures of blood and the like, but Edge have spotted a tweet from the creator of Fez, Phil Fish, who encourages players to buy through Humble Bundle because "we get 95% of revenues as opposed to steam/gog's 70%"
Posted By: Airdrop01

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/27/17 08:37 PM

My understanding is that you bought something from CDKeys. My understanding is that they buy region free games in bulk, say in Russia where the economy is trash, at very depressed prices. Then they use the codes from that to sell globally. That is shady at best, and most certainly means you are not a customer of Steam/Valve. I would be stunned if in the licensing agreement that isn't verboten.

Assuming it is verboten, any play you get out of it is a gift.

But maybe I'm wrong. I'm obviously not a Valve insider.
Posted By: RSColonel_131st

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/28/17 01:39 AM

Well, if Steam disagrees with the practice they can always region-code the keys.

Valve uses any legal loophole in the book with their TOS. I certainly don't feel shady using a reseller who might do the same.
Posted By: Flogger23m

Re: Another "burn in hell, Steam" thread from me ;) - 05/30/17 06:08 PM

Originally Posted by RSColonel_131st
Well, if Steam disagrees with the practice they can always region-code the keys.

Valve uses any legal loophole in the book with their TOS. I certainly don't feel shady using a reseller who might do the same.


This is becoming a problem for some developers, so now you can no longer gift games to people in other regions if the prices vary a decent bit. So your issue is being addressed. The problem, I probably can't buy a game on Steam and gift it to a friend in Europe, or Australia, ect. That was a truly wonderful feature and it is sad to see it get limited. What other gift could you send to a friend across borders without being charged more than its worth in duties and shipping?
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