Coping with Steam: Artistic Commentary on Our Shared Affliction
Most Frequently Asked Questions
1. Steam's search tool is cumbersome and not very informative. Is there a website, other than Steam's, I can go to find out what's on sale?
Steam Sales is great for current sales and for the history of each game (when it has been on sale before, etc).
SteamGameSales.com is good for what's on sale now.
2. Can I register this copy of (Insert Game Here) on Steam?
Here's a list of games you can register on Steam. You can always add a non-Steam game to your Steam games list, so that people can see you playing it. You can also use this to add your own shortcuts with fake names to your Steam games list to make it look like you're playing Episode 3. Hilarious, right?
3. If I buy a game pack that already includes a game I own, can I gift that game?
Not usually. You're welcome to ask in this thread, although if you Google it it'll probably be answered even faster. Valve games are typically the only packs that let you do this, and even then it sometimes doesn't work.
4. Why isn't {Insert Game Here} available in my horrible little corner of the earth?
Many Steam games might be unavailable in your country if you have the temerity to live outside of the United States. This is not Steam's fault. Regional game availability is determined solely by the publisher, who should be the source of your ire. Gifting works regardless of region so you might find some helpful person in North America who can gift you the game. This very thread is a great place to ask!
5. How do I get an invite to the Penny Arcade Steam group?
The most convenient way is to just post a link to your Steam profile page (getting one of the swank signatures described below makes it easy) and ask for an invite. Just as a word of advice, we tend to prefer that you be a regular contributor to get an invite to the group. The rule of thumb is 6 months of activity on the forums. We are well known for our generosity, and like to make sure any new additions are here for the good of the community, and not to leech during sales. That said, we're a friendly group, so make yourself at home and start posting and you'll be there in no time!
6. As a Classy Person I am giving away a game on SteamGifts. How do I get the pretty picture to post in the thread?
7. My Steam Chat Font is Too Small!
Some Words on Gifting
If you receive a game or pack via a gift or a contest,
remember to thank that person either through a PM or by announcing it in the thread.
This is not optional. We are classy gentlemen and will act as such.
Steam's new gifting features allow you to store up games in your gift bank when you purchase them, instead of having to email yourself the gift link. It'll be an option during checkout.
A few things to remember as a giftee:
1. Make it possible to track you from PA Forums to Steam. A link directly to your steam ID is usually the most convenient. Remember, your Steam ID is different than your steam name. If you just include text to your steam name, we have to search and scroll through 5 pages to find you (and we may not find you if you're not using the same name/avatar combo!).
2. Make it possible to track you from Steam to PA Forums. Best bet is using similar avatar/name. Understandably, some people don't want to do that. In that case, you should have "I'm ______ on Penny Arcade Forums!" in your profile blurb.
Generally speaking, if you're selected for a gift from a stranger on here it will be, usually, one of two ways:
You will either post in the thread (so they will go to your profile to friend you and then to the store to send a gift.
—or—
Someone will want to gift a certain game and go to the store page where you can see everyone who has it on their wishlist.
Also, remember that a gifter can see when you added a game to your wishlist. If you add it on the day of the sale, you might have a smaller chance of being gifted it than someone who has been interested in it since release. Gifters should also make sure they are identifiable from Steam to PA Forums. Some people are shy and are too nervous to message a gifter and say "hey thanks, I have no idea who you are on forums!"
An Important Word on Contests
If you decide to run or participate in a giveaway contest for gift copies of games, please remember that all entry submissions must now be made via PM. The forum mods have stated that pages of the thread being filled with pictures, videos, etc. submitted as contest entries will lead to such contests being banned. So please, for the sake of the thread – take it to PMs.
Helpful Stuff
Steam Mover
Does your Steam library have 800 games? Do you wish you could move some of those games to different hard drives instead of deleting them entirely and then downloading them again when you want to play them?
Steam Mover is here for you.
Steam Price Guide
Do you have the misfortune to live somewhere other than America? Steam hates you! Luckily,
this cool website with prices for Steam games all around the world is here to help, so you can know if you want to ask an American friend to buy the game for you or not. Hint: you probably do.
AussiesYou need this program.
It reconfigures your Windows IPSEC settings (run it as an admin) to block out all but the servers which don't count towards your download quota on Steam. Now supports a bunch of ISPs through a graphical interface.
Basically guarantees you won't add to your download quota with Steam.
Also: Download TCPview:
TCPView
Then, use TCPview to close all Steam TCP servers (this is important, NOT the UDP ones, just the TCP ones). Steam will then reconnect to a different server, which will hopefully get you a better speed. If you don't go faster in a couple of seconds, retry until you get a speed you like.
I've also been told you Aussies might want to try
Angus Wolfcastle's SteamManager. Setting it up is easy is you follow the instructions
here. If you find you're still being charged for your steam downloads, try changing the setting like in
this link here.
Cool Community Add-Ons
Steam Signatures
With such a cool service, someone must have done some extra things to build on it. The forums have one such man, who made some super cool Steam signatures.
Suds is his name and killing is his game. Except for the killing. The signatures automatically use backgrounds for the games and the correct icon. Pretty neat, and they're 100% free!
Sample signature:
Steam CleanerSteam Cleaner is a handy little tool to remove all those .NET installers and DirectX installers and so on that every Steam game downloads because it's apparently 1927 in computer years and nobody has figured out how to let you install a Steam game without going through a 12 step process to reinstall a bunch of stuff you installed yesterday when you played another Steam game.
Steam Calculator
You can also use a script on
his Steam Calculator page to see how much your Steam account would be worth if you had taken advantage of some obscure, arcane combination of special deals that nobody could ever have taken advantage of. Or something sort of like that.
Steam Roulette
Having trouble picking a game out of your burgeoning [strike]backlog[/strike] gamebank to play? Let VicWhiten's
Steam Roulette decide! Just type in your Steam community ID (easier if you set up a custom URL on your Steam profile page), and Steam Roulette will read your library and randomly pick one game every time you hit "Spin the Wheel!" It even connects to Steam to allow you to install or start the game with a single click.
What's All This About "Serving the Newell?"
It started with this comic:
And now it is our unofficial official motto.
@Lindsey Lohan's Steam Alphabet song:
A is for Amnesia, Hope you didn't need sleep.
B is for Bad Rats, gifted to you by some creep.
C is for Critter Crunch with rainbow vomitting Biggs
D is for Dead Island where weapons snap like they're twigs.
E is EDF making arachniphobes fit
F is for Faerie Solitaire (you know that you played it)
G is for Grand Theft of anything with tires
H is for Halflife cause it was sort of required
I is Ion Assault as not much else starts with I
J is Jade Empire that a sale finally allowed you to buy
K is a Kingdom that made Rhode Island poor
L is Limbo with spiders galore
M is for Magicka which helps you kill off your friends
N is the Newell who you need to serve to the end
O a game that lets you legally Fling your Offspring
P is for Portal where you can hear GlaDOS sing
Q is Quantum Conundrum where physics makes items fall
R is Rock of Ages where you can play with your balls
S brings Sid Meier whose Civ steals your time without care
T sends you To the Moon, is there dust in the air?
U gives an Uplink where you hack systems with ease
V gives us VVVVVV which has multiple Vs
W has the Worms, flinging grenades like a jerk
X is for X-Com whose revival actually worked
Y is for Ys which no one knows how to say
Z is for Zeno Clash the weirdest game you can play
Oh, and remember:
And also remember...
Nobody expects the PA Inquisition!
Posts
I'm going to lose this thread
Hate to tell you this, but you could have had it for $20.
Meanwhile I constantly hit the little star thing for threads I don't care about on accident while trying to innocently lurk by phone. I'm on Android, don't know if that makes a difference from iOS but it's right there next to the thread titles for me. Just checked on my phone to make sure it hadn't disappeared or something but they're still as available to clumsy thumbs as ever.
Gifting will be tricky though, considering we can't run contests any more except via PM (and one of my favourite things about contests in the past was viewing all the entrants so it's not that much fun to just see one). Might just have a 24hr PM window then do a coin-toss round robin to get a victor, that'd work.
If steam fails to launch, remove the clientregistry.blob file and restart. Keep a backup just in case.
You know how I was having doubts about it before?
All those doubts are gone.
Hotline Miami is fluid, quick, and fun in a way that will make you feel bad about yourself. Buy it now (or wait for the winter sale, that's fine too).
We can't run contests anymore?
Correct. The competition entries I alluded to were mostly of the MSPaint variety
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz82PZu3loU&feature=g-subs-u
And man, gabeN clause is amazing
Oh like compile your favourites instead of just the winner? This I can get on-board with! Come oooon GOG sale
The nice thing about getting bad rats in some long forgotten, unholy indie bundle is that it cannot be inflicted upon me again.
Raptr profile
Yeah, I think I can bookmark stuff if Im looking at the forum list of threads, but I cant bookmark from within the thread (Im on Android as well).
Yeah, I thought about doing that but then I can never find a link to go back to the mobile site.
Oh well, Im on my desktop now and now the Steam Thread is bookmarked.
Prior rounds of the giveaway (ended)
Yep.
Amazing experience but I'm emotionally drained.
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
Edit: @Suds - Is something up with the AlabasterSlim steam sigs? Mine has been on the Saints Row 3 background for a few days despite having played different games more recently. Or is the background of the most played game rather than the most recent?
From: SecHead@Imperium.DS7.security.gov
To: List.SecuritySection8@Imperium.DS7.security.gov
Subject: Security breach. Bonus opportunity available
Body:
As you all very well know, last week we had a rather major security breach in section 8... YOUR section. Several of the rebel scum managed to infiltrate through a security
hole the designers of this fortress overlooked. Luckily only one landed close enough to have time to make of with data before our department got the place on lockdown. While that
response time is a testament to my training, that data was valuable and this is not good enough.
Since y'all seem to be incapable of doing your jobs for your normal wages, management has decided to implement a one time only bonus for the tracking down of this security
hole. We were able to trance the rebels landing location but unfortunately only managed to extrapolate the distance to their entry point and not actually location of it. Blame
this on the fact that we only had the delay from landing and a broad section level security alert to go on. I will attach a list of all know landing points and distance to entry
for our rebel scum.
Its your job as security for this section to use this data to extrapolate the precise point of entry so that our engineering detail can devise a patch. If you manage to
locate the point of entry you'll be entered into a raffle that the department head, me, will run for your choice of one item on the attached prize list. This is just
a little extra incentive for you all to work quick. Remember, the Empire does not look well on failure and I don't think any of us want another visit from Lord Vader.
Good luck everyone. If everyone works together we can eliminate the rebel threat forever.
So, since I know how much you security guys enjoy reading I'm gonna condense this so I'm sure everyone gets the jist:
Use the attached distances to a common point below to find said common point. If you succeed you will be entered into a raffle with 2 drawings for your choice of one of the games on the other attached list.
Get cracking
Security Chief
-Olsen
.
Attachment 1: (click to read)
02) (47,63) D = 4 * sqrt(29)
03) (57,82) D = sqrt(1021)
04) (78,92) D = sqrt(3042)
05) (17,84) D = sqrt(269)
06) (27,14) D = 57
07) (21,39) D = sqrt(1060)
08) (13,49) D = sqrt(680)
09) (9,99) D = sqrt(1108)
10) (7,7) D = sqrt(4496)
11) (41,32) D = sqrt(1717)
First roll will get first choice, Second roll will get second choice.
Attachment 2: (click to read)
- Magicka Collection + The Stars Are Left DLC
- Sword of the Stars Collection
- Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter
- Victoria II
Entries: 3
Days: 4
hints:
2) circles
3) coords are integers
also... phew, I'm glad I had this saved to a text file this time as I can't go hit edit, and copy it from the old thread.
I don't think there's anything wrong with the contest holder announcing and showing the winners/honerable mentions and all that in ONE post at the end. It's just to keep the thread from getting clogged up with contest entries.
It's the most played game of the last 2 weeks, unless you haven't played anything then it's your highest played ever.
Origin: KafkaAU B-Net: Kafka#1778
Thanks! It looks cool! Pipes and shit.
A wild new giveaway appears!
Also a new day dawns and a new giveaway starts...
Which game next?
Darksiders or Prototype?
First response dictates.
Maybe.
I don't replay games very often.
But I think I'd rather replay either Deus Ex or Human Revolution, beforehand.