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
CorriganX on Steam and just about everywhere else.
yeah O2 is never so much a problem for me either. i never upgrade that. doors i try to work in the first upgrade at sector 4 it just doesn't help. guess i need to abuse the pause button more.
Oh, yeah. Pause all the times. If at any point you're trying to do anything other than watch your ship blow their ship up, pause.
edit: Also, to reply to a post in the closed thread, yes it is preferable to just beat down invaders with your awesome melee people, but there's lots of parts of the game with some of the ships where that basically isn't an option, at least without a lot of micro and a lot of potential danger to your hull if you have to take your pilot and gunner off duty or whatever. If you're in a situation where you are losing because of boarders on a regular basis, IMO a level in doors will help with that quite a bit.
the patch does a ton of nice stuff, including changing the (terrible) visual cue for the oxygen-less rooms. That ugly orange border is gone, replaced by hazard stripes on the floor. Looks much better.
Also, autofire has been improved. And everything has hotkeys now.
p.s. You're welcome Isy.
Yes, they leave the room they're attacking. Which hurts me how? They aren't killing my systems and damaging my hull. I call that a win.
The Zoltan cruiser starts with level 2 doors. I have more trouble starving them with that ship than I do with any of the others I play.
And, considering I only rarely have trouble with boarders on my usual ships, I beg to differ: level one doors work just fine at starving the enemy without losing crewmembers in the process.
Steam: BrocksMullet http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561197972421669/
Nintendo ID: Incindium
PSN: IncindiumX
This will be my last post about it, cause I really don't care that much. But what I was responding to was your post saying you can starve enemy boarding parties without upgrading your doors. I am just pointing out that this is, literally, not possible. If the enemy is in a room with low enough oxygen to hurt them, they will leave that room. Unless you remove all the oxygen from your entire ship (thus hurting your own crew as much as the enemy one) they will take extremely minimal damage from walking out of rooms as soon as the O2 levels in that room become critical.
I mean, I guess you can move three of your crew into the med bay and have 0% O2 in your entire ship until the enemy leaves, but taking your pilot/gun/shield/engine guy off their systems will hurt you way more than using 20 scrap on doors...
Assuming that them practically giving the Bethesda catalog away wasn't intentional, I really wouldn't want to be the guy having to tally up the damages right now.
I wasn't talking about completely killing them. As you point out, they can't die from it. It does, however, keep them on the move. I don't need to take everyone off their systems; nor do I need to flush the entire ship. Usually sooner, they will wander into the medbay, which lets someone kill them. Preferably my shield guy, as they always have missiles and he's not helpful there.
Meh.
The site still isn't really loading for me, but the price says $96 for me now.
All I can say is - that was certainly not dishonorable!
Steam ID: 76561198021298113
Origin ID: SR71C_Blackbird
Thanks man!
🖥️Steam Profile
I was suggesting to a certain someone intimately familiar with the RPG Maker programs that a separate thread that compiles all the guides, tools, and custom assets out there would be real handy, especially in helping one another and possibly share input on works in progress.
He believes it violates the "advertising a self-made game" rule, though, even though it would technically be more about the program itself and how to get the most out of it.
Anyway, as sorely tempted as I am to jump in at that price, I just don't have the confidence that I can afford right now in light of possible future deals this week. Hopefully it'll pop back up again later on in the sale's last days.
Blog||Tumblr|Steam|Twitter|FFXIV|Twitch|YouTube|Podcast|PSN|XBL|DarkZero
Quoting myself and reposting these for the new thread.
Steam: abunchofdaftpunk | PSN: noautomobilesgo | Lastfm: sjchszeppelin | Backloggery: colincummings | 3DS FC: 1392-6019-0219 |
$2.49 for Witcher: Enhanced Edition and $11 for the sequel? You bet your ass I'm finally going to play it.
It costs $96 for that bundle now.
http://www.lambentstew.com/webblog/miniproject/steamanalysis/steam_time/aaronflint
PS - To the Moon, god damn you, you managed to do to me what even The Walking Dead could not. I'll see you guys in the morning, I need to go fuck my wife. You know what I'm talking about, you bunch of tear-peddlers.
🖥️Steam Profile
Anyway, here's my giveaway again:
Steam / Origin & Wii U: Heatwave111 / FC: 4227-1965-3206 / Battle.net: Heatwave#11356
i can see 2k, UBIsoft, SEGA, square enix, Bethesda, THQ and the 'indie super mega pack'.
(post from other thread *whoops*).
Also, it isn't for my mom, and I'm not really sold on the whole Jesus deal.
So I guess it isn't like it at all, but Stolls is still pretty classy nonetheless.
@Stolls is a true comrade of the zone.
Valve?
Chaos Theory. It's fantastic.