PC players only - Do you play ESO through Steam?

GenjiraX · August 2021

No

Aelsioln wrote: »

Luckily I think the only issue I've run across was when I went to make a forum account I ended up having to contact support as I had never gotten the "invite" to create one. Assuming that was because of my use of Steam.

No, that happened to me, too, and I’ve never put Steam within sniffing distance of my PC.

Atrael7 · August 2021

Yes

I got the game with the first 4 DLC bundle on a sale. Never really had any issues playing through Steam, personally. *shrug*

Gythral · August 2021

No

Only use STEAM if I have absolutely no choice (or didnt at the time of purchase) and the only way to play is via their DRM, not gonna use 2 if I can avoid it!

Jamdarius · August 2021

No

No, because why go through yet another launcher to launch a launcher to launch game. Besides, in the past (donno now because I came back after 2 years of health issues) there were many problems for Steam players, they couldn't even launch game, guild trials had to be postponed cause of it etc.

Danikat · August 2021

No

When looking at the poll results I think it's worth bearing in mind Steam has it's own ESO forum, so it's possible a lot of the people who play on Steam and want to talk about ESO on a forum never come here.

That and of course the majority of people in any game will never go to it's forum at all.

mark.alexander5neb18_ESO · August 2021

No

Steam is ebil

DoomGrunt624 · August 2021

No

I've played TESO with Steam before, but it is eating too much RAM. So, not anymore.

Kwoung · August 2021

No

I only use Steam for games that are not available via normal means. Luckily that is a very short list.

ApoAlaia · August 2021

No

Both my accounts use the 'native' launcher.

Played the beta so it seemed like the 'natural' progression from there at the time.

maboleth · August 2021

No

I played on Steam in my Linux days. Since I returned to W10 for good, I ditched Steam and reinstalled ESO as should, using their launcher.

Asardes · August 2021

No

I have both ESO account and Steam account but I keep them separate. In the previous years Steam had a lot of issues, and people were unable to play even if ESO site was up. Besides, linking them adds no advantage, so why bother with a possible point of failure?

MirandaSharp · August 2021

Yes

I have almost all my games on Steam. Makes it real easy to manage them and launch any game from the same platform.

Varana · August 2021

No

Bought the game before it was even on Steam, and had no reason to add it to Steam.
I have nothing against Steam, I have a ton of games on it, but why use it if it doesn't give me any benefit?

SeaGtGruff · August 2021

Yes

Sylvermynx wrote: »

Yeah, in the US Skyrim is required to start through steam - and I almost didn't buy it for that reason. But since I'd played every other TES since Arena released.... *sigh*.

I really have no use for game "front end" crap companies like steam.

I almost didn't buy Skyrim for the same reason.

I had a strong aversion to the mere idea of playing online RPGs back then-- I wanted to buy and own games, not buy them but then pay a monthly fee just to play them-- and there were many RPGs that I refused to buy because of that.

When Skyrim came out, I did some reading about what Steam was and whether or not Skyrim required a monthly subscription before deciding to buy it.

Based on my favorable experiences with Skyrim-- especially related to reinstalling Skyrim on new computers after my old ones crashed, as well as installing it on laptops and then being able to continue playing the same game (character) on laptop while traveling and then go back to playing on my desktop when I got home-- I eventually decided to buy Oblivion and Morrowind on Steam as well, even though I already owned and played them without Steam.

I've even got Arena set up so I can launch it through Steam-- and stored on DropBox so I can play the same games no matter if it's on my desktop or laptop-- and I plan to do the same with Daggerfall, Battlespire, and Redguard when I finally get around to installing them.

When I found out that ESO no longer required a subscription, I finally decided to buy it, and bought it through Steam because I didn't realize there was another option. But I don't regret buying it through Steam. I've experienced brief login issues just three times since then, and just one instance of having to reinstall ESO because Steam forgot it was installed-- but it turned out my hard drive was on the verge of crashing, and did crash shortly after, so I don't blame Steam for that.

Darrett · August 2021

Yes

I took a break from the game, so when I returned it was easier and cheaper to buy another base version. I ended up buying Greymoor through Steam. Now I have both the standard launcher and the Steam login available, so I can use Steam and avoid having to enter a UN/PW, or I can use the standard install if Steam happens to be down.

SilverBride · August 2021

No

Danikat wrote: »

When looking at the poll results I think it's worth bearing in mind Steam has it's own ESO forum, so it's possible a lot of the people who play on Steam and want to talk about ESO on a forum never come here.

I was not aware of this. But even so, I think that a lot of them would still want to check out the official ESO forums that all platforms post on.

DreamyLu · August 2021

Yes

I'm surprised at the opposite experiences made by players using Steam: some - like me - simply perfect and others with bad troubles it seems. That would be interesting to understand how it's possible to have such differences (root causes). Anyone has an idea?

FaylenSol · August 2021

Yes

Yes. I actively participate in the Steam Trading Card system and make small chunks of Steam Cash off of it. New popular games like Mass Effect Legendary edition had their cards going for $0.60 each. It cost $0.40 to buy a sack of gems to make a pack that gave you 3 cards. So I flipped cards until the cards went below $0.20 each (Which took two months). Could only do this once a day.

But by doing this it gives me free steam cash to spend on Crowns for ESO. I think I got to $38 total before I spent it on a mix of Crowns and a new game. Almost entirely paid for Mass Effect and made it so I don't have to spend as much on ESO when there are things I want in the crown store.

CasgarTheSomnolent · August 2021

No

I think my answer is no. I originally purchased it through Steam, so it's installed in my steamapps folder. However, I start the game using a shortcut directly to Bethesda.net_Launcher.exe. Steam is never running while I play unless I turn it on for some other reason. It never shows ESO in my recently played games on Steam. I've bought all subsequent ESO content through the ESO website.

So, it seems like that's a no. I play it from within Steam's house without Steam ever knowing I'm there.

joerginger · August 2021

No

I started out on Steam in late 2018 and because of the permanent problems I was looking for a way out soon. Unfortunately this meant buying the game again, but at least it worked.

Parrot1986 · August 2021

Yes

Yes and I wish I hadn’t. Although issues have gotten better there’s always a risk the steam specific log in issues happen again and they add more unreliability to a game that has enough of its own reliability issues.

Gilvoth · August 2021

No

i hate "Steam"
i will never play with steam, they horrible, if you loose internet for any reason they coded it to make it so you cannot play ANY of your games that are on your computer, not even the ones that are not connected to steam.

SeaGtGruff · August 2021

Yes

Gilvoth wrote: »

i hate "Steam"
i will never play with steam, they horrible, if you loose internet for any reason they coded it to make it so you cannot play ANY of your games that are on your computer, not even the ones that are not connected to steam.

Not true, you can play the games in "offline mode"-- that is, IF the game doesn't require an active internet connection, and if it does then your inability to play the game in "offline mode" is the game's fault, not Steam's fault.

vibeborn · August 2021

Yes

I was gifted the game on Steam so it's only natural that I play it on there.

Gilvoth · August 2021

No

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Gilvoth wrote: »

i hate "Steam"
i will never play with steam, they horrible, if you loose internet for any reason they coded it to make it so you cannot play ANY of your games that are on your computer, not even the ones that are not connected to steam.

Not true, you can play the games in "offline mode"-- that is, IF the game doesn't require an active internet connection, and if it does then your inability to play the game in "offline mode" is the game's fault, not Steam's fault.

that is not true, when you dont have internet connection for more than 30 days steam is coded to block all your games.
that "included" games that let me play in offline mode like skyrim, they simply would not play untill steam was updated and working.

in addition to that:
steam constantly tries to update untill you get it back, and when you do get it back it will take weeks to update.

how do i know this:
i know these things because it happened to me 2 times, both on a computer i had designated for games only and disconnected it to internet purposely, AND on my main computer and i tried to complain about it on their forum but saw i was amung hundreds of the same complaints and never would be heard.
its thier way of doing things to get money, they will not change that code.

ResidentContrarian · August 2021

No

Nope.

Shazanti · August 2021

No

Gilvoth wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Gilvoth wrote: »

i hate "Steam"
i will never play with steam, they horrible, if you loose internet for any reason they coded it to make it so you cannot play ANY of your games that are on your computer, not even the ones that are not connected to steam.

Not true, you can play the games in "offline mode"-- that is, IF the game doesn't require an active internet connection, and if it does then your inability to play the game in "offline mode" is the game's fault, not Steam's fault.

that is not true, when you dont have internet connection for more than 30 days steam is coded to block all your games.
that "included" games that let me play in offline mode like skyrim, they simply would not play untill steam was updated and working.

Well, that's new (ish?), and that stinks. Back in 2013/2014 I had to live somewhere without internet for nearly a year, and being disabled, and without a vehicle at the time, I spent a LOT of time either on my computer or reading books. I am not a fan of Steam, but I was able to play several games in offline mode, which helped preserve my sanity (or what little I had left at the time, at least). If they've removed the functionality for long term offline mode, that is horrible.

Jaraal · August 2022

Yes

All my TES games are on Steam. Never had any issues.

deadsheepb14_ESO · August 2022

Yes

This thread is from 2021.

SeaGtGruff · August 2022

Yes

Gilvoth wrote: »

SeaGtGruff wrote: »

Gilvoth wrote: »

i hate "Steam"
i will never play with steam, they horrible, if you loose internet for any reason they coded it to make it so you cannot play ANY of your games that are on your computer, not even the ones that are not connected to steam.

Not true, you can play the games in "offline mode"-- that is, IF the game doesn't require an active internet connection, and if it does then your inability to play the game in "offline mode" is the game's fault, not Steam's fault.

that is not true, when you dont have internet connection for more than 30 days steam is coded to block all your games.
that "included" games that let me play in offline mode like skyrim, they simply would not play untill steam was updated and working.

in addition to that:
steam constantly tries to update untill you get it back, and when you do get it back it will take weeks to update.

how do i know this:
i know these things because it happened to me 2 times, both on a computer i had designated for games only and disconnected it to internet purposely, AND on my main computer and i tried to complain about it on their forum but saw i was amung hundreds of the same complaints and never would be heard.
its thier way of doing things to get money, they will not change that code.

@Gilvoth, sorry for the year-late-and-a-dollar-short reply, but I wasn't aware of that, since I've always been able to play games (except ESO, obviously) in offline mode through Steam whenever I've temporarily lost my internet connection. I haven't lost internet for 30 days or longer, so never ran into the situation you described. Thank you for the additional details clarifying your original comment. Now I know to be aware of this possibility.