Did the STEAM database just go completely tits up? I tried to install a Civ 5 expansion, and steam no longer recognized my username or email, which really honks me off, because I have multiple games that run through steam. If they have lost all of them, I am going to go ape.
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Spatula
Really blows my mind how many grown men spend hours and hours playing online games and other computer games these days.
Maybe it’s partly a gay thing, but I have NEVER been attracted to the diversion. And all the intense violence kind of freaks me out.
My son, now 26, is now a married lawyer with a mortgage. Spends part of most evenings playing online games with his former college posse. They all wear ear buds and talk while they’re fragging the shit out of each other or some poor dude in Germany.
Weird.
dmsilev
My account seems OK right now. Logged in without a problem, my library was there, and some random update or another immediately started downloading.
? Martin
Mine seems okay. At least my Civ V + expansions is okay.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
Multiple games? I have over 100 games on Steam.
I’ve been waiting on the Steam release of the Amazing Spider-Man game, which has been delayed, for some undisclosed reason.
Hopefully everything is back up and running soon.
Sayne
Steam is working fine for me.
I just tried to download a game that I owned but didn’t have installed and it appears to be working.
I’d just restart my computer if I were you, John.
? Martin
@Spatula: I agree. Life was better when we blew off all of our work stress at strip clubs.
raven
@Spatula: Got nuthin to do with gay or straight.
Narcissus
gay dudes game like this, straight dudes game like that, amirite
sylvan
/v/ would know. Or the relevant /vg/.
Wapiti
@Spatula it’s a diversion or entertainment, just like watching TV or playing poker with the boys on Thursday night, or going fishing or any number of other entertainments. My grandmother would play endless hands of solitaire; my parents would play scrabble or cribbage. It’s not that different.
Sinnach
No problems here. Steam might have been down for a time – it does experience periodic outages that screw up new product registration from time to time. It looks to be up now; try logging in/registering again.
/Gods and Kings is really good but the new civs are very hit and miss. Why are the Celts so terrible?
Spatula
@? Martin:
Who said life was better or worse? Defensive much?
Joel
@Sinnach: When I was in college, I wasted time with a blacklight poster and a Jerome Baker.
Joel
@Sinnach: When I was in college, I wasted time with a blacklight poster and a Jerome Baker.
? Martin
@Spatula: No, mostly I’m just saying you’re an idiot.
J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford
@Sinnach:
Yeah, everything seems in order with my Steam account.
144 Steam titles, btw.
I’m a dork.
kdaug
It was having periodic sync problems for the last few days on Skyrim. They pushed an update last week that whacked some things – try rebooting and try again.
Nick
@Spatula: I’ll never understand why video games are somehow a less legitimate hobby in some people’s minds. I don’t get how people can give a shit the 160 odd games their baseball team plays in a year either, but I don’t feel the need to question people’s maturity over being interested in :shock: :horror: a game.
Spatula
@? Martin:
Yeah, you’re right. Sitting on your ass moving your fingers is a GREAT way to blow off stress. Not.
Taylormattd
WaS working fine as of yesterday. My Bf just download Civ 5 yesterday.
Spatula
@? Martin:
ha! And you’re clearly a lazy ass gamer addict, and highly defensive about it too.
Taylormattd
@Spatula: And you would be completely and utterly wrong on just about everything you wrote.
But let’s go with your deeply stupid and incorrect “gay” thing. They gay gaming community is very large; maybe you should give not speaking for an entire community a shot.
Spatula
@Nick:
Fascinating. I expressed my amazement at the societal development of online gaming and the amount of time many men spend on it; online gamers at BJ react with out of proportion defensiveness.
You’ll notice I didn’t pass judgement or criticize; merely noted MY reaction to this development.
Feeling a little…obsessed? Lazy? Guilty?
sylvan
@Spatula:
Really blows my mind how many grown men spend hours and hours trying to compensate for having a Mormon loon flip-flopper as a candidate.
Spatula
@Taylormattd:
Here we go.
Notice the word “maybe” in my comment? Did you know words have meaning? Can you point out where I claimed to speak for all gay men and gay gamers.
No you cannot, because I did not.
I was just googling for info and couldn’t find anything, but I’d be willing to wager that the percentage of gay men who play online games is LESS than that of straight men.
Maybe I’d be wrong, but maybe you are too.
Either way, you’re an overreactive jizz brain with poor reading comprehension skills.
MacsenMifune
Valve released a new version of the steam community and a new mod for team fortress 2.
Roger Moore
@Spatula: @Spatula:
You ruined it by posting a second time. Otherwise you could have had a golden troll by completely derailing the thread with a single troll on the first post.
Greg
@Spatula:
The phrase “grown men” in your original post certainly suggests a judgement that the activity is only appropriate for children. You may want to be a little more aware of the connotations of the language you choose in future.
drew42
HONKING APE TITS!!
Spatula
@sylvan:
I’ll be voting for Obama here in Masschusetts. Never even briefly considered voting for the Mittster. You are a tool.
And perhaps an anti Mormon bigot too.
Taylormattd
@Spatula: Oh fuck off you judgmental queen. What the fuck kind of reaction do you expect when you open with a nasty comment implying you find it pathetic that “grown men” play video games.
Now get your lazy ass out of the WordPress comments and see if anyone has pinged your Grindr profile. It’s Friday after all my sister.
Spatula
@Roger Moore:
Amazing. That one observation on gaming can throw your entire gaming thread into utter disarray. Your world is very delicate.
EastVanHalen
@Spatula: I hadn’t realized that “weird” was a value-neutral word.
sylvan
@Spatula:
Yeah. Sure.
Bu-bye.
Tim C
The good news is Gods and Kings is a pretty good improvement to the game. Enjoy!
Of course the real question for Cole is what his play style is. Military Conquest? Science Victory? Cultural? Balloon Juice strategy game nerds want to know.
Tim C
The good news is Gods and Kings is a pretty good improvement to the game. Enjoy!
Of course the real question for Cole is what his play style is. Military Conquest? Science Victory? Cultural? Balloon Juice strategy game nerds want to know.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Spatula: There are lots of girl gamers out there too, including myself and each of my sisters.
I suppose you assume that spending hours watching mindless reality TV or mindlessly violent serial crime dramas is somehow less homoerotic than gaming, but I’m not sure as to why that would be.
Maybe you just equate the social component and the interactivity of gaming with teh buttsecks, but I imagine that’s largely why people are calling you an idiot. Or maybe it’s your entire history of posting stupid statements to this blog. I’m guessing that has a lot to do with it.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@EastVanHalen: I wear weird as a badge of honor. Mostly because it’s better to be weird than be like the cow-dumb meatsticks that would brand me with the label.
Ann Rynd
Ahhh. Tits up. A lovely turn of phrase, that. Reminds me of…who? Sarah four years ago? Bachman at the debates? Ann Rom…no, too soon.
Bostondreams
Anybody here tried Secret World? I’ve been playing since launch, and love it. Might be up some folks alley here! It’s all about conspiracies and monsters. :)
Spatula
@efgoldman:
Or went to the roadhouse, got drunk and then drove home. There were manly men in those days!
To summarize: You believe there are two options to off the clock stress relief. Hours and hours of online gaming so you can ignore your family and escape reality, or hours and hours of drinking and/or ogling naked women.
Interesting.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Bostondreams: I’m holding out for Dishonored.
Steve
I’m often gobsmacked by how Spatula somehow finds a way to disagree with each and every thing Cole posts, but this one has to take the cake.
Spatula
@Taylormattd:
Dear aging gamer boy homophobe bigot: I did not, of course, say anything about it being “pathetic.” Clearly YOU are the one who suspects your gaming to be so.
Your homphobic remarks and insults have been reported to the blogmaster.
Ann Rynd
Don’t feed the swans.
sylvan
@Bostondreams:
I’ll play Secret World when Ragnar finishes his trilogy.
msskwesq
You guys are such NERDS! The only game worth your time right now is the Bears – Giants game! It’s on CBS. Go Bears!!!
Ann Rynd
Don’t feed the swans.
owlbear1
Now everybody cut Spacula some slack, finding people to call you names everyday is stressful, time-consuming work.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@msskwesq: joq
Cheap Jim
@Spatula: What is life like being made of easily-seen-through crap?
WaterGirl
@? Martin: @raven: Wow. You mean you guys actually read his posts?
Raven, I was late getting back to the thread, but I finally saw your comment from yesterday about the book I should read. Based on your recommendation, I downloaded the free sample on my iPad, but I haven’t had a chance to read it yet. Thanks!
Spatula
The reaction to my comment here is fascinating and revealing.
Have a good evening, geeks. Have you checked your supply of Cheetos? Got your Depends on so you won’t have to leave the computer to shit or pee?
Have fun!
John O
That would piss me off, for sure. If I was a gamer.
FSM bless me for small favors.
Cheap Jim
@Spatula: I note that you are not a gamer, you’re just spending an evening sneering at them, geek.
Steve
@Spatula: The chance that this will be the last Spatula post of the night is zero.
WaterGirl
@msskwesq: I am not a football person, but my brother-in-law is, and he loves the bears. Do you have a link to this game? Is there an iPad version?
danah gaz (fka gaz)
apparently, the witch has left the thread.
I’m sure he’s going to go and engage in an intellectual and fulfilling hobby now that he’s done engaging in the other intellectual pursuit of his, namely trolling BJ.
Anyone take an over under on what it is?
Dead Karen Carpenter Drag – singing “Everybody’s getting Fucked but me!” – I’ve got five on it. =)
sylvan
@Spatula:
What a wuss. You should have stood your ground like Herman Cain.
Ann Rynd
The swan has left the stage. Tits up, everyone.
Joel
@Tim C: Gods and Kings is a great improvement. I was leery of religion but the impact is minor enough and hits all the right areas (primarily boosting happiness).
The espionage is basically useless, however. As are the Celts. The Carthaginians are pretty sick, though.
Corner Stone
I’ve asked this before here because I just don’t understand it. Personally, I like it when the situation goes tits up. How did this become equated with a negative outcome?
Ann Rynd
@Corner Stone:
Yeah!
sylvan
@Corner Stone:
Military term for defenseless.
See: Soft white underbelly.
Arclite
@Spatula:
As opposed to? A lazy assed TV addict? Movie addict? Internet addict? WTF, dude.
When my kids watch TV they sit motionless, entranced. When they play a game together, they are constantly talking and interacting. I’d much prefer they’d do the latter.
freelancer
@Spatula:
Oh good, he LOVES those emails!
scav
Or, just dashed hopes for a more adventurous page of the Kama Sutra.
owlbear1
@Corner Stone: I bet it’s some old nautical term having to with a capsized ship.
The Other Chuck
I really wish military victories in Civ weren’t so tedious. I find myself wishing for the feature from Alpha Centauri where an enemy faction could surrender unconditionally to you.
In fact, I find most of the Civ series in general compares unfavorably to AC. I really loved the dirty tricks you could pull as the Gaian faction like capturing mindworms then setting them free right next to another faction’s base.
Arclite
@ John Cole, even if you can’t log into Steam, you can play games in offline mode. Just open the game from the start menu.
Skipjack
@msskwesq: Thanks I forgot. I am now going back to playing video games on my PC while the football game is on TV in the background.
Cruuuuuuuuuuuz
Yutsano
@danah gaz (fka gaz): My sister-in-law is a hardcore gamer. She plays even more than my brother does, and for a long spell he was unemployed and playing constantly. So Special Timmeh being all judgmental is just how he rolls. Cause he’s just that special.
StarStorm
Hmm, I believe this calls for a Balloon Juice gaming group.
Tim C
@The Other Chuck:
in some ways I agree, but SMAC had some flaws as well. I found the late game to be altogether too busy with too many units and too much going on. The stacking limit in Civ 5 makes for some very interesting strategy decisions. on the other hand, I wish non-combat units could stack as they tend to trip over themselves.
All in all it’s worth the money though.
NCSteve
@Spatula: Oh like hell you didn’t pass judgment. Judgment had dripped off every comment you’ve made on this post in green, nasty gobs. You’ve made it perfectly clear that you think you’re the Great and Final Arbiter of what is and is not an appropriate use of time. To which I say what the hell makes you any different from people who think they have the right to pass judgment on who you marry or screw, or what you read or watch, or what you eat or what drugs you take? One of the people, in other words, that most of the people here would generally agree should go fuck themselves?
Yutsano
@freelancer: He just called a gay man a homophobe too. I’m gonna die from the laughing.
Darkrose
I’m not at home, but I had no trouble logging on to the website and viewing my screenshots, achivements, and the embarrassingly large number of hours I’ve spent playing Skyrim.
karen marie
@Spatula: No, but it gives you something to direct your anger at when the game doesn’t go well and cheers you up when it does.
I’m a suicide spader myself.
Darkrose
I’m going home tonight and firing up Skyrim. My wife will be on her machine, playing Rift.
But maybe girls don’t count as far as you’re concerned.
Darkrose
@Bostondreams: My wife’s been on the fence about Secret World. What do you like about it? (story, PvP, PvE…)
Darkrose
Not gonna lie, I still love AC. I always ended up playing the scientists. And it’s $5.99 at Good Old Games for a version that’s Windows 7 compatible. Hopefully they’ll add Alien Crossfire at some point.
Arclite
@The Other Chuck: Yeah Alpha C is a pretty awesome game. I love that it runs on any old laptop I have lying around.
Now, if we could just get a modern version of Master of Magic…
Joel
@sylvan: I thought it meant dead, as in, like a body floating in the water.
OmerosPeanut
Steam stuttered, and took a while to load the last game I launched from it — but it did launch without issue in the end. Maybe you perfectly timed your log in right when it had that hiccup?
Arclite
@OmerosPeanut: I think the lack of JC responses on this thread means he got in.
NonyNony
The amusement of a troll complaining about the immaturity of other people’s forms of amusement will keep me laughing about this thread for weeks. The fact that the trolling was done at 8pm on a Friday night makes it all the more delicious.
Thanks for the chuckle Spats. You’re always good for a laugh.
Corner Stone
@Joel:
Dead bodies float face down, hence the “deadman’s float”.
Or..so I’ve been told.
Corner Stone
@owlbear1: Ships have tits? I know they’re generally referenced as female but this seems a stretch.
Corner Stone
@sylvan:
I’ve been in situations where tits were up. Nothing defenseless about it.
MikeJ
@Corner Stone: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/385050.html
taylormattd
@Spatula: I am gay, you fucking moron. And also, too: fuck off.
Yutsano
@a href=”#comment-3636425″>NonyNony: He didn’t stick around. Pity.
Sentient Puddle
Steam occasionally does this. Best I can tell, it’s minor periodic maintenance, and it fixes itself pretty quickly. Seeing as John never reposted here, I’m guessing he’s back in.
So…I’m about to start up Spec Ops: The Line. Everything I hear about it says that I’m going to have an existential crisis.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
My guess is that steam is doing the same thing that BJ does (at least several times a day). Namely, it simply craps itself.
Based on some experience, some casual observation, and the waving of a dead chicken or two, I attribute the BJ hiccups to MySQL – or if not exactly MySQL, the way that MySQL is configured in their environment.
I don’t know about steam. I doubt they use MySQL though, because it simply doesn’t scale. So who knows. Either way, I’d guess that it’s a combination of one or more things: hardware, software, or bandwidth that just can’t hold up under a lot of load. If that’s the case, then their error handling software is probably just spinning BS, which is what can happen if you don’t test it. Overloaded systems tend to pop funny errors, usually because testing tends to neglect load based failures.
Gravenstone
@Spatula: Dude, it’s just a newer means of socializing. What we did around a table with dice in college, kids (and elders) today can do behind a PC or the TV while using chat utilities to easily communicate.
sylvan
@Corner Stone:
I suppose that depends on whose tits we’re talking about.
Such is life’s rich tapestry.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Gravenstone: Spatula almost certainly knows this. He’s emotionally invested in acting like an idiot.
Yutsano
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Well I don’t call him Special Timmeh just for laughs.
mai naem
What do games have to do with the ghey? Bill Maher has Jack Kingston on. And that Avik Roy, the twin of the Indian actor from that incredibly stupid sitcom about geeks the name of which escapes me.
Gravenstone
@Bostondreams: Been playing TSW off and on for about a month now. It certainly has its charms, although I’m not as adept at the twitch based combat as I’d like to be.
Dennis SGMM
A word about gaming; I’ve played Civilization since it first came out way back in 1991. Civ V, after G&K, may be the best of the series. That’s good because I suspect that it’s the last of the series.
My vote for Best Game Evar? The original XCOM. I copied my original floppy disk version onto CD and I still play it on Win7 using using DOSBox.
lol chikinburd
Guild Wars 2 name-grab in…somewhere between ninety and two hundred seventy minutes.
danah gaz (fka gaz)
@Dennis SGMM: I can’t narrow down to one.
But as far as I’m concerned, in terms of computer RPG games I’ve got to give the nod to Fallout 3. It was immersive, intense, and was like a protracted game of pan-dimensional chess.
Lovely game. Easy to beat, but very tough to master.
Gravenstone
@danah gaz (fka gaz): Yeah, my mistake for pivoting off a first post and thinking he might have said something in earnest for once in his misbegotten existence. Subsequently catching up on the thread shows the error of my ways.
chauncey1186
@Spatula@Spatula:
You lost me at “maybe it’s partly a gay thing”.
That said, this middle aged grandma spends many hours online playing games like Civ, Travian, Stronghold etc. Sure beats hanging out at the senior center playing “who’s gonna kick the bucket next”!
Tim C
@Dennis SGMM:
You know about the two upcoming remakes? I have high hopes for the one from Firaxis, not as much for the FPS. Hopefuly it finally breaks the curse of suck every other Xoom product after the first suffered from.
Spatula
@Yutsano:
Cause gay men are never homophobic.
Spatula
@taylormattd:
Cause bitter, angry gay men trying to appear butch and fit in among a group of mostly straight gamers are never homophobic.
Spatula
@Gravenstone:
Wow,a civil, non-defensive reply to my original comment.
Thank you. That makes sense to some degree.
Spatula
@chauncey1186:
Would it then be accurate to say that you play games on your computer alone to avoid socializing in the real world or “meat space?”
Telling that even asking questions totally freaks out the geekatariat.
Christian Sieber
@Spatula: The “geekatariat” is commencing with a “freak out” because comments like yours remind us of the time when people were talking about Dungeons and Dragon’s being the work of a Satanic cult in the 80s, or remind us of your grandparents saying that rock and roll was the harbinger of the endtimes in the 60s, or whatever other then-serious-now-laughable attitude from the past you care to name.
Cripes.
Pinkamena Panic
Just stop giving the troll opportunities. Ignore his tantrums.
Spatula
@Christian Sieber:
Idiot. I said nothing like that. Your gaming’s no threat to anyone but your own clogged arteries and calcified brain.
StarStorm
Jack Thompson, is that you? I’d ask if you’d have better things to do, but since you’ve been disbarred….
Bostondreams
@Darkrose:
Well, the whole atmosphere is what draws me in. Not to get spoilery, but the final boss of the first dungeon is essentially Cthulu, or an avatar or Him. Maine is overrun with Vikings, Mayans, Zombies, and an evil corporation. And bees. The dungeons have very few trash mobs (at least the first three I’ve run), gear does not define looks, the ability wheel is fun to play with. And while it has the usual missions you expect in an MMO, it has others like sabotage and investigation missions that make you think. I had to download a Morse Code app to my phone to solve one! And the community is fun, with a great many folks from City of Heroes/Villians playing (like myself!).
It has issues of course. Some folks don’t like the combat animations. While the cut scenes for missions are well done, and the npcs fleshed out, the player character is always silent. And some other bugs that to me aren’t game breaking.
Catsy
@Spatula:
From what you’ve demonstrated over time, Sparky, it doesn’t exactly take a lot of airflow to do that.
If it were just about anyone else, I’d make the effort to communicate some of the important aspects of geek culture that you don’t get. But since you’re just trolling, not actually seeking understanding in good faith, bemused mockery seems more appropriate.
sparrow
I’m not defending comment #1, but I also have a negative feeling about video games. I think it stems from losing several of my good male friends in college to total video game addiction (staying up all night for weeks, failing classes, fucking up relationships). Obviously that’s not an indictment of the games themselves (which I agree are no different than my parents playing round after friggin’ round of boring card games. But since then I have this “ugh” feeling when I even think about them. One of my previously addicted friends, who during the height was some kind of crazy famous leader on Warcraft (? or something) claims he actually learned valuable lessons from the experience about leadership, so maybe they aren’t worthless… eh, I generally just dislike games, so call me a hater.
Darkrose
@Bostondreams: Thanks! It does sound interesting, and having folks from CoX over there is a definite plus. Might check it out.
Spatula
@sparrow:
Sparrow: You are mistaken. The kind of addiction you describe does not happen. And it most certainly does not happen to any of the BJ Geekatariat.