GalCiv 2 Ultimate Edition NO-STEAM

Why don't you buy it directly from Stardock? You only need to be online once to activate the game. After that, you can play it offline for as long as you want. No Steam or other client-software required.

"Please use Steam to register your serial number and download this software. Login to your existing Steam account (or create a new one), select the "Games" tab and "Activate a product on Steam..." menu item"

(from page My Downloads in my Stardock account)

Strange, that should only be the case if you bought it from Steam. I bought it from Stardock and don't require Steam. Wait a second...

System requirements
Minimum:
Windows XP SP2 / Vista
800 MHz Processor
256 MB Available System Memory
32 MB DirectX 9.0c Compatible 3D Video Card (32-Bit Color)
DirectX 9.0c
56K Internet Connection or Faster for Online Metaverse
The free Steam client is required to install this game

They changed it! I don't believe it! First Sins:Rebellion and EF:LH, now GalCiv. What is going on here!?

Welcome to the real world!

On GamersGate situation is the same. So because of it I posted my question here, maybe someone knows some sites... 

I appreciate Stardock's work and I'm ready to give them my money. But instead I want to get ONLY THE GAME.

Did you buy the game from Steam or from us? Still shows direct download for me...

 I bought it right from galciv2.com. I pressed "Purchase" in top-left menu list, pressed "Buy" in next window, was transferred to Stardock page, put my card number and so on in and voila... I got mail with "thanks for buying" bla-bla and with download link.

 And after pressing this pretty orange button... I redirected to http://store.steampowered.com/about/

Apologies, but we are only offering our titles via Steam keys from now on.

So dose that mean Impulse (Or Gamestop Impulse or whatever it is now) no longer sell it or have activation keys? 

I mean if you don't want do download it from Steam, The Gamestop App, (which is Gamestop's version of steam, well now it is, but was once StarDock's) still has the game. The only diffrence I seen between the two is, Gamestop App dose not need to run at all for GalCiv to work. It just will, its installed as a normal program, you just get updates from it. Steam on the other hand requires to be online once in every 24 hour interval. 

So, respected Stardock, take my most sincere apologies! You may spend my twenty bucks on charity or go to Mcdonalds with Valve guys - it's your choice. I guess we're even and I may download your awesome game from any available torrent all around (thousands of them!).

Good luck in your unforgiving business.

Meanwhile, there are still people stuck with GalCiv II on that unholy blight called GameStop.  Thanks for that.  I feel like such a valued customer, by the way.

I don't want to tell you how to run your empire, but that guy is a lost customer, and if you don't rethink this exclusively-Steam policy, a lot more people are probably going to join him.

Just because Steam is the platform for all your digital distribution today, doesn't mean that it will meet your requirements tomorrow or five years from now.  If some new platform takes off and blows away the competition you'll have the same problem of having lots of people on a legacy platform which technically you don't support any more, except Steam would be the legacy platform.

For your information, if I'd had to install Steam when I originally bought GalCiv II, then I might not even be posting here on this forum.  I might have never bothered to give any feedback or got involved in a beta like I did with DA and TotA.  A lot of people might have just passed it by.

If someone wants to give you their valued custom on your website, then you deliver the game.  Don't push it out to your buddies at Valve and expect everything to be rosy, it's not going to happen.

I suppose torrent clients take up no system resources whatsoever, don't make one vulnerable to all sorts of potential threats and require internet connection......

He's talking about Steam needing to be in memory every time you want to play the game.  If you only use Steam for game X and you don't have Steam loaded in startup then effectively you add a whole half a minute to the game's load time.

Tell you what, why don't we go back to loading games from cassettes while we're at it.

omg......omg........"a whole half minute"........omg.....I think I just used one whole minute to respond to your post.........sigh...

You don't have to have Steam in memory to run GalCiv II.  We're just using it to handle the updates and initial downloads. It doesn't use Steam.

Well there you go.  Why does the customer seem to think that Steam is needed to run the game?  Because that's their usual experience with Steam.

'The free Steam client is required to install this game' tends to mislead them into believing the worst, until someone points out that it's not so.  Even I assumed that all Steam games are like that.

I DO have a Steam account. I bought a few games with it. And I have found Steam is no good to me. And by the way GalCiv2 DOES use Steam, you CAN make it to run WITHOUT running Steam but it will require some dribbling with GCF and such.

The essence of question here for me is not about "OMG... Half a minute of waiting" and other bull*hit. Reasons like "to help you download initially and to receive updates" sounds really odd.  It was MONEY CONCERNS that blinded your mind. What were gaming companies doing BEFORE Steam came to gaming business scene? All the same: they were providing download links for purchasing and updating games. What is changed now radically? NOTHING. There are dozens of developers nowadays that continue to do it. I

But now even when you bought DISK version of game (what an old crap, is it? but many people still do it) and brought it home you see...what? right - you see that you MUST install this ***king Steam for registering, playing and updating your favorite game (I'm talking about YOUR game, mister Wardell!). And in era of digital distribution you simply have nothing in your hand and even on your hard disk. You just have your ACCOUNT  Where is my distributive, eh? I uninstalled my game and unknown Arabian terrorist blew Steam servers up. Where is my game?

It begins with Steam. After 2-3 years passing, I will have to install 3-4 small programs THAT I DIDN'T NEED TO PLAY MY FAVORITE GAME, DON'T NEED AND WILL NEVER NEED. But I DON'T HAVE my game. YOU have my game. You just LENT me this game, gave it to me to play for a while.

 And no warning on purchasing page by the way, you've made it literally yesterday.

 You simply IMPOSE your conditions. Your rules of Game   . But remember: it is not US who depend on you. It's YOU who depend on us. There are many other developers. There are many good and excellent games. There are many other ways to kill one's time with pleasure apart PC games. 

But... however, it is all up to you, do your worst. It's like turn-based game is it?  Your turn is processed. Your turn was Steam. Now it is OUR turn.

(Sorry for emotions. You create excellent games. But you chose the wrong way to share your creation with people).

Come on, guys, are you completely out of your mind? Let's see on Gamers Gate. Galactic Civilization ONE  Ultimate Edition. And you know what? It does require Steam. I suppose it's just for my convenience, "to handle the updates" and such other sh*t. Updates, guys, updates... For GalCiv ONE. I appreciate such a care for my comfort. And I was pondering about buying Fallen Enchantress, stupid me... Keep working for school midgets, guys. Life is short and there are pockets in coffin, right? 

Good luck. I return to the TRUE developers.

And after all that^ I'm glad I've got my copies of Gal Civ 1+2 and ultimate on disc's

Yeah well the version you have on disc is out of date, and you can't update without using one updater or other, so there you are.

In defence of Stardock I think that having an updater, whether it's third-party like Steam, is basically essential if you want to get the most out of their games, because they do a lot of improvement after release.

The original disks I bought are buried in storage, so I was looking to purchase the Ultimate Edition, figuring that such an old game would be dirt cheap.  The only problem is that Steam seems to be the only (affordable) way to buy it, and I don't do digital downloads.  I need a physical disk.  When I emailed Stardock sales and asked them about a physical copy, they said that they only do digital downloads now. 

That's crap.  What happens in ten years when Steam has been replaced with something else and nobody even remembers that it existed (and I STILL want to play Galactic Civilizations 2)? I'm sure I won't still have the same computer. What happens if I move back out to the sticks and have to make do with dial up? If the only way that Stardock will take my money is through Steam, then I'm afraid I simply can't give it to them (and I realy do want to).

I just don't believe in virtual merchandise that isn't pornography.

Well if you want a physical copy then you can still do that, just burn the game install folder to disc and then copy back when needed.  You'll have to re-register it after doing so, though, and maybe re-create some registry entries.  I know, 'cause I've done that.

Of course I have not done that with a Steam version of the game so I dunno, you may not be able to do that.

Yeah I wouldn't know how to mess with the registry, but if what you suggest would work with a Steam download, I'd definitely look into it. Maybe I'll email the sales department again and see if I actually need Steam to back the game up once it's downloaded. Thanks though.