Yeah, same. It's ridiculously excessive. I understand the need for 2-factor authentication, but this is screwed up.

Well, if open-world (sorta) survival and post-apocalyptic are your bag, give it a shot. The games are frequently on sale on Steam, GOG, Bundle Stars, and elsewhere. They're often buggy, but there's a lot of charm in the way things tend to go silly ("why are you guys all dead...in the firepit?" "Why are you all walking single-file into a deadly explody anomaly?" "Why is this injured guy walking back to his bunk all twisted in half at the waist, whereupon he floats through the bed?"). There's a fantastic modding community though, and the world and the music are fantastic.

Eyyy, Stalker! <3 Yeah, Metro's fantastic too. I recently bought Last Light, need to get to it...

Aww, I like Freedom (until they shoot Loners)! Ashot and Yar arguing back and forth over base comms was one of the best things about visiting their base.

I used to do more trading than I do now, back before the Market was a thing. Eventually I was just selling cards to fund games for myself or giveaways (like this one actually).

There's that, though I'm not sure they're really making anything at all considering it's credit generated from cards they supply. I know what you mean though.

Let me tell you, there's a good difference between hearing tales and experiencing Stalker for yourself. I heard TONS about how awesome the games were but wasn't interested at all due to hating post-apocalyptic at the time; I associated it with what little I knew about Mad Max...cars...dry desert...boooooring. Then Steam provided a -75% coupon for Clear Sky, so I gave it a shot...then bought another copy and Shadow of Chernobyl from the awesome experience.

Yeah I agree. If it has to be more than a day, it shouldn't be more than a couple. Fifteen is just way too much.

Hm. It could be said that ALL stalkers are outcasts, really, since the Zone is supposed to be off-limits. For weirdos and interesting characters though, I'll point you towards Freedom. Got some fun people on their side. I like them over Duty, who are utter jerks.

You're welcome! :)

I think you're right. There's always a chance one of the third-party workarounds could cause theft. Smartphones themselves aren't the most secure items anyway.

Ahh, Call of Pripyat. There are a lot of neat things about that game, though to be honest I liked it a lot less (at least story-wise) than Shadow of Chernobyl and Clear Sky. You might want to run vanilla the first time through, but there are some great mods for that game. An interesting one coming up is Ray of Hope: http://roh-online.com/en/.

No problem! :)

A week is pretty aggravating too. Email could be a weakness, and apparently Valve used that as an example as to why it's not good enough for them. However, if someone swipes a phone with the app it's not any better than just having used email. I like the idea of a hard token (like a fob) which generates a one time password (OTP), but that's just me.

Yup yup, though apparently they JUST NOW released a version for Windows Phone. Third-party auth kind of makes my skin crawl, to be honest.

You're welcome!

I should honestly just suck it up and get the steam desktop authenticator. Truth be told, with the very existence of such a app. That automatically shits all over steams crappy mobile authenticator system. If someone is truly planning to steal your belongings and has hacked your account or whatever. Why doesn't Valve think they're not going to use that. OF COURSE they're going to use it!!!

Eeeeagh...it might be on the up-and-up, but it's hard for me to not think that a third-party program like that would be a great way to steal a Steam account. And that's the interesting thing: Valve has gone so far towards security on the sliding usability-security scale that it's just making Steam trading unusable, with the predictable result of people finding workarounds that aren't exactly secure. Someone wasn't thinking when they came up with this system. :/

Yeah, that makes my skin crawl. Indeed, thanks to Valve going too far on one end of the security-usability scale, they've just resulted in making people look for less secure (but more usable) options (like the sticky-note solution you mentioned). Systems need to be secure, but there has to be a balance. Valve really overdid it here. I kind of wish they'd do hard tokens for one time passwords; that seems like less of a pain in the butt.

Ouch! Well, there's an official Windows Phone app now, so there's an option at least. Isn't Blackberry kind of dead now though? Their last offering didn't do so well. Funny seeing such a well-used and popular device maker fall so far, though it sounds like it was totally their fault for not adapting.

Yeah, give Stalker a shot if you like open world survival and post-apocalyptic. The world is really neat, the music is WONDERFUL, and there are a lot of great mods, but I'd suggest going through the first time on vanilla (though I've heard good things about the bug fixing of Sky Reclamation Project for Clear Sky). The series tends to go on sale fairly often (see above), and if you get the GOG version you get the soundtracks too. If you go with Steam though, you can used GOG's Reclaim page to enter the keys and get a GOG copy.

Yeah, but easy might not make it safe... super annoying doesn't make it safe either though. lol

Indeed, people are getting their phone stolen all the time. Considering what folks tend to put on their phones, there are far more distressing possibilities involved then the mere loss of a game account.

Yeeeah, the emulators might work, but they could be a hazard too. I really don't want to risk it. Thank you though.

I think you might mean the Windows phone app. I know they recently released one of those.

If you like open world, shooters, survival (kinda), and post-apocalyptic, you might like Stalker. The world and the music are pretty good. The games go on sale all the time too (see above).

You're welcome!

Yeah, I agree it wasn't done right at all. I don't consider the workarounds to be secure, and as much as I'm starting to not like Steam, I'd prefer to not lose my account. Thanks though. :)

Yeah, I just sent an automated trade request to a friend and it was only a 1-day hold, a surprise to say the least. Still, I like to sell my cards in the Market for extra credit for games (like this giveaway), so 15 days applies there unfortunately. If you don't like to use the official app (which I understand actually, the fewer apps the better, and indeed phones get stolen all the time), what are your thoughts on a hard token fob that gives a one-time password? That might be less annoying, in my opinion.

Hm. Stealth is kind of...iffy...in the Stalker games if I recall. I wonder where you were trying to infiltrate. When you pick it up again, maybe give a Vintar silenced sniper rifle a try if you weren't in a building yet. That was my go-to rifle on my playthrough, fantastic thing. Otherwise...quicksaving every couple of feet might help too (though this bit me pretty badly once lol).

Yes! Do! :D

Don't forget about mods if you do a second playthrough too; there are tons of good ones.

:D

I think hard token key fobs with a one-time password would work better, but I could be wrong.

Yes, come stalker! Just beware... http://i0.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/699/298/ddc.jpg
;)

Huh. Is it just a button press per item?

They're fantastic! The story is a bit loose, and the AI is goofy and buggy (though they make the Zone feel very alive) but it's really the world that makes it great. And the music. And the mods (though you might want to play vanilla the first time through).

I remember /me, though I never used it much. It's annoying that it got removed. Social engineering is a growing problem though, unfortunately, so it was probably a needed step. That said, Valve has really swung too far in the wrong direction this time. All it's going to do is push people to using less secure options to make things easier.

I'm watching the comments on the Steam Market Hold thread skyrocket (over 5,000 now). It really is a shame that Valve doesn't seem to care quite so much about their customers anymore. I mean, you could argue that the 15-day hold is supposed to be a boon, but I can't help but think it's just designed to lower the number of people their....err....problematic....Support has to deal with.

I'm not sure it's stupidity so much as not taking the time to think. To be honest, I've seen some REALLY CONVINCING phish attempts that would really screw someone up if they didn't know where to look. That said, most I've seen are just dumb lol. Yes though, like DRM, this just hurts the regular users the most.

:D Start with Shadow of Chernobyl, that's the first one. Clear Sky is first, timeline-wise, and I did start playing that one first, but SoC is really where you want to start. Then Clear Sky, and finally Call of Pripyat. There are TONS of mods too, but with the possible exception of the Sky Reclamation Project for Clear Sky to fix some bugs, vanilla is best for the first playthrough.