Does that even work?
I think they MIGHT check it but at first glance, it might work. If you had an absolute zero time played, they would think something is up depending on how frequent and the reason(only reason that might work is that you bought it on accident).
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It's probably tied to the steam DLLs, since they are needed to run the game even if it's offline mode
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Not all games require Steam to run. Back, when I cared about F2P weekends, I have downloaded some single-player only games, and kept playing after the weekend. Also when IGN gave out codes for Noct Beta, and they expired, I just copied the game's files to another folder, so Steam couldn't modify them, and I could still play.
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No, I believe steam application record your gameplay hours during offline and then synchronize it to steam server once you got online. Just like achievement or game save file that support cloud saving.
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This, but there's a loophole. If that PC never goes online, then it can't sync at all, and Valve won't know.
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I've never refunded anything, but can't one do it through the web browser rather than the client?
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well I never refunded anything here as well. I usually make sure I like the game before I buy it. although the browser shows you as online as well, unless it's a mobile browser, but I don't know if you can refund on mobile.
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I think so. The only time I did it, I believe it was through the web browser. I don't see why it won't work on another laptop / pc.
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Yes, you can refund thru a web browser. So just refund thru a web browser while your Steam client is in offline mode, or just don't sign in to Steam client at all.
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Yeah and the next time you login , they will flag you as abuser, 10/10 .
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Well if op want to refund the game i believe he have to go online.
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Then you cannot claim a refund without going online
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yes. i guess you could abuse it with 2 pcs. 1 with offlinemode gaming which stays offline after downloading the whole game and 2nd the one you demand the refund with. this way there couldnt be any trace of your gametime.
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I made an experience on holidays. When you use steammover I think it is called like that to move the game to another directory while steam is offline all the time, all play hours are lost. each time. So in that case it would work.
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i dont think so , i remember playing adventure capitalist , going offline mode and switching time to 4-5 days in front to get more money . And no i do not have 100+ hours in that game , just 11 hours
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Did you heard about that program that lets you add achievements? It also lets you delete them.
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You should see a neurologist ASAP.
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the question is, why would anyone try to do this, if you can pirate the game?
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Better download speed!
:eyes the steam servers:
Okay, no, that can't be it..
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good thought. I thought about that too but I found that too be a wierd topic, I was thinking about if it can happen or not really .-.
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that`s what i did with skyrim , pirate the game too see if i can run it and then i brought it on steam
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Some people don't want to pirate games because they think it is not safe, or they simply don't know how (although I guess that then they also probably don't know how to use steam refund).
BTW: nice new avatar :D
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Well, on steam you have the most recent version and everything works. With pirated games, there might be soem problems like outdated version or not working crack.
Or 'easter eggs' like in Game Dev Tycoon :P
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Offline mode (or running multiple concurrent games) used to reliably not count time played and not count for achievements, but lately I've been noticing the opposite.
I haven't gotten around to properly poking at it, but at a glance, one could assume they 'fixed' the matter.
Though as shauntw mentions above, it might still work if you just wipe all the steam data off the PC each time, before reconnecting :'P
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yeah you'd imagine they would look into that matter before releasing such a system
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Or switch PCs before connecting. :X
disclaimer: I don't encourage anything evil except possibly laughing when people fall on ice
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Now that I can get behind. I mean encourage. I mean ..
Oh nevermind. X.X
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switching wouldn't work, unless you want to use a new PC every single time you try to scam a game.
Though if you've got a dual-boot system, you may be able to fake it by installing to the sub drive and then booting to it to actually play.
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Falling on ice can be one of the more painful and gruesome physical mishaps, especially if ice skates are involved, so that's a bit twisted of you o.O;
Even just falling on your ass can crack your tailbone, which is never fun.
Why not 'falling into snow', that's much more amusing, and less schadenfreude-based :P
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Card drops: I never tried offline but there has to be way to track that, even if you are successful, you can probably get away with a couple of games, but after that, steam would eventually terminate the account.
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well even with legit refunds steam will stop refunds from your account if you refund games too much.
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So, no way out man. Gaben is the next king of the world :-)
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But ASF already includes offline cards farming, this is actually the best thing I've ever implemented because ASF is farming my cards even while I'm sleeping, which shows myself as offline to my friends, I wake up to notice that I have ~25 new cards farmed. Moreover, finally my friends stopped asking me if I'm farming or playing, because playing status now always means that I'm playing, and NOT farming. I love it.
Problem is: card drops are server-based, so to receive cards you actually must be "connected" (do not confuse with logged in). And Valve sets your card drops as restricted after your first refund, so in best case you can earn I don't know, 0.5$ or so, unless you refund all games all at once, but that will be considered as abuse for sure.
Use common sense, Valve is not stupid, if you want to risk account suspension because of some 0,07$ steam cards then it's your own choice.
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This will work, because it works a bit different than you might think.
Steam offline mode DOES count hours, actually it also keeps other statistics. It just holds them up for syncing "later" when you actually get online.
So, if you buy a game, download it, go to offline mode, play it, and never ever go online in your client again, or you'll uninstall steam right away (I'm not sure if uninstall is enough, it should be), that data will never be synchronized, and it won't show up in your profile.
But that's theory, in practice I'm not sure why would anyone do that. If you play the game, and you enjoy it, you should consider not refunding it, even if you finish it in less than 2 hours, because that's what you paid for. If you don't like it right away, you don't need mentioned 2 hours to notice it. Every other case falls under "you might have good intentions, but to prevent abusing we can't trust you".
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My isp derped today so I decided to play The Binding of Isaac offline. It says I have two hours played, but if you look at my profile it's waaay more than that. So I guess they have a counter for offline mode as well, just a guess.
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do you think steam will be so stupid for make a fail like that? xD obviously there's something hidding for know if you play it offline or not.
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If you wanted to do shady illegal shit, why not just download it >.>
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I like how there's a thread where people are discussing how to "play the system".
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In theory, you could have 2 accounts and share the game with "family", play it on that account and then try refund... but I have no idea if this would work or the game would be seen as played 2+ hrs even if it was not on your account. Also, more and more games are not available for family sharing.
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so this just popped in my mind. Since in steam offline mode steam doesn't count your playtime can you abuse the 2hours rule and still get a refund after you have like, well, finished the game?
am I an evil genius? Or is this just a mind fart?
probably the second choice
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