Actually,yes.There was a couple of times where my comp just crashed,deleting more than half of my playtime(and achievements) for a couple of games.You just gotta find a way to unexpectedly corrupt your cloud save data.
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Amazing how badly people suck at reading nowadays.. "So, I'm kinda anal, and I like to keep track of how long it takes me to beat the games I play.."
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What I'm wondering is how one can be anal and how games feature into that.
Actually, I may well be better off not knowing.
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? You really don't know the common usage of the term "anal"?
It's short for "anal retentive" - "..used to describe a person who pays such attention to detail that the obsession becomes an annoyance to others, potentially to the detriment of the anal-retentive person"
It's something left over from when Freudian analysis was still seen as entirely valid and worthwhile.
Any avenue of life can result in "anal" behaviour. But that doesn't always have to mean it's to the detriment of someone's life. It can be a small thing someone is very obsessive about, a character quirk.
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It used to be a default possibility for some games. IE, TF2. Looking at that tab, you can see i got a total of 391 hours played on TF2. On my TF2 stats tab, i only have 35 hours.
For some games (the source engine based ones), there was a "reset my stats" button on each game stats page... But itwas deleted a few years ago.
(BTW, i have played TF2 something like 750+ hours? It's a really good game, but i can't play it anymore, due to aging computer & heavier game engine... :sad: )
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The answer is yes, but you can't control it. I played Chivalry for ~3 hours, but Steam registered 1.3 million hours (common bug) after I opted into the Steam Trading Card Beta. After about 30 minutes, my time played reset to zero. I played for an additional half hour after that. Now my profile says I played Chivalry 3.6 hours in the last 2 weeks, but only .4 hours total.
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Considering that the time tracking is automatic & such a minor issue... I suggest letting it go as it's doesn't seem to be an issue (which is more of an IAK issue than a tech issue) to bug Valve about & just let your GAL timers lie where they stand.
Really, who hasn't idled away at a game unintentionally in their past? It's just a number & the average for the games in question will eventually come down back to normal levels in the long run... so don't sweat it.
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Right hand or ambidexterity :trollface: Skyrim Achievement Right Hand increase + 100 Winks to Malukah
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Actually no. With Witcher that was actually my wife's fault. :-) She clicked it by mistake and it kept running on the background.
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Maybe Steam Support can reset for you from their control station in the sky? Seriously, I imagine it's possible, but they might be reluctant on the basis of not wanting to create more adminstrative work for an under-resourced Support team.
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I wonder why anybody cares about it. The fact that it would cost them money to implement, means it is detracting that money from other places it could be better spent, that will make a larger portion of the community happy. I'd prefer they spend money fixing actual problems, not made up problems.
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You're talking about it like it would have to incorporate a massive change, or as if it's its' whole own project. Something as simple as this would literally not take more than an hour to implement, test, and put into production, all by one programmer. All they'd need to do is shoot a change request in to their change board, which would probably get approved in no time due to it not costing anything substantial enough to warrant a separate budget or even cost analysis.
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Oh really? You know exactly how long it would take to code an entire new part of the steam service, bug test it, and then implement it? I'm sure you know this because you've coded similar things before in your spare time as a programmer?
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Actually, no. But I'd think being the lead of a team of programmers in a professional IT environment where I was responsible for budgeting decisions, database management (which is all that the Steam client does, really - database queries), change requests / management, process management, middleware management and more, at one of the more critical T-Mobile departements, would give me some sense of what to expect from programming ventures. It was my job to decide how long something might take (in man hours), and set budgets accordingly.
I don't have to be a programmer myself to tell you that all this would take would be at most a few measly FTE's (man hours), that could be done on the side, in one programmers' spare time. We're talking about 1 button that clears play time for a game. This would mean adding 1 button to the interface (meaning changing some of the UI layout a tiny bit), which can be done in minutes, not hours, due to the webkit Steam uses. It would be no different than adding a javascript button to a web page - easy and fast.
The functionality behind the button would entail nothing more than a query to the database that stores play time, that tells the database to set playtime to 0 hours, 0 minutes played (which takes no more than editing maybe 2 relations in a table, depending on how they store play time). It's a small block of code, nothing special whatsoever. No more than a few lines. And as the action to be taken is uniform (all the button has to do is set play time back to 0, on whatever account uses it, under whatever circumstances), there would be no need to write a more complex query that first checks other values in the database, then modifies the query accordingly.
As for the testing part - this is all standard fare, there's no need to put the button through rigorous official testing procedures such as a UAT or an OAT, as there's nothing big being done code-wise, and there's no big dependency on a lot of infrastructure / bandwidth. Valve's middleware wouldn't be taxed by this at all, as it's not some default query that's being called every time a user somewhere loads a page in the client or anything. It's a function being used incidentally, and then only be a small percent of your users at any one time, anyway. There would be no need to create a separate middleware process for this (the only thing in this case that could really bump development time and testing time up a fair bit), either.
Does that answer your question well enough?
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Well, as a super-genius I know for a fact it would take over 1 billion man hours. I know because I'm a super-genius. /sarcasm. Credentials on the internet are worth nothing.
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Good going ignoring all my points and trying to act like my credibility or lack thereof in any way effaces my points. What stunning argumentative form.
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Your points are based on the fact that you claim to be a professional in the field. Since you can't back that up, your points don't hold water.
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My points are based on knowledge commonly available to anyone with a shred of knowledge on how Steam works, how database management works, and with a general grasp on programming and design, if only conceptually. You're just copping out here instead of arguing the logic of what I say. Which is pathetic.
Also, I can't back that up? No, you don't understand what I'm talking about. You can google the terms I use and educate yourself, though.
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Exactly. I could google all these terms and then write exactly what you did, but that doesn't mean I know what I'm talking about. Also, just because you know how databases work in general (and who doesn't, really), doesn't mean you know how Steam stores and manages its databases.Since you have no firsthand knowledge of Steam's database management system, then aren't really in a position to comment on how long a change in that position will take. How long it should take, how long it might take, how long most database system changes would take, sure. But you can't say you know for a fact how long it would take for steam to do it. Why don't you just stop with all of the personal attacks and insults, as that is a pathetic form of discussion. Just drop the whole discussion, as I've read your arguments and they aren't very convincing.
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And the profit vALVE makes off of your game purchases (as well as potential market sales you make / stuff you buy off the market, making vALVE pure profit out of thin air) goes back in to paying for the platform and its' features. Your point?
You don't only pay for the game, you're paying for the Steam client / platform also, directly.
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No, you're giving the money to valve for exactly what they are selling. Valve then uses that money as it sees fit, which is not making a way to delete game time. You aren't paying for the steam client as the steam client is free to you. The games you buy are the things you pay for and the things you get.
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Dunno how about others but I give money to Valve because the voices are telling me so.
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And how are those games being delivered to you then, smart ass? Man.
Think for a second. Without the Steam client, there would be no way to buy or access those games. The profit they make off your game purchases go directly back in to making and maintaining the Steam platform (which includes the client, and the actual infrastructure behind it). How are they paying for all those collocations (assuming you know what that is)? How are they paying for the fat internet lines they rent and the servers they rent? How do they pay for the team of coders that make the client and its' updates? Does that money magically come dropping out of thin air? No, it comes from your game purchases.
When you walk in to a store, you surely also would say you have no right to a clean and functional store, only to the same products being sold elsewhere, right? Sure.
NO. You're paying money to the store, and they use some of their profits to help set up the store, pay for rent, pay a cleaning lady to clean it, etc. It's exactly the same with Steam.
As you're paying good money to them for the games, which includes their cut, it's totally fine to expect a good, functional store front that mirrors the wishes of you, the consumer - not Valve. Valve's raison d'etre is your cold hard cash. You're the one that provides demand, and revenue. Valve provides supply - but if that isn't offered in the way you want it, what's the point? Where do you think the term "the customer is king" (or "the customer is always right") comes from? All this is the very basics of business and commerce. Get your head straight.
In IT and computer related stuff, such as buying games off a publisher / store owner like Valve, you'd call the Steam client and its' functionality (as driven by the wishes of the consumer) a "value added service". As in - cool stuff it can do like track playtime (and maybe even allow you to reset that play time - as if that's a big deal) or track achievements, or allow you to set up a unique profile with customised design elements, are services that they provide to add value to their store functionality.
If all Steam was was a storefront for games, do you honestly think it would be as big as it is now? Or have as many customers? If there was no such thing as Steamplay (so no multiplayer via their infrastructure), no profiles, no steam chat, no groups, none of the bells and whistles? Those are all added by Valve to respond to the demand from consumers. We drive design choices, nothing and no one else. And we drive it by our demand, and revenue - i.e. the profit they make off us through game sales. The fact that we choose Steam over another platform, or way of buying and playing games, gives us a right to decide what kind of features we want - and should see - in Steam. Period. Just like a PC parts store would maybe redesign their store layout, or put in some couches, or hire another employee to deal with customers faster after some surveys they do show that customers find the speed of their service slow, or dislike having to walk around a disorienting or confusing store layout.
As someone who contributes to Valve's stock, you and I both have a vested interest in design decisions. And we have a right to complain when they are lacking a feature we want in their client (which exists, again, only because we give money to Valve). Especially if it's a simple feature that would take no significant effort or expenditure to add, and wouldn't hamper other features or functionality.
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As a cleaning man I take offence at your assumption of cleaning lady :P
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lol sorry. "Cleaning person" ok? Just doesn't sound right man.. Like some kind of robot :P
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The customer isn't king, or always right though. The customer is entitled only to what he specifically buys, which in this case is the game. He doesn't deserve, nor is he entitled, in any way, to a clean store, or a way to change his tracked gametime, unless the store promises such. If a store isn't clean, or you don't like that you can't reset your game time, live with it and go buy from a different store. Your entire analogy is flawed, and still doesn't prove your point of trying to say he is entitled to whatever he wants from the steam service. As long as he gets his game, then he has no other entitlements.
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Did you bother finishing reading what I said? I assume not.
"As someone who contributes to Valve's stock, you and I both have a vested interest in design decisions. And we have a right to complain when they are lacking a feature we want in their client (which exists, again, only because we give money to Valve). Especially if it's a simple feature that would take no significant effort or expenditure to add, and wouldn't hamper other features or functionality."
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We have a personal interest. We have no entitlements, as I said. We can want them to do certain things, but we're not really in a position to demand things from them or criticize them for not doing certain hings. If we actually owned stock in Valve, then yeah, we'd be able to express those desires through voting for members of the board. If you go into a dirty store and buy a bag of chips, you can't then demand that that store uses the $0.50 it made in profit from that bag of chips to be used to clean the store. The store can use that money however it wants and you have no right to tell them how to. Also, all of your bold points are not backed up with any evidence, as you can't possibly know how long it would take Valve to do it or how hard it would be, as you don't know exactly how they store and manage that information. It wouldn't be the first time a company had something running in a ridiculous way. I mean, Valve doesn't have a DL limiter, and while most people would think that would be extremely easy to implement, Valve has already said it would require a massive reworking of their back-end software. It could very well be the same in this case, and you would have no idea, so your "guesses" are pointless.
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What a nice argument for cheating,I've read it on VAC forum a few times ;)
You pay for a game subscription,your account is your responsibility. If one has the game running he has to deal with it in the end.
Also just like the same as with VAC: ONLY STEAM SUPPORT CAN HELP OP.
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the argument "I paid for game,I should have more control..." is used by cheaters and it is wrong as in people dont buy the game,you buy a license to download and use the game,it comes not with any special rights AKA "you get what you paid for".
If one has the game running but doesnt want it counted for the game time then it is his own fault,it was his responsibility
If anyone can help him in this case,then steam support,all discussion here won't help him reset his game time (same with VAC bans in VAC forums)
those 3 points are all the same as in VAC forums,thats why I compared it to vac.
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I still don't get why you've felt the need to bring up the whole VAC thing when it has nothing to do with this specific problem, but makes it look like I'm at the same level as VAC-banned cheaters by thinking this way.
I understand that I only pay for the licenses, but if every license I've purchased is linked with my account (so I'm forced to use it a lot), I think expecting some user-friendly system is not much to ask for. And I'm not talking about luxury features (like badges, showcases etc.), but some really basic option to customize your own profile, chose what you wan't (or don't want) to share with others and so on. Steam is a lot like Facebook, actually, because neither of these sites give you enough privacy option. You can chose between "share almost every fucking detail of your life" and "make your profile 100% private".
Yes, I know we can't help OP, I just don't like this "deal with it, your own fault, you're not paying for it so STFU" mentality a lot of people seems to following here.
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The attitude of ppl thinking they are entitled to get something is also very common.
It's a bloody statistic,deleting it on your profile would make it totally useless.
I want SG to have a feature to reset my gifts won
I want steam to have a feature to reset my years of service
I want the internet to reset all of my traces
There are reasons for all of them,but that doesnt mean it is something good just cause a certain group of people would like it.
The reason I brought up VAC was cause the "He paid money for his games, so he should have more controll on things like this" is blatant bullshit. You pay to play the game and everything the game advertises (achievements, controller support, tech support, extras, pizza if the store page says you will get one).
The gametime is a statistic steam uses. While it would be nice to reset your gametime so no one sees how addicted you are the gametime also gives others in the community information that might be relevant.
If you want to reset your progress: Delete your save files,start a new game,keep track how much you play. Everyone can do that. Why should steam implenet a feature for the community now? The game run that long,thats how it is,nothing else is measured by the statistic.
Back to vac,I would love to read tons of posts "I am vac banned with in BO2 with 0 hour of gametime,vac sucks"
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If you care that much you can always use raptr, or some other program that allows manual game time tracking.
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Just remember that you left it on and manually subtract that time from the total time to find how long actually played for. And on future, turn off your PC at night. It'll stop this (and other higher problems) happening.
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"Higher problems"? Like what? My PC's on 24/7. And it's fine.
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... Try reading better.
"So, I'm kinda anal, and I like to keep track of how long it takes me to beat the games I play.."
He cares. And although I don't have the same care for such data, I do understand his want for it. It's perfectly reasonable to want to see how long it took you to beat a game.
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If he cares enough to bother someone on steam to fix it for him he should care enough to keep his own records.
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Firstly, again, this is a tiny change. Not a big deal. Not something that would cost a lot of effort or money for Valve to add.
Second, if they're going to offer a feature such as time tracking in their client, they should do so in a thought out and fully functional manner. Allowing people to track their play time, but no way to reset the counter? That's like selling you a stopwatch with no stop button, only a start button. Yeah, ridiculous.
Third, your logic is inherently flawed, anyway. He cares enough to take a look at the automated data provided by the client. That is incomparable to the effort it would take to find or buy a stopwatch, then track play time manually, write it down somewhere, keep a separate journal somewhere, etc.
Looking at play time in the client? Piece of cake, and a quite reasonable thing to want to be able to do. Timing yourself playing games, writing that data down somewhere, and maintaining your own journal in some way? Yeah now that's indeed making it a bit of an anal thing that takes a lot of effort for a small pay-off to do.
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He already said he was anal about it. If it bothers him so much that he wants to fix it, then he should just do the extremely easy thing and keep a journal or a text file on hand and track his playtime. He has already said he cares about it, a lot, so I don't see why it being extra effort is a big deal, because, as I said, if he ACTUALLY cares about it, it's extremely easy to track manually. You make it sound like picking up a stopwatch and using a text file or a journal is like hours and hours of work he's going to have to dedicate a whole day to setting up, but the extra time required is maybe 5min next time he goes to the store, and the couple minutes a week to do summations of his game time.
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I leave it on for downloading and uploading + remote acess + media streaming to my smartphone.
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i have a separate computer in my basement for leaving on all the time. it also records tv for me and sometimes runs game servers for games i play that have servers, but that's all the gaming it does. it's actually just my old computer from the last time i upgraded, which also means each time i upgrade my computer the one in the basement gets upgraded too :)
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Let me explain: two times this week i got a bug that left a game running in the background, counting as time played, without so much as an icon in the taskbar. Sonic 4 was running for over 3 straight days this way, if it wasn't for a friend letting me know, it probably would run well into next week. :-D
So, I'm kinda anal, and I like to keep track of how long it takes me to beat the games I play and this just screwed up Sonic 4 and The Witcher for me. Is that possible somehow or do I just have to live with it?
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