This is probably something that most people haven't thought of (maybe I'm just paranoid), but when you transfer your Spiral Knights account to steam, there is no need to input any kind of information at all. Even if you wanted to, you cannot uncheck the Login through steam option and enter your username and password manually. This brings me to believe that you log in using your actual steam username and password.
Does this not mean that SEGA has your steam account and password information?
Don't. Steam is terrible. Just.... just terrible.
Seriously.
They have problems with getting people's credit card infos stolen and they crash your games etc. cause they care more about advertisements than you playing your video games.
Seriously. I would rather spend 50 bucks on a game, rather than spend 5 and use [crappy] steam.
Seriously. Just awful.
@Aerowind - Sure it is heavily integrated, but I'm just still wary of passing out my steam login info to 3rd parties, mainly because a lot of money has been invested in my steam account.
@The-Rawrcake - The security compromise was on forum accounts, which are not linked to your actual steam account. Therefore, there was no credit card info ever stolen...
Games bought from steam rarely crash as a result of steam itself. You may get problems if you start some non-steam games in steam.
Also, if you disable the notifications, there is ZERO advertisements on your steam account.
Finally, steam IS FREE. It is a software distribution platform...
I'm not sure where you are getting this information, but you are totally wrong on all counts here.
I already wrote it in another Thread:
Steam is NOT "free"! It comes with a commitment to run that software every time you want to play the game. This commitment can not be undone and it also includes...:
- Having to get involved with a third party and becoming aware of their commercials, promotions, TOS updates etc. That equals "generated money which I see none of myself although it causes at least minor inconvenience to me"
- Permanently becoming unable to play the game on platforms that are not supported by steam
- Being forced to deal with potential future issues that are caused by steam, possibly increasing maintenance time for your machine depending on how you're using it
... and stuff like that.
Don't get me wrong, it's fine for people that use steam anyway, it can be a useful piece of software and for many steam on itself might already be more important than a single game like SK. But others don't use steam and wouldn't use it for anything else - for those it's definitely not a case of "just install [x] its free!".
Another note to add into this thread, here is how I always though of Steam (and other systems such as Kongregate) work. Steam works as a authenticator and will not pass on your username and password.
1) You log into Steam. It authenticates with it's own database and logs you in.
2) You open up Spiral Knights or log in to the forums via Steam. SK pokes steam and says: Hey Steam! Who is logged in here and is the person authenticated?
2a) If you aren't logged in, Steam will go and have you log in with the Steam Servers.
3) Steam replies back: User X is logged in and I have verification. As such here is the steam id to identify the user who is logged in. (steam:[big bunch of numbers])
4) SK then says: Ok. Steam says (steam id) is logged in so here is the game for you.
Sorry for the oversimplification / narration...
TL;DR
Steam and Kongregate work as authenticators saying you indeed are logged in and will only pass on the ID of the user. It should not be passing on the username or password as it is unneeded information and SK only needs to confirm that you are logged in via one of these services.
-Wolf
Why are people afraid of running Steam when they play their games again?
Have fun coughing out obscene amounts of money for your games while I grab them at 50% discount (or more) over Steam. The money I save is well worth the amount of time spent during the occasional hiccups that Steam experiences, and even these 'occasional' hiccups are as rare as once every few months, and only take a day or two before it is resolved. Well, it's good to know you can't even afford the short amount of waiting time required for the hiccup/bug to pass. Why then are you even playing games for that matter?
I'm also confused about something:
"Having to get involved with a third party and becoming aware of their commercials, promotions, TOS updates etc. That equals "generated money which I see none of myself although it causes at least minor inconvenience to me"
The only things I'm being made 'aware of' everytime I launch/close Steam/a game through Steam, are the daily deals, promotions, and games becoming available to play. Why would you not want to be made aware of game discounts or when the game you preordered becoming available to play? Are you saying it's bad for Steam to advertise discounts that could very well be a game that you've wanted all along?
The only things I'm being made 'aware of' everytime I launch/close Steam/a game through Steam, are the daily deals, promotions, and games becoming available to play.
Thats... just... for some reason... sounding.. to me... hilarious? xD
Why would you not want to be made aware of game discounts or when the game you preordered becoming available to play?
Not sure if srs :3
If you're being sarcastic, you're too subtle for me, try again :P
Otherwise: I'm glad you enjoy your steam (seriously, if you like steam, use steam!).
But keep in mind: other people might be interested in other things.
Do you think you would like to be forced into a "lifetime subscription" of random stuff I'm interested in? ;)
Probably not...
It's just as I said - daily deals, promotions, preorders becoming available. I'm not sure where you're pulling out ToS updates and other commercials from. Also, what the heck does "Do you think you would like to be forced into a "lifetime subscription" of random stuff I'm interested in? ;) Probably not..." even mean? Of course I wouldn't want to be constantly notified about random stuff that YOU'RE interested in, but I don't see how that even pertains to Steam.
It applies to steam, because those promotions etc you're talking about are "random stuff you're interested in"... can you see how someone else might not want those?
And ToS updates are those things that you probably get by email or in a popup where you check the box that says: "I read it" without reading it first. That philosophy which makes them very "easy" for you to handle is not shared by anyone, either - some people want to know what kind of deal they make.
It's just like with everything else. You like steam, so maybe it's good for you, noone is trying to take that from you. But don't force it on others, you don't know what problems it could make them.
Fair enough, I respect your opinion, even though I'm still finding it hard to believe that a popup listing promotions, which can easily be dismissed with a simple click whenever it doesn't pertain to you, can be so daunting that it is one of the major reasons that's deterring you from using Steam. You do have a valid point about the ToS though, so let's put this discussion to rest then, shall we?
Just taking a different point here, I use steam somewhat, but my reason for not wanting to bind is not as deep. The fact you can no longer play SK without it would cause me problems should something happen to my laptop. I played this game at school initially and this game has an install that doesn't change enough settings to trigger the administrative password needed warning. The download is also relatively quick and easy so I can run it on any lab computer and play within minutes.
I also thought I heard something about not being able to buy energy with crowns through steam but that's probably not true and even if it is, the above reason was enough to keep me off.
Not sure why people complain about the occasional Steam popup when you exit a game.
You can disable those you know.
As Wolfheart says, Steam does not share your username and password with Spiral Knights, it verifies that you are logged in with a unique number. You can check this message by just clicking "Sign in through Steam" when you log into the forums. (You don't actually have to log in, this information is just displayed at the log-in screen if you're curious.)
So, no, SK does not get your Steam log-in information.
Also, @Negimasonic, I have not tried this myself, but I have heard other players say that when on a different computer, they can log into spiralknights.com with their Steam account and then hit "play now" to play on the normal client. And I saw someone else in the forum say they do their energy transactions on the website instead of on Steam. I would link, but I am on my phone. Also, you can definitely still use the trade market with Steam. I'm not trying to convert you by any means, just presenting you with this information.
Like I said, not trying to convince you. No reason to switch if you're happy where you are. Accurate info is always good though =)
Where is this "lifetime subscription" of random stuff? You can just click a box in the options and it never appears again.
I also don't understand your argument of "Permanently becoming unable to play the game on platforms that are not supported by steam".
Steam doesn't support all games. It would make sense that some games not supported by steam do not work with steam. Games sold by steam will always work on steam. If steam is down (which is rare), offline mode works fine.
"Being forced to deal with potential future issues that are caused by steam, possibly increasing maintenance time for your machine depending on how you're using it"
This statement is an extremely general statement that applies to almost every piece of software. You could argue that installing Windows on your computer forces you to deal with potential future issues with Windows and can cause increasing maintenance time during updates.
I'm getting sidetracked myself here.
Thanks for the clarification on steam authentication.
Steam doesn't support all games. It would make sense that some games not supported by steam do not work with steam.
What are you talking about? Steam is only available for windows and mac. SK is java which means its basically platform-independent. Trading in "runs on all" for "runs on 2" is sort of a bad deal - unless you actually really like and WANT other steam features that are not part of that equation. You can never go back with that SK account and play it on something where you can't (or don't want to) install steam ;)
This statement is an extremely general statement that applies to almost every piece of software.
Exactly. Which is why I prefer not to let myself be forced into accumulating a huge array of software I don't need or even want over the years. Steam also, in addition to that, has sort of a reputation when it comes to transparency of changes...
You could argue that installing Windows on your computer forces you to deal with potential future issues with Windows and can cause increasing maintenance time during updates.
That's one of the reasons why I'm not using Windows. :D
This is a brief, crude summary of how OpenID and variant login systems work.
You ask to log into a 1st party system with 3rd party authentication.
The 1st party system gives you a secret identifier code (openid.return_to) and tells you to log into the 3rd party system with that code.
You log into the 3rd party system using your normal credentials and that code.
The 3rd party system generates a signed message that contains that the secret identifier code and another unique identifier (openid.identity) from the 3rd party system based on the credentials you provided to it.
This signed message, being signed, is guaranteed to be legitimate and the 1st party system knows that the signed message is a statement from the 3rd party system.
This signed message is given back to you.
You give the signed message and the original secret identifier code back to the 1st party system.
The 1st party system now knows:
1. You know the secret identifier code.
2. The 3rd party system has acknowledge that the secret identifier code is associated with a unique identifier.
So the 1st party system now knows:
You are in control of the account with the associated unique identifier.
From now on you can be identified with that unique identifier.
Warning (dense content and a bunch lingo beyond this link)
http://openid.net/specs/openid-authentication-2_0.html
Well... as you can see, Three Rings Will Never see your Steam credentials, but you will still be able to prove your identity to three OOO
Short answer: no. Steam has a system in place that lets it act as a log in system for other games, as well as a lot of other stuff. Spiral Knights is more integrated into Steam than most, letting you even trade items/CE/crowns completely through the Steam client without ever logging in.