Daggerfall Workshop Forums

As an introduction, I've been a loyal user of Steam for 15 years since Valve launched HL2 requiring the service. Over the years I found it a good way of centralising my online purchases and just ignored the DRM and online stuff favouring the generally good service and ease of use. I have about 250 games on my account and have spent almost all of my money for games that way for years now.

I recently decided to give No Mans Sky a try and purchased it in the Autumn sale for £20 but got busy and only more recently tried to play it. It crashed twice in the 2 hours I tried to play, and was not compelling enough to persist with especially because it lost 20+ mins of progress each time. Progress was painful too because the UI is atrocious. So I figured I would request a refund since it keeps crashing for me and is pretty much unplayable. All I can get from Steam is automated replies that I've exceeded the 2 week window after purchase. Simply cannot get a person to look at it and consider that a loyal customer is having an awful experience and would prefer to spend that money on a more deserving product. They're right I have exceeded their basic refund policy, although I thought it would be from install date rather than purchase date - that's my mistake, but I did request a refund on the day I installed the game. I have a lot of games that I didn't take to and will never play more than a few hours on there, and that's fine - I accept that, but a game that keeps crashing when it has a stupid save point system like NMS? That deserves a refund in my mind.

I've been getting more and more jaded about Steam over the past couple of years, but habits and inertia simply keeps me using it. The fact they take a 30% cut of each purchase but still can't actually offer any decent customer support from this money is inexcusable after all these years. Anyway, this is the last straw for me I think, and the recent change to the library tab which was forced on users also contributed to my annoyance. Not going to buy from Steam if I can get a game on GoG from now on, and in hindsight I have no idea why I've been so loyal to the platform and Valve as a company for all this time.

Rant over.

I always hated how in the old days they always tried to force me to download games even when I had a physical disc(which was infuriating on my slow internet at the time) and how they'd always try to update games automatically no matter how many times I turned it off. Eventually they seemed to get better for both of those things, but I've still gotten very little benefit out of the platform, which I only originally got because Skyrim required it. Besides the sales, the only benefit of it is the social aspect - which is completely broken. It's a gargantuan effort to try and find friends, the search function is utterly useless and will show you lists of names nothing like the one you just searched while refusing to show ones that actually match it. And voice calls are so bad that it's easier(and more secure) to just add all your Steam friends on Discord instead. It's just a terrible platform in general.

The NMS inventory renders the game unplayable. I have no idea how ppl can play and enjoy that game. Its IMHO the worse inventory system I have ever seen in my whole life. And Ive seen 1000s

I completely understand the rant. But I also completely understand why they ignore you. Too many ppl on the platform for any kind of personal approach.

I think supporting DRM free GOG is a good idea.

Meh, i learned to deal with NMS inventory. It's not good, but after you get the hang of things i don't think its too bad. I personally like the game, and i have had near zero issues with it...aside from few annoying bugs in previous versions.

NMS also just released its eight free massive expansion pack(all expansions are free in NMS), and it included some inventory and other QOL improvements.

I have run into something similar before - I've only ever had to refund Dark Corners of the Earth 'cos it crashed at a specific point and they complied without much fuss; later they took it down from the store altogether 'cos it barely worked for anyone who bought it - and if I recall correctly, you can appeal their decision. You can give details like you didn't try to see if the game worked immediately after purchasing it on your phone 'cos you were spending time with your family rather than on the computer or summat. If you bang on the table assertively enough, they may have a support person take a look. To be fair, it's indeed somewhat unreasonable to expect them to have some guy check every complaint from the get-go. I'm not saying they definitely will help you, but there's a chance if you can be arsed.

Slightly off-topic, but I'd recommend checking out Elite: Dangerous should you feel like scratching that space exploration itch. It's the superior game in all possible respects.

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The updates that make the game less arduous to play don't help much if it keeps crashing on him.

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Steam updates the game clients with the latest patches automatically anyway. It's great that it's working for you fine, but for Hazelnut it isn't. Moreover, it's a tall order to be careful about your purchases if you can't know in advance whether they're going to work properly.

On the other hand, I'd at least look into trying to get it to work if Mr. Steam is adamant about not refunding it.