steam server question

douchebagatron

<div class="IPBDescription">regarding games on and off steam</div>i was looking the other day at some of the steam games and how many players are on them. cod4 in particular, which had a much lower player count than i expected, which made me wonder this:

if you install a game that does not require steam but can be run through it, can you connect only to steam servers and play only with other steam players? or does it matter?

spellman23

I think you're asking if a game that could standalone was bought through Steam, are you restricted to Steam servers and players?

I imagine no.

Probably Steam only tracks players who run it through Steam and servers that report back to Steam (i.e. use the steam server program through Steam as well).

But then again, I don't buy games like that through Steam, so it's only speculation.

And interesting fact is you can launch non-Steam games through Steam, and of course register games with Steam that you bought separately (outside from Steam, i.e. getting a CD copy of HL).

Faskalia

<!--quoteo(post=1685948:date=Aug 14 2008, 10:55 PM:name=6john)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(6john @ Aug 14 2008, 10:55 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1685948"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->if you install a game that does not require steam but can be run through it, can you connect only to steam servers and play only with other steam players? or does it matter?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

Let me use COD4 and CoH as an example:

In CoH there are no dedicated servers.
Steam and no Steam players can join each others games just fine.

In COD4 you can criss cross any way you like.
No steam players can join a COD4 server created through steam.
Steam players can join a dedicated server not run through steam.

Thus said:
Everyone can play with everyone (except those rare cases, where the steam version is not updated as quickly as the retail version)