Gift a copy to my brother?

[hcpookie 3770]

Hello,

I want to give my brother a copy of the Arma2 complete for the holidays (great sale price! :) ) My question is, now that I have the Steam version in "My Games" under my profile, is it a simple matter of emailing the serial number(s) to my brother, or is there a way I can transfer everything to his Steam account?

[Placebo 29]

When you buy from the Bohemia store you receive your game in the form of a Steam CD Key so just give that to your bro :)

[Belbo 462]

Currently gifting copies of the games bought at store.bistudio.com seems to be disabled. Unfortunately I read that too late, when I bought a third or fourth version of the Arma 2 DLCs to give them away as gifts. Now I've got the copies in My Games in the store and can't give them to the person that should receive them... Darnit...

Is there a way I can give those copies away anyhow?

[[frl]myke 14]

Currently gifting copies of the games bought at store.bistudio.com seems to be disabled. Unfortunately I read that too late, when I bought a third or fourth version of the Arma 2 DLCs to give them away as gifts. Now I've got the copies in My Games in the store and can't give them to the person that should receive them... Darnit...

Is there a way I can give those copies away anyhow?

Download the files, burn them to DVD, print out the code, hand it all to your friend.

[Belbo 462]

Myke;2669881']Download the files' date=' burn them to DVD, print out the code, hand it all to your friend.[/quote']

There's no code given anymore. You have to redeem the games to your steam library from your BIstore-MyGames directly. No keys. That's what I was saying.

[[frl]myke 14]

There's no code given anymore. You have to redeem the games to your steam library from your BIstore-MyGames directly. No keys. That's what I was saying.

Sorry, my bad. I was confused by this:

Currently gifting copies of the games bought at store.bistudio.com seems to be disabled.

Is it possible to contact steam support for a solution?

[Belbo 462]

Myke;2669910']Is it possible to contact steam support for a solution?

It's not a problem at steam's end. Or maybe it is, but then it's a problem that whoever the key account manager of BI is has to solve with Steam. Store.bistudio.com doesn't give out the steam-keys anymore so the copies sold there aren't giftable in steam.

Edited April 17, 2014 by Pergor

[[frl]myke 14]

It's not a problem at steam's end. Or maybe it is, but then it's a problem that whoever the key account manager of BI is has to solve with Steam. Store.bistudio.com doesn't give out the steam-keys anymore so the copies sold there aren't giftable in steam.

If i'm not misinformed, when purchasing through the BI store, it gives you a key which then has to be enabled via steam (Menu -> Games -> Activate Steam Code). Gifting this code isntead of activating yourself should be possible. If you activated by mistake on your own account, then Steam might be able to deactivate it so you can gift it. Not sure though, just trying to wrap my head around it.

[Belbo 462]

Myke;2670152']If i'm not misinformed' date=' when purchasing through the BI store, it gives you a key which then has to be enabled via steam (Menu -> Games -> Activate Steam Code). Gifting this code isntead of activating yourself should be possible. If you activated by mistake on your own account, then Steam might be able to deactivate it so you can gift it. Not sure though, just trying to wrap my head around it.[/quote']

Yes, that's how I was used to it (bought it once already on BIstore and gifted the copy). I haven't activated any of the recently purchased products on my own steam account (I've already got almost everything there is) and haven't tried to redeem them - they are marked as not yet redeemed in my customer account at store.bistudio.com. But neither in the confirmation e-mail, nor in the customer account-page are the steam keys for those products listed.

Arma 2: Private Military Company - Steam version
To redeem a steam key, you will need a Steam account.
Steam will not provide extra giftable copies of games you already own.

The last paragraph is kind of frightening as this may be read as: "Additional purchases at store.bistudio.com of the same game may not be giftable." Although this paragraph was there for quite some time and wasn't much of a bother before (when the steam keys were still given after purchase).

[[frl]myke 14]

Best thing you can do is contact store support. Our possibilities here in the forums are quite limited. Wish i could help more than that, my apologies.

[pooroldspike 129]

It's a mystery to me how Steam operates. I bought Empire Total War and Call of Duty MW3 on disk a couple of years ago but I don't like them and I want to give them away.

But they're registered only to me on Steam, so does that mean other people can't play them if I give them away?

Shall I throw them in the dustbin?

[L3TUC3 32]

It's a mystery to me how Steam operates. I bought Empire Total War and Call of Duty MW3 on disk a couple of years ago but I don't like them and I want to give them away.

But they're registered only to me on Steam, so does that mean other people can't play them if I give them away?

Shall I throw them in the dustbin?

They're licensed to your account for life.

[Belbo 462]

Myke;2670482']Best thing you can do is contact store support. Our possibilities here in the forums are quite limited. Wish i could help more than that' date=' my apologies.[/quote']

Not your fault, no need to apologize. Thank you nonetheless! ;)

[pooroldspike 129]

They're licensed to your account for life.

If I give the games to my nephew and tell him my Steam account password, would he be able to install them on his computer and then log into my account to play them, or is that illegal or whatever?

[tonygrunt 10]

If I give the games to my nephew and tell him my Steam account password, would he be able to install them on his computer and then log into my account to play them, or is that illegal or whatever?

Not illegal but against the TOS and it could lead to a locked account if it becomes known to Steam. You can use the Steam Family Sharing function with your nephew which would give him access to almost all of your account games (Arma 3 is one of the excluded games) from his account as long as you don't play a game (a shared account can only be accessed by one person at the time).

[pooroldspike 129]

Thanks, like I said Steam is a mystery to me; for example I found out something else today when I temporarily uninstalled my Steam account while tidying up my system.

To my shock/horror, uninstalling Steam had also uninstalled my Arma3 at the same time, so after reinstalling Steam I had to spend another 2 hours reinstalling Arma3!

And during the re-install, I was never once asked to insert my store-bought Arma3 disk, so I assume Arma3 is now in my account at Steam and can be re-installed from there anytime, is that right?

[Belbo 462]

Thanks, like I said Steam is a mystery to me; for example I found out something else today when I temporarily uninstalled my Steam account while tidying up my system.

To my shock/horror, uninstalling Steam had also uninstalled my Arma3 at the same time, so after reinstalling Steam I had to spend another 2 hours reinstalling Arma3!

And during the re-install, I was never once asked to insert my store-bought Arma3 disk, so I assume Arma3 is now in my account at Steam and can be re-installed from there anytime, is that right?

Yes. Your license of Arma 3 is bound to your Steam account. That means, wherever you install Steam you can download and play Arma 3 now. You can use your Arma 3 disk to install Arma 3 (so the amount of data to be downloaded is not all that big) before updating it via the Steam online updating.

Uninstalling Steam from your disk removes your games library as well. If you want to keep the game files (which is recommended, so you don't have to redownload all the games again), you just have to copy the "steamapps"-folder inside the steam-folder to a different location on your disk and move it back as soon as you've reinstalled Steam.

[pooroldspike 129]

Okay thanks, one more thing-

My box version of Arma3 was 1.12, then it auto-updated itself to 1.14 and then 1.16 (Zeus) before i could switch off the auto-update option!

I don't want Zeus, and I want to choose for myself which updates I want to install.

When I re-installed Arma3 today via Steam, I assumed I'd be getting 1.12, but to my fury it's put 1.16 back on my system!

I gather there's no way to delete Zeus, so do you think I can get rid of it by uninstalling Arma3 and re-installing from the DVD to hopefully get back to 1.12?

Edited April 23, 2014 by PoorOldSpike

[[frl]myke 14]

Okay thanks, one more thing-

My box version of Arma3 was 1.12, then it auto-updated itself to 1.14 and then 1.16 (Zeus) before i could switch off the auto-update option!

I don't want Zeus, and I want to choose for myself which updates I want to install.

When I re-installed Arma3 today via Steam, I assumed I'd be getting 1.12, but to my fury it's put 1.16 back on my system!

I gather there's no way to delete Zeus, so do you think I can get rid of it by uninstalling Arma3 and re-installing from the DVD to hopefully get back to 1.12?

Sorry, no offence but this is the most ridiculous thing i've heard in a long time. zeu is, technically speaking, "just" a mission. Don't like it, don't play it, simple as that. It wont hurt your HD if it's installed nor does it affect any other missions you play. But patches mean bug fixes, engine improvements and so on. So you basically say that you don't want bugsd fixed or the engine improved. Quite the opposite what everyone else in this forum wants.

Again, sorry, please don't take this as a personal attack against you. I just had to write down what was going through my head while reading your post. Be assured that i still respect your opinion, regardless how much i disagree.

[pooroldspike 129]

Myke;2673715']zeus is' date=' technically speaking, "just" a mission. Don't like it, don't play it, simple as that. It wont hurt your HD if it's installed nor does it affect any other missions you play..[/quote']

Thanks, I thought Zeus was some kind of big campaign that was going to eat up my drive space and clog my system!

As for patches and updates, yes I want them just like everybody else, but I don't want Steam to download them automatically in case they're bugged or glitchy, or de-stabilise the game in some way.

That's why I've set my prefs at Steam to "do not automatically update this game".

I'd prefer simply to be notified that a patch is out, then I can wait a couple of weeks to hear how other people are getting on with it.

If they all shout "it's got a bug', then I won't install it..:)

[Belbo 462]

Thanks, I thought Zeus was some kind of big campaign that was going to eat up my drive space and clog my system!

As for patches and updates, yes I want them just like everybody else, but I don't want Steam to download them automatically in case they're bugged or glitchy, or de-stabilise the game in some way..

I'd prefer simply to be notified that a patch is out, then I can wait a couple of weeks to hear how other people are getting on with it.

If they all shout "it's got a bug', then I won't install it..:)

Go to your Games Library, right click on Arma 3, select "Properties", then the tab "Updates" and select the desired option.

[[frl]myke 14]

Go to your Games Library, right click on Arma 3, select "Properties", then the tab "Updates" and select the desired option.

That's why there's a dev branch you could opt in. They will get bugfixes/improvements/content before it goes to the regular branch patch. So every stable patch is actually tested for weeks by hundreds of players already. And even if there is a gamebreaking bug sneaked in, it will be hotfixed very fast (within hours or a few days, depends on complexity).

You can switch between dev branch and regular if you want to take a sneak peek to the dev branch. Or you also could play on dev and return to regular whenever a problem in the dev branch arises.