Steam Is Down (steamstat.us) 183
An anonymous reader writes: The entire Steam domain seems to be down for everyone. The websites and Steam clients won't connect. No word from Steam on Twitter or Reddit about the outage. The status page of Steam as well as third-party monitoring sites have confirmed the outage. A tweet from an unofficial Steam Status page says, "100% of #Steam connection manager servers are still down."
Australia's Fault (Score:3)
Thanks Australia!
https://games.slashdot.org/sto... [slashdot.org]
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Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:5, Informative)
The gaming holiday DDoS's are becoming a xmas tradition.
I like the justification of "you need to be spending time with family"... as if pulling a gaming service offline is going to make anti-social gamers decide to go to their number 2 option of hanging out with family...
Re:Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:5, Funny)
... decide to go to their number 2 option of hanging out with family...
My number 2 option is masturbation. Hanging out with family is number 7 tops.
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Ever been caught red handed?
Re:Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:5, Funny)
What about masturbating with the family?
I think "masturbate with the family simulator" is already a game on steam.
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Didn't you hear? Steam is down...
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Too many people trying to download "Masturbate with the family" simulator at once.
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Well you can still play it if you bought it previously. You just can't sync your save data.
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Or if your copy of the Steam client has lost the receipts that enable offline play of games that use Steam digital restrictions management. Early on, the only way to save receipts was to choose "Go Offline" while both your Internet connection and the Steam servers were running. Later, receipt caching was drastically improved, but I still occasionally read anecdotal reports that the client might lose receipts if it crashes.
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A family that plays together, stays together
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What about masturbating with the family?
You mean other than the wife? Or are we talking exclusively about single hetero guys and LGBTs?
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The Steam sale does 90% of the work, DDoSing it wouldn't be that hard.
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Steam sales haven't big a big thing for the past 2 years now, or whenever they stopped doing the flash sales / daily deals / etc.
Those deals are what drove traffic - everyone would sit on the page refreshing when the next deal was about to pop up. Steam stopped doing them because people simply waited for the shit they wanted to be offered in one of these deals, then bought other shit at the very end of the sale. This meant higher sales but lower revenues. People felt pressured to buy the daily deal becau
Re: Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:2)
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When Steam goes down, gamers are more likely to kill their family than spend time with them. You can look it up.
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This is what gamers do when Steam goes down:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06... [nytimes.com]
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This is why reliance upon external servers and requiring an internet connection just to run software is stupid. I'm happily playing games that I bought from gog.com because I actually own them.
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I'm happily playing fallout 4 even though steam is down.
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This is why reliance upon external servers and requiring an internet connection just to run software is stupid. I'm happily playing games that I bought from gog.com because I actually own them.
Exactly. Game bought from GOG, for example.
Moral of the story: support stores like GOG instead of DRM-cesspools like Steam, and you'll see more and more choice of games available on GOG. Games need customers. If their customers are all on no-DRM services, that's where the games will go.
Support the services that treat you with respect, and not the ones that don't, unless you want there to be NO services left that aren't DRM-cesspools.
Re: Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:4, Insightful)
Or are you doing the exact same thing Steam users can do?
Apparently they cannot.
Sorry, but the ability for someone to rescind your right to play a purchased game indefinitely into the future is NOT the same as being temporarily unable to buy a game to begin with.
Once I buy the game from GOG, no server problem, remote de-activation, going-out-of-business, or other issue can prevent me from playing the game I bought. The same cannot be said of online DRM-ed games.
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DRM is inherently buggy.
Most software's job is to run. It should run even when conditions aren't ideal. If it can run with reasonable defaults when configuration is missing, it should. If the nice to haves are all missing, it should run. It should do it's best to not care what machine it is running on. The default condition is run. Only halt when running is impossible. Robustness is a virtue. All of this will depend on the skill of the programmer, of course.
DRM is the opposite. It's job is to only run if co
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I'm all for hanging the DDOSers by the neck until dead.
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Re: Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:2)
Do you really think that it's hackers DDOS'ing them? I figured that it was just a natural side effect of a million kids powering on their consoles for the first time and needing 20 GB of game and console updates.
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I should think not. Neither the xBox or PS4 are the new hotness this year. And there are no real breakout games this winter. Sony and Microsoft have years of sales data, with which they most certainly have a fairly good projection of how many consoles have sold this year. That's a predictable burst of load for which any competent operations team will plan and spin up sufficient additional capacity to handle. Hell, Microsoft even has their own cloud computing service with which to do so.
It's the unpredi
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So, when did unmoderated discussion become synonymous with "neo-nazi"? 4chan, and the act of saying things anonymously, have been around for a very long time. And i'm not sure if you're aware, but they don't take orders from some organizing body en masse.
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The "Anonymous" asshats are all in jail [huffingtonpost.com].
Now, whenever something fabulously clever happens, "Anonymous," which consists of wannabe script kiddies, steps forward to take credit.
Also, "Anonymous," often threatens to to DDoS someone (as if that really is effective) because it sounds cool.
Real hackers are too smart to be "Anonymous."
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Also, "Anonymous," often threatens to to DDoS someone (as if that really is effective) because it sounds cool.
Remember Operation Blackout, when “Anonymous” was going to take down the DNS root servers? All they did was show the world that they have no idea how DNS works.
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I get into a brawl with pseudo Anonymous now and then.
One threatened to take me down with Low Orbit Ion Cannon [wikipedia.org].
Really rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
smh
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The "Anonymous" asshats are all in jail
Clearly not anonymous enough, I guess.
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My thought, at the time, as well.
Re:Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:5, Insightful)
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The point is to keep linking the word nazi with alt-right to legitimize that word. Then to expand alt-right to mean everyone not on the left
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Every time you flap your yap to smear folks as being Nazis,
No one did. He labelled them as Neo-Nazi. They borrow elements of the Nazi doctrine, but are not the Nazis that killed people. Learn the difference or you'll never be able to have a sensible discussion.
Re:Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:4)
And you sir should learn that "elements of" is a bullshit argument as those elements could be shared by large swaths of humanity, good AND bad. Not every element of Nazism was evil, just the overall package. So yes, slapping Nazi after neo is a blatant attempt to link whomever with those who killed people.
It's very similar to claiming that Trump supports the KKK because they support him even when he's publicly stated he doesn't.
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It's very similar to claiming that Trump supports the KKK because they support him even when he's publicly stated he doesn't.
The difference is that the alt-right really are neo-Nazis. They're racist, they favor redesigning society along racial lines and actively work towards that end, and they would rather just kill all the inconvenient people off than live with them.
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Oh? So are you saying the Neo-Nazis are running around gassing jews? Because that would be news to many, including the Neo-nazis.
Lumping them together when talking about politics in a modern context is just stupid.
Re:Ah, I was wondering when it would begin (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm going to have to disagree.
The groups that get the neo-Nazi label are the ones promoting Nazi propaganda, ideals, and methods. There are groups actively using the swastika symbol as an identity and using Hitler's writings as a doctrine. They advocate the same racial cleansing the old Nazis did, and the same totalitarian fascism. They get the name neo-Nazis, because they only differ by being more recent.
No, the label is not disrespectful to victims of the Nazis. Rather, what is disrespectful is to immortalize the Nazis by granting them some kind of unique status as the gods of oppression and death. By insisting that nobody today could compare to the Nazis, we further distinguish the Nazis as being something special, more powerful than mere mortal humans. In effect, declaring the Nazis as an untouchable evil would grant them status as a superior race, exactly as they wanted.
That would be disrespectful. That would undermine the victory of World War II. That would be an incredible disservice to each and every victim of the actual Nazis.
I'm not going to do that.
I'm going to continue to declare that any group that tries to act like the Nazis are neo-Nazis. I'm going to continue to treat them as humans; no more and no less. I'm going to continue to do what I can to ensure that the horrors of the Nazis are always presented as a mundane evil that got out of control, and I'm going to continue to teach that every person, everywhere, has that same capacity for evil, regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, or economic status. They also have the same capacity for good, and it is the active choice to work toward that good that makes someone worthy of a unique place in history.
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Eh..... not so much.
"Alternative right" and "conservative" are not really synonymous. The term "alternative right", often shortened to "alt-right", was coined by a white supremacist to distinguish his movement from the more traditional conservative views.
Broadly generalizing, the focus of the typical conservative is economic strength, usually through privatizing services and promoting individual liberty, within the limits of societal conformity. The alt-right emphasizes the conformity to the exclusion of ot
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Eh? If you don't see the parallels between Trump and the rise of fascism, you're being willfully obtuse.
Alliance with white/aryan supremacist groups? Check.
Elevation of the above to prominent public positions? Check.
Demonizing entire ethnicities and religions to give the masses an enemy to hate? Check.
Violent thugs running around and violently attacking opponents? Check.
Proposals to round up undesirables and put them into camps? Check.
Promotion of xenophobia, also to give the masses an enemy to hate?
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Enough with the DNC lie-list already. Provide proof of your libellous claims, or shut the fuck up.
There's no alliance with any white supremacist groups, nor elevation to prominent positions thereof. The bullshit you hear about Bannon on CNN is a prime example of "fake news". Stop believing every lie they feed you.
The Left has repeatedly demonized white people ("position of privilege" anyone?) and Christianity. They don't get to play holier-than-thou on these topics.
What violent thugs running around attackin
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But The Cloud! (Score:5, Funny)
But it's The Cloud! The Cloud is more secure, safer, and more reliable! The Cloud can't go down!
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If only this were sarcasm the whole world could understand.
Re:But The Cloud! (Score:5, Funny)
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Raindrops hide gamers' teardrops.
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When the cloud comes down like this it becomes fog.
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Everybody who whines about Steam outages clearly never played valve games prior to Steam. What used to happen was every time a new Counterstrike patch was dropped, every gaming site on the internet would crash from the load as everyone overloaded every hosting site on the internet. It would be hours sometimes before you could get a download and even then connection drops were common.
Steam is a 1,000x more reliable and was a direct response to that sort of inconvenience and lack of reliability by third pa
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Democrat hyperbole and tsunami volumes of malicious traffic from eastern "Ukraine" and Russia are not mutually exclusive factors.
Be weary of those who would exploit the left's tantrums to whitewash infamous propaganda campaigns, [wikipedia.org] but be equally weary of those who would use the mere existence of this onslaught to dismiss DNC failings, systemic corruption, and so forth.
Kettling people into a false dichotomy is an excellent means to limit discussion without people realizing they've had their opinions blinkered
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Ehh, Trump doesn't really have to be shrewd when the media are being idiots.
After halfway pulling off the Alt-Right bait and switch they got overconfident, they were doing so well and then they had to make a ridiculous song and dance about Russian as some bogey man behind all Fake News. Glass houses and throwing stones and all. The sheep don't quite realise how the media lies to them, but confirming their suspicion by pointing out other sources of fake news was not a great idea. Now everyone just trusts the
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He took the site down so he could blame Russia again.
Maybe they are re-hosting steam on Hilary's server, now that it's of little use beyond the investigations. All Brian Pagliano has to do is copy the mail services to a backup for the FBI, and then on what's left of the server, install Steam. Incidentally, don't include Bleachbit - Steam does like to keep records of how many hours someone's played, their scores and so on
Trump! (Score:3, Insightful)
Can't wait till Jan 20 when Trump makes Steam great again! Trump will not tolerate such abuses against truly Great American companies like Steam!
Build a great firewall and protect our inner tubes Dear Leader!
Is this relative? (Score:4, Interesting)
This is the Half Life 3 release. (Score:1)
Steam couldn't handle the load of Half Life 3 being released.
Just Hurry Up and Take my Money (Score:1)
I woke up to an awesome email about every game on my wishlist and I just want to give them my damn money! I got into the office a little late and now I'm having to do work instead of drool over a bunch of killer cheap games.
I hope valve hurries up and fixes the problem so they can take my damned money! I guess this will be a productive Friday after all... What yak shaving tasks do I have today?
Sucks to be them (Score:4, Informative)
Just enjoying my still-operational DRM-free games from GoG over here...
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And I'm enjoying all my Steam games that I have installed in Offline Mode which can be used as long as I'd like and playing a ton of games not available on GoG.
Don't get me wrong, I hate the fact that I HAVE to use their service for most recent games (the first time I bought a physical copy of a game and discovered the disc was just a Steam installer I was pissed) but at least all my installed games are still usable when their servers crash unlike Origin (which I do refuse to use)
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Don't get me wrong, I hate the fact that I HAVE to use their service for most recent games
But you're enabling the very thing you say you hate!
You can't have it both ways. If you want more games to be available on DRM-free services like GOG, you have to buy exclusively from those stores. If studios sees that tying themselves into Steam, Origin, or other DRM-ed stores means death in the marketplace, well sure enough, they'll release DRM-free, because they actually need customers. They need YOU more than you need THEM. The only way to get to the place you (and I) want to be, is to give DRM-free
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GOG isn't any better with respect to what he said that he hated.
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Just enjoying my still-operational DRM-free games from GoG over here...
I'm just enjoying my still-operational DRM encumbered games from Steam over here...
What's your point? Or are you another one of those people blasting a service without having a clue?
Twitter silence (Score:2)
I'm not surprised that there hasn't been anything on Steam twitter about the outage. Steam_Support hasn't tweeted anything since July 14.
They're probably too busy testing Half-Life 3.
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> Steam_Support hasn't tweeted anything since July 14.
Have you ever dealt with Steam Support? 5 months of silence is nothing. You're lucky if you ever get a reply beyond the first 2, which are always auto generated robo replies. I'm surprised they even have a twitter account.
Christmas is (Score:2)
Steam takes up 1,600 ... (Score:2)
... times the same volume of water so maybe the site has simply cooled off into a puddle of condensate.
W/drawing from society or cash for kids for cards? (Score:2)
Well, shit!
I might as well go Christmas shopping a day early. :frowney-face:
Lonely in my basement (Score:3)
Wrong (Score:3)
The status page of Steam
The Steam status pages are down. https://steamstat.us/ [steamstat.us] is not "the status page of Steam". That site is not affiliated with Valve at all.
Click on the fucking link and read the line in the big Zoidberg box at the top.
SteamDB is not affiliated with Valve Software. This is a third party website brought to you by xPaw.
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Steam is back up (Score:1)
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Steam appears to be back up... for now.
It's flapping. I was able to load my library but not update a game.
EA Origin (The Sims, etc.) is atrociously slow (Score:2)
EA Origin (The Sims, etc.) is atrociously slow.
For Mac owners, you can't use your DVD and you must download the 10 GB The Sims 4 game.
Estimated time of completion is 24 hours.
Online gaming broker service providers like this are the Christmas Day "batteries not included" tragedy of today's generation.
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I've been curious about those troll posts and their odd pattern of l33t-speak / typos for some time now. I wonder if it's some kind of coded message or something.
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This one only has the characters TEN in uppercase. Anyone care to view the previous trolls to see if there's a whole sentence being sent?
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It exists all right. It just moved to Goatse.info after Christmas Island decided it didn't want to enable male porn.
Re:Let Me Just (Score:4, Insightful)
Hu? All my games on steam still work perfectly in offline mode. Playing factorio on Linux right now in fact :)
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Mine don't. Any game relying on Steam's DRM or Steam's multiplayer APIs, even if it's just social/matchmaking and not server hosting, is fucked. If I had known Steam was going to be down today I could have entered offline mode last night, had Steam generate a token for my client, and then have my client use that token so I could play games using Steam's DRM.
As it stands, all I have access to are games that can simply be launched by running the executable. Steam's offline mode really is nothing more than
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Multiplayer which uses Steam is obviously offline.
But anything which relay on Steam's DRM should really be working. Just hit the "Work offline" button and play.
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This never works for me. What happens is it then asks me to sign in, which I obviously can't do.
Offline mode for these titles only ever works if I preemptively trigger offline mode while Steam is online (and I am as well, obviously). Then I can play offline, for a time, before Steam asks me to reauthenticate. If I launch Steam again later while I have a network connection (internet connected or not) Steam reverts to online mode and prompts me to log in.
Offline mode is basically useless to me.
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Today is the first time my gaming computer has been powered on in about two weeks, and I was able to launch DRM-protected games just fine in offline mode.
I'm not familiar enough with Steam's DRM to address your concerns about a token, but it does appear to work just fine in offline mode while offline.
Re:Let Me Just (Score:5, Insightful)
Steam is different... it's not your perfect ideal, but it's different from the abysmal pit we were headed for before Steam. Steam is a decent compromise between the anti-cheat and anti-piracy efforts of vendors, and the pro-consumer model apparently favored by you and others.
See, what I remember from my history is that those multiplayer games were full of cheaters and hackers, to the point where half of the game was figuring out whether your game was legitimate or not. I remember seeing casual piracy with cloned disks and hundreds of "backups" being passed around my networks. I also remember seeing the start of server-side games that lost functionality when their studio closed and their servers shut down. I remember the predictions that that would be the only effective way to combat piracy, and I remember reverse-engineering efforts claiming to ensure the longevity of games... and I remember their failures, too.
Steam is not perfect, but it is different... It mostly works.
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See, what I remember from my history is that those multiplayer games were full of cheaters and hackers, to the point where half of the game was figuring out whether your game was legitimate or not.
And that's still how it is. I've got people glitching into my walled base in Rust, there was massive cheats in Robocraft, by all accounts even TF2 is still a playground for cheaters.
Re:Let Me Just (Score:5, Informative)
You could legally install your game on multiple computers and make backups.
You do know you can do that with Steam, too. Install on as many computers as you want, frankly. And it has game backup built right in. Try using something before criticizing it, eh?
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But how do you install a game on an additional PC while Steam is down?
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Back it up on one pc and restore the backup on the other. Easy peasy. Its how I moved all my games to my new laptop.
In fact you can even cheat and not use the "backup" option in steam and just copy the folder over. That works just as well.
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Back it up on one pc and restore the backup on the other. Easy peasy. Its how I moved all my games to my new laptop.
That's fine as long as the games don't have Steam DRM, and as long as you have Steam already installed on the other machine. You can't restore a Steam backup without having Steam installed. You can't install Steam if Steam is down.
In fact you can even cheat and not use the "backup" option in steam and just copy the folder over. That works just as well.
Again, only if the game lacks Steam DRM. If this is not the case, then the "backup" copy has to be blessed by the Steam servers before you can play it, even if you do already have Steam installed.
Not every game has Steam-based DRM, but many if not most of the networked games on St
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But how do you install a game on an additional PC while Steam is down?
Well, you could do as I do: Put Steam and Linux on a bootable flash drive and play your games on whatever machine you like. \0/
Re:Let Me Just (Score:5, Interesting)
Steam has done more to bring quality games to Linux than anyone besides perhaps Unity3D. I'll take the occasional outage (neverrmind that offline mode works wonderfully in these scenarios) if they continue to bring good games to my platform of choice.
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And, sorry, but on my laptop Steam is still running and letting me play ALL my games.
I've suspended and resumed 20+ times tonight and it's still working just fine. I'm in a Steam game now, in fact.
Maybe it wouldn't work if you didn't have Steam loaded and were running for the first time to try to update, but it's working fine for me (yes, the website is down and likely matchmaking).
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Dude, it's Christmas break time. That's one of the few times people can play games like a teenager.
waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
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They must have a trove of credit card data in there.
No, they don't store the whole number. On the purchase page it says Do you want to use the credit card ending in "***77", so they only store the last two digits!
heh. settle down, it was a joke.