no, it’s the same one. your ‘preregistered’ cd key that comes with your game from steam CAN get blacklisted if they decide you reinstall too many times (even though you’ve passed a steam check AND a GFW login) due to any arbitrary reasons.
i purchased dawn of war 2 from steam, and it comes preregistered with a cd key. since i was beta testing win7 at the time and frequently reinstalled, i hit some 10+ limit where that “built-in” key became blacklisted.
i had to go through the escalation process to get a new key, but the key that comes with my steam game can’t be changed. so whenever i reinstall it now from steam, and run the GFW overlay, it says that my cd key is invalid. ie. that i am a dirty software pirate.
i then have to manually input the new one i had to write down (or store electronically with my own devices) from GFW support escalating and calling me back (they won’t email it to you) .
your key that you think is “permanent” because you bought the game from steam isn’t actually permanent and can expire at some unknown (10+ activation limit). note this activation has no uninstall, rollback or revocation and you have to then prove you’re not a pirate before waiting around for the privilege of being issued a new key.
rei, you are an outlier and I’d argue an extreme one at that. How many people re-install a game 10+ times? I don’t like activation limits, myself, but you are going way beyond what any normal person would in terms of installs.
Yes, I agree I’m an extreme hobbyist, but it’s not like I’m a pirate. Or else I’d have no such restrictions on software I’ve purchased/owned/have a license to use how I see fit. The platform allows me to continually tinker/upgrade/change out my hardware and it’s somewhat annoying that there isn’t even the option to revoke these activations or make available some end-user tool to do so.
I mean, I’m not a hardware site or PC games magazine reviewer/editor even though I change out my hardware/software that frequently, but it’s my opinion it makes no sense that I jump through the hoops of Steam authentication only to be cock-blocked by this further down the line.
Obviously, years down the line if I want to play these games again and the servers/support-infrastructure no longer exists, I won’t be able to.
Since I also happen to be an Apple owner, I’m not as crazy as say, Cory Doctorow in these sorts of DRM things…I just feel that this GFW restriction is still an annoyance. Even if the majority of PC gamers won’t encounter it, it’s still there.
I’ve never had to input a GFWL key to play at all, only to run an online GFWL account. (Which, yes, is necessary for multiplayer, something which doesn’t affect quite a few GFWL games at all and me only for Dawn of War II.) Offline accounts are entirely viable for singleplayer as far as I can tell.
