ZEN via Steam

nemanja

why i cant buy zen with steam wallet???

Mod edit: removed all-caps from subject title.

zebular

Need more information. Is there an error message? What are you seeing that concludes you to think you cannot buy Zen? You may want to buy Zen directly though (the "Charge" link at the top of this site), as buying through Steam will put your Zen on a type of probation that lasts until Steam pays PWE, which can take several days and during which everything bought with it will be bound.

lysana

Zebular, some users buy games through Steam, including apparently this one. So, nemanja was asking why he/she can't buy Zen through his Steam account.

I've played a lot of games that are on Steam, and I've been able to make purchases for these games through Steam. It, admittedly, would be nice to be able to buy your products through such means rather than sharing my credit-card information with more sites than I need to.

So, I too am curious as to what your answer may be to @nemanja102 's question.

reg1981

Typically you can purchase through steam, hence the reason he asked for an error message.

But he's also correct in saying that first time purchasers will be on a probation until payment clears. If you buy something in the zen store while this probation period is active anything you buy will be bound to you.

lysana

I am pretty sure that the Dragonborne pack had popped up a number of years back in Steam as a sale item and I'd wanted to buy it but it wouldn't let me. I don't recall any error messages.

Also, it has admittedly been VERY rare to see any Neverwinter specials being showcased through Steam, which is also what bothers me and why I'd been unable to make any sale purchases through Steam for Neverwinter. If Arcgames had their games showcased through Steam during the week sales, or quarterly sales, or what-have-you, then I'm sure I'd have seen the Dragonborne pack on sale more often, but I haven't.

plasticbat

lysana#6333 said:

I am pretty sure that the Dragonborne pack had popped up a number of years back in Steam as a sale item and I'd wanted to buy it but it wouldn't let me. I don't recall any error messages.



Also, it has admittedly been VERY rare to see any Neverwinter specials being showcased through Steam, which is also what bothers me and why I'd been unable to make any sale purchases through Steam for Neverwinter. If Arcgames had their games showcased through Steam during the week sales, or quarterly sales, or what-have-you, then I'm sure I'd have seen the Dragonborne pack on sale more often, but I haven't.

This game does not want you to use steam. They want you to use their Arc. They don't want to promote steam. They want to switch player to use Arc.

lysana

> @plasticbat said:
> I am pretty sure that the Dragonborne pack had popped up a number of years back in Steam as a sale item and I'd wanted to buy it but it wouldn't let me. I don't recall any error messages.
>
>
>
> Also, it has admittedly been VERY rare to see any Neverwinter specials being showcased through Steam, which is also what bothers me and why I'd been unable to make any sale purchases through Steam for Neverwinter. If Arcgames had their games showcased through Steam during the week sales, or quarterly sales, or what-have-you, then I'm sure I'd have seen the Dragonborne pack on sale more often, but I haven't.
>
> This game does not want you to use steam. They want you to use their Arc. They don't want to promote steam. They want to switch player to use Arc.

Even though Steam has a HUGELY wider variety of games to offer from FTP to discounted items left, right and center, to full-cost games? Good luck with that. Arc only deals with Cryptic's line of games. Steam offers up games from a heck of a lot more franchises.

plasticbat

lysana#6333 said:

> @plasticbat said:

> I am pretty sure that the Dragonborne pack had popped up a number of years back in Steam as a sale item and I'd wanted to buy it but it wouldn't let me. I don't recall any error messages.

>

>

>

> Also, it has admittedly been VERY rare to see any Neverwinter specials being showcased through Steam, which is also what bothers me and why I'd been unable to make any sale purchases through Steam for Neverwinter. If Arcgames had their games showcased through Steam during the week sales, or quarterly sales, or what-have-you, then I'm sure I'd have seen the Dragonborne pack on sale more often, but I haven't.

>

> This game does not want you to use steam. They want you to use their Arc. They don't want to promote steam. They want to switch player to use Arc.



Even though Steam has a HUGELY wider variety of games to offer from FTP to discounted items left, right and center, to full-cost games? Good luck with that. Arc only deals with Cryptic's line of games. Steam offers up games from a heck of a lot more franchises.

Good luck for what? Steam and Arc can co-exist. They just want to switch user to use Arc to deal with Neverwinter. Neverwinter is Arc's game. Zen is Arc's currency (not Neverwinter's). Billing eventually goes to Arc. Support is from Arc. Steam is used by Arc as a software distributor. When you create a Neverwinter account, it goes to Arc. Everything will eventually pass back to Arc. Why would Arc want to cut a share of money to steam if they can avoid that? They only want people to download the game from Steam. Once that is done, they really want that player to use Arc to deal with the game after that point.

c3rb3r3

Besides first buyer pack and the first time waiting (several days) before you get to use Zens, there is no disadvantage buying from Steam.

zebular

lysana#6333 said:

Even though Steam has a HUGELY wider variety of games to offer from FTP to discounted items left, right and center, to full-cost games? Good luck with that. Arc only deals with Cryptic's line of games. Steam offers up games from a heck of a lot more franchises.

plasticbat said:

Good luck for what? Steam and Arc can co-exist. They just want to switch user to use Arc to deal with Neverwinter. Neverwinter is Arc's game. Zen is Arc's currency (not Neverwinter's). Billing eventually goes to Arc. Support is from Arc. Steam is used by Arc as a software distributor. When you create a Neverwinter account, it goes to Arc. Everything will eventually pass back to Arc. Why would Arc want to cut a share of money to steam if they can avoid that? They only want people to download the game from Steam. Once that is done, they really want that player to use Arc to deal with the game after that point.

Just to clear up some possible misunderstanding I see here:

Arc = A content delivery platform (application). It is not a company/entity (whereas Steam is a content delivery platform and a company).
PWE = Perfect World Entertainment Inc. - The Publishing Company that runs and maintains the Arc Platform/Application and is the publisher for all the games found in the games list in the Arc Platform/Application.
Cryptic = Cryptic Studios, Inc. - The Development Company for Three of PWE's Games: NW, CO, and STO.

As for the reason why there is probation on Steam purchases is because when you buy anything from PWE through Steam, Steam does not pay PWE right away. Steam pays its dues in cycles. The probation period lasts until Steam pays PWE what it is due. If your purchase is reversed from Steam during this time, then PWE can easily remove everything you've purchased with that Zen because it is all bound to you and easy to locate. As well, it prevents unscrupulous folks from buying Zen, selling it on the Exchange and then reversing the purchase and getting away with their dirty deeds. Just to note, any verified charge backs (regardless of purchase method) lead to permanent game banishment, as with almost any MMO that I know of.

miket196718

i cant buy zen from the arc site cause it says i have to finish the blacklake quests and when i go to the journal it says i completed it .

matthattr

I don't know if this is your problem...but it was mine and I had to get the solution via steam support. You have to have the {steam social overlay} active to purchase zen via steam through the game. I tried last time there was goodies I wanted on discount and failed for days, this time i got on it early and found my solution.

If when you log on to the game and there isn't a pop up from steam in the lower right of your screen telling you to alt/tab to talk to others through steam social, then chances are it's turned off. To see if this is your problem, go to the steam pane and in upper left choose: steam>settings>in-game> and check the box in middle that says: {enable game overlay while in game}.

This turns on the pop-up social thing and the second screen when buying zen through the game. Once you have bought your zen and had it delivered, you can later turn it off if it bothers you, just remember you will need to click it later to buy again.

I hope this helps someone and they don't pull out as much hair as I did until it was solved.

vonogre

I cannot buy Zen from Steam either, it tells me I need to complete the Black District quests. I have all lvl 70 toons that have completed all of these....what is wrong? Any ideas?

litaaers

Sometimes, a programmer will code a 'default fault', where, if an exception occurs, but doesn't get caught by the list of known reasons, it will fall to the default, which is usually the greatest common denominator of issues (or something that cannot be checked directly). This may be the case where you have completed Blacklake, but it is telling you that you still need to.

matthattr

c3rb3r3 said:

Besides first buyer pack and the first time waiting (several days) before you get to use Zens, there is no disadvantage buying from Steam.

There is one other disadvantage (at times), the zen bonus charge amount. There are times when you get a +% zen bonus for charging up at that time. At that time, Steam is left out of that bonus amount % and get rather a flat bonus amount instead. This is usually a Arc bonus thing and not a PWE/Cryptic etc..

There has also been Arc "loyalty" promotions in the past, that you get a pet or scrolls or something, if you log on through the Arc platform to claim it. That wasn't available to Steam clients either (of course you just created a Arc account and logged on to claim it, thus proving your "loyalty" if you just had to have the green throw away thing).

*note" the irony of the Arc item loyalty things was it almost ALWAYS backfires! lol...people would have a bug-fest getting it, or it's buffs didn't work or something would go wrong somewhere in the process, not making them feel loyal, but angered or resentful.