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No more zen through steam?
madmopar
Member Posts: 234 Arc User
Looks like we can't purchase zen through steam anymore. When I tried, it just opens a window to arc website. I can't find anything official that steam wouldn't be useable anymore. I refuse to use arc, so no more zen purchases for me if this stays like it is. I'll just have to be patient with monthly stipend and converting dil I guess.
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I was able to purchase Zen through Steam without problems last week. It seems this problem was caused by today's patch.
I keep getting a browser link to the Arc purchasing page and am completely unable to pay using Steam Wallet.
And I put some money in Steam Wallet just now for the purposes of buying some c-points.
I do not want to use or trust an Arc purchasing system.
If this issue isn't resolved, you won't be getting any more c-store purchases out of me.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
It's not really about that, so much as people spending money to add funds to their Steam Wallet, only to have the game no longer let you use it. That means the money spent is essentially stuck there unless you decide to use it on something in Steam.
Which translates into people getting upset and PWE losing money. I know I'm certainly not going to spend another $40 on this game if they can't even get a solid payment system after how many years already?
I don't have anything against the web portal per se...it's just a PWE website with the Arc brand.
My issue is:
A long time ago, after the Cryptic/PWE web site merge, I tried to register my payment information through the PWE website. I'm Canadian, and it proved...extremely challenging to get any payment set up. In fact, I couldn't do it at all. This may be fixed now, but I'm not terribly inclined to check, because Steam Wallet is so convenient.
Which brings me to my next point:
Steam Wallet is really, really convenient.
No steam = no money
Defending The Galaxy By Breaking One Starfleet Regulation After The Next.
Since it's known that some players are resistant to the idea of using Arc and Steam players are the most resistant of all, even an innocent mistake can seem like a calculated means to force players to use Arc manditorily.
Which is why the Devs need to chime in and say, yes, this is an honest mistake and we're trying to fix it, before the tin foil hat wearers show up.
Saying nothing is even worse then admitting your mistake in this case.
Because they're not confirming it is an accident or a problem with Steam, leaving us to speculate as to the cause.
And yes, I had already purchased the Steam funds before I discovered the error.
That's money that's already gone from my bank account and is now unusable for STO.
I'm not giving even more money to PWE via Arc when I've already paid Steam for it.
Also, the one and only time I tried to go through PWE's browser payment, it kept telling me 404 error.
And given that I doubt the ability of web browser based transactions to keep information secret, I don't really trust them.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
That said i think it's steams integration with STO, i tried shift+tabbing to bring up the steam interface and nadda, didn't happen. Anyone else seeing the same with the issue? Probably a result of how STO handles it's patching but still may be significant to the issue here.
Erm....so why not use ARC? You get bonus Zen that way that you don't get through steam and the zen costs overall are just cheaper anyway (at least in the UK they are).
There is no reason at all to use steam over ARC. Unless i'm missing something?
EDIT: Also, when you buy zen through the steam portal, it takes you to steam to authorise the bank transfer before anything else when you click the 'buy zen' button in game. So anyone talking about having cash locked into steam must have just added cash to their wallet before they launched the game. Lesson learnt?
Steam is a proven system and all my games are on steam. Besides I don't want an intrusive program on my system for only one game.
Just tried the zen button myself and it opened up the Arc web site.
I'm hoping this is a genuine mistake and not a preplanned action. I only buy zen through steam and I won't buy through Arc. I guess this is gonna save me money though.
As you noted, you don't need the Arc Client to buy Zen: Just visit http://billing.arcgames.com.
The payment providers listed there are also proven systems. If you actually use a credit card, you have the added advantage that there is a lot of regulation by the credit card companies to avoid fraud or identity theft.
Sorry my bad. I should have read that properly.
Steams just more convenient for me. Every time I buy zen I always have to talk myself into because lets face it there are better ways to spend money. If I have to fumble about using my debit card I'm more than likely not gonna bother at all.
It seems backwards to me for PWE to limit the ways people can spend money ingame. If it were up to me I'd have as many ways as possible and as little restrictions (Arc) as possible. I know it's part of PWE's overall strategy to advertise their other games but I simply have no interest in them.
You can use a visa via the arc site to buy zen.
You cant buy the steamrunner starship either ?
Saphire.. Science ground......Ko'el Romulan space Tac
Leva........Tactical ground.....Koj Romulan space Eng
JJ-Verse will never be Canon or considered Lore...It will always be JJ-Verse
You should be able to...that pack is available through the regular Steam store. Not related to the Steam Wallet.
I'm not at home, though, so I can't check.
being that you can buy the steamrunner bundle through steam with the steam wallet, yes you can still get it. you just need to then figure out how to redeem the code on the new arc website.
I've seen some people saying that a similar thing has happened months ago, at least a couple times. Can anyone confirm how long it actually lasted before they fixed it?
Allow me to be really direct.
When Arc was first released, I took an extensive look at it to see if it was actually worth installing.
It is not.
I kept hearing all this hype about how it will enhance your gaming experience.
But when I actually analyzed it, what it really meant is it will enhance your PWE gaming experience.
It brings absolutely nothing to the functionality of STO and CO, which are the only games I play.
And then I learned from other players it was basically an advertising tool for every PWE game currently in existence and consumed a significant amount of gigabytes as well.
Since I have zero interest in PWE games, I don't care to receive advertising material about them at all.
And also, keep in mind I am a Mac user.
We cannot install Arc on our computers, so it's Steam or the standalone launcher.
I opted to use the former, to purchase c-points easily.
Yes, I will concede the point that we should have checked that the c-points purchasing was working before committing the payment towards Steam.
But honestly, it worked all the time for me so far, so I didn't know it could break down.
I don't think it's practical to keep checking if the payment server is working before we try it.
I'd have to try and pay, then cancel the transaction, go back to Steam, pay them, then return to STO to get the points.
Just a strange thought that occurred to me, when things like this occur after a patch, it makes me instantly suspicious.
The first thought I had is the patch broke something in the payment processing system.
I've never known this to happen before relating to Steam, but I know from experience that patches can break things in the game.
Bees like honey, they don't like vinegar.
Everytime someone makes a character that is an copy of an existing superhuman, Creativity is sad
We definitely shouldn't have to "test" the payment system ourselves, and given that there was and still is no official announcement saying that Steam support has been dropped, I would say that the blame is entirely on PWE (and possibly Steam). In fact you can check the Knowledge Base on the arc support site, and it still states Steam Wallet is an acceptable payment method.
Actually you can't, i tried it which was why i switched to steam. you try and it kicks you to skrill to create an account with them.