Want.

Mirrored from brigidkeely.com/wordpress.

I’ve been playing Civ for… gosh… a decade now? I love the games so much. I’ve been goofing around with Civ IV quite a bit lately (although I didn’t care for Civ IV: Colonization very much; just not my kind of game) and enjoying the heck out of it.

Then I saw that Sid Meier’s Civilization V is coming out September 22!

I have about four million other places I need to put my money, but dang if I don’t want this game. Maybe I’ll ask for it for Christmas.

Anyone out there interested in playing multiplayer? I dislike playing the computer because it cheats. :O Actually, my preferred game is a culture race.

Dear Steam: Fuck You

Mirrored from brigidkeely.com/wordpress.

So, yeah, no. I won’t be signing up with Steam so I can purchase and download Civ V when it comes out.

Why?

Because I just spent 5 real minutes, not 5 exaggerated for effect minutes, but 5 real actual minutes, grappling with their damn captcha. Here’s a hint: when your captcha seems to be composed primarily of graphite smears that make your 3s, 8s, Bs, and &s indistinguishable from each other? It’s neither useful nor usable. I couldn’t tell Ks from Ys. There were random smudges, squiggles, and just… visual junk… completely obscuring what I was supposed to be typing. There was no audio option, no “contact a person for help” option, no “instead, just answer a question” answer. Only failed captcha after failed captcha.

Totally awesome, and completely professional!

I don’t really identify as visually impaired because although I use what one might call an assistive device (glasses) that’s pretty expensive ($300 a pop, and my eyes degrade so quickly I really need new glasses every 9 months or so, although I can’t afford that), I’m far from legally blind. I slap my glasses on and go about my day and don’t really worry about my eyesight unless I need new glasses, I can’t find my glasses, or… I’m dealing with captchas.

It’s the rare captcha that doesn’t give me trouble. Even if there isn’t detritus littering the visual field, I’m still dyslexic enough that it’s hard to type random letters in the same order I see them, and it’s hard to tell upper and lower case letters apart in some fonts.

Steam doesn’t seem remotely interested in working with customers unable to use standard captcha devices– which is a HUGE fucking group of people. Which is sad. But, you know. I can obtain my games from other, less convenient sources.