Single player isn't all that great at the moment - just skirmish against some bots basically. It's okay, but if it's important to you then you're better off waiting. I think I remember reading on their forums that they're developing new single player content for a later patch.

I haven't tried the online multi player yet, but I spent all day yesterday playing it on a LAN with two others. It was a fantastic amount of fun. Good pace (which can be adjusted in game), plenty to do, great team gameplay. If you're able to play it on a LAN then I'd definitely recommend it.

They don't have any license restrictions for LAN play either. One copy can be used for everyone on the LAN.

I wasn't asked to activate Galactic Civilizations 2 when I installed it. I just had to activate it to get the updates.

So you should be fine when you want to install without an internet connection.

It was a retail boxed copy though, I'm not sure whether the downloaded version would be the same.

Stardock forces updates through the client as a DRM measure. That's why.

They have made updates available as a standalone download in the past though, generally ones which fix bugs in the games. But to get all the patches they require you to use their client.

To avoid having to download all the patches again on a reinstall they allow you to create a backup of the game from your currently installed version. You can restore from this archive later instead of reinstalling. I think it even packages up any extra content(mods/tweaks etc) you have as well. I'm not sure whether reinstalling from an archive requires an activation check though.

Or alternatively, don't buy from Steam. Then he'd have been able to do exactly what he wanted.

I picked up Empire: Total War not realising it required Steam in order to run. Steam has made playing it an uncomfortable experience.

If you can't be bothered learning how the API works, then how about you use a library which takes care of it for you?

Just because you're using a high level language doesn't mean you can ignore learning it's API.

For example, from the Python docs:

os.fsync(fd)
Force write of file with filedescriptor fd to disk. On Unix, this calls the native fsync function; on Windows, the MS _commit function. If youre starting with a Python file object f, first do f.flush(), and then do os.fsync(f.fileno()), to ensure that all internal buffers associated with f are written to disk. Availability: Unix, and Windows starting in 2.2.3.

If you're writing applications robustly, this is something you need to be aware of.

I've downloaded a lot of video games. I started back when I got an Amiga 500 about two decades ago. Video games have been a large part of my life during this period, probably to an unhealthy level at times. The constant supply of new titles provided to me by piracy has fed this obsession.

Now that I have a much higher disposable income what do you think I spend it on? On my main interest of course - video games.

Preventing my piracy would not have resulted in any additional sales for the industry, it's already got everything it could out of me. Preventing my piracy would only have helped break my obsession - leading to me spending my money elsewhere.

Although I have pirated games, I find it hard to buy into the argument that I'm hurting the industry. I've spent a lot of money of video games, and I don't forsee that changing much in the future.