On Steam and It Not Working

Sparked by a mention on LJ I am keen to purchase Crusader Kings II.  I don’t play many computer games but I do like to have long running strategy game to lose myself in when MLW is out.  I’m currently playing variant of Civilisation, or as MLW calls it My Funny Little Game.

I thought I would experiment with Steam. It’s time to join the 21^st century, delivery would be quicker and they had a sale on.

So far it’s not working.

I can download the Steam client and then the game but I can’t get it to work. I get a Start to Play screen that looks like it is from the game but when I click on it I get either nothing or an error message.

I’ve tried un-installing then re-installing both the client and game.

The error message tells me the computer can’t find a .dll file.  The name of which is a series of letters and numbers (but which I have written down.)

I’m feeling more than a bit baffled and worried that I might have to resign my membership of the 21^st Century.

Also, from a customer point of view, less than delighted.

Next stop Steam Customer Support.

On Reeva Steenkamp, or More Accurately Oscar Pistorius

I’m sad that Reeva Steenkamp is dead. Just as I’m sad that anyone dies before about their 80^th birthday. It’s perhaps a little sadder that she has either been the victim of a tragic accident or a premeditated murder. However, I’d never heard of her before she was killed.  Lots of people will die before they reach their 80^th birthday.  Since the shootings in Sandy Hook thousands of USians’ have met premature ends involving a gun.  Pretty much every day since Reeva Steenkamp died there have been bombings in East Asia killing dozens of men, women and children.

So why is Oscar Pistorius on the BBC News every evening? Why are the details of the potentially pending criminal charges against the main detective on the BBC News two nights in a row?

I get that the shooting of a somewhat well-known person by a very well-known person is news. It’s not as if we discuss violence against women (or children) enough.(1) Except as entertainment. But the current coverage is beginning to verge on soap opera. It’s certainly not an attempt to shift the public conscience on a serious social problem.

The on-going coverage tells me nothing I need to know to go about my daily business. A news worthy event has occurred. Nothing about it affects me in the future. Time to stop talking about it until something actually happens.

Nor is it I think a collective act of mourning such as we saw after the death of Princess Diana. This feels like we are revelling in the entertainment of watching one family grieve for their daughter and in the grief and shame or cold-blooded guilt of a moderately well-known runner.

In a foreign country.

About a hundred women in the UK are murdered by their partners or former partners every year. (2) That’s about two a week. Two since Reeva Steenkamp might or might not have been murdered.  If the BBC are going to start reporting domestic murders continuously  I’d much, much rather they reported the on-going deaths of woman after woman in a way that made us look at the underlying issues in gender relations and masculinity that probably lie as a causal factor in the murders of a dozen human beings a month.  So we might start to do something about it. Instead of snacking down on some popcorn watching one life end and another disintegrate one way or the other.


(1) if indeed this was a violent act against a woman. If Pistorius’ version of events is true then, in his mind, he committed an act of violence against an unknown intruder, probably male.

(2) 100 or so out of approximately 600 murders annually. Most murders are of children under 1.  This compares to just under 2,000 road traffic fatalities a year in the UK with several hundred thousand people slightly injured.