Playing Non-Steam games in Steam?

I have finally officially fallen in love with Steam. I've been looking for an excuse to fall in love with my PC setup again and Steam is the perfect reason for me. A few questions for you Steam pros, if you please:

When you choose to "Add a non-Steam game" to your games list within Steam, does it track the time you play them and includ it in your account stats?

Does it count towards achievements or are those reserved for games you purchase through steam?

How does it handle games purchased at retail but that are also available from Steam?

Thanks!

Not sure about how it handles your account stats. Seeing as you can add really stupid things as non-Steam apps, like notepad.exe, Fire Fox, etc., it may handle it differently than verified Steam games (like valvepad.exe!). It doesn't count toward achievements because non-Steam games don't have those coded in. It handles retail versions of games available on Steam like any other retail game; the fact that it's also on Steam has no effect.

Really, all adding a game to Steam does is allow you to access the Steam overlay in-game and your friends will know what you're playing. Keeps all your games together in one big list too, for ease of launching.

Fyedaddy wrote:

When you choose to "Add a non-Steam game" to your games list within Steam, does it track the time you play them and includ it in your account stats?

No it doesn't, though it does show up in the Now Playing box on your friends' friend lists.

Does it count towards achievements or are those reserved for games you purchase through steam?

The achievements work through Steamworks, which can be included in games that you buy retail as well as games you buy through Steam - there aren't a ton of non-Valve games that have them, though.

How does it handle games purchased at retail but that are also available from Steam?

For older Valve games and a select few third party titles, you can enter your serial code and tie them to your Steam account which will keep them updated and track your playtime on them as if you had bought them through Steam. Newer Valve games and third party games that use Steamworks add themselves to your Steam list automatically and require Steam in order to run. Third party titles that don't use Steamworks will only go on your list fully (with the update service and playtime tracking) if you buy them through Steam.

Fyedaddy wrote:

When you choose to "Add a non-Steam game" to your games list within Steam, does it track the time you play them and includ it in your account stats?

It will track the time played; but it won't show what game was played. You can check my profile to see what it will look like.

LobsterMobster wrote:

It handles retail versions of games available on Steam like any other retail game; the fact that it's also on Steam has no effect.

...though I believe that, game-dependent, you can "tie in" retail versions. At least, I think you can with Valve games.

Chumpy_McChump wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

It handles retail versions of games available on Steam like any other retail game; the fact that it's also on Steam has no effect.

...though I believe that, game-dependent, you can "tie in" retail versions. At least, I think you can with Valve games.

I think that needs to be designed in from the ground up. Dawn of War II requires Steam for instance, but you're not really installing a PC game and choosing to associate it with Steam, you're buying a Steam download at a store to save yourself time (and maybe money).

LobsterMobster wrote:

I think that needs to be designed in from the ground up. Dawn of War II requires Steam for instance, but you're not really installing a PC game and choosing to associate it with Steam, you're buying a Steam download at a store to save yourself time (and maybe money).

There are a few third-party titles that don't use Steamworks that can be tied into Steam after buying them retail (as well as Valve's whole pre-Steam back catalog.) Prey is one that I can remember, there were a couple others.

Switchbreak wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

I think that needs to be designed in from the ground up. Dawn of War II requires Steam for instance, but you're not really installing a PC game and choosing to associate it with Steam, you're buying a Steam download at a store to save yourself time (and maybe money).

There are a few third-party titles that don't use Steamworks that can be tied into Steam after buying them retail (as well as Valve's whole pre-Steam back catalog.) Prey is one that I can remember, there were a couple others.

I purchased Empire: Total War boxed copy and it uses Steamworks. So does NBA 2K9. When you install them they either try to set you up with a new Steam account or if you're already logged in it runs in Steam just like an online purchase. It even said it was downloading the game while it installed from the DVD (DVDs in the case of Empire). These games do have the achievements and scoring stored by Steam.

OK, given, but those are really the exceptions to the rule. They were specifically integrated.

LobsterMobster wrote:

OK, given, but those are really the exceptions to the rule. They were specifically integrated.

That's what I was trying to say, these are the exceptions. All of the "adding a non-steam game" ones don't take advantage of any of Steam's features other than the friends list displaying "MrWynd in non-steam game X". Guess I didn't complete my thought in the previous post.

The main advantage to adding non-steam games to Steam is that when it pops up those "event starting" messages they don't knock out out of whatever game you are in.

mrwynd wrote:
LobsterMobster wrote:

OK, given, but those are really the exceptions to the rule. They were specifically integrated.

That's what I was trying to say, these are the exceptions. All of the "adding a non-steam game" ones don't take advantage of any of Steam's features other than the friends list displaying "MrWynd in non-steam game X". Guess I didn't complete my thought in the previous post.

There are basically three (and a half) tiers of Steamliness:

1. Games that use Steamworks: This would be newer Valve games (HL2 and onward) and third party titles like Dawn of War 2 or Empire: Total War. It doesn't matter if you buy games in this tier at retail or over Steam, they'll tie permanently to your Steam account and require Steam to run.

2. Games bought over Steam that don't use Steamworks: This would be most games available on Steam. These are treated differently depending on how you bought them - if you get the retail version, you can't tie it in to your account later. They let you track playtime, use the auto-update service, and redownload them any time you want.

2.5. Games bought at retail that don't use Steamworks but do have a CD-Key deal with Valve: This is a very small tier that consists of Valve's pre-Steam catalog and a very small group of third party games - Prey and a few others. They give you all the benefits of buying the game over Steam if you enter the CD key and tie it permanently to your account, or can be played vanilla with no Steam integration if you want.

3: Games bought at retail that don't use Steamworks: These can be added through the non-Steam game button. They tell your friends what you're playing and give you the in-game overlay, but none of the other Steam features.

Thanks all! This was very helpful. I will take some time by the weekend to sort out my game list and confirm my setup. I have a couple of Steam games I bought at retail (World of Goo comes to mind) that are long overdue to be installed.