I know. And you cannot disable them. You can only delay them. The "Do not automatically update this game" setting simply means, "Only check for and download updates when launching this game".

As such, if an update is available, instead of it downloading when Steam periodically checks for updates, you'll have to download it when you go to play the game instead.

That was only true of the unpatched original build. Steam was patched into TESV.exe shortly afterwards.

You can turn off the automatic patching, as regards Skyrim, I believe the second patch was bad, but its now on 1.03 or 1.04. Its a pretty good game.

For Christmas Steam suspended my account with no reason given. This is Steam! Taking away your games in an instant. Games you payed for. Bye bye!

So you got Skyrim and Civ V. Great. Now download some cracks for them and screw Steam.

Have you tried updating your graphics card drivers ? ... worth a try. :)

Steam was having a hissy fit. It works now for some reason.

Good to hear must be Xmas gremlins . :)

Yes but then you can't install updates right since it is all down via steam?

Not to mention viruses spam these sites?
What about the whole steam wants to download from the internet when you have the cd thing?

Does that come up frequently and have deal with that confusing FAQ?
Sounds like there is no way to avoid the "buggy 1.2 patch" of Skyrim :(
Has this been the case for Skyrim (dragons flying backwards, etc)?

I never played much of Skyrim yet actually.

Do you need to go in order? Assuming I can even bypass 1.2, is it a good idea to go straight to 1.3?

Normally it won't auto update, but Skyrim used to launch without opening Steam, so the game forced one patch that added nothing but the requirement Steam be open before launching Skyrim. No other patches have been required yet.

Also, the vast majority of Skyrim updates have been very helpful. It is only the minority of people who have issues, it just looks more widespread than it is because the only people who speak up are the ones that have the problems.

I have not had a single bug yet in Skyrim, with or without patches. The CIv 5 patches have even added new features, like hotseat. You should be fine.

Reading your first post looks like you have 2 options, looking at the games sitting on your shelf or playing them.

The obvious choice would be to play them and see for yourself what you think of Steam now.
If you still find it problematic, crack your games and remove it.

So far in using the service for 4 years I didn't have any issues with it, once offline mode didn't work for me because I tried to start it with an unfinished update.

Take your logic and pragmatism somewhere else, this is a steam thread! It makes perfect sense for the OP to allow valve to have his dad's money, then not use the present purely because of some autopatching that won't actually occur until he's finished both of those games (and probably wouldn't bother him if it did).

You'll get the latest build that is stored on the content severs, so unless there's been a newer patch, that should be 1.3. Of course, if 1.3 didn't fix issues introduced in the original or subsequent builds, you'll still possibly have the problem of those issues.

1.3 more or less just fixed the problems with 1.2. As long as you end up with 1.3 your fine, and should't worry about 1.2 at all. If you just let Steam do its thing, you will end up with 1.3. Don't sweat the patch issue so much, its not actually the problem you have been led to believe.

I've only used Steam for the last year or so, so I can't compare to how it used to be.

The only problem I have ever had is Steam adding a game to my Library that I hadn't paid for.
Having heard the horror stories about them banning your account for scamming, I flew into a panic & begged steam support to delete the game (which they did after a couple of days...)

Other than that, I hear of moaning about steam issues, but have never encountered them myself.