Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?

I just bought some additional DLC for a game online as the publisher was having a sale, with some of the older DLC at 70-90% off. But rather than hold it on Steam, they held it through their website (well, they had a sale on Steam earlier in the month, this was just more of the same).

I decided I'd pick up a few things, dropped them in my cart, and went to checkout. But I couldn't actually tell if I was buying a Steam key, or a download (and I'd really prefer the Steam key so everything I have for the game is linked). So I cut the order down to the minimum to poke the system and find out how it works.

Go to check out again, this time going all the way through the process, and I still can't tell what I'm getting.

System wanders off to authorise my payment, which goes through, then I get a new screen.

"We need to verify your order, please enter your telephone number below so we can send you a confirmation code"*

(I also get an email saying roughly the same thing, though without a link to the page to enter the number)

Seriously?

So I enter my phone number, and it opens up a new screen saying "Please enter your confirmation code."

A few minutes later, long enough to wonder "has this whole thing crashed?" I get a text with a 5 digit confirmation code.

So I enter the code and it tells me my order has succeeded. And nothing else.

A few minutes later, again long enough to wonder "has the whole thing crashed", I get an email with a link to what's described as a 'download page'.

So I roll my eyes and go off to download it.

It's not a download link, it's a Steam code (And it's hidden, so you have to specifically select to make it visible, but that seems to be a Steam thing as I've had it elsewhere).

So finally I can take the code and go and and install it in Steam.

Then I had to go back and do it all over again for the rest of the order. And does it remember your phone number? Does it hell.

Seriously, who thought this was a good idea?  The number of extra potential points of failure it adds is ridiculous, and it turns a 30 second post sale process into 15 minutes. And it's not a security check, because it doesn't send it to the email address associated with your account, you enter the number it's sent to there and then.

Utterly bizarre.

 

* It did at least give you the option of landline or mobile, presumably with a spoken code on the landline.

Computers, sigh.

I had a little trouble logging in yesterday, Windows didn't seem to be recognising the keyboard, so I got in using the on-screen keyboard. It seemed to be working once I was in, but not completely reliably, so I decided to run Dell Update, which informed me there were a couple of critical driver updates. So I downloaded those and left it to reboot overnight.

This morning, same problem. Only when I get in, I have absolutely no keyboard response whatsoever. So I haul out the stash of old keyboards and all of those get the same response - they're not being recognised by the USB. I check drivers etc, no updates needed.

Bugger. Using the on-screen keyboard on a non-touchscreen monitor is a pain in the backside.

Late afternoon I have a brainwave. I have a wireless keyboard, and that probably has a different driver. So I dig that out and plug it in. It's immediately recognised, yay!

I go to type, nothing. I change the batteries, nothing. Download the manual and check the connection sequence, nothing. Try it on the laptop, recognised, but nothing. So maybe that has a problem of its own.

But it started me thinking about USBs, and wondering if it might be a USB problem rather than a keyboard problem, and I have a second set of USB ports on the back of the desktop.

So I crawl under the desk and plug a keyboard in. "New device recognised: USB keyboard" and it works first time.

And then I remember. The reason I changed from plugging the keyboard in at the back, to plugging it in at the front, was I had precisely this scenario, but with the back USB ports, a year or so ago.

Computers are weird.