Ah, you're right. It used to let you play if steam was opened, even if you weren't logged in (ie.. sitting on the log-in popup) . But I tried that and it doesn't work now. Shame, I don't really want the DRM stuff, just to use steam's matchmaking features when available. I probably won't do a non-steam build for now though, just because I want to keep it clear which is the paid version.