activating w/Steam

I have just signed up w/ steam, I have purchased the retail box version of the Ball. Now I thought like other games you had to go online to activate, but when I activated and tried to play it says servers are busy down load game later. Or game ready in 2 hours to play.... What is up with that? I have the disc. Now I understand that this activation is required w/ Skyrim. I have high speed but not unlimited. If I buy Skyrim for $60. Do I still have to contend w. being on line to play?? Or download? Thanks in advance.

The disc versiom of Steam games may not include all the files necessary to play the game.


If that's true, my brother will not be playing Skyrim. We don't do Steam. We don't want to have to depend on a server somewhere that may be down or "busy" or non-existant in 10 years in order to play a game we paid money for.


According to this
http://www.carbonite.co.za/f3/my-copy-skyrim-lands-tomorrow-21410/index3.html
there is a 200 MB patch you need to download to play the game.

I will pass on Skyrim. Bethesda sells a retail DVD and then passes after-market responsibility to a third party. Chintzy.