How to STOP Steam from trying to force you to update WWE 2k24

[Dirty Cheater]

If you want to play the game without being forced to update and you don't want to have to try and mess around with going offline or whatever, here's a great solution!

Make sure you set your Steam settings to only download the game when you launch it, so you'll see the warning sign (the big blue update button) before actually receiving the update.  Anytime you see the update button, just edit your manifest file so Steam thinks it has the new update!  Doing it this way will have two benefits - not only are you guarded from the update but you also KNOW there was an update.  If, however, you don't even want to know there was going to be an update, you can most likely just go straight to making the below referenced appmanifest file "read only" before the next update drops and I don't think Steam will even alert you when there's a new patch at all (plz correct me if I'm wrong on that part).

The file is within the Steam folders as found here: 

\Steam\steamapps\appmanifest_2315690.acf

To block the update from being forced on you, open appmanifest_2315690.acf in a text editor and change the following 2 spots:
1  Change the "StateFlags" value to 4
2 Replace the "manifest" ID number with the new Manifest ID found on this page here:  https://steamdb.info/depot/2315691/ 

After changing those two values in the file, save it.  Then right click the file and go to properties, and mark the file READ ONLY so Steam doesn't immediately overwrite it.  EXIT STEAM, and when you run it again, the game should have the green play button.  Eventually when you want to update to the newer patch, you can just go reverse the steps.  Note: If when you reverse the steps you still can't download a new patch, make sure you found and reverted to the previous manifest ID on that website and also make sure "ScheduledAutoUpdate" value is set to "0".  If you run into trouble and need help, feel free to ask!

Edited March 19 by Dirty Cheater