Secure PC gaming could bring prices down - Taylor

[alpha_dk]

I agree in theory, but in practice.... It will take a hell of a lot more convincing to get me to be okay with many of these practices.

First, the notion of it being on a central server is great - I love digital distribution. However, unless there is a loophole for offline play (like Steam has) I am simply not interested. And as soon as you have that loophole that doesn't require authentication, you no longer have a secure system.

Second, any sort of protection that would protect them offline (DRM via encryption, etc) is sure to be broken at some point, and then it becomes an arms race between the crackers and the companies. In the end, the crackers *will* win, and the costs of developing the DRM will push prices even higher. They cannot do the Apple FairPlay route of making the DRM easily circumventable, either, because as soon as one copy is cracked, it'll be on torrent sites within minutes. Songs have had Digital DRM-free CDs available forever, so a single copy of a song getting its DRM stripped is no big deal.

Really, I say Steam is the ideal that can be shot for and still have people use it. It provides a simple portal to playing and buying games, while making it somewhat annoying to pirate games (but not impossible). You avoid the arms race, and you provide a platform where honest people can be honest.