I think Valve, Blizzard, and just a few other companies realize that to be wildly successful you have to serve your customers and do what they want, not go against the grain. I know, out of the box thinking, right?
I think Valve, Blizzard, and just a few other companies realize that to be wildly successful you have to serve your customers and do what they want, not go against the grain. I know, out of the box thinking, right?
the thing about Steam is not about what the pros, but about the relative lack of cons. besides requiring an initial Internet connection, it won't stop your progress if you lose your connection, it won't stop you from activating your game in whatever PC you want, it won't install stuff without telling you, it won't prevent you from using virtual drives or even physical drives, and the list goes on...
at least, that's how I see it.
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dobby985 said:
I think the Steam DRM is fantastic. You get features like Achievements, Anti-Cheat, Auto-Updating, and Steam Cloud. I play all my favorite games like CSS & TF2 on Steam anyway. So why not have all my games on Steam? |
For the most part, Steam as a form of DRM is relatively invisible, but as it is essentially an "outer shell" service/program loader encompassing separate pieces of software, each individual piece still retains whatever DRM has been written into each program's code.
Case in point; GTAIV still has it's separate online service requiring players to sign in to confirm a legitimate Rockstar account and play online. Most Games for Windows programs (including GTAIV; meaning you have to sign in to Rockstar servers AND MS servers) require players to sign in for the purpose of tracking changes to your MS account.
From what I can tell, some games like Arkham Asylum won't allow you to save games without signing in to XBL. This is essentially the same form of DRM being used in AC2. Don't sign in; you can't save progress, and the game essentially becomes unplayable for anything but demo purposes, even with a purchased license of the game.
So the convenience of having all games accessible through one loader/service arguably remains the best feature of Steam, but it does not eliminate many of the negatives.
If you play on multiple systems, the ability to access and load any of your games to any system through your account is probably one of the other best features of the service along with Steam Cloud (great idea in theory but doesn't seem to work for me for any of my games).
Haha, Emperor Palpatine calls Darth Vader evil, and receives the applause of the entire rebels alliance.
Gabe is the biggest obstacle to a DRM free world
scottie said: Haha, Emperor Palpatine calls Darth Vader evil, and receives the applause of the entire rebels alliance. Gabe is the biggest obstacle to a DRM free world |
How do you mean?
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Killergran said:
How do you mean? |
He has created the 2nd most invasive drm in the gaming world (Ubisoft temporarily takes the cake of course, but that experiment completely failed so we have nothing to worry about from them) By criticising DRM, whilst being it's greatest and most sucessful champion, Gabe is being a complete hypocrit
Killergran said:
You are comparing weird things here. First, it's only natural that any DRM is worse than no DRM. Seriously dude, how can Steam as DRM is bad because it's worse than no DRM? Resale of intangible goods is difficult, not to say impossible, to get to work as a system. That is the true for any Digital Distribution platform. It's inherent in the system, and doesn't make Steam as a means of Digital Distribution any worse than it could be. And PC gaming isn't console gaming, hence the need for DRM in the first place. If you want achievments, Steam is one of two places you can get it on the PC (GFWL being the other), and for most games it's the only place. It is also the only place where you can talk to all your friends and see what they are playing, invite them or join them easilly no matter what game they are playing, on the PC. Yes, it already exists on consoles, isn't it great that we can now do it on the PC as well? Battle.net doesn't work for that many games either. Blizzard games only, if I remember correctly. It's a compromise, they're saying that: Yes, it's sometimes inconvenient. Here's a ton of great features you can get nowhere else on the platform to make up for it. That is the essence of the Steam DRM. Less intrusive DRM, more focused experience, easier to manage games and a community around it are bonuses you get for shopping legally using Digital Distribution. I'd rather take the Steam DRM than any other DRM on the market. |
Steam is bad because it takes away one of the main rights of the consumer (first-sale doctrine).You can talk about how it's supposedly the least evil of all DRMs all you want. But that doesn't mean that it isn't evil. I also disagree that it's the least evil of DRM schemes. Games that only have your standard disc check (that is a form of DRM btw) are less evil than Steam. You can at least sell those games. You have actual ownership over them. That kind of DRM doesn't allow you to make backup copies but I can live with that. Just download a NO-CD crack and I'm good if I absolutely must play it off the hard drive completely. But take away our right to sell our games? That I can't agree with. I'm disappointed in gamers for essentially thanking Valve for taking away one of their fundamental consumer rights and talking them up as if they are the good guys. Hopefully console gaming will not end up like PC gaming. I can't imagine a world where you can't buy console games off ebay and can't rent console games anymore.
loves2splooge said:
Steam is bad because it takes away one of the main rights of the consumer (first-sale doctrine).You can talk about how it's supposedly the least evil of all DRMs all you want. But that doesn't mean that it isn't evil. I also disagree that it's the least evil of DRM schemes. Games that only have your standard disc check (that is a form of DRM btw) are less evil than Steam. You can at least sell those games. You have actual ownership over them. That kind of DRM doesn't allow you to make backup copies but I can live with that. Just download a NO-CD crack and I'm good if I absolutely must play it off the hard drive completely. But take away our right to sell our games? That I can't agree with. I'm disappointed in gamers for essentially thanking Valve for taking away one of their fundamental consumer rights and talking them up as if they are the good guys. |
I disagree. Disc check games have the problem that discs scratch and wear down, no matter how good care you take of them.
You give up resell HOWEVER you get back the ability of always having the game.
Kasz216 said:
I disagree. Disc check games have the problem that discs scratch and wear down, no matter how good care you take of them. You give up resell HOWEVER you get back the ability of always having the game. |
Make a backup image of your game on your hard drive in combination with a No-CD crack. Problem solved. You never have to use the disc again.
And then you have to have the 10 GB install or whatever it may be, plus the 8.5 GB image of the DVD on your HDD. That's efficient use of space!