I Have Seen The Future, And it is Annoying
Pop quiz, hotshot: How many applications does it take to run a game?
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Pop quiz, hotshot: How many applications does it take to run a game?
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I Have Seen The Future, And it is Annoying
- Thread starter Shamus Young
- Start date
GTA IV lasted half a day on my system before I expunged that piece of crap.
STOP trying to make the PC into an XBox, you corporate whores.
STOP trying to make the PC into an XBox, you corporate whores.
This is the exact reason why I won't get Dawn of War II. It requires both Steam and Games for Windows Live. People seem to really like Steam and I don't see why. It's just a glorified DRM. I paid for the game I shouldn't be forced to connect to the internet to play it.
The best defense against piracy regardless of wether you're in the music, movie, or game industry is to just not put out crap and more importantly not treat your customers like crap.
The best defense against piracy regardless of wether you're in the music, movie, or game industry is to just not put out crap and more importantly not treat your customers like crap.
Even Dragon Age has this problem, albeit in a more benevolent form because they don't run SecuROM et al in the background. But it wants you to hook up to the Bioware Social Site. Granted, they bribe you to do this with DLC instead of INSISTING you do it in order to play the core game, but it's still annoying. It fights with my firewall and has caused me to lose my internet access rules THREE TIMES.
I bought it on Steam for $8.75 I think. I downloaded the game on my new computer, and thought "alright it's done! Time to launch this and play it!"The_root_of_all_evil said:
Had to get GFWL...
Soooo I got GFWL, and it wanted me to install "Silverlight" or something but I skipped that. Then I launched the game again thinking "alright, no more fucking around" - then Rockstar Social Club came up, asking me to "sign in".
I exited out of it and thought "to hell with it, I'll launch this when I have 4 hours of free time so I can go through all these loopholes" - so no GTA IV for me yet.
Then I restart my computer...and what the fuck, Rockstar Social club is now a program that boots on startup! I JUST GOT A NEW COMPUTER - KEEP YOUR DIRTY HANDS OFF OF HER!
(I just right clicked it and told it not to come up on startup, but what an annoying experience)
I hate to say it, but actions like these actually increase piracy. Make something more difficult, and people will try to find a simplier way.
Batman has Securom and online activation while being on steam? wow...
I swear they are shooting themselves in the foot by making it more complex.
Batman has Securom and online activation while being on steam? wow...
I swear they are shooting themselves in the foot by making it more complex.
The DRM clusterfuck, well and truly running in earnest. What I wonder is how much of the (western) pac gaming industry will be left when the dust clears and we see Valve won. They'll still be there but how many franchises, developers and publishers will dropped us computer nerds citing poor sales and piracy (sweet, drm free theft) as their reasons to go?
It's hard to see where DRM can go to become more punishing and obstructive to customers, but I'm sure millions are being spent thinking about it.
Pop Quiz answer: Shoot the hostage!
It's hard to see where DRM can go to become more punishing and obstructive to customers, but I'm sure millions are being spent thinking about it.
Pop Quiz answer: Shoot the hostage!
I think it says something that the one company that's in a real position to enforce some fricking order on the PC as a gaming platform invested billions of dollars to develop a brand name games console instead.The_root_of_all_evil said:
Indeed. I think these companies are either insane or stupid. Why does it take me longer to buy and register your game than it does for me to just pirate it? It takes less effort to just crack the game than it does to register to the four or five different systems that are going to be sitting on my system from now on.CrysisMcGee said:
having played via steam for years, i was there back when the Europe store sold in dollars, i dont mind it, its like the unskippable company logos when ever i start a game, it was annoying at first but now its just part of the experience, what i cant stand on the other hand is GFWL and gamespy, for one thing it complicates things beyond belief, i could never get into borderlands because i couldn't play with my 3 friends and the game was a snorefest in singleplayer, GFWL just blocks some content if you refuse to log in.
I'm not the enemy guys, I'm the medic...
[sub]team killing bastards[/sub]
I'm not the enemy guys, I'm the medic...
[sub]team killing bastards[/sub]
Steam is cheap, the games download and play usually without a hitch, (and it saves me some space!)
In fact the only issue I ever have is the poor customer support sevice, (it so unresponsive!), and being unable to buy games due to internal errors, (their servers don't seem to be designed to cope with their sales usually).
Its the other companies refusing to trust Valve with their products which is causing this issue. (Not to mention their lack of faith in their customers, by forcing limited installs)
In the end of the day, all Valve want to do is expand on their Steam service, by keeping their library up to date, their games as cheap as they can profit from, and secure from piracy. All this extra baggage just weighs down its capability to grow.
In fact the only issue I ever have is the poor customer support sevice, (it so unresponsive!), and being unable to buy games due to internal errors, (their servers don't seem to be designed to cope with their sales usually).
Its the other companies refusing to trust Valve with their products which is causing this issue. (Not to mention their lack of faith in their customers, by forcing limited installs)
In the end of the day, all Valve want to do is expand on their Steam service, by keeping their library up to date, their games as cheap as they can profit from, and secure from piracy. All this extra baggage just weighs down its capability to grow.
Shamus, your articles are gold, especially on the DRM argument. It is getting absolutley ridiculous what kinds of utter shite we have to install just to play a game. Games for Windows - LIVE is my personal nemisis, it's a plague and a disease on potentially good games; I don't want it, it does NOTHING for me, yet it prevents me from playing games if thier poxy server stubbornly refuses to acknowledge my connection.
Steam, however, i've grown to like. It's got cheaper prices then actual CDs, access to demos/whatnot. And if they must have some sort of DRM or whatever, let it be one you can choose and then all your games can conform on that.
Steam, however, i've grown to like. It's got cheaper prices then actual CDs, access to demos/whatnot. And if they must have some sort of DRM or whatever, let it be one you can choose and then all your games can conform on that.
See, this is why I steer away from PC gaming, IDC how much better the graphics are (good graphics =/= good game) it's all this BS. We all know piracy is bad, WE get it. Is all this truley necessary though?
So, what happens when your internet connection fails? You can't play your SINGLE-PLAYER games? Bullshit. I am seriously hating this DRM that relies on internet connectivity. This isn't exactly the metro I'm living in here; the only available service is ADSL, and it is pragmatic. So... games I'm buying are punishing me for my geographic location? I've said it several times lately: Crack time.
And I treat Steam/Impulse/GFWL as malware, because they are.
And I treat Steam/Impulse/GFWL as malware, because they are.
Just so you know, the more I thought about this the more in danger my head was of exploding.NamesAreHardToPick said:
What an amazing point.
I'm not sure I agree with the steam bit. It's a solid program with useful features and great deals that every tries to ape with no success.Earthmonger said:
Steam has never done me wrong and I don't have to be online to play my games with it. I can't see a problem with it.
GFWL is just SecueROM with the windows logo plastered on it. I hate it. I force Steam in to offline mode whenever I play DoW2, and with Dragon Age I uncheck all of the social crap that is turned on by default, it still doesn't stop the annoying server timeout messages I get when I start it up.
Wouldn't that imply making the process easier? Though they are essentially the same steps, you don't need to deal with the hassle of all these additional programs.The_root_of_all_evil said:
Atleast, not yet.
Yep, I completely agree. The hell with digital distribution, I'll just buy it on a disk like back in the old days.