Steam and its DRM

[Delusibeta]

The desire to have a physical object in their hand.

There's a Backup Manager for that. Sure, it's not quite the same as the real thing, but a disc printer and some photo editing and you should be OK.

And if you decide to apply that argument to GOG, you will find that your argument is invalid there. [http://www.gog.com/en/forum/general/unofficial_dvd_covers_list]

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Okay, one last comment, because it is starting to get eerie how similar this conversation is whenever I have it. I have almost never had a discussion with someone about 'why they don't like steam' that didn't involve basically this: The desire to have a physical object in their hand.

Now, I don't really care that you like that, I just think it's interesting how often that is cited as a desire, and is (often) at the root of many of these desires. I wonder if it is cultural or simply a random human trait? I want to do tests on people who feel this way, and see what happens.

Alas, that would probably be illegal.

I'd say it's a combination of 'force of habit' and just a random preference.

It's a bit tricky to explain... so I'll skirt around it.

A box is almost like a visual display, like a memento, same sort of reason I buy collectors editions, I like the random stuff that I can perch all over my shelves.

I'm sure you could run a study, as long as it didn't involve too much prodding.

 

[Irridium]

This thread makes me laugh.

God forbid someone doesn't want to deal with Steam. If someone doesn't want anything to do with a program, and is forced to use that program, that is bad. It doesn't matter how good the program is, its still forcing someone to do something they don't want to do.

I've been using Steam for 6 years. I'm well aware of its flaws and I completely understand why people don't want to use it. It has issues. Manny issues. It also has benefits. Many benefits. Its a trade off really. And your not "strange" or "stupid" for not wanting to deal with Steam. It may be the best form of DRM, but its still DRM.

 

[w00tage]

What's your problem with Steam?

I thought I'd come back to this. The list is long and the reasons are many but I'll pull up a recent event as an example.

About 3 weeks ago I finally upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7. So of course I had to wipe my hard drive, only saving a few GB of personal files on an external hard drive.

I decided to give Steam another chance, the internet loves it, it has a bunch of deals I could take advantage of, and my Steam friends list of people I actually speak to grew from 3 to 5.

So I downloaded Steam, installed it all, logged in and got ready for Dawn of War 2 and Empire: Total War.

Don't screw this up Steam, and all is forgotten.

5 minutes into Dawn of War 2 installation, 'The Steam servers are too busy to handle your request right now. Try again later'.

So my disc based copy of Dawn of War 2 can't install because your servers are on the fritz? Oh joy...

Then again with Empire: Total War. Clicked install, a few seconds later. 'Downloading Empire: Total War'. Wait why? Why are you downloading 4GB worth of stuff when the disc is in the tray?

Steam and me obviously do not get along, I'd much prefer to use other platforms or just have my copy run from disc.

Exactly! If you buy a game on disc the game should be on the disc and not on a server i the middle of nowhere. Why can't people buy one of these ridiculous "Steam only" games on disc and not have to suffer Steam? valve will still get money but steam should be purely optional and for those with good internet connections. Steam is annoying gamers with no or bad connections.

Too late now, but you should know - Steam makes your games effectively portable. You can back up all of your games by backing up your entire Steam directory on an external drive, do your format/reinstall/upgrade, reinstall Steam, and copy the saved Steam directory back over the Steam installation.

And Everything Works (save for the game I once had to do a "check local files for errors" on - it redownloaded 1 file and was good to go).

DRM issues aside, that fact that Steam makes your games portable is the reason I use it. I just took my Steam games drive out of my higher-end gaming computer, put it in a USB 3.0 external drive, and packed it along with my gaming-capable laptop so I could play while visiting my family. When I get back, I'll put it back into the gaming machine and neither machine will have the slightest problem with these actions

 

[Vault101]

Yes, but you can play them in offline mode(whatever reason you would need to do that)

because some of us don't live in a magical kingdom where internet is everywhere and not limited

 

[Vault boy Eddie]

I always save up 40-50 bucks on christmas for steam, usually end up with like 4-5 games I never would have gotten otherwise, Recent examples are: Mass Effect 1, both Bioshock games, ALL the company of heroes and Stalker games, and not i'm gonna get Operation Flashpoint for 3 bucks!!! I freaking love steam.

 

[LoganN]

ITT: Valve fans having someing on the side of their mouth.

 

[Kouen]

Aint nothing wrong with steam, its at least one of teh better if not best drm out there in teh fact its the least intrusive imo

 

[Continuity]

Honestly, I'd much rather have Steam's DRM then other forms of DRM which come with retail copies of games (like SecuROM, for example).

You know some steam games do have 3rd party DRM, which pisses me off tbh

 

[Chibz]

I would never buy a game on steam simply because of its DRM. None of the consoles force you to put up with such faggotry. Why put up with it from Valve?

 

[Delusibeta]

I would never buy a game on steam simply because of its DRM. None of the consoles force you to put up with such faggotry. Why put up with it from Valve?

Largely because both Live Arcade and PSN can (and has) have worse DRM. What do you mean I have to be online when I'm not on my home console? What do you mean I have to be online, period?

 

[Chibz]

I would never buy a game on steam simply because of its DRM. None of the consoles force you to put up with such faggotry. Why put up with it from Valve?

Um... PlayStation Network and Microsoft Live accomplish pretty much the exact same thing, and if you're caught with a pirated version of a game, your PSN or Live account is banned.

I fail to see how this is a bad thing. If I had my way we'd castrate pirates and force them to eat their testicles.

I would never buy a game on steam simply because of its DRM. None of the consoles force you to put up with such faggotry. Why put up with it from Valve?

Largely because both Live Arcade and PSN can (and has) have worse DRM.

Valve's DRM is way more intrusive. Forcing you to run yet another shitty little program in the background? The hell is this noise?

I'm glad I bought my Dawn of War copy from a real store, instead of Valve's little scam.

Edit: For me, system resources are almost a precious commodity. Because there aren't enough games on PC worth buying to actually validate upgrading the thing. Way too expensive for me. Plus I'd have less money for games anyway.

 

[Delusibeta]

I would never buy a game on steam simply because of its DRM. None of the consoles force you to put up with such faggotry. Why put up with it from Valve?

Largely because both Live Arcade and PSN can (and has) have worse DRM.

Valve's DRM is way more intrusive. Forcing you to run yet another shitty little program in the background? The hell is this noise?

And I have to run the Dashboard in the background while I play my 360 games. And the difference is?

 

[Chibz]

And I have to run the Dashboard in the background while I play my 360 games. And the difference is?

I'm pretty sure the dashboard isn't really running "at full" most the time. Especially when playing a game.

On the PC you've already got Windows running (Which itself is obese & unnecessary). Plus whatever else is running on your compy. It's a cluster-fuck of bad performance.

 

[omegaminus]

Valve's DRM is way more intrusive. Forcing you to run yet another shitty little program in the background? The hell is this noise?

If it's completely inactive, it'll get paged out and will take zero physical RAM and zero CPU time.

 

[Delusibeta]

And I have to run the Dashboard in the background while I play my 360 games. And the difference is?

I'm pretty sure the dashboard isn't really running "at full" most the time. Especially when playing a game.

On the PC you've already got Windows running (Which itself is obese & unnecessary). Plus whatever else is running on your compy. It's a cluster-fuck of bad performance.

Meh. It's only bad if you haven't got a half-decent computer. And, frankly, anti-virus programs use about ten times more resources than Steam does. (Before you point out that I should use Macs, I'm not paying another £150 more pounds than I did for this laptop for a significantly worse machine. Before you point out I should use Linux, hardly anyone makes games for it.)

 

[Chibz]

Meh. It's only bad if you haven't got a half-decent computer. And, frankly, anti-virus programs use about ten times more resources than Steam does. (Before you point out that I should use Macs, I'm not paying another £150 more pounds than I did for this laptop for a significantly worse machine. Before you point out I should use Linux, hardly anyone makes games for it.)

And besides, why would I pay real money in order to use Xbox Live's retarded younger brother?

If I wanted to do that, I'd just buy games compatable with Games For Windows. You know, all 41 of them. That pretty much universally suck.

Also, anti-virus programs are another necessity of PC-gaming that makes it all so awful.

Valve's DRM is way more intrusive. Forcing you to run yet another shitty little program in the background? The hell is this noise?

If it's completely inactive, it'll get paged out and will take zero physical RAM and zero CPU time.

Except it's always doing "enough" to drain resources, but not enough to actually matter. How about game publishers just not release games on PC (The easiest system on the market to pirate for) and call it done?

 

[Delusibeta]

Also, anti-virus programs are another necessity of PC-gaming that makes it all so awful.

And now for some logic. You are posting on this forum. Most people post on forums use computers, and most computers use Windows, and most Windows computers use an anti-virus program. Ergo, a large proportion of people using forums have anti-virus.

My point is that anti-virus is a necessity of most people's computer use.

How about game publishers just not release games on PC (The easiest system on the market to pirate for) and call it done?

Because then all the pirates would focus all their efforts on cracking consoles, rendering them all about as heavily pirated as PCs games are now.

 

[Chibz]

How about game publishers just not release games on PC (The easiest system on the market to pirate for) and call it done?

Because then all the pirates would focus all their efforts on cracking consoles, rendering them all about as heavily pirated as PCs games are now.

That's part of why I'm so glad we have PC gaming. Let it have all the problems inherit in gaming. And let console gaming be the main show. As long as sleazebag pirates have ah infinitely easier system to pirate on, they will.

Although, the funny thing is that PC gaming will always be easier to compromise.

 

[Delusibeta]

How about game publishers just not release games on PC (The easiest system on the market to pirate for) and call it done?

Because then all the pirates would focus all their efforts on cracking consoles, rendering them all about as heavily pirated as PCs games are now.

That's part of why I'm so glad we have PC gaming. Let it have all the problems inherit in gaming. And let console gaming be the main show. As long as sleazebag pirates have ah infinitely easier system to pirate on, they will.

Although, the funny thing is that PC gaming will always be easier to compromise.

Meh. I would point to how easy people are finding to "compromise" the Wii and the PSP, and how big 360 games tends to leak before the release date. Don't think that consoles have it all their own way with piracy.