Steamworks as DRM Alternative?

[HeyZeus_Ezekiel_Jesus]

I picked up Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II the other day and you have to have a Steam and Games for Windows Live account just to play the game. You use GFWL to play online, but you have to have Steam cause that's this games alternative to DRM.

So, is this the next step in DRM or will they still use that virus?

 

[Good morning blues]

I hope it's the next step in DRM. As DRM goes, Steam is pretty inobstrusive.

 

[oliveira8]

What virus?

Also DoW2 is stupid for using 2 DRM's... Also to Good morning blues Steamworks is Steam.

 

[megapenguinx]

Virus? I like Steam, I never knew what people complained about it for

 

[Podunk]

Steam is pretty sweet. I couldn't find my orange box disk to install on my parents computer while home on vacation, so I just downloaded Steam, logged in, and was able to download all my games right onto the computer- no disk or CD key needed. That's, like, the opposite of DRM or something.

 

[Flour]

Steam is annoying.

It takes me 2 minutes to load steam, four minutes to check for updates and another three to finally start the game. Then the game itself has to load before I'm finally able to play.

However, when it's running, steam is a great program, I never had any problems with it(except for the horrible loading times) and I prefer it over SecuROM or any worthless attempt that's only used to lock me out of my legally purchased games.

 

[gRiM_rEaPeRsco]

I like steam quite alot, except the lack of effort valve puts into getting non-valve to work on it (Medieval II for example)

 

[A random person]

I like Steam, but I'm disturbed by the reliance on a central server to play your games, screwing you over if your internet breaks or the server has problems.

 

[oliveira8]

Steam is annoying.

It takes me 2 minutes to load steam, four minutes to check for updates and another three to finally start the game. Then the game itself has to load before I'm finally able to play.

However, when it's running, steam is a great program, I never had any problems with it(except for the horrible loading times) and I prefer it over SecuROM or any worthless attempt that's only used to lock me out of my legally purchased games.

Took me 4 minutes to boot up Team Fortress 2, open Steam Cloud, get into this website and write this. What long loading times?

 

[Dys]

What virus?

Also DoW2 is stupid for using 2 DRM's... Also to Good morning blues Steamworks is Steam.

Using 2 DRMS is fine (cd check+secuROM+cd key is pretty common), using GFWL, under any circumstances, is not.

 

[oliveira8]

What virus?

Also DoW2 is stupid for using 2 DRM's... Also to Good morning blues Steamworks is Steam.

Using 2 DRMS is fine (cd check+secuROM+cd key is pretty common), using GFWL, under any circumstances, is not.

Well I was refering to using two programs that do the same thing. Its just that Steam does everything much better than GFWL, that the guys at relic must have been on shrooms to come up with the decision, of putting exact programs as DRM/multiplayer platforms for their game.

 

[Flour]

Steam is annoying.

It takes me 2 minutes to load steam, four minutes to check for updates and another three to finally start the game. Then the game itself has to load before I'm finally able to play.

However, when it's running, steam is a great program, I never had any problems with it(except for the horrible loading times) and I prefer it over SecuROM or any worthless attempt that's only used to lock me out of my legally purchased games.

Took me 4 minutes to boot up Team Fortress 2, open Steam Cloud, get into this website and write this. What long loading times?

Spoiler: Funny...

June 22, 2009 - Steam client update released

Steam Client


Improved Steam startup performance

I'm finally able to start games in 3 minutes

 

[Flying-Emu]

Virus? I like Steam, I never knew what people complained about it for

Well, Steam crashes a lot for me, and it screws up my update downloads occasionally. For example, for Team Fortress 2, when the Spy/Sniper update came out with the Arena Sawmill level, I couldn't see the boxes outside the actual mill because Steam corrupted a file during download.

That was a ***** to fix.

 

[Dys]

What virus?

Also DoW2 is stupid for using 2 DRM's... Also to Good morning blues Steamworks is Steam.

Using 2 DRMS is fine (cd check+secuROM+cd key is pretty common), using GFWL, under any circumstances, is not.

Well I was refering to using two programs that do the same thing. Its just that Steam does everything much better than GFWL, that the guys at relic must have been on shrooms to come up with the decision, of putting exact programs as DRM/multiplayer platforms for their game.

We can only assume that microsoft gave them buckets of money to use it.

 

[4fromK]

yeah, Steam is very preferable to DRM. the best legal alternative, we might say.

 

[oliveira8]

Steam is annoying.

It takes me 2 minutes to load steam, four minutes to check for updates and another three to finally start the game. Then the game itself has to load before I'm finally able to play.

However, when it's running, steam is a great program, I never had any problems with it(except for the horrible loading times) and I prefer it over SecuROM or any worthless attempt that's only used to lock me out of my legally purchased games.

Took me 4 minutes to boot up Team Fortress 2, open Steam Cloud, get into this website and write this. What long loading times?

Spoiler: Funny...

June 22, 2009 - Steam client update released

Steam Client


Improved Steam startup performance

I'm finally able to start games in 3 minutes

You weren't suppose to see that! IGNORE IGNORE!

 

[oliveira8]

What virus?

Also DoW2 is stupid for using 2 DRM's... Also to Good morning blues Steamworks is Steam.

Using 2 DRMS is fine (cd check+secuROM+cd key is pretty common), using GFWL, under any circumstances, is not.

Well I was refering to using two programs that do the same thing. Its just that Steam does everything much better than GFWL, that the guys at relic must have been on shrooms to come up with the decision, of putting exact programs as DRM/multiplayer platforms for their game.

We can only assume that microsoft gave them buckets of money to use it.

Its still strange. Considering that Valve and Microsoft were making some kind of deal to have Steam incorporated into Windows OS.

 

[DM.]

I love Steam, It's the best alternative to DRM and I hope more games follow suit.

But it's not immune to piracy, even some pirates prefer to use it to get the games.

Luckily they know they can't stop them.

 

[not a zaar]

I wouldn't call Steam an "alternative" to DRM, it's just a very well integrated and non-obtrusive DRM.

 

[Andy_Panthro]

I'm not a fan of steam, so I don't use it at all.

Just a different type of DRM to me, and I try and avoid DRM where I can.