Valve's Gabe Newell On DRM 241
Ars Technica is running a story about recent comments by Valve's Gabe Newell in which he bluntly stated, "As far as DRM goes, most DRM strategies are just dumb. The goal should be to create greater value for customers through service value (make it easy for me to play my games whenever and wherever I want to), not by decreasing the value of a product (maybe I'll be able to play my game and maybe I won't)." Ars then points out a response by Microsoft's Games for Windows Community Manager Ryan Miller suggesting Rockstar Games' recent decision not to have install limits for the PC version of GTA IV made the use of SecuROM acceptable. GameSetWatch has a related piece discussing the difficulty in measuring piracy and enforcing infringement laws.
DRM vs. Torture. (Score:3, Funny)
DRM is a lot like torture:
It doesn't work.
It only hurts innocent people.
The truly guilty completely avoid it.
It makes the person doing it less popular.
It's unpleasant.
It's foolish.
It's evil.
Despite clear evidence that it IN NO WAY helps anyone, it is continuing to be done by a large institution against innocent people and other victims that have no relation to the initial causality.
If you are pro DRM, or pro torture, you are either horrifically ignorant, willfully stupid, or malevolently mis-informed.
Either way, do the math (or the research), and please wake the fuck up.
Torture and DRM are outmoded and outdated ideas that fail miserably at the assigned task, and should be completely eliminated, for the benefit of all, most importantly you promoting it.
I don't dislike Steam, but I don't like it either (Score:3, Funny)
I'm mixed on Steam. I like the automatic downloads and automatic updates, but I'm wary of situations where 2 or 3 people in my family want to play different Steam powered games at the same time. They're locked into one account.
I won't be buying GTA IV on Steam for that reason. I don't want to lock the family out of Peggle.