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.
I like Steam (Score:5, Insightful)
I really like how Steam currently works. Only one computer can be logged into the same account at a time, I can download / install all games on any computer, it works (mostly) in Wine. I also don't have to mess around with disks.
Steam seems to me to be a rather effective method of DRM. I can only be logged into the account from ONE computer at a time, and I can play my games. what's the problem?
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Informative)
My account was deactivated and they simply refused to tell me why, just that it was shut down due to suspicious activity (I had steam installed on about 6 computers that I own). They actually suggested I could create a new account and purchase the games again if i wanted to play. If you think you own the software you purchase through Steam, you are dead wrong. Valve can flip a switch and turn it off whenever they want. I'll never buy another game from steam or another Valve product ever again. I'll just download any new half life games from isohunt. the way I see it, they owe me about 350 dollars so I'll simply download anything I want to cover that
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Actually, my fear with steam is not the account being disabled- that did happen once, they then fixed it after a week. But VAC bans, as in, someone steals your password, cheats on the account, gets it VAC'd, then you lose the value of every multiplayer game in your Steam account. They'll undo disables- they will NOT undo VAC bans.
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For me thats one of the things valves adds. If your account contributes to cheating, then fuck you. Your still free to play single player games and on non-vac servers, what GP said is much more scarey (if its more than a glitch as it was for you) the idea that they can disable your entire account single-player stuff too.
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If you can get into the account, why not just gift your main account with the games?
If you can't get into your account, doesn't it make sense that they wouldn't remove games from an account you can't really prove is yours?
Re:I like Steam (Score:4, Informative)
Steam doesn't let you gift games out of an account. It's true that you can purchase games and then gift them to someone, but once a attached to an account it can't get sent to someone else. This prevents people from being able to trade games with one another which is one of my main issues with digital downloads and the new installation limits in newer games.
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Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Interesting)
Have you considered taking them to court? $350 is about the right amount to make it worthwhile going to small claims court. The nice thing about small claims court, no lawyers. I'd argue that the clauses in their TOS allowing them to terminate service on a mere belief of wrongdoing, with no appeal or arbitration process, or refund of any kind are unconscionable. Look into it. At the very least, you'll cause Valve $350 worth of trouble, and it might even make a nice story for /.
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I just feel that it should be pointed out that the 'no lawyers' thing only applies to individuals suing individuals, not individuals suing a company or the other way around.
A corp like Valve is a legal entity not a person, when they go to small claims court they are allowed to be represented by a lawyer on the corps behalf. Don't think for a second that by suing them you're going to meet Gabe and be able to have a battle of wits in front of the judge.
You'll meet one of their lawyers who will promptly tear
I had problems with Steam too (Score:2, Interesting)
My case was very simple. A friend of mine bought Half Life 2 and didn't liked it (crazy guy...), so he gave me the game.
Only then I figured out that it is impossible to transfer a game from one account to another! There is no way I can play the game without stopping him from playing his other games. I contacted steam support and they just told me that it is impossible to transfer the game.
This really sucks. I, for one, just began to hate valve and steam. I don't intend to spend my money there ever again.
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Insightful)
So what that he posted AC, it doesn't change the fact that Valve has a kill switch for your steam account and therefore all games associated with that. That's a form of DRM I also don't like. And for that reason I don't play steam games.
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Insightful)
I used to play a lot of Half Life mods, particularly CounterStrike. When Steam came out, I installed it and used it a bit, but it had numerous issues and when I had to reinstall Windows I didn't put it back. Since I bought Half Life, I still have the option of playing the last pre-Steam version (although I don't know if anyone still runs servers for it). I wrote to Gabe at the time to explain my decision when I got the 'you haven't logged in to your Steam account for 30 days' email, and explained that I would not be buying any future games that required Steam.
Given the number of people who defend Steam on /. I think he's probably right about people not caring about the DRM. For me, it's a simple question of value. Anything I buy from Steam, or any other DRM source, only works as long as the seller wants it to work. It's the equivalent of something bought 'sold as seen' from a dodgy guy at a car boot sale. It may or may not ever work, but if it's cheap enough then I might consider it. Steam games are not cheap enough to warrant this risk.
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Insightful)
I won't touch Steam.
It's not that the games don't interest me, it's (a) the fact that I'm exposing my machine to their kill-switch and (b) the fact that I should never, EVER have to go through "activation" bullshit to play a single-player game.
Steam carries DRM. I do everything in my power to (a) remove DRM from the things I purchase where it cannot be avoided and (b) avoid it the rest of the time.
Sorry, Valve. You get in bed with DRM, you lose business. THAT is how DRM really works.
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Sorry, Valve. You get in bed with DRM, you lose business. THAT is how DRM really works.
...except Valve is doing quite well and selling a lot of games. Something about your logic isn't right.
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Yet I've bought many more games via Steam than I would have if I had to go to the store to get them. I'm sure I'm not the only person who has done so.
If sales caused by Steam > sales lost because of Steam, how exactly is Steam bad for business?
In other words, if I run a business (say, a restaurant) and institute a no-children policy, thereby "losing" some business (parents bringing their children), but in the process I gain more business (people who want to eat without kids being around), why are the "l
Re:I like Steam (Score:4, Informative)
Given the number of people who defend Steam on /. I think he's probably right about people not caring about the DRM.
Most people don't care about DRM as long as they don't notice it, and that includes /.ers. Some care based solely on principle, some care because they don't trust any DRM to be unnoticeable. Most just want to play a game they paid for, and if DRM doesn't stop them from doing that then no, they don't care. There are no articles about xbox DRM because you never see it, you stick a game into your console and it plays.
Steam's DRM is mostly harmless, most of the time. Thus it falls beneath most people's thresholds of caring. When it actually breaks, like the AC post above describes, then damned right people will care even if they didn't even know what DRM was before. They may even become distrustful of DRM in general. That won't necessarily affect the opinions of people for whom it is working.
So I think he is right, to the extent that DRM is done "right" and is unobtrusive and doesn't break your games. As time goes on, as DRM becomes more common, and more people get bit by it, then there will be more people who will consider the potential for DRM to break their games, and more people will care.
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Steam is the worst type of DRM (Score:4, Insightful)
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Secondly, if you take the time to consider what is being said here, you will realise that prompt answers from Steam when they're after your money do not in any way indemnify them from other customer service nightmares. You can do a chargeback on
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I had my account compromised, however I was not banned for cheating. I just could no longer log in. I simply sent in a support ticket, verified my information, and the account was restored.
I personally love steam. I find the value to be far larger, simply due to the fact that I don't need to keep track of my cds, and keys for said cds. I delete the local content I don't wish to play, and when i get the urge to play one of my older games, I simply redownload and off I go. I actually play my old games
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Insightful)
Steam is basically the sanest solution to keep things clean for legitimate users. You just buy a game and download it, however many times you like or need. Pirates are always going to crack DRM, there's little reason to battle them only to punish legitimate users. See any torrent site and look for cracked versions of Valve games that no longer require Steam -- they're not hard to find, and it just furthers the point that pirates will do whatever to get a free lunch.
Steam is non-intrusive and allows all legitimate users to get and use games easily.
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Insightful)
Unless Steam decides you're not the owner, you lose the password, they think you're a cheater, etc. Then they take away all your games. I'll ignore DRM in bought games because it can be disabled, I will never buy a steam game.
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So the trade-off with Steam is as follows: you have the convenience of having a delivery platform y
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Hes using almost always in the same way that you say water is almost always wet. If you cheat then you lose the right to play the game on vac protected server, you still get offline play and non-vac servers
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Well, sometimes water is steam and only has the quality `wet' when it condenses.
As I have scientific background, I'm loathe to say "always" or 100%, because I don't have the facts in front of me (only Steam do). However, if anecdotal evidence is good enough for you, I can say that I don't know anyone innocent who has been banned from Steam. Moreover I do know that Terms and Conditions are worthless if a court decides them t
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I reinstall my computer, or what-fucking-ever.
Sell me the product I want to buy, and I'll buy it.
Don't, and I won't.
Can't get any simpler than that.
Thats what i actually liked about steam was i could forget about cds, honestly i tend to torrent stuff i have just because i cant be botherd to keep a stack of CDs, steam lets you get all your games back after reinstall.
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Does steam require an internet connection to play, though?
That's one of my big problems with DRM in general. I've run across it with iTunes purchases (the reason I don't buy off itunes anymore unless it's something I can't find anywhere else or I just want one track) and I've had the problem with my 360 in the past, too.
At my last apartment, the cable modem was spotty at best during the evenings for months. I was unable to play my xboxlivearcade games on my 360 because the latency on the 'net wasn't allowin
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maybe I'll register for that... I'm curious how left4dead plays on a PC (as opposed to my 360).
Other than that, I can't think of any games I'd wanna play on the service.
I mostly only game when I don't have access to an internet connection since 90% of what I do on my computer requires it... it kinda sucks that I'm so dependent on the internets.
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Its been awhile since i used steam but IRRC you had to periodically re-register even if you ticked the offline mode box.
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I was unable to play my xboxlivearcade games on my 360 because the latency on the 'net wasn't allowing me to log into xboxlive.
When you buy games on Xbox Live, the purchase gets attached to two things, your account and the system on which you bought the game. If you've only owned one console, then you should be able to play the game without having to connect to Live. If you have your account on a second (or third) system, then you can play the full game as long as you're logged into Live. If you've
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my account has lived on many different units... my account originally lived on my old roommate's xbox which RRoD'd and was repaired/replaced 6 times, so far (it RRoD'd again last month and he still hasn't gotten it back)... I've since purchased my own 360 which is where my account lives now.
I've also transfered my account to my friend's unit to show him some XBLA games without him needing to purchase his own copy.
I guess I'll look into the license transfer tool.
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The iTunes thing is just odd, I've never had a problem with offline play. Right now I'm using a MacMini as my jukebox, and it hardly ever is online, yet it hasn't given me any problems with iTMS purchases. As far as DRM goes, iTunes is the best, its rather convenient, and non intrusive (which doesn't go so far, its like saying "as far as dictators go, Castro is the best"). You probably found a bug, or accidentally clicked "unauthorize", or such.
My problem with DRM such as Steam, is that it is only trustwo
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theoretically
, Valve will unlock all the Steam installs if they go out of business. I have no idea if it will actually work that way, of course. There could just as easily be "unavoidable technical issues" (i.e. newly developed contractual obligations with former competitors or whatever) that prevent them from unlocking the games.
Looking at old games, I guess I can point out how many needed a manual, or a key decoder spinner or whatever. So many of those have been cracked (eventually). I can still pl
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Let's hope you don't want to resell a game you purchased from Steam.
Let's hope that VAC works perfectly and won't ban you from VAC servers by accident because you were running something perfectly legit which happened to trip its detection mechanism.
Let's hope that when Gabe says Valve will release an unlock tool so you can play your games when/if Valve ever collapses, he actually follows through.
Disclaimer: I've used Steam for years and continue to do so. I think it's great... as long as
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PROTIP: VAC is triggered by the detection of entire known binaries. You can't trip it accidentally without having the cheating mechanism on-disk, and if you do have it on-disk... well that's your fault.
I always wonder why there's some poor cheater who comes up with this "I was banned but I didn't cheat" excuse, because it doe
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PROTIP: VAC is triggered by the detection of entire known binaries. You can't trip it accidentally without having the cheating mechanism on-disk, and if you do have it on-disk... well that's your fault.
As if software can never go wrong. False positives will always exist.
Yes, there is a very slim chance of it happening, but it still is possible.
There are other ways it can happen, like hacked accounts, or such.
Also... Having a cheating program on your HDD, is not the same thing as cheating. Isn't that some
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Interesting)
what's the problem?
The problem is that once you purchase the game, you cannot return it, you cannot sell it, and you cannot give it away/transfer it to another party.
As well, despite the fact that the steam version has no packaging costs, no printing costs, no warehousing costs, no stocking, shipping, or handling costs, you are still paying the same for the game as everyone else who bought it in the store.
Finally, the Steam store does not answer to market concerns, and operates arbitrarily. For example: In most stores, once the demand for a game has worn off, the price comes down in order to move the remaining copies of a game to make room for new games. In the Steam store, costs remain the same until the vendor authorizes a price reduction based on arbitrary decisions (increase sales volume, allow for pricing difference between game and sequel, etc.).
The technology embedded in Steam would allow for the first issue to be resolved, should Valve care to pursue this. As well, a second Steam store, not operated by Valve, yet accessible on the Steam system would ensure that the last two issues are properly addressed.
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The problem is that once you purchase the game, you cannot return it, you cannot sell it, and you cannot give it away/transfer it to another party.
This is the 'software as a service' model. You don't own a product, and the license to use the service is itself not a product either. So you have nothing you can sell or trade. You have no asset, in other words. This makes you vulnerable because unlike with a product, to get any utility from a service you are totally dependent upon the service provider.
Which should put an end to the myth (Score:2)
"As well, despite the fact that the steam version has no packaging costs, no printing costs, no warehousing costs, no stocking, shipping, or handling costs, you are still paying the same for the game as everyone else who bought it in the store."
Which highlights that games are priced for what people will pay; the cost has nothing whatsoever to do with the costs of production/development.
The corollary to this, of course, is that piracy drives up the cost of games. In fact, piracy drives down the revenue of g
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Agreed with that, though in theory you could sell someone your Steam account (unless that's against the EULA. I haven't read it)
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Makes me wonder why I bought it instead of pirating it. I've had done the latter I would have been able to play.
Steam is a nice way to distribute games, but honestly the requirement to connect every so often is a pain in the ass for those of us who rarely find the time
Re:I like Steam (Score:5, Interesting)
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Steam has an offline mode. A little bit of reading would have told you that.
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So to activate off-line mode you have to be on-line? *head explodes*
The only games I play on steam are online/multi-player anyway, so not a big deal for me. For people wanting to play single-player or against bots though, that's completely retarded. Better off pirating if you are playing single-player games I guess..
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Then you only have to log in once, and the computer will allow you to go into offline mode any time after that.
It works for my laptop when I can't get wifi when traveling.
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Yeppers. That works for me, too.
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.
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I found out I can move my Steam folder to any PC and "it just works" with valid credentials. I was delighted to see that I can ru
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I hate the fact that you're still dependent on logging into Steam to play the game. Sure, you can set it for "offline" mode, but to do that you have to, guess what, Log In! So your internet connection goes down, or Steam rolls out a huge update and everybody and their grandmother are pushing steam servers into non-responsiveness (as happened with the TF2 update earlier this year), what then? You can't play HL2 Episode 3 or whatever other single player game you purchased through them until the connection'
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Steam seems to me to be a rather effective method of DRM. I can only be logged into the account from ONE computer at a time, and I can play my games. what's the problem?
1) One day you might be part of a family, and will consider sharing your stuff.
And then it will happen that you want to play YOUR copy of game X online, while someone else in your family wants to play YOUR copy of game Y online. Steam's DRM prevents this.
That would be like not being allowed to read ANY of your books because your wife was cur
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The problem is that I have to purchase four different copies of Team Fortress 2 just to play it with my family on my private home network. Several other Steam games that I've tried don't have this problem as they can be played in Offline Mode. Of course then the wife and I can't play against someone online. I guess that scenario doesn't sound as legitimate though. However, I feel that if I don't own the games I buy, I should at least have a home license. That extends to any software, really.
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Steam is more than just DRM, it also provides cheating protection which is why the older games now require it for online play.
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When HL2EP1 was launched, I did buy it, brought home an start installing. After keeeping my CPU 100% for 2 hours...
There's this newfangled invention called DMA. You might wanna look into it.
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See, it's comments like this that make me suspect that Steam really gets a free pass with gamers, *probably* because it's from Valve.
Agreed.
Translation: "Again, I am so glad it limits me to one computer. Also, it lets me play "my" game as long as the server is around
Valve has said that they'll free all purchased games if they ever go out of business. OTOH, that's just words, so... *shrug*
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Translation: "It doesn't work all the time with Linux and it doesn't give me a physical copy to have as a backup. I love it!"
You can have discs if you want them. Steam includes a tool to backup your games. Plus you can buy the games in retail which comes with the discs of course if you prefer.
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"You can have discs if you want them. Steam includes a tool to backup your games." Plus you can buy the games in retail which comes with the discs of course if you prefer."
Thanks, I did not know that you could back them up after downloading them.
However, the disc is still basically just a big authorization key, since what really allows you to play or not is the server. So having a disc is really just misleading you into believing you 'own' something.
Though kind of moot since apparently most of Slashdot (though not you, thankfully) would rather just mod me troll than respond to my arguments. :)
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The disks actually aren't an authorization key. The retail versions of Valve games come with a disk and a CD-key. You can start Steam and then select the activate production option and add the key. The game will then attach itself to your account and you can download the game if you want.
The disk just contains copies of the game's data files from it's initial release. It can save you a little bit of time with not having to download everything though.
You are right about the trick into making you thing yo
Piracy, oh really? (Score:5, Interesting)
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Spore was 0-day'd, it really is just about pissing off legitimate users.
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0-day? Pfft.
It's been a while since I did much with warez, but I distinctly remember many things (including the game Rune) being available for download much sooner than it was available to buy.
Priceless (Score:5, Insightful)
Gabe comes out and says this the day after GTA IV has released on Steam complete with Securom.
Dear Mr Miller: No, it is NOT acceptable, and I will no longer be buying any games that follow what you consider acceptable. So many of the issues people have with running new titles is down to the copy protection.
I really want the PC to die as a mainstream gaming platform to be honest. (And I say that as a hardcore PC gamer for the last 12 years.) Despite all the mounting evidence that shows it's ineffectual and pointless, copy protection is getting worse and worse. Kill the platform entirely, EA and the like can fuck off to the consoles and stay there in their happy little pirate free zone (yeah right), and the PC can go back to serving niche genres for a smaller customer base that are actually treated like customers and not thieves.
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That's a pretty ignorant view point when companies are making millions from sales of PC games despite the warez scene.
DRM is a waste of time for any game played online when you need a CDKey to identify yourself with the server. And that's all of them these days. There's very little reply value in the single player modes of some of these games.
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Surely you don't mean to tell me that legit CDKeys can't be generated? ;)
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They can be generated, but they won't check against the database of legitimately generated keys.
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I would expect it to take MUCH longer if the key algorithm is correctly designed.
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Lets say every key consisted of a clear part describing what it was a key for and it's serial number. and then a digital signature. If the key is encoded in base32 and we use a sha1 hash for our signature that would give us a key arround 40 characters (assuming say an 8 bit product code and a 32 bit serial number)
Without the private key for the signature (which need never be placed on an internet connected machine) the only way to make a keygen would be to crack the public/private key encryption used which
Re:Priceless (Score:4, Insightful)
I think you're way off-base.
The games I buy off of xbox live have exactly ONE install, and god help you if you delete the game.
This is better than a PC?
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Why? DRM on the PC may be bad, but consoles are completely locked!
I want console gaming to die!
6 of one, 1/2 dozen of another (Score:3, Informative)
"but consoles are completely locked!"
They are, but your console doesn't get hosed by a bad implementation of DRM, and better, you can sell your console games when you're done. You can also loan them to your friends if they want to play.
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Not completely locked. Sony doesn't care what you do with your PS2 or PS3 as long as you do it under Linux under a run-time environment/hypervisor. I'm glad consoles are mostly locked, it keeps crappy cheapo eastern European dev houses from releasing all their Myst clones and Diablo clones with bad production values on them.
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You'll have to define dumbing down for me. Do you mean gameplay or more likely, just control changes.
When you work you want to get paid, right? You don't want developers to get paid for their work?
There's nothing blunt about it. (Score:4, Insightful)
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)
No, the goal is to increase revenues by decreasing piracy and preventing sale of used games. What is said above is their method of making it palatable to the consumer.
If the goal was *really* to "create greater value" and "make it easy to play games whenever and wherever" the solution would be simple: DON'T USE DRM.
I understand the need to fight piracy, but quit trying to spin it like it's being done for me, or that there's some silver lining.
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The thing is that some forms of DRM allow for distribution schemes previously not possible. I can see your point when talking about hard copies you buy at a store. DRM in those copies is definitely not helping the consumer.
Now take Steam on the other hand. Sure, all of this would also be possible withOUT DRM, but it wouldn't be much of a business model if everyone could just download everything to any computer and just leave it there for someone else to play. This would be equivalent to being able to copy a
Re:There's nothing blunt about it. (Score:4, Insightful)
But that is what already happens anyway! Take a look at The Pirate Bay, Mininova, Black Cats, whatever... name any game, it's probably there. DRM is a serious nuisance to legit clients, but merely a quick and fun challenge to crackers. All this DRM-mania does nothing but make piracy look more attractive!
Gotta admire the GOG [gog.com] people... they sell some nice stuff at decent prices, and don't give you any of that DRM bullshit.
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But that is what already happens anyway! Take a look at The Pirate Bay, Mininova, Black Cats, whatever... name any game, it's probably there. DRM is a serious nuisance to legit clients, but merely a quick and fun challenge to crackers. All this DRM-mania does nothing but make piracy look more attractive!
I'm sorry, but any argument starting with "pirating it off the internet is easier than buying" is just stupid. Yeah, of course pirating it is easier, but it's also illegal and can get you caught, possibly costing you more than your house is worth. So wanna take the risk? Fine with me...I don't.
Gotta admire the GOG [gog.com] people... they sell some nice stuff at decent prices, and don't give you any of that DRM bullshit.
Yeah, because implementing a DRM scheme for games that old and which they don't have the source code to would certainly cost more money than ever being made off the titles.
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...but it wouldn't be much of a business model if everyone could just download everything to any computer and just leave it there for someone else to play.
In 20+ years of computing, this has always been the case, and it hasn't come close to destroying the business model. This is simply a perpetual 'slippery slope'.
So in this case, DRM actually makes a new distribution channel possible....
I suppose. I mean, really, all it's doing is comforting a bunch of people that think you are a thief.
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Re:There's nothing blunt about it. (Score:5, Insightful)
No, the goal is to increase revenues by decreasing piracy and preventing sale of used games.
No, the goal (for the DRM peddler) is to PRETEND to offer increased revenues by PRETENDING to decrease piracy and prevent sale of used games. However the only revenue that is actually increased is the "security" company's.
No one wants to buy shitty games. The good games are cracked usually within hours of release with few exceptions. However good games still make money. If Electronic Arts could build a multi-billion dollar company by releasing endless versions of the same steaming piles of shit, there's money to be made despite piracy.
But it's so easy to blame lack of sales on copyright infringement. Piracy and sales are DIRECTLY, not inversely, proportional. If a game sucks NO ONE WILL PIRATE IT. So if your game didn't sell it's because IT SUCKS, not because everyone managed to download it before going to the store.
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In their own study they admitted their figures were a very rough estimation.
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"Don't use DRM" is too broad. What is a problem, though, is DRM that places the "rights" of the producer too far ahead of that of the buyer. Basically, when it starts managing our rights when we don't want it to.
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In this case, Steam is two types of DRM. It protects Valve from piracy and allows you to manage your games from a central location.
You don't need Steam to keep a copy of your games on a server. Steam just forces you to only use THEIR server.
"Copy Protection" or "DRM", it's only there to restrict the purchaser's rights. It may be necessary to do that in some cases, but that doesn't change the fact that... no matter what you call it... it can only *restrict* what you can do with the software you legally insta
Funny he should mention that... (Score:4, Informative)
Just yesterday evening, I was browsing PC games at the local store, having reinstalled a Windows partition recently, and spotted the box version of Portal. Awesome, I told myself, been wanting to play that one ever since I heard of it, let's purchase this shit. (Mind you, everything about the plot and even the ending are utterly spoiled by now, but who cares, the gameplay seems terrific.)
But for safety, I checked out the small print at the back of the box.
Which said something along the lines of, the game you are shelling out money for will just plain not run outright, you'll have to allow it to go online and then maybe our servers will allow it to run if you accept an EULA that you'll know nothing about until then.
End result: no go, sorry. If I give money for a product, I want it to run when I feel like running it. One less sale for you, dude. (Not that you give a damn about one sale, I'm sure.)
Re:Funny he should mention that... (Score:5, Informative)
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Thanks for the interesting input -- I'd mod you up, but I have already contributed to the thread, obviously.
If the game (which was standalone Portal, mind you, not the Orange Box) can indeed be installed and played offline, then my objection no longer holds. The box, however, does explicitly state otherwise; I'd like to be able to understand why.
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Get the xbox 360 version of portal (in the orange box) then.
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.
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It's evil.
It'll be a great day in the world when there's no genocide, starvation, or actual torture and we can call DRM evil. Until then, I think "mildly annoying" might be more appropriate.
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I think this sums the situation up rather nicely (Score:2, Insightful)
The current bottom of the page quip has it right: (Score:2)
"The truth is what is; what should be is a dirty lie. -- Lenny Bruce"
The truth is that DRM sucks.
What should be is that the developers and producers should be adding additional value for legitimate consumers.
5 of my friends have bought GTA IV PC at retail... (Score:2, Insightful)
... 3 of them can't play for more than 5-10 minutes without securom bombing and forcing the game to close instantly. The other 2 can't even get it to start up.
Aparently it only cost Rockstar $200k to cause this much inconvenience to their legitimate users.
Am waiting to see how long it takes for a fully functional crack to come out. Been just over 48 hours so far and it appears to be harder to crack cleanly than your average copy protection. Rockstar are claiming that it's "Uncrackable", which may not have b
Steam Community Makes It Worthwhile (Score:2)
I'm surprised nobody here is talking about the real feature of Steam that got me to accept it - even to change my buying style to buy games through steam first. That's the Steam Community.
I play TF2 on the same set of servers at fairly regular times. Over the months, I've become acquaintances with many of the skilled players who also play on the same servers. When they first started sending me friend invites, I was hesitant, but decided to try it.
It's turned out to be a blast. I can look at my friends list
Support GOG.com to show them that drm-free sells (Score:3, Informative)
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Fast Faction Farming? What does that have to do with DRM?
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You shouldn't blame the consoles themselves for Deus Ex 2, blame the original Xbox for not including USB ports, because the PS2 port of the original Deus Ex game had mouse and keyboard support. (though using a hybrid method of controlling movement with the analog stick on the Dual Shock and aiming with the mouse works best)
I also make a firm distinction between "dumbed down" and "altered and simplified for ease of use". For UI, simpler is better. UI shouldn't be complex for complexity's sake and shouldn'