Steam and its DRM

[HellsingerAngel]

Mainly because it's a PC game, they are less restrcited than consoles.

I have bought games through Impulse, Capsule and GamersGate and all of those have been DRM free.

Also Steam is DRM because a normal game functions so:

Click on game ---> Play game

A Steam game functions differently:

Click on Steam link ---> Steam runs ---> Wait for Steam to verify ---> Play Game

Anything that gets in-between me and my game = DRM.

Not that I want to start an argument, but what game from Impulse did you buy that didn't need Impulse running? I own Demigod and I can't run it without Impulse in the background. Maybe you should put in a ticket if you're having so many issues? Their customer service reps, though sometimes a little slow on the uptake and execution of more complicated issues, are really friendly and do go above and beyond to get your issues resolved.

I had a falling out briefly with them, but they certainly restored my faith in their company after offering me a free game of quadruple the value of the one I missed out on gifting to someone. Not only that, but I got the same game (Portal) free on my own Steam because they accidently added it to my acocunt first, and said "no trouble, you said you already had it for 360, eh? Might as wlel play it on PC, too!" and let me keep the PC copy. So yeah, nice people, a little slow to solve things, but certainly give great results!

 

[SimuLord]

Of course it's DRM! They have these huge sales to attract customers to their evil system. Veeeery good deals too. Satan is very sexy in PC gaming.

If Steam's the devil, I'm not sure I want to cast my lot with God.

They've even finally properly integrated support for Paradox forum profiles (which means nifty little forum icons!), which used to be the exclusive province of GamersGate users.

 

[Nathan Pipinpadaloxicopolis]

Man up. really dude. most people run games from inside the steam window anyway (which boots up at startup may i add), so all that steam does is check that you've bought the game, then runs it. you know what else checks that you bought it when it runs? windows. gonna go ***** about that too? If your computer is so slow that the small time it takes steam to boot a game, then you probably should upgrade your 10 year old computer.

Please take your uninformed opinion somewhere else.

Read up the thread for more information, don't make assumptions and don't complain about someone 'bitching' when you yourself are bitching.

what about it was incorrect ("uninformed")? I read the entire thread (all 11 posts at the time), and it was just about you complaining that YOUR internet setup was incapable of handling connection to steam.

Please take you lack of response somewhere else.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

There are a hundred different kinds of worse DRM out there. The other day it took my 3 hours to get DoW II to work because of Games for Windows Live, 3 password resets, 2 deleted an redownloaded profiles, and a lot of swearing. And you're complaining about having to simply wait 30 extra seconds for steam to start up? Don't.

And you could also just have Steam open up on startup. Then you can just open the game right away. Also, steam is also a social platform as well, and a chat client.

I know everyone seems to have these horror stories about GFWL but I'm one of those rare people who it works for perfectly.

All my horror stories are about Steam, and GFWL runs smoothly and perfectly for me. Crazy huh?

Also I'm an impatient person... one of the reasons I bought my updated gaming PC, I want faster running, better looking games. Then some tiny little program pops up saying that it's 'Preparing to launch'?

What the fuck is that? I have a disc based game, which I installed from disc, and you're doing some shit that slows this down? Makes perfect goddamn sense.

Also somewhere up there I posted about why I don't keep Steam running in background all the time.

Not that I want to start an argument, but what game from Impulse did you buy that didn't need Impulse running? I own Demigod and I can't run it without Impulse in the background. Maybe you should put in a ticket if you're having so many issues? Their customer service reps, though sometimes a little slow on the uptake and execution of more complicated issues, are really friendly and do go above and beyond to get your issues resolved.

I had a falling out briefly with them, but they certainly restored my faith in their company after offering me a free game of quadruple the value of the one I missed out on gifting to someone. Not only that, but I got the same game (Portal) free on my own Steam because they accidently added it to my acocunt first, and said "no trouble, you said you already had it for 360, eh? Might as wlel play it on PC, too!" and let me keep the PC copy. So yeah, nice people, a little slow to solve things, but certainly give great results!

Galactic Civilizations 2. Never have to connect to the internet to use it and I haven't even bothered reinstalling Impulse when I upgraded to Windows 7.

I haven't really dealt with Steams customer services, all my problems sorted themselves out eventually, but they left a bad taste in my mouth which gives me an aversion to Steam.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

what about it was incorrect ("uninformed")? I read the entire thread (all 11 posts at the time), and it was just about you complaining that YOUR internet setup was incapable of handling connection to steam.

Please take you lack of response somewhere else.

The fact you assume I have a rubbish PC and internet connection...

Quit yer whining. Go preach somewhere else.

 

[Nathan Pipinpadaloxicopolis]

what about it was incorrect ("uninformed")? I read the entire thread (all 11 posts at the time), and it was just about you complaining that YOUR internet setup was incapable of handling connection to steam.

Please take you lack of response somewhere else.

The fact you assume I have a rubbish PC and internet connection...

Quit yer whining. Go preach somewhere else.

Well why did you complain about a) the load time on steam and b) your connection to the steam servers?

Also, you may want to look up the definition of "preaching". Or a how-to on interpreting text.

 

[Worgen]

there are some games you can buy on steam and run without it, rectear might be one of them, Ive done it with some of the older games Ive gotten, it also might be possible to dl the executable for other games and still run them without steam, I really like steam but I dislike games that totaly tie them selfs to it, I think the perfect drm type would be I can either run the game with the disk or tie it to my steam account and not need the disk in that case but allow the game to be seperate in case the unthinkable happens

 

[yundex]

I feel the pain, steams "offline mode" left a bad taste in my mouth a year ago. It is a good multiplayer service though, not that I use it much.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

Well why did you complain about a) the load time on steam and b) your connection to the steam servers?

Also, you may want to look up the definition of "preaching". Or a how-to on interpreting text.

Dear god why are you still posting...

I asked a question and instead you start complaining that I was explaining why I dislike Steam.

I complained about the load time because I shouldn't have to wait for Steam to give the okay to play a game.

I complained about the connection to the Steam servers because again I shouldn't have to wait for Steam to give the okay to play.

I know what preaching means, I was using it in a derogatory sense.

I'm not going to reply again so do yourself and my inbox a favour and don't reply either.

 

[Fawcks]

My internet connection can be somewhat dodgy too, so I know how it feels. :C

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

I honestly don't know why you would care, but yeah, a game bought on steam requires steam to run.

 

[Nathan Pipinpadaloxicopolis]

Well why did you complain about a) the load time on steam and b) your connection to the steam servers?

Also, you may want to look up the definition of "preaching". Or a how-to on interpreting text.

Dear god why are you still posting...

I asked a question and instead you start complaining that I was explaining why I dislike Steam.

I complained about the load time because I shouldn't have to wait for Steam to give the okay to play a game.

I complained about the connection to the Steam servers because again I shouldn't have to wait for Steam to give the okay to play.

I know what preaching means, I was using it in a derogatory sense.

I'm not going to reply again so do yourself and my inbox a favour and don't reply either.

Lets try this again:
IF you computer wasn't a bomb from the year 2000, then there wouldn't BE any load time.
Similarly

My internet is fairly dodgy at times which means I often need to attempt to run offline mode

. ever thought of fixing your internet before using an online service?
Again, there is no wait time for Steam to give the ok to play.

oh you DO understand derogatory hyperbole? you might want to go and recheck your initial response to my post then.

oh #2, and i did read the last line; this is just too much fun

 

[kebab4you]

what about it was incorrect ("uninformed")? I read the entire thread (all 11 posts at the time), and it was just about you complaining that YOUR internet setup was incapable of handling connection to steam.

Please take you lack of response somewhere else.

The fact you assume I have a rubbish PC and internet connection...

Quit yer whining. Go preach somewhere else.

Sorry to butt in but ;

My internet is fairly dodgy at times which means I often need to attempt to run offline mode, but my current wireless set up is a bit unconventional (short range wireless ethernet connectors) and this means my computer can't easily tell when the internet has gone down.

That's crappy broadband/hardware if you ask me , so he wasn't wrong in his statement.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

My internet is fairly dodgy at times which means I often need to attempt to run offline mode, but my current wireless set up is a bit unconventional (short range wireless ethernet connectors) and this means my computer can't easily tell when the internet has gone down.

That's crappy broadband/hardware if you ask me , so he wasn't wrong in his statement.

The whole 'at times' bit basically means during bad weather.

Considering it's snowing a lot... that constitutes as bad weather.

My broadband isn't particularly fast (capping off at approximately 3mb) but my dad (who works for our service provider) got us into an experimental gaming connection.

My ping is <50 and my stability (when not in bad weather) is a beauty.

He was trolling anyway.

 

[minimacker]

Steam used to be great. I remember playing on Offline mode while my internet was cut off. But lately, very few games support Offline mode.

 

[Woodsey]

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

Yes. However, if you're really concerned about it for some odd reason, you can run it in offline mode which uses less in the way of resources. Dunno why it's a big deal, though. >.>

Offline mode and me do not go well together.

That sucks though, I'll just pay more at GamersGate then. Thanks for your help!

What's your problem with Steam?

 

[The Random One]

Wow, it's amazing how people are defending Steam. I mean... it's like they can't even fathom why someone wouldn't want to run Steam along with their game. Do any of you own a computer perchance?

Steam may be the best DRM out there but it's still DRM. I'll choose a DRM free version any day.

 

[the_pleasure_is_mine]

What's your problem with Steam?

To save myself typing it out again can you read the thread?

I don't mean to sound like a douchebag saying it, but my internet's going to go off any minute now and I'm really sleepy o_o