Why no games on Steam?

[TwiZtah]

I remember Valve saying that if Steam ever went bust, or the studio shut down, they would release a patch to bypass the DRM.

Yep, Gabe Newell himself once said on the Steam Forums that they have tested turning off the Steam Authentication process that Steam games go through to be able to play, and the games do work with it off.

But would we still be able to copy and paste and use steam games you have paid for on other new computers you own years later?

And if so, wouldnt that basically give the world cracked copies of all these games?

WHAT?! cracked games?! NO!

There have never been a cracked game, especially not DAYS before the game actually ships.

Yeah, if you want a crack for a game, it's already cracked.

 

[Vivi22]

Does anyone know *why* they do this? I don't see any advantage of selling a licence as opposed to a product, except maybe removing the ability to resell.

First, as far as I know a Steam ban does not take away your games as you can still play them, you simply can't buy anymore or use Steam services.

Second, every game you have ever bought you paid for a license to use it. Not for a copy of the game. It's the standard legal practice with software, and no, I don't really care for it either.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

The thing that is special about software books and art is that they are basically non physical things. You heard me. Even that book you hold in your hand right now isnt really a physical thing/ Well the paper is. But the BOOK itself isnt different from any other book. Its a collection of letters in order, or a selection of 1's and 0's in order to produce a certain effect. In the case of art its coloured pixels together to form an image.

No one can own letters or zeros and ones or colours. So how do we go about owning ORDERS of letters? Can i copyright the combination of blue, red then yellow in that order? How about 111100011010101? Or even some words? How many do i need before i can "Own" a combination of any of these things? Does the owner even own that combination of accessible things?

The EULA handles this strangeness. Media in general is a tricky thing. A car is a combination of machined parts that cant be replicated without a factory. And you can own a factory no one else has. You cant own EVERY pen or EVERY computer or EVERY paintbrush. And as such your work is EASILY copied by anyone who can write or copy and paste or scan into a computer. Its a strange world we live in. Think about how odd it is to own a combination of words. And numbers. And colours. It only becomes acceptable when you have enough of them together.

 

[Toasty Virus]

About the only time I feel this is going to be appropriate.

OT: To be honest It doesn't bother me that much, if steam ever crumbles they'll likely release some kind of patch to let you play your games...or something.

 

[l0ckd0wn]

yes that is exactly it, i like having some substance a feeling that i have actually bought something, call me stupid but i just like having physical copies, i will buy steam as well though

I wouldn't call you stupid at all, I'm similar with CDs, but that's mostly because I don't like any of the available online distribution systems for music other than a few of the dance music platforms I buy off of for DJing.

 

[MetalMagpie]

I don't see any advantage of selling a licence as opposed to a product, except maybe removing the ability to resell.

Pretty much.

Software has been sold this way for a long time (you have to view a "License Agreement" before you install almost all commercial software) as it's the only way anyone can make any money.

that's why i prefer buying physical copies of games just for that sense of ownership

Even when buying a game on a physical disk, what they're selling you is a plastic disk plus a license to use the data on it. If they sold you the actual data, then you would be free to do what you like with it. After all, it's now your property! You could copy and sell it as many times as you liked. And there would be nothing they could legally do to stop you.

Nissan can sell you a car as a normal product, because you can only resell that once. With software, you can resell it an infinite number of times. Which is not good for business.

The specific infrastructure of Steam allows for terms in the License Agreement to be far more easily enforced. So it's probably worth giving it a read if you're worried.

 

[Matt King]

I don't see any advantage of selling a licence as opposed to a product, except maybe removing the ability to resell.

Pretty much.

Software has been sold this way for a long time (you have to view a "License Agreement" before you install almost all commercial software) as it's the only way anyone can make any money.

that's why i prefer buying physical copies of games just for that sense of ownership

Even when buying a game on a physical disk, what they're selling you is a plastic disk plus a license to use the data on it. If they sold you the actual data, then you would be free to do what you like with it. After all, it's now your property! You could copy and sell it as many times as you liked. And there would be nothing they could legally do to stop you.

Nissan can sell you a car as a normal product, because you can only resell that once. With software, you can resell it an infinite number of times. Which is not good for business.

The specific infrastructure of Steam allows for terms in the License Agreement to be far more easily enforced. So it's probably worth giving it a read if you're worried.

i'm not woried about it, i just like getting a physical product for my money

 

[MetalMagpie]

I don't see any advantage of selling a licence as opposed to a product, except maybe removing the ability to resell.

Pretty much.

Software has been sold this way for a long time (you have to view a "License Agreement" before you install almost all commercial software) as it's the only way anyone can make any money.

that's why i prefer buying physical copies of games just for that sense of ownership

Even when buying a game on a physical disk, what they're selling you is a plastic disk plus a license to use the data on it. If they sold you the actual data, then you would be free to do what you like with it. After all, it's now your property! You could copy and sell it as many times as you liked. And there would be nothing they could legally do to stop you.

Nissan can sell you a car as a normal product, because you can only resell that once. With software, you can resell it an infinite number of times. Which is not good for business.

The specific infrastructure of Steam allows for terms in the License Agreement to be far more easily enforced. So it's probably worth giving it a read if you're worried.

i'm not woried about it, i just like getting a physical product for my money

Whoops. The dangers of pasting a quote into a message written aimed at someone else...

Anyway! I do know what you mean. There's something nice about having a nice shiny case with the pretty picture in the window to go on my bookshelf of lovelies. ^_^