Most of these arguments are strawman arguments designed to deflect the fact that they actually pirate. IMO. Pirates will find any lame excuse to justify their actions. You've seen it in this thread.
Like I said. Idiots who pirate should just come out and admit they don't feel like paying. I'd have more respect for honesty in many respects.
I'm a very satisfied and heavy user of Steam, but your post convinced me to check out GoG too. Sounds like a great company.On GoG's front page they state you own the games you purchase. With other forms of DRM you're just renting. That is, you can keep using the software as long as the DRM allows you to. Kind of like how you can keep living in a house until the landlord decides they want it back.
Fine, then Steam should release all their games of a similar age without any DRM. So why doesn't it? Why is HL2 loaded with Steamworks when it's nine years old?
Not to mention that GoG goes out of its way to price games the same regardless of region. Meanwhile, Steam retroactively and silently disables legitimate CD keys without explanation or refund. If Steam wants to disable those keys for being "out of region" then they need to provide refunds to customers.
The two systems aren't even remotely comparable in terms of customer service and attitude.
Except that GoG has new games too, and there's more and more being released.
It certainly is when it cripples legitimate paying customers like myself.
I'm a very satisfied and heavy user of Steam, but your post convinced me to check out GoG too. Sounds like a great company.
They are. However, keep in mind they only sell games that are old and irrelevant. Well, let me backtrack. I've definitely purchased oldies such as BG1/2, system shock 2, and the NWN games from gog. But you really won't find current titles on gog, the only exception i'm aware of is witcher 2.
Basically they're not an ideal source for new AAA titles, their shtick is mostly older classics. Which i'm completely okay with, I have bought several things from there. But you certainly will not find the latest and greatest titles on there, ever. (not being a detractor, as I like gog. But that's the truth)
Does anybody remembers Star Force? That was the worst thing in video game industry. Once it even screwed up my Windows so I had to reinstall it. It also asked me to uninstall all software for burning cds/dvds in order to let me play a legally bought game. At it always took ages to load + sometimes I even had to take out the dvd and put back again, because I got message that I need to insert the original medium.
Not to mention that there were publishers crazy enough to put star force in demo versions (Trackmania Sunrise, HOMAM V).
There are so many publishers using steamworks as the primary DRM? Just out of curiosity, how are you playing the latest titles? Not trying to be facetious, but many publishers are using steamworks for their AAA titles, so you'd be missing out on a lot of good titles. Borderlands 2, DE:HR, I could name a hundred more. You're missing out on a lot of titles if you exclude steam (I get the impression that you try to avoid steam games, just curious)
Steam now isn't like steam 7 years ago. They improved it substantially. That's why I love valve - they take feedback and improve their products based on it; In the past 2 years I have not had a single issue, ever - it really is the best DRM out there, IMHO. You can also play offline easily - in fact, aside from downloads i'm NEVER online with steam. I play everything offline and have for a couple of years.
I got the wife to buy me Far Cry 3 for Christmas and I have pre-ordered Metro Last Light on Steam, but I mostly buy games when they drop to $20 - $30 anyway. I have a huge backlog and don't play on line, so it doesn't really make sense for me to buy games when they first come out.They are. However, keep in mind they only sell games that are old and irrelevant. Well, let me backtrack. I've definitely purchased oldies such as BG1/2, system shock 2, and the NWN games from gog. But you really won't find current titles on gog, the only exception i'm aware of is witcher 2.
Basically they're not an ideal source for new AAA titles, their shtick is mostly older classics. Which i'm completely okay with, I have bought several things from there. But you certainly will not find the latest and greatest titles on there, ever. (not being a detractor, as I like gog. But that's the truth)
This is what's called fearmongering. You really need to be low to try to do it. No, not steam, you.As for all those defending Steam, that's fine if you like it, but a lot of folks don't.
I brought this up in another thread a couple of weeks ago:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34909878&postcount=46
Followed by:
http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=34912053&postcount=52
Pretty much leads me to think you could end up paying a lot more for your Steam games than originally planned if any of the above ever happened.
This is what's called fearmongering. You really need to be low to try to do it. No, not steam, you.
And if you check I never really defended steam in this thread, I am kinda neutral on it, and will stay so, fearmongering or no.
P.S. adding gratuitous whitespace to your postings just makes you look worse.
I got the wife to buy me Far Cry 3 for Christmas and I have pre-ordered Metro Last Light on Steam, but I mostly buy games when they drop to $20 - $30 anyway. I have a huge backlog and don't play on line, so it doesn't really make sense for me to buy games when they first come out.
Personally I don't bother with Titles that have unacceptable requirements in terms of DRM, AAA or not.
I have well over a hundred titles on GOG, and probably as many or more through Humble Bundle, Indie Bundle, and so on - I doubt I'll even have time to play them all.
And as BFG10K mentioned, GOG has started selling newer titles (Indie or not).
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Well I don't have an issue with that whatsoever, I think that's great. Not being sarcastic: I fully support voting with your wallet if you don't support any particular kind of DRM - in fact, I do the same thing. When I see a game using SecuROM and GFWL I do not buy, ever (Batman, Batman: AC). I don't agree with you about steam, I think there's a lot of hyperbole involved in this thread, but let's not discuss that. My main point is, I fully respect what you're doing. Voting with the wallet. It's what everyone should do if they have any issue with the DRM in use on a product, IMHO. That's how game companies get the message and change things up. And quite a few publishers have dropped SecuROM because of this very reason - because of complaints. I know i've been extremely vocal on the rocksteady boards about their use of SecuROM - interestingly enough, rockstar isn't developing the next Batman: Origins game.
I think that's just another fault of the developer. I've never had the desire to remove a DLC in the past, and theoretically, you should never want to! That's something that you most likely paid for, and for it to be crap, you should be irate at the developer! Although, it might be nice for Steam to create an advanced functionality that let you select what to download/install via a checkbox setup.
I've played that, although I believe I've long since passed it on. Good game, very atmospheric. I like survival-horror games like that, FPS grafted with RPG-style learnable abilities.You should definitely get system shock 2 from gog - definitely one of my top 5 games of all time.
I see nothing wrong with DRM, as long as it is not intrusive.
Always on is intrusive, steam is not intrusive. The always on requirement is the reason why I will not buy diablo iii.
While steam may be DRM, it also offers a lot of other features.
Anyone claiming that software is defective is probably trying to lie their way to a refund. /QUOTE]
Hold on there, compadre... I bought both batman games during a steam deal and both are very broken on windows 8. Granted, that's not steam's fault directly, but that information should be available on the front page BEFORE I buy the game. Non-refundable.
Anyone claiming that software is defective is probably trying to lie their way to a refund. /QUOTE]
Hold on there, compadre... I bought both batman games during a steam deal and both are very broken on windows 8. Granted, that's not steam's fault directly, but that information should be available on the front page BEFORE I buy the game. Non-refundable.
This isn't a steam issue, this is a GFWL issue - i've read similar issues at the rocksteady forums. All GFWL games are broken in windows 8; this is unbelivable when considering that a Microsoft product breaks another MS product. You'll have to do some shenanigans to fix it, I remember reading about this somewhere.
I'm pretty confident that the fault lies entirely with the publisher and developer, for using the god-awful piece of garbage that is GFWL for DRM. That's another issue with GFWL, it's a 3rd layer of DRM on top of steam to deal with. If the game were just steamworks, this would be a non issue.
Bottom line, GFWL sucks. And I actually fully support refunds for all GFWL games, although it should be done by Warner. In the mean time, I will *never* buy any game using SecuROM or GFWL. I personally only purchase steamworks games. If it's anything on top of that, DO NOT BUY.