The anti-DRM thread

[DrMrLordX]

Could someone give me an overview of the Epic Store hate?
I totally understand the exclusives thing, is there more to it than that?

That really is what it boils down to. Epic won't let anyone publishing on their store sell anywhere else, at least not for a significant period of time. Say what you will about Steam, but Valve never forced anyone who chose to publish/sell on their store to be Steam exclusive. Only Valve's own titles have held that mantle.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

That really is what it boils down to. Epic won't let anyone publishing on their store sell anywhere else, at least not for a significant period of time. Say what you will about Steam, but Valve never forced anyone who chose to publish/sell on their store to be Steam exclusive. Only Valve's own titles have held that mantle.

Cool thank you for the simple explanation.

 

[NTMBK]

Could someone give me an overview of the Epic Store hate?
I totally understand the exclusives thing, is there more to it than that?

Plus a bit of good ol' xenophobia, because Tencent are big investors in Epic.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Plus a bit of good ol' xenophobia, because Tencent are big investors in Epic.

Yeah, I read about that and it concerns me a little bit.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Also if you want some more background on things that may be going on with Epic, this vid is worth a watch:

Long story short, Epic wants their own app store to be available on Apple devices. They already (sort of) have one for Android.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Also if you want some more background on things that may be going on with Epic, this vid is worth a watch:

Long story short, Epic wants their own app store to be available on Apple devices. They already (sort of) have one for Android.

Meh that doesn’t impact me. I barely load or use apps.
Most “apps” are just dumb web links or ad laden crap that simply doesn’t do what it says it does.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Meh that doesn’t impact me. I barely load or use apps.
Most “apps” are just dumb web links or ad laden crap that simply doesn’t do what it says it does.

It shows what kind of company Epic is, and how they're willing to play a long game to crack open Apple's closed ecosystem.

 

[BFG10K]

And here we go again, 100,000 users' data leaked by Razer: https://arstechnica.com/information...ta-leaked-due-to-misconfigured-elasticsearch/

You know, the same people that require client software logged into the cloud to enable their mice/keyboards/headsets to work properly. AKA mandatory cloud DRM for hardware. Those people.

Typical corporate BS reply:

We would like to thank you, sincerely apologize for the lapse and have taken all necessary steps to fix the issue as well as conduct a thorough review of our IT security and systems. We remain committed to ensure the digital safety and security of all our customers.

No accountability, no punishment, no fines, no jail time, no firings, just a "sorry this happened, but we'll fully continue with cloud DRM, kai thx bai".

Remember folks, the internet tells us sort of thing never happens, and that logons are no big deal because it, oh, just "takes 5 minutes to setup a new account(tm)".

 

[DrMrLordX]

So pay more money for worse service? Hooray! That's the kind of value I have come to expect Razer to bring to the market. And Sonos and any number of other dodgy hardware vendors.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

So pay more money for worse service? Hooray! That's the kind of value I have come to expect Razer to bring to the market. And Sonos and any number of other dodgy hardware vendors.

Well good news is per the link there is an offline “guest” mode.
However I agree, weird how a mouse or keyboard needs updates so critically that it is required to be connected to the internet all the time.
@BFG10K thanks for posting this. Amazon has been spamming me with a razor mouse promo. I almost bought it for a backup but now I doubt I will.

 

[MalVeauX]

So, bottom line, don't support a hardware company that requires internet connection, login, etc, just to use their peripherals. Razor doesn't make the "best" anything anyways. How sad. I have no problem paying someone for their work on their software. But I certainly don't need hardware enforcing some internet check in and identity verification stuff snooping around on the network and being available for breach. That's just silly.

I'm surprised honestly that people still pirate games, almost every game is an online game these days, and games are not expensive on popular platforms that go on massive sales all the time (Steam, etc). So why the hardware need for anti-DRM?

Very best,

 

[PlanetJosh]

Mkay it's bad. Is that how you say it "Mkay"? Maybe I left out an apostrophe " ' " somewhere in it. On a serious note I think Steam let's you play offline for some periods of time without having to logon to start the game each time. But only for so long because I believe when a game update comes out you have to update it before you can play. Something like that.

edit - But after the update you can go back to offline play. And that probably got mentioned pages ago.

 

[BFG10K]

Microsoft purchases Zenimax, just in time for 100 million Bing search & GPS records to be leaked: https://hothardware.com/news/microsoft-secures-bing-app-server-that-leaked-65tb

No doubt future Zenimax games will be pushed to the metrosexual walled garden subscription model, so who knows what other data they'll be sucking up to potentially leak later. Just as well I didn't give them my mobile a few pages back.

And still to this day we see people on the internet defending Windows telemetry.

 

[BFG10K]

Facebook may have to stop operating in the EU: https://www.techspot.com/news/86831-facebook-may-have-stop-operating-eu-amid-new.html

I guess all those EU customers who purchased Occulus will now have paper weights? Cloud DRM for hardware is utter lunacy.

 

[DrMrLordX]

metrosexual

Haven't heard that word in awhile. I wasn't aware that app stores were metrosexual, though.

I do think MS will use it for a). Xbox exclusives and b). Windows Store exclusives. It'll be interesting to see what they do with Bethesda.net .

 

[Racan]

Facebook may have to stop operating in the EU

Here's hoping

 

[PlanetJosh]

I haven't used Game Copy World in years. Don't know if they have any legal short programs to get around it. They have trainers and at least those are legal.

 

[BFG10K]

You can now buy Epic store games directly through GOG galaxy: https://www.techspot.com/news/86957-gog-galaxy-getting-storefront-overhaul-you-buy-epic.html

 

[DrMrLordX]

Huh. That almost makes me not hate Epic for their exclusives.

 

[SMOGZINN]

You can now buy Epic store games directly through GOG galaxy: https://www.techspot.com/news/86957-gog-galaxy-getting-storefront-overhaul-you-buy-epic.html

I really am starting to did GOG Galaxy. I find my self using it more than Steam. GG GOG.

 

[right_to_know]

Cool thank you for the simple explanation.

That isn't quite correct.
Some games were paid to be only on Epic Store for a short time period.
This has made some Steam fanboys raging hypocrites considering the amount of exclusive games Steam has because the trivial task of having another launcher to play games is beyond them.

The epic store sucks at the moemnt so maybe they are scared a crappy store will take over.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

That isn't quite correct.
Some games were paid to be only on Epic Store for a short time period.
This has made some Steam fanboys raging hypocrites considering the amount of exclusive games Steam has because the trivial task of having another launcher to play games is beyond them.

The epic store sucks at the moemnt so maybe they are scared a crappy store will take over.

Thanks for muddying up the simple explanation

 

[DrMrLordX]

considering the amount of exclusive games Steam has

How many of those games were Steam exclusives because Steam bribed the publisher? I'm thinking: 0. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!

 

[Igo69]

Guess what! I've purchased Deus Ex Mankind Divided from GOG few days ago on huge sale and it plays much much better than when i played it on Steam. How easy it is to do download and installation! you dont even have to install any useless software.
I don't have to download a game multiple times anymore it is on my hard drive now.

 

[BFG10K]

This has made some Steam fanboys raging hypocrites considering the amount of exclusive games Steam has...

It's true, Steam is just as bad as the rest of them. But unfortunately it's a necessary evil as even with GOG's recent AAA uptick, you still lose access to a vast number of games. It's simply not feasible to abandon Steam with today's reality. OTOH I've banned all other store fronts, except GOG of course.

...because the trivial task of having another launcher to play games is beyond them.

"Trivial", until your data gets leaked, your account gets disabled, or the multi-DRM fails in some way (e.g. server outage).

It's utter lunacy to even try to compare it to GOG's standalone offline installer option, which is the true gold standard of ownership.