Cracking your own games is still cracking. That's not to say that it's illegal (as far as I'm aware it varies considerably from jurisdiction to jurisdiction). The fact that they're your games means you aren't committing copyright infringement, but that doesn't change the fact that cracking is cracking.

I got a photo of Gates & Epstein, but I always accept more evidence, I keep an archive. Thanks.
Technically right, but socially wrong, if you point a finger at me and say 'Hey, he's cracking games.', what do you think the majority of a crowd will assume ? Legal or Illegal, so until you can prove illegality, I say no cracking.

Besides, with steam games, those 2 pieces of software cannot be used to crack games you do NOT own, impossible. You have to buy the game to download it & updates or verify files delete or replace the "cracks". I am detaching from Steam by freeing my games.

You could be abusing Steam refund system. Cracking the game, and then refund it. You don't own the game anymore but can still play it

This thread ends up feeling like OP followed me into Costco today and started telling me how great Walmart is.

It doesn't matter. If you actually read things like the Steam's subscriber agreement and any end-user licensing agreements, you would know that everything that you buy through Steam is only a subscription, not a purchase of a game. You understand that you're not promised or guaranteed to always have access to what you purchase.

The exact wording is:

C. NO GUARANTEES

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, NEITHER VALVE NOR ITS AFFILIATES GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION AND ACCESS TO STEAM, THE CONTENT AND SERVICES, YOUR ACCOUNT AND/OR YOUR SUBSCRIPTION(S) OR ANY INFORMATION AVAILABLE IN CONNECTION THEREWITH.

Case in point - There was that time when Ubisoft shut down the DRM servers for Might and Magic X and kept selling the game on Steam. This continued for about a month when negative publicity and bad reviews caused Ubisoft to pull the game off Steam. The fact that Steam just let it drag out until the publisher did something implies that Steam doesn't have a problem with things like this. Ubisoft isn't some off everyone's radar indie publisher that nobody is watching.

If you don't want to agree to that, you can always not purchase games from Steam at all.

edit - italics doesn't want to display, removed

Steam has done several shady things but gets a free pass from people and some users on this forum.

Technically making a mod for game is modifying the base files which is why no ones liking W12... personally i think Microsoft will back down but the fact they are willing to test it means at least one fuckwit wants to make it a thing

... or buy games without DRM in the first place from Steam or other platforms that allow refunds. About 10% of my Steam-exclusive (excluding games I also have on GOG/Epic/itch/Origin/Uplay/gamejolt/fireflower, I don't care about these on Steam) Non-Indies on Steam don't have DRM.

Do you mean indie games on steam have no DRM?

neumi5694 said:
I guess he meant games in his Steam library, not all ones on the store.

Read the whole sencence not just the quoted part and pay attention to the "10%".
If I also counted the ones that I have double on other platforms the number would be higher.

Apparently when it comes to indies, most of them have no DRM, but I can neither confirm nor falsify that, I take the word of those who actually buy indies on Steam.

Cracking means cracking. I'm not the one who decided on the definition of the word. Your argument is similar to claiming that playing your legally owned games through an emulator isn't emulation because it's not piracy. But emulation doesn't mean piracy and neither does cracking.

You own nothing. What you purchase from Steam are subscriptions. The subscriber agreement specifically states that Neither Valve nor its affiliates guarantee continuous access to your subscriptions.

This isn't hard to understand.


If you actually want to own your games, you need to purchase from a storefront that is either DRM-free or DRM indifferent and gives you something to download independently of a library manager/launcher. Examples include GOG, itch.io, FireFlower Games, and Zoom Platform. You can also purchase directly from developers and receive a DRM-free copy from them in some cases.

Even Epic states in their end user licensing agreement that you are purchasing a software licenses with some level of non-transferable ownership over what you have bought.

I did read the whole sentence and was confused by it. It's why I was asking you the question.

From my experience most still had Steam Light DRM, but there are lots with no DRM. I do know some people don't see steam as DRM.
Thank you.

GOG isn't any different in this. You still only buy a revokable license. The only real difference is that on GOG (for most games) you're guaranteed to get a DRM-free copy that you can backup and know they can't take from you (even if the reason would be legit).

That said, technically it's no different from any DRM-Free game that's available on Steam as you could just zip the game folder up and back it up as well. It's just more convenient with the installer. And ofcourse, on Steam not all games are like this.