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General discussion (archive)DRM and buying habits.(156 posts)(156 posts)
(156 posts)
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This is my favourite topic
Posted April 24, 2011
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DarrkPhoenix: Now, you wanted to know why some people don't care for Steam, and I've given you my reasons. If you don't find those reasons convincing from your own perspective then that's fine, everyone weights the risk involved differently, values time and money differently, and should be free to come to their own conclusion on what risks they find acceptable or unacceptable and how those risks affect the value proposition of a given game. However, if you are unable or unwilling to understand how the reasons I've laid out could be compelling to some people other than yourself then quite frankly that's your failing, and one I no longer have any interest in trying to deal with.
No, no, you've made your reasons quite clear, but nothing changes how silly it seems. Still, you'll never know what you're missing. That's my concern here. Why not take a $5 detour and "chance it" on some excellent games. What's the worst that could happen? Steam's Lucas Arts adventures are mighty tempting.

Besides, if you're buying from Impulse, man....You're taking a bigger risk with them.

What if I refused to use games that require a physical CD key? For exactly the same reasons you don't trust Steam. People lose CD keys all the time, or they get entered wrong and won't work, or are already activated somehow. I've weighed the risks and I think the risks of using games that require a CD key are too much for my time and money. So, I refuse to play any games that require a CD key-don't bother telling how good or cheap they are, I don't care, because I'll never,ever, try them.

Still sound reasonable?
Post edited April 24, 2011 by Adokat
Posted April 24, 2011
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Lenny: Both stalker sequels,
Clear Sky is DRM-free... but Call of P... uses TAGES I think. Although nothing a simple crack can't fix.
Posted April 24, 2011
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hedwards: The reason you don't see those very often any more is that...
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wooglah: Maybe not very often, but it's there. X2 comes to mind, with tutorial lines like "now check the manual page for docking procedure and start docking the station..." - and since you got the game online (steam, in my case), the only way to see the manual is alt+tab-ing out of the game itself, or printing the damn thing.
Really? I bought X2 a few years ago but never got around to playing it. I'm not sure I still have the manual. Thats going to suck I really do want to play it eventually.
Posted April 24, 2011
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TheCheese33: I am absolutely fine with most DRM. It's more convenient than setting some crazy rule like "I don't buy Steamworks games" or "I never buy Blizzard games". Maybe my younger age makes me more resilient to such efforts, but I think skipping a game because you're paranoid about Battle.net is rather silly.
It's not really paranoia, it's a boycott.
Posted April 24, 2011
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wooglah: Maybe not very often, but it's there. X2 comes to mind, with tutorial lines like "now check the manual page for docking procedure and start docking the station..." - and since you got the game online (steam, in my case), the only way to see the manual is alt+tab-ing out of the game itself, or printing the damn thing.
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gooberking: Really? I bought X2 a few years ago but never got around to playing it. I'm not sure I still have the manual. Thats going to suck I really do want to play it eventually.
There is a great website called the xuniverse that has more information than you'll ever need to play these games. It was an integral part of getting the full enjoyment out of the games, especially with the X3 cokpit mod and tutuorial for creating complexes.
Posted April 24, 2011
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orcishgamer: You raise good points, I wonder if developers know how much they drive the second hand market and delayed purchasing decisions with DRM.

I can tell you how my habits changed, I bought an XBox 360 (I actually have 2 now) and mostly I play that. I also quit playing 2 of my favorite genres almost altogether: RTS and FPS. At a glance the industry might think of this as a win, but it's not, I used to buy games for buddies all the time and host LAN parties that encouraged the purchase of new games. I probably buy far less games total now and spend less yearly.
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Lenny: DRM has had a major impact on my decision to go out and buy a new PC game. The two last times i did it was the first Bio Shock that had some draconian activation-based DRM and then Dawn of War 2 that forced me to install both gamecenter crap for windows and steam even though I bought a physical copy.

Since that time I've mostly bought games on GOG and bargain bin games for my consoles.
I've Also bought all Frictional releases twice to give them some support and have gradually began to buy some 3 year old bargains of Steam, figuring that if I can only rent the game its also only acceptable to pay a reduced price/"rent fee".

Like you I have stopped playing RTS after the experience with Dawn of War 2 and due to drm, dlc, and killing off mod support I have also stopped playing FPS.

Games that I'm currently holding off from buying because I'm unsure about their DRM status: A vampyre story, The Black Mirror, Black Mirror II, Black Mirror III, AvP 2010, Both stalker sequels, Grey Matter
It's interesting you mention both Bioshock and DoW2, both of those would have been instant buys for me. I actually would have bought multiple copies of DoW2 (I loved DoW and it was a regular feature at LAN parties). I didn't buy either due to DRM. I even avoided the Bioshock 360 release. If you read their forums they handled the whole thing piss-poorly and treated the very large number of people who had actual problems with derision (remember, this was before they got all the SecuROM stuff ironed out, they launched with 2 activations and no revocation tool).
Posted April 24, 2011
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wooglah: Maybe not very often, but it's there. X2 comes to mind, with tutorial lines like "now check the manual page for docking procedure and start docking the station..." - and since you got the game online (steam, in my case), the only way to see the manual is alt+tab-ing out of the game itself, or printing the damn thing.
Not that it's an acceptable solution, but that's one nice thing about having my Nook, I can just load the manuals on that, and don't have to make that choice.

It's really annoying though.
Posted April 24, 2011
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wooglah: Maybe not very often, but it's there. X2 comes to mind, with tutorial lines like "now check the manual page for docking procedure and start docking the station..." - and since you got the game online (steam, in my case), the only way to see the manual is alt+tab-ing out of the game itself, or printing the damn thing.
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hedwards: Not that it's an acceptable solution, but that's one nice thing about having my Nook, I can just load the manuals on that, and don't have to make that choice.

It's really annoying though.
This is why a ton of people run dual monitors now, as well.
Posted April 24, 2011
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hedwards: Not that it's an acceptable solution, but that's one nice thing about having my Nook, I can just load the manuals on that, and don't have to make that choice.

It's really annoying though.
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orcishgamer: This is why a ton of people run dual monitors now, as well.
Which is fine as long as you don't have to thumb through the entire manual, in which case you get little benefit out of it. OTOH, it means that once you find the solution you don't have to remember it to type it in.
Posted April 24, 2011
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orcishgamer: This is why a ton of people run dual monitors now, as well.
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hedwards: Which is fine as long as you don't have to thumb through the entire manual, in which case you get little benefit out of it. OTOH, it means that once you find the solution you don't have to remember it to type it in.
Well, you can also keep IRC or whatever open on the second one. Crackheads can manipulate their EVE spreadsheets on it while playing:)
Posted April 24, 2011
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hedwards: Not that it's an acceptable solution, but that's one nice thing about having my Nook, I can just load the manuals on that, and don't have to make that choice.

It's really annoying though.
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orcishgamer: This is why a ton of people run dual monitors now, as well.
That manual entry thing is probably the worst form of DRM (excepting Ubisoft, of course. Maybe GFWL, too, but that's more because of the poor nature of the service, and not the specific type of DRM used), and I'm thankful it was mostly before my time. It's intrusive, annoying, and binds your ability to play the game to some booklet. People running dual monitors for that reason just shows how bad an idea it is.

Edit: Or did you mean having a second monitor just to look over the manual in general? If so, that's actually kind of sensible.

When I was playing MoO from here, I was initially confused when that copy protection thing popped up-I had no idea where to find the right answer. Fortunately, I think GoG made impossible to choose wrongly (or I guess luckily).
Post edited April 24, 2011 by Adokat
Posted April 24, 2011
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orcishgamer: This is why a ton of people run dual monitors now, as well.
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Adokat: That manual entry thing is probably the worst form of DRM (excepting Ubisoft, of course. Maybe GFWL, too, but that's more because of the poor nature of the service, and not the specific type of DRM used), and I'm thankful it was mostly before my time. It's intrusive, annoying, and binds your ability to play the game to some booklet. People running dual monitors for that reason just shows how bad an idea it is.

When I was playing MoO from here, I was initially confused when that copy protection thing popped up-I had no idea where to find the right answer. Fortunately, I think GoG made impossible to choose wrongly (or I guess luckily).
Someone has never had to use a Code Wheel:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_wheel

The Bard's Tale 3 code wheel is the worst one I have ever seen.
Posted April 24, 2011
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Adokat: That manual entry thing is probably the worst form of DRM (excepting Ubisoft, of course. Maybe GFWL, too, but that's more because of the poor nature of the service, and not the specific type of DRM used), and I'm thankful it was mostly before my time. It's intrusive, annoying, and binds your ability to play the game to some booklet. People running dual monitors for that reason just shows how bad an idea it is.

When I was playing MoO from here, I was initially confused when that copy protection thing popped up-I had no idea where to find the right answer. Fortunately, I think GoG made impossible to choose wrongly (or I guess luckily).
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orcishgamer: Someone has never had to use a Code Wheel:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_wheel

The Bard's Tale 3 code wheel is the worst one I have ever seen.
Lol, I was just remembering those after I posted :) I vaguely recall playing with one of these when I was very young, over at a friend's house. I remember finding it more interesting than the game itself, haha.
Posted April 24, 2011
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orcishgamer: Someone has never had to use a Code Wheel:) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code_wheel

The Bard's Tale 3 code wheel is the worst one I have ever seen.
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Adokat: Lol, I was just remembering those after I posted :) I vaguely recall playing with one of these when I was very young, over at a friend's house. I remember finding it more interesting than the game itself, haha.
To be fair, the code wheels were more interesting than a lot of those games (ah shovelware!).
Posted April 24, 2011
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Adokat: Lol, I was just remembering those after I posted :) I vaguely recall playing with one of these when I was very young, over at a friend's house. I remember finding it more interesting than the game itself, haha.
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orcishgamer: To be fair, the code wheels were more interesting than a lot of those games (ah shovelware!).
My memory is real hazy, but I think the game in question may have been kinda good. My friend's mom had a bunch of adventure games that we'd play, but I was too young to ever get very far. I remember a few of them-Starship Titanic, that time travelling game on Mars, the MI games....it could have been one of them (or maybe just more glorious shovelware).
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This is my favourite topic
Community
General discussion (archive)DRM and buying habits.(156 posts)(156 posts)
(156 posts)