Well worth the read.... =)

http://www.firingsquad.com/games/Firing_Points_DRM/

good read.

i'm definitely not a fan of DRM, but i've installed some of that action recently (securom, gfwl) because i really wanted to play a game.

honestly, i enjoy steam's own implementation, and that's as far as i typically accept. GOG's stance on DRM is one reason i love this site. i'd spend a lot more money here if i had a lot more money to spend.

will be pre-ordering witcher 2 from here, though. best i can do is vote with my wallet.

And now if we can only get the CEO of EA to actually read it and recognize the reality of it. And while we're at it Gabe over at Valve we might have something.

Seriously, DRM rarely if ever delays the piracy by more than a couple days tops, and typically less than one day. Which makes it worse than useless.

He has a "point" though. If a game is not available in physical edition, and its being released on Steam, one has to wait for the release date, to download it, and then to crack it. :p

Also, to hell with the Valve ass-kissers already. Steam requires calling home even for "offline" mode, online validation every fucking time you start a game, and always on connection for the game to function fully.

Fuck you, god damn fanboys!

This. It aggravates the hell out of me when my connection is down and I can't even log into offline mode because Steam "wants to update". No. I am telling you to go into offline mode because I, in those instances, do not have an active internet connection. There's nothing you need to update.

While I agree that "DRM done right" should probably include extra functionality to compensate (as much as possible) for whatever's been crippled, I most certainly do not agree that "DRM done right" on a single-player game includes blackbox installations, mandatory clients, phoning home, reliance on the integrity of an online account, and so forth. That's an absurd thing to say.

Dark Messiah used Steamworks for the multiplayer component, but single-player functioned independently of Steam. I don't see why we can't have both in Steamworks titles today. I can only assume that the people making those decisions want to take advantage of the DRM side of Steam, and feel that they can now do so without significant backlash.

I suppose it's all a matter of preference. Given my needs, Steam offers many, many drawbacks and virtually no benefits, but for some people I suppose it's the opposite.

I can't remember how many times i have been shafted because of DRM. I do hate steam. Impulse is a little better, but still.... they all suck.

When i want to play a game i bought.. i want to jump on my PC and start a game. not log onto a account and check my game is ok.

I have been to some LAN party's that we don't have a internet connection... guess what.. Joy..

How is gfwl worse than steam?
You create an offline account and there you go, no reason to be online anytime, not even for making an account like Steam requires.

GFWL would be fine if it actually worked. Problem is, half the time it doesn't and you end up going round in circles, screaming at the log in screen in frustration.

Personally I consider any extra content that requires online authentication to be a huge negative for any game unless the content can then be downloaded for offline installation.

Most of the games that I have played through have taken me months or years of more or less continuous playtime to complete, so any one time installation bonus DLCs are not going to survive through that unless I don't need to reinstall Windows for some reason.

Even if I would be certain that my computer doesn't break and know that I would play the game through in one sitting, there is still the problem that I might miss the lost content some years later when I would like to play through the game once again.

Just imagine if some ebook version of LotR would have the meeting with Tom Bombadil and the fate of Saruman as DLCs that can't be read ever again if the reader breaks, would you buy that or refuse to waste your time on reading an incomplete work? (Ignore this if you have never read anything more than once...)

Definately not a big fan of DRM either. It's a big bother to work with. But there's one good thing about it, at least for me. I save a LOT of money because I go "You want me to accept WHAT? oh okay, I'll just go play one of my other games. Maybe I'll throw money at your product when you've come to your senses or I find it in a bargain bin."

Thusly I saved $74 by not buying and playing GTA IV at release (retailed at $83 here)
Saved $55 by going "naaah maybe later" at Bioshock and waiting till I found it in a bargain bin
Saved the same with Bioshock 2 and Alpha Protocol

I'd be a lot poorer and more disappointed at horrible games if they hadn't featured a draconian DRM scheme. I've set a personal limit, I won't spend over $20 on any game which requires online activation. $25 at the most if the game looks really really great.

As for EA, they had something going for a bit with patches actually removing DRM from their older games. And they're not the only ones to have done this. I applaud this too and might cause me to go out and buy a game without the dropped price.

Also quite liked the concept of the Trackmania United version of Starforce protection. Starforce being a bother, but it was one of the better disc based protection ways I'd seen. Once you run the software and pass the disc check you could run it 5 times without needing the disc back in the drive. Then later they released a patch to remove the use of starforce altogether along with a bunch of extra content.

Shoot a little food out of your nose, did ya? :) Don't they pre-load files on Steam for big releases? I know they're encrypted in theory, but encryption implementations are often weak or flawed, even if the algos are solid.

Now that you put it that way, the cracker won't need to wait for release date, yea, assuming all files are included in the pre-load download.

I guess I should have known better than to click on an article about DRM while eating lunch. It's like turning to the nature channel to watch a documentary on centipedes. Blech.