Well the "need Impulse to update" is only the little ice cube on the surface, try to change something significant in your hardware and you will discover the rest of the iceberg hidden underwater.

(Unless you are lucky and your current version is really DRM-free as Stardock loves to switch from DRM to DRM-free from patch to patch)

I do too, but there's enough that you'll be able to play in perpetuity to keep even very avid gamers busy. FlyByU is correct even if he's stating his point in a combative manner. You do not have to accept Steam or other heinous forms of DRM in order to play new games. Will you have to pass on some of your favorites? Probably, yes, I have. I still have a massive backlog of games and it keeps growing faster than I can get through it.

True and I am actually puzzled what GOG wants to say on their "About us" page with the phrase "you own the game". However the difference to Steam is still so large... no internet connection, no activation, ...

It would be huge step forward, if GOG would allow the transfer of licenses from one account to another for a small fee (like 20% of the game price maximally).

Actually there is one digital download plattform that I know of that allows reselling - its a german one and I doubt that you will likely use it: http://www.gamesload.de/

Also the "general conditions" are german only, but they allow reselling for all titles except EA. They explicitly guarantee product activations for the second-hand buyer too.

Yes. Moving on.

there's no activation on steam either, you download the game, you play. Just like with GOG

Anyway I think everything was said, so let's get over it

Hello I'm an early '90s PC gamer, I love Steam and I'm not ashamed, actually I think that the only reason there are new games on PC every month is because of Steam.
Oh btw, games in the '90s had DRMs, they were simply called "copy protection". Now stop being funny would you?

..no activation? You have to be online to open the Steam client (at least on my mac) and you have to verify the game with Steam servers to play it. You can't just download and play quite like that.

no you don't, after you've downloaded the game you can play it offline even at first launch, and you can play games on Steam even offline

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It's the same thing, but you was a kid so it wasn't something truly important to you, and now thinking about searching words on manuals or using code wheels sounds nostalgic, but it was the same thing imo, maybe even more annoying

Lolwut? Fuck off really, you don't even know me, your mouth is full of shit.
Companies use DRMs because of rampant piracy, and maybe you're one of those pirates as well, so it's prolly more your fault than mine.

I don't buy ubisoft or THQ retail games, (nor via Steam as at least ubisoft has that stupid DRM even on that versions), you don't really know how Steam works if you think so and also you don't know what steam is actually doing for PC gaming.
DRMs sucks but there's no choice, if you don't buy the games you like because they use copy protection you're just telling companies like Capcom to NOT release their games on PC. They'll rather see the PC as a dead market than thinking about "hey, if we release DRM free games they'll buy them!", because it's NOT true, a drm-free game sell less as it gets cracked at day one.

Companies would rather focus only on console games instead of releasing DRM-free games digitally

If it was for you and other dumb people calling themselves "real PC Gamers", PC gaming would just be dead. Real PC gamers care about their rights, but they uses both Gog and Steam.

Eclipse, why don't you get your facts straight? Its completely okay, if you love Steam, but why lying about the DRM. Of course there is an online activation/check for each install and each update and all multiplayer sessions using the Steamworks system.

Otherwise, please send me (for testing purposes) any game from Steam archived on a DVD and all patches and I will play it on a networkless computer. Impossible? Well, because of DRM, right?

*popcorn*

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steam does not have limited activations, and you don't need to be online... If you have steam installed on that pc and you own the game you can install it from DVD and play without the need to be online, of course you can't play a game you don't own and you shouldn't anyway, so I don't really see the problem with having a copy protection.
It doesn't have online activation, it just need to be copied on a pc that have Steam with that game unlocked

I don't want to appear like a fanboy, but I want to get some fact straight.

- Some games on steam have limited activations, like ubisoft ones or maybe Bioshock, but that's not Steam, that's the DRM that is even on the retail versions of the game.

- Some games require you to play online! Like I said before: Ubisoft ones, but only the new ubisoft ones, the ones after Assassin's Creed. Far Cry or Prince of Persia: Sand of Times for example doesn't. Steam always list stuff like that in the requirements

- The average steam game is playable offline, you can make a backup of it, but you can't run it on every computer without steam, it's a copy protection. Call it DRM if you want, it still doesn't limit the user right to play the game on every system he owns in any way. If it's DRMs It's a very bland one and shouldn't affect a normal user at all. It's always better than requiring the DVD always in the drive for me, and that one is what you call copy protection, not DRM


If you really dislike Steam, you're entitles to your opinion of course! You can't deny the fact that it has pro and cons, one big pro is that it's a platform that helps indie developers stands out, and it's probably the most "friendly" of the mainstream platforms. Sadly you can't do something like GOG for new AAA titles, at least Steam makes messing up with new PC games less a pain, from download to installation to dealing with DRMs.

If you never used Steam I recommend you to give it a go, their catalogue is full of games under $5 so you're not going to lose too much if you want to delete it