Because that would be very confusing. I'm still not sure why they allow name changes for things other than typos.

I asked to get my typo fixed, didn't even get a reply to that :-P

Suppose i buy a game (steam key), play it, and am done with it. Can I "give" that game to one of my kids (or someone else)? Is that what people are doing when they are trading or giving away steam keys? Can I somehow unregister the game from my steam account and let my kid have it for their steam account? Or does Steam DRM prevent transferring a key to another user?

Thing is you can install GOG games anywhere you want on your PC after downloading the installers, much less restrictive than steam.

There is a difference between can and are allowed or should. GOG games are bound to one account. And one account is bound to one person. Sharing "one" GOG, is legally the same as piracy. How you handle it with GOG is down to everybodys own morals, but sharing your GOGs with your kids is certainly something I wouldn't disagree with.

Most modern DRMs like Steam or those "cerberus network(s)" aren't aimed at pirates, but at the used games market. Something that was in the EULAs from the start, but only modern technology made this possible for most companies to actually enforce.

Edit: typo

Yes, and GOG also explicitly permit you to install your game on every computer in your house if you want, so there's nothing stopping you from letting your kids play your games - even at the same time as you. That's another reason why GOG > Steam.

I'm not telling people to do this(share gog games) just showing how less restrictive GOG is and why I don't consider it DRM.

And I also know about the used games hatred held by many publishers, sadly. :\

Riiight, I forgot their stance on this. GOG is way more laissez-faire than most distributors. I stand corrected. (as I'm to lazy to look up their EULA ;-P)

Doesn't really matter, DRM dictates what you're able to do without cracking it. Whether one is allowed to or ethically able to is a completely separate matter. If I didn't have access to my account I could just use a friend's copy and there would be no difference between that and using my own copy.

The enforcement by technological means baked into the program or lack thereof is really the salient detail.

Which is fucking awesome btw. On Live I get around this by logging in on my daughter's XBox 360, buying an item, and then going back to my 360. So she can use the machine license and I can use the Live account (roaming) license to play together. Still, the next gen console that offers a "family plan" where you pay a bit extra to have a game unlocked for your whole family will dominate the next generation.

I don't even know how this would work on PC, Steam requires a subscriber agreement, but most kids can't agree to such things, so I have to, as a parent, do the whole thing for her and buy shit twice? Yeah, lame, imo.

I suppose that is where I am not liking steam. I am fine with anti-piracy measures, but if I buy a game, I would like it to be easy for my kids to play it. Easier than having them log into my account. Something like a family account available to up to 4 pcs would be nice. My kids are not 13, so they are not supposed to have their own account, according to the agreement.

Of course, looking from the outside, how can you tell the difference between mom, pop, kiddo-1, kiddo-2 and 4 high school friends from four different households? You really can't unless you start getting into IP addresses, etc.

GOG makes it easy to do what I want. I played Rayman for a while then my 2 kids wanted to play. Installed it on their PCs, they played for a while, but it was my younger one that really liked it most. She plays off-and-on. I have not played it for quite a while. I definitely got my money's worth - but mostly through my kids' use. I won't let them play some of the other games, like DN Manhatten.

I've despised Steam since it was thrust on me without prior warning on my freshly delivered pre-ordered copy of Half-Life 2. Firstly, the installer itself on the disc broke down if I didn't install the additional CounterStrike content. It then required me to wait to several hours to apparently download half the game in decrypted files. By the time I could get into the game, my day was wasted and I had to get off to work.

My scepticism wasn't alleviated when about two years later I returned to Half-Life 2 in an attempt to join a friend in some online mod called "The Hidden". I found that for whatever reason, my account was disabled along with the access to the game I had paid full price for. Some enquiries with pictures of my game case attached later, I was granted it back. I simply don't trust this system and I feel it is very insulting to ask for permission, host a monitoring client and sit through the verification process, each time I want to play a game I paid for. As of today, since Steam has infected most of the PC gaming market, I've been forced into playing most modern games on console. Even though Steam gets praise over other DRM methods, some of EA's games like Mass Effect and Dead Space (I just had to get a taste of these on PC whilst they were cheap) activated silently and without incident for me.

Oh hello thread, fancy seeing you here.

(Really, the forum needs a sage option.)

And its almost a year since this thread bumped lol.