I know, I've owned the game for about 3 years. ;)

I was challenging his assertions. Although earlier in this thread I was arguing the game was DRM-free, recent changes to the launcher mean the game isn't exactly DRM-free any more. :/

But it still is if you're playing in single player mode, unless something has changed in about the last five weeks (that's when I bought it)? I'm very strident about DRM, and the way MC works hasn't bothered me at all :)

I logged in and downloaded it, game was authenticated and I shut down my internet connection. Other than that one time, or unless I'm playing mutli-player which I rarely do, I don't have to be online or log in online and MC works in single player every time, so I'm not sure what the person who is saying he has to log in online every time to play offline single player is talking about?

Personally, if he's getting that, I blame the NSA :)

Oh and btw, I'm obsessed with Minecraft at the moment. Most amazing game on the planet. Can't believe I didn't buy it years ago

I was thinking yesterday, if I only had to choose 3 games and had to give the rest away, I'd be happy for the rest of my life with Minecraft, WazHack and either one of the Civilization Games or Europa Universalis III :)

EDIT: Ooohh, that's sad, just realized none of those games are available on GOG, LOL.

At least the clone Minetest is unquestionably DRM free (and foss). Can play LAN games without ever having been online. I've never played Minecraft to compare though, I'm sure this clone is missing a lot. (http://minetest.net/)

Well you do have to log in to play offline now. It used to be you could play offline without logging in at all, it was truly DRM-free. Now it works like Steam's offline mode, there have to be authenticated credentials stored from a successful online login.

Yes, but that's only if you log out isn't it, so it's not like you have to log in every time you play? I never logged out the first time as there's really no need, so haven't had a problem.

Sure, I guess that does add some DRM but......as long as you know that, never log out and bob's your uncle, no DRM :) Overall, I'm still fine with it.

There is no reason to ever log out; you can even back up the account file to avoid the possibility of accidentally logging out at a time when you don't have access to the internet.

The new launcher supports multiple user accounts; I'm not sure whether you can change between them while in offline mode but as I mentioned before you can use a portable installation to make as many totally separate Minecraft installs as you want, so either way you can have whatever combination of installations and accounts you want, modded or vanilla, all working offline. :)

You do have to log in every time you play, it's just an 'offline login', you used to be able to play without being logged into an account at all.

When you run Steam in offline mode you're still logging in. They say the same about Steam's offline mode and, like Steam's offline mode the new launcher 'forgot me' a couple of times. That is only possible because there's DRM. If there wasn't really any DRM then there wouldn't be a necessity for an offline mode in that sense and therefore no way for it to go wrong.

The real problem is that they've added DRM to a game they sold to hundreds of thousands of people as DRM-free.

The launcher doesn't actually forget the details like Steam does; it prompts for them if it thinks you're still actively logged in (as it says on the login confirmation prompt). Closing and re-opening the launcher will make it go back to the usual one-click login using the stored details; I haven't had to actually re-enter my login details at any point beyond the one-time migration from the old launcher's user storage format.

I'm guessing this change is part of the goal of syncing achievements and statistics which has been planned for a while now. This prompt will never appear when actually offline (since there's no server to ask for the logged-in status) so as far as I can see this change doesn't serve as DRM, even unintentionally.

I've never heard of Minetest before this post. It not needing Java already makes me like it.

I was just reporting my own experiences, it wasn't storing the fact I had logged in properly. I'd log in, quit the launcher, restart it with no connection and be told that it couldn't reach the server instead of just letting me play offline.

It is different. It's the same difference as in you downloading a standalone patch to update your games files through a process you run locally or allowing an updater to go through an auth server to upate the game files for you.

Is the login on gog DRM ? Nope, login is meant to differentiate you from all the other users and allow you acess to the part of the common pool of resources, the whole catalogue, you're enttitled to acess, the games you bought.

Login authenticates people, DRM authenticates files. When the two are bundled, yep, on my book it's DRM.

Not that it matters much these days, the definition of DRM Free keeps being strechetd to encompass that which can technically be done, so aside form those unpopular fringe cases where folks are positively crushed under the weight of sheer inconvinience i foresee everything will be, one way or another, 'DRM Free' in 2 or 3 years time :)

DRM! DRM!

Seriously though. You do realize you go through client code to get a shared pool of executables on BOTH GOG and Minecraft? GOG's just happens to be server-side PHP code, and Mojang's is client side Java. Otherwise, you'd just get a personal FTP login, or use HTTP Basic Auth.

It's a ridiculous argument, and convincing nobody, on either side.

Anyway what I posted here to say was that you can play multiplayer without online authentication, just set your server's config to use "online-mode=false". You'll just log in as the same username on every machine you are set up to use, unless you run a batch file that lets you set the username.

Seriously, "seriously" ? With "DRM! DRM!" as opening argument ? Right.

Yes, i do realize the difference between a login and subsequent standalone download and a login bundled with a client managed download. Do you ?

And which 'side' should i be trying to convince of what btw ?

Well, explain why "entitled to access" does not equal DRM in your extremely stretched definition. Sounds like the same thing to me.

...Whatever you do do NOT flip the little switch for the GOG downloader... because by the same reasoning, that is DRM.

However, check out a definition of DRM (by some people that are very anti-DRM) and see that your definition does not apply.

I mean, Mojang doesn't even seem to mind if you decompile the thing.

Uh... I... but... that sentence doesn't even...

Oh never mind though. You're angry at one company's implementation of distributing their IP. Fine. You can probably even borrow ne_zavarj's Notch-dartboard if you ask nicely. It just really isn't DRM.

SirPrimalform did some very good investigative work, but check this out: Load up an alternative launcher like MagicLauncher (you really should have this anyway). Launch the official Minecraft launcher and log out. In MagicLauncher, now click "Setup" and "Test".

Totally offline, unplugged, wifi off, It runs fine.

I didn't test the process of failing the login and clicking the "play offline" button but I have no reason to expect that it will be any different.

I know I'm making a bit of fun here but just trying to keep it light... evidently there is no "authentication of files" going on. There is no "digital restriction management" that prevents me from copying, running or even distributing the game's binary (though the latter is against the license, and obviously unethical).