I have no prize I could give you but how about a *extra special hug*

This 'how many threads?' question has prompted me to explore the forums a bit more deeply to see what's going on, which is no bad thing. Among the assorted subjects was one of the perennial Steam v the rest of the world threads:

http://www.gog.com/forum/general/to_steam_or_not_to_steam

Aside from the usual scrum of Steam luvvies and anti-Steam supporters, it got me thinking about the whole thing of requiring permission to play games you've paid for. Clearly, having to ask for codes or be dependent on a client to play games you own is wrong - you bought the thing, you should be able to play it when and where you want, as long as you're not violating the rights of the people who made it.

Since the beginning of my descent into the murky depths of the computer game (I like murky depths) I've been a rabid racing sim fan. Let me stress that its sims as opposed to the more arcadey offerings that make me want to get behind the wheel (yes, I have one of those as well), despite having a copy of GRID in my GOG collection.

Two fairly recent sims that I really admire are Game Stock Car Extreme and Formula Truck 2013, both from Reiza Studios, a small outfit of fans who began by modding for rFactor and have now become a force in their own right.

This is where the depths get murkier, and the murk isn't a good one.

As seems inevitable, the interest in Reiza's two titles has meant that they have migrated to Steam. Good for them; they clearly believe its a step forward and it should put their titles under the noses of a lot more potential customers.

But how does this move affect current owners of their two sims who don't want to be forced into moving to Steam?

Owners like me.

Well, with Game Stock Car Extreme they are offering (for the time being, at least) the same updates for the non-Steam users as they intend for the Steam users. Which is fair; Steam or otherwise, we've all paid for the product and should all benefit from any enhancements that come its way.

But Formula Truck is a different story...

Non-Steam users are not going to get updates unless they migrate to the Steam system. Having purchased the game in the belief that it would be updated on a fairly regular basis as per the other title I feel my rights have been violated. This 'shift or go without' approach is wrong and is one of the reasons I dislike Steam so much. Steam has become a behemoth and its 'play our way or not at all' stance is what turns so many people off. Because its so huge small developers like Reiza are sucked towards it like iron filings to a magnet - and in the process the rights of people like me get chucked in the bin. Its arm-twisting of the most basic kind and its plain wrong.

As a side note, before the Steam move was announced, Reiza had a 'contact us for your registration key' system implemented where you couldn't access the full content of either sim until you emailed them for a code. Again this is the wrong way of doing things (it really complicates pc/os changes) but they were a small company and had a right to protect their property.

But this whole permission thing is a pain in the rear and needs to go away before it becomes the norm, or one day there'll be groups of old gamers (us ;-)) sitting in pubs of the future gazing into the distance and talking wistfully about the good old days when a game you spent money on actually belonged to you, this before getting up and having to pay to use the toilet. A place where, sadly and too often, good ideas seem to end up.

I'm glad we have GOG.

Good Morning All.
You know Stilton,it doesn't matter what you say nothing will change.Nowadays you can protest
just about anything and it will go nowhere.They all say,yes we are listening (that's a load of shit)
money matters.It's as simple as that....And yes it will get worse....I agree 100%:-)

Good morning/afternoon/evening, everyone. =)

Hopefully you're all having a decent weekend at the very least.

Also, can't help but notice an extra star next to my name...=)

Good Day Crow,
3 star General.yes sir....

General? Yeah right. -laughs-

How are you doing today, future person?

Not bad,Inny had a bad day yesterday....

That's Valentine's Day for you. Lots of potential for bullshit.

Additional - finally got around to updating my list with all the new games that look interesting.
I really hope there's a big sale next month so I can take more chunks out of that.

Yeah,I know it's bullshit just like Halloween.Australia is pushing Halloween and it's driving me mad.
The only Halloween I liked was the original:
Was that the boogie man?
As a matter of fact,yes it was....

I agree, it all started going downhill from there, to the point of there now being 8 or 9 shitty movies trying to bring down the good one by association.

I watched one of the most recent a while back and it was so bad I shut it off well before the end.

Steam is just a symptom of the overall problems we face. Technically, all the problems in the world can be directly traced back to all the Financiers and Economists who have taken over in the last 30 years, infesting themselves into the top executive positions of educational institutions (from colleges to kindergarten and school boards), Medical and health care, corporations, news and entertainment media, military, churches and government administrations.

These are people who have no practical business, administrative, or even life experience, and yet have become considered experts of all things, from civics (having removed teaching civics itself from the schools for every age) to science. Everything they touch gets corrupted, as they steal all the tangible wealth and leave behind mountains of fraudulently originated debt.

Through privatization and speculation, they are not only stealing the wealth of every nation on Earth, but through their schemes of massive criminal fraud and manipulation by Central Bankers and investment banking, they are also stealing wealth from the future, trying to force entire countries to pay huge erroneous debts that were insidiously originated through conspiring with Financiers and Economists posing as Politicians of those nations, now besieged by Austerity measures.

They are now busy printing money by the trillions, giving it to themselves through zero interest loans, and have all the money in the world, but it is still not enough, so they are recklessly stealing pensions and dismantling the social services of nations, driving people into homelessness and starvation.

They are sociopaths and psychopaths who have no regard for life or law and believe themselves to have the Divine Right through their inheritance and accumulation of wealth to impose their will and whims upon the rest of the world’s populations.

Most disturbingly, the Financiers and Economists have infiltrated the Justice systems of the entire western world and have made a mockery of Law, their selfishness, greed and avarice has become unfettered, and completely out of control.

Where ever people are being taken advantage of, where ever there is suffering, you will find that it can be directly traced back to the Financiers and Economists and their minions that worship and serve them, who are the only ones that are profiting at the expense of the suffering.

Hi gunsynd.

You're right, I know. My remarks were more to do with annoyance and incredulity than thinking anything I said would make a difference. Good or bad, its the way things are.

Is now a bad time to mention that EA is toying with the idea of charging you for gas in the upcoming NFS?

I'm not even making that up.

Congratulations on your promotion ;-)
Why is it that that doesn't surprise me?

I'm not a fan of the franchise, but still I wonder if there are any economists lurking in the background...

I've mentioned it to several people, and it has of yet to surprise anyone.