Edit: Apparently if you own Xcom you get the beta and I do.
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Edit: Apparently if you own Xcom you get the beta and I do.
He's not a fan of DRM, it doesn't matter to him if it's not all that intrusive.
Well, I hardly notice it anyway and steam sales more than make up for it.
Steam is OK from a technical standpoint. It delivers content fast and enables easy incremental upgrades. The problem is digital distribution through a closed platform with mandatory online activation reduces games to services.
Software is always licensed. You may purchase a CD but you are only given permission to run the software inside. However, the license agreements for these CD's cannot suddenly change and you don't wake up to find a different product than you originally purchased. Steam makes this trivial. You pay money for a game, and Valve retains the ability to remove it or control the way you use it for the rest of its licensing period. It also makes reselling and transfering impossible, and lending (a feature recently implemented in Steam) highly controlled.
And this takes us to the real motivations behind DRM. It doesn't prevent piracy, it is all about control. DRM is inherently wrong. The problem with services like Steam is that their DRM is so transparent that people get used to it and support it. If we had taken a stand a while ago, DRM wouldn't exist anymore. And its problems go beyond ethics and control. Remember the early days of The Witcher 2? CDPR removed the DRM because it was affecting performance.
I won't deny it has good aspects too. Valve's support to the Linux gaming community has been invaluable.
Anyway this is not a thread about Steam. I just wished some of those games would be available from GOG too. But publishers are too blind for that, and they keep going for the same obsolete bullshit over and over.
Software is always licensed. You may purchase a CD but you are only given permission to run the software inside. However, the license agreements for these CD's cannot suddenly change and you don't wake up to find a different product than you originally purchased. Steam makes this trivial. You pay money for a game, and Valve retains the ability to remove it or control the way you use it for the rest of its licensing period. It also makes reselling and transfering impossible, and lending (a feature recently implemented in Steam) highly controlled.
And this takes us to the real motivations behind DRM. It doesn't prevent piracy, it is all about control. DRM is inherently wrong. The problem with services like Steam is that their DRM is so transparent that people get used to it and support it. If we had taken a stand a while ago, DRM wouldn't exist anymore. And its problems go beyond ethics and control. Remember the early days of The Witcher 2? CDPR removed the DRM because it was affecting performance.
I won't deny it has good aspects too. Valve's support to the Linux gaming community has been invaluable.
Anyway this is not a thread about Steam. I just wished some of those games would be available from GOG too. But publishers are too blind for that, and they keep going for the same obsolete bullshit over and over.
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That's a very good question and we can only speculate. My guess is old school publishers enforce DRM out of 1) Ignorance 2) Control or 3) Both. A platform like Steam gives them the power to control the software version the people see and like Tim Schafer put it "get their claws on it".
We might as well ask why game companies keep using DRM and bang our heads against the wall and it will never make sense.
In any case, I'd love to have Firaxis' games on GOG.
This was discussed at length. Sales can't "make up" for DRM. You might want to read this thread (it's quite long though): http://forums.cdprojektred.com/threads/16563-What-does-DRM-achieve-and-does-piracy-equal-lost-sales
I wasn't sure how I'd feel about Evolve, but after playing the alpha I have to say it's really fun. I don't know that I'll be spending $60 for it right around the time W3 is coming out, though. It's one of those games I see myself having a lot more fun with when playing with friends, so I'll see how many folks on my friends list get it... But W3 comes first. I think I'm gunna see about taking that whole week off (Feb24-27). : P
I suppose they don't if you live in a rich country but if it hadn't been for Steam I would have been a pirate. I live in Romania so I don't have the luxury to buy games at full price unless they are multiplayer. If I do it means I have a lot respect for the developer which include CDPR, BioWare, Blizzard, DICE, Id Software and a few others. So yeah, Steam sales are slowly helping pirates from poorer countries to become actual customers. DOTA2 is also very popular in Eastern Europe and is a significant contributor for this. Sure Valve make a lot of money from selling cosmetic items but the real advantage for them is that it introduces people to Steam.
But fair distribution does not require DRM. That's the problem, justifying it as necessary in order to deliver digital content at fair prices. GOG does it, and they don't use DRM. Why does Steam and companies like EA, Bethesda, Activision, Blizzard enforce DRM then?
What you're talking about is accessibility. That would have arrived sooner or later, with or without Steam (again, GOG).
What Gilrond is saying is sales don't justify DRM. In fact they might very likely increase their audience if they dropped DRM completely. I'd argue it is the opposite. DRM may actually encourage piracy. Many times people decide to get the "non tracked" version of games without mandatory activation and so on because of disgusting DRM schemes.
What you're talking about is accessibility. That would have arrived sooner or later, with or without Steam (again, GOG).
What Gilrond is saying is sales don't justify DRM. In fact they might very likely increase their audience if they dropped DRM completely. I'd argue it is the opposite. DRM may actually encourage piracy. Many times people decide to get the "non tracked" version of games without mandatory activation and so on because of disgusting DRM schemes.
GOG doesn't really offer a lot of AAA games. At the moment Steam is the best I have. It has also almost single hadnedly revived the PC scene.
So it means you don't worry about DRM issues, and not really that GOG don't have discounts and sales (because they often do and usually they are quite comparable to Steam discounts). Those who care to avoid DRM simply don't buy games with it, regardless AAA or not. That was basically the point. It's about principle, not about prices.
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I know it's about principle but what steam offers is too good for me to pass. Maybe if I lived in a richer country I would agree with you. If it was something retarded like what Ubisoft does then yes I'd think twice before I would buy something. I got Skyrim Legendary Edition an year ago for 30$ I think. That's a damn good deal if you ask me. I bet it's even cheaper now.
For me it's more like 0$ vs 30$ 
I consider not buying such games at all a good deal.
I consider not buying such games at all a good deal.