Sancdar Posted:

I think any ‘boycott’ over this issue as as much Log in to see images!

Steam DRM is actually a lot less objectionable than the normal style of online activation.

Business as normal: You install the game from a disk, if you lose this disk or it gets scratched then you’re ****ed and must re-buy the game. Whilst installing, it adds another program to your system that you didn’t ask for (SecuROM) which proceeds to tell you whether or not you’re allowed to play your new game based on such factors as what other programs you have installed, whether the games company says you’re allowed at that moment, the colour of your shirt and whether or not there are birds flying overhead.

Typically the company uses this to enforce either a pointless disk check, once again meaning that you’re totally ****ing screwed over should anything happen to that fragile piece of plastic, or to enforce a limited number of “activations” which either limit how many PCs you can install on, or how many times you can install the game at all. Very often it will require you to manually deactivate PCs so a hard system wipe will take one of your activations with it. In the long run you are likely to use up all of your allowed installs and then be told to go buy the game again.

With Steam it’s tied to an account not a computer, so you can download whatever you want, to wherever you want, and as many times as you want, but you can only sign into your account and play your games from one place at a time. In exchange for loss of control over your game (you don’t have a disc, you’re reliant on them to keep playing) they take responsibility for keeping the “disc” safe for you on their servers. The only time I’ve ever had difficulty playing a game was when I was offline… even that can be worked around with most games by use of “Offline mode”, but some games won’t be playable from offline. It’s still not perfect (no resale/lending/trade, 2 members of a family can’t play games from the same account simultaneously, all goes kaputski if Steam dies) but it’s a damn sight better than the first option.

There’s always hacks and cracks, but for the legal gamer, Steam offers a lot more useful stuff for a lot less bull****. The part that really grates is the idea of having to go and grovel to customer support to ask to play your own game without paying for it all over again.