Quote:
Originally Posted by Whacker
Combinations of any of the following: asking permission whenever I wish to use what I own. Offline mode doesn't count. Loss of control over patching and which level you want to run a game at. Enabling devs to push out patches almost at will and with zero accountability or disclosure of scope, and the ensuing serious drop off of initial product release quality across the board. Not having a fully functional offline back-up and reinstallation method. The built-in "backup" function of Steam doesn't remotely cut the mustard.
You know what's really sad? Valve had it absolutely right with WON. Given WON itself wasn't exactly the most stable service during it's lifetime, but the implementation and general theory were perfect, required use of a valid product key for online play made it perfect.
In short, I'm not willing to give up my rights and control over MY stuff for the sake of convenience, nor am I willing to be treated like a criminal (limited authentications, a la DCS).
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I think there might be some misconceptions about Steam here... If you right click a game in Steam, you can go to properties and then to the "Updates" tab. From there you can 1) choose whether or not to automatically update the game, 2) to enable the steam cloud synch or not. I'm not sure if you can somehow get to a specific version of the game (if you hated the final update or something, and were installing for the first time).
Secondly - why does offline mode not count? Compared to some DRM methods (such as LOMAC - where you only have x number of installs, bah!), Steam is very nice. You have Steam installed - you login. Done. If you're offline - you login locally and you can still play your games. Where's the problem? I don't get it... I agree that some DRM methods (x number of installs) is insane. I've never noticed that with a Steam game - but doing a bit of research, it appears that it's still up to the publisher to put more draconian DRM methods on the game. Most Steam games I know of do not limit you to the number of installs/etc - since it's tied to your account. Some do, and that's the fault of the publisher/whatever - not Steam.
I do agree that having a "real" full blown back-up would be nice, but I've never had a reason to back-up my games. I save the files for games that don't sync over the "cloud", and just redownload and install as needed. =-\
Anyway - I'm not really trying to change
your mind Whacker - but wanted to help clear up some misconceptions in case anyone is interested
.
(and no, I don't work in the games industry and do not have any ties or relations to Steam or Valve - ;P ).
-Forged