[Whacker]

Originally Posted by Forged

I would absolutely prefer games with no DRM and I believe it's wrong on many levels to limit us to a certain number of activations! I also prefer to own a physical cd for my games, but I hate having to put the CD into the cd tray .

The physical copy thing for me is a deal breaker when it comes to new games. It's a bit ironic that I loathe the "advances" made in gaming when it comes to delivery means. To me, the whole convenience thing (online delivery, etc) has just made that much more of an impact to me and my rights as a consumer.

The way I look at it is that, as far as DRM goes, there's going to have be a little give and take... a little compromise. The reason is that game developers/publishers are not going to stop using DRM because pirating has cost them a ton of money. This is sad - and hurting legitimate players. Now games are coming out that require an internet connection to play at all, and no longer allow lan play (Starcraft II for instance) or even single player (diablo III - internet connection absolutely required to play. Bah!).

All very good points and examples, except in one area I disagree...

Out of the available options (at least those we have now), I see steam (and a few other similar services) as a decent compromise - if the publisher hasn't added other DRM such as activation limits to the game. If it's tied to your account, that should be enough to ensure they are getting their money, and you have your game - able to use it as often as you want and activate as often as you want. And despite having to login, at least you can play offline. The problem is that some publishers are adding more DRM on top of steam, which is bogus ;(.

... which is that Steam is an acceptable alternative, for the reasons I stated above.

I think the simple fact is that the DRM isn't going away. So we're either stuck with older games or the occasional DRM-free game, or going with the best, most user friendly and reasonable DRM out there.

This is where I disagree, to an extent. DRM doesn't stand for Digital Rights Management, it stands for Digital Rights Restrictions, in that it restricts what we can do with what we own.

The main method that I've happily accepted over the years is the one that's largely been abandoned, which is use of unique key strings for online use. Look at the Quake series, original Half-life and WON, or games like those. Half of them later on didn't require the CDs in the drive to use, and the only time the key was checked was when one went to play online, and it was a simple check against a master server. Nobody looking over your shoulder, no crappy or nasty drivers installed, and that was that.

I don't know how far we can discuss this topic but I have a few comments about piracy. The first is the simple fact is that piracy will never stop. Ever. It's not hard to go out and find widely known places to get things. Second, it actually has some benefits, in terms of generating exposure and game sales. There's one well known instance where a game was made available on accident for some time inadvertently, and it was downloaded hand over fist during that period. Sales skyrocketed during that time as well. Here's another question, would you ever buy a car without test driving it first? Buy a house without doing a walk-through and inspection? I am the same way with games, I will not buy them unless I play AND enjoy them first. I'll just leave it at that.

Finally, here are the deal-breaker questions:

1. Does it require me to log in to anything, or make some kind of account that the game is permanently tied to?

2. Does it require me to constantly be online for the game to function?

3. Does it require activation, or have a limited number of activations?

4. Does it remove my control over patching and patch levels?

5. Do I have a physical copy of the game? If no, am I prevented from making a stand-alone backup that I can install any time and without some kind of online authorization?

As a side note - through this conversation I did some research and found out that DCS: A-10c Warthog uses a separate DRM service, even if sold on Steam. Apparently steam's DRM can't be used on 64 bit applications (like A-10c warthog). This game allows you to activate 10 times, after which you get a new activation every 30 days. If I knew this - I'd probably not have bought it. At least you don't have to contact the company for a new activation - but it's still too restrictive in my opinion.

I also learned this lesson the hard way when it came to Flaming Cliffs and Starforce. It ended up mulching a very nice (and not cheap) DVD burner of mine.