Free Valve Games For Debian Developers

That's pretty kind of them, it is the least they can do though building from others work of course ;)

Nice of Valve to do that. Think some source code would have been more valuable but I guess in this case the DD's know more than Valve :D.

If Valve wants to make a positive move, they should start offering DRM free games, rather than "free" games. That would be a welcome step. And it's time for them to address the issue of DRM anyway.

If Valve wants to make a positive move, they should start offering DRM free games, rather than "free" games. That would be a welcome step. And it's time for them to address the issue of DRM anyway.

Well TF2 and DOTA2 can't be DRM free, since they use Valve's servers.

So, can you install and run them without running Steam? I thought it was impossible for any games offered there. To provide DRM-free offerings Valve should address the installation / backup step first.

If Valve wants to make a positive move, they should start offering DRM free games, rather than "free" games. That would be a welcome step. And it's time for them to address the issue of DRM anyway.

I wouldn't expect them to give out DRM free games because Steam. But GoldSCR games really should be open sourced/DRM Free these days since it would be a gesture of openness without having to give away all their trade secrets ;). Its funny though that if you own the CD edition of Half-Life its pretty much DRM free anyway.

I wouldn't expect them to give out DRM free games because Steam.

Why? In many cases developers have no objections to DRM-free distribution (and sell the same games on HB and GOG DRM-free for example). It's only Steam service limitations prevent DRM-free options from being offered. So as I said - it's time for Valve to address that. And that would be welcome. Offering games at no charge but with DRM? No, thanks.

*Starts looking up the steps to becoming a Debian Developer*

I wouldn't expect them to give out DRM free games because Steam.

Why? In many cases developers have no objections to DRM-free distribution (and sell the same games on HB and GOG DRM-free for example). It's only Steam service limitations prevent DRM-free options from being offered. So as I said - it's time for Valve to address that. And that would be welcome. Offering games at no charge but with DRM? No, thanks.

Well no, Steam is the most integral part of their entire service, they won't give that up, ever.

good thing is that Valve already offer DRM free games. DRM is not a part of steam but a option for developers who require DRM.
try for example "sir, you are being hunted" by double clicking on the ELF file, with steam closed.
the game starts and steam stay closed.

It's just the beginning. There is source out there for their modifications used in SteamOS. Go look for the tar.gz files in the repo. For instance, the compositor source is here: http://repo.steampowered.com/steamos/pool/main/s/steamos-compositor/steamos-compositor_1.15.2.tar.gz

The fact that they've released a new ISO that has features pulled in from the unofficial Ye Olde SteamOSe project this early proves, at least to me, that they Get It(tm). It's still very early on, and SteamOS is literally Steam on top of Debian... There's not much code to share. But it's there.

Unless you mean opening up the Steam client, in which case, yeah that would be great, but unrealistic right now. Will they get there? Very possibly. Time will tell.

Well no, Steam is the most integral part of their entire service, they won't give that up, ever.

So they consider DRM to be the integral part of their service? I really don't see a good reason for that. Convenience of the service in some aspects has nothing to do with restrictions it also adds. I.e. nothing stops Steam from keeping the convenience while dropping the DRM nonsense. Except their unwillingness.

good thing is that Valve already offer DRM free games. DRM is not a part of steam but a option for developers who require DRM.
try for example "sir, you are being hunted" by double clicking on the ELF file, with steam closed.
the game starts and steam stay closed.

No, they don't. I already explained in the previous threads, that DRM-free means offering standalone packages / installers first (and then of course no additional requirements to run the client for running the game and so on). Steam fails at step one already.

Well no, Steam is the most integral part of their entire service, they won't give that up, ever.

So they consider DRM to be the integral part of their service? I really don't see a good reason for that. Convenience of the service in some aspects has nothing to do with restrictions it also adds. I.e. nothing stops Steam from keeping the convenience while dropping the DRM nonsense. Except their unwillingness.

They don't see it as DRM remember, and it is questionable if it really is. Their "DRM" is actually a group of services offered to games like matchmaking, achievements, cards etc. It is a developers choice to use them, not Steam's.

If you want to hammer against DRM on Steam, talk to the game developers.

So they consider DRM to be the integral part of their service? I really don't see a good reason for that.

good thing is that Valve already offer DRM free games. DRM is not a part of steam but a option for developers who require DRM.
try for example "sir, you are being hunted" by double clicking on the ELF file, with steam closed.
the game starts and steam stay closed.

No, they don't. I already explained in the previous threads, that DRM-free means offering standalone packages / installers first (and then of course no additional requirements to run the client for running the game and so on). Steam fails at step one already.

what more than a DRM free download do you need form steam? you want it to install the game without running steam?
once the game is installed you can unistall steam and keep the game.

So they consider DRM to be the integral part of their service? I really don't see a good reason for that.

good thing is that Valve already offer DRM free games. DRM is not a part of steam but a option for developers who require DRM.
try for example "sir, you are being hunted" by double clicking on the ELF file, with steam closed.
the game starts and steam stay closed.

No, they don't. I already explained in the previous threads, that DRM-free means offering standalone packages / installers first (and then of course no additional requirements to run the client for running the game and so on). Steam fails at step one already.

what more than a DRM free download do you need form steam? you want it to install the game without running steam?
once the game is installed you can unistall steam and keep the game.

This + 1, which links into my answer, steam itself is NOT DRM. It is as much a burden as logging into a website to download rather than having a dedicated link to download.

I wasn't talking about Steamworks lock-in, which developers can avoid if they wish. It's bad of course. I was talking about requiring to run the client and connecting to the service to install the game. It's step 1 DRM, and no, Steam offers no packages outside the service. Sometimes you can manually copy stuff and reuse, but that's not an official support when the service provides a package (like HB and GOG do). Therefore I consider Steam to be always DRMed.

To clarify, it's not about a burden of logging in anywhere. It's about an ability to install (from a backup for example) and run the game without the service.

I wasn't talking about Steamworks lock-in, which developers can avoid if they wish. It's bad of course. I was talking about requiring to run the client and connecting to the service to install the game. It's step 1 DRM, and no, Steam offers no packages outside the service. Sometimes you can manually copy stuff and reuse, but that's not an official support when the service provides a package (like HB and GOG do). Therefore I consider Steam to be always DRMed.

I don't like DRM either, but seriously are we going this far?
What if i don't want to open my browser and connect to a website to download my games, what than?
That would be DRM forcing me to run a browser that have no relevance to installing or downloading my game.

DRM is only bad when its overdone and/or hinders legitimate costumers. Ofc it would also be nice if everything was open source but in some fields open source is not a very viable option.

Steam is basically a browser too you know.

Any DRM is DRM, far or not. If the service closes down, and let's say you own a few thousands worth of games there, is it far that you won't be able to install any of them because you didn't have an option to back them up when you bought them? I know quite a few people who avoid using Steam just for that reason. Any DRM is bad.

Any DRM is DRM, far or not. If the service closes down, and let's say you own a few thousands worth of games there, is it far that you won't be able to install any of them because you didn't have an option to back them up when you bought them? I know quite a few people who avoid using Steam just for that reason. Any DRM is bad.

That's quite true. Indeed, I believe many people will kill themselves the day Steam shuts down! :P

In any case we'll have to live with that, at least for a while. After all, better to have games on Steam under GNU/Linux that games on Steam under Windows. It is already a large improvement that I didn't expect so soon.

Any DRM is DRM, far or not. If the service closes down, and let's say you own a few thousands worth of games there, is it far that you won't be able to install any of them because you didn't have an option to back them up when you bought them? I know quite a few people who avoid using Steam just for that reason. Any DRM is bad.

Games on Steam without DRM are actually DRM-Free. You don't need to have the service running to play DRM-Free games and on Linux you can simply copy the game folder to create a backup of the game. You only need to run the client once, download your game and then you are done. FTL is an example of such a game. It's really not that different to using GoG or HB, the only difference is you're using a 3rd party download tool instead of your browser.