A new topic to generate some discussion today is an ask the community section on why you think Steam itself is DRM?
First of all my opinion on the matter. I truly believe that Steam itself is not DRM any more than having to login to a website is which is what I like to call a "login wall" rather than having a plain download link for your games.
I am not alone in this argument either, it seems famed Linux porter Ryan Icculus Gordon also agrees:
Steamworks is not DRM, and does not require it, but way too many games do: "if !SteamAPI_Init() { exit(1); }"
— Ryan C. Gordon (@icculus) May 28, 2014
(Although, fwiw: if you have Steam running, even at the login screen with no net connection, SteamAPI_Init() will still succeed.)
Ryan C. Gordon (@icculus) May 28, 2014
If a developer doesn't do the above, Steam is simply a way to download games and keep them up to date and those games can be taken outside of Steam itself and ran without Steam. It's a developers choice on what they put in their games and that includes Steam's DRM options and that simple check pointed out by Ryan above.
For the people who do think it is DRM why do you feel that way? I would imagine it is because you need the Steam client itself, but once downloaded as mentioned above you can just move the games outside of Steam anyway, so how is that different than having to fire up a browser -> go to your favourite store -> login -> go to your library -> download -> then install/move it where you want? How is it that so different exactly that the Steam client itself suddenly becomes DRM?
I've never encountered anything as a result of using the Steam client that made me think it's getting in the way, but maybe that's just me.
It certainly would be good if developers could put up a notice to state their games run outside of Steam, that would help somewhat and there is nothing stopping them doing that.
So, I open up the floor to you readers to tell me why exactly you think the Steam client is DRM even with all of the above noted in your minds.
Quoting: AnonymousQuoting: omer666I think that as long as a game engine is proprietary, DRM or not doesn't change a great deal.This.
Also, Steam's complete lack of consumer rights due to operating out of the USA isn't great either.
I know what exactly you mean but there's many cases where people demanded a refund on their game for a reason or another and got it.
That's why steam to me is not pure DRM. It does not control on how many machines I do install the game - it does not care about that. I can play the same game on two machines at the same time, Steam won't block this (and couldn't when I'm in offline mode anyway).
For me, it's a store where I can buy licenses. And I can play that on every of my PCs.
Though, steam IS limiting. I can not give games I have to friends for them to play (borrorw/gift them). I can do that with a CD I bought. But I personally decided to accept this limitation.... and hope that Steam will feature something like that in future (they did a start with family sharing).
But ye that's my guess. Hopefully some day we will have an open sourced steam client, and in compliance with the open source philosophy.
It's important to not get caught up in Valve's business practices over whether or not Steam is DRM. With that said, I do have a very strong opinion of the business model; and it's not a favourable one. While the two are integrated, DRM is one aspect of the business model, not the whole. To that end, the forcing of installing the client from physical media does seem to comply with DRM models.
Personally, if all it was was a store front, then I'd have no problem with Steam. I haven't used GOG, but I do buy from Humble and Desura, and both of those services do not require the client run. With Desura the client is optional. With Humble you don't even have to register; email address is sufficient.
PublicNuisance Jun 9, 2014
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me