Valve's Steamworks to make DRM obsolete?

UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA:Redwood City, CA Icrontian
edited April 2009 in Gaming

Comments

  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Gabe Newell is a large proponent of DRM-free gaming,

    See what I did there?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    CEG scares me. Content that phones home with my personal identification? Do not want.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Isn't this a form of DRM?
  • mondimondi Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    ^ That's what I get for not hitting reply before making a tasty tasty snack.

    So CEG is a Digital method, to enforce Rights Management, but it isn't DRM?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    well the edit distance from CEG to DRM is the maximum for a three-letter-acronym, so they're as different as can be!
  • Cliff_ForsterCliff_Forster Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    I have mixed feelings about digital distribution. I have purchased a few on Steam, and its a good service, but there is still something to be said for going into your local game shop, talking with the locals a bit.

    In Glen Burnie MD we have a little shop called Power Gamer, the guys in there love talking games, and the shop has some realy nice displays to check out, so its not hard for me to justify the trip there, and a copy of the physcial disk to support those guys.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    The other thing is the keys are tied to that account what happens when you forget the account information, fail to be able to recover credentials through normal channels, or nefarious circumstances compromise the account....what then HUH WHAT THEN!?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    _k_ wrote:
    The other thing is the keys are tied to that account what happens when you forget the account information, fail to be able to recover credentials through normal channels, or nefarious circumstances compromise the account....what then HUH WHAT THEN!?

    Don't be a bad.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    I only say some of it because I have all of the original Half-Life games that are on another account that I can't figure out the pass and I have spent weeks trying to figure it out before and I know people who have had their accounts hacked and it took them the better part of a week to get everything reset and new logins.
  • MochanMochan Philippines
    edited March 2009
    funny that, Steamworks *is* DRM.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    _k_ wrote:
    I only say some of it because I have all of the original Half-Life games that are on another account that I can't figure out the pass and I have spent weeks trying to figure it out before and I know people who have had their accounts hacked and it took them the better part of a week to get everything reset and new logins.

    1) Strong password. K.is.4n.1d10t!, for example. also easily remembered.
    2) they'll email your password to you if you forget it.
  • _k_k P-Town, Texas Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    but only if you can figure out the answer for your safety question
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Right. So you should probably pick a safety question you know the answer to. If you can't do that, how have you survived this long on the internet?
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2009
    Oh, make no mistakes, CEG is a form of DRM. But the important part is that it's completely non-intrusive.

    Think of it this way. It's being offered to developers who want to use the steam platform for distribution. This will - hopefully - get those developers to stop using their own draconian methods and embrace something that most gamers can tolerate.

    Currently, if you buy a non-Valve game that uses Steam (not bought THROUGH Steam, but upon install is integrated with Steam like FEAR2), they can still have their own ridiculous methods of DRM i.e. SecuROM. If the dev is using Steamworks and uses CEG, and this becomes a regular practice, then hopefully we can see the end of rootkits and the like for DRM coverage. I think we can all agree that CEG is a better solution than any rootkit or installation limit based solutions.

    We can also all agree that something NEEDS to be done about piracy. I don't care how many people give you statistics, piracy is hurting the industry. Is DRM the solution? Absolutely not. Is CEG the solution? probably not. But at least we're making non-intrusive steps towards the correct solution.

    I hate DRM. Absolutely detest it. As it exists today, all it manages to do effectively is hurt the legitimate consumers. Am I 'excited' about CEG's implementation? No, not at all. But I do know that Valve doesn't screw things like this up. With someone like Gabe Newell on our side, just relax, this will turn out OK, and maybe even good.

    Besides, most of us once called Steam an asinine idea.
  • UPSLynxUPSLynx :KAPPA: Redwood City, CA Icrontian
    edited March 2009
  • botheredbothered Manchester UK
    edited March 2009
    I waited for FEAR 2 to be released rather than download it off Steam, then it installed through Steam! If I didn't already have Steam it would have forced me to have it! Naughty!
  • edited April 2009
    What I have seen with game centers is they will create a new login per game. This will work if you plan to be sharing your games. Doesn't make it idea if you want all your games within one login though.
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