Steam and DRM is one of the biggest scams out there in the industry. Steam may offer a good service but at what cost and DRM is just a control freak nightmare that treats customers as criminals, hell the pirates get the best version. They don't have to deal with the garbage that DRM pumps out.

Sometimes you just gotta ask, who are the real criminals?

Well steam annoys the hell out of me because i bought fallout new vegas ultimate edition because i hadnt played the dlc yet, i got it on the day of release go home, start installing get a message you cannot install this version in your country, i keep trying so i send a message to their tech support, the reply i get is, the version key you provided proves that the version you have is for your country of origin, please return the game back to the store you purchased it from.

I called the support line for EB Games/Gamestop, and they said no steam messed up the release date in the oceania region and it couldnt be installed, and i had to wait for steam to clean up the mess they caused and couldnt even own up to in their reply, so if id bothered paying any attention to steam i would have returned the game when it was actually steams fault. This is why i dont like steam or anything like it, because they should have no control to stop you installing the game and playing it, plus the fact they can actually ban you from steam, thus leaving any steam games you have worthless.

My liking of Steam isn′t really increasing when reading stuff like that. You simply can′t play it then?

I can play it now, only after they took their time fixing a problem that should never existed, since it wasnt a new release game, new vegas was release ages ago and the dlc as well, so its not as if it was a new release game.

It most likely was (or should have been) using release dates for the Ultimate edition & not when New Vegas itself (or the DLC) was released

It seems the demo for rayman origins on steam got a bit messed up. Clicking the download button didn't do anything for me (and still doesn't), then it appeared in my library as if it was already installed but clicking it brought up some file-conversion pop-up and started the download.
At 100% downloaded nothing happened however (and no way to cancel) and I had to shut steam down with the task-manager.

It gets even more odd though, now the demo isn't in my library but I can start the demo by navigating to the steam folder and starting the game through the .exe directly, steam doesn't even need to be running.

Risen 2 will be Steam-locked. I'm seriously considering not buying it...

Anyone think theres a chance Skyrim GOTY wont have steam? At first I thought the chances were decent but as time goes on it looks to be another steam forced game. On the plus side by the time the goty comes out it would have all the dlc all the patches and so forth so It would not have any reason for it.

Steam's too far integrated into it now. I doubt it.

sadly Yeah, IMHO that would be like Beth saying the steam workshop was a bad idea

ATM I really don't see myself buying anything more from Beth or Zenimax in the future

Yah I havent bought a Beth game since Fo3, shame really but im sticking to my guns. I got slightly excited about the game Reckoning but its tied to origin which is no different then steam so no game.

Great forums here though I have and still love the three Beth games I do own so il keep lurking around here for a while.

Same here. At least not a new game.

After much thought, I have come to the conclusion that the beast called Greed, which has taken over the game industry, clearly has its claws in Zenimax Media. They're the ones pulling all the strings, they're the ones telling BGS what to do. And all they care about is maximizing profits, regardless of how unethical they may have to behave in order to do so.

Allowing people to buy a game they know is going to be severely problematic on a particular format without warning them about it ahead of time is unethical.

Forcing people who may not trust a particular type of software to accept using it in order to enjoy your latest game is unethical.

Allowing people to pre-order a game which will come with DRM without warning them about the existence and nature of that DRM ahead of time is unethical.

Not making it clear precisely what said DRM is meant to accomplish and precisely how it accomplishes it in a place easily found on ones official forums is unethical.

I don't care if Steam causes problems or not. I don't care if it can be run in offline mode. I care about being considered a customer, not a svcker or a criminal. I care about the fact that I'm looking to play an offline, single-player game where I never interact with any other human being within the game, just like all the thousands of other such games that have been released in previous years that don't need an internet connection for me to enjoy them. I care about the fact that the game industry got along just fine before the days of Digital Rights Management. I care about the fact the industry makes more money than movies and music combined, yet constantly complains about piracy and the used games market cutting their profits.

How long until it's actually illegal to purchase a used game?

How long until you can be locked up for re-selling your copy of a game?

How long until every game you purchase requires that you register with the publisher's official forums, where anything you post that breaks the rules results in your game being turned into a $60 coaster?

How long until you have to sign a waiver before even purchasing a game from a retailer?

How long until retailers won't even carry games anymore because they cut into profits?

I predict all of these things will happen before gamers everywhere tell publishers to stick it where the sun don't shine, and stop buying their games altogether, and not even pirate them either. I for one will not be buying any new games from anyone, let alone Bethesda, who sees me as a potential criminal. No DRM. No internet connection required. No background software required. No activation required. No official forum registration required. No monitoring/controlling device of any kind required. No interference whatsoever from the publisher or developer. No more. There's literally thousands of titles I can enjoy right now where the people who made them don't take measures to ensure I'm not modifying their source code or making nvde mods or anything else I can imagine doing. It's my copy of the game, I will do what I wish with it. If I make copies and give them away for free, only at that point am I guilty of anything, and deserving of being treated as a criminal. Not a second before. If I want to kill an essential NPC and break the Main Quest, that's my right. If I want to make the game bat-crap insane hard, that's my right. I don't care what EULAs say. I'm not claiming ownership of an intellectual property or committing piracy, the only two things the industry should be concerned with. Anything else is just stupid stuff.

Zenimax Media has forced me to lose all respect for Bethesda. Good job jerks. You would've made a lot of money off of me. Thousands may not join me in leaving your products on the shelves, but as I well know, even one lost customer is lost profit that you can't stand. How does it feel?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/03/08/cd-projekt-will-never-use-drm-says-ceo/

I hope this includes Steam. I really, really hope this include Steam.

One of the comments was quite interesting, too:

CD Projekt never used Steam. They distribute their games on Steam for the people who want to buy them, but it doesn't require it as a DRM.

This gives me hope for that company at least. I really need to get around to trying The Witcher, I hear a lot of great things about it and CDProjekt.

CD Project is a very good company, and The Witcher series are very good games. I bought The Witcher 1 multiple times as they made the remastered version, just to support them even if I could patch the original up to the same version.

In contrast, I'm still not playing Skyrim.

I'm speechless, I wish more in the industry would listen to these guys.

Still waiting for Mass Effect 3 to arrive, Origin is installed ready but haven't had the chance to use it yet.

What are people's opinions beyond *Rarrrghhh Nerd-rage EVIL EA!!!* or *Mnurrr Valve do no wrong - *fawn* Gabe *fawn* * ?

Can you have a propper "Offline" usage unlike Steam? Simple to install games and use them through it? How's performance? Any odd glitches or misbehaviour?

+1 For the CDProjekt love.

I wont use either one

but aparently Origin does have a "offline" but I don't know how good it is

+1 For the CDProjekt love aswell

I know that. I just mean that I'm worried they may now switch to Steam-locking. Since, you know, it isn't considered DRM by most people...

Also: http://i.imgur.com/OCReC.gif

My only question is: How does one be able to play Skyrim without Internet? I wont be able to get Internet on my new laptop thus I wont be able to go online for Steam. From the sounds of, I do have to go online at least once which will be impossible.

This is the only problem with Steam and thus is why I think it is a stupid idea to use. That is my opinion, and worry, about it but I think I'll find a way around it and able to do it.

My only question is, why is Bethesda doing this now?

~Edit~

I said "My only question is" twice, I know. The first one wasn't really a question I want answer. More to give you something to ask yourself. The 2nd one I do wish for an answer.

they learned that in the time between Oblivion & Skyrim that all worthy gamers have high speed internet so they want as much as you can spare.


edited out line that could have been misunderstood

Hmk. Not a reasonable argument, if you ask me.