I'm not a cryptographer but I read that modern encryption schemes like AES 256 are theoretically unbreakable, even giving all the time in the universe on current hardware.

1) No it doesn't. Steam will never update when a Steam game is running. Updates and downloads are even paused if you launch a Steam game at the same time.

2) No, doesn't. Barely even tipping single percentage here on my six year old system. If it's using that much, then something is very, very wrong at your end.

3) See above. Something is very, very wrong. Steam will never use that much. For the reccord I have only 2GBs and can carry on as normal during a Steam update.

4)Again. Somethings wrong. As I said Steam will never, ever update when playing a Steam game.


Let me ask you two things.

1)Are you actually playing a Steam game when this is happening? Or is it a non Steam game?

2)Are you sure it's Steam updating? No, windows or your virusscan?

I've only read the first 30 posts, so forgive me for being an "ignorant jerk"

Bethesda did say somewhere that they love steam. The reason they have to use DRM is that the BGS owners (ZeniMAX), thinks that they must have DRM to reduce piracy. I'm the anti-DRM type, and steam is one of the types of DRM that I find acceptable. What I'm looking for when I'm judging a DRM solution is, how easy is it to remove, how intrusive are they and how much information do they send to their own servers. It's way better that they picked steam instead of some other obscure DRM solution.

Have to agree with you - if you feel the need to have DRM (either the devs themselves want it, or more likely the people providing the funding demand it) - then I'd much much much rather it be Steam than any other system. And I actually really love Steam store/Steam interface, and for online games (I know this doesn't apply to Skyrim ) I love the Steam overlay and Steam integration for joining games with friends in etc.

Skyrim still got cracked in matter of hours, same with patches.
But i really liked the DRM system Croteam had for their Serious Sam 3 game.... immortal scorpion lol.
That means that players with illegal copy will encounter a pink scorpion with machine-guns for hand, which is very fast and immortal.
On some level (I forgot which) they added another DRM, which is your camera looks up to the sky, and your character starts spinning around and you can't do anything.
Took around 2 weeks to crack it
Now imagine if Bethesda made something like that. Like a giant pursuing you all around the map and knocking you in the air, without you dying or something like that
I'm not a big fan of steam either, I only use it for Half life 2: deathmatch and skyrim .

I'm yet to find a modern DRM that's better than Steam.

My main gripe about steam is that once installed I cant sell my game when I have finished playing it.
I buy all my games retail, I get them cheaper through my local store than I can through Steam due to their price gouging over here in Australia.
So I have the physical disk, manual and anything else that comes with the game I buy, I should be able to deregister my copy and trade it in or sell it to a friend.

People will jump in here and say but the EULA you accepted says you are not allowed to do that.

That is fair enough but xbox and PS have exacly the same EULA but can sell and trade their games, why is that?

Your ability to do this is becoming more and more limited as is.

Not just Steam, but Origin, GFWL and other games that require you to register to an account, all are restricting the ability to sell and buy pre owned games.

Yeah, everyone needs to do more "fun" anti-piracy stuff like that.

Imagine a giant as big as a mountain on the horizen sprinting at you and smashing you with his club, crashing you to desktop.

When a specific DRM solution get so widespread as steam, it become more of a routine for crackers rather than challenges, or at least that's what I think.

Yep I know and I wouldnt mind if it was happening across the board but its not.
As it is now as PC gamers we are being discriminated against by not having the option to off load our games once we are done with them.

What makes it worse is that if you buy a hyped up game like Homefront and find its not anything like the hype you cant even return it for a refund even thou you have been ripped off.

I hated steam at the start not because of steam itself but because of my internet situation for during that time internet here where i live was not that great. Since those days are over and the internet services have improved dramatically here i come to love it. The main reason is this. If i loose my Disks or they get stolen or whatever the case may be a new copy of the game is just one click away. Not to mention all the other things already mentioned by other folks

I really don't care to know why Bethesda would think that Steam support was a good idea for Skyrim, although I have a pretty good idea of what the reasons could be.

The fact that they made it compulsory is all that matters to me. I had my initial suspicions about Steam, but not having previous experience, I decided to try it. So I did try it, and I don't like it at all, but I see no point in crying over spilt milk.

Continuing with old sayings, I am happy just to observe the wisdom in these two:
- A barking dog does not bite.
- Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.

And by the way, this thread is rife with misleading information from both sides.

There's one thing I hate with Steam. Ads.

I'm playing on my [censored] own computer. I'm not on the Internet. I don't want friggen ads popping up right up to my face. These [censored] ads are going too far. Every time I see one it feels like I'm losing one bit more of my personal integrity.

I really don't mind steam, early days were hell I'll admit. Now, it's smooth. I used to hate it, now it's here and I don't really mind. Yes it isn't great when you want to play a game and there's no internet connection on your end. But over all I think it's made things smoother. People will have an option as to where they can get their mods from. Either the Nexus or the steam workshop. It doesn't eliminate the nexus and sites like it.

As for steam patching the game... you can disable steam auto patch, one bad part for me at least is that the option for auto patch seems to reset to YES after steam restart.

Ever since I got my new laptop, I haven't had any trouble with Steam or any of it's games. I actually love steam, yeah, it's definitely the best DRM by far. I'm beginiing to think that at least some of the problems I am hearing about over here are the fault of the user and not Steam. Post #123 above is an excellent example.

And yes I do use to hate Steam, but that may be more because of the old laptop I had.

The only thing I dont like about steam is that you need a internet connection to be able to play offline... T_T thats just returded imo.

Internet got shut down a while ago, so I thought... hey, Skyrim is a singelplayer game. I'll just play that then. But noooope, you need a internet connection (even if its just for a short time) to be able to get into offline mode. Once you're in offline mode though then its fine.

There is a http://www.gamesas.com/topic/1331715-unofficial-steamdrm-discussion-26/ where you can continue with this thread. Thanks.