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>I think Steam is a really good (not shitty) DRM enforcer. It may be a good DRM enforcer, but as a UI it's terrible and intrusive. There's no way to turn off a

>I think Steam is a really good (not shitty) DRM enforcer. It may be a good DRM enforcer, but as a UI it's terrible and intrusive. There's no way to turn off all those popup messages and game related alerts. I had to give up on steam once they started doing that.

MayeulC 8y ago
Well, actually, there is in the steam settings. And to be fair, not every game on Steam comes with DRM attached to it. I have many games I can play without launching Steam itself.
- brianpgordon 8y ago
  I'm surprised to hear that there are non-DRMed games on Steam. Do you have an example? I thought it was standard that every game released on Steam that doesn't have some awful third-party DRM like Uplay has the Steam launcher code patched into the executable. Valve has some tooling for doing this even to existing legacy exes that can't be rebuilt from source.
  - terlisimo 8y ago
    Kerbal Space Program on Steam is not DRM-ed. I can launch it without Steam running, and it doesn't automatically launch Steam client or anything, the game just starts up.
  - MayeulC 8y ago
    Valve has their DRM solution ([1], "CEG"), but the DRM is fully optional, as it needs to be applied by the game developer to their executable before they upload their game. I don't have good examples in mind right now, and I would need to double check, but I am pretty sure I was able to launch Supreme Commander 2 trough wine directly with the game executable, without launching Steam some time ago. I also recall "Tyranny" doing a free week-end, after which I could still launch the game trough the executable (although steam refused to launch it). That was a Linux game, though, and could be slightly different. I would roughly estimate that more than 20% of my Steam library does not have DRM attached to it. There are a couple lists out there that help find DRM-free games on Steam [2][3][4], etc. Some game developers advertise this as a feature of their game on Steam. For others, it could be an oversight. I find it pretty convenient in any case (example: copy FTL on a USB stick for playing on the go, even without internet connection on an underpowered computer). It also helps with wine. [1]: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm [2]: https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games [3]: https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_Games_on_Steam https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_Games... [4]: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7540156-DRM-Free-Games/ https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7540156-DRM-Free-Game...

MayeulC 8y ago

Well, actually, there is in the steam settings. And to be fair, not every game on Steam comes with DRM attached to it. I have many games I can play without launching Steam itself.

brianpgordon 8y ago
I'm surprised to hear that there are non-DRMed games on Steam. Do you have an example? I thought it was standard that every game released on Steam that doesn't have some awful third-party DRM like Uplay has the Steam launcher code patched into the executable. Valve has some tooling for doing this even to existing legacy exes that can't be rebuilt from source.
- terlisimo 8y ago
  Kerbal Space Program on Steam is not DRM-ed. I can launch it without Steam running, and it doesn't automatically launch Steam client or anything, the game just starts up.
- MayeulC 8y ago
  Valve has their DRM solution ([1], "CEG"), but the DRM is fully optional, as it needs to be applied by the game developer to their executable before they upload their game. I don't have good examples in mind right now, and I would need to double check, but I am pretty sure I was able to launch Supreme Commander 2 trough wine directly with the game executable, without launching Steam some time ago. I also recall "Tyranny" doing a free week-end, after which I could still launch the game trough the executable (although steam refused to launch it). That was a Linux game, though, and could be slightly different. I would roughly estimate that more than 20% of my Steam library does not have DRM attached to it. There are a couple lists out there that help find DRM-free games on Steam [2][3][4], etc. Some game developers advertise this as a feature of their game on Steam. For others, it could be an oversight. I find it pretty convenient in any case (example: copy FTL on a USB stick for playing on the go, even without internet connection on an underpowered computer). It also helps with wine. [1]: https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/features/drm [2]: https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games https://steam.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_DRM-free_games [3]: https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_Games_on_Steam https://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/The_Big_List_of_DRM-Free_Games... [4]: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7540156-DRM-Free-Games/ https://store.steampowered.com/curator/7540156-DRM-Free-Game...