5 ms·
I've been thinking about it lately and I've decided the problem isn't inherently DRM itself. The problem is that when companies use DRM without giving back and,
by halo 18y ago
I've been thinking about it lately and I've decided the problem isn't inherently DRM itself. The problem is that when companies use DRM without giving back and, in particular, use horrible invasive DRM that is a pain for the genuine customer.
Case in point: Steam. Steam is basically one big DRM wrapper that also prevents resale. However, one key difference is that it offers multiple advantages to users in the form of unlimited redownloads, community features, not requiring a CD, no DRM driver ugliness, banning hackers in multiplayer games, works as a decent launcher and also has an extremely convenient online marketplace. The end result is that it has been given a much warmer reception than the typical DRM scheme - people are willing to give up some of their rights in exchange for the added convenience which is a much fairer trade. I'm not saying Steam is perfect but it seems like the direction companies like EA should be going.
- silencio 18y agoAgreed. Personally, I pirate lots of things I buy anyway because the DRM becomes a pain (Adobe and Microsoft products, for example). What's interesting is that I pirated Spore because I didn't want to put up with the DRM and the European/Australian/etc. edition was out on torrent sites before it was released in North America (for the record, I purchased Spore Galactic Edition and Spore Origins for my iPhone...). I'm not sure why companies want to give their customers a headache. I've had huge headaches dealing with genuine Windows installs that went away when I just pirate WGA cracks for XP and Vista. It's not cool when pirates have a simpler time than legitimate customers just because the companies want to discourage pirates so badly they're willing to sacrifice customer satisfaction in the process. On the other hand, I'm very unlikely to pirate something easily available on Steam..in fact, I'm not sure I ever have. For exactly the reasons you outlined.
- ivank 18y agoOne of Steam's biggest value-adds for me is that I don't have to reinstall or manually update any games. There's no registry cruft, so you can move the Steam folder across Windows installs.
- kenver 18y agoYou know I never even thought of Steam as a form of DRM before - even though now you point it out, it clearly is.
- SwellJoe 18y agoExcellent point. As I read all of the "only 1% of our users ever install more than once", I think back on the games that I've played a lot and I lose count of the number of times I've reinstalled them. In all cases, it's at least three and more often many more. Sometimes because I also want to play it on my laptop occasionally. Sometimes because I move to a new machine. And sometimes because Windows is crap and sometimes self-destructs beyond repair. I don't think I'm all that much of outlier...I only change machines every couple of years. So the DRM in EA games is just so old-fashioned and customer-hostile. It'd never cross my mind to pirate a game...but it'd also never cross my mind to buy something that I know is going to give me hassle in the future. And I have reasonable confidence that EA's DRM will piss me off at some point, if I ever have to come in contact with it. But Steam doesn't bother me one bit. I've not yet installed it on another machine, but my understanding is that when I do, I'll just download Steam again, re-enter my login, and wait a while for the games to sync up.
- elai 18y agoWhat I don't like about steam is the norton-antivirus level of slowdown it causes to computers & games. When steam is removed from half life 2, it speeds up significantly