3 ms·

> I miss the days when we could simply install a game. When was that? A decade ago my games required me to put the CD in the drive to play. And two decades ago

> I miss the days when we could simply install a game. When was that? A decade ago my games required me to put the CD in the drive to play. And two decades ago my games required me to find random words in the user manual to make sure I wasn't a pirate. I hate the game needing me to stay online. And it's a stupid strategy to hurt legitimate users to try to stop pirates. But to be honest, that's much less bad than what came before it :P

barrkel 14y ago
No, it's worse; in 5 or 10 years, you may no longer be able to play these games. With CDs / manuals, it's not a problem. I'm currently playing (or rather, trying to play) Assassin's Creed. It's a series I never got into, so I bought the first two on Steam. Guess what? The servers at Ubisoft have been turned off. This leads to multi-second pauses every 60 seconds, and after various game events - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046228 http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046... . At least the game still sort-of works, but if they "improve" the DRM any further, they'll be completely broken in the future.
- bduerst 14y ago
  You lose a CD or Manual (with install code) and you're SOL when it comes time to play the game again. I hate DRM as much as the next guy but installing from server accounts is amazing.
  - barrkel 14y ago
    In principle, I agree. But I haven't lost any CDs or manuals; if anything, they've become collectible items. Importantly, I have control over them; and no-cd cracks aren't exactly rare. But with servers, there is no control. And it seems an obvious further development of DRM is to host some of the application code remotely, so that no simple workaround will be available to your children, should they want to see what games were like in your youth.
    - trhtrsh 14y ago
      Luckily, the games of our youth will still be playable 10 years from now, and they are better than the current crop of games.
navs 14y ago
Keeping the CD in the drive to play seemed acceptable to me. Product keys in a user manual weren't so bad. I always made sure I had my original packaging. I could compare it to registering an account and having a persistent internet connection and some may see the latter as a better option but I don't. I frequently timeout here in NZ and I need to be within a wifi area, a secured wifi area, just to play.

barrkel 14y ago

No, it's worse; in 5 or 10 years, you may no longer be able to play these games. With CDs / manuals, it's not a problem. I'm currently playing (or rather, trying to play) Assassin's Creed. It's a series I never got into, so I bought the first two on Steam. Guess what? The servers at Ubisoft have been turned off. This leads to multi-second pauses every 60 seconds, and after various game events - http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046228 http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?p=33046... . At least the game still sort-of works, but if they "improve" the DRM any further, they'll be completely broken in the future.

bduerst 14y ago
You lose a CD or Manual (with install code) and you're SOL when it comes time to play the game again. I hate DRM as much as the next guy but installing from server accounts is amazing.
- barrkel 14y ago
  In principle, I agree. But I haven't lost any CDs or manuals; if anything, they've become collectible items. Importantly, I have control over them; and no-cd cracks aren't exactly rare. But with servers, there is no control. And it seems an obvious further development of DRM is to host some of the application code remotely, so that no simple workaround will be available to your children, should they want to see what games were like in your youth.
  - trhtrsh 14y ago
    Luckily, the games of our youth will still be playable 10 years from now, and they are better than the current crop of games.

navs 14y ago

Keeping the CD in the drive to play seemed acceptable to me. Product keys in a user manual weren't so bad. I always made sure I had my original packaging. I could compare it to registering an account and having a persistent internet connection and some may see the latter as a better option but I don't. I frequently timeout here in NZ and I need to be within a wifi area, a secured wifi area, just to play.