Just for ThePhilospher... "Sweet!"

I'm 100% against DRMs period, except for a basic disc check before playing, that doesn't bother me. But servers, Steam, etc... I hate it all.

The reason these companies do it is to stop game pirating, yet people still find ways around it so all they are really doing is pissing off the consumer.

PGM1961 wrote:

Do you have to play Skyrim through Steam, or is it just for installation and activation? I hate any game that forces you to play through their servers, and save your games on their system. My internet goes out sometimes, and I hate not being able to play the games when that happens. If it's an MMO, that's different; but I should be able to play an FPS on just my computer, dammit.

You need to activate it through Steam and you need to have Steam running whenever you launch the game, but Steam has the option of running in off-line mode (so you don't need to always have an internet connection to play) and nothing is saved on Steam, it's all local.

I'm not sure, but I think that something like once per month Steam will require you to run it in online mode for updates or whatever, but then you can go back to running it in off-line mode. Again, I'm not sure about this because I've never gone for an entire month in off-line mode, but I do seem to recall someone once mentioning something like that on another forum.

mouser9169 wrote:

It's not just a Steam thing, it's the deception involved.

That's not the sort of thing that should be completely left out of every product description and not listed anywhere on the retail box.

On the retail box of my copy it says "Requires internet connection and Stea maccount to activate". Though it does say so on the back of the box and it's sort of easy to miss, but not any easier to miss than the system requirements. In fact I found it while searching for the lsited system requirements.

Zer0Morph wrote:

The reason these companies do it is to stop game pirating, yet people still find ways around it so all they are really doing is pissing off the consumer.

The main purpose of DRM is to combat so called "day 0 piracy", that is the piracy in the first few days after release. In the current state of the industry, marketing creates a lot of hype for a game and it's expected that most of the sales will be made in the first week/month after release. After that it will be time for the next big game. So it's important for companies to protect their games for that 1st week and that's where DRM comes in. And DRM actually does that fairly well.

Personally I don't like DRM and I think that once the protection is broken the company should remove it with a patch so it stops bothering legitemate customers.

[quote="Dragatus"]

PGM1961 wrote:

The main purpose of DRM is to combat so called "day 0 piracy", that is the piracy in the first few days after release. In the current state of the industry, marketing creates a lot of hype for a game and it's expected that most of the sales will be made in the first week/month after release. After that it will be time for the next big game. So it's important for companies to protect their games for that 1st week and that's where DRM comes in. And DRM actually does that fairly well.

Personally I don't like DRM and I think that once the protection is broken the company should remove it with a patch so it stops bothering legitemate customers.

Steam is actually terrible for that then because it locks into a model where you can never resell your game. And if Steam (valve) goes out of business, you're basically fucked unless you get cracks for all your games.

I bought The Witcher 2 specifically because they removed all DRM from the game (day 0 piracy was averted, they got their money, so they didn't the DRM anymore). I bought a retail copy of Torchlight for the same reason (no DRM ever, not even on launch day).

Really though, I suppose we're about at the end of true PC gaming. Even MMO's are starting to fizzle, except for a few giants. The PC game section in stores has been either removed or greatly reduced in size from what it was, and more than half the games that come out are either "hidden object" mysteries and variations of bejewelled or console ports of other games.

It was nice while it lasted...

I've got to deal with my Ilok for ProTools (hardware based DRM, but it's a pretty valid assumption that if you have this program you're trying to make money with it). I refuse to go down the road of "lesser evils" with software like games. But that's just me. Consumers will vote with their wallets, and we'll be stuck with whatever most consumers are willing to put up with.

Skyrim isn't the first game I've passed on, and it certainly won't be the last.

Thanks to whoever it was for pointing out that they now have a Steam account required on the box. Maybe I missed it earlier (it was quite a while ago, but I could have sworn it wasn't on there).

Man, talk about drama.

I've never seen someone make such an giant fuss about something so little.

WHY CAN'T I STOP WATCHING THIS VIDEO?!?!?! I'VE SEEN IT 20+ TIMES TODAY, THE MADNESS MAKE IT STOP!!!!

Voraxith, I've fallen in love with it!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!

HAHA you're silly Voraxith! ::Pet's Voraxith on the head::

That guy 331ERock is a total badass. He took a slutty night club dance song and made it amazing! I'm a fan of 331ERock and Voraxith now! HAHA!

Listening to Leaving on a Jet Plane by Chantal Kreviazuk right now. Great song!!

SKYRIM WILL STEAL YOUR SOUL GUYS. DON'T PLAY IT. OH MY GOD I CAN HEAR IT CALLING ME. I MUST....PLAY.

ThePhilosopher wrote:

SKYRIM WILL STEAL YOUR SOUL GUYS. DON'T PLAY IT. OH MY GOD I CAN HEAR IT CALLING ME. I MUST....PLAY.

*pokes nose into Philosopher's face to check if everything is OK*
*licks*

Too late mate, got it for Christmass and played it every minute of my free time for two weeks. Then I went a little easy on it, but still spent over 70% of my free time playing it until about 10 days ago when I had to leave home for two days. Apaprently breaking the rhythm is what got me out.

And now the Construction Set has been released there's bound to be an explosion of mods. I even made one myself: Dragatus' Teleportation. If you use it and like it, don't forget to rate it.

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Voraxith? It looks like he deleted both his forum account and his youtube account.

Dragatus wrote:

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Voraxith? It looks like he deleted both his forum account and his youtube account.

He did indeed. He signed me that something was wrong and that he wouldn't have a computer anymore, then he came back, telling me he overreacted and that everything was fine, but now he's truly gone.
Damn, all my players are doomed or what ?

Claudia wrote:

Dragatus wrote:

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Voraxith? It looks like he deleted both his forum account and his youtube account.

He did indeed. He signed me that something was wrong and that he wouldn't have a computer anymore, then he came back, telling me he overreacted and that everything was fine, but now he's truly gone.
Damn, all my players are doomed or what ?

Aww shit... I thought he made a brake for himself, went on holidays of something...
F*cking loss for the forum...

Claudia wrote:

Dragatus wrote:

BTW, does anyone know what happened to Voraxith? It looks like he deleted both his forum account and his youtube account.

He did indeed. He signed me that something was wrong and that he wouldn't have a computer anymore, then he came back, telling me he overreacted and that everything was fine, but now he's truly gone.
Damn, all my players are doomed or what ?

Hm, I don't know why or what happened. But he has cancelled his forum account. But I only do know that, because as admin I get a notification from the forum when someone cancelles their account.

-

Let's hope he is really fine...

Feral wrote:

Let's hope he is really fine...

I hope so.

It's so easy for us to let our computers take over so much of our life. Maybe he just needed to pull the plug and get priorities straightened out for a while. I know I've had to do that now and then.

Grrr... I frakking hate Internet Explorer. I had just typed this really long and in-depth explanation of what happened to me and why I had deleted my account and had apologized for being a damned drama queen, but when I went to preview the post, it fuggered up and wiped my post instead. So you guys get the tired and grouchy old man post instead. Sorry I was gone, bad shit happened, now I'm back on a limited basis. I missed you guys a lot.

it's good to have you back

Welcome back, fledgeling.

Voraxith wrote:

Grrr... I frakking hate Internet Explorer. I had just typed this really long and in-depth explanation of what happened to me and why I had deleted my account and had apologized for being a damned drama queen, but when I went to preview the post, it fuggered up and wiped my post instead. So you guys get the tired and grouchy old man post instead. Sorry I was gone, bad shit happened, now I'm back on a limited basis. I missed you guys a lot.

*Jumps on Voraxith and licks the returned prodigal Gangrel an inch from Final Death, wagging enthusiasticaly all the time*


Where have you been for f*ck's sake!? We have all kept wondering if you were OK.

Yeah I'm happy too, I was worried (but then, knowing where you've already been, like, only Canada would be worse, right ? <_<)... but I'm also pissed

Welcome back, Voraxith

-

Thanks guys! A lot happened, hardly any of it good, and I had a bi-polar day and just wiped all my online accounts. Silly me. Turns out real life people have flaws, too. Anyway, I appreciate you guys, I really do.

*Attempts to get the over-eager Dino- er, I mean Feral, off of himself.*

Voraxith wrote:

Turns out real life

What is this "real life" you speak of?

I'm still not entirely sure about that one...

Feral! I need you to travel around the planet for 300 years or so and find out everything you can of this "real life" non-stop.

Karavolos wrote:

Feral! I need you to travel around the planet for 300 years or so and find out everything you can of this "real life" non-stop.

Just as I finish wagging Voraxith into Torpor
*sits on hind legs, exhausted, and pants*