I think kindle has a deauthorize link on the amazon website, to be fair.
I think kindle has a deauthorize link on the amazon website, to be fair.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
I meant it jokingly, but Steam in the sense of DRM works in offline mode (but requires being setup before hand). Steam in the sense of the services they provide as a social hub, does not.Originally Posted by Flixy
To me, these are also totally different usage parameters. I understand buying one item and only being able to use one instance at a time; one game, one disc, one user etc. I don't agree with the idea that when I buy something, I can toss it around, use it where and how I wish, for a limited number of times before I'm reminded that I don't own the property and that I need someone else's permission to continue using my product where and how I want. Its the idea that I need to be automatically treated as a thief, that I have to be convincing of my innocence.
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 06-15-2011 at 03:08 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
I don't see much difference between one disk, and having it on one device at a time, and you get six!
And I meant that I thought you can't play games you got on steam when you're offline, but like I said I hardly use it so I could easily be wrong.
Over the life of the product this will become an issue. Deauthorizations are a positive step, but I don't like the atmosphere it creates, where I am, as a consumer, having to reassure the publisher that I'm not a thief with regards to a product I've already purchased. Have you used only 6 computer like devices over the course of your life?
https://support.steampowered.com/kb_...3160-AGCB-2555And I meant that I thought you can't play games you got on steam when you're offline, but like I said I hardly use it so I could easily be wrong.
It obviously doesn't work on games that require being online, like CS and TF2.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
I've had it come up with Adobe Digital Editions before; finally I just gave up on my first handful of ebooks.
Now I only have to deal with them for library books, and it annoys me every time.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
It's not uncommon with software either though, is it? I have software that allows use on one pc, and if you want it on another you have to deactivate it, and next time the old computer connects to the internet the program deactivates there.
I can understand that publishers don't want something they sell to be download unlimited times to unlimited devices - you could buy it once and the world can have it. 6 doesn't seem too few devices to me, to be honest. Especially since you can deactivate.
And that steam offline stuff seems pretty complicated for just playing a game you own while being offline.
Unlike OG, I have no problems with only x number of machines being authorized.
I just think that there should always be a way to deauthorize 1 or all of the machines without still having access to them.
We're stuck in a bloody snowglobe.
The existence of an offline mode for Steam demonstrates the pointless aggravation of the "service." I can play my game, with everything that actually "matters" in Steam disabled, but I still have to load and run that third-party platform to do it, even though all its real functions are basically disabled. It's not like I'm trying to run some emulation, these are games natively designed for my device. There is no need or utility to forcing them to be used through Steam, all it does is cost the computer cycles.Thats what Steam offline mode is for
\
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
its very common. Which is why I support services like GOG.com, DRM free games from all types of publishers. And it seems to be very popular, it was used as the digital distribution launch platform for the Witcher 2, and even Atari uses it for its catalog of games. We all know how greedy Atari is.
This reminds me the FARTS conversation the forums had earlier. Buy once, share forever.
The problem with this "threat" is that its been around for a relatively long time, and hasn't yet come to fruitation. Napster didn't send the music artists to the poor houses, The Pirate Bay hasn't destoryed any publishers yet. Remember that study about how the more prolific downloaders were the ones who spent the most on the industry?
See, the problem is that the current sense of DRM is creating a cat and mouse game between publishers and hackers. So far, the hackers have won. Kindle's DRM is broken, Adobe's is broken, Ubisoft's constant connection can be severed, Steam can be stripped, hell even HDMI's secure HDCP link has been hacked.
The only users who are being punished, forced to jump through hoops, or are inconvenienced by the threat of piracy and theft... are the users who are legitimately willing to purchase the material.
And ebook DRM stripping has gotten extremely popular. A little bit back in the thread I pointed out that when you google for Google Books DRM, the first 2 results are for help pages about the DRM, and the next 2 results are websites that strip the DRM.
These are all products that are now creating a sense of "buy it once and the world can have it", but people are still purchasing these titles, and thats just the illegal side of the coin.
If the threat of buy it once, share it with everyone was legit, services like GOG wouldn't be able to survive. Music services would have folded within weeks of offering DRM free titles (yet check how popular they are now).
Last edited by Ominous Gamer; 06-15-2011 at 06:14 PM.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
So, how do you do without DirextX?
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
DirectX actually helps operate the game does it not? Rather than simply sit there, say "hello" and then do nothing.
DirectX as a platform to help games be written consistently regardless of device manufacturer makes sense. It provides an active and uniform standard so it doesn't matter if you're using nVidia or AMD or Intel or ...
And Steam makes it much easier for developers to push out updates, including patches, DLC and free updates. Just as DirectX is basically a premade platform for all the graphics stuff, Steam is a premade platform for digital distribution.
Obviously, it's nowhere near as handy as DirectX, but if you've got some arbitrary, ridiculous principle about never playing games which rely on a piece of third party software, I don't really think you can then draw the line between something that's incredibly useful and something merely somewhat useful. Or, rather, you can, but in the process of examining where this line should be you should suddenly be struck with how arbitrary and pointless you're actually being.
The light that once I thought compassion still casting shadows in your action
The words you shared were cold transactions that bring me to curse what you've done
When you're up there absorbed in greatness with such success you've grown complacent
I hope you scorch your many faces when you fly too close to the sun
Didn't microsoft, since Vista, force alternative modeling methods, like OpenGL, to be layer ontop of Direct3D, thus DirectX?
Forcing you into DirectX even if you specifically programmed around not wanting to use it...
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Uh, no. You always could and still can use individual parts of DirectX (like Direct3D, DirectInput or DirectSound) and choose your own implementation (OpenGL, OpenAL...) for others.
DirectX is only a framework. You can always go around a framework if you want to.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
None of which I'm interested in. I don't like the reduced user control over patching, the only part of that's ever affected one of my games.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
What. You like having to hunt down the latest patch, downloading it and installing it? Besides, you can disable automatic patching.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
I associate some sense of nostalgia in hunting down patches, and have had some very unfortunate experiences with high-price software upgrades eating up boot sectors or similar. So, there's some arguments to be made here. Although Valve is very anal about what they let into their update pipeline, so there's that.
In the future, the Berlin wall will be a mile high, and made of steel. You too will be made to crawl, to lick children's blood from jackboots. There will be no creativity, only productivity. Instead of love there will be fear and distrust, instead of surrender there will be submission. Contact will be replaced with isolation, and joy with shame. Hope will cease to exist as a concept. The Earth will be covered with steel and concrete. There will be an electronic policeman in every head. Your children will be born in chains, live only to serve, and die in anguish and ignorance.
The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil, no good, nothing but blind, pitiless indifference.
been awhile, had to hunt for what I was recalling.
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/...weakens-opengl
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Well, that one is obviously false.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
I like being able to isolate and scan anything coming onto my computer before it executes. I don't care how anal anyone else is, the only thing I can even attempt to control is how anal I am and I don't appreciate that being taken out of my hands.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
What was the last game you actually hunted down a patch for? Every game for the last decade or so has provided the option to download patches.
Last game I recall hunting for a patch for was DOS-based Conquest of the New World (1996).
I've got a shit ton of games that the websites they point to don't exist anymore, much less even have the option to download the patch, much less having the option to download the patch and inspect it before it executes (as noted above).
Even for newer games, the servers are shortlived. Last time I tried to update NWN2 it failed on every atari address until it found a good connection at a different location. Aside from NWN2 and DragonAge (neither of these download files in an easy to find labeled location), I'm having a hard time remembering a title that patches in game without using a 3rd party service like Impulse, Steam, or GFWL.
"In a field where an overlooked bug could cost millions, you want people who will speak their minds, even if they’re sometimes obnoxious about it."
Good point.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote