Reply With QuoteWhy does Steam get a pass while pretty much any other solution elicits crazed nerd rage? Isn't "permanent online DRM" one of the basic characteristics of Steam?
I get it now (bit slow)
edit: Paageee twooooo!
Why does Steam get a pass while pretty much any other solution elicits crazed nerd rage? Isn't "permanent online DRM" one of the basic characteristics of Steam?
It's, er, a bit more than simply that.
Steam can go offline (if you remember to tell it to when you are online). So not really.
True, but you can't stay offline forever and once you pop online it will do a consistency check on your game and you can be forced to update.
I don't want to divert the topic too much, because pretty soon van Hellsing will drop in here and there will be another Steam shit fight. But I'm honestly surprised by the double standard (DRM and forced downloads are #&%@!, but if it's done through Steam they're OK).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think Steam will crash you out of your game if you yank the ethernet cable out after you've started the application, will it? And while it's not as straightforward as the single online activation (provided authentication servers are guaranteed to stay up indefinitely, that's my favourite form of DRM, by the by), it does nonetheless provide you with the option of going off the grid for as long as you want. I'm not crazy about mandatory downloads and patches, sure, but that's not my real gripe with this always-on DRM.
I don't want to go into another Steam "polemic" either, but I really don't think the two are as similar as you're implying.
Well - here's my current sitch as an example. I have internet at work, I don't have it at home and I can't really get it (three month stints at a german institute, no hard-line at my accomodation and not worth paying for it to be hooked up as I move around every few months). I can pop steam into offline mode and play steam games when I am at home. I can update them at work if it needs doing. If I literally have to be hooked up while I am playing, then I can't play the game except at work, which I can't do because I'm at work. So stalker 2 would not be something I could buy at the moment. Which is annoying, and seems unnecessarily so.
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