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[Sensei]

I'm just about sick of having to connect to the internet to start games.

No matter how much people are assured that it's a form of DRM that won't harm customers, it inevitably will. The usual argument is that you're online all the time anyway, but people still have internet problems, still use laptops with no connection, and more importantly, problems still occur server side. Of all the DRM problems I might put up with, not being able to even start a game at random times is pretty much preposterous. This particular time, I had to restart Steam- not that it would shut off until it had spent a while "Syncing with Steam Cloud". Sure, lots of people love Steam, but the bottom line is I was still more or less forced to put it on my computer, when I bought my first Steam game some time ago. What about next time? How often will have to fiddle with one thing or the other thing in the name of getting the game to work? Is the entire system designed to encourage to torrent a free copy that I can start without any inconvenience?

What about in ten years when I want to play this game? What if Steam/Origin/Stardock/whatever goes away? What if the developers just don't have the time to release a patch for running games offline?

Publishers should be entitled to doing something to protect their work, and their profits. This isn't the end of the world, either. But next time someone says that it's silly to get riled up about the next new game requiring people to be online to play single player, or whatever, I'm linking back here.

[/rant]

[Dsarker]

The only time I've had that problem with Steam was when the game was updating. More to the point, you can simply yank your cord, force shutdown steam, start it up in offline mode, and have no problems.

[Criptfeind]

This feels like it might belong in the sad or rage thread. But meh.

Anyway: Yada Yada I agree Blah Blah Blah Steamworks is getting to big for it's britches Yada Yada.

[Sensei]

More to the point, you can simply yank your cord, force shutdown steam, start it up in offline mode, and have no problems.

Really? Here I was under the impression that one needed to remain online to play steam games. Only needing to go online once isn't nearly so bad.

Of course, Diablo 3 ostensibly DOES require one to be online at every startup... so there's still games like that out there. My real fear is that we'll see a lot more.

[ECrownofFire]

Sadly, Steam is probably still the best one out there.

Hell, I only use it because SALES. And it has the community attached.

Although I never actually get any errors launching a game unless it's updating (the servers kind of get weird about that time). Except for the rare fluke that's fixed by launching it after waiting 30 seconds or so.

[Criptfeind]

You can just put it in online mod without having too "yank your cord" yeah know?

Some games do require steam to be on. But they are pretty damn rare.

[Dsarker]

More to the point, you can simply yank your cord, force shutdown steam, start it up in offline mode, and have no problems.

Really? Here I was under the impression that one needed to remain online to play steam games. Only needing to go online once isn't nearly so bad.

Of course, Diablo 3 ostensibly DOES require one to be online at every startup... so there's still games like that out there. My real fear is that we'll see a lot more.

Yeah. If you don't want to play multiplayer/the game doesn't have other 'needs to be online', you can just set it up like that no problems.

[Sensei]

Skyrim, unfortunately, needs to run through steam. I got a disc copy. Of course, all the disc does is shorten the install time. I guess you can also put it up on your wall, or something...

[ECrownofFire]

You can just put it in online mod without having too "yank your cord" yeah know?

Some games do require steam to be on. But they are pretty damn rare.

I think the only games that require that are the multiplayer ones anyway. Or the ones by Activision or EA that would have the terrible DRM no matter who they distributed with

[Aqizzar]

I remember the first time I heard about using an active Internet connection as a copy protection system, probably ten years ago, it sounded like a good idea for about five seconds, until I remembered that Internet connection is not eternally reliable and companies can come and go.  Hell, the ISP I have now is hardly more reliable than the satellite DSL I had in 2001, and I can't even remember what now defunct publisher I first heard the idea from.

I've been afraid of the economic shift in how the videogame business operates for years now.  When exactly did spending money to buy a copy of a game no longer mean that you actually own that copy?  Imagine if you couldn't watch a recorded movie because you didn't have a live cable connection.  Hey, every time you're watching something they're not providing, they're losing ad-share, and how does your cable provider know it's not an illegal copy anyway?

It's hard to think that Steam will ever not exist - the game industry seems to get more structurally stabilized all the time, and there's barely even other services trying to compete with Steam, let alone any that could actually bury them.  But it's still hardly an impossibility that at some point in the future, Steam Service won't be there anymore.  Will every game that needs it just up and stop working?

[Dsarker]

You've never owned that copy. You've had a licence to use that software in that way (that is, with a disc). They've merely changed the medium you can use the software in.

[Criptfeind]

Will every game that needs it just up and stop working?

Silly thing to ask. Of course not. Only multiplayer games.

[ECrownofFire]

Valve has specifically stated that if they were to go out of business, they would find a way to make Steam games available.

Steam service ending for any reason other than Valve going out of business is likely a world-end scenario, and therefore a bit of a secondary concern.

[Criptfeind]

Well. I am certainly going to be left behind during the rapture, but I can't see any of the Valve guys being so. I would hope I could still play my games.

[lemon10]

Last time I tried to run steam in offline mode: ERROR, THIS TASK CAN NOT BE COMPLETED WHILE OFFLINE.
Wait, what, why do you hate me steam...