Cycrow wrote:Asmodae wrote:Steam is a touchy subject for me. I've been against it and systems like it because they change the relationship with the publisher from purchaser to renter (licensee). It's a long standing trend in games and is getting worse.
thats actually not technically true.
software and games have always been a licence rather than an ownership.
the EULA's state this, even for boxed versions of games, and have done since before digital distribution was about.
afterall, you not paying the full price it cost to make whats on the disc, only a share of it
As I indicated the trend is industry wide, and EULA's are a part of that, but without an online authentication system there's little a publisher can do practically or legally to prevent me selling, lending, or giving away the disk, and therefore the game.
Personally I think the war on used game markets and consumer rights is a bad thing all around. Book publishers tried the same thing years ago and failed. Now with digital goods everyone thinks the rules are different. I don't think they are, just that technology is more capable and fewer people in the legal community understand what's going on (judges, legislators, etc.).
When you have a physical object in your hand you paid for, everyone knows that's your object, and nobody can tell you what to do with it. When it's a digital representation, all good sense seems to go out the window.
Mightysword wrote:heh, I wonder if people remember a few years ago PC gaming market were a slum. You might not want to admit it, but online distribution certainly is a big contributor to the PC renessance in recents years. You might have some pet peeve with it, but the fact that it has make games more accessble to a lot more audience and give the studio a boost in distributing their work, epseically small or independent studios.
I've been around a while, and I don't remember this so-called slum that PC gaming was. Complex and deep moddable titles (like the X series) which only make sense on the PC have always been fairly uncommon, but now they are getting downright rare. I'm not sure digital distribution is helping that situation any. The DRM sure helps publishers lock things down though so they can offer innumerable tiny DLCs, and micro-payment structures. Economics 101, do less, charge more. It's great for everyone but customers.
Mightysword wrote:
So allow me to put it frankly here, the way I see it:
- If it's just your pet peeve, then you just have to work around it and accept that this is how thing going in the future. Do you think the people who regular Steam really never had any problem with Steam? Hardly, why don't you think most of us ran into problem, found a way to fix, and move on with our life, enjoys hundred of hours from it afterward? And if you say you shouldn't have to? Guess what, look like you should.
- I know some of you provide some really extreme and convincing arguement on why you "can't" use it. However I think you should realize that those extreme arguement actually works against you. The more extreme your arguement, the more isolated your case is, and the more you prove yourself part of smaller minority. Too bad you can't play it, but you think a for profit company would accomodate you like a public institute?
Of course, there is always the option as "then I won't be playing", and really it might just come down to that. If that's genuiely the case then too bad. If you intend to use that as a threat though, and I bet lots of you do, think about the credibility of it.
The rest of your post is basically an arbitrary dismissal of everyone that does have legitimate problems and concerns. It doesn't offer any counter arguments and instead attacks the person for having the problem in the first place. It is not conducive to productive discussion.
