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originally posted in:Comet
Edited by VIC:
2/7/2013 3:08:03 AM
13
Gamer-Rage (The DRM Edition)
[b]tl;dr at the bottom[/b]
Today was a fantastic day to internet. Aside from National Signing Day being today (this is sports related for those of you who are comfortable under your non-sports rock), the internet burned with a bright white-hot rage as rumors about Microsoft's upcoming console shook them to the core. My Facebook and Twitter feeds were full of rage-filled entertaining posts; the same goes for game-related message boards.
And who can blame them? I'm not a fan of "online only" play or DRMs...or any of that stuff, either but what bothers me most is that I see people threaten to abandon console gaming and "to/stick with Steam."
Regardless of your opinions on Steam (I think it's a great service) or your opinion on Console vs PC gaming [url=http://i.imgur.com/Ytl7W.jpg](inb4 PC Master Race)[/url], doesn't this threat seem a little asinine? As far as I understand it, Steam uses DRMs to prevent the sale of secondhand games and it ties any content purchased to the purchaser's account. As far as I understand the rumors that circulated today - and the ones surrounding Sony's next console, that we heard about a few weeks ago - this would mean that console games would adopt a similar approach. I've seen the argument that "MS/Sony wouldn't have sales the way that Steam does." That's possible but unless anyone here is a fortune teller, nobody knows for sure.
[I](And if you are a fortune teller, please PM me next week's winning lottery numbers!)[/I]
I'm not knocking Steam and I';m not knocking those who choose PC gaming over consoles. This is a legitimate question that I have: [b]what's the difference? [I]Why is this threat an actual thing?[/I][/b]
Oh yeah, someone mentioned on Twitter earlier that the rumor was busted. This is the first opportunity I've had to sit at a computer since I read about those rumors but this discussion still has merit whether or not the rumor was busted, as it's a discussion that we will likely have several times over in the future.
[quote]tl;dr ([url=http://www.doesoustillsuck.com]per Butane123's request[/url]): Why do people protest DRMs by threatening to switch to a service that also uses DRMs?[/quote]
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I personally think PC gamers are blinded by their love to Vavlve to recognise how bad the Steam DRM actually is. [i]You do not own any of your games[/i] If Valve goes bankrupt and stops its service - you get no games If you are offensive and hateful to others and get banned from Steam - you get no games If you are unable to log in, and have no way to prove that your Steam account is actually yours - you get no games. Seriously, you could have used Steam for the last 8 years and none of that matters as you own none of the 200+ games you purchased. Is Steam useful, and does it provide a good service? Yes. Is it DRM hell? Yes
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Glad you asked! While steam is definitely DRM, it also has its benefits. Saves can be easily transferred, games can be redownloaded on any PC on which you log in, there are massive sales, and (though I can't find the exact source at the moment) you won't lose access to your games should steam go under. Is it DRM? Absolutely, but its convenience outweighs the drawbacks in the eyes of many. And frankly, the only drawback I see is how crappily the offline mode works.
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I'd brush it all off with a "that's just the internet for you," but I do think even voicing comments like those you stated, are still good to have out there for the developers to see. It's all of our money up for grabs. Public interest should always be at the forefront of business decisions. And public opinions , however petty, are still valid. Big businesses should tread carefully with how they sell their personal vision of the future to the consumers. Just removing a consumers options without explaining why, or what the benefits are, is just asking for a public backlash.
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If the rumor is true, that Xbox is a always-online console, then It doesn't really bother me since I have a pretty gosh darn awesome connection, but I see why this would bother others. Either way, I don't think we can really effect it much since the company has already decided by now, should it come out in the next year or so.
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That Gabe picture is just, hilarious... As for the topic, I have no answer. I try my best to avoid fanboy arguments.
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I'm not buying another Xbox product at all because they're butchering the hardcore gaming community. As far as I can tell, the only new features on the Xbox are designed for casuals (like Kinect) or just hardware upgrades which are desperately needed. This trend of killing off the hardcore community by Microsoft is starting to worry me. First they casualize Halo, then they casualize Gears, next the entire console is going to be casualized by being focused on Kinect? Count me out
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As someone who really like hard copies of things, I'd be sad to see counsels come to this. (Though I've accepted that it probably will at some point in time.) I don't think I could give up counsel gaming just because of that however. Counsels are my bread and butter, I couldn't even name one game I've played start to finish on a computer. So although I'd be upset to some extent if hard copies were abolished, I don't think I could give up on it entirely.
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2 RepliesWhat's a DRM? I don't like when people used fancy abbreviations that I don't get that makes them seem all smarty-pants-McGee. Please, enlighten me.
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Steam does not allow you to sell your used copy of a game and you can't share a disc like you mention, other than that it has very few flaws. Computers are different then consoles, you're going to need two pieces of hardware to play at the same time anyway, which means two downloads of the software, it makes sense when you boil it down to "owning" the software. I can discuss more in depth the kind of tricks and cost savings you can do if you have only one computer but I don't think that adds anything to this conversaion. The important thing is you can play in offline mode any game you want, something that isn't allowed with many current DRM systems (lookin' at you EA), you can even log in as a friend download his games and then switch to offline mode to play as much as you want. The bottom line is that Steam's DRM is non-invasive and very rarely impacts the user experience. I haven't looked at the rumors mainly because, they're rumors, but any kind of extensive DRM that is causing this kind of stir is rarely rational. We'll see how Valve treats software ownership with the upcoming steambox, that will be interesting, GabeN is a smart guy caught between consumers and corporations.
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Edited by Butane: 2/7/2013 3:57:17 AMFrom what I can see, most people see that there needs to be some give and take. With the rumored changes, most people only see Microsoft as taking away features from them without them adding anything that makes it worth it. I'm mostly worried about there being no used games. Not specifically because they won't exist anymore, but I feel they keep the prices of games in check. If you take out those used games, the publishers have no incentive to drop the price of their games after a few months with deals and sales. I'm not saying they won't still, but without that added competition, there is less incentive to because they were trying to persuade customers to buy their version than the used one where no revenue would go to them. Can't blame them honestly, but as a consumer, it has me worried since I rely on those sales to buy games I have a passing interest in. If they quit, well I wouldn't be buying them. Secondly, with the MS applying Steam style sales, I'm also worried about that actually being possible because they have a precedence of not doing that on the 360. Several games that were released on XBLA years ago have retained the same price with only week (or day) long sales that reduce the price. Some are cheaper, and I'm not saying the don't ever drop the price, but it seems like an incredibly slow process. Then look at those Steam sales, some of them are so crazy low that it becomes an involuntary reaction with people buying them. Again, MS could do it, but it would take more than "We promise" to convince me. The always on DRM doesn't bother me nearly as much aside from the fact that we know we've always had those times where our connection is out, or we get logged off randomly. That would get annoying, fast, if it impacts gameplay. MS also needs to make sure that we can transfer the those DRM rights between profiles fairly easily. You know I had to change gamertags. Now imagine if I completely lost all privileges to the games I physically bought just because I had a problem that required me to create a new profile.
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2 RepliesCan I have a link to these next gen console rumors or something?
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1 ReplyMe and my brother have two Xbox's, one is for me, the other for the rest of the family. We only have one copy for some games (Halo 4 and Blops 2 is really the only ones at this point) I don't think it will be that much of a deal, as long as family ain't putting in confirmation codes before me like my Brother did with Battlefield 3. However, I might be in collage by the time the next Xbox/Playstation comes out so IDK.
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I believe the arguments that came up today were it being one account, one console. Meaning if you have other consoles in your house, or want to be able to play a game on a different console (friend, LAN, etc), you wouldn't be able to. As always, I'd love to be proven wrong.
