On Thu, Nov 08, 2012 at 11:36:06AM -0800, Jason Self wrote: > > A long standing, highly respected PC gaming company. > > Proprietary > > DRM protections > > Limits play to only those machines authorised by Steam. > > DRM scheme is widely regarded as "good" by PC gamers
The "good" part of the DRM scheme is that it's built into a hosting, distribution and communications framework. OK, so that's really nothing to do with the DRM at all, but some users often conflate the two as they are (thanks to the DRM) utterly inseparable. Compared with _other_ game DRM schemes, Steam is very liberal in what it permits. Games associated with your Steam account can be distributed on demand to any machine you log into. I understand there are also various services for messaging (during and between games) and comparing high scores with your peers, although I haven't bothered much with those. The non-DRM parts of the Steam framework are well worth replicating as free software, and game developers expect services like these to be available when they choose a target platform. Leave out the DRM and add a "fetch source for this game" button. > Why is any of this tolerated? Games are not important, and computers are cheap and available enough to dedicate an entire disposable machine exclusively to playing them.
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