I personally don’t like DRM, but I understand the position of the sellers and I know that at the moment its the only thing they have to protect themselves. Troika going down because of the lack of protection on Vampire Bloodlines was a travesty and if DRM would have kept them going then i’d have been for it. However it is a buyers right to be selfish and I think that all the entertainment industries are forgetting this and so alot of honest customers are starting to feel a little more despondent. PC gaming just seems to be going the way of the music industry.

However, your anecdotal evidence is likely to be echoed by over a million legitimate Spore owners too. They won’t have found the DRM intrusive to them one bit. Amazing eh? Consideirng the fuss so many crybabies kicked up about it a few weeks back. The majority, it seems, who hadn’t even got the product or been exposed to its DRM!

An anecdotal contrast: When Halflife 2 came out it was attached to your Steam account. Even the boxed version. My friend bought Halflife 2 and (amazing but true) he had no ISP at the time. He was unable to play the game he had bought. He couldn’t even play it a single time.

So, for some people, their experience with Steam will not be the same as yours.

But if you hoped to disprove what I just posted by your most recent post I’m sorry to say you’ve done rather the opposite.

Perhaps comparing Steam to GoG.com will help highlight the differences.

Ask yourself this: what do you think the main appeal of Steam is to games publishers? What does it offer them that conventional sales methods don’t?

Hunam, it means that, when attempting to (mis)understand DRM most people refuse to look at what DRM is from a perspective other than their own. They’re only concerned with what it means to them rather than the other parties affected by DRM. Then they’ll typically go on to act like a misunderstood victim and get hugely offended if anyone suggest they consider anyone but themselves in their appraisals. Heck, just the basic concept of ownership is usually a lost cause in these things.

Steam to me is a no hassle good priced service.

People’s understanding of what DRM actually is (in particular the “R” bit) is woefully poor and generally conducted from a self-serving perspective.

Unlimited installs plus games are automatically updated if updates are available. Steam really is less hassle than getting it from a store.

ow yeah, Fallout 3 has been added to your games list.

Seems like the only game from Ubisoft, but it’s a start!