PC Gaming - DRMs (Steam, Origin etc..)

[Sansnom]

When did it start being so complicated to play games on PC?

I've been a Steam user for years so of course I would prefer all of my games to be in the same place. But with a never ending list of companies who want to own their own platforms it's become a hassle.

I'm so used to launching steam whenever I want to play PC game that I even forgot I owned other games which are on Uplay and Origin.

What are your thoughts on DRMs?

I miss the times when you could have a whole collection of physical CDs or cassettes. When you could just put the disk in the PC and play a game without having to launch a 3rd party program or having to be connected to the internet. Nowadays it seems the games you purchase don't even belong to you.

All it takes is one update or the 3rd party program required to play the game not working and you can't even play a game you've purchased full price.

 

[Plutoburn]

Denuvo can go f themselves. It actually impact in-game performance.

 

[jefferz]

All these companies introducing there own programs is more about money than DRM. If you sell a game on Steam, Steam gets a chunk of that money.

 

[90 50]

If only we had a dedicated Video game forum to talk about stuff like this lol.

I don’t have to launch steam to play games I’ve gotten off there , but i launch the nvidia experience app then launch the games so if you did it that way you could only have one to launch, and not have to log into multiple ones??

 

[Zer]

Origin is the only one that gets up my ass since their games aren't on Steam at all. But then, I only ever needed Origin for Mass Effect and Battlefield and they're both dead

 

[Senzo Tanaka]

Complicated? It's easier than it ever has been.

All devs want a piece of the Steam pie though so you do have to deal with Origin and Uplay. Still, if you just download Steam, that's where the majority of your games are going to be. One thing you can do if you have to buy a game from Origin, you can make a shortcut to it from Steam and add it to your games list and launch it from there.

 

[INTERL0PER]

The only part that bothers me is that none of the alternatives work as easily it as intuitively as Steam.

Steam is so easy and well made and I find it frustrating any time I have to deal with Ubisofts piece of shit software... Which is admittedly rare.

 

[fdswer]

More sales a free games though

 

[Snubnoze707]

Having PC gamed in the 90's, it couldn't even remotely be easier than today. Not even close, people are just spoiled and thus expect more and more.

 

[EradiatedHaggis]

Having PC gamed in the 90's, it couldn't even remotely be easier than today. Not even close, people are just spoiled and thus expect more and more.

This makes no sense...PC gaming in the 90s was nothing more than installing the game and starting it...yes, even in DOS. There was no starting one program, to start another bullshit while a 3rd program scans your system because some corporate fuck thinks you are a thief.

To the OP, my take is easy. If its on Uplay, origin or that thing that Trion has been pushing, I just plain dont buy it. Fuck them, their platform and their game. I say the same to any non-Bethesda game that is built on the modding community yet is forcing steam use. These companies making a game claiming the know about the millions of people in the modding community yet dont know that Steam treats mods like a redheaded step-child does not deserve my money.

DRM is nothing more than proof that gaming companies are dumb fucks...it doesnt even slow down pirating and thus is nothing but a thorn in the side of gamers.

 

[My Spot]

Having PC gamed in the 90's, it couldn't even remotely be easier than today. Not even close, people are just spoiled and thus expect more and more.

You don't miss the days of CD keys, serial ports, and patches that took months to be available?

 

[jefferz]

You don't miss the days of CD keys, serial ports, and patches that took months to be available?

IRQ conflicts still haunt my dreams. You can shit on Microsoft, but DirectX radically changed PC gaming.

 

[Snubnoze707]

You don't miss the days of CD keys, serial ports, and patches that took months to be available?

This.

And dial up internet. . . .

 

[Chubz]

It really has gotten to be absurd, especially with more and more games making themselves exclusive to certain platforms. Two great examples are Black Ops 4 being exclusive to B.Net, and the upcoming Fallout 76 being exclusive to Bethesda.Net.

We've got (exclusives in parentheses):

• Steam (More than I could ever possibly list)
• Origin (Most of EA's library)
• UPlay (Most of Ubisoft's library is 'semi-exclusive' since you must install/log into it even when playing via Steam)
• Battle.Net (Blizzard's entire library and even Black Ops 4)
• Bethesda.Net (Fallout 76, and surely more to come)
• Epic Games Launcher (Fortnite, and surely more to come)
• GOG Galaxy (Gwent, and surely more to come)

I mean for fuck's sake, that's SEVEN separate clients you have to use if you don't want to miss out on anything!

There's also the Windows Store, which has its own plethora of exclusives (Forza, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War, etc.). I didn't include it since it's pre-installed with Windows, but that's yet another client you have to fiddle with.

I, too, miss the days when you'd just buy a game at the store, install it, and launch it from the desktop without ever having to sign into or launch a separate service. You'd just double click the shortcut and be done with it. It was remarkably fast and simple. The downside, of course, was that it meant games weren't automatically kept up-to-date, but we always had sites like FilePlanet and GameSpy to take care of that. Disc swapping could also be a bitch, but if it annoyed you enough you could always fall back on "no CD" cracks to eliminate the need for discs all-together.

 

[Strychnine]

Having PC gamed in the 90's, it couldn't even remotely be easier than today. Not even close, people are just spoiled and thus expect more and more.

Preach it brother!!!!!

The young bucks these days don't know how good they have it! Back in the day you HAD to buy a sound card to get ANY decent sounds from your games. On top of THAT when you installed a new game you had to adjust the dip switches on your motherboard just to get them to work properly!

Back in the day I bought a new PC with a 10 MEGABYTE hard drive and I thought I was balling! Don't even get me started on how much RAM was back in the day!!!!

 

[GhostZ06]

It really has gotten to be absurd, especially with more and more games making themselves exclusive to certain platforms. Two great examples are Black Ops 4 being exclusive to B.Net, and the upcoming Fallout 76 being exclusive to Bethesda.Net.

We've got (exclusives in parentheses):

• Steam (More than I could ever possibly list)
• Origin (Most of EA's library)
• UPlay (Most of Ubisoft's library is 'semi-exclusive' since you must install/log into it even when playing via Steam)
• Battle.Net (Blizzard's entire library and even Black Ops 4)
• Bethesda.Net (Fallout 76, and surely more to come)
• Epic Games Launcher (Fortnite, and surely more to come)
• GOG Galaxy (Gwent, and surely more to come)

I mean for fuck's sake, that's SEVEN separate clients you have to use if you don't want to miss out on anything!

There's also the Windows Store, which has its own plethora of exclusives (Forza, Sea of Thieves, Gears of War, etc.). I didn't include it since it's pre-installed with Windows, but that's yet another client you have to fiddle with.

I, too, miss the days when you'd just buy a game at the store, install it, and launch it from the desktop without ever having to sign into or launch a separate service. You'd just double click the shortcut and be done with it. It was remarkably fast and simple. The downside, of course, was that it meant games weren't automatically kept up-to-date, but we always had sites like FilePlanet and GameSpy to take care of that. Disc swapping could also be a bitch, but if it annoyed you enough you could always fall back on "no CD" cracks to eliminate the need for discs all-together.

only 2 worth a damn

 

[Cygnus A]

Preach it brother!!!!!

The young bucks these days don't know how good they have it! Back in the day you HAD to buy a sound card to get ANY decent sounds from your games. On top of THAT when you installed a new game you had to adjust the dip switches on your motherboard just to get them to work properly!

Back in the day I bought a new PC with a 10 MEGABYTE hard drive and I thought I was balling! Don't even get me started on how much RAM was back in the day!!!!

I remember flipping through instruction manuals to find secret codes to unlock the game EVERY TIME YOU PLAY.

 

[SleepyBoy]

I can't stand these drm desktop software shoved down our throats.

If you're going to insist on getting a bigger chunk of the revenue at the expense of customer convenience, then I want to know what I am getting out of it. Because it sure as shit isn't lower prices or better support.

 

[jefferz]

Preach it brother!!!!!

The young bucks these days don't know how good they have it! Back in the day you HAD to buy a sound card to get ANY decent sounds from your games. On top of THAT when you installed a new game you had to adjust the dip switches on your motherboard just to get them to work properly!

Back in the day I bought a new PC with a 10 MEGABYTE hard drive and I thought I was balling! Don't even get me started on how much RAM was back in the day!!!!

I bought a Q6600 machine the other day and it came with a purple ide cable for the cd roms. I haven't seen or messed with ide in a long time. I forgot how sharp edges were on case back then as well and cut the shit outta myself.

 

[method115]

My only issue is that everyone isn't on Steam. I hate having to use all these different programs.