Reason why Valve isn't that concerned about piracy...

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/n [...] tory=21319

Very impressive... Apparently you don't need SecuROM to make money... It shows that when you keep high quality standards it pays off in the long run, I am very happy for Valve And I'm dying to see the Steam numbers if they're willing to disclose them at some point.

Did i read that wrong or did that not include steam sales?

If so, holy ****.

oh YEA!

so that doesn't include Steam sales, those figures are massive, but Valve releases quality games with not very many bugs, EA/Eidios i hope your listening!

You mean most, but not including the DRM Valve uses, which is the most restrictive form of DRM out there.

WTF? Aren't you the one who took an article which didn't mention piracy or DRM one single time and created a thread about piracy and DRM based on it?

Now please show me where in the article you posted there is ANY mention of SecuRom, DRM, or piracy and then you can start acting incredulous about "Oh god not this again..."

BTW, after going through the article again it looks like you just stole you're post almost verbatim from the second comment after the story.

Meh, only if it is a game with unlimited activations. More and more (non Valve) games on Steam are with an activation policy and then it will cost you an activation to do what you just described.

thats why i pretty much say steam is just as bad as securom

anything that makes a game harder to launch and run than pirated game will cause piracy a people like easy.

all forms of DRM lead to extra piracy.

DRM helps the user who bought the game in no way, it just adds extra useless steps that they have to do in order to play the game, steam it's self is a resource hog

it fails to allow you to play your games at random times

would you shop at amazon.com if they required you to install a special firewall that monitors your traffic to make sure your not trying to brute force their ftp server? (basically it does nothing for you at all, but waste system resources in order to make sure your not trying to hack their servers)

no one likes having any software installed that does nothing for them, thats what we call malware

malware does nothing for the user but

if you list malware by usefulness to the user, then what you will find is

securom
steam
sasser worm
antivirus 2009
MS08-067 Gimmiv Worm
Cabir.a
and so on..

all of those files listed do nothing for the user

dictionary.com
Main Entry: malware
Part of Speech: n
Definition: software, such as viruses, intended to damage or disable a computer system; short for malicious software; also written mal-ware

securom, in many cases, it has caused damage to the windows install
it damages paid software such as alcohol 120%
it slows the system down by loading drivers during the system bootup in order to make sure you are not pirating their stuff

steam does much of the same thing

while steam is slightly more useful than securom as it has some features that a user may use. it is still malware,

just like weather bug, it tells you the weather but it is also spyware

here are other common DRM problems

http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?p=2807382

this is the very meaning of malware, causes damage to the OS or other installed software

" Some versions of SecuROM install a shell extension named CmdLineContextMenu Class, which checks every executable file when context menu is opened. If the file has a path non-native to the system locale, the extension malfunctions and block the Windows shell. This makes Windows explorer unresponsive and context menus unavailable."

BTW, I really like Steam. I just think it's fair to point out that it's success goes right along with the use of DRM, not in spite of it. People like to try and point out "Look at how well Steam does without DRM" which just isn't true.

And steam can be uninstalled/ not started with the PC

nope, it would have been a contradiction if i said ALL but i said "much"

much of what steam does is similar to malware, where it differs is that steam has some useful features

securom has 100% none

a program doesn't have to be 100% useless to be seen as malware

many malware apps that don't exploit the system to install will often trick the user into installing it be offering something that they can use. some offer convert certain files, others offer the ability print coupons and many other features, thats so the user wont just see it as spyware even though those apps inject ads into other web pages, they also log searches and record email addresses in order to add them to a database where they can be spammed

djcoolmaster,
I suggest you just do what I did a long time ago and start treating Razor like the forum homeless guy just walking down the street babbling non-sense to himself. Trying to make sense of his post will only lead to headaches.

Just for fun Razor, by your definition of "malware" please name one application that is not "malware".

the list is not really in order but securom and steam is malware

like i said a program doesn't have to be 100% useless to be malware. if software had to be 100% useless to be seen as malware then most of the items currently detected by virus scans and spyware scanners would be removed from the list as many malware apps have some features designed to lour a user into installing it, for example, doing things like showing the weather, or acting as an alarm clock or a pda style appointment calendar

it is annoying especially if you have a job fixing computers because it is just incredibly annoying when someone calls you over to fix their pc, then they complain when their reminder app doesn't work, well what do you want me to do, reverse engineer the program and make a new version that doesn't change your homepage and randomly open web pages filled with ads...

because people wont willingly install a program thats 100% useless (thats why theres no securom warning on the box when you buy a game, you find out after you buy and it's too late to get your money back)

if you make malware and you cant exploit their system to get your malware installed, then all you need to do is write a small app that does some random thing that can be seen as useful to at least a few people that way they will willingly infect their own system

and thats what steam does

Let me try to set this out clearly in points rather then rambling like a moron and posting without capitalisation.

In what way could Steam be negatively affecting me?

Stealing information if you are concerned about this then you shouldn't be using google

Usage data? - I want them to know what games people are playing so they can make more of them.

Hardware configuration? - I want them to know what hardware they need to support.

Technical

Stopping games from being playable? - fortunatly never had this problem.

DRM? - Ofcourse no DRM would be nice but realistically this is the best system, only have a problem with 3rd party DRM which they now indicate if a product has it on the store page.


How is it not just a "small app that does some random thing that can be seen as useful "

Can download my games anywhere

No physical media to be damaged

Often cheaper

Automatic updating

Community features

Steam cloud

Very stable


Now maybe for you razor, Steam may seem like malware but it isn't hurting me nor the vast majority of users who are satisfied with it. Parhaps you should go off and try to find one piece of software that isnt malware in some way.

Also learn how to write lists.

How is steam going down a deliberate act against the users? The have an invested intrest in keeping it up because they sell games through it.

There is a usefull feature called: OFFLINE MODE

A copy of COD4 for example, it has an install size of around 6-7gb, this is undesirable because I don't like using diskspace up. Does this make COD4 malware? The installer deliberatly put these files on my hard disk and that is undesirable, so by your logic it must be malware.

Find a single piece of software that doesnt do something undesirable and I'll show you a green dog.

Then how is steam deliberatly trying to harm users?

Its a compromise, this is how the real world works.

They must be doing "some random thing that can be seen as useful to at least a few people "

So you are saying an unwanted thing is justified if it is required for the program to function as wanted?

The line is so thin, and your both so utterly close to it...

I have to say... What the F*ck is the point of arguing it?

Oh btw, it is only one person online who can play a game, on a lan you can have other people playing a game using the one account.

i used to do this to test things out in dod:s when i played it. Run the game on my laptop and on my comp and try out things like sniping positions and the like. Sad i know but useful.

At least its not the EA 5 machine activation BS SecuRom. Its unlimited machines and activations.

I prefer VALVes DRM, Steam, over anything else. It doesn't somehow screw up my computer (Sonys BMG DRM), it doesn't rootkit itself and I don't have to activate a game each time I install it. Once its on my account its there until Steam dies, which I hope never does.