Widescreen Gaming Forum

My only problem with Steam is the lack of tangible item, such as the box, a pretty DVD, and a manual. But if the price is low enough compared to a physical copy then it makes up for it. Oh and downloading huge games really chews up my bandwidth. (i'm loosely limited to 100gb per month)

I didn't see anyone mention it yet, but as of now Bioshock has all DRM (read: all) removed from it on for PC.

I agree with mikeh. I love the steam system, but would never buy a game from it because I do like to have a physical copy in the rare case that something went extraordinarily wrong and all Steam account information from all time was corrupted (or something to that extent).

I personally love cracks. I'm not saying I pirate things, I'm saying I absolutely hate to have to go scrounge out the particular game disk whenever the mood hits me to play a specific game. I recently bought Psychonauts, and the only security on it was a CD check. Hell, that or absolutely nothing is the way to go.

Another no-brainer to prevent piracy: stop jacking up prices. Half the reason people pirate things is because they don't want to spend so much money.

I didn't see anyone mention it yet, but as of now Bioshock has all DRM (read: all) removed from it on for PC.

Good news...now it is eligible for purchase. ;)

Another no-brainer to prevent piracy: stop jacking up prices. Half the reason people pirate things is because they don't want to spend so much money.

Unfortunately, much of the industry is following Hollywood's 'blockbuster' business model: huge commitments to a few primary franchises. Maybe they're allergic to reasonably diversified investments. :D

Again Stardock is a good counterpoint. SoaSE cost about $1 million, and it has been HUGELY successful because it is a quality product based on sound design (eg-reasonable systems reqs) and delivered with respect to the customer (no DRM).

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

I agree with the 'focus on same franchises' part. Example, I learned about psychonauts by pure luck browsing for other stuff on a computer shop site, I learned about psi-ops when it was released for free with a couple ads to support it. Neither of these games were remotely 'on my radar' when they were released. And I've got over 300 feeds, most of em gaming/tech news.

Dem's post got me interested in Bioshock, so I went looking into the status on the DRM. Looks like it's not quite the 'freedom' I'd hoped for:

Our other methods of copy protection remain. You will still have to activate your copy, and you will still need to keep the disc in the drive. SecuROM has not been removed -- just the activation limits on number of installs and number of computers you can install BioShock on simultaneously. --2K Elizabeth

A step in the right direction, but I'd like to see them use the other leg as well...even if it's gimpy. ;)

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VirtualDub Game Recording Guide | BFME2 & RotWK Widescreen/Triplehead Mods

Another no-brainer to prevent piracy: stop jacking up prices. Half the reason people pirate things is because they don't want to spend so much money.

No, the WHOLE reason is because they don't want to spend ANY money if they have the option not to. This will remain the case no matter how much they lower the prices.

Again Stardock is a good counterpoint. SoaSE cost about $1 million, and it has been HUGELY successful because it is a quality product based on sound design (eg-reasonable systems reqs) and delivered with respect to the customer (no DRM).

It's also successful because it was such a low budget project. Spore will be considered a flop if it has the same "success" as SoaSE.

Another no-brainer to prevent piracy: stop jacking up prices. Half the reason people pirate things is because they don't want to spend so much money.

No, the WHOLE reason is because they don't want to spend ANY money if they have the option not to. This will remain the case no matter how much they lower the prices.

Again Stardock is a good counterpoint. SoaSE cost about $1 million, and it has been HUGELY successful because it is a quality product based on sound design (eg-reasonable systems reqs) and delivered with respect to the customer (no DRM).

It's also successful because it was such a low budget project. Spore will be considered a flop if it has the same "success" as SoaSE.

It's going down in history as a flop because of its DRM now; what's your point? I understand exactly what you mean, but my thoughts on the issue is that the harder companies become on piracy, the more problems of piracy they will cause themselves.

Another no-brainer to prevent piracy: stop jacking up prices. Half the reason people pirate things is because they don't want to spend so much money.

No, the WHOLE reason is because they don't want to spend ANY money if they have the option not to. This will remain the case no matter how much they lower the prices.

...not necessarily. A lot of pirates will pirate a game because it's fifty dollars versus one that is twenty dollars, simply because they don't have the budget to and/or don't want to spend that much for a software that cost less than five dollars to physically manufacture (not produce).

price is another debate.

companies now can't setup mario with 8 blocks and call it good...have you seen the previews of games coming out? graphics are off the wall, physics, AI, etc. All of this requires more coding, more layering, more texturing (some of us know what this is like here) and honestly probably more money to get the game or idea off the ground.

What I hate is the lack of good games...I BOUGHT HL2...and that was the last game I've BOUGHT (with exceptions to TF2 etc). I loved COD4...its on my "to buy list if I ever have money" but honestly besides that game not much makes me think...yeah $40 is worth it for a 10 hour game...or a 20 hour game....nope...give me a GOOD multiplayer too...then I'm interested...

Game designers have something up there butt that their game has "replay-ability" well, unless its got a good multiplayer, people normally lose interest.

Honestly it stupid. Hackers work around it. You want a solid system? Ask for steam to put your product on it. Make it so its only offered through steam and that to play online it has to be a server registered with steam.
Valve did it right...

^This.

I kind of find it funny that this sort of stuff deters people from buying the product if they had intention to and that the pirates will eventually get it anyway.

companies now can't setup mario with 8 blocks and call it good...have you seen the previews of games coming out? graphics are off the wall, physics, AI, etc. All of this requires more coding, more layering, more texturing (some of us know what this is like here) and honestly probably more money to get the game or idea off the ground.

What I hate is the lack of good games...I BOUGHT HL2...and that was the last game I've BOUGHT (with exceptions to TF2 etc). I loved COD4...its on my "to buy list if I ever have money" but honestly besides that game not much makes me think...yeah $40 is worth it for a 10 hour game...or a 20 hour game....nope...give me a GOOD multiplayer too...then I'm interested...

Game designers have something up there butt that their game has "replay-ability" well, unless its got a good multiplayer, people normally lose interest.

Have you ever played Bioshock?

My god, that was an amazing game. Great story, shocking twist, terric gameplay, and an environment that almost made me crap my pants when that hydropsphere came over that ridge.

But once I beat it...I didn't want to play it again so soon. I just finished beating it on Hard without Vita-chambers, and that's why its on my mind, but still. It was an amazing game, but just had no replayability value.

Now COD4? I can literally beat that story in under two hours. It's a complete joke. If I want to buy a game that is almost entirely multiplayer only, I'd buy one that actually LASTS and continues having value months and months afters its release date. Team Fortress 2 anyone?