For those playing PC games, DRM is a given on most titles. In most cases it involves a license key or CD in the drive to prove that the game has been purchased and is not pirated.

Steam has an alternative to these methods. They offer direct sales and use a file keyed method to confirm game ownership. They distribute temporary authorization that is updated each time you login to their server for 30 days. For most people, Steam's offering is a good balance between the pain of DRM and benefits of legal game ownership.

Unfortunately some publishing companies have begun to get their own new ideas about how games should be protected. Ubisoft's new Assassin's Creed 2 game requires a constant internet connection with the threat of progress loss for those who become disconnected. This eliminates any form of game play while traveling and for those not on broadband (while far and few between) expect a rocky experience. This protection is in addition to any other security they may use. I am not sure if they have disk based protection on their CD/DVD media, but the Steam version includes this protection on top of the Steam DRM model.

Wings of Prey is another game that has a ridiculous DRM scheme. They offer an activation based distribution. You can install the game 3 times after which you must call them and will be given up to a total of 13 activations. While the game isn't good enough to warrant a single installation, it doesn't change the fact that this DRM is also on top of Steam's and seems like a painful solution to deal with customers who buy their software legally.

I understand that game makers want to prevent piracy, but it should be at the pirate's expense, and not the legal buyers of the games. I am a huge fan of Steam's model and hope that game makers around the world will begin to recognize that DRM should only penalize the people who are breaking the rules.

Knyte wrote:

Mr. Bomberman wrote: It's completely unnecessary. Something to think about: Many years down the line when these games aren't supported anymore, how the hell are you gonna legally play these games? By downloading the cracks. Irony

Steam claims that if they ever go offline they will allow you to download the games and they will provide patches that unbind the games to their system.

Other games each have individual rules and regulations about their products. I tend to think that Knyte is correct though. Cracks will be the only way to play those games.

Syd Lexia wrote:

Steam is highly flawed, too. I seem to recall SoldierHawk complaining that she couldn't play any of her Steam downloads when her net was down because they require server authentication to load.

Steam offers Offline Mode for its games. It is important to read their documentation before using this feature or it may not appear to work.

It is important to recognize the difference between games that simply distribute and play through Steam and those that use Steamworks. Titles that include Steamworks features generally demand online connections because they use features such as cloud based saving, downloadable content, and online communities. Steam lists the Steamworks features individually in their store for each title.

joshwoodzy wrote:

It's still a silly thing to do when any single one of those games is available on hundreds of torrent sites with nosteam cracks.

For those who are interested in buying the games I feel that Steam is a reasonable compromise. For pirates, who gives a fuck? If you steal the game then you get what you get. I am only interested in how much of a pain I have to deal with as a customer, and currently Steam offers minimal amounts of it.