Anthropoid
Posts: 3107
Joined: 2/22/2005
From: Secret Underground Lair
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@Perturabo: I don't think a game going freeware after several years at the end of all support and interest in profiting from it by the publisher is quite the same thing as "piracy," but correct me if I'm in error on that point.
The point to which I understand "pirates" have brought the hobby/market, is that many publishers and distributors seem to feel both justified and motivated to implement increasingly restrictive EULAs and DRM schemes. I question if they would have done that if it were not for the perceived revenue losses from piracy.
I tend to think that Brad Wardell's (chief guy at Stardock If memory serves) view of this topic is valid. He seems to argue that, (a) the folks who ripoff the publishers/developers by making use of hacked illegal copies of the games would never buy the games in the first place, and therefore that the majority of the "lost revenue" are not actually lost at all; as such (b) developing and maintaining good relations with those segments of the market whom ARE likely prospective customers and using only mundane and less annoying means of securing the product (e.g., serial keys) is the best long-term strategy.
Obviously Valve has taken a rather different strategy with its promulgation of Steamworks, not only as a security scheme for their own games, but also as a DRM and distribution REQUIREMENT for various other publishers products. I agree with you that Valve's primary motivation with Steamworks is not so much about preventing piracy, though I suspect they present that argument to the publishers with whom they seek to partner.
The Steam client app in fact seems to me to be more of a means to corner the largest possible segment of various portions of the gamer market by bottlenecking users into one site, where they are exposed to ads, and incentivized with low unit prices, a very broad selection and easy accessibility. None of that strikes me as being intrusive per se, Gamersgate, Impulse, and the Matrix online store all strive to accomplish much the same. Naturally, you want to get customers "into your store," and increase the likelihood that they will buy products in your store.
The intolerable dimensions of Steamworks and the Steam client scheme to me seems to be:
(1) the fine print nature of Steam's exclusiveness on an increasing number of third party titles.
For example, you cannot play Civ5 without installing and using the Steam client app at least once.
Supposedly the "Offline Mode" is a way to be able to gain the ability to use the game by networkign to the Steam servers only once without ever needing to network with Steam's portal a second or third time. The fine print on the Amazon sales pages for the game says "one time network connection . . ."
However, I've encountered far too many guys complaining on forums about how it doesn't really work this way, else it is tricky to get it to work this way. It seems that it probably IS possible to get it to function without ever having to network a second or third time, but in reality, depending on user expertise, and system configurations, it might in fact be far less hassle to just let the damn thing phone home every time.
Obviously it serves Valve's interests that as many of the users they service with Steamworks as possible are "phoning home" as often as possible = bigger volume of active users on the Steam servers+more eyeballs looking at their ads = more volume of sales, and more leverage as the dominant force in the PC game retail scene.
By setting the defaults so that it can be annoying if not seemingly impossible to get the Offline Mode to work hassle free, they have managed to avoid the potentially illegal policy of making games like Civ5 "require constant internet connectivity" to play them, while at the same time leveraging the functionality to maximize their screen time exposure to the users. I find that to be cryptic, sneaky and just plain intolerable.
The users deserve to have a one-click, foolproof, functionally-perfect OFF button. The various issues with modding, patching, default file installation locations, and complications involved with having multiple copies of the game installed on the same machine (for example for purposes of playing multiple different mods or patches) are all related to this big issue of how the "Offline Mode" doesn't seem to be easy, consistent or simple.
2) The EULA. Steam's EULA is the most disempowering of the consumer that I've ever read. Basically, by agrering to install their software you are agreeing to never claim any grievance to them, and agreeing that they can revoke your license(s) at any time. The plurality of that word is crucial, because in the EULA Valve includes a clause that basically says "we gaurantee NOTHING."
I hear about some guys who have literally hundreds of "virtual" games on their machine. When Steam undergoes a collapse, buyout, or takeover, or simply gets sold, the terms of the EULA which its millions of users have agreed to mean that, all those hundreds of millions of licenses could easily go *poof* and from a prima facie standpoint, there would be no basis for anyone to gripe or grumble that the products/services they paid for were terminated by the patron.
I suspect that when the suits actually ensue, they will deal primarily with the fact that the advertising is not exactly clear cut on some of the games that are partnered to use Steamworks client app (e.g., Civ5 or Fallout New Vegas) else that the EULA itself is unfair to expect people to agree to.
< Message edited by Anthropoid -- 4/2/2011 6:02:58 PM >
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*RANT* about STEAM let me know what you think - 
) that I have bought during last 5 years were albums that I have previously downloaded from the internets. And in case of most of those that I haven't downloaded and listened through before buying, I have regretted buying them because they have turned out to be crap (basically, albums by previously good bands who suddenly started to decline). 
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