Slashdot Mirror
Valve Claims New Steamworks Update "Makes DRM Obsolete"
Lulfas writes "Steam is implementing a new anti-piracy solution that, according to them, removes all DRM. Called Computer Executable Generation (CEG), this system creates a unique copy of the game when it is purchased through Steam, essentially using a 100% unique keygen system. It will be installable on any system, but only playable by one person at a time (hooked into the correct Steam account, of course). Will this be enough to satisfy anti-DRM players while at the same time giving the publishing companies what they require?"
Thank you, Mr. Uninformed Ranter. It has been said, again and again that if Steam's servers are taken offline, access controls will be removed.
I can't believe you don't know what a Hasemalphaginnojinglanaporphomism is.
I know, don't feed the trolls, but Steam works well through Wine.
My Babylon
because it does not restrict what you do with your copy, just how many copies can be played on Steam.
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/SteamWorksBrochure2009.pdf
"Instead, CEG works in tandem with Steam authentication, enabling content access based on user accounts"
In other words, it still requires the server to be there.
Awesome. You get modded insightful for your, ahem, less than fully educated post.
First off, steam can be run in offline mode. You don't need servers to play your fusking game. You can play offline, LAN, do whatever you want.
Second, Gabe himself said that if steam were ever to go down, he would remove any and all restrictions from playing your game, without the steam servers.
Become educated instead of braying along with the masses. Its cool.
Hi, I Boris. Hear fix bear, yes?
For the 5 billionth time on slashdot alone: (let alone the rest of the 'net) Steam does not require an internet connection in order to play a game. You can play in offline mode and games that don't require an internet connection will work just fine.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
Can I sell it?
Technically you're not suppose to resell most software, period. Consider an online game like World of Warcraft. You can't resell it legally, the new "owner" would need to purchase their own key for online play even if you gave them your box + disc.
When you buy software you're buying a license to use it, that's it. It's not a physical product that you can use however you want. I'm not saying this is a good thing, it's just the way it is.
If Steam goes down, can I still play?
Yes, Steam supports offline play.
Valve isn't a publicly traded company, so he can't forcefully be removed from office unless they're bought out (unless there's some part of business law I'm terribly missing). Now if EA bought them, I'd have a lot more concern..
No, Yes.
Except for it does. You can not play in offline mode indefinably. Eventually steam forces you to reconnect up and say hi.
First off, steam can be run in offline mode.
No, it really can't. Well, not in Windows Vista, anyway. Back when I had Steam, I tried many times to start it without a network connection, and never once did it work. Ever.
In what operating system does Steam run in offline mode?
Let q be a radix > 1. I am in ur base-q, killing 10 d00ds.
Become educated instead of braying along with the masses. Its cool.
Try it yourself.
Steam can be run in offline mode, yes, but networkable games cannot access the Internet when Steam is in offline mode. That is not "do whatever you want", it is DRM.
Yes, Gabe said that, but when the day comes he'll have no incentive to do so. He might not even have the money to push the patch out.
How does this square with the article summary:
but only playable by one person at a time (hooked into the correct Steam account, of course).
How would they prevent two people from playing at the same time without it requiring an internet connection? Or is this just bad summary writing? The linked press release never actually says that. You can understand why many slashdotters would be a bit confused trying to reconcile such statements, I hope.
Even works on a flash drive, if you have a big enough one.
L4D load times dropped a ton when I threw it on an 8GB flash drive.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
First off, steam can be run in offline mode. You don't need servers to play your fusking game. You can play offline, LAN, do whatever you want.
Tell you what, how about you try to play a game in offline mode without ever having connected to steam's servers first. Guess what? You can't!
Steam's "offline" mode only works when you have first logged onto their servers and verified all your games. In order to use it, you have to connect via the steam client at least once every time you start up your computer. Otherwise, you don't get to play.
So yes, you do have to have access to their servers to play your game, even if it's only single player and you play it in offline mode.
Might want to get your own facts straight before you start swearing at other people about theirs.
First off, it raises the question. But for your main point, if a game becomes worthless once I finish it it's not a very good game. I would feel ripped off, but probably I wouldn't have bought the game in the first place. I read reviews, and try to buy games that are deep enough to have replay value. Or at least have a good enough plot and/or humor to make a second play through worthwhile.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Offline mode lasts a month or more, and IIRC you can see how long it has left before it needs a reauthorization (I could be wrong on that, it may just give you a one-week-left warning). That's reasonable enough for me; if I can't get to a network within a week I'm probably not going to be keeping enough battery life in my machine to be playing those games.
"You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
Yes you can. In fact Steam allows you to save your save games in their "cloud" which means you can play your game on any computer along with your save files on any computer.
Just as long as you don't have two instances running then your fine so if your computer blows up then you're covered.
$40-60 would be somewhat excessive for an old game, and so long as Steam continues to exist you wouldn't have to re-buy, so it's not a rental in that sense.
Sure. Really, I was replying to the guy that implied rentals were acceptable because games often don't get replayed.
What Steam amounts to is an indefinite rental. Right now, if I don't specifically go offline (and apparently clear it with Steam's servers), then the game would still be unplayable if they turned the servers off tomorrow. I've got no real expectation that they'll let me know ahead of time that they're turning things off. And keeping a copy of the installed files is a bit different from keeping original installation media. Does the game run without correct registry entries? What all do I have to back up to get it to run again? The computer is a fairly volatile and hostile environment--it's much more likely that it will crash and take a backup with it than that it will crash and destroy a CD/DVD.
I've never been one to pirate games, and only on a few rare occasions have I installed a no-CD crack on a game I've purchased (and never for games I haven't purchased.) So I vote with my wallet, even though there are games I'd really enjoy owning. I choose not to rent them at the full retail price (even though it's really likely that I'll have them for a long time), so I don't play them.
No. Actually the DMCA does allow fair use exceptions for exactly this sort of thing, and the copyright office is permitted to make explicit exceptions.
Except about once a month Steam will force you to go online otherwise you are locked out of your games. If Steam let you stay offline forever, that wouldn't be a problem, but with mandatory internet checks, it isn't perfect by any means.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
Nothing in the article or press release says you are unable to run two *DIFFERENT* games on two different PC's at the same time.
Except that's exactly how the steam system works. You can't play two different games on two different PCs online at the same time.
This article isn't even "new" its just rebranded marketing rubbish. Instead of those vacuous linked articles. Read the actual brochure:
http://www.steampowered.com/steamworks/SteamWorksBrochure2009.pdf
Its pure unmitigated rubbish. CEG is DRM despite what they claim. And if CEG is linked to steam authentication, (which it *is*), then you've got to log in to authenticate each time you play.
Worse, now if you and your son both have a steam account, and both own a copy of left for dead, you have to install it on the computer twice, because you can't play his copy, because each copy only works with one account. At least hard disk space is cheap...
Just so you know, region locked DVD players were deemed illegal by the high court of Australia so all players sold here are able to play DVDs from any region. For once the Australian legal system got something right.
I've had Steam offline on my laptop since FM09 came out last November. It has never forced me me to go online.
There's an explicit exemption for obsolete computer software.