why are almost all current physical pc games steam/origin installs?

Soapstone

Soapstone

It Wandered In From the Wastes
i dont like it, why am i being forced into using a steam or origin install for a game on disc? why do i have to have said programs up and running on my pc for the game to run? my task manager states that steam uses heavy system resourses. even though i have enough ram that it doesnt cause too much problems.

i got the Fallout Anthology, for all the fallout games, all the games are on disc, yet i was forced to register before i could install any of them and once i did, they all got added to my steam library for dload, even though i was installing from a disc. i imagine i cant even loan these games to any of my friends like pc games used to be able to? i have a lot of friends that have never played a fallout game before.

considering that all the fallout games were released prior to the big push to steam and origin, why couldnt they just give us the original versions of the game that were DRM free? i am irate that pc games have gone this way. :S

why are console games technically drm free and loanable/sellable but pc games arent? obviously the discs are worthless as a collectors item for selling the anthology collectors edition due to the fact that the games are mine and mine alone and i cant put them up on ebay due to the registration code having been used, i imagine the mini-nuke collectors set could eventually be worth something with fallout 4 added to the collection, but it isnt due to it not being drm free. :S

dont get me wrong, i have no plans to sell the games/mini-nuke (even if i could), but i would love to know the value of this collectors edition w/ fallout 4 if it was drm free. console versions of games and collectors are loanable, sellable and are worth a lot of money at times.
 
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Because it makes them money. The fact that it makes you eat shit is of no concern to them - you will eat it and you will like it.
 
Largely because printing discs and boxes and shipping them to stores costs quite a bit of money and you need enough pull in order to convince stores to sell them. Going digital means not only do you cut out that overhead, but also a more diverse set of games can be put on sale (there's no chance that things like Wasteland 2 or Pillars of Eternity would do well as boxed products in 2015). In particular, since Steam's cut of the game is a percentage rather than a specific value means you can sell your game for as much or as little as you like, depending on market trends.

It's basically the same thing as how MP3s came to dominate the music industry. On the whole, people tend to prefer cheap and convenient to everything else.

I'm personally not bothered by DRM as a concept, insofar as there exists fairly unobtrusive DRM (like that thing that prevents you from copying Netflix movies while you stream them) means that those three letters aren't automatically evil. I have no experience with Origin, but Steam as a client seems to be fairly unobtrusive, and didn't they recently add some sort of sharing system?
 
nm the fact that the games are pretty much worthless to anyone except for me, yet we all know how valuable console games can become. they are DRM free cuz they require a console to play them, nm the fact a lot of them have disc images burned and emulators and whatnot for pc, nope. they are loanable and sellable and worth money. but as for games like fallout and elder scrolls and whatnot the console versions have more glitches and bugs than the pc versions, and you cant do any mods w/ the console versions of games as you can with pc, etc.

i dont see why gamers dont rise up and say they dont want it. i try to make noise, to let people know i dislike this. i am currently on hold to bethsoft about this, actually, waiting for my call to be taken. all the fallout games were released on disc for pc prior to the steam releases, so i know they have non steam versions of all the games out there.
 
PossibleCabbage said:
Largely because printing discs and boxes and shipping them to stores costs quite a bit of money and you need enough pull in order to convince stores to sell them. Going digital means not only do you cut out that overhead, but also a more diverse set of games can be put on sale (there's no chance that things like Wasteland 2 or Pillars of Eternity would do well as boxed products in 2015). In particular, since Steam's cut of the game is a percentage rather than a specific value means you can sell your game for as much or as little as you like, depending on market trends.

It's basically the same thing as how MP3s came to dominate the music industry. On the whole, people tend to prefer cheap and convenient to everything else.

I'm personally not bothered by DRM as a concept, insofar as there exists fairly unobtrusive DRM (like that thing that prevents you from copying Netflix movies while you stream them) means that those three letters aren't automatically evil. I have no experience with Origin, but Steam as a client seems to be fairly unobtrusive, and didn't they recently add some sort of sharing system?
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not completely, it is more made for family use w/ 1 pc in the household and multiple users using that pc. you log into steam and pick who you want to share your library with, however you cannot share games w/ your friends, this way. when you are playing one of these games, i believe anyone who wants to play the same game you are playing is sent to the game purchase screen, but they can play any of the other games you shared. so this doesnt work, really unless you are "offline" i think.

for you to share games w/ friends they would have to let you log into their pc and you would have to specify you want to share w/ their account. and this can get a bit sketchy down the road cuz you never know if your friend could do something that could get you banned and then you would be able to play your games anymore.

there are still new music cds sold at stores all the time and lots of them have vinyl release now since those came back. people still buy cds, i do. i have no mp3 player, i just burn my cds to pc and listen to them on my pc media player, or when i am out and around or in another room i use my boom box or a car cd player. even though i got a ton of digital movies redeemed from buying blurays and such, if i ever decided to get rid of the net, those would do me no good what so ever anymore. this is why going digital completely is bad if it is something like streaming "owned" movies, for something like that, internet would have to be free. this is why all my movies are on disc, when i watch them, i dont have to worry about streaming quality going down due to bad connections or heavy usage times, i can pop the disc in and be done with it.
 
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Steamworks is free and having your game use Steam is a value added factor according to most users these days.
 
Pretty sure with Fallout and Fallout 2, and maybe Tactics, there's nothing stopping you from making your own backups on a flash drive or something though. That may have changed since Bethesda assimilated them, but when I played them a few years ago I never actually used Steam to launch them. I downloaded them from it, sure, but after that I usually went to the folder the .exe was stored in and booted from that. Because I was on a very old computer on the time, it was faster to do it that way.
 
still, physical version of legend of zelda ocarina of time current value is $60 used and can be loaned to friends. where as, fallout 1-NV all had releases pre-steam, on disc, and i could buy those online somewhere. but they would be hard to find.
 
Steam family sharing works pretty well. If you want to "loan" your Steam games, that can work as well. The only issue being that if you decide to play something on your account while they're playing, you can interrupt them. I think there's a 15 minute warning or something for them to get off though.

It works pretty well, assuming you aren't using your account 24/7.
 
Chromevod said:
Pretty sure with Fallout and Fallout 2, and maybe Tactics, there's nothing stopping you from making your own backups on a flash drive or something though. That may have changed since Bethesda assimilated them, but when I played them a few years ago I never actually used Steam to launch them. I downloaded them from it, sure, but after that I usually went to the folder the .exe was stored in and booted from that. Because I was on a very old computer on the time, it was faster to do it that way.
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even though 1-T is on steam, you cant access the steam community within the games. only 3 and NV allow steam community access. but even so, you still need steam to launch the games.
 
that is true but isnt exactly the same, you have to login to a friend's pc to do this, or have 1 pc w/ multiple people that use steam on that pc. it doesnt work well when your friend may move away or isnt in your neighborhood.
 
Soapstone said:
Chromevod said:
Pretty sure with Fallout and Fallout 2, and maybe Tactics, there's nothing stopping you from making your own backups on a flash drive or something though. That may have changed since Bethesda assimilated them, but when I played them a few years ago I never actually used Steam to launch them. I downloaded them from it, sure, but after that I usually went to the folder the .exe was stored in and booted from that. Because I was on a very old computer on the time, it was faster to do it that way.
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even though 1-T is on steam, you cant access the steam community within the games. only 3 and NV allow steam community access. but even so, you still need steam to launch the games.
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I'm pretty sure that you don't. If you can launch from the .exe directly, as I was, then it means you don't need Steamworks in order to boot the game. So Steam is just the service you use to download the game. So you should be able to move it and use it without the use of Steam once you have the initial download.



Soapstone said:
that is true but isnt exactly the same, you have to login to a friend's pc to do this, or have 1 pc w/ multiple people that use steam on that pc. it doesnt work well when your friend may move away or isnt in your neighborhood.
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Tested it with a couple of my friends, one who was out of state at the time for college, and the other in Finland. It works fine for both of them. The only issue in that case is if you trust your friends enough with your Steam password. Afterwards, they download the game directly to their own rig, and Steam simply gives them access to it if you are both online, and not playing a game yourself.
 
that is good, at least.

i tried running terraria's exe file from the folder it loaded the folder it is in, it loads the steam community when playing it. and you have to have steam, i wanted to test it, and zipped the terraria folder and sent it to my friend who has steam on his pc, even though he has steam, he couldnt make the game run. and terraria was gifted to me, but i cant gift it to anyone w/ being a limited user nor did i purchase it, so steam isnt full proof.

i know the steam community doesnt popup for fallout 1 and 2, just tried it, but i dont know if my friend can play it if i sent that to him zipped. as terraria didnt work.
 
There are still probably some games that DO require Steamworks to use, I'm just saying I don't think Fallout and Fallout 2 are among them.

And you can't just "gift" a game in your library to someone else. If you want to do such a thing is HAS to be through the family sharing function.

Also, what do you mean by a limited user? You'll need to forgive me on this, it's been years since I first started using Steam. Somewhere around 2007-2008. I don't remember being a limited user.
 
i joined earlier this year, apparently i have to have a steam wallet w/ money in it or have purchased a game on steam (not via disc cd key) in order to be a full member, as a limited member, you cannot use trading cards, or add friends to your friends list or use any steam community features. if you want to have friends on your friends list, full steam members have to add you. if you want to participate in steam community things like trading cards and forums, you have to have money in a steam wallet (at least $5, though there are no $5 gift cards for steam), or have purchased a game online. the fact that i used a cd key to unlock fallout anthology did nothing for me.

from what i understand there were people scamming for games/accounts, so they did this. it wont fix it, it just limits people.
 
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Is buying a game on Steam not an option due to financial issues, or do you stay away from DRM on principle?

Because honestly... I think Steam's worth it. I know some people have had problems with it, but I've never had an issue. The biggest issue that I saw people having was the lack of a refunding option. Since that exists now, one of the major issues at least has an option now.

If it's about the principle of avoiding DRM though, I can understand and appreciate that. I'm willing to allow Steam to be my DRM for a lot of my games because it's helped me on many occasions. If someone else wants to avoid it however, I doubt I'll be able to convince them otherwise.
 
both, i have no debit/credit card, so would have to buy a gift card. and i also feel strongly about the DRM thing.
 
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Fair enough. Well hopefully at the very least a debit card is feasible in your future. Not a fan of credit cards myself, but having some sort of card for online payments has proven too handy not to recommend.
 
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