steam the answer to piracy ?

Necuno

Necuno

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sure it will suck if all games are steam only (...well definite in rsa that is and alike), but do you think it will at least help allot more than these cruddy drm offsprings we have these days ?
 
lol :D

Stoke, you are half correct. ;)

IS do have a local steam "Content" server now set up, so you can update and download most games locally. However you still need to connect internationally if you wish to play online, or just to log on steam itself. ;)

I've heard they are trying to change this, but its against some policy or something. :confused:
 
I'm not much of a Steam fan to be honest, simply because digital distribution on this country is a little too ahead-of-the-times for us with our connections speeds and data prices.
 
still i wonder if it won't help to curve piracy a little - without the boxing + dvd's the production costs at least is to be less
 
detritus said:
Unfortunately this hardly ever benefits the consumer, with the prices sometimes higher than what you pay retail.
Click to expand...

true, and then everything getting sold outside US/Canada gets slapped with "europe tax" :mad:
 
Necuno said:
still i wonder if it won't help to curve piracy a little - without the boxing + dvd's the production costs at least is to be less
Click to expand...

But... but... *cries* I like my boxes, manuals, DVDs and stuff. Especially CE/SE goodies :D

It would be nice if we had both options though - to buy and download online and still get the physical goodies. No discs to get damaged, but still have the discs for those offline times :D
 
I'm not too bothered about the idea behind steam....SA intarwebz will get better. What I don't like is the proprietary closed source nature of steam. If everyone flocks to steam then they've got a monopoly....or worse every game publishing place creates its own steam clone.

If they could sell their games under an independent and portable structure then it would be better.
 
Necuno said:
still i wonder if it won't help to curve piracy a little - without the boxing + dvd's the production costs at least is to be less
Click to expand...

Hey Necuno how've you been doing :D

Piracy is so interesting.

There are ways to download anything you want from Steam without paying, I haven't tried it but I read about it and know a few people that have done it. For me when I pay for a game one of the reasons is to get the box and manual and everything that can't be downloaded.

Steam doesn't do much against Piracy, it's impossible to stop, even with really low prices (the best way to counter piracy, as you hinted at) people will still pirate for many reasons, like can't afford it, don't want to pay, just want to check it out or don't want to be treated like a pirate for buying something (now there's some irony) or have to deal with DRM etc.

The safest from piracy are MMO games, not because they can't be pirated but because officially subscribing/paying for it they put the "massive" in MMO, aswell as support and security.

The only real way to fight piracy is with a good value/price and friendly product, Galactic Civilizations II is a good example, DRM free with great sales.

Personally I hate Steam, not because Steam itself is that bad but because Valve forced it (or at least tried to) on people wanting their games. I was ready to go and buy HL2 when it finally came out, but didn't because I won't be forced to go online at any point for a game, and it didn't stop me from playing it or any of their other games I wanted. Some people who bought the game in one country while on holiday have had it rendered useless by Valve simply for that reason, forcing them to either buy it again or pirate it. I wish they didn't make Steam mandatory because they have some games worth paying for, but I'm not going to pay while it comes bundled with the other crap. :(
 
Steam is a pretty sweet idea, if you consider that it was designed for countries with real internet.

I have a few minor issues with it... I'd rather it didn't *require* you to install huge updates every three days for singleplayer games etc.

It won't stop piracy, though... It's been hacked, and pirated versions of games have been developed from its .gcf files.
 
Steam is terribull...some games are corrupted for ex: Steam version of Jagged Alliance 2 had bugs that the oringinal didnt even have...
 
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