buying used games = piracy

[GreenMonkey]

Don't be a douche. We all know steam games are ridiculously cheap, sub-ten dollar range a lot of the time, so don't play your "$60 game rental" card here. Compared to console games it's absurdly cheap.

Are you capable of posting something without an insult in it? Seriously.

Tell me, can you "buy" Civ 5 right now for $10? Or any other relatively new game?

If requires a call home to some remote server to verify if I can use it FOR EVEN SINGLE PLAYER MODE, I don't own it. I'm just renting it. Once any of this happens, for example:

A) My internet is down...or say, I'm moving and don't have internet
B) The remote server is unavailable due to an outage or technical problem
C) The company running the servers go out of business
D) The DRM erroneously fails for some technical reason and won't let you play.

I'm not allowed to use MY PROPERTY. That's not ownership. It's a lease of some sort with very specific terms of use. And I'm not "buying" it, because I don't really own it. My DRM overlord owns it, and lets me use it, provided I fulfill certain conditions.

 

[rampantandroid]

Are you capable of posting something without an insult in it? Seriously.

Tell me, can you "buy" Civ 5 right now for $10? Or any other relatively new game?

If requires a call home to some remote server to verify if I can use it FOR EVEN SINGLE PLAYER MODE, I don't own it. I'm just renting it. Once any of this happens, for example:

A) My internet is down...or say, I'm moving and don't have internet
B) The remote server is unavailable due to an outage or technical problem
C) The company running the servers go out of business
D) The DRM erroneously fails for some technical reason and won't let you play.

I'm not allowed to use MY PROPERTY. That's not ownership. It's a lease of some sort with very specific terms of use. And I'm not "buying" it, because I don't really own it. My DRM overlord owns it, and lets me use it, provided I fulfill certain conditions.

This is TOTALLY why I never bought into MP3s with DRM on them. Didn't Yahoo fuck a bunch of people over? Active DRM is bullshit, and I will boycott anything that uses it, that I own. Zune pass I accept, and it's based on certs being cached...I can use it while I have no internet.

Games that require a connection....no. This is a reason consoles are winning for the moment with me - lack of DRM other than "you need the disc" - anyone remember when DRM on the PC simply amounted to needed the disc in the drive? I want that back.

 

[defiant007]

Are you capable of posting something without an insult in it? Seriously.

Tell me, can you "buy" Civ 5 right now for $10? Or any other relatively new game?

If requires a call home to some remote server to verify if I can use it FOR EVEN SINGLE PLAYER MODE, I don't own it. I'm just renting it. Once any of this happens, for example:

A) My internet is down...or say, I'm moving and don't have internet
B) The remote server is unavailable due to an outage or technical problem
C) The company running the servers go out of business
D) The DRM erroneously fails for some technical reason and won't let you play.

I'm not allowed to use MY PROPERTY. That's not ownership. It's a lease of some sort with very specific terms of use. And I'm not "buying" it, because I don't really own it. My DRM overlord owns it, and lets me use it, provided I fulfill certain conditions.

Steam has this amazing feature called "offline mode". That being said, I still consider most forms of DRM to be utter bullshit which do not actually deter piracy (did a wonderful job of destroying second hand markets though).

 

[Shadowspawn]

Offline mode doesn't work with Civ 5's call home DRM, right? This is DRM that is built into the game and is the reason that I haven't purchased it. I want to be able to play when my internet here in Iraq doesn't work.

Seriously, I am asking, does Civ work in Steams offline mode?

 

[defiant007]

Offline mode doesn't work with Civ 5's call home DRM, right? This is DRM that is built into the game and is the reason that I haven't purchased it. I want to be able to play when my internet here in Iraq doesn't work.

Seriously, I am asking, does Civ work in Steams offline mode?

Don't have it, so I can't give you an unequivocal answer.....but the steam page for Civ 5 does not suggest the existence of any such DRM (whereas to my knowledge all DRM is usually disclosed on the steam page for a given game).

http://store.steampowered.com/app/8930/

Edit: eg assassins creed 2, where it is explicitly stated:

3rd-party DRM: Ubisoft’s Online Services Platform. Ubisoft requires a permanent Internet connection to play this video game at all times.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/33230/

 

[vjcsmoke]

Exactly, what's the difference between buying used games and pirating a game as far as publishers are concerned? Nothing. I am wish pa on this one.

There's a big difference. A pirate pays nothing for the game in the first place. The Publisher still gets the money on the FIRST time the product was sold. And there's nothing illegitimate about used game sales. So what if Square or what not doesn't earn money on all 3 times the game changed hands, they already got their chunk of the money on the FIRST sale.