Try buying (from another individual - not Valve) or selling a steam game. Get back to us on how that goes.

Not SecuROM, a simple disc check. You said every other option besides Steam was terrible "in every way."

So what's wrong with a regular disc check?

I like Steam, I just reinstalled it on my new system and it popped up saying, "You own L4D and L4D2 but they aren't installed. Do you want to download and install them?" I forgot I had those games, and have long since lost the discs, mainly because I had it on Steam so I had no need to worry lol.

I do not pirate games but I will circumvent things like disc checks by burning an ISO of the game I own and keeping it on my external HDD and running it through there. It's easy, and best of all, legal

I want to learn french so I can go to France, get a cab, and kick whoever thought of and approved Ubi's DRM in the crotch. I have good broadband internet but seriously... [censored] them.

I'll admit I didn't catch the Disc Check in the options, however, nowadays those are fairly easy to bypass, so I can understand Bethesda not using it. Not saying I like having any kind of DRM, but given the alternatives, I'd prefer Steam which I've never had any issue with as opposed to atrocities like SecuROM.

Don't sell my games either, never saw a reson to line the pockets of Gamestop.

I only have 1 steam game (half-life 2) so my steam experience is limited. Just tried to setup a seperate account on steam and ran into the road blocks. I had not realized this aspect of steam.

Steam is still the lesser evil

How 'bout none? :biggrin:

I think you're going by Pete's twitter announcement about the prize for conceiving a Dovahkiin.

Of course, Skyrim will be available for purchase via Steam and most of Bethesda's previous games are already available.

However, I would not take his announcement to mean that Bethesda has decided to use Steamworks DRM for retail boxed versions. I think this is certainly possible, perhaps even likely considering that FNV used Steamworks DRM and Todd has previously commented that Bethesda "likes Steam," but it has not been confirmed yet.

Whew, thank god, I was scared there for a moment. Was about to post saying "Well, no Skyrim for me cept on 360 now" if steam was confirmed. I really, truly hope that they make it optional. If it's forced, It will be the first time I've bought a TES game for something besides the PC

If they try to force Steam on me for Skyrim, well then that's too bad I guess I won't be playing Skyrim.

What about Consoles? If not then we'll survive without you, sorry to say. My favorite thing about Steam is the bundles. Square Enix bundle on special right now. Ton of games for like 70 bucks. There is a Bethesda Pack right now that has Morrowind, Oblivion, and Fallout 3 all GOTY for like 60 bucks. Odds are when Skyrim is released there will be a special and you can get Skyrim and those three for around 70 bucks. Not bad considering that right now it is the same price as if you got all 3 through amazon.

I don't care for Steam. Many people feel the same way. You like it, that's fine. I don't.

Preferably none, but Steam is good in couple of ways, so I vote for that.

I don't believe there is much of a market for used PC games anyways. Going with my friend to GameStop to sell a bunch of her games, they took her 360 ones but said that there policy was that they don't buy PC games. This is most likely due to the very fact that DRM exists for PC games. So, accepting that the used game market is already dead when it comes to PC games, I vote for Steam because I currently use it and it is much less intrusive than some games I bought non-Steam (looking at you, EA...)

Another fact to consider is that digital distribution is the future. I think it would be cool on Steam if you could transfer game licenses to friends. I don't see how any digital distribution model could support a used game market though. You could, say, "sell" your game by giving up your license to the distributer, such as Valve. What are they going to do with it? Sell a game at 75% value that is identical to the regular version in every way? They'd probably have to give it a different key as well so you can't steal it back. Then there's really nothing left of the game you had, because someone else just gets a brand new version anyways. So then Valve wouldn't sell "used" games because they aren't used in any way. What you're talking about is more like a 10% refund for games you don't like, which is just money lost by Valve that they don't need to spend, as they don't get any return out of it like GameStop does. I think we just need to accept the fact that, as more things go digital, the used games market will go obsolete just as physical movie rentals were crushed by Netflix.

Just to point out an error in your logic: I myself, don't know a single person who uses netflix, and thats out of a family of hundreds plus friends+acquaintances. Physical movies have NOT been "crushed" by netflix. There will always be a used game market, even for PCs, even if that market is shrunk some by this digital [censored].

"digital distribution is the future"
Well this isn't the future. The reality is this: <10% (maybe even <5%) of the online world (that is, people who use the Internet everyday) have what is officially defined (by the United States FCC) as broadband, 4000kbps down. Usage caps are quite common all over the world. Downloading games will only become commonplace if ISPs stop being so greedy.

Also I have no idea what you're talking about with Netflix. Still tons of Blockbusters and Rogers Video and etc etc around here because it's easier to pop down to the video store than to wait 45 minutes for Netflix to finish buffering.

My List of shelfware is down from 3 to 2. finally figure out why I couldn't play Mass Effects. Had to uninstall the disc burning software I got with my replacement DVD drive. 1701 A.D. works fine but 1701 A.D. Gold and East India Company, My computer won't even read the disc and I can get no help from the developers/publishers. Another case of an honest gamer getting screwed by DRM.

http://www.wikinvest.com/images/d/de/NFLX_v._BBL.jpg

vs.

http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/business/25919237-41/blockbuster-bankruptcy-company-chain-close.csp

The result:

As of Jan 2010, Netflix stock is at an all-time high and market capitalization is $3.44 billion, while Blockbuster has filed for bankruptcy for the second time in 2 years, its shares have lost 73% of their value and the entire company is now valued at only $77.65 million.

I prefer simple disk checks. I have a reliable internet but I don't really give a.... (Well I won't say that) About any sort of online activation.... Its annoying, inconveniant. And can and WILL keep some people from playing the game. I have several friends who have no internet access what-so-ever. But I will be quiet to avoid a rant.

Blockbuster Canada is quite well off. Blockbuster *USA* is the one that keeps declaring bankruptcy.
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/fp/Business+usual+Blockbuster+Canada/3568643/story.html

It's in his twitter post regarding the reward for the bethblog contest. The reward is a steamworks key that allows access to all past and present games on steam which would include Skyrim.

There's a flaw in the poll : Disk Check is no DRM cause it's so trivial to break it doesn't deserve the term. It's the same as if Bethesda included a little postcard with each Skyrim game saying : please don't launch the game if you don't hold this postcard in your hand.

PS : disk checks are annoying anyway. Much better to not have to take out the DVD to play the game

Mordy, under copyright law it is legal to make a backup copy of media you own, on the condition the copy is destroyed if you cease to own the original. I typically make ISOs of any games I own that do disc checks so that I can keep the discs in mint condition.

Thanks for proving my point on how useless such disk checks are. At this point we might as well replace the "disk check" option in the pool by a "no DRM at all".

I'm certain we could come to some of compromise with Skyrim. Steamworks without Steam, perhaps? It's not DRM itself I hate, it's the Steam client. Certainly the Technological Overlords at Valve could figure out a way to enforce DRM without needing the Steam client actually installed. a one-time keyfile? Whatever GTAIV does? Bueller?

I personally prefer Sucure-MDK format, preferabley within 18 and 19GB of ramm with a PRW rate of about 7.2tc/s.