Valve: "Steamworks makes DRM obsolete"

now that is how anti-copy should be done

although, it does still prevent re-sale of games, but Valve and Steam has never allowed that...

The only thing I'd ask is for a system in Steam to create simply and easilly create a hardcopy of your game, that you can reinstall when necessary without the need to download it again. I get a bit worried sometimes about only having soft copies of all my games, regardless of how secure the Steam servers may be.

Originally Posted by Bauul
The only thing I'd ask is for a system in Steam to create simply and easilly create a hardcopy of your game, that you can reinstall when necessary without the need to download it again. I get a bit worried sometimes about only having soft copies of all my games, regardless of how secure the Steam servers may be.

er. there is a backup tool built into steam. or, just back up the steamapps folder - they're just assets, and will be recognised as your games next time you reinstall and log in.

Dear Publishers... it would be nice if you could prehaps, just this once, have a little talk and come up with ONE anti-piracy measure. You claim that all these tech savvy people are stealing your games, I'm not so sure I agree but hey it's your PR your trashing when you call me a thief. You see I find it a bit much when every game I install rummages through the Reg, tweaks whatever it likes and sets up home like a squatter, but one dirty squatter I can just about tame, at least with just one I know who to blame.
How would you feel if THREE squatters were living in your front room? What about SIX?
You see people steal your games for many reasons, it's too rubbish to buy, it's easier to torrent than walk to the shops and wait for it... it won't come packaged with shoddy anti-piracy code.
The way I see it is your going to have to think about the future of your industry, because you guys make these games.. .but I decide whether or not to BUY them.

Yours Sincerely T "If a dumb arse like me can think of a reasonable solution WTF" Farm.

P.S Dear SecuRom, if your anti-piracy measure is so badly coded that it actually fully spanners Explorer, so bad you have to release a patch to fix the problem, could you try and TELL ME YOU PR#@KS... it's quite frustrating to have endevoured over a period of several days to solve an issue beyond my technical competance only to find on a forum in the arse end of the web a tiny post mentioning it's your product that was causing my distress.

Originally Posted by Fod

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bauul
The only thing I'd ask is for a system in Steam to create simply and easilly create a hardcopy of your game, that you can reinstall when necessary without the need to download it again. I get a bit worried sometimes about only having soft copies of all my games, regardless of how secure the Steam servers may be.

er. there is a backup tool built into steam. or, just back up the steamapps folder - they're just assets, and will be recognised as your games next time you reinstall and log in.

Aye - that's what we do for testing. Just copy the Steam folders you need and burn them to a disk or flash key, network drive etc. Copy at will.

Originally Posted by CardJoe

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fod

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bauul
The only thing I'd ask is for a system in Steam to create simply and easilly create a hardcopy of your game, that you can reinstall when necessary without the need to download it again. I get a bit worried sometimes about only having soft copies of all my games, regardless of how secure the Steam servers may be.

er. there is a backup tool built into steam. or, just back up the steamapps folder - they're just assets, and will be recognised as your games next time you reinstall and log in.

Aye - that's what we do for testing. Just copy the Steam folders you need and burn them to a disk or flash key, network drive etc. Copy at will.

That saves me from having to download a couple thousand CS and CSS maps. I just copy it from one PC to another

If CEG is just a fancy term/acronym for a watermark, then that's fine. If the executable is truly generated with a unique structure, then that's bad in my book. For one, it could (would!) make it harder to track down bugs.

But, doesn't this mean that if a friend logs on to his steam account on my PC that there will have to be separate steam installs or at least steam apps folders for the two accounts?

I say this because I play LAN games with friends on my home computers, and up until now my friend has just had to sign in to steam with his account.

Once he's signed in, all the games we both have bought show up as installed and ready to play. Games that we don't both have show up as installed but needs to be purchased to play.

This will mess that up won't it?

I'm still not a big fan of steam because I don't use 80% of its features. I just need my game and DLC. I use vent to chat with all my friends or GFWL (PC&360).

I've always been happy with the way steam handles DRM, and this offering should help to bring other publishers around to their way of thinking, which can only be a good thing.

As long as I can play the games I have payed for, I'm happy, and that's why I've had problems with other drm, such as my £70 copy of spore, which I can't play because the DRM doesn't believe I have a legal copy... £70 down the drain.

As long as it remains transparent to average joe user then I dont see any problem with this system at all.
Now if only they could get off there rears and get EA games (Mass Effect) on the UK steam, that would be nice :D

Yeah DRM is obsolete since the servers are crashing so often no one can get a complete game in.

One additional "restriction"/downside to steam, is that unlike a traditional "games library", you can only have one steam title "checked out" at a time. Ie. with physical copies if I want to play one game upstairs, and let the gf play another on her machine, that is no problem. With Steam though, only 1 person can be signed in at a time which means only 1 game can be played at any given time. When your library starts to get quite big it can be a significant restriction.

offline mode is your friend.

telling content owners how useless their DRM is hasn't done anything in the past, i don't see how that will change now. the idiots in the boardroom are still going to put all kinds of crapware in with their games.

i tend to buy cheap second hand copies or when the game reaches about 20€, steam is awesome but lacks some features...

I think steam is great, although i have to admit that I dont use it alot, btu I find it fantastic that I can log onto steam(even after not logging into it for over a year) on a completly different PC, and download the game i bought years ago.
My original halflife CD has long dissapeared between moving bedrooms in my parents house and then moving into my own house. But I tied the CD key to steam as soon as it came out and now I can just log in and download it whenever i want with no additional costs. I bought HL2:EP2 ages ago, and have never got around to playing it, but I am happy to know that I can see it on my steam games list as ready to install if I wish.
Plus I still have a free version of HL2 and episode 1 invite to give away to someone sitting in my steam account.

Whatever, I give this tech 5 days after it's introduced before it's cracked. If I got a dollar every time I heard about "uncrackable" content protection systems... Steam in itself was cracked long time ago (many "pirated" games are actually Steam rips).

Originally Posted by n3mo
Whatever, I give this tech 5 days after it's introduced before it's cracked. If I got a dollar every time I heard about "uncrackable" content protection systems... Steam in itself was cracked long time ago (many "pirated" games are actually Steam rips).

+1

all this will take to crack is the algorithm that generates it's "uniqueness", then Bob's your Aunty who had a sex change after his/her divorce to your Gran!

Greetings!

Originally Posted by ChaosDefinesOrder
now that is how anti-copy should be done

although, it does still prevent re-sale of games, but Valve and Steam has never allowed that...

New Stardock Tech 'Throws Goo on DRM,' Allows Gamers to Resell Downloaded Games

Elemental: War of Magic developer and Sins of a Solar Empire publisher Stardock today unveiled Goo, a new technology that the company claims will solve common publisher and consumer complaints with digitally distributed games and DRM.

Short for "Game Object Obfuscation," Goo will let developers "encapsulate their game executable into a container that includes the original executable plus Impulse Reactor, Stardock's [suite of developer tools], into a single encrypted file."

The first time a player runs a "Goo'd" game, they will need to enter their e-mail address and serial number for online activation. The game is then tied to a user's account, with Stardock adding that "the game never needs to connect to the Internet again."

Steam is an acceptable form of DRM (Valve says it isnt DRM!? :) ), but has lost its appeals as a store due to the € rip-off prices.

Originally Posted by azrael-
If CEG is just a fancy term/acronym for a watermark, then that's fine. If the executable is truly generated with a unique structure, then that's bad in my book. For one, it could (would!) make it harder to track down bugs.

That would be incorrect my friend. You see the way this works is just like a encrypt/store/decrypt method of class based authentication. Essentially it is the same as running the main executable of the game from a cloud source, i.e. the Steam Servers. Crypto-wrappers and make-shift class penetration modules have been around forever, since the 90's. The only issue I see is with Privacy of the customer. When you agree to the EULA for games that use this new form of mild DRM, you are allowing Steam/Valve, to friendly-bug your system with a set of public/private keys for remote authentication. Every time you launch that game, it will request verification from key to key, if the keys match, voila, if they don't, it will be sad day for someone. Overall this method is better for the consumer, and not so great for Steam. Every form of authentication can be broken, whether is is token-based, fingerprint, or even biometric, it will definitely be a two-factor method, which will be easy to break on the client side, but almost impossible to break on the server end. The real question here is who will find a way to manipulate this first and start using people's account to play games for free.

Any way you look at this situation, it is better for the customer on one front, but extremely risky for both consumer and manufacturer. You are asking people to start attempting theft of people's accounts, and by using this system you are inviting many new forms of malice against the system itself.

Overall this will be a strategic ploy for Steam rather than a marketing or PR campaign centered around sales. They are looking to survive and profit, not spread and dominate.

Peace

Steam has an acceptable form of DRM, it is not intrusive, doesn't impede with the playing of the game and lets you install them on any computer you want.
It isn't uncrackable, there are pirate Steam networks but the thing is, if you are willing to pay for the game in the first place pirating doesn't offer you anything extra like removing intrusive DRM.