beastman, um… It doesn’t matter really who knows your gamertags. Posting your gamertag is about as bad as posting an account of yours on another forum site… Just saying.

Anyways. I don’t have any newer PS or Nintendo stuff. But do have an X360 and my gamertag is Jusey01 (Suppose to be Jusey1 but Jusey1 was already taken).

I hate Steam (do not trust it and Valve). I don’t know what Battle.net is.

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I no longer have Xbox Live Gold, though I do use Steam often enough. I mostly play single player games ATM, but that may change…

Steam requires an online account, internet connection, and all that unnecessary crap. This also gives a lot of control to Valve over your games and basically PC gaming life (Steam only PC games though).

 

And since I’m anti-internet connection requirement, anti-online account requirement, and anti-3rd-party-program requirement. (Steam breaks all three btw)… That is why I do not like Steam, do not trust it, and do not trust the creators (Valve).

… but… you have a Live account (Silver or otherwise)…?

Steam requires a connection and ‘online account’ for rights management (because it’s a digital marketplace), but has an offline mode, and you’re either using third-party programs for nearly everything you do or trading in the Apple or Microsoft ecosystems, and neither of those companies are saints (far less trustworthy than Valve, at least). I’m also not sure why MMOs are exempt and why MMOs having those requirements ‘makes sense’ but Steam ‘does not’.

I’m just really having trouble understanding the rationale, sorry — would you be able to elaborate a little further?

2. I can understand needing an online account and an internet connection for digital content. But if I have the physical disc, to Oblivion with Steam. I better be able to put the disc into the harddrive, install, and play. No bullcrap.

 

Probably should noted in my original post that I was talking about physical discs, not digital content. (Like I said, I can understand needing those two requirements for digital content).

 

Also, MMOs… It’s in the name! Massive Multiplayer Online. MMOs are made specifically for online gamers only. Not for offline gamers. So it makes sense for an MMO to require a constant internet connection and an online account to play on it plus pay for it.

 

With Steam, it doesn’t need that crap unless you want digital content or to play a game online, if that is your wish. (Most non-MMO games have offline singleplayer aspects).

 

 

Does that make better sense now?

You do realize that Steam doesn’t do physical copies of games, and it’s ALL digital content, right? Steam does also have options to launch non-Steam games and software, even offline. Your argument that you want to be able to play physical copies of games on Steam without having to connect online is rather pointless, since a) The purpose of games is to distribute digital games and content, and Launch said games with features such as achievements, chat, trading cards used to either gain emoticons for chat or to sell for a few cents, etc., neither of which is done with physical copies of the game.

Some newer disc-based games have required me to activate them with Steam actually, so it does sometimes happen with physical copies. Though if it requires it I don’t know if there is any way around it. Also it doesn’t happen with Oblivion though, that’s too old for that to be built into the disc, so there it has to be done with the “add non-Steam game to library” feature which doesn’t restrict you from using the game outside of Steam. Also Offline Mode.

Yeah, and the alternative to this is going back to other more intrusive and damaging DRM sources (some of which are ALSO ‘always-online’) because companies believe DRM needs to be a thing to succeed.

Steam is pretty innocuous as far as DRM goes and it also brings other features into play like automated patching (no more going through FileFront or GameSpy or some garbage like that and getting bombarded with ads and needing to sit in a queue for six hours for a patch, I do not miss those days), integrated voice/text chat, achievements, library management, online screenshot storage, cheat prevention (for online games), etc. It’s also not as aggravating to use as Origin or uPlay, the closest comparables.

I guess I’m just not understanding the rationale as presented. Especially the ‘third-party program’ thing.

As for the Silver account and not-being-online thing, I guess I just figured you were, well, actually using the service by virtue of listing the account here. It seems weird to me to provide an account you never use — like, I’m not providing my old GameSpy ID or anything.