""ATTENTION"" STOP ACTA!

[Lisnpuppy]

Lets recap shall we?

 

First off some of you are saying that in rural areas you will have bad internet. That is not true. Some rural areas might have bad internet but not every single rural area does. Also it seems a bit strange that you would have a nearby game store but not a decent internet connection.

 

Second off some of you are claiming money is a factor. You can afford expensive gaming rigs and 60 dollar games but not an internet connection? Really?

 

Third, even if all rural areas have bad connections and money is a problem, that doesn't mean you can't connect to steam for five minutes. Even on a dial up connection you can login to steam for a few minutes without much problem.

 

No they are not saying that ALL rural areas have bad internet but that it far more common than you seemed to suggest in your prior post. What does having a game store close have to do with anything? Let me tell you that I live in one of those "rural" areas and it has only been recently that we have had DSL and it goes off more often than it should. Rural areas often have lines breaking, lines down and are hard to access in good weather much less bad. Also the phone companies internet which is better than my cable DSL (which I play well over $100/month for cable and internet and I do not have any HBOs or any of those things. In fact it just went up by $10) , the phone company internet is not available to me, even though I live less than 5 minutes from the capital city of Charleston.

 

The point I think they are trying to make is that you spend $60 on a game that you can not play anytime you please. This is my issue with Steam. If I pay for a disc I should be able to play whenever I want.

 

Also please be careful how you phase things as it very much looks like you are accusing all these folks of lying in your post. I do not think you meant it that way but there it is.

[marharth]

They said that some people can't afford a good connection, which confuses me considering the cost of PC gaming.

 

 

 

My point is quite simple. It doesn't matter if you have a bad connection or not, or even if you have dial up. You do not require a good connection to login to steam for five minutes to activate a game.

[Aurielius]

 

The point I think they are trying to make is that you spend $60 on a game that you can not play anytime you please. This is my issue with Steam. If I pay for a disc I should be able to play whenever I want.

The salient point, you buy the game you should be able to play in the arctic tundra on your laptop huddled in your igloo with your Inuit buddies with no Internet connection what so ever.

[ginnyfizz]

@marharth, I have friends in rural Texas and Mississippi who can have their internet go down for days at a time. We can be on Skype or other messengers and get the connection drop out several times in the course of a conversation.

 

And,as I recall, I specifically said that it isn't always a matter of whether or not you can afford it - one of the people concerned is a highly paid professional, but because there is no cable/DSL/fibreoptic where they are, the connection is dodgy. I also never said all rural areas are affected, although certainly in my country, the further you are from the exchange even in areas where you have fibreoptic broadband, the crappier your connection.

 

Yes, it can sometimes be difficult for people to get the internet to stand up long enough to log into Steam.

[marharth]

It doesn't seem to me like a PC gamer would have serious problems with these kinds of things. You have to put quite a lot of time and money into it.

 

Can a PC gamer really have trouble with buying a game in a store, then logging into steam for a few minutes?

 

"The salient point, you buy the game you should be able to play in the arctic tundra on your laptop huddled in your igloo with your Inuit buddies with no Internet connection what so ever."

Not disagreeing with that, but I would like to point out that you could of just activated the game the same time you bought it then went to go play it in the arctic.

 

My original point is that steam DRM is not nearly as bad as other forms of DRM, and that forms of digital distribution help combat piracy.

 

Logging into steam is not nearly as bad as some Ubisoft DRM, which involves you having to stay online while you are playing the game.

 

 

EDIT: I completely forgot this topic was about ACTA, but it has to do with piracy so its kind of related.

Edited February 5, 2012 by marharth

[Syco21]

You keep ignoring what everyone is saying. So for the last time, I'll repeat once more.

 

Yes, it is possible for a PC gamer to not be able to log into Steam to activate a game. And there are times to which it is possible to just barely get online to activate, but still be unable to play due forced updates. It is not possible to prevent Steam from attempting to update a game when it is first installed.

Edited February 5, 2012 by Syco21

[marharth]

You keep ignoring what everyone is saying. So for the last time, I'll repeat once more.

 

Yes, it is possible for a PC gamer to not be able to log into Steam to activate a game. And there are times to which it is possible to just barely get online to activate, but still be unable to play due forced updates. It is not possible to prevent Steam from attempting to update a game when it is first installed.

I find it extremely hard to believe that you can not long into steam for a few minutes. If your internet is really that screwed up it is still completely possible to login, it might take a extra day but that isn't even my point. If your internet is going to disconnect every three minutes everyday I don't think there is much point in you even having a internet connection.

 

You can disable automatic updates and you can pause any updates that got through somehow.

 

Maybe you are ignoring what I am saying, but I don't think I have to put it in a different font with bigger text. I will just use quotation marks.

 

"My original point is that steam DRM is not nearly as bad as other forms of DRM, and that forms of digital distribution help combat piracy.

 

Logging into steam is not nearly as bad as some Ubisoft DRM, which involves you having to stay online while you are playing the game."

Edited February 5, 2012 by marharth

[Syco21]

Billy Joe Bob doing something worse does not excuse another's poor behavior. The whole crowd, bridge analogy comes to mind.

 

It's not just about me, I like to consider my friends and neighbors as well. And that's exactly the point. A lot of people of access to broadband, as in they can subscribe to an ISP that offers broadband. But it just isn't practical. This is why I do not have a homeline.

 

As soon as Steam detects an update for a game, it will not let you play that game until it is updated.

 

Steam ignores update settings. It will force updates when it damn well pleases. The only way to avoid updates, is to never connect to Steam. The problem with this, is that Steam will not hold offline mode settings for long. It will demand you go online. If you don't have access, well tough luck. Until you perform the ritual of sacrifice to Gabe, you wont be playing the games you paid hard earned money for.

 

Finally, the fact that I can play Skyrim is irrelevant. As stated, there are countless others that can not. And the issue is that I shouldn't have to fight to play the games I paid for. It should be a straight forward process, insert disc -> press install -> play.

 

Yes, there are worse forms of DRM out there, but I don't care. I'm not about to forgive the flaws of Steam, because there are programs with great flaws. All of these things that I have issue with can be fixed easily. There is no excuse not to.

[marharth]

Billy Joe Bob doing something worse does not excuse another's poor behavior. The whole crowd, bridge analogy comes to mind.

 

It's not just about me, I like to consider my friends and neighbors as well. And that's exactly the point. A lot of people of access to broadband, as in they can subscribe to an ISP that offers broadband. But it just isn't practical. This is why I do not have a homeline.

 

As soon as Steam detects an update for a game, it will not let you play that game until it is updated.

 

Steam ignores update settings. It will force updates when it damn well pleases. The only way to avoid updates, is to never connect to Steam. The problem with this, is that Steam will not hold offline mode settings for long. It will demand you go online. If you don't have access, well tough luck. Until you perform the ritual of sacrifice to Gabe, you wont be playing the games you paid hard earned money for.

 

Finally, the fact that I can play Skyrim is irrelevant. As stated, there are countless others that can not. And the issue is that I shouldn't have to fight to play the games I paid for. It should be a straight forward process, insert disc -> press install -> play.

 

Yes, there are worse forms of DRM out there, but I don't care. I'm not about to forgive the flaws of Steam, because there are programs with great flaws. All of these things that I have issue with can be fixed easily. There is no excuse not to.

I never said I liked steam, and I never said you should forgive its flaws.

 

My point is that digital distribution helps stop piracy.

[Ghogiel]

 

My point is that digital distribution helps stop piracy.

I think that's for one debatable and two D2D really has nothing to do with DRM.