Its for DRM. The easiest way to check if you actually own the game is to have the game contantly ask whether its connected to the server. The server should have your payment info. If thats not found, your game isnt legit.
Thats why GOG is so good, their games dont have DRM. Meaning you (and pirates) have a BETTER version of the game. Let me repeat that, downloading an illegal copy gives you a better running version of the same game you mightve paid for, because it doesnt have to contantly talk to a server before the game will allow you to do anything.
When you pirate a steam game, youre also downloading a “fake” version of steam, a steam emulator. The way they break DRM for steam games doesnt remove the DRM, but it slightly reduces the issues DRM causes because the server it is communicating with is local and doesnt have to index user files. Your game just asks the steam emulator if its legit, the steam emulator doesnt check anything, it just says that whatever got checked was legit.
Hitman was quickly pulled from GOG for being too big of a compromise on their values. Their only exception to DRM-free is multiplayer that uses GOG Galaxy services.
I too prefer to buy from GoG, but I often add my GoG games to be launched through Steam as non-Steam games so I can take advantage of features like Proton and Steam Input.
If I want to take advantage of certain features Steam only offers to games you buy through them, I will buy through Steam instead of GoG. Usually when I do this it’s for multiplayer or save file syncing reasons.
Steam features you can use with non-Steam games:
provides SteamInput which allows me to use any game controller in any game with a lot of configuration options. It’s the best tool for that purpose I’ve ever seen.
provides Proton for playing Windows games on Linux (and I do 99% of my gaming on Linux these days)
provides VR headset drivers and tools for using different VR headsets with games not designed for them
provides a TV and controller optimized interface (“Big Picture” mode)
Steam features exclusive to Steam games:
updates games automatically
backs up my saves and syncs them across devices
provides multiplayer server infrastructure making it easy to play with friends
provides modding infrastructure, although not all games use it
provides tools for managing which version of a game you have installed
I may check out this GOG eventually. Accounts, subscriptions, micro transactions, and criminal proprietary extortion are why I stopped gaming for the most part. For me, it has been full-source or fuck off for a long time. I cannot fix stupid in anyone else but me. I will not support criminal extortion and bank account skimming scams. They only exist because people have no real moral depth and self respect to say no.
The biggest thing is the updates. If the game can update itself or is no longer getting updates I don’t care about it having a launcher. If I have to go to their website and download a new .exe every time they do an update it is annoying. Steam does provide a lot of other QOL features as well though.
I never liked Steam when it was first released, it was problematic, slowed down my machine and caused me frustration.
Now it’s different. I agree with Gene Newell that piracy is a service issue, I haven’t pirated any games since steam started to fill its library with other non Valve games that I wanted.
I also appreciate the additional features that it brings like the community features and guides and managing updates for me.
It’s not perfect, nothing is, buy I prefer it to managing my own files and updates.
On Linux, running an exe isn’t often as simple as “wine frog-fracker.exe”. It’s usually “proton PREFIX=~/steam-proton-10/ TRICKS=b DXIMPL=1.7.8 blah blah … frog-fracker.exe”
As a result, Linux gamers tend to have launchers even for hobby games they downloaded. Arcade launchers for emulated games are especially common now.
You don’t. When Valve first started with Steam, everybody hated it. I myself held out for a long time, not wanting a useless program hogging resources.
But gradually it became clear that Steam was actually just a game store. Except having to go to a store and rifle through boxes, you could do it from your PC. Yes it launched the games, but that was just like having a single folder with all game shortcuts. Its main purpose was discovering and buying new games.
Other vendors saw its success and wanted a piece of the cake. I think they mistakenly thought the launcher was an important part of Steam’s success, when it was in fact the large catalogue and good discoverability. They use exclusivity to lure customers, but can’t possibly compete with Valve.
Now we are at a point where the landscape is divided again. The majority of games is on Steam, but enough have their own place that the “single folder with shortcuts” became relevant again. That’s where the likes of Heroic and Playnite come in. These are no longer stores to buy games, but are simply a convenient way to quickly start the game you want, regardless of its source.
It’s really easy to forget, but yes, Steam was annoying back in the day. I hated it so much I bought Borderlands 1 from somewhere else in protest. My friends bought it through Steam. The patch dropped and they got it, I didn’t, and I couldn’t play anymore. It finally came later, though. This pushed me to give it a second chance. Now it’s amazing. Apart from some gripes about the UI of Steam itself, there’s not really much to complain about.
I don’t. I was still buying physical releases and renting games from my local video stores until both things died out against my will.
Steam is convienent for the services they provide.
Since the USA is turning to shit, I try to buy from stores outside USA now so GOG is increasingly seeing more of my money. Let’s say Valve falls off or goes to shit after Gabe dies: I’m a skilled pirate so whatever.
Mostly I’m Ambivalent but kinda apathetic about launchers because I can just go and find whatever I potentially lose again elsewhere. A self educated privilege combined with grey morality I suppose. Or a resignation to an ever worsening reality I was born into without my say.
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I don’t. Launching things is my desktop environment’s job.
Since the rise of game publishers’ launchers, I have to use my (desktop) launcher to launch a (storefront’s) launcher to launch a (publisher’s) launcher to launch the game. It’s probably the best example of the yo dawg meme I have ever seen. In other words, ridiculously annoying, not to mention wasteful of my time and system resources.
i’m replaying final fantasy 6 with a retranslation i haven’t played before called ‘revised old style edition’. I’m still in the world of balance but so far the translation is a good compromise between the innacurate warmth of the woolsey script and the dry accuracy of the slattery script. So far it’s my favourite translation, and next up will be the newly translated ‘t-edition’ mod
bin.pol.social
Aktywne