[mdlug] Steam (was: Suggestions for games for an elderlyparent?)

[Ingles, Raymond]

> From: Robert Adkins

>   Whereas I find the DRM of Steam or any product to be wrong, period.
I
> don't buy their products because of the phoning home thing. I'd rather
buy
> a game once and be able to install it on as many PCs as I own, or
choose to
> own going into the future.

 Steam doesn't interfere with that. I've installed my Steam games on...
let's see... three different computers (one in a different state). Four
if you count a reinstalled Windows on the same machine. Basically, so
long as you don't have two computers signing onto the same account at
the same time, you're good.

 (You *could* even cheat and install the game on a machine, then set it
to "offline" mode. After that, you could play one copy 'online' and the
other, 'offline' copy could run at the same time, too. Nothing I'm aware
of rules out multiple 'offline' copies...)

> I want to hold onto my right to be able to
> uninstall that software and then sell it to another gamer second hand.

 That, Steam does interfere with... sort of. When I bought the "Orange
Box" package of games, I already owned Half-Life 2 (which I got free
with a CPU purchase). Because of that, I got a "gift copy" of HL2 to
give away. I can give it to any Steam account I choose. Or I could
'sell' it, asking someone to give me money and I'd send it to their
account.

 Even then, creating a Steam account is free. If you really want to
resell your games later, create one Steam account for each game. Then,
in return for money or barter or whatever, you can simply give the
password for that account to someone else, and they can change the
password and take over 'ownership' of that copy of the game. You can
still play all your other Steam games.

 Seriously, as DRM goes Steam is about the least restrictive I can
imagine. For *games*, like I said, I find it acceptable. For other
software, not so much - games are kind of a special economic niche.

 Sincerely,

 Ray Ingles                                   (313) 227-2317
 
 "Computers let you make more mistakes faster than any other
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