this post was submitted on 27 May 2024
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This is what steam is: a lesser form of ownership in exchange for the perks of the platform. I've come to prefer physical media first, DRM free second, and steam third. It's just not as good of a value proposition to me compared to outright ownership (of the license to use the software, I know we don't own "the game").
Physical media today isn’t really much better though, increasingly frequently all a disk gets you is a license to activate a digital copy anyways, with a “must be online for first play” requirement.
That's exactly how I ended up with a steam account. Bought a Civ V cd and the game isn't on the cd, just an installer for steam and a key.
It's sadly true. I have been lucky so far, but I know one day I'll accidentally give money to a developer who does this
I'm curious what recent games you've been able to purchase physical copies of that ran without updating or validating using the internet. I didn't know any publishers still did that, at least not on PC.
I admittedly don't buy many games lately, especially not from the big budget crowd. BG3 seems to run fine without internet, as do Sea of Stars and Noita.
No, you don't own the copyright, but you do own your individual copy. Don't fall for the "licensed, not sold" self-serving propaganda.
I added the caveat simply because I didn't want to get into it
Ubisoft “No you don’t”
And Ubisoft can go fuck themselves with a cactus
I like that motto but for me it's Physical media, Supporting Developers directly, and then Steam third.
If a publisher has DRM on their steam version then I'm sure af not going to buy directly from that publisher's store for a less DRM version, that just feels like coercion.