How to avoid unnecessary DRM

[GreatSlayer]

And why is that unethical? I love free game trials then I can see if I like it. If nothing I get to play a free game for a bit. They can't make you buy anything, they try to persuade you to buy more games. But what other game company doesn't? You walk into a game store and it has deals, ads and sometimes pushy staff to try and sell games. You go onto an on line dealer & the same thing (minus the staff). etc.

If you are talking about using Steam (because a company makes you) to play a game then that is different. But that is one ad per day which can be closed before it loads & hardly gets in your face. You just stay in the library part.

Lastly, if you don't want to even do that you can simply just start it through the .exe file. Sure some games need Steam to operate but you can just keep it in the background. In Paradox's case (unless you want MP) you don't ever have to see Steam after the initial installation.

I don't think it's unethical. A user did, and he/she has a right to think so, since he gets a billboard with his game copy. I can understand that feeling. I personally don't appreciate when a company ask me to buy even more things when I recently just bought something.

 

[stilgarpl]

Besides you can close down the ad before it even has time to load, it's not really like a TV ad that goes on for 2 minutes.

Also, those ad are mostly for "Hey, this game you have on the wishlist, it's -80% today, maybe you'd like to buy it?" - I like it.

 

[Darkrenown]

It's actually only once a day the ad pops up after a game session. If you have several gaming sessions you will only see the ad once.
From my experience though they only show newly released games on those ads, I don't think they scan your gaming history and only show you games from the same genre you've recently played, they show you the games released that day or very recently.

Besides you can close down the ad before it even has time to load, it's not really like a TV ad that goes on for 2 minutes.

Or just disable it, it's the red marked setting:

 

[Darkrenown]

I don't think it's unethical. A user did, and he/she has a right to think so, since he gets a billboard with his game copy. I can understand that feeling. I personally don't appreciate when a company ask me to buy even more things when I recently just bought something.

But he doesn't, because you only see it if you choose to keep that setting enabled. Dislike adverts? Turn it off, bam, problem solved.

 

[GreatSlayer]

But he doesn't, because you only see it if you choose to keep that setting enabled. Dislike adverts? Turn it off, bam, problem solved.

How will a new born steam user even know of these settings? They're default.

 

[stilgarpl]

How will a new born steam user even know of these settings? They're default.

Don't treat users like idiots.

When you start a game, what's the first thing you do? I always go for options and adjust all the settings. Same for every other program.

 

[Grubnessul]

How will a new born steam user even know of these settings? They're default.

Look at the settings? It's not that hard.

 

[Darkrenown]

How will a new born steam user even know of these settings? They're default.

"Oh hey, this new program I got does some things I don't like, maybe I should either spend 2 minutes looking though the settings menu, or 30 seconds googling how to change it"

 

[GreatSlayer]

"Oh hey, this new program I got does some things I don't like, maybe I should either spend 2 minutes looking though the settings menu, or 30 seconds googling how to change it"

I'm only playing the devils advocate here, mate. Chill.

 

[Darkrenown]

Why? Don't just defend useless positions for the sake of it, it just wastes everyone's time.

 

[GreatSlayer]

Why? Don't just defend useless positions for the sake of it, it just wastes everyone's time.

People don't pay to fiddle with settings, just to disable something they don't enjoy. And most won't know the feature is even there until they see it. Calling ones position useless is quite a subjective standpoint however. Who decides what position is right then?

 

[Grubnessul]

People don't pay to fiddle with settings, just to disable something they don't enjoy. And most won't know the feature is even there until they see it. Calling ones position useless is quite a subjective standpoint however. Who decides what position is right then?

But noone pays for Steam...

 

[stilgarpl]

Who decides what position is right then?

I do. Because, why not?

 

[duhsveti]

People don't pay to fiddle with settings, just to disable something they don't enjoy. And most won't know the feature is even there until they see it. Calling ones position useless is quite a subjective standpoint however. Who decides what position is right then?

Settings are there to be fiddled with. It is better for a program to have settings to turn on and off, unlike for example Origin. Also you are sort of suggesting that most users are imbeciles that never used a pc before in their life.

 

[Darkrenown]

People don't pay to fiddle with settings, just to disable something they don't enjoy. And most won't know the feature is even there until they see it. Calling ones position useless is quite a subjective standpoint however. Who decides what position is right then?

Use the "reasonable man" method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person

The reasonable person will weigh all of the following factors before acting:

the foreseeable risk of harm his actions create versus the utility of his actions;
the extent of the risk so created;
the likelihood such risk will actually cause harm to others;
any alternatives of lesser risk, and the costs of those alternatives.

A reasonable man who doesn't like a setting that is easy to change just changes the setting and moves on. Other people think up elaborate scenarios where changing the setting becomes an insurmountable obstacle and the only solution is to never buy a Steam game.

 

[GreatSlayer]

Use the "reasonable man" method.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_person


A reasonable man who doesn't like a setting that is easy to change just changes the setting and moves on. Other people think up elaborate scenarios where changing the setting becomes an insurmountable obstacle and the only solution is to never buy a Steam game.

Steam isn't "just" one kind of advertisement however. It's a multi platform where information on deals, add-ons, related games in store are even shown in the games library. It's perfectly reasonable for a person to be against using a platform which combines a store, game management, social network and news feed into one, combined, practical interface which makes game ownership easier and more conveniant than ever.
As for harm, I guess that encompasses monopoly.

 

[duhsveti]

Steam isn't "just" one kind of advertisement however. It's a multi platform where information on deals, add-ons, related games in store are even shown in the games library. It's perfectly reasonable for a person to be against using a platform which combines a store, game management, social network and news feed into one, combined, practical interface which makes game ownership easier and more conveniant than ever.
As for harm, I guess that encompasses monopoly.

If they had decent competition there would be no monopoly.

 

[stilgarpl]

(...) practical interface which makes game ownership easier and more conveniant than ever.

How dare they make their soft practical and easy to use?

 

[Darkrenown]

Steam isn't "just" one kind of advertisement however. It's a multi platform where information on deals, add-ons, related games in store are even shown in the games library. It's perfectly reasonable for a person to be against using a platform which combines a store, game management, social network and news feed into one, combined, practical interface which makes game ownership easier and more conveniant than ever.
As for harm, I guess that encompasses monopoly.

Only the game news of the game you have selected is shown in the library, and since you already own it all you have to worry about is any new DLC for your game mentioned there. If that's a deal breaker for you, logically you should not want to touch our games anyway since we also show off new DLC in the launcher/main menu, so the fact that steam does the same is moot.

 

[GreatSlayer]

How dare they make their soft practical and easy to use?

I know! It's terrible!