bid said:
Copyright protection that are the publishers decision usually come in the form of generic copy protection schemes, like starforce, safedisc, securerom, etc. However Valve does not use any generic copy protection schemes, they use their own custom steam $hit.
Actually if you bought it in the shop (rather than via Steam) you get to deal with a generic cd copy protection that Vivendi placed on it (as has previously been stated generic copy protection a la safedisk, securom is added bey the publisher, not the developer) as well has having to authenticate online.
Myself I bought the silver package via Steam a month or so ago (based in the UK so the $ conversion rate made it very enticing). Its been sat on my HD 100% preloaded since then. On the morning of the release it unlocked in a couple of minutes and I was able to play with no problems whatsoever.
Personally I think Steam is a good thing. Sure there are teething problems at first (too many people trying authenticate), like with any new technology or method, but it will get better.
Giving the software developers the ability to release their own software, rather than having it rushed out the door by publishers for the "holiday period" (notice how many games come out in the couple of months before Christmas compared to the rest of the year - thats called outdated marketing data and entrenched thinking by corporate suits), which results in buggy games, seems to me to be a good thing.
Also if you remove the media costs, the publisher markup, the store markup, distribution and the raw materials you should see the games a lot cheaper (didn't happen in this case as Vivendi had Valve by the nuts with their current contract so they couldn't release it much cheaper than the retail product, instead they offered DoD and the rest of their back catalogue).
Also wouldn't you rather see your hard earned money going to the people who wrote the damn thing rather the publishers who rush the games out the door, buy promising development teams and then fire them after a game has been delievered (but not fixed - i.e. Tribes2/Dynamix/Vivendi), stick outdated copy protection on cd's that just piss people off and generally are just act like a vampire stuck on the jugluar of the gaming industry?
I know I would.
Anyone whose had the opportunity to deal with members of the industry know that its the publishers that promise the earth but then don't deliver. The software developers are the ones who are putting their heart and soul into getting that game just right.
The publisher comes in and tells them it needs to be ready in x amount of months, they don't agree with z character and they have to remove y subject matter as some soccer mum is going to get offended. The majority of the time the people making these decisions favourite game is golf. Quake is something that happens in california and originality means releasing a copy every year just slightly different.
If something like Steam had been around earlier then who knows, we might still have Bullfrog/Origin/Dynamix/LookingGlass/DigitalAnvil kicking around rather than being just a trademark for a large behemoth with no history of inovation, or worse, non-existant.
I can see the independent software houses (of which are now few and far between) looking at Steam and seeing that, apart from the teething problems, mass distribution of a triple-A title over the internet was not only a success, it was a resounding success, and that maybe they don't have to sell their soul to the devil to get their game out to the masses.
