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Comment by veb | Hacker News Reader

Steam may have DRM but they implement DRM properly.

That's the difference. Most companies who implement and force DRM on their games don't do it right, and causes issues for the end user, and makes their gaming experience rather shit.

Steam makes it easy to search for games, to download them, and to play them. The Steam platform is easy, fast and it just works.

It's the same reason Netflix took off - they take out all the hassle, and give you a great experience. I don't hear people complaining that they can't watch Netflix ... without Netflix.

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It doesn't matter how is it implemented and what is your definition of properly.

You need to access their servers to play the game. This introduces problems or privacy, security and the right to play the bought game in the future.

You last sentence is a nonsensical. Of course you don't hear people complain they can't watch Netflix without Netflix. But they do complain you can't watch Netflix. Notice the difference?

Sorry, Netflix is not available in your country yet.

You don't have to access Steam's servers to play - there's a thing called "offline mode"[1]

Steam does not have region locks. If they did, people still wouldn't complain about the original point of DRM etc the people who have access to Netflix, don't complain about their DRM.

[1] https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3160-agc...

Steam does have region lock capability. Check steamdb.info for game based info, but basically they either lock the game to the region or lock gifting to the region for games with region locking.

My comment you didn't read: You must be online to use it, unless you manually specify offline mode( you must be online to do this ).

Netflix was your argument, not mine, I simply disproved it.

Saying that no one(!) complains about Netflix's DRM is also pure imagination.

> You need to access their servers to play the game.

You can just turn on Offline Mode and play your games just fine. I hear your concerns with DRM but Steam is hardly a good example of the horrors it can cause.

You still need to access their servers.

Please note that you must connect to the Steam Network and test each of the games you would like to use in Offline Mode at least once to set up your account and configure Offline Mode on your machine.

You also need access to their servers to download the game. A one time access isn't the problem with DRM.

It isn't one time. You have to do it every-time you want to install the game.

> It doesn't matter how is it implemented and what is your definition of properly.

> You need to access their servers to play the game. This introduces problems or privacy, security and the right to play the bought game in the future.

In return games on Steam are available for a huge discount.

I have exchanged some of my rights in return for a highly discounted price. I don't mind that because it was a willing trade that I chose to be a part of.

New games on Steam have roughly the same price that on any other platform, saying that they have a high discount is simply not true. Older games might have a discount, but that is also true for any other platform, all of them have occasional discounts. So Steam is comparable in pricing to any other platform.

What is shocking here is your willingness to give up your privacy for a marginal discount.

That's entirely up to the developer, they're not required to use Steam's DRM, and in fact many games will run happily without Steam running once downloaded.

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