Ahhhh. I have such wonderful memories of this game - the weird characters, the locations, the many little details to ponder about - that I will not revisit in fear of it not standing the test of time.
Some memories are better left untouched.

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Quoting: DMJCsoftware running in WINE/Proton isn't worth the hassle.

Really? ... Have you tried?

For a vast amount of titles it literary is the exact same procedure as on Windows. Click install, "play" and off you go.

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Quoting: BielFPsso you kinda can play it with proton but you won't be able to speak with the ghosts.

SPEAK... With the ghosts?! 😮

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyIn real life, you say? I think that's a misuse of the term. In real life, all the money in the gaming industry comes from the people who buy the games, which necessarily includes that 30%. What you mean is that in a rather abstract way, it's the distributors rather than the buyers who end up with less.

Well, it's quite the "chicken and egg" question, isn't it. From where did the consumers get their money? Money is a fixed amount in a constant circulation (until the national banks prints more money). So the industries empower employees to be consumers of the products from the industries by paying their salaries to create the products to consume. A constant circulation.

But my point was of course that many people think of Valves cut on the Steam marketplace like a "tax" applied to them. And that is simply not the right perspective. Distribution holds a cost also outside Steam. Servers are not free. Transaction handling. Bandwidth. Infrastructure. Security. Software solutions. Onboarding. Market reach. Operational staff. It costs.

Quoting: Purple Library GuyI mostly only buy things on sale.

Me too, except for the big BIG titles where I just can't wait. I believe this goes for a lot of us.
But the same principle applies. We represent a segment of the market that do not want to pay that full price the others find it worth. They later sell at a lower price to cover that segment too, at a stage in the life cycle of that product where the "full price segment" is finished served. For each copy sold, the less the production cost per product becomes and the lower the price can be and still provide a profit. This is especially true in the digital realm.

Quoting: Purple Library Guyas I was saying in different words, Steam provides a global marketplace--the key feature of which is that people buy things in it, for money that Valve gets part of, not that Steam harvests their information. This is the distinction I was drawing.

Ah! Yes, absolutely. Their primary "product" is the marketplace, not the user data. totally agree. The user stats is however a very good bonus. To see the common hardware setup for example, is very likely of great use. Or how many has added your title to their wishlist.

Quoting: Purple Library Guyit can and often does limit and control consumer behaviour in ways that companies have no legal right to enforce.

Oh yes. There's examples of really horrible, intrusive DRM that goes way, way beyond the reasonable. I would say we saw that especially in the beginning of DRM (Sony, anyone?).
As also Slapin is stating below:

Quoting: slapinDRM is just kind of power game so unless strictly limited they will start your hard drive scanning, check for the content they don't like, mine cryptocurrency on your PC and sell your personal data found on your hard drive. Just because they can. The second people stop caring about DRM it will strike hard, so you're supposed to NEVER stop being against it.

SOME would do as you say, some indeed have, and that should and must be reacted properly upon. As also have been done. Both from user groups and regulatory institutions like the EU.

But it is important to maintain a nuanced perspective on things. We should acknowledge that the need for DRM is legit, Just like anti cheat. It causes problems for non cheaters, but we understand the need for it.

But it needs to be a good solution for both. And if we acknowledge the need for some sort of way to make life harder for illegit usage, this whole discussion about DRM can get on a more realistic and constructive path.
Being categorically anti DRM is in my opinion just as irrational as being against any form of anti-cheat.

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Quoting: GuestNot every action performed by humans is driven by money.

... Like gaming - that's not driven by money for most of us. :)

But our society, how thousands and millions of people with no emotional or social relation to each other can function, how it's all glued together, essentially boils down to money. If we took down the economics, the society as we know it would completely collapse.
We live and thrive and do our activities - money driven or not - on top of a social construction held up and running by money.

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I have to say it's an impressive amount being Linux native!

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Any - ANY - company is in it for the money, mirv. From the smallest little tiny two party indie studio to the globally branched enterprises with thousands of employees.
When they work on UX, mechanics, map design, character development, storyline... It's STILL all about the money.
The money for salaries, fixed expenses, return of investment to the investors, the money to continue being in business. That's why the writers write, the designers design, and the engine coders code the engine. Money. Not a single one does it for free. Money is the criteria.

Just like you and I, in our job. We may TALK about other stuff, DO other stuff, but we're there for the money. The money is the reason why we work. That doesn't mean they also have OTHER motivations for what they do. Some of us are lucky enough to work with stuff we love, but if it wasn't for the money we'd at the very least done a lot of that stuff differently. We can all agree on that.

Same with communication. Every single press release by every single company in existence is released with money being the bottom motivator. Promotion is done because of money. Trailers are made because of money. All communication towards player base, media, social platforms - rooted in money as the fundamental motivator.

So yes - it's always about the money, because that's why they do it. If they just did it for fun, and they didn't have bills to pay from it, only then can you talk about something not being about the money.

Let's be real here: The fundamental root of every single activity done by a any commercial actor is money. Including every single employee and contractor.

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Quoting: GuestEven Denuvo have admitted that yes, it's just for a few days. It's not like a company is going to remove DRM after a few days, but that's the reason they put DRM in to begin with.

It's obviously the reason, at least we can agree on that. :D

It also of course depend on the product. Some releases have a much longer lifetime than others. Some titles are sold for years after the release. As you too obviously are well aware.

Quoting: GuestPiracy in this case is not theft, it's unauthorised copy.

This is just pedantic. For all practical purposes it's theft to avoid paying for a product and obtain it for free. In the digital realm that means copying - yes. But again, that's just pedantry.

Quoting: GuestIt's about what it's always about: money.

Uh... yes. Same reason a shop owner locks his doors, or you close your car when you leave it. That's all about money too - you will have to pay for a new car if it's stolen and you don't want that. For economical reasons.

It's why you go to work too - it's all about the money, as it always were for everyone. We construct our entire lives, every single one of us, around the transfer of value, in the shape of money in trade for goods.

We gotta stop demonising money as something only "evil corporations" are "obsessed by". Our entire social structure - including all that's good and comfortable in our lives, everything that enables us to live our lives to the fullest, is built on that construct.

So, yes, that goes for the employers out there too. Of course. It's all about the money for everyone, in all our aspects of life.

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Quoting: GuestHey, everything has gone offtopic anyway, so I might as well mention that strictly speaking DRM's purpose nowadays is instead basically to try and prevent pirated copies for a few days, because that's when the majority of their sales will take place. It has very little (I dare say nothing at all) to do with legal rights.

... It's not for "just a few days". But that aside: Piracy is a breach of their IP rights. Theft of their property. And they are in their legal rights to do so, based on the laws around protection of property, both of the intellectual and physical nature.

Then one can argue that the protective laws related to this stretches a lot FURTHER than just piracy of their products. That is true. But DRM is one of the practical means to protect their rights of their own products. Just like locks and guards and surveillance cams in the physical world.

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Quoting: Purple Library GuyWhile I agree with this concept in general, I'd want to argue that Steam is far from free. You pay for it directly in money--it's just that, like some sales or value added taxes, it doesn't show up on the sticker price that 30% of your purchase went to Steam.

Your logic is understandable. But in real life, it's not you who pay that fee - it's the distributors.

Case in point: Look at the price of a new game being sold inside VS outside Steam. More often than not the price difference is neglectable, if at all existing. The prices of the products are based on what the market is willing to pay, not the cost of the distribution.

Also keep in mind that Steam provides a distribution network that is worth a LOT. It's not just an additional fee like a tax, it's also a valuable and effective service provider.

Fact of the matter is that Steam provides a massive global marketplace that is highly lucrative, and it's the sellers on that marketplace - the developers and distributors - who pay to have a stand on that market. The alternative is much lower sale - something that requires a much higher profit per sale for the same end result.

Quoting: CyrilBeamboom, you seem to not understand difference between a law and a DRM

DRM is the tools they use to uphold and defend their legal rights. That's the relation.

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