I just fucking pirate in that case. That’s a simple fix. I’m not buying games from dev sites directly and I’m not putting up with bs. I’d rather never play a game again if it got that bad. It’s like YouTube, barely anything is worth the hassle. Make it worse and I’m done entirely.
I like and use Steam. I agree that their dominance is mostly due to the lack of quality competition. They haven’t done anything super shady or anti-consumer.
But don’t expect that to last. It’s a story that’s been repeated countless times now. We know how this goes. One day something will change - probably ownership - and the enshittification will begin.
That’s what DRM free is about. You are in control of your DRM free games even after the developer, publisher, and the store you bought it from have all gone to hell. They also run better years from now when old DRM schemes no longer play nice with OS changes. DRM free is extra insurance that you’ll always have that game and be able to play it.
Too bad I don’t have the hard drive space to store my entire library. One day I’m going to be very sad right alongside everybody else.
architect@thelemmy.club 3 days ago
bestboyfriendintheworld@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
I have lost like two dozen DRM free games because the hard drive they were archived on died. There are also some DVDs filled with DRM free games, that are somewhere in my closet. I don’t even have a DVD drive anymore.
When Steam started getting popular, I resisted it for years. Instead getting DRM free Indie games and lots of Humble Bundles. At some point there was one game I could get on Steam, so I started using it.
My old Steam games are easy and fast to access, install, and play again. Far easier than rummaging through my own archive. I don’t need to configure or install Proton to play games on Linux either.
The lack of DRM on my older games hasn’t provided me any actual real life benefit. The fears pandered about by opponents of Steam haven’t materialized in more than a decade. If anything, the advantages of Steam have become more apparent.