Yes, but those aren’t the companies that would have replaced Steam if they weren’t successful. It would’ve been a company like Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, or Blizzard who would’ve taken over the game distribution market. Valve is a saint compared to any of those companies. As much as we wish for everything to be DRM free it would never happen. At least not with the current market. Also, the average person doesn’t care about DRM. They don’t understand the implications of what makes an ethical market. They just want to install a game and hit start.
Valve is an enemy of freedom. It doesn’t matter if they abuse us less than other companies. They are still an unethical company.
As much as we wish for everything to be DRM free it would never happen.
If you don’t fight for it, then of course it won’t happen. Also I’m pretty sure you could say this about any difficult problem: Free Software, privacy, global warming, wars. You could say that we will never solve those issues, so why bother doing anything?
Also, the average person doesn’t care about DRM. They don’t understand the implications of what makes an ethical market. They just want to install a game and hit start.
An average person doesn’t mind running Windows either. But we still try to build a better world for ourselves and we try to convince others to join us.
They are DRM-free. I can send you a copy of those games and you can run them on your computer. Without you having to log in anywhere or install an additional proprietary application. Without anyone verifying anything. Isn’t that amazing?
By that definition Steam is DRM free too. I can download tons of my games, pack and send them to you and they’ll work. My rough estimate is that about half of all games are like that. Half of the remaining games rely on Steam environment for community or multiplayer functionality.
Some games on Steam are DRM-free and you can play them without running Steam. That is good, but you still need the proprietary Steam client to download them and Steam doesn’t tell you which games have DRM before you buy them. gog.com and itch.io prove that this can be done better.
Most of them don’t, but some do. Just like with programs and apps.
Do they provide ethical installers?
They don’t provide any, you just download the game itself. Or you can use their Free Software client, which will download and update the games for you.
And that makes it ethical? DRM-free stores exist: gog.com and itch.io for example.
Yes, but those aren’t the companies that would have replaced Steam if they weren’t successful. It would’ve been a company like Microsoft, EA, Ubisoft, or Blizzard who would’ve taken over the game distribution market. Valve is a saint compared to any of those companies. As much as we wish for everything to be DRM free it would never happen. At least not with the current market. Also, the average person doesn’t care about DRM. They don’t understand the implications of what makes an ethical market. They just want to install a game and hit start.
Valve is an enemy of freedom. It doesn’t matter if they abuse us less than other companies. They are still an unethical company.
If you don’t fight for it, then of course it won’t happen. Also I’m pretty sure you could say this about any difficult problem: Free Software, privacy, global warming, wars. You could say that we will never solve those issues, so why bother doing anything?
An average person doesn’t mind running Windows either. But we still try to build a better world for ourselves and we try to convince others to join us.
They are not DRM free. They verify your ownership before letting you download games.
They are DRM-free. I can send you a copy of those games and you can run them on your computer. Without you having to log in anywhere or install an additional proprietary application. Without anyone verifying anything. Isn’t that amazing?
By that definition Steam is DRM free too. I can download tons of my games, pack and send them to you and they’ll work. My rough estimate is that about half of all games are like that. Half of the remaining games rely on Steam environment for community or multiplayer functionality.
Some games on Steam are DRM-free and you can play them without running Steam. That is good, but you still need the proprietary Steam client to download them and Steam doesn’t tell you which games have DRM before you buy them. gog.com and itch.io prove that this can be done better.
You do. But hey you end up with DRM free games you like so much. By the way why so you even want games? Aren’t most of them unethical?
Gog offline installers are also unethical, no?
But to get there I have to use unethical proprietary software that I hate so much.
Who said I do?
Of course. This is why itch.io is better than gog.
Have to use that to get more unethical software. I see no problem.
Games don’t come with the source code. It’s unethical software by your definition.
Do they provide ethical installers?
Most of them don’t, but some do. Just like with programs and apps.
They don’t provide any, you just download the game itself. Or you can use their Free Software client, which will download and update the games for you.