Tiger Sheep

We here at Tiger Sheep get stupidly excited about Steam sales and so I thought, what with the upcoming Summer Sale (crossing our fingers for this Thursday!), I'd take a look at one of the internet's favorite topics: DRM. Yay! I'm pretty pumped, dunno about you.
 
Why do most PC users love Steam so much? The proprietary software uses DRM to track the usage of each purchased game, and as we all know, DRM is baaaaaad. Right? In some cases, maybe, but overall, most people use Steam without thinking of the behind-the-scenes DRM implementation.

The problem, of course, is if Steam somehow fails as a business. Not likely, if they keep doing those fantastic sales, but let’s consider the very low possibility of Steam shutting down. More likely, there’d be some way Steam would allow you to download your purchased games outside of the client. That is, if they’re feeling nice, and if it works out with the game publishers themselves. Maybe they would sell the business to someone else. A lot of game content might be lost, and a bunch of other games may not work at all, but if you’re one of those people with a huge game library, you’d at least be able to recoup some of your investment. A digital game library can be problematic, but I think we’d all agree that it’s more convenient than PC gaming used to be in the past.

The difference lies between inconvenient DRM and convenient DRM. Steam is convenient. Most players would argue this. And with the introduction of Steam Family Sharing, it’s possible for several people to share one copy of a game (although only when everybody except one person is offline. So maybe that’s not super convenient). Steam takes care of everything for you. Unless you’re entering a code from Amazon or a game bundle, all you have to do is install the game and that’s it, start playing—with the exception of a few games which have third-party software or DRM.

However, if you do not want to deal with DRM but still want a digital game library, Good Old Games is a pretty neat business. All the games they sell are DRM-free—every. Single. One. Dang! That includes not only old games, but many new games as well, although the amount of new games is arguably smaller than Steam’s offerings. However, if you’re someone who waits for a while after the initial release, this may not be an issue.

It’s arguable that DRM is not necessary. It keeps the honest people honest, but doesn’t do jack for preventing piracy. This is a debate that’s been raging around the internet for years, and I’m not going to get into it here. But as we’ve established, there are definitely levels of DRM-badness, ranging from GoG-esque business policies and direct-from-small-publisher sales to EA’s controversial issues. Luckily, the games market is pretty competitive and there are options for pretty much anybody, no matter their feelings on DRM. Whether you’re all about Steam’s convenience or really into buying directly from the publisher, do what feels best.