DRM - yay or nay?

[HornedDemoN]

What do you guys think about games' copyright protection (more often called DRM) nowadays? Does it annoy you or do you think it's a necessary evil?

Personally, I think certain types of DRM are just badly designed and annoying (*cough* Games for Windows Live *cough*), but others provide certain benefits. The "best" DRM I can think of is Valve's Steam platform. It does the job and it provides a whole bunch of cool features for users to enjoy (my favorite being the community, which lets you connect with gamers around the world).

On the other end of the spectrum, one of the worst copyright protections that I remember- StarForce 3. Just google it to get a feel of what that was like... A good thing developers came to their senses and left it to rot.

What about other platforms, though, like perhaps Origin? My experience with it has been that's not very optimized like Steam, although it still has its perks. And what about GOG.com (no DRM)? Thoughts, opinions?

 

[Wiseman05]

I honestly don't mind DRM as long as it doesn't interfere with the fun of the game. I'm not a huge fan of DRM that have you putting in codes before play, or the always online options (Because sometimes I play when I'm offline.). I think the steam platform is perhaps one of the better DRM that you can have, that you need a steam account to play, and it offers an offline mode as long as you remember your accounts.

 

[Profit5500]

Like what Wiseman05 said above me. As long as the gameplay is not butchered by DRM then I am fine. I mean you do have to have some sort of copyright protection but just make sure it does not intervene with the mechanics of the gameplay.

 

[digitalsatori]

I'm not a fan of DRM, though I understand the perception where it would be necessary. It goes back, at least in the PC world, as long as I can remember. It used to be having to enter a particular word from a page in the manual - very frustrating if you ever lost that!

So, perhaps, it's not really an embracing of DRM so much as it is a tolerance. As long as it stays out of my way, I won't find a way to force it out of my way.