If you want to be able to play games and still oppose DRM, then you have a few routs to take:
-Most indie games are DRM free, so indie is a good option. And there are a lot of indie games out there these days, many of which are very good (though many of which are utter garbage as well...)
-Buy the small amount of big(er) budget games that gets released without DRM. Victoria 2 needs your support! (Because I want to see paradox focus more on the Victoria series, which is my favourite of their grand strategy games)
-Only avoid games with overly intrusive DRM, like limited activation (which got a huge customer backlash. We don't see as many of these games these days). Ideally I would recommend not supporting starforce either, because that one is known to cause issues (I have to crack all my starforce protected games to even be able to play them...)

Ah, you can actually play HL without Steam, I still have it and all the expacs (yes, even Blue Shift) pre Steam. I think the old patches are still out there (gamershell maybe?).

Now if you said HL2, yep, you cannot.

If you want recently released games, yeah you're screwed, you have indies on PC or you can go console (if you consider that copy protection instead of DRM, since they cannot retroactively deny you your purchase I do - well I suppose Live or PSN could download a system update to brick your stuff, that's a bit of an extreme argument though).

Runic may release Torchlight 2 boxed without any kind of activation (TL was this way) that's pretty much it for mainstream titles.

A lot of pirates seem to have a lot to play without any DRM...

DRM is a fact of life.

You know that boxed copy of HL1 that you can play without Steam? Guess what, still has DRM. This thing called a CD Key, Old-School DRM.
Then there were the days of copy protection.. and even the days of games having like books that had information you absolutely needed to play the game, to make it that much harder for someone to dump copies of the game for their friends.

The only thing that has changed over the years is how much more wide-spread an illegitimate copy can go in a short amount of time.. and the aggressiveness of their means of attempting to prevent illegitimate copies.

Trying to game without any DRM what so ever is going to be hard, other than. you know, indie games and GOG. Also, blatantly refusing to buy any games with DRM is silly. Now any games with intrusive DRM? .. still a little silly, but more understandable.

Steam sales are a great source of games you want that have DRM on them.. Generally speaking you don't have to deal with too much DRM other than Steam itself, and if you are patient you can get games for 50-75% off.

Good lord... Am I the only one who is getting very tired of seeing 1-3 DRM-related topics topping page 1 of these forums all the freaking time? And that's not even counting the new/upcoming games topics that deteriorate into "I will NEVER buy ANY of this publisher's games because their DRM sucks balls" whine fests.

If you decide to take a certain stance regarding DRM then, fine, great, there's about 99% chance that you'll be missing out on some seriously awesome titles, but that's your call. But, please stop broadcasting your anti-DRM "heroics" on these forums so much... It's been creating a tiresome, negative vibe that has made coming here a bit of a drag lately.

@Those who think people can vote with their wallet when buying games:

Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't.

There is a reason why free market != democracy.

In the case of games, you must make some pretty hefty sacrifices to vote with your wallet (not play some innovative new games or otherwise the latest installment of a popular franchise) and most people just wouldn't make those sacrifices unless things got downright awful.

Yes, people wouldn't buy an awful game, but the wallet democracy stops here for gaming.

I think a lot of players would fork out a lot of money and be willing to be treated like a tenant rather than an own to play the latest Diablo or Starcraft for example.

Sure, if they are given a choice between DRM and DRM-free, they'll go with DRM-free, but if the choice becomes heavy DRM or not buying, they'll buy heavy DRM.

Sadly, I think piracy forces the hand of game distributors (in terms of how high the price or how heavy handed the DRM-scheme can be) more than the purchasing choices of legitimate customers.

You know, I've been wondering lately why people actually do this; why do they feel the need to spread the DRM free gospel to anyone who might potentially listen when it's incredibly obnoxious for the listener and must be getting pretty tiresome for themselves.

It does have strong religious overtones, doesn't it? Brothers and sisters, renounce your evil DRM ways and you shall be saved from eternal damnation! I too was a sinner, but now I've seen the light! -- Well, good for you buddy. Now shut up already.

this.

I am surprised at this topic how many people buy DRM games and don't mind at all even here on GOG.

If pirating the games will not prove DRM is not working, buying the games will only prove to companies that DRM is successful.

Cd-key protection is good for everyone i think. On the other side installing a malicious program to your "Operating System" is unacceptable. Or installing another program to start your game. To not own the game, only rent it. Can not give it to my friend? Sorry guys this is so illogical and bullshit that i can not comprehend someone have to force me with a gun to buy these games.

What we need is to work together and boycott them by not buying anything at all. If their sales drop by %50 - %75 they will wake up from their dream. Also we must show our stance by declaring the reason of their price drop by twitter, facebook, dedicated sites, game forums, etc..

Unfortunately even here many people don't care, some people accepted it as a "part of life" and think not buying DRM games is "silliness" i see no hope.

I'm pretty much the same.

On top of that, I don't buy DRM games into backlog (like I have bought e.g. GOG games or CD-check type of games) thinking "I'll buy this game and play it in (distant) future", but I only buy them if I'm pretty sure I will start playing it in the near future. Thus, I didn't buy e.g. Bioshock from Steam some months ago when it was on sale for a couple of bucks because I was unsure whether I'd start playing it in the near future anyway.

Hence, I haven't bought any DRM-games for years because I am still busy playing my DRM-free games from the backlog. When I run out of interesting DRM-free games or I come by a DRM-game that I really want to play here and now (let's see if the forthcoming Carrier Command game is such game, assuming it has DRM), I'll reassess the situation.

GoG isn't the Holy Church of DRM-free, you know. in fact, the physical release of The Witcher 2 shipped with SecuROM. yes, it was patched out after a few weeks, but only because it caused some serious performance issues.

it's not hard to understand why Good Old Games are DRM-free. most of them never had any DRM to begin with...

fact is, friend, you're several years late with your rant. most of us have gone through discussions like these several times several years ago. and i, for one, don't intend to go through them again and again, so i respectfully bid you a good day, Sir, and i'll go play some Skyrim.

Discussion about DRM on a site which is anti-DRM? Go figure.

What next, you go to EFF forums complaining how tiresome it is how they talk about SOPA and PIPA all the time?

To quote Fred_DM: "GoG isn't the Holy Church of DRM-free". It's just one part of the site's identity, and not the main one.

Hint: the site is called Good Old Games, not Good DRM-Free Games.

EDIT: Damn, ninja'd by the moustachioed PI himself.

The physical DRM version of Witcher 2 was never released in GOG, so in practise it has nothing to with GOG.

Since GOG has a strict stance on not allowing any kind of DRM on games they release on the site, this pretty much is the "holy church of DRM-free PC games". This is probably the best forum in the universe to discuss about the evils of DRM in PC games.

But the most important point is that GOG does not _allow_ any DRM on the games on this site. It is irrelevant whether or not those games originally had DRM.

And to be precise, CD checks are also a form of DRM (for example CSS on movie DVDs is considered to be DRM, go check Wikipedia if you don't believe me), so very few, if any, GOG games were fully DRM free from the beginning.


Funny then that certain two Steam-lovers never fail to participate in these discussions.

One of them is supposed to be me, right? I don't think you've ever understood my position. I'm not a Steam lover. I use Steam, I think it's fine, but I'm certainly not blind to the bad things it does. All I'm saying, pretty much constantly, is let's drop the needless emotions and enjoy the games instead. This endless proselytising doesn't help anyone and it's freaking annoying.

DRM, as a concept, is a waste of everyone's time. But it's much more wasteful to spend hours upon hours endlessly circlejerking about quite how bad it is. Point taken, move on.