Sure. For You : ) For me it does not differ from cracking the .exe. Games like this do not count. It's unclear and needs special actions. Also, there is no list on store.steampowered.com (could not find it) which makes it all unofficial. That's why.

Example: Doom 3 instruction for store.steampowered.com version:
"Stock executable has Steam DRM check and requires CD key to run. Download and install the retail v1.3.1 patch in a different location from where the Steam version of Doom 3 is installed (e.g. C:\Program Files\Doom 3), then copy the Doom3.exe executable from the retail v1.3.1 patch into the Steam version's installation folder after proving the game with a CD key.[2] Comes bundled with Doom 3: BFG Edition as of August 10, 2022."

Is that drm-free or cracking? xD look! The crack is on CD (instalator) like in Pirates Times : ) Can I do that with the rest of the games? I used to before I came here.

They wouldn't be exempt anyway because................. steam does not keep track of which games require it and which don't. Because the whole point is for you to stay in their garden, and differentiating these games in any official capacity would allow you to better hold devs accountable on the store, and allow you to get out of the garden with the goods, these are a bunch of empowering things that some list on a wiki can't provide.

Plus it gets murky. What if the game doesn't need the launcher to boot on Linux, but does on Windows? What if it's the other way around? What if it needs a whole procedure to get it working like that in the first place that one never has to worry about with a GOG installer? What if the game doesn't require the launcher for 10 years on the store then suddenly an update is released and now the launcher is mandatory? All these things are fool-proof with GOG installers, so much that saying these steam games are "no less exempt than the ones on GOG" is.............................. how would I put it into words... an unfair comparison?

Ah here we go, we have this example from solseb. That very same Doom 3 comes in a neat installer on GOG, and presumably all that's left is to key the CD key (since I have two for the base game and the expansion in my library), and it works.

(I wouldn't know if a CD key is required anyway because dhewm3 is a thing).

You're cherry picking bad cases. There's plenty of games on Steam where you copy the folder to another computer and they work when you click the exe. That's no more difficult than copying the installer. Either way, I wasn't talking about you or me but the legal definition mentioned above

> "(C) Any digital good that is advertised or offered to a person that the seller makes available at the time of purchase for permanent offline download to an external storage source to be used without a connection to the internet."

That applies to those games.
The legal definition specifically says 'advertised OR offered'. You get to download the game and keep it without any further connection to Steam. That qualifies for their definition of an exemption. Handpicking cases where 'it's not that simple' is missing the point. There are cases where it's that simple, for those games it qualifies, and that's still on Steam.

> All these things are fool-proof with GOG installers, so much that saying these steam games are "no less exempt than the ones on GOG" is.............................. how would I put it into words... an unfair comparison?

You realize 'no less exempt' has nothing to do with comparing ease of install right? The argument was about fitting the exemption or not. You're adding all kinds of arguments to whether it is the same or not but the legal argument doesn't mention any of those.

Thank you! Let's count good cases. You do it. I will give bad results to further undermine your beliefs. Although you have convinced yourself you did not convince me or "California Governor Gavin Newsom".
Offline Installers are what it is. Cracking games is what it is. Steamworks is what it is. Preventing a person from "installing and playing without the internet" is a distrust I cannot accept. Purposely limiting games to only work with something you do not want to install is not only a push it is a crime.

Edit: I'm done here : )

Cool bro. None of that was anything I was talking about. I was talking about the some games on Steam fitting the exemption rules in the same manner the offline installers on GOG make it fit the exemption rules. Your wants or needs on how you see something as an acceptable DRM-Free solution really are irrelevant to that statement.

It's where dreams come true. Lol

I hear there is plenty of room at the hotel....just be careful of the Steely Beasty....he dont die! 0_0

The fact that people throw that statement around to justify DRM on Steam is crazy when there is no proof of it from what your saying.

You can view the post at this link..... when Internet Archive gets back online that is.

Advertised or offered. That means where the game is being sold, the store tells you "hey you can keep this game and play it offline". steam NEVER lets you know if this game can be played without it or not. Therefore, it can't count for the exemption...... unless they start informing users - SEE, the law's whole point is to inform users in advance that they're not buying a permanent product. Regardless of the state of the final product that you download, the game was never advertised or offered as playable offline.

Again, we know there's games where you can copy the folder and keep it for yourself, I have some myself. But these are happy flukes, or I can even say, the fact you can keep the game at all in these cases is a privilege that can be revoked at any time, and steam makes it ever so easy to do so.

So of course when you're selling installers that ease this process and eliminate having to follow an internet guide for the games that do require mental gymnastics to run (cough Doom 3 cough), it's just burying the argument further into the ground.

You realize I covered this in the original post as well right?

The whole point was that they CAN advertise some of their games under the exemption as well, but that I doubted they will, hence why i mentioned that.

> That said, I doubt Steam wants to start creating a dual structure where they differentiate between these two

PS: It's hilarious that you keep harping about games that need guides to be considered like that when I was never talking about those to begin with. If you need to download an exe from elsewhere it doesn't qualify imo.

I don't consider any Steam game that requires Steamless, Goldberg, or some crack to be played without Steam as DRM-free. I heard people say steam is DRM free because of those.

The main issue is that the number of actually DRM-free games is very small. I tested my collection of over 500 Steam games and found that only a handful of them are DRM-free. It's disappointing that some games even had Steam DRM added later. I'm not disagreeing with you, just sharing my thoughts on the matter.

Ever since this news about "licenses" started i have seen lots of people say "Buy physical! You don't own your PC games because they are digital only!"

I have some online focused console physical copies that are more screwed than most of the DRMed digital copies i have bought like my PS3 physical copy of Battlefield 3 for example, The servers are gonna shutdown in November and all that's left is the mediocre campaign nobody buys Battlefield games for. There's no LAN or offline bots for the multiplayer mode so most of the content will be dead.

Another physical copy of a online focused game i have is Splatoon where most of the content is gone after the Wii U servers shutdown, and that physical copy didn't even have a notice saying "Online content can be terminated at anytime" in the back in the box.