29May Quick Link: Steam Games with DRM
Admittedly, despite my grousing about Steam and its somewhat-dodgy update process, it still remains one of the best, and certainly most prolific, game download store available. However, it’s important to note that, while Steam itself provides a certain level of DRM, many games sold through it contain their own, third-party DRM, some of which can cause your games to become unplayable if your internet connection drops, interfere with the operation of your computer, or cause myriad other problems (see my previous posts on Ubisoft always-online DRM and EA account activation hell for more details on the problems DRM can cause).
While surfing RPS today, I came across a link that a commenter posted to a very useful list of the games currently using other DRM on Steam:
http://steamdrm.flibitijibibo.com/the-big-drm-list/
Especially be aware of hardware-based DRM such as SecuROM, TAGES, and SolidShield. These can severely limit your ability to install your games down the line, and can potentially cause problems or degrade performance on your computer (as some install low-level drivers that can cause conflicts, and use background processes that can take up computer resources).
(Oh, and by the way, Ubisoft didn’t get a cent of my money this week, despite some fairly attractive sales on Steam this week. I consciously chose not to support this company due to their anti-consumer stances, and instead chose to support the in-development indie game Starfarer, which is already pretty interesting and only looks to get better as its development progresses.)