How does the "Steam" platform work? Is it DRM? Can I trust "Steam"-powered games?

Posted by Chris W. Rea on Super User See other posts from Super User or by Chris W. Rea
Published on 2010-03-19T21:38:36Z Indexed on 2010/03/19 21:41 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 362

Filed under:

Windows

|

games

|

steam

|

drm

|

spyware

So – I just bought the new game Supreme Commander 2. This question is not about the game, but about the online software installation platform that it seems to require. I haven't bought a game in a long time, and I'm puzzled: Apparently, SC2 is a "Steam"-powered game.

When I went to install the game, it asked me to either create a new Steam account, or log in with an existing account. I clicked "Cancel" because I don't plan to play online and I don't want anything unnecessary installed on my computer, since I only plan to play single player!

However, after clicking "Cancel", the installer asked for my confirmation that I indeed wanted to cancel installation of the game! I thought I was just canceling the "online" portions!

So I really want to know:

How do "Steam" powered games work?
Is this essentially a form of DRM (Digital Rights Management)?
Can I trust this software platform?
Has anybody done any independent verification on how this platform works? (I'm very leery of any DRM after the Sony BMG CD copy protection scandal. Thank goodness for Mark Russinovich.)
Does the "Steam" platform install anything particularly nasty or unwanted on my computer?

© Super User or respective owner

Related posts about Windows

Server 2012 DFS New Member Issue

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I am trying to add a new member to our DFS topology. We have 3 DCs (VMs - VMware) running Windows server 2012, two servers are located in or Primary site and the third at our DR site. Currently the two servers at our primary site are currently replicating DFS (full mesh) and are working fine. I have… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
error in IIS7 but not on IIS6

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I have a website that is we are now deploying to windows 2008 servers that has worked in the past on IIS6 without a problem. It is using .net 2 framework. Most of the website works. Just when we create a screen report over a certain size on the server we get this error. Event code: 3005 Event… >>> More
Microsoft Management Console stops working when I add snap-in to it

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have Windows 7 Ultimate OS. I'm opening mmc.exe as administrator and trying add Certificates or any other snap-in, then while loading that snap-in MMC breaks and displays following message and after that it closes automatically once I click on close button on that message. What could be the problem… >>> More
Handling keyboard and mouse input (Win API)

as seen on Game Development - Search for 'Game Development'
There is a number of ways to catch mouse or keyboard under Windows. So I tried some of them, but every of them has some advantages and drawbacks. I want to ask you: Which method do use? I've tried these: WM_KEYDOWN/WM_KEYUP - Main disadvantage is that, I can't distinguish between left and right-handed… >>> More

Related posts about games

Cartoon Games and Arcade Games SEO - Part 1

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
Learn how to SEO cartoon and arcade game sites. This is difficult, and time consuming, but if you are successful you can run a network of arcade sites earning hundreds, even thousands of dollars a month. >>> More
Cartoon Games and Arcade Games SEO Part 2

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
Now students, today we will be talking about SEO. But not just some regular, plain, old SEO. I'm talking arcades here, and that means we gotta put a little spin on it and change things up just a bit. Isn't that exciting! Learning new techniques are great, so let's start. >>> More
Cartoon Games and Arcade Games SEO Part 2

as seen on Ezine Articles - Search for 'Ezine Articles'
Now students, today we will be talking about SEO. But not just some regular, plain, old SEO. I'm talking arcades here, and that means we gotta put a little spin on it and change things up just a bit. Isn't that exciting! Learning new techniques are great, so let's start. >>> More
Single player 'pong' game

as seen on Stack Overflow - Search for 'Stack Overflow'
I am just starting out learning pygame and livewires, and I'm trying to make a single-player pong game, where you just hit the ball, and it bounces around until it passes your paddle (located on the left side of the screen and controlled by the mouse), which makes you lose. I have the basic code,… >>> More
rpm file conflict after alien conversion

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a program for which I generate a .deb file. The .deb file works fine on the systems I have tried it on (also tested with lintian). Previously it has worked to use alien to convert this to .rpm and install it on Suse. However it is now about a year since I tried it the last time and now I get… >>> More