What's Your Hopes From Valve's SteamOS?

[DebianLinuxero]

Steam = annoining Internet based DRM = game as a service (until service quits)

No hopes, since it doesn't seem to affect me in any way so far. Not interested in DRM platforms.

I think the same way.

But in the long run it'll affect us.

Because if Steam becomes the defacto standard for Linux games, then we'll forget to see propietary Linux games DRM-free (as it happend until now).

[shaniac]

It's your choice, but...

Almost as good a read as this and just as reliable as this. You ought to know better by now.

The post on the least-reliable-website-in-the-world contains information on the Wednesday and Friday updates to Valve's website. In just a couple hours, if the website reveals the Steambox reference specs, you may want to go read that 4chan post.

[IanS]

I think the guy in that 4chan thread probably has the hardware predictions right, but I still doubt the last announcement is going to be a source 2 + game announcement. I'd be glad to be wrong on this though, but looking at the text on the count down page doesn't really bare it out. I still think that last line will be the focus of the last announcement; "Soon, we’ll be adding you to our design process, so that you can help us shape the future of Steam."

The glyph on the last circle kinda goes along with it too, the two little circles joined by a plus sign could signify something like: Our Steam plus your Steam. Gabe has hinted in the past that they want to revamp Green Light to get rid of the bottle neck and allow designers to market their new games more directly to the users + also perhaps let users come up with their own custom version of the Steam store that they personalize themselves. My guesses on that is an expansion of the recommendations feature into a full page custom version of the Steam store as a tab on each users profile that they can customize to feature their favorite games and their own reviews, perhaps even earning a tiny commision when someone buys a game through their page, sort of like an Amazon referal program kinda setup. Also Developers will also be able to have their own store front like pages as well that they can customize as they desire to best showcase their own games.

[XorEaxEax]

I think the same way.

But in the long run it'll affect us.

Because if Steam becomes the defacto standard for Linux games, then we'll forget to see propietary Linux games DRM-free (as it happend until now).

Eh, no. Valve doesn't force any game publishers to use DRM, it's an optional component they provide named CEG.

The choice to use DRM on Steam is entirely up to the game creator/publisher, lots of indie games like Binding of Isaac, Super Crate Box, Super Meat Boy etc are DRM-free on Steam as they decided not to use the DRM component. You can play these without Steam running, copy them where you want on your harddrive, back them up etc.

So if you don't want publishers to opt for DRM on Steam, vote with your wallet and buy DRM free games.

[IanS]

The Green Light overhaul portion of my above prediction is a bit harder to pin down as there are a variety of ways they can approach it, but I tend to envision something of a melding of Green Light and Early Access where Green Light becomes something of a beta sales program in a way, where we can buy games, or perhaps download demos, to try them out and vote whether or not we want to see the game go into the mainstream Steam store. Basically making Green Light something of a secondary lower tier store with less exposure than the main Steam store and the acknowledgement that those games haven't been fully vetted yet. People who are feeling like taking a risk or supporting a projects they are already supporting outside of Steam can come in and vote with their wallets to decide if that game is worthy of being in the big leagues so to speak.

[Edit: This could also explain why they recently made it easier for developers who haven't been greenlit yet to access the Steamworks SDK.]

[16050]

Improve gaming on Linux generally

I am not familiar with Steam. I use Playonlinux to play League of Legends, which currently is quite experimental.
So my hope is that Valves effort leads to better gaming experience on Linux in general. That means more games, and more stable gaming, less crashes.

[shadowriver]

Linuxgames...even PS4 should turn from FreeBSD to Linux.

But most likely it won't. due to fact Sony most likely don't want to deal with GPL

[DebianLinuxero]

Eh, no. Valve doesn't force any game publishers to use DRM, it's an optional component they provide named CEG.

The choice to use DRM on Steam is entirely up to the game creator/publisher, lots of indie games like Binding of Isaac, Super Crate Box, Super Meat Boy etc are DRM-free on Steam as they decided not to use the DRM component. You can play these without Steam running, copy them where you want on your harddrive, back them up etc.

So if you don't want publishers to opt for DRM on Steam, vote with your wallet and buy DRM free games.

Traditional comercial Windows game publishers like ID Software or Bioware released their Windows versions of games with DRM. And DRM-free for Linux. Why?

Because until now there isn't any DRM system in Linux. Until Steam arrives.

I am sure that Valve don't force publishers to use their DRM at gunpoint. The problem is that at the very moment a DRM system appears in Linux, the publishers will go blindly to use it. Bad temptation can call it.

Yes, that is. Until now, a publisher like it or not had to release games without DRM or implement one system by itself (too much effort).
And we gamers known that and use the Linux version prior to Windows to enjoy the DRM-free experience.

But publishers like to treat customers like criminals. And in the end, they would go to be Steam-only publishers.

And know what?

People were so illusionated with the posibility of play AAA games on Linux that forget their fundamental rights as customers.
And for that reason people finally eat what it's offered by Valve. Even if it's right or not.

Take in mind that now you don't buy a game, like you could before. Now you buy the right to use a service to play a game.
And the "service" thing implies a third part to get used.
When the service is unavaliable you can't use what you paid for.

Ask for reference the Megaupload premium members who couldn't access to it's files for months and now even have a compensation account.


Do you think Valve it's inmune to a thing like that?

Then remember the hacks to PSN too.

[XorEaxEax]

I am sure that Valve don't force publishers to use their DRM at gunpoint. The problem is that at the very moment a DRM system appears in Linux, the publishers will go blindly to use it. Bad temptation can call it.

Yes I fear that you are right as far as big publishers go atleast, indie games have something of a tradition to offer games DRM free on the PC platform.

Let's be clear though that there is no DRM system that will appear in the Linux kernel (DRM as in digital rights management that is, we already have DRM as in direct rendering manager ), but DRM as provided by the Steam application.

But publishers like to treat customers like criminals. And in the end, they would go to be Steam-only publishers.

Sadly the big game publishers simply won't release games without a form of DRM. I vote with my wallet and mostly avoid those games (personally it's not much of a sacrifice as I often prefer indie game offerings) but there are lots of people who wants to play those games with or without DRM, and in order for Steam (and by extension Linux through Steam/SteamOS) to attract big publisher games they simply have to provide DRM functionality.

However, as bad as I find DRM, it's atleast preferable to have only one type of DRM mechanism on your system (Steam CEG) than having each and every game install their own DRM solution as is typically the case on Windows.

So hopefully these publishers will settle for Steam's official DRM rather than roll their own on Linux.

People were so illusionated with the posibility of play AAA games on Linux that forget their fundamental rights as customers.
And for that reason people finally eat what it's offered by Valve. Even if it's right or not.

Well again Valve doesn't force DRM onto publishers, they merely offer it, so hopefully indie game developers atleast will continue to release games DRM-free (they are typically DRM free on windows aswell).

Beyond that I personally see games as mere entertainment, it's not something I depend upon for my computer to work.

As such this is not such a big deal to me, but I agree with you that it's a shame how we as consumers are generally so eager to sacrifice actual ownership of games (and the rights that come along) due to the convenience of services like Steam.

So it's both good and bad, Steam will bring new games to Linux, but it will also provide game publishers with an easy option for DRM on the Linux distro platform.

[movieman]

I am sure that Valve don't force publishers to use their DRM at gunpoint. The problem is that at the very moment a DRM system appears in Linux, the publishers will go blindly to use it. Bad temptation can call it.

Steam DRM is weak, and many Steam games don't even use it. Fallout 3, for example, doesn't appear to have any DRM under Steam.

The biggest 'DRM' on Linux for proprietary apps is OS upgrades which break old binaries so they can't run any more. Steam seems an acceptable tradeoff if it means Valve will ensure the games continue running in the next Ubuntu/Mint LTS release.