this post was submitted on 26 Oct 2024
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[–] [email protected] 99 points 3 days ago (23 children)

Reminder that the reason that GOG is DRM-free and offers offline installers is because it was started by former pirates (in a sense).

If there is a game you love, buy it from GOG and archive the offline installer. If it isn't available on GOG, pirate it. The number of games that have disappeared is too damn high.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 3 days ago (3 children)

I'd also like to add that the yakuza series used for this picture are great games that now come with DRM, unless you buy them on GOG.

I bought a big bundle of the games through steam on sale and Yakuza: Like a Dragon came with DRM on steam. Buy on GOG, its the same game but DRM free.

I should have waited for the GOG sale, now I might pirate it to play the game I bought without DRM.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I feel like I should know this, as a I've been a pc gamer and extra legal aquirer for several decades... But I'm not actually sure what DRM means?

[–] [email protected] 12 points 3 days ago

Digital Rights Management, refers to software or hardware that limits access to something unless the user has authorization/licensing.

It's why you can't copy someone's game folder from steam and run it, or burn a PS2 disc and play it on an unmodded console.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 days ago

Well for games it kind of depends on the specific DRM used and how exactly the game utilities it. DRM means digital rights management but there is a wide variety of DRM and ways it's used.

Some DRM might limit the amount of computers software can be installed on, some might verify the contents to ensure none of the files were changed, some might authenticate with a server before starting up, and some might have kernel level access to read your RAM and log your keystrokes.

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