I'm a keen but infrequent gamer and I value the rare moment when I can get stuck into my favourite online multiplayer game very much. I tend to only get a couple of hours each fortnight to put into this hobby but I enjoy it immensely... provided everything is working as expected.
But something I'm noticing more and more over the years is how excessive DRM and antipiracy measures are punishing me as a loyal customer to the point where I'd like nothing better than to meet with the upper management of the gaming companies and return my game via their rectal letter box if you know what I mean.
An example to illustrate my point.
All of the various jobs have been finished around the house, everyone has eaten and showered and it's time to pursue one of my favourite past time.
I fire up Call of Duty: Modern Warefare 2 Multiplayer and I settle in for some fast pace combat action just as I did from the dawn of the online FPS such as Doom and Quake.
The only problem is Steam decides it needs to update. Grrr...
My nerves get twitchy as I know Steam updates are never smooth, and I hit the continue button.
Waiting, waiting, watching the progress bar, until it get stuck at 99% and refuses to complete.
I hit the cancel button after waiting a few minutes, then repeat the process, unfortunately with the same result.
There are no error message displayed to indicate what has failed, it just sits there like a dead duck.
Next begins the obligatory web search to see what the latest problem is and why it is getting stuck at 99% this time. After 20 minutes of searching, I discover that Steam is having problems with Windows 7 and possibly Zone Alarm and I need to reboot into Safe mode with networking via the msconfig.exe tool and try again.
Numerous reboots and reties and eventually Steam has completed updating.
Ok, back into running Windows Normal boot to play I think, only to see that Steam reports it has updates for my game that need to be applied before I can join in.
By this stage, I'm really annoyed, and I hit the continue button to download the upgrade, only to have the process stuck at 1% this time.
Ok, I've really had a enough, so I start up Wireshark and have a quick look at what is failing. It looks like it is attempting to get the download from various sites and taking its sweet time between testing and failing over to the next server.
I walk off running my fingers through my hair and 10 minutes later I see that the upgrade has completed.
Call of Duty Modern Warefare 2 Multiplayer is now ready to run.
I tentatively hit the play button one last time and hey presto, the game springs into life and everything is running.
The only problem this time, is that my hour set asside for some online mahem has just been consumed jumping through hoops performing sysadmin and newtwork analysis rather than enjoying the product which I purchased on the promise that it would be an awesome online gaming experience.
I'm screwed. Game time over and now I'm considering never buying another game connected with Steam ever again.
Steam offered the promise of making it easy to purchase games cheaper and more convienently than ever before, but my experiences with it has soured my view of how the poorly coded DRM it includes is only punnishing me for being stupid enough to believe their hype.
The upgrade process can be a complicated one I admit, but why does Steam consistantly manage to screw it up? Firefox updates every couple of weeks and it never gets stuck at 99% during the process with my standard system configuration.
Older games that I've purchased over the years allowed me to download patches directly from their sites (or even from my local ISP) and they never suffered from these problems.
By trying to have absolute control of my system, these companies are only hurting me as a consumer and I've had enough.
Seriously. If you want my money game publishers, deliver a product that I can actually use without you punishing me for buying it.
