Should I worry about the fact that I don't OWN my games because of well... Steam

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Rain for x-gods 11 ч. назад

I know that I'm fairly late to this but I just wanted peoples thoughts on the fact that we don't own like anything when it comes to our games, I think it's complete ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ that we pay basically full price for games just to only own the rights to play and not the game itself. Like hardcopies of games for consoles are nearly the same price, if not, sometimes more expensive, and we own those, or is there some loophole to CDs too that we don't own those either? I know that close to 60% of all digital downloads are never bought at full price, either their bought on sale or gotten via other methods, but still, it's like putting a hardcopy on sale so I see no difference. I appreciate GOG but they have a small selection of games currently, nothing that I want to play that is. I also want to point out the fact that GOG is one-of-a-kind because literally every other gaming platform (Xbox, Epic Games, Steam, Battle.net, etc.) is a 'licensing', at least that's what I've found in my research.

But overall, should I really worry about the fact that we own nothing if I have my account secure and there should be close to no-way that I lose access to it?

Side note: I DON'T INTEND TO MAKE THIS AN ARGUMENT, JUST GENERAL DISCUSSION, I WANNA LEARN.

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Сообщения 1–15 из 88

fluxtorrent 11 ч. назад

Guess what, you don't own the games for those hard copies either. Same with GoG. Guessing you've never actually READ the terms of service that comes with either.

And GoG not doing anything to enforce those terms is why its failing miserably

xBCxRangers 11 ч. назад

Well, i think the biggest worry is about what would happen to your games if the owner passes, sells or goes broke.

In other words, unlike Xbox and other who have shareholders, this is a private owned operation. And questions linger with no real answers.

That's what separates Steam from others. Is it a worry? Yes, that is why i only tend to own a relative few games on Steam as compared to consoles.

How to alleviate some worries? Don't buy MP games, or games that are Live Service. And second, go to consoles where you can play offline and disable updates.

If they can't update, and if you're offline they can't take away your game.

Отредактировано xBCxRangers; 11 ч. назад

Chika Ogiue 11 ч. назад

Автор сообщения: Rain for x-gods
Should I worry about the fact that I don't OWN my games because of well... Steam

Steam has little to do with it. It has never mattered where you purchased or in what format you purchased a game. Digitally and physically you have never owned a game unless you were the entity that made it. It's the same for books, TV shows, films, and music. All you have ever purchased is a license to use the creative work you paid for. Ownership of that work remains with the creator or entity that owns the intellectual property.

People are confused on this for several reasons. Such as stores allowing second hand sales of physical media because publishers could not control access to that physical media. This has led to people assuming they "owned" the data stored on that medium because they could "do whatever they wanted" with it. This is false. Unfortunately, even a certain online store (namely GOG) still perpetrates this myth in their advertising. They still want you to falsely believe you "own your games" when you buy from them, despite their terms of service stating that you do not.

Now, should you worry about this? No. Unless you're planning on doing something really stupid to get your Steam account fully banned, you're not very likely to lose your games.

Отредактировано Chika Ogiue; 11 ч. назад

Chika Ogiue 11 ч. назад

Автор сообщения: xBCxRangers
If they can't update, and if you're offline they can't take away your game.

Can you name any instance where Valve took away someone's game for a frivolous reason? I have asked this question of many people, and no one has ever provided a valid example. Will you be the first?

Отредактировано Chika Ogiue; 11 ч. назад

The nameless Gamer 11 ч. назад

No, not really. Even physical copies aren't really eternal. Eventually, games stop working on modern hardware and/or operating systems and that's assuming your discs don't fall victim to damage or bit rot. And very few games age well too.

As far as I know, Steam users have only lost access to a few licenses at most (I think one case was a Forza Horizon title Ubisoft terminated the service for completely) out of the by now around a 100.000ish available. Delisted games still stay tied to your account, even if they're no longer being sold.

I don't see a reason for concern but maybe there's something other users know and I don't.

xBCxRangers 11 ч. назад

Автор сообщения: Chika Ogiue
Автор сообщения: xBCxRangers
If they can't update, and if you're offline they can't take away your game.

Can you name any instance where Valve took away someone's game for a frivolous reason? I have asked this question of many people, and no one has ever provided a valid example. Will you be the first?

Not yet, being Mr Newell hasn't passed or sold the company. The question as i posed, what happens if he does? Any TOS or Contract you can show us as to what happens to our games?

These are sincere questions. Xbox goes broke, i still have my games. Being i disabled updates and can play them offline.

Can we do that here?

Отредактировано xBCxRangers; 11 ч. назад

Tito Shivan 11 ч. назад

Oh no, is this thread again. Who's now stirring up the pot of not understanding licensing on social sites now? Slow week at the outrage factory?

Amaterasu 11 ч. назад

Автор сообщения: fluxtorrent
Guess what, you don't own the games for those hard copies either. Same with GoG. Guessing you've never actually READ the terms of service that comes with either.

And GoG not doing anything to enforce those terms is why its failing miserably

It's more the fact that the only thing they could really do is take away the offline installers. And that goes against their mission statement so...

Also they're "failing" because they're big on game preservation through legal means and 99% of the major publishers are... not. They want you to destroy old product and buy new product.

Ben Lubar 11 ч. назад

I'd say it'd be okay to start getting worried after Steam takes away one copy of one game from one person for an unjustified reason. Until then, it's a lot like getting worried that the moon is going to decide to leave. It would be a big problem if it happened, but it's not going to.

fluxtorrent 10 ч. назад

To be fair, the moon would probably still be in the right there, we are lousy neighbors

#10

Myrth the Plague 10 ч. назад

Why is this surprising to people? I genuinely don't know what happened that caused everyone to realize they don't own their games. It isn't new or recent. None of us have ever owned the games we played, only the physical copies and that means the disc not the game itself. What the old saying, beating a dead horse. That's what you are doing OP. You don't need to worry about losing your games because realistically the Xbox, Steam, Playstation, and other gaming services are likely going to outlive us. The only thing you should have some concern of, but not really, is them pulling games that are online play. Even then, companies are changing to still allow play after the official servers die. No company will ever pull the license for their games in bulk, and when they do pull a license it'll probably have a reason. Because if they do pull licenses without warning I can assure you they will lose billions.

#11

d3str0y3r 10 ч. назад

GOG still just provides you a license to play the game. As that is what the devs are selling.... a license to play not ownership.

The only difference is the games on GOG do not have DRM attached to it. (Which is also a thing on Steam).

DRM free and something not being licensed are two different things.

Did you even read GOG's User Agreement?

https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog

#12

tyl0413 10 ч. назад

Автор сообщения: d3str0y3r
GOG still just provides you a license to play the game. As that is what the devs are selling.... a license to play not ownership.

The only difference is the games on GOG do not have DRM attached to it. (Which is also a thing on Steam).

DRM free and something not being licensed are two different things.

Did you even read GOG's User Agreement?

https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articles/212632089-GOG-User-Agreement?product=gog

Physically distributed software since the beginning of time has had fake useless licenses as well and when companies like Autodesk tried to abuse their fake unenforcable licenses the EU put them in their place, laws will catch up worldwide to the digital age sooner or later and all this bs will be over with. You own all GOG games you store on your drive, to remove them someone would have to hack your PC, which is illegal, same as having to revoke a disc would mean they'd have to break into your house which is also illegal, regardless if Ubisoft puts it in their EULA that you have to burn your disc if they demand it, they can put literally anything in there but that doesn't override laws and it might be hard to get for US people but some other places in the world have bare minimum (and still very inadequate) consumer protection laws.
US land of the free where you can be locked up for 5 years for ripping your DVD to your PC so you don't have to keep scratching it up.

#13

Sciencemile 10 ч. назад

Автор сообщения: Myrth the Plague
No company will ever pull the license for their games in bulk, and when they do pull a license it'll probably have a reason. Because if they do pull licenses without warning I can assure you they will lose billions.

Yeah regardless of whether we do or do not own the games, if people actually were persuaded that they did not own the games the industry would collapse.

People would not value ownerless purchases at the current price point, is my estimation.

#14