[Mr.Deviance]

You probably read this already since it's all over the news but what does this mean for the future of microsoft and for the future of windows?
After windows 8 and xbox one's popularity, Ballmer is apparently abandoning what appears to be a rapidly sinking ship.
http://money.cnn.com...html?hpt=hp_bn1



I wonder if there will come a time when microsoft will decide to stop making and supporting a PC OS and take with them into the grave directx which enables lots of current and old pc games to work natively on a custom built pc.
The directx library of games is too big and too important to be neglected and left to die along with the disappearance of windows and directx.
The opengl games can be ported to work on other OS's but the old games that were built only with direct3d support absolutely need various versions of directx to work, otherwise they won't start.
I fear there will come a time not far from now, when we will be forced to emulate directx games in order to run them because the older already existing windows versions won't install on newer pc's or the video drivers won't be supported by the future video cards.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

Quote

Though Devices Chief Julie Larson-Green seems to be an obvious CEO candidate, many analysts are clamoring for Microsoft to consider an external candidate who could help the company transition away from the PC.

Edit: Someone still hasn't explained me to how you design and code a computer program or do an Excel spreadsheet on an iPhone.

[OpenMaw]

Many analysts need to shut their fucking mouths.

[Mr.Deviance]

Commando Nukem, on 24 August 2013 - 12:33 PM, said:

Many analysts need to shut their fucking mouths.

You beat me to that post lol.
But if they start tranistioning away from pc, then somebody needs to buy the rights to that fucking directx POS so we can finally be able to run it on linux and other os's and be done with windows's exclusiveness to the directx games...
I personally hate windows since a very VERY long time but I have been stuck with it due to it's exclusiveness with triple A pc games.
If every pc game could run on both linux and windows without a problem, I and many others would have probably abandoned windows a very long time ago, in favor of a much better os.
I also suspect that if linux could have ran directx, lots of talented people would have gotten into linux and would have refined a windows alternative for pc gamers up to the point where everybody would have considered linux a must have instead of windows.
One huge candidate that might be willing to buy access to directx's source code could be Valve or even Apple.
Gabe Newell hates the latest windows with a passion and he would totally buy the rights to directx if that guaranteed him that he could take it and port it do another os and have steam run any directx game on linux through steam for example.

[Kathy]

If anything, Ballmer is out probably because lately focus on non-PC stuff was a failure. I doubt MS will continue their stupid hardware-related crusade against Apple and, to some degree, Sony which damaged their PC output.

Mr.Deviance, on 24 August 2013 - 12:36 PM, said:

One huge candidate that might be willing to buy access to directx's source code could be Valve or even Apple.

Fuck that!

Quote

Gabe Newell hates the latest windows with a passion and he would totally buy the rights to directx if that guaranteed him that he could take it and port it do another os and have steam run any directx game on linux through steam for example.

And make it a Steam exclusive? No way in hell.

[High Treason]

API's like DirectX won't matter soon, because we'll all have to game on the damn cloud.

I'll miss Steve Ballmers presentations, they were like stand up comedy.

[Kathy]

High Treason, on 24 August 2013 - 01:15 PM, said:

API's like DirectX won't matter soon, because we'll all have to game on the damn cloud.

Yeah... I wonder what will I do 10 years from now. Probably gonna say goodbye to contemporary gaming.

[Mr.Deviance]

All I care about is to know that I can chose at any moment to play any game made for PC in the last 20 years along every other emulated console up to the current ones that are too powerful to be emulated yet.
Right now I can do that and losing the ability to do that at my discretion is something that I am not willing to lose.
The cloud only gaming is something out of a nightmare and is something that should always have an alternative in the form of OFFLINE hardware with which you can run games and apps without any cloud.
Being forced to only play streamed content from he cloud, without being able to touch your game files or even hope to ever mod them is a criminal act against humanity and should not be allowed to become the only respectable way of playing games and running apps in my honest opinion.
The future sure looks like all you will have to do is start a very small box connected to a kinect camera and to a powerful wireless internet that will stream your whole OS from a far away farm of computers capable of running anything in without loading times and without you having to worry about space, bugs, data loss, hardware performance, updates, upgrades or anyting of sots.
While that sounds like something that anybody would like to experience, I much rather have my offline hardware that's as buggy as powerful as my money can buy, without having to be forced to have my every move tracked by the people that are providing me the live stream of that OS that I'm streaming from their cloud.

Being banned from your own streamed OS cloud in the future and losing the ability to use the pc in it's entirety, is my biggest nightmare when it comes to computers.
What's even scarier is that this is not fantasy, this is exactly the direction that everything seems to be going and even scarier is the fact that we can already see this type of technology being prototyped and even partially working like gaikai or onlive...

To get stuck using a cloud for everything, we first need to start accepting that computing in it's entirety is only defined by just a few companies that produce hardware and software.
The day that Nvidia, Intel, Amd decide to stop selling hardware and Microsoft decides to stop selling Windows as an installable software kit, in favor of collaborating with odd companies to bring foarward universal cloud Gaming and Os streaming, is the day when the majority of computer fans need to start their own hardware companies to fill those gaps left behind by those companies and give a real competitive alternative to cloud only computing.

[Kathy]

Mainframe gaming is probably gonna be here earlier than later. At first it will be(ir already is) that always online crap, then we'll have video streaming. It will happen.

Luckily Microsoft blew it by screwing up the announcement of One's policies. So they probably bought us several years worth of offline gaming.

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Being banned from your own streamed OS cloud in the future and losing the ability to use the pc in it's entirety, is my biggest nightmare when it comes to computers.

Yep. Right now any online service can ban you for no reason without you being able to do anything.

[Mr.Deviance]

Kathy, on 24 August 2013 - 02:27 PM, said:

Mainframe gaming is probably gonna be here earlier than later. At first it will be(ir already is) that always online crap, then we'll have video streaming. It will happen.

Luckily Microsoft blew it by screwing up the announcement of One's policies. So they probably bought us several years worth of offline gaming.


Yep. Right now any online service can ban you for no reason without you being able to do anything.

It will happen only if they succeed in convincing the large masses that the only way to do your general home activities like your music listening, your video viewing/office work/photoshopping/2d/3d art making/audio mixing/programming and your gaming is through the cloud that streams directly into a video pannel equipped with control input of various types.
Once they get the whole lot to drool in front of the cloud connencted mainframe, there will be no more hackers, no more open free news, no more internet freedom and no more user created content of any kind.
The old idea that tv was invented to brainwash people and program their lives will become a joke in comparison to the mainframe connected to the internet and the 100000000000000's subscriptions that you will have to pay for every single action you want to take on your pc.
Pay for colored characters, pay for bold characters, pay for text size options etc...
This sounds crazy now and it is too but with enough time and the features gradually removed and replaced slowly, people will get used to it and if done correctly, they won't even notice.
With enough patience and lots of very small steps you can sneak such a nightmare and make it main stream without anybody protesting.
Most people only jump and start boycotting and rioting when you take too much at once from them and this is very well known and speculated accordingly by the smart business people and by the people that would like to rule over an entire world of mindless robots and have them all think they are actually well informed and very much in control of their lives.

The more time passes over me, the more obvious it is that walls are coming closer and closer from all directions and the once open space is becoming a room that tends to be smaller and smaller just like a psychological jail.

Computing must not be allowed to become the stuff that only a select number of ultra rich companies can control.
Computing must be something that anybody can do so that anybody could make hardware and sell it along with an os and an uncontrolled internet connection.

[Kathy]

I was talking mainly about games first. Whole OS as a cloud is too far, I think. Gaming on consoles isn't. Sony is gonna test it with Gaikai for ps1-ps3 games streaming to ps4(I can't even understand why so many people are okay with this substituting for b/c). MS has its Azure. PC became almost digital only through Steam, Origin etc. which provides better options of controlling(i.e. drm).

[Mr.Deviance]

Kathy, on 24 August 2013 - 02:57 PM, said:

I was talking mainly about games first. Whole OS as a cloud is too far, I think. Gaming on consoles isn't. Sony is gonna test it with Gaikai for ps1-ps3 games streaming to ps4(I can't even understand why so many people are okay with this substituting for b/c). MS has its Azure. PC became almost digital only through Steam, Origin etc. which provides better options of controlling(i.e. drm).

Well games are the most sophisticated stuff that a pc can do with it's hardware in real time usually.
Gaming through cloud streamed video requires extremely low and stable latencies for precise control, great resolutions and no video/audio artifacts due to poor internet connection.
Those things will be fixed for the majority of people in a majority of countries, mainly when most countries that have shit internet will get great internet at cheap prices.
Once cloud gaming becomes the main way of buying and playing games, it can be easily said that cloud OS is already in the bag simply because doing desktop tasks is much easier to stream than gaming.
The only thing that will prevent anybody from moving their entire OS to the cloud will be their wish not to do so without first preparing consumers for such a radical transition in which they will lose access to their real palpable hardware and software that they can process offline, for something completely video streamed at a high resolution and a high framerate...
My prediction is that this step in history will go very similar to how it went when a huge number of people cursed and bitched at first and then they quickly accepted the situation and finally accepted to buy digital apps and games without actually getting a physical disc or box for their spent money.
It has been proven that people are willing to buy digital stuff tied to an account that can be banned at any time and the examples are very clear with Steam and Origin, Itunes,google play, xbox live etc.
Many don't even seem to realize that everything they've ever bought and currently own on their accounts can go away if the company goes bankrupt and can't fulfill it's promises anymore.
If people accepted the transition from physical media to digital media, they will also accept the transition from digital media to cloud media that they only get to stream, provided it all works as advertised.

They only need to fix internet speeds in more countries and make it cheap enough and os cloud and gaming cloud will come immediately after.
They are so eager to get to cloud that some even rushed way before it was a good time to do so, as you saw with the onlive that's not doing well at all due to problems with latencies.
The technology is already here, we just need internet to support it better, that's the last problem these corporations have.
If you are expecting to have your back massaged by these corporations as they slowly walk you towards this new future road, I think you might be mistaking.
There is no morale and there is nobody that cares about what real hardware and software users want.
There will be a blunt violent transition that will leave many enraged and completely annoyed to the absolute max.
The sensation of control against your wises and the feeling of limitation and censorship and bullshit is only going to increase in the following years.

[Kathy]

Mr.Deviance, on 24 August 2013 - 03:09 PM, said:

The only thing that will prevent anybody from moving their entire OS to the cloud will be their wish not to do so without first preparing consumers for such a radical transition in which they will lose access to their real palpable hardware and software that they can process offline, for something completely video streamed at a high resolution and a high framerate...
My prediction is that this step in history will go very similar to how it went when a huge number of people cursed and bitched at first and then they quickly accepted the situation and finally accepted to buy digital apps and games without actually getting a physical disc or box for their spent money.

It probably will be handled more smoothly. Just start making cloud only OSes and eventually most won't bother if you end your support for 'standalone'.

Quote

They only need to fix internet speeds in more countries and make it cheap enough and os cloud and gaming cloud will come immediately after.
They are so eager to get to cloud that some even rushed way before it was a good time to do so, as you saw with the onlive that's not doing well at all due to problems with latencies.
The technology is already here, we just need internet to support it better, that's the last problem these corporations have.

Latency problem is only solvable by having spread out servers around the world.

Quote

Many don't even seem to realize that everything they've ever bought and currently own on their accounts can go away if the company goes bankrupt and can't fulfill it's promises anymore.

Some believe, for example, that Valve will patch every game to not require Steam. Which is bullshit of course.

[High Treason]

ISPs mirror websites, so why would they not mirror "the cloud" to reduce latency.

They will succeed in convinving the masses because of;

• Cheaper hardware - Android Tablet is now an epic gaming rig! Touch Keyboard and Mouse sold seperately!
• No upgrade required, just different cloud packages (They will charge extra for Very High visual settings)!
• Play your games, music, photos, movies and tweeter anywhere on any device!
• Probably some flat-rate subscription where you can play as many games as you want!
• Connections to social network sites! Facefook your your friends with achievements they don't give a damn about with marketing crap included!
• By extension, in-game currency and pay to win, everything is a Facebook/F2P game for marketing reasons!
• Indie corner, where independent (beggars from kickstarter, DEPENDENT on YOUR money!) devs post Angry Birds games and stuff!
• All activity is monitored, but they kept that quiet, the VAC team will cum!
• No loss of data or licenses if your device breaks down!
• Devs and Publishers like it too, because DRM!

Thin clients (your device), mainframes (the cloud) - this is sixties technology - it is THE FYUCHAAAAAA!

[Mr.Deviance]

Kathy, on 24 August 2013 - 03:49 PM, said:

Some believe, for example, that Valve will patch every game to not require Steam. Which is bullshit of course.

That's naive to believe such a thing. Valve can barely keep their current games running in order.
I have used an app that reports to the steam servers that it's the actual steam client and allows you to log in with your steam account and password and download games with it if you want.
That app's benefit over steam is that it can check the status of your steam files in much more detail than steam actually can and can also produce offline patches. It can also do a very precise game cache file integrity verification that reveals how proper file integrity verification through steam has long been lost by valve along the way.
Many games have lots of missing files and lots of errors in what steam defines as 100% verified.
Valve is struggling badly to keep their current steam games in order, so they don't get cases where games completely refuse to download and deploy properly.

Valve has a very hard time keeping their files in order and they are throwing all of the man power they can afford at this project.
To assume that when they might decide to close down their business, they will go through all the legal business with thousands of publishers and developers, just to patch thousands and thousands of third party games to run without steam, will be impossible.
To patch steam games to run without steam is rather easy because that's something I happen to know very well as you've recently learned in another topic.
The problem however is storing all of that offline stuff that will be patched to run without steam.
If you own 1000 games on steam, chances are that you don't have enough storage space to keep them all installed at all times, so what happens when you will realize that steam is closing shop next week and you have more than 1000 games on your steam account, many games that aren't even installed?
From where will you be able to download your owned games in the future if steam dies and how will you back them up so that you never lose them?

And remember this is not only Valve with their Steam here, there are already many other services similar to steam that already have hundreds of thousands of users that own products on those accounts.
Do you really think EA that we all know and "love" is going to give a shit about origin users when origin will go down under?

[Kathy]

What really gets me is dependance on Steam for a 3rd party games. I somewhat can understand if Valve's own games will be shutdown completely once they go under, but not all the other games.

Were they serious about patching everything out they would have included that clause in EULA. But they're only serious about denying access to your games if you refuse new EULA.

[Mr.Deviance]

Kathy, on 25 August 2013 - 03:05 AM, said:

What really gets me is dependance on Steam for a 3rd party games. I somewhat can understand if Valve's own games will be shutdown completely once they go under, but not all the other games.

Were they serious about patching everything out they would have included that clause in EULA. But they're only serious about denying access to your games if you refuse new EULA.

The general rule that I follow is that anything that you don't own in your own house, is something that you do not own PERIOD!
This is the same with bank accounts that can be shut down and have all your money go away.
What you do not own in your own pocket and house in physical form, is something that will go away sooner or later.
Hell, even the stuff that you own in your own house in physical form can go away if you don't back it up..
Owning things requires lots of attention, backup and security measures deployed.
When you decide to buy digital stuff that is kept on somebody else's servers, you will lose that digital stuff when the real owner and guardian of your stuff decides it wants to stop doing that for you.
What people need to realize and accept is that when they buy digital stuff, they don't buy the rights to own it as it is being claimed by the sellers but instead they buy the rights to borrow that digital stuff for an undetermined time span that will become determined when the seller decides to end it.

[Kathy]

Mr.Deviance, on 25 August 2013 - 03:56 AM, said:

This is the same with bank accounts that can be shut down and have all your money go away.

With bank accounts you at least have some form of guarantee and applicable laws, not unlike in digital distribution shops.

Quote

Hell, even the stuff that you own in your own house in physical form can go away if you don't back it up..

You can't back everything, though.

Quote

What people need to realize and accept is that when they buy digital stuff, they don't buy the rights to own it as it is being claimed by the sellers but instead they buy the rights to borrow that digital stuff for an undetermined time span that will become determined when the seller decides to end it.

That doesn't apply to all digital stuff. Of course drm-free digital stuff could be called physical once it arrives at your house.

[Person of Color]

Steve Ballmer retired three days ago. Upon announcement, Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) stock rose. This led to an expected drop for Horsedicks Limited (NASDAQ: HORS) because their biggest client would no longer be sucking their flagship product.

[Striker]

Steve Ballmer leaving Microsoft is probably the best thing to happen to that company. Fuck him, he will not be missed.

Kathy, on 24 August 2013 - 12:54 PM, said:

If anything, Ballmer is out probably because lately focus on non-PC stuff was a failure. I doubt MS will continue their stupid hardware-related crusade against Apple and, to some degree, Sony which damaged their PC output.


Fuck that!


And make it a Steam exclusive? No way in hell.

How does that even correlate? For one, Valve doesn't design operating systems. Second, Steam is a distribution platform, and DirectX is a component of the Windows Operating system.

Even if Valve did buy the rights to DirectX, what would the point be without a host OS to use it on? And what would be the benefit of distributing it via Steam/making it a steam exclusive be? None, because it would be impossible and pointless. Now, if they did make an Operating System designed specifically for gaming, but wasn't locked down to that one purpose, and could be comparable to Windows and many Linux Distros, I'd more than welcome it.

Also, I don't get the point in demonizing Steam. One argues that it needs to "always be online" and that it's a form of DRM. Both of those things are false(not counting SteamWorks), to one degree or another.

First, Steam doesn't always need to be online, it only needs to be online for the first log-on and run of a game. If you get steam in offline mode with some games available, and given you don't lose your settings/profile, you can stay in offline mode forever, and still play those games.

Second, Steam has plenty of DRM-Free games. DRM is not a mandatory thing when publishing to Steam, it's the choice of the developers and publishers. Currently, there's a list of over 50 of them here - http://www.gog.com/f..._on_steam/page1 Yes, that means you can copy those games anywhere you want and they will still work, even between computers and devices, and while offline.

By the way, if Valve were to go under, they wouldn't need to patch all of the games. All they would need to do is release a downloadable launcher / wrapper / emulator of sorts. Pirates have already released applications that can launch the EXEs of Steam games without the need of having Steam at all.

[Kathy]

StrikerMan780, on 28 August 2013 - 03:37 AM, said:

First, Steam doesn't always need to be online, it only needs to be online for the first log-on and run of a game. If you get steam in offline mode with some games available, and given you don't lose your settings/profile, you can stay in offline mode forever, and still play those games.

That part. Offline mode isn't designed for a long term. You need to have your profile logged in and pray nothing happens with OS.

Quote

Second, Steam has plenty of DRM-Free games. DRM is not a mandatory thing when publishing to Steam, it's the choice of the developers and publishers. Currently, there's a list of over 50 of them here

Wow, over 9000 50.
And you don't know that before someone tests it. This stuff should be advertised in game's info about drm use. Plus, as it was said, Steam would be needed to reinstall it anyway.

Quote

By the way, if Valve were to go under, they wouldn't need to patch all of the games. All they would need to do is release a downloadable launcher / wrapper / emulator of sorts. Pirates have already released applications that can launch the EXEs of Steam games without the need of having Steam at all.

By Subscriber Agreement Valve isn't obliged to do shit.

P.S. http://forums.duke4....eam-dependence/

[Person of Color]

Valve isn't going under.

[Inspector Lagomorf]

This is such a contrivance. DRM-free is only slightly less likely to disappear than Steam software. All that's needed is a hard drive crash or a broken CD. At least with Steam you can reinstall your games if you lose them.

And really, what's stopping the government from just figuratively marching into your house and taking your computer anyway? This is a greater possibility considering the way Internet legislation is going...

Kathy's just leading her tireless crusade against Steam, has been since the "Steam dependence" thread where she lambasted everyone who took a contrary opinion. It gets old after a while.

[Kathy]

Comrade Major, on 28 August 2013 - 08:09 AM, said:

This is such a contrivance. DRM-free is only slightly less likely to disappear than Steam software. All that's needed is a hard drive crash or a broken CD.

Backup.

Quote

At least with Steam you can reinstall your games if you lose them.

I can do the same with GOG or Humble Store.

Quote

And really, what's stopping the government from just figuratively marching into your house and taking your computer anyway? This is a greater possibility considering the way Internet legislation is going...

It's irrelevant in this discussion.

Quote

where she lambasted everyone who took a contrary opinion

That's not true.

[Striker]

Kathy, on 28 August 2013 - 06:39 AM, said:

That part. Offline mode isn't designed for a long term. You need to have your profile logged in and pray nothing happens with OS.

A lot of games need to be re-installed anyway, even if they are DRM Free, if the OS it's installed on craps out and needs to be wiped. (Due to loss of registry entries. Some games are portable though.) Logging onto steam once online, downloading all your games, then logging off and staying in offline mode is a minor inconvenience.

Kathy, on 28 August 2013 - 06:39 AM, said:

Plus, as it was said, Steam would be needed to reinstall it anyway.

Not if you keep a backup of the game. (and possibly any registry entries of the game if such a thing is required. Easy enough to do.)

Kathy, on 28 August 2013 - 06:39 AM, said:

By Subscriber Agreement Valve isn't obliged to do shit.

P.S. http://forums.duke4....eam-dependence/

Never said they were, but regardless, in the case (not going to happen.) the service would end up going down, there's a very high chance there would still be a way to play it's games, be it through their efforts or that of the gaming community.

[Kathy]

StrikerMan780, on 28 August 2013 - 09:04 AM, said:

A lot of games need to be re-installed anyway, even if they are DRM Free, if the OS it's installed on craps out and needs to be wiped. (Due to loss of registry entries. Some games are portable though.) Logging onto steam once online, downloading all your games, then logging off and staying in offline mode is a minor inconvenience.

Except when you decided not to accept new EULA or just was banned(although, I think you can still download depending on a ban).

Quote

Not if you keep a backup of the game. (and possibly any registry entries of the game if such a thing is required. Easy enough to do.)

That's not really "easy enough". You probably should also keep the same directory or other crap. It was not designed to do that and thus inconvenient as hell. Also, 50+ games is like not enough.

It's a matter of principle. I'm not saying Steam isn't great, it is extremely awesome for a digital service, especially in comparison with some others. But it is online drm. Yeah, some games have no drm on it, but they still tacked down to Steam and Valve is pushing CEG(Steam drm) to everyone.

[Striker]

Kathy, on 28 August 2013 - 09:17 AM, said:

Except when you decided not to accept new EULA or just was banned(although, I think you can still download depending on a ban).

If you get banned from the Steam service as a whole, you'd have had to do something REALLY fucking bad such as scamming users. Their EULA is pretty lenient especially in comparison to many other services. (*cough*Origin*cough*) And I only recall the EULA changing once in the many years that I've used the service. (I've used it since 2006.)

Also, if you get VAC Banned for hacking in multiplayer games, you deserve that ban. It doesn't prevent you from playing games, just not multiplayer games on secure servers that belong to the same engine of which you cheated on. (ie. Hack in CS 1.6, get banned from playing multiplayer on all GoldSrc engine games. Can still play singleplayer, or play on non-secure servers... which most people do not like playing on at all.)

Kathy, on 28 August 2013 - 09:17 AM, said:

That's not really "easy enough". You probably should also keep the same directory or other crap. It was not designed to do that and thus inconvenient as hell. Also, 50+ games is like not enough.

It's not that difficult to edit a .reg file if the paths change. Anyhow, this particular thing isn't a steam-specific issue... many games are dependent on settings stored in the registry. Also, counting the list, there's a total of 103 games listed there, the thread is also pretty old so the number of games that are DRM-free have probably grown exponentially by now.

Kathy, on 28 August 2013 - 09:17 AM, said:

It's a matter of principle. I'm not saying Steam isn't great, it is extremely awesome for a digital service, especially in comparison with some others. But it is online drm. Yeah, some games have no drm on it, but they still tacked down to Steam and Valve is pushing CEG(Steam drm) to everyone.

By DRM-Free, I mean DRM-Free. Those games listed in that thread aren't tacked down to Steam. You could download those games to a custom Steam Game Folder(Steam allows custom install paths per-game now.) and uninstall Steam completely, and still be able to play them.

[macaque6711]

Windows phones could be amazing if they implemented a few minor O/S adjustments but added full, phone functionality like removable/expandable memory, ability to view/edit sim contacts, bluetooth file sharing, removable battery and mass storage (features that apple will likely never let you have). If they did this windows phones would begin to fly out because rather than copying apple they'd be giving you something that apple never will!

It just seems they're all attempting to emulate apples strategy and business model, instead of their own ingenuity.

Microsoft had become so lazy and complacent with the success of old windows phones as they had no real competition but apple came along and the rest is history lol.

[macaque6711]

Since we're on the subject, you can only activate offline mode while your 'online' which is f*****g stupid. I discovered this hidden gem when I moved house and was without Internet connection for a month and as a result my entire steam library was unavailable to play.
I have an iPhone which I could have tethered to my PC to authenticate my account but steam blocks tethering and throws out an error message!

I was able to eventually tether my phone to steam but I had to go through a third party program (private tunnel) to disguise my phone and trick steam, however this took a long time to figure out and by the time I was able to sort it, my new internet service was live a few days later anyway!

F**k digital content, steam, EA/origin, ubisoft and DRM. I specifically mention ubisoft because they were headstrong in pushing DRM in our faces!

Mass Effect is my favourite game and its multiplayer is amazing but origin is such a s****y service, you're lucky to even connect with their servers half of the time, and if origins servers are down, guess what, you can't even play the offline, single player campaign!

Origin also use peer 2 peer for multiplayer, so if the host is from Australia or Russia, the multiplayer game is near unplayable due to horrendous LAG and latency issues!

[macaque6711]

What I forgot to elaborate on is, how the f**k are you supposed to go online, to specifically enable offline mode so you're free to play your games if you're without internet access (like a house move)? Players have had to resort to moving their entire gaming RIG to a friends house or to McDonald's etc. so they can connect to steam, allow steam to authenticate their account, then enable offline mode. Only then can they take their rig home and play their games at home in offline mode!

It's only then that you realise you're simply loaning your damned, digital games library.

I haven't purchased a single digital, DRM title since!

The online/offline issue with steam can easily be verified online as it's all over the damned web if anybody wants confirmation!