Does the DVD have a DRM free copy of the game on it or does it just install and activate it on Steam?
The game is DRM free, so you do not need Steam to play the game (you can for example get a digital copy from GOG or Larian Vault). However, the Dragon Commander DVD last summer, required you to have Steam connection when installing (at least I have heard this bit of information somewhere). The reason, however, was not to activate the game but rather to patch it directly because some major balance work was done in the time frame between the production process of physical copies and the actual release of the game. I do not know how it is handled with DOS but maybe you also have to connect to Steam once to get the latest patch. This is actually something which I also would like to know...
