Like it or not, without Steam, PC gaming would have died out or we would still be plagued by things like the Sony root kit, Starforce, SecuROM, disk checks and GFWL.
What utter tosh.
PC gaming has never been in danger and while media check systems like SecuROM and Starforce had in-your-face downsides (lower framerates, slower game startup), none of them could result in you being blocked from content you paid for due to reasons outside your control. Keep the discs safe, and you'd be OK.
Online systems (SecuROM Online, GFWL, Steam) mean you *can* lose access to content due to server downtime, connection outages or publisher closure (as has happened
several times with DRMed music services). In the case of systems like Steam where multiple games are linked to a single account, hundreds or even thousands of dollars of past purchases can be vaped at Valve's whim.
...they offer an optional, non intrusive DRM to publishers as part of that service.
Steam's DRM is not optional from the user's perspective and it involves a check every time a game is started. That makes it stricter than activate-on-install services (SecuROM Online or GFWL) - only the always-online DRM employed by companies like Blizzard (and Ubisoft formerly) can be arguably worse.
Yes, Steam is technically DRM. Just as GoG's downloader is DRM, and their login service on their page is DRM. GoG Galaxy will also be DRM. DRM simply means "Digital Rights Management", so that term can classify any number of systems. The question is whether it will have copy protection. I think though, for the sake of this argument, we can accept the term DRM in lieu of the term copy protection.
I'm not sure how GOG's downloader can be described as DRM when
no-one has to use it (and the same argument should apply with GOG Galaxy). The installers you download from GOG perform no authentication checks, have no restrictions and be used as often as you want. You can even delete your GOG account and the installers will still work (I run them on an offline PC with no network connectivity) - the only downside of closing a GOG account is loss of access to any updates.
In comparison, any backups you make using Steam will (aside from the minority of games that don't use Steamworks) require authentication with a valid Steam account before they will work. So if Valve disable your account (and
tens of thousands of examples can be found online of this), you have no way to retrieve your paid-for content.
Copy protection though is not really what DRM is about (even Steam allows multiple installs, it just limits users to running one game at any time) or preventing "piracy" but about blocking the (legal) second-hand games trade,
collecting information on users (which can be good for developers in debugging games, but Steam can build a detailed profile of customer gaming habits for sale to third parties) and having the ability to
close down older games in order to push players to newer ones.
But that is exactly the same with GOG.com for most of their windows games. They are msi files, meaning they are using the windows installer...
GOG have never used .msi files, they use their own installer. You might be thinking about the HumbleBundle or IndieRoyale offerings which sometimes used .msi (not that I see any problem with it) or .zip files as well as standalone .exe installers.
Or, you know, we just don't spend our lives worrying about worst-case scenarios.
Given the increasing number of high profile data breaches, that's an increasingly risky - and even irresponsible - viewpoint. Today's "worst-case" is increasingly becoming tomorrow's reality - whether applied to data collection, DRM-abuse or service compromise.
When someone knows that using services and products with DRM contributes to its proliferation but they still use them, it means simply what Gamlber said. I.e. the lack of care about it (or feeling of responsibility to put it differently).
A very valid point - Valve gets away with atrocious customer service because it can rely on the majority of its userbase to be so heavily locked-in that they can't envisage going anywhere else. If no-one bought a game with Steamworks, GFWL or similar services, software publishers would be jumping over themselves to offer DRM-free alternatives like GOG, DotEmu or Fireflower. There's no easy solution though, aside from waiting for the day when Steam suffers a truly catastrophic compromise, requiring them to take their system offline for an extended period.
