They could have easily crammed the Steam Deck full of stuff to make it hard to use for piracy - locking down everything, making it usable only to play games you legitimately own, force you to go through who knows what hoops in order to play games on it. That’s what Nintendo or Apple or most other companies do.
But they didn’t, because they realized they didn’t have to. It’s 100% possible to put pirated games on the Steam Deck - in fact, it’s as easy as it could reasonably be. You copy it over, you wire it up to Steam, if it’s a non-Linux game you set it up with Proton or whatever else you want to use to run it, bam. You can now run it in Steam just as easily as a normal Steam game (usually.) If you want something similar to cloud saves you can even set up SyncThing for that.
But all of that is a lot of work, and after all that you still don’t have automatic updates, and some games won’t run this way for one reason or another even though they’ll run if you own them (usually, I assume, because of Steam Deck specific tweaks or install stuff that are only used when you’re running them on the Deck via the normal method.) Some of this you can work around but it’s even more hoops.
Whereas if you own a game it’s just push a button and play. They made legitimately owning a game more convenient than piracy, and they did it without relying on DRM or anything that restricts or annoys legitimate users at all - even if a game has a DRM-free GOG version, owning it on Steam will still make it easier to play on the Steam Deck.
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The steam deck is how you prevent piracy. If you look at the huge influx of streaming services, you’ll see an example of how you encourage piracy. I recently dropped three of my services in favor of one pirate site that has almost everything. They even offer a subscription tier and I’ve considered it. I’m willing to pay for good content. What I’m not willing to do is pay dozens of middlemen across multiple companies to rip off the people who actually make my favorite shows and then memory hole the shows a few months after they premiere.
memory hole
sick turn of phrase, i’m stealing that
Please read 1984. That’s where this term comes from. You’re living through a combination of it and Brave New World.
It’s not the amount of services that’s the problem, the competition is aleays a good thing. It’s exclusives that are the problem. Almost noone is complaining about origin and uplay even thouhh it’s games are available via a launcher launching yet another launcher. But epic? Everyone hates epic precisely because of their exclusive deals taking content off of other platforms. And for streaming, I guess if some of the players worked out some deal to get their hands on exclusives from other platforms, people would stop complaining about it, even if they jack up the prices to ultimately end up with the same amount of revenue.
I think steam in general is a proof that its a service issue
Don’t even need Steam deck. The Steam store has put an end to my pirate life over a decade ago.
On multiple occasions, I have found myself rather wait for sale and bought a game on Steam, than receive it for free on Epic store.
I put every single games that I have ever pirated in Steam’s wishlist (if it’s available). Then slowly buying them one by one when they goes on sale. I’m not rich by any means and it’s the least I can do.
It mostly stopped piracy for me, but occasionally I’ll want to try a game but not want to support the company, or try a game I know I’ll hate just to see what they did.
I also pirated Starfield, which I technically had access to through GamePass, but it couldn’t be modded. (I also ended up hating it too.) I’ll probably be canceling GamePass though since I’ve switched to 100% Linux since then, and Windows has made it impossible to use with Linux.
Can you play “Windows only” Steam games on Linux?
Probably a stupid question, sorry.
Yeah, so like everyone else has said, generally yes. There are occasionally issues, but the only issues I’ve had so far (that see actually issues with the game running and not anti-cheat that just blocks Linux) have been solved by fixes I found on ProtonDB.
Apparently, on average, games actually run even better on Linux. This is due to the combination of a less bloated OS, but also because proton is translating DirectX into Vulkan, and doing it a smart way such that it’s actually more efficient usually. So far, it’s only GamePass and those few multiplayer games that have fallen short.
Do you happen to know how well this works for old Windows games? We’re talking about random indie things that run in little windows and are native to like Win98. A good lotta old doujin games are like this.
I tried Commandos (released in 1998) the other day. It worked nearly flawlessly. I still needed to set my bottle (application for running wine/proton with presets) to run in an older version of Windows compatibility mode I think, but you need to do that in Windows probably too.
(You do need a fan patch to make it run at modern resolutions, but that’s not required, and it’s needed for windows too.)
Hmm, seems like this is really might be getting to a point where non-viable instances are the exception rather than the rule. At least, I hope that’s the case these days.
I’m too busy to switch to Linux at the moment but if I have to it’s definitely an option I’m making back-burner plans for.
I did the same thing as you until a few months ago. I had used Linux many years ago, but never fully switched, so I wasn’t too worried. Windows has been frustrating me for years now, and one day the search bar showed back up even though I’ve told it many times to not have it. At that point I decided I was done using an operating system that didn’t listen to me and I switched over. It’s been an amazing experience. There’s only one game that hasn’t worked for me so far. I don’t remember the name, but it was a beta for a BR style game, and it was only because the anti-cheat hadn’t been updated to accept Linux, not because it didn’t run.
Yes, because of Proton, which is a version of Wine optimized for Steam games. Some games have official compatibility. For the rest, you have to tick a box saying to use Proton even if it hasn’t been tested, and 90% of them just work.
You can play most of them with proton, but some multiplayer games are impossible because anti cheats not supporting linux.
You can check your games at protondb if they run well, or have instructions how to run them.
Thanks, this is exactly what I need.
edit: aww, my favorite racing game Dirt Rally 2.0 is not supported, windows only. But Dirt Rally (1) is supported by all 3 OS: windows, mac, and linux, plus support for VR. So somehow the sequel is worse. Is it just a case of lazy devs?
The average playerbase of linux is still under like 2% so its understandable if they stop supporting it.
Also checked on protondb, and looks like runs great if you enable proton-ge, so you might still want to give it a chance
I’ve been doing this exact thing!! and it’s refreshing to see this attitude on Lemmy, which generally seems to really really hate giving the creators of the content they consume any money. People here act like they’re entitled to free content and piracy is some moral obligation. Piracy is and should be just a little bit shameful. it’s not like it’s evil or whatever but you’re not supposed to be proud of doing it. I pay for the content i spend the most time with whenever I’m financially comfortable enough to do it.
The moral of piracy is hard to define imo. And there’s definitely no hard right or wrong.
In my case, in the past I pirate because I live in a 3rd world country and $60 is entire month’s salary.
Nowadays, some time games doesn’t offer demo or trial, and I can’t afford to buy something I wouldn’t enjoy after 30 minutes playthrough.
Some people say they pirate because fuck the devs or publishers. But then you But for me, if some devs or publishers are considered bad and not worth supporting in my eyes, I just doesn’t give a shit about anything they put out. It’s that simple, don’t look it up, don’t talk about it, don’t engage in its discussion online, fuck’em. Nintendo is one of those in my eyes because of their constant anti-consumer behavior.
It’s ok for anyone except those who live in a unpopular country. Valve just doesn’t care about latin America and others. You legally can’t buy games, the prices are ridiculous.
Valve doesn’t care about you, doesn’t care about gaming and is only interested in money.
Actually, Steam Regional Pricing is the only way I can afford to buy games legitimately. I live in a 3rd world country, and we’re poor compared to the majority of the world. Thanks to regional pricing, a full price USD$60 game is now $15 in my country. Believe it or not but minimum wage here is <$1/hour.
I have to admit that I’ve never bought a game “full price” of $15, not that I wanted to, just can’t afford it. I believe my most expensive game is ~$10.
This was the case for me, to some extent, for some time. But then, the more I used of Steam, the more I realized there are a variety of issues, ranging from minor inconveniences like having to deal with the Steam client (and its interface and footprint) to being at risk of losing access to all of my Steam games due to losing access to the account for a variety of possible reasons (some of which could happen even if I didn’t do anything wrong on my end).
These days, if I buy, I buy DRM-free. That’s an arrangement where publishers/developers properly respect customers. If it’s not available DRM-free, it’s ethically justifiable to pirate.
The deck has made me more likely to buy a game on steam because of how easy it is.
Seamlessly syncing game saves between my Deck and my primary gaming PC is so nice. Before I travel I just make sure to wake up the deck long enough to get updates and sync saves.
For non steam games I use syncthing but that always requires just a little bit of work.
For non steam games I use syncthing but that always requires just a little bit of work.
Can you use this feature with games added as a shortcut (bought from other means).
I’m guessing the answer is no?
A non-steam game can be launched through Steam on either device, but Steam doesn’t sync game saves for non-Steam games, hence Toribor’s use of syncthing. Once a sync job is set up for each game’s save folder, it’ll keep them synced about as well as Steam does for native games.
Pretty neat workaround!
I actually bought some games on Steam I already owned on other launchers because while I could set them up via Lutris or the like just hitting “Play” is so much easier it’s unreal. Valve is doing so much to make Linux game as comfortable as possible I don’t even remotely consider buying from anyone else because there it’s a pain in the ass just to get the game running once, never mind keeping it running through updates
Not to mention keeping game saves in sync. I’m experimenting with syncthing for my pirated games, but I have to admit that just getting the Steam version sounds much more sensible now that I’ve my Steam deck.
I use syncthing for my emulator savestates between retroarch on my deck and retroarch on my android tv(no steam client or steam cloud sync for android or android tv), no matter where i decide to play I always have my most recent save. It also has versioning so i can go back to older versions of saves. I use a virtual private server(or seedbox) running syncthing as the in-between cloud host.
I wrote up a guide on how to do it in the Steam Retroarch community guides. It shouldn’t be much different for PC game saves, just choosing a different folder, specifically the one with your chosen files.
Speaking of services, I wonder how much piracy would go down if Netflix and Disney Plus and such would let you rent a film or episode at £0.50-£2 at a time for 24 hours, like how Google Play used to let you. That way if you don’t own one of the subscriptions, you can still watch by paying pocket change. Or watch unlimited by paying the monthly fee.
It is as simple as providing a service that has all content I want to watch. Look at things like Spotify or Apple Music. They don’t have everything, but it’s enough and has effectively stopped my pirating music.
Same with Netflix. It stopped me pirating because of the convenience, but since everything got separated in its own service again, I started up my own plex server. I’m not jumping through a million hoops to watch a stupid show or film…
Vudu, Amazon, and iTunes have renting capabilities.
Isn’t it typically close to the same price as buying it?
Yes
Well, I stopped pirating games a long ago because of steam, because of how good it was/is as a service and low prices. I don’t think any game publisher should cry about steam prices, because when the AAA game is just released and for a full price, millions of FOMOs run to buy it. And I can wait and see if it’s worth it.
I just hope that steam stays good. it’s great now, but I fear for the future with everything behind steam DRM
they did it without relying on DRM
Steam itself has some kind of DRM. You need to login to Steam to access the games you bought (sure there’s offline mode but then you can’t download your games, update or buy more, so it’s only temporary convenience). If Steam dies one day, so will your Steam games library.
However, the service is great, so it’s not annoying.That is absolutely not correct.
Steam policy is if valve shuts it down, they’ll give you enough time to download all the games and run them without drm.
Yeah, I too can make wildly lofty promises that probably won’t need to ever be verified.
That’s a good policy. As long as the right people are still around to enforce it, it’s a little reassuring.
Yeah I mean that’s a fundamental problem.
We can a) trust people/companies as long as they don’t give us a reason to not trust them.
Or b) we can never trust anyone but then this discussion is pointless anyway.
If there was no DRM we wouldn’t need to trust anyone to undo it.
Or if that emergency release of the DRM was a contractual guarantee we had at point of purchase, we’d also need less trust.
You mean the last part is not correct. I did forget that I heard that point before. However, it is still a DRM and you are relying on a promise made by a for-profit company that it will be removed if necessary. I don’t think history showed this kind of trust is deserved. Steam is doing good right now and has a strong founder and leader. What happens when he’s gone in 20 years, and the company has financial troubles?
There’s literally no way they could do that without being sued into ashes.
Explain
So thanks to not having signed in for a couple months, I actually still had notifications from the last time I chatted about this, and here’s the information someone else found when they looked into it.
https://leminal.space/comment/2351525 (see this excerpted comment chain)
In summary, this “policy” is at best someone (maybe even GabeN) stating back in 2009 and 2013 that games will still be (somehow) made available to customers if Steam shuts down.
As far as I know (please correct me if I’m wrong), there’s nothing in the Steam Subscriber Agreement that obligates Steam/Valve to do it. And even if there were, there’s nothing saying they can’t just update the SSA to remove such a term.
Furthermore, even if Valve wants to do this if Steam ever shuts down, considering Steam’s size I’d say it’s less likely to be shut down and more likely to just get sold off if Valve ever does become insolvent, and the new owner of Steam can’t be held to this promise anyway.
So, while it’d definitely be good if this were the case, this seems to be more wishful than written-in-stone.
Steam DRM is trivial to circumvent, it’s basically cheap locks screwed onto the game with security torx, not even riveted: If you have a toolbelt you’re already in and every skiddie with half a brain cell can do it as Valve doesn’t bother defeating the scripts that are floating around.
What it does prevent is random tech-illiterate people copying game files to their friend’s box.
If Steam dies one day then my library would be largely lost, yes, but not due to DRM but because most of my library isn’t actually on my disk.
Even Steam themselves say it sucks for preventing piracy:
The Steam DRM wrapper by itself is not an anti-piracy solution. The Steam DRM wrapper protects against extremely casual piracy (i.e. copying all game files to another computer) and has some obfuscation, but it is easily removed by a motivated attacker.
Plus, it’s optional for devs.
Yeah. What I mean is that the Steam Deck itself doesn’t add anything special in that regard to fight piracy.
(Plus, I mean, Steam’s base DRM is like a screen door or a “please do not pirate” sign, lol. If Steam dies one day, Steam DRM won’t be a problem because you can basically crack it by breathing on it too hard. I assume that is purpose is to ensure that you have to violate the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions to pirate their games, not to actually slow down pirates at this point.)
It’s optional for devs so plenty of games don’t use it at all
That’s an interesting point.
Obviously you would need to be in online mode to download something. That’s how the Internet works.
*only the games you didnt download
I was playing MegaMan Battle Neckwork and Tony Hawks pro Skater using emu deck for almost a year.
When both dropped on Steam I bought both. Unfortunately MegaMan Battle Network requires Internet to run so I reverted back to the emulators.
Tony Hawk is a wonderful port however.
Mega Man Battle Network does not require internet to run, it only requires internet for the multiplayer. Which is dead anyway
Hmm, I just tried to open it on the plane and it asked me to connect to the Internet.
I’ll have to try again. Did you put steam into offline mode prior?
I know that I’ve played it during internet outages, which is fucking ironic considering it’s an internet themed RPG
I pirated Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005) and played it from start to finish on my Steam Deck because it was impossible to buy. I would’ve paid $20 for that old ass game if it was available for sale, but it was literally impossible.
The problem is that these giant publishers are led by MBAs, and as someone who went to business school, I know first hand how stupid those people are.
As someone who dropped put of business school to fix cars for a living, I feel this.
Need for Speed Most Wanted (2005)
Man, I loved that game. It was the last NFS I played, everything after that sucked donkey balls and required an Origin installation.
Any tips on how you got it to run? I have the ElAmigos release and I think I tried it once but didn’t have any success on the Deck.I don’t remember all the steps I had to do, but I do remember it being a pain in the ass. I downloaded the black edition from myabandonware.com and installed a widescreen mod (which messed up the UI since some elements were slightly offscreen, but it didn’t bother me).
Besides that, the only other annoyance was the controls. There are actually a lot of community layouts for this game, but the ones I ended up using were a pain when navigating the menus. You’ll definitely want to try a few.
FWIW, here are my current working launch settings for it:
- Proton 8.0-4
- Launch Options:
WINEDLLOVERRIDES="dinput8=n,b" %command%
So I guess if you get past the installer, those should get it to launch.
You are correct! You have to put the dinput8 overrides for the plugin (ASI) loader so that the widescreen fix and other stuff can load. (This is the same for all Black Box NFS games basically)
Also, if you’re installing from the original media, you have to update it to 1.3 and then put the no cd patch. In this case I can only recommend the MrDJ repack because it does this already.
However, I highly recommend updating the WS fix and checking out now and then for updates because we do still maintain and develop it. (Not very often but hey, life is life)
That being said, I am also working on improving another plugin of mine, called XtendedInput, which brings native XInput to the game. I’ve already tested it with the Steam Controller and it works nicely. It’s currently a bit fiddly for MW because I hadn’t implemented ingame configuration, so you do have to edit ini files for custom maps and deadzones. (Hopefully I will someday, right now I am stuck on other stuff)
Oh shit, you’re actually a modder! Thanks for helping to keep these old games alive, and keep up the good work!!
You’re welcome! :)
I’ll try to make sure it works on Linux too!
In my personal life, I run Linux on all my devices and I would never invest in non-opensource technology for my career. (Work forces me to run macOS, but that’s another story).
For years now, I happily and only buy games on Steam, even if I have the choice between Steam and NoDRM. Simply because Steam just works™ and is convenient. (Of course one never buys games on steam with a forced additional starter from Ubisoft etc.).
Steam is really great from a technically POV, from a giving back to the community point and from a customer friendliness point (never had a problem with a return).
I even bought a SteamDeck although I am no big fan of handhelds, and for what it is, it is great.
I’ll happily waste more money on my Steam backlog of shame. ;-)
Games are one of the very few things that I always pay for. Steam is mostly responsible for that. Also, music. But nowadays I do store some of my own music because I can have lossless that way.
I buy most of my games on steam simply because it makes running them on Linux so damn easy, and I remember the bad old days when it was hell!
By now Steam’s most loyal userbase is probably the Linux Gaming community because they make it so easy to just play the games, not to mention the QoL improvements they contribute to upstream projects
Steam dick
Huh?
Steam dick
Say no more fam
What a useful comment
Steam dick