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Topic on Talk:The big list of third-party DRM on Steam

Could Fallout 3 GFWL qualify as "inert DRM"?

3
Faalagorn (talkcontribs)

I got the feeling that the current situation of Fallout 3's GFWL is what Bethesda considered for "removal". I remember people expecting GFWL maybe to be removed before Fallout 4 release, but it never happened fully. Guess they didn't want to intervene into the game files too much and also left GFWL for "compatibility" with those wanting to use it for achievements. I updated the article to reflect that the new CD-keys (old old ones, if you lost yours) can not be obtained on Steam, although it is possible to use another GFWL key to activate it (as it's a legacy title) - relevant entries in SteamDB for reference: [1] [2]. They also removed the sharing flag, but only on the GOTY version. I'm pretty sure they simply forgot about Fallout 3 since it's superseded by cheaper GOTY bundle nowadays. They also removed the GFWL notice in Steam Store.

The situation is kinda bit similar to what the developers of Toy Soldiers did, they basically only edited the database entry without touching the files, although they had a separate EXE that prevented GFWL overlay from launching at all, which made me move them to "Inert". However I kinda think that the situation of Fallout 3 is somewhat similar and might be worth moving it too. It's worth mentioning it was also listed as removed here, back in 2014 [3].

What's your opinion?

Mirh (talkcontribs)

The answer is maybe.

It mostly depends on how you see the neverending issue over which rights (those a DRM supposedly limits) user even has.

Hoping you aren't part of the extremist camp (for which no matter what, superfluous software is always a constraint) I guess the only thing GFWL local profile is still limiting is mod-ability.

Only if you don't think so then (and presuming you don't need even once to go online for instance) for as much GFWL-itself is still required we might consider it[s DRM part] inert.

Garrett (talkcontribs)

The client is still used, so some players might want to know about it for that reason (as with Kalypso Launcher).

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