Humble question

[mario]

Hello!

Many games bought via the Humble Store include a Steam key and a DRM-free version of the game. Do you think it makes sense to redeem your Steam key if you would have a DRM-free version you can download?
I think that if you don't like Steam enough you may gift the key and enjoy the downloadable version, but it may be more convenient to have the game in your Steam library instead of installing the DRM-free game. Moreover, some Steam exclusives like the Steam cards and achievements may make it worth it to also redeem the Steam key for yourself.
Your decision whether to redeem the key or not may depend on the game you have. For example, in the case of Retro/Grade what would you advise to do? If you don't own Retro/Grade you may comment this topic generally or tell what you've done with other games when you've been in a similar situation, .

[matt]

You aren't allowed to gift your Steam code and use the DRM free version. By buying the project on the Humble Store, you are purchasing one license for the game. You can use the Steam version, the DRM-free version, or both, but you can't give away one and use the other because you only have one license.

Ignoring the ethical ramifications, I would use the Steam version of Retro/Grade because it has the leaderboards, which as the designer, I intended to be a big part of the game. If you don't care about leaderboards, then I suppose there isn't a huge advantage of using the Steam version other than I think we had one or two more bug fixes in that build but did not update the DRM free version.

[mario]

You aren't allowed to gift your Steam code and use the DRM free version. By buying the project on the Humble Store, you are purchasing one license for the game. You can use the Steam version, the DRM-free version, or both, but you can't give away one and use the other because you only have one license.

Ignoring the ethical ramifications, I would use the Steam version of Retro/Grade because it has the leaderboards, which as the designer, I intended to be a big part of the game. If you don't care about leaderboards, then I suppose there isn't a huge advantage of using the Steam version other than I think we had one or two more bug fixes in that build but did not update the DRM free version.

Thanks for your answer!
I forgot meditating upon the licensing aspect of it, .
My topic was more focused on the rationality of being offered a Steam key and a DRM-free version of the same game, and the possible advantages of playing the Steam version over the DRM-free one or vice versa.
Regarding Retro/Grade I see that at least in one respect, leaderboards, players may prefer to stick to the steamesque version of the game.

[matt]

Ah I see.

I love Humble, and I like the idea of DRM-Free, but Steam is just so incredibly convenient that I hate playing things not through steam. Given the huge marketplace dominance of Steam on PC digital distributed sales, I'm not the only one. I game on multiple PCs (desktop, laptop, living room), so being able to migrate the game license and saved games seamlessly is a huge win.

Steam just has such a high quality of service that it is difficult for any other marketplace (GoG, Humble Store, Green Man Gaming, etc) to compare. Buying through the Humble Store is probably your best bet because it gives to charity as well as gets you a Steam key, but I have to admit that I'm really lazy and just buy everything through Steam anyway unless it's a Humble Bundle... :-/

We had a DRM discussion on the forums and some people mentioned they wouldn't buy something WITHOUT a DRM-free version in case the license servers go down or something. That is a legitimate concern. I have a ton of XBLA games, and if both Microsoft takes down the service as well as my 360 dies, I may be out of luck. Hopefully by then, Microsoft will have a 360 emulator on the Xbox FOUR or whatever they'll call it. Unfortunately, the Xbox One probably isn't powerful enough to do emulation of the 360 unless they do some really clever high-level precompiling emulator. (They did some clever stuff to get Xbox backwards compatibility on 360)

[mario]

Ah I see.

I love Humble, and I like the idea of DRM-Free, but Steam is just so incredibly convenient that I hate playing things not through steam. Given the huge marketplace dominance of Steam on PC digital distributed sales, I'm not the only one. I game on multiple PCs (desktop, laptop, living room), so being able to migrate the game license and saved games seamlessly is a huge win.

Steam just has such a high quality of service that it is difficult for any other marketplace (GoG, Humble Store, Green Man Gaming, etc) to compare. Buying through the Humble Store is probably your best bet because it gives to charity as well as gets you a Steam key, but I have to admit that I'm really lazy and just buy everything through Steam anyway unless it's a Humble Bundle... :-/

We had a DRM discussion on the forums and some people mentioned they wouldn't buy something WITHOUT a DRM-free version in case the license servers go down or something. That is a legitimate concern. I have a ton of XBLA games, and if both Microsoft takes down the service as well as my 360 dies, I may be out of luck. Hopefully by then, Microsoft will have a 360 emulator on the Xbox FOUR or whatever they'll call it. Unfortunately, the Xbox One probably isn't powerful enough to do emulation of the 360 unless they do some really clever high-level precompiling emulator. (They did some clever stuff to get Xbox backwards compatibility on 360)

You make a good point. I'd like to make a wrap-up of what I think about this: the rationale of having Steam and DRM-free versions of the same game at your disposal may lie in the fact that the DRM version is more "independent". In the very unlikely case that Valve's distribution software ceases operations, or you just stop using Steam for whatever reason, you may resort to your DRM-free game.
A plainer reason may be that some people simply don't like Steam or aren't used to it.