[ETR3(SS)]

Originally Posted by jclasper

I notice how Trenken always avoids answering questions and continually defends DRM.

He brings up a good point, so I'll answer my own questions for you.

1. Define what DRM is for us all please.

Originally Posted by Dictionary.com

Digital Rights Management legal
(DRM) Any technology used to limit the use of software, music, movies or other digital data. This generally relies on some interaction between the media and the system that plays it. For example, video DVDs usually include a region code. If this does not match the player's region code, the player will refuse to play the disc.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

Computer games sometimes use DRM technologies to limit the number of systems the game can be installed on by requiring authentication with an online server. Most games with this restriction allow three or five installs, although some allow an installation to be 'recovered' when the game is uninstalled. This not only limits users who have more than three or five computers in their homes (seeing as the rights of the software developers allow them to limit the number of installations), but can also prove to be a problem if the user has to unexpectedly perform certain tasks like upgrading operating systems or reformatting the computer's hard drive, tasks which, depending on how the DRM is implemented, count a game's subsequent reinstall as a new installation, making the game potentially unusable after a certain period even it is only used on a single computer.

2. Define what an MMO is and what a simulation is.

Originally Posted by Wikipedia

A massively multiplayer online game (also called MMOG) is a video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and feature at least one persistent world.

A simulation video game describes a diverse super-category of computer and video games, generally designed to closely simulate aspects of a real or fictional reality.

Let's take that a step further as it applies to this thread.

Vehicle simulations
A genre of video game where players experience driving a vehicle. This includes flight simulators, racing games, and games that involve controlling other vehicles like tanks, trains, or boats.

3. If having a computer die and losing data is a viable reason for online saves, should not windows/linux/mac OSX info be stored on a remote server as well?

If we all went this way we would never lose any of our data...oh except when the server crashes. Ask a lot of the members here about the great Subsim crash.

4. Do you know ALL the PC gamers in the world?

I would say that no you don't. You know your friends and colleagues which more than likely have similar tastes and interests to you, hence they're your friends. Therefore you can not speak for everyone.

5. Myself a former submariner, does that mean that soldiers and sailors on deployment should not have the ability to play games in their off time?

I'll leave this one for you still.