Valve introduced the Steam system for activating Half Life 2 back inand over the intervening years this has evolved into more than a DRM system, becoming a digital delivery service for many games, hosting downloadable content, gaming communities and online support. However the requirement for Steam to be added to computers as part of the Civilization V installation game as a big surprise to a lot of users when the game was released in As a result many have been looking to find a way of playing the game without using Steam. This works to varying degrees, but in the case of some games such as Half Life 2 it can result in problems for the consumer if the server managing activation is under too much pressure.
DRM - Digital Rights Management - is a feature of more and more games for Windows as publishers take heavy handed steps to prevent their titles from being pirated.
