Is possible to play desura bought games without executing desura client? Thread - Desura

I have been thinking about this for a long time, and I haven't seen any answer to this. I'm really willing to buy games and support them using desura, but before I want to know if I will be able to play the games I buy (Unless they have a restrictive DRM I suppose) without having desura client in the background.

The reason of this question is that if this is possible, I will choose desura for sure, since I hate having to use middleware to be able to play the games I bought. I have been already using steam, but I reget using it when you want to get as most free RAM as possible when the situation requires it.

So that's all, I hope I haven't missed anyone that did the same question, thanks for your time and have fun! ^^

Nope, you don't have to have Desura running at all. A lot of games are completely DRM-free and then there are a few with DRM that you might want to avoid (like Unepic's online activation, boo!). There are a couple of games you'll definitely want to look out for and avoid which are just Steam keys (and therefore require Steam), e.g. Sanctum, Dino D-Day, etc.

Edited by: SirPrimalform

It sounds really awesome, I suspected it, but confirming it is really a good new to me, since I hated having to use steam to play any games I bought legally, while I could use other methods to play them without having to use steam as middleware (of course the game files were still legally adquired, for those who easily spot you as a thief, if you don't follow the "path").

Also, another good thing of this could be being able to put the game inside a usb key (as long as the eula doesn't forbid it) and play it whenever I want in any place I desire.

I will tell this to my friends so they know how a real online distribution software should be, and not how other companies try to implement somehow abusive DRM blinding us.

The only thing that desura misses are the big temporal discounts that other online distributors have, but I suppose they will come with time, when desura gets more attention. Thanks again for the fast answer and I hope this helps and open the eyes of other people as well, have fun! ^^.

May be a tad off topic, but I was wondering what happens to the games you bought if your account gets banned?
Steam seems to have some serious issues regarding this - what's Desura's standpoint?

XenonFORT wrote: The only thing that desura misses are the big temporal discounts that other online distributors have, but I suppose they will come with time, when desura gets more attention.

Keep in mind that, as far as I know, Desura doesn't control the pricing of a game; it's completely up to the developer/publisher.
This means that mostly likely only they can trigger such discounts. As for the number of games... well... again up to the devs.

AlexVSharp wrote: May be a tad off topic, but I was wondering what happens to the games you bought if your account gets banned?
Steam seems to have some serious issues regarding this - what's Desura's standpoint?

I imagine you wouldn't be able to download any games that you don't have installed, but you'd be able to play the ones currently installed. Really, I think the fact that Steam locking accounts removes access to the games is a gross abuse of power. The reason they're legally allowed to do this is because you don't actually buy licences on Steam, you buy subscriptions. They're lifetime single payment subscriptions, which makes it seem like you're buying a product. Unlike licences though, subscriptions can be terminated without notice and there is no obligation for any kind of refund.

AlexVSharp wrote:

XenonFORT wrote: The only thing that desura misses are the big temporal discounts that other online distributors have, but I suppose they will come with time, when desura gets more attention.

Keep in mind that, as far as I know, Desura doesn't control the pricing of a game; it's completely up to the developer/publisher.
This means that mostly likely only they can trigger such discounts. As for the number of games... well... again up to the devs.

Yeah, I think this is the case. Valve usually reserve the right to control pricing in their contracts with indie developers. In physical shop, the shop controls the pricing but cutting the price minimises their profits, e.g. they sell the game for $60 and make $30 profit, whereas if they sell it for $40 they only make $10 profit.
With Steam, Valve seems to retain control over the pricing but gets a fixed cut of the sale price, so instead of the discount coming purely out of their profits, it comes out of how much the developer gets as well.

So that's the case with Steam. What we need now is for an official to come and clarify how this works with Desura.

AlexVSharp wrote: So that's the case with Steam. What we need now is for an official to come and clarify how this works with Desura.

Yeah, sorry for the rant. One thing I'm sure of though is that even if you get banned here, things already installed will continue to work. It at least has that advantage over Steam.

Ok you do not need to use the client to run your games. The worst DRM on Desura is account activation and CD-Keys. Not every game is DRM free but a large number of them are.

We are also now allowing you download your games from the website as standalone downloads. You now don't even need the client to get them installed. I recommend that you use the client since that makes it easier to be notified of updates to the games, but that is up to you.

It completely depends on the contract the developer has with us as to how much say we have over pricing. We generally leave it to the developers to decide how much they want to charge for their games. Only in very rare circumstances do we (Desura) adjust the pricing of games. The only time I have ever changed a game's price was when Desura was the highest regular price for a game, then I modified it down to the same as every other online store. Changing the price without talking to the developer does not build good long term relationships with the developers which is what we want to have.

As far as I know we have never banned anyone, but I haven't been here since the beginning. I can honestly say I don't know for sure what we would do, since it would depend a lot on what the user was doing/did that warranted a ban. Something like credit card fraud would get an instant ban of the account, with no access to any games or updates.

Tim Jung
Desura Game Manager

Edited by: Protektor

Protektor wrote:
We are also now allowing you download your games from the website as standalone downloads. You now don't even need the client to get them installed. I recommend that you use the client since that makes it easier to be notified of updates to the games, but that is up to you.

This is huge news for me! The lack of a backup feature or standalone downloads was the primary reason I haven't actually bought anything here yet. Is this/will this be the case for all games? At the moment, you only have a linux download for Dungeons of Dredmor for example. Will you eventually have standalone downloads of all OS versions of all games?

Every game on the system is suppose to have a standalone download. All the new games added to the system do. Some of the older games from before we rolled out the standalone download feature may not have them up, but you can PM the developer asking them to upload a standalone version for you. Any time a game is added to the system now they are required to also upload a standalone version.

The exception to this is Alphafunding games that are getting updated very frequently since the update notify and update process of the client only make sense to use, rather than standalone downloads. Once the Alphafunding games get to non-Alpha/non-Beta or 1.0 or however you want to put it, then they are required to have a standalone version available. There should be even standalone versions of the demos as well.

Edited by: Protektor

Thanks for the clarification. The fact that you now require it of developers fills me with confidence (because I know I can ask for a download if one isn't already provided) .

All games are required to also have at least 1 support forum off their game. If there is not one send support an email letting us know so we can talk with the developer about getting it added. We are also working to get developers to demo versions for every game on the system. New games added to the system are required to have one. The exception to that is the games in the Alphafunding Program.

Ok, I have a new question: Why do some games here require Steam when they're available without Steam from other places? Examples being Tobe's Vertical Adventure (which is DRM-free on GamersGate) and Serious Sam TFE/TSE (both of which were originally released before Steam even existed).

I can understand things like Nuclear Dawn requiring Steam, because I don't think there is a non-Steam version, but it doesn't really make any sense for games that aren't Steam exclusives.

I have a question: I'm going to be taking a trip to california this year, laptop in tote, to visit my 80 year old grandmother. My question is, by "No DRM" do you mean the Desura client just... handles updates and purchases and the social end, and you could play your purchased games without an internet connection?

I am going to buy 3079 this wednesday. Got no doubt in my mind it's worth the money, however I'd like to have some confirmation I'd be able to play it without an internet connection, since my grandmother is on a fixed income and has never had anything but dial up (She's one of the legacy customers with a company that doesn't offer dial up to anyone ELSE anymore) .

I have no doubt that she'd get used to broadband REALLY fast, but she refuses to try it outright, like some kind of luddite. I'm going to be upgrading my phone plan so I can tether with 4G to my laptop, but after the high speed portion runs out, I'll still have trouble with low connection speeds.

Link6746 wrote: I have a question: I'm going to be taking a trip to california this year, laptop in tote, to visit my 80 year old grandmother. My question is, by "No DRM" do you mean the Desura client just... handles updates and purchases and the social end, and you could play your purchased games without an internet connection?

You are correct about the client, it's not required to run the games. You can just run it when you want to download a new game or update one. Most of the games here don't have any DRM at all, but there are a few (not involving the client though) and a very small number of games which actually just give you a Steam key.

The games that require Steam fortunately feature a warning just under the buy button, but there are no such warnings for other kinds of DRM (something I've been asking for).

EDIT: 3079 is completely DRM-free by the way. In fact, I think there was a first run message along the lines of "I don't know if you've bought this or not, but if you did, thank you! If you pirated it, please buy it.".

Edited by: SirPrimalform

Desura does not add any DRM to games. You do not need to use the Desura client to launch any games. It is probably more convenient and it will alert you to updates, so you probably do want to have the client open at least once in awhile.

As for the issue of Steam and non-Steam versions of games, we always try and get the non-Steam version of games. It maybe though that the game was on the system before a non-Steam version was available. Send support an email and we will try and work with the developer to get the non-Steam version on the system if there is one available.

Protektor wrote:
As for the issue of Steam and non-Steam versions of games, we always try and get the non-Steam version of games. It maybe though that the game was on the system before a non-Steam version was available. Send support an email and we will try and work with the developer to get the non-Steam version on the system if there is one available.

The Tobe developers have since put the game on Desura so the only one I'm really confused about is Serious Sam TFE and TSE. Those games are far older than Steam itself so there have definitely been non-Steam versions around for the entire time Desura has existed. Anyway, I'm not that bothered about Serious Sam, it's just a bit confusing.

My understanding was that the developer was in the middle of a project and couldn't go back and pull out the old non-Steam versions for us since the old versions used cd-keys and they would have to dig out the key generator and give us keys or go back and remove the DRM. I may be remembering that wrong.