Remember the older days of PC gaming? And by older, I don't mean playing Doom, Duke Nukem, Myst, or even Starcraft. I'm talking about the days before . Remember those?

There was no logging in just to play a game, no internet activations, or mandatory patches just to play the single player. All that you had to do was buy the game at a local store (perhaps even used!), pop the disc in, type in the activation code on the box or instruction booklet, and the rest was history. No hassle. You just had to make sure the disc was kept in OK condition.

Turn to today and DRM, more specifically SercRom, has basically ruined some games. Games that were supposed to be blockbuster were anything but. A perfect example was Spore, as word quickly spread how terrible the DRM was, and sales were way below expected.

Now, I understand that companies want to protect their material, but how much is too far? Limiting to a ridiculously low number of installations? Forcing massive, 2 GB updates just to play? Now, Ubisoft's new DRM forces you to be connected to the internet THE WHOLE TIME!! Not just to install or finish, but to play through the game! If you lose connection for any length of time, then the game immediately stops and you lose anything not saved! What if your router hiccups for a second? What if your internet goes out? Sorry, no gaming for you. This is just ridiculous. Piracy is a problem; always has been and always will be, but if this keeps going, it will only encourage people to find away around it and pirate it more.

One company that I do not mind is Steam, as it seems fairly flexible. As long as you log in to Steam and install, you can play it on that PC, internet connected or not (not quite sure what the limit is, though, if ther is one). Another game that I thought used DRM in a decent way was THQ's Company of Heroes, and it became more apparant in the expansion, Opposing Fronts. You could choose to login, but you could also let the disc in and have it validate that way. Nothing too intrusive. Another company that really gets this is Stardock. They actually reject the idea of DRM. No hassle. Just install and play, and I love it. But these companies are few and far between.

If this keeps up, no wonder people are saying that PC gaming is on its last legs. If I had to choose between the console and PC version of the same game and the PC game is riddled with DRM, I would certianly choose the console version. Developers must stop with intrusive, annoyting, infuriating DRM. A little bit is fine, and I guess logging in is OK. But where it's headed is not in the right direction.