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Steam store highlight DRM words

By Denilson Figueiredo de Sá — Last update Feb 10, 2013 — Installed 3,980 times.

Script Summary: Highlight DRM-related words in Steam Store pages, so you won't accidentally buy DRM-crippled games.



Version: 1.5

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This is a simple but incredibly useful script that highlights some DRM-related words from the Steam store pages. This way, you can make a conscious decision about buying a game, without need to read all those small letters in order to find DRM information.

For most people, DRM is a no-buy, and this script should be incredibly useful for them.

See also the Unofficial List of Steam Games with DRM, at the Steam User's Forum (but the list itself is hosted at The Big List of 3rd Party DRM on Steam).

Features

  • Highlights in red color all terms related to DRM.
  • Shows a red message at the top of the page if any DRM word was found.
  • Passing the mouse over that message at the top will show a summary of what DRM words were found.

Blacklisted DRM words

Here is the rough list of blacklisted terms (note that such terms are matched using regular expressions, so it will also catch a few variations)

  • 3rd-party DRM
  • SecuROM
  • TAGES
  • Solidshield
  • Starforce
  • Uniloc
  • FrontLine ProActive
  • Games For Windows LIVE
  • Microsoft SSA
  • EA Access
  • EA Account
  • Ubisoft’s Online Services Platform
  • permanent Internet connection
  • Internet connection required to play
  • single-use serial code
  • creation of a Ubisoft account
  • activation

There are also a few blacklisted game titles, as people in forum claim they contain DRM or GFWL even tough the store page doesn't talk about that. Look at the source code to see the complete list. However, it would be better to write a different different script exclusively for the blacklist feature.

History

  • 2013-02-10: 1.5 - Added "EA Account", "Internet connection required to play", "single-use serial code".
  • 2011-08-30: 1.4 - Added "EA Access".
  • 2011-07-29: 1.3.3 - Added more regular expressions to detect Ubisoft accounts and services.
  • 2011-07-10: 1.3.2 - The script now adds a link to The Big DRM List, in addition to the forum topic.
  • 2011-07-10: 1.3.1 - Updated the link to the forum topic. I haven't done it before because I didn't remember the script generated a link!
  • 2011-05-21: 1.3 - Added "Microsoft SSA".
  • 2011-04-26: 1.2 - Fixed "stages" false-positive, updated forum topic URL inside the script comments.
  • 2011-04-24: 1.1 - Improved GFWL detection, added Solidshield, added 2 URLs, removed Borderlands from blacklist (only some DLC has DRM), added Spectromancer to blacklist.
  • 2010-04-10: 1.0 - First version.