Civ 4 DRM free!

OK, sorry folks, but blame Facebook; I post there what I used to post here. I will try and get back in the habit of coming here too.

But this deserved significant mention: I just bought a DVD called "Civilization IV the Complete Edition". It's a $40 DVD of the last-gen Civ.

As background, I will state that the only reason I refuse (and will continue to refuse) to buy and play Civ 5 is because it requires Steam, which is absolutely offensive to me. At least in the old days of DRM I could use a no-cd exe to run MY software (do you hear me, software companies? once I buy it, it's mine, not yours) on my laptop, which simply doesn't have a CD drive. I install the game using an external drive, replace the exe with the cracked one, and off I go.

Well, in Civ 5's case, that's no longer possible, because of the Steam requirement. So I won't purchase it. Enough said.

But it did reignite the taste of Civ for me. I was going to reinstall Civ 4 on my laptop using the above method, since I already own the game. Why am I bolding the last statement? because at Best Buy I found this complete edition, and on the very back of the DVD case it said, very clearly, "DRM free version".

Well, at that point I had to buy it, even if only to encourage 2K to do the same with other software. So I bought a game I already owned, instead of spending a penny on one that has DRM, and because of DRM. Yes, I gained some value beyond personal satisfaction; I had not owned any of the expansions, which the complete edition comes with. But it would have been cheaper to buy those separately. It was the "DRM free" aspect that made this a must-buy for me. I just hope others feel the same way. Maybe there's still a tiny chance to rid the world of idiocies like Steam (I wouldn't hold my breath).

Oh, and also, I lovelovelove WINE. Civ 4 installs and run flawlessly through WINE on my Ubuntu Linux. Good job, WINE geeks!