Questions about sellin games

[LP]

For example, what is "Pay for play" (or Pay4play, as I've read)? I've bought Minecraft, which is pay4play, but I don't understand it. Ok, if I don't pay I can't play multiplayer mode and it doesn't updates automatically. Is that all? All games that are Pay4play are the same? Isn't Pay4play another way to say shareware?

(not specifically about Minecraft) My understanding about pay for play is that real money is exchanged with virtual money in the game to advance on levels, getting items and other features unlocked.

Another concept is "DRM free". I know what DRM is (I think ), but I don't get that concept. I see that some Steam games are DRM free, but do you need to connect to Steam to play them as in any other Steam game? If you need to then it isn't DRM free actually, is it?

Steam *is* a DRM and just by definition of it, any game published through Steam uses DRM. For instance, I've purchased Metro 2033 on GamersGate, and it requires Steam, so just to run the game, I had to download a third-party package that limits the usage of product; this is exactly what DRM is.

And talking about Steam: Last time I used Steam was about 3 or 4 years ago, and it was painful. People said me that it changed a lot in last years but I'm not sure. I remember that it starts-up with the OS and it steals a lot of resources (memory and CPU) and it isn't possible to halt it, not even to uninstall it (I had to format and re-install Windows to remove it). How does it work now?

In my own experience: it did not improve. Their buggy application when doesn't break, downloads things without your consent and displays popups when you least expect it. But maybe I'm not their target audience.

Google's Play Store is much the same dog* but this time the culprit are the software-makers themselves (not all them, fortunately) adding buttons in the appropriate places to be clicked.

Google Play Store is very similar to Apple Store. Both are okay, but can be widely abused by app makers. For instance, Apple has been sued for allowing unlimited charges without even asking for password.

Many games try to make money by "black mailing" you: the game seems innocent at first, but then to build things, or get things, you need to pay, then, to advance to another level, you need to pay, and then, just to view your progress, you need to pay, etc.

And I've read that Microsoft has it's own store and that anything that isn't acquired through this store are treated as malware by Windows 8. Is that true.

I think this applies only to Windows 8 RT. However, I would suggest to avoid this platform altogether because... it's Windows 8.