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Bleak Future for Videogame Customers
jvm writes "A recent commentary on Curmudgeon Gamer speculates on the future of the videogame market. Among the predictions: no more rentals from video stores, no used games market, no lending games to friends, less upgradeable computers, pay-as-you-play software subscriptions, and other consumer-unfriendly changes. In all, less gaming value for your hard-earned dollar."
Remember CD keys?
Did he forget the generations of copy protection before this?
The C64 copy protection battles, with the crazy disk access.
The code wheels and papers, and manuals
Companies keep trying, get some success, then it starts to fail, then they improve. This is just the copy protection arms race.
This is a trend, I agree, but it isn't the whole picture. The dark cloud is rather ominous looking, but I see (a hint of) a silver lining. Often overlooked in these discussions is the open-source/free software philosophy.
The large multinational conglomerates are creating the very niche OS/FS needs to flourish. We see it in the software market. For every increasingly restricted option, there is one or more viable, active OS/FS projects.
And while *content* is almost invariably locked up behind ClearChannel, RIAA/MPAA, EA, Hollywood, et. all, I think it is only a matter of time before independent content producers begin to gain a foothold. I would cite the rise of the so-called "blogospher" as evidence of this. As a reaction to the percieved bias (in the general sense of the word) in popular media, weblogs are beginning to establish themselves as legitimate news alternatives.
I think that is the power of the Internet. The physical medium is not very important any more. Because you have a broadcast tower or printing press does not guarentee you a news monopoly anymore. The instant dissemination of the Internet is breaking down (or at least challenging) the old barriers of entry. The same is true for the rest of the content industry. We all have CD burners. What need is there for a stamping plant? That's what makes the FS/OS model a viable alternative to the corporate machine. By severly lowering distribution costs, the players are forced to compete on product.
I feel it is only a matter of time before the creativity is so far encumbered by the restrictions of the corporate world that it will flow to other, more open channels. You might have to give up the polish, as we reinvent the latest shading technologies or explosion sequences, but we will always have the creativity.
If nothing else, this angle desevers consideration.
What they can do is use an algorithm to generate a unique key (from a hash or whatever), then generate tens of millions (out of possible hundred-gazallions) of these keys.
The crackers can still crack the hash, as much as they would like; they'll come up with keys that should work... But the trick is this:
The publisher stores in it's database all of the keys that are shipped with products. While any number of keys may actually allow the product to install, when it phones home, your key has to match a key in the database.
This technique is MUCH harder to beat than a regular key system--partially because at any point you can be assured that a REAL customer is probably using his REAL key. And that's okay. Most of the services that use this technique are online games, and some of them have a single player element that can be explored whilst offline. From my perspective, it allows you a good look at what the game is like online, so you can decide if it's worth it to buy.
And, y'know? I'm fine with keys. If you wanna play, you gotta pay.
actually, it's that the last 7 digits have to add up to a number that's evenly divisible by 7.
1111111 = 7 7/7 = 1 valid key
7777777 = 49 49/7 = 7 valid key
6667888 = 49 49/7 = 7 valid key
1234567 = 28 28/7 = 4 valid key
4432453 = 25 25/7 = 3.571... Not a valid key
This works for the older MS products that have the 3-7 digit keys, not sure about the 5-5-5-5-5 digit keys.
Zro . two
"I come from Canada...they say I'm slow....eh?"