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PCGA To "Take Up the Challenge of Piracy"
Ars Technica reports that the PC Gaming Alliance has declared themselves the "guardians of PC gaming," which includes finding ways to help gamers decide on gaming hardware, and to make progress on the issues of piracy and DRM.
"[PCGA President Randy Stude said,] 'The PCGA will take up the challenge of piracy, not to assume the responsibility that the ESA has taken on... rather the PCGA would like to address the methodology that publishers might be able to take to solve, or to do a better job trying to solve, the piracy challenge for their substantial investments in content.' The PCGA won't give a standard approach to publishers, saying it is much more likely it will release a series of recommendations to publishers, and track piracy on an annual basis to see if the problem is growing or shrinking. The PCGA is also working on methods for members to track how effective their antipiracy measures are once a game has been released."
Why do people still use PCs for gaming? PCs are business tools... Consoles are better for gaming because the game development company can rely upon a specific hardware configuration.
This isn't a troll, but an honest observation.
I bought Unreal Tournament 3 recently for my ps3 (which I bought primarily to watch blu-ray movies on) for three reasons:
1. It's $20, brand new
2. I saw that the company put up map packs for download on the playstation store, for FREE - unlike every other game that charges you up to $10-15 for a couple extra maps
3. You can use a USB or bluetooth keyboard and mouse to play the game, on the ps3!
I've only played it for a few minutes (I've got other things, like being a grad student and browsing slashdot, to do) but it worked flawlessly and it could have fooled me into thinking I was playing on a computer if someone else had set it up (it helps of course that I don't have a TV and connect the ps3 to my computer monitor.)
If other console games supported that, I would be much happier to pay the ridiculous prices they want for them.
...says someone who still no doubt expects to get paid for HIS job [...] take the fruits of other peoples work for free.
Canonical pays money to developers in return for them making the software better. The software that they give away.
Consider that for a while.
My brother and I recently started an independent video game company and I had seen the PCGA covered on Slashdot a few times before. Looking for resources to help us, I called them up asking what they could do for us as a Mac, Windows, and Linux video game developer. They basically straight up said, "well... nothing". To be 100% honest, I do not really know what they do. If I had not seen them on Slashdot, I would not have known they existed.
I look forward to the day when they can do something for us, but until then as a PC game developer, albeit small, I can let you guys know that these guys don't represent us in any way shape or form. However, I wish them luck on their anti-piracy endeavor.
Meanwhile, on our end, we are going to lay off the invasive DRM and instead rely on creating high quality downloadable content and other online features like multiplayer which provide a clear incentive to purchase our game.
And Canonical is losing money on the proposition, as we discussed recently.
Consider that for a while.
"16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard