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Can You Fight DRM With Patience?
As modern DRM schemes get more annoying and invasive, the common wisdom is to vote with your wallet and avoid supporting developers and publishers who include such schemes with their games. Or, if you simply must play it, wait a while until outcry and complaints have caused the DRM restrictions to be loosened. But will any of that make game creators rethink their stance? An article at CNet argues that gamers are, in general, an impatient bunch, and that trait combined with the nature of the games industry means that progress fighting DRM will be slow or nonexistent. Quoting:
"Increasingly so, the joke seems to be on the customers who end up buying this software when it first comes out. A simple look back at some controversial titles has shown us that after the initial sales come, the publisher later removes the vast majority of the DRM, leaving gamers to enjoy the software with fewer restrictions. ... Still, [waiting until later to purchase the game] isn't a good long-term solution. Early sales are often one of the big quantifiers in whether a studio will start working on a sequel, and if everyone were to wait to buy games once they hit the bargain price, publishers would simply stop making PC versions. There's also no promise that the really heavy bits of DRM will be stripped out at a later date, except for the fact that most publishers are unlikely to want to maintain the cost of running the activation, and/or online verification servers for older software."
It doesn't need to be long time - this week EA removed SecuROM from Bad Company 2, only two weeks after release date. It's just the first sales and trying to make sure pirated version doesn't get out too early, even if that's not usually possible (wasn't now either). But EA has been really good at learning this, either they ship their game without any DRM or release it after a few weeks of first sales if pirated version is out already. As weird as it sounds to say this about EA, I wish Ubisoft and Activision would learn from them.
Can You Fight DRM With Patience?
I realize that this is in the game section but allow me to recount a story from not two weeks ago. A story in which I almost threw my XBox 360 through the goddamn wall. I have one machine that runs Windows XP and connected to that via cat5e cable (shared internet connection) is my XBox 360. In order to share my media (about a TB of MP3s and Videos -- all very legal unless it is unlicensed video), I need to have this Zune software installed. Fine. I had installed it a while ago and though somewhat resource intensive in its UI and "bus service," it worked.
.NET libraries related to the Zune software (the bloat is really hilarious) and all updates. Reinstalled everything. Still not working.
... you guessed it ... DRM user files. What I did to cause my DRM files to shit the bed, I'll never know. Is it hashing something with a unique processor string? Was it the extra two gigs of RAM I also added? I don't know. I do know I wasted the better part of a night and did not get to watch Zap ask if they have beer on the sun.
... because I bet resetting your DRM files in your user directory make those files undecryptable.
Then I upgraded my computer's CPU from a single core to a quad core. I decided to rip my newly acquired MST3K licensed DVD of The Final Sacrifice to watch Zap Rowsdower in disgustingly high definition (better than my VHS rips anyway) across a network on multiple devices.
The Zune software stopped working. Blew an error box whenever I started the service.
I reinstalled the Zune software. Nope. I went to Microsoft's support. Searched everywhere. I uninstalled the
Finally I found that my error code was related to me not having valid
The fix was simple. You had just had to run some executable in Windows that re-initialized all your DRM files. So I tried to run it. Guess what. You can't run it if you don't have valid DRM files in your Local Settings directory. So I deleted them. No luck. Same behavior as if I had tried to start Zune. So I Googled. And I searched my OS hard drive for anything with 'drm' in the title. Curiously enough, my Netflix installation had some executable to the effect of drmreset.exe. At this point, I would try anything. I tried it and it worked. I couldn't believe it.
Now, I'm thinking it's good I didn't use the Zune software to rip anything to DRM encrypted format
And what caused all this? I still don't know. Was it because I had the Netflix silverlight crapware installed to watch Netflix? Was it because I had XNA installed as well? Was it simply a CPU upgrade? I have a masters in computer science. And this is the shit they expect your regular consumer to figure out.
In my unfortunate above example, DRM is unavoidable. I couldn't "wait" that out. I couldn't watch streaming media on my game station. Something that should "just work" was hilariously disabled by none other than DRM. It's everywhere. Especially in gaming. This is just one story of DRM inhibiting my ability to enjoy something I paid money for. And it pisses me off. To the point of slowly migrating away from gaming. If you haven't had to tangle with DRM and you're a gamer, just wait. You will.
My work here is dung.
Why would you use something like Zune for streaming to 360, especially if you're ripping your files yourself from DVD so they don't contain any DRM? Granted I rather stream to my PS3 than 360 because I like the interface and PS3 Media Server better, but TVersity works just fine with 360 too. Maybe there's some specialized 360 streaming software too like PS3 has. But streaming from Windows Media Player or Zune is just shit. Try the alternatives.
How does waiting for a publisher to loosen DRM equate to fighting DRM?
Gandhi and King taught non-violent resistance, but you can win against human beings. You can't win against a profit motive.
Games have become such huge business surrounded by such huge marketing hype that the games companies can now basically do what they like.
They don't care about the "intelligent gamers" who sit on the fence for a while after a game is released, read reviews & see what problems there are before they think about buying it - they're interested in the fanbois and the screaming kids who force their parents to queue up at midnight on release day, ultimately it's about how many copies are sold in the first couple of weeks.
Screaming kids don't care about DRM and fanbois will find a way of rationalising the inconvenience of DRM into something that is good.
I'm still disgusted with myself that even though Fallout 3 is one of the best and most absorbing games I have ever played, I still put up with having to insert my game DVD into the drive every time I play it, even though I log into Windows Live each time and have already purchased some of the DLC.
With that said, I waited about a year after release before I bought it and even then the game was suffering from some fairly bad crashes due to bugs in it.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
How about an escrow system where I can pay my money for the game, but don't receive it until the DRM is removed? And if the price drops in the meantime, I get a refund. Or if I decide to cancel, I get a full refund. That way, the developer will see that there are gamers out there wanting to put money in their hands for a legitimate copy of the game, but unwilling to put up with the DRM.
In the meantime, I can download the cracked version... :)
Any fool can talk, but it takes a wise man to listen.
To the point of slowly migrating away from gaming. If you haven't had to tangle with DRM and you're a gamer, just wait.
But see, you've said it yourself - "slowly migrating away".
We're all of the same, we're all far too *PASSIVE* about this stuff, I am the same. What we should be doing is taking the stuff back to where we purchased it from and demanding a refund or that it's fixed immediately because it's not fit for purpose.
I really do not give a shit what games companies do to stop pirates copying their games - as long as it doesn't impact me as an honest gamer who buys all that he plays.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Hold on a second: Is that summary supposed to tell me "go buy the DRM infested crap or else publishers will stop making PC games"? How about NOT infesting it with "you are a criminal and if not, prove it" DRM that makes me NOT want to buy the game? I want the game at release. Hell, who doesn't? I also do not mind paying 50 bucks for it. Or 60, now that the Euro is getting weaker too. But I DO mind the infection of my machine with something of dubious quality that gives me no net benefit whatsoever. I'm not gonna bend over and pray they use a little lube this time.
And now I get told "if you don't bend over, they'll stop making games for you". Are you fuckin' kiddin' me? Make games that I want to buy and I'll buy them! Stardock is a good example. I don't care if they cost 20 bucks or 60 (ok, a bit, but it's certainly no showstopper for me), I'm not waiting for games to get to the bargain bin. I'm waiting for a game that doesn't ram stuff up my ass that I dunno where it's been before.
Prime example, R.U.S.E. It sure looked like a good candidate for my next RTS. I liked the beta. But, Ubi, sorry, no deal. Take out your "stay online to play single player" copy protection, I'll buy. Leave it in, I will not.
It is that easy.
So please don't try to guilt-trip me with the notion that if we don't swallow that crap they'll stop making games for PC gamers. If anyone is to blame for that, it's the idea that gamers are criminals. Unless they can prove themselves innocent.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
you can torrent the game, and then pay if you care
And if a lot more people completely boycots DRM-crippled software/games/music/movies, vendors will be forced to stop using DRM.
.sig: No such file or directory
If a game comes with DRM that you don't like, you really mustn't buy it. If you do, it rewards Ubisoft or EA or whoever, and the DRM scheme will either be used again or made worse!
Pirating the game sends the same message. The publishers do have some idea of the numbers of peopls who are copying their games, and if there are many more than expected, then the DRM scheme will be made worse!
Therefore, it's very important to check the "Requirements" for a game before you buy, even if your PC will clearly be capable of running it. Respectable stores like Steam will warn you about the types of DRM used by the game in clear terms, and you can decide whether it's too much. This information isn't in large text in the centre of the screen as it should be ("Warning: SecuROM", "Danger - Game Published By Ubisoft") but it's there, and these days you must always check for it.
Can you fight DRM with patience? Well, yes or no, it's your only option. Voting with your wallet is your only way to discourage this sort of thing. Eventually the price will be lowered and (maybe) the DRM will be removed to pick up extra sales. Then you win.
You're an immobile computer, remember?
Why would you use something like Zune for streaming to 360
Good question! Where would I get such a crazy idiotic idea?! Perhaps it was the fact that the manufacturer of both my gaming system and operating system (of that machine) suggested it? And at what point in the future of TVersity does a fancy little update to my XBox 360 render TVersity useless?
Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the link to TVersity and will try it out at home but Microsoft disabled third party storage on the XBox 360, how long before they get bored and engage in a little cat-and-mouse game with TVersity? I wish I could drop $300 and get a PS3 and use your suggestion but I don't think I should have to invest that much in order to watch The Final Sacrifice streaming from my personal computer to my TV.
But streaming from Windows Media Player or Zune is just shit.
Honestly, everything was working in an acceptable manner right up until something happened to my C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\DRM files. Is it WMP & Zune that are shit or is it just the DRM? I know I'm not going to be Mr. Popular for saying this but Zune software is just as good/bad as the iTunes software. Its UI is pretty. It's bloated. It's "free" as in the executable's downloadable but you just have to pay a lot of money in auxiliary products to be able to use it.
My work here is dung.
Any kind of DRM affects you negatively. There have been a lot of protection schemes over the years, from doc checks to "original DVD required" to serial numbers to the now popular online registration and perpetual connection scheme. All of them have some impact on you and may or may not limit your chance to play the game if you lost the manual, DVD or serial or cannot go online for some reason.
The question is just what degree is still acceptable to you.
What's worst about DRM is that it does affect you, the honest, paying customer, but it does not affect those that copy the content. They don't need the original CD (duh, they don't have one), they needn't go online, they need no serial number (or get one generated with a handy program), they need no online connection to register. THAT is the main problem with every single DRM scheme that ever existed.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I don't think there is any incentive for Microsoft to start fighting against TVersity. It doesn't really matter for MS how you stream you content to your 360. Besides, both 360 (as well as PS3 and even many TV's) use Universal Plug and Play for streaming on network, not some proprietary 360-only technology.
You can fight DRM not with patience, but with Reason.
Incidentally, DRM and commercial control is one of the main reasons, I believe, that there are so few commercial games released for Linux.
If you're a Linux user running a Linux OS then you're probably a fairly savvy computer user, and you're running an open OS where, if something untoward is happening deep down in the OS, there's a chance you will notice it.
If you're running Windows or playing on a game console, there can be all sorts of checks and processes going on that you will never know about because your view of that system is restricted.
And, incidentally, that isn't a dig at Windows users or console users - I run Linux and XP, I also own a Wii - but I do believe there is probably some serious nasty stuff going on inside your machines that you don't know about with a lot of this game DRM stuff.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
It seems a lot of the more intrusive, powerful DRM systems are created for the purpose of at least having the game uncrackable for the first day of release, when many people will want it. This means that many of the people who really want to play it will end up buying it because a crack is unavailable at the time, even if it's for only a day. If more and more people keep waiting for the crack, the first-day sales that these companies rely on will drop. And that will certainly be interesting once it reaches a critical point.
You are now manually breathing.
How is that Assassins Creed 2 with Ubisoft's new online DRM working out for you? There still isn't pirated copies of that which work correctly.
I don't think there is any incentive for Microsoft to start fighting against TVersity. It doesn't really matter for MS how you stream you content to your 360.
You said you owned an XBox, did you notice how you can buy video and music via Zune's Store?
Allow me to spell this out for you very clearly: they wanted me to install Zune software because they want the marketshare of me purchasing all of my songs and videos through the Zune software. It functions just like iTunes Software in that it's supposed to be your one stop shop for dumping oodles of cash towards the RIAA and MPAA. iTMS is a cash cow for Apple. You're crazy if you think Microsoft doesn't want in on that action. If that's not incentive, I don't know what is.
And if you try and tell me that Microsoft would never do that, check out how they manipulated (and still kind of do) the browser marketshare. If you own any of their products, they'll take any chance they get to shove Bing and Zune down your gullet.
Besides, both 360 (as well as PS3 and even many TV's) use Universal Plug and Play for streaming on network, not some proprietary 360-only technology.
Hence the need for an update to both ends in order to move to something proprietary. It's probably unlikely but you can never be completely sure with Microsoft. They're not exactly the poster child of companies embracing open standards and protocols ...
My work here is dung.
I agree, and I've played games for over a quarter of a century now (Damn! My fingers are tired!).
In that time I've seen some *CRAZY* game protection schemes including Lenslok on Sinclair ZX Spectrum games, as well as unlock keys generated from coloured stripes in manuals (because in those days there were only black & white photocopiers).
Nowadays, I don't think any of it is acceptable because I'm a cynical old man in his 40s. But in those days, it used to piss me off a little, but it didn't stop me buying more protected games and/or copying them - so whilst I don't have much good to say about most modern games, I can see why kids today are putting up with the same crap I was willing to put up with.
The only thing that was better "then" was that the protection wasn't as intrusive - i.e. you put in a code, then went off and played the games. These days there's information being retrieved from your PC and console, stored on some centralised server somewhere...
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
I do not need patience I have peer 2 peer....
Patience Is parlance But a ripper Is quicker.
There use to be these horrible protections in the 90's. It all vanished, only CD-KEY check remained. And now we see another wave of zealot-protection from game dev's or game people.
Maybe is interesting that these protections are added by the publishers, against the will of the game studios. A good game can be ruined by a bad DRM, but that will kill the game studio, it will not affect the publishers much.
Most of these new DRM systems seems designed to stop people from sharing games with friends or brothers, not to stop piracy, piracy is just the scapegoat.
The danger is to scare people away from videogames. Much has been done to attract new people to gamming, the whole casual thingie, It will easier to lost that people again, with complicated DRM systems that break the release day (like the Ubisoft system, that where down the first day, cracked after 12 hours or something, so only pirates where allowed to play the game, pay customers where forced to wait )
Steam is another DRM system, the model that most (not all) users want, one where things "just work", and add features and enough convenience, to make for the lost of control. So is a good deal. Most game publishers release games that are a "bad deal", the idea of releasing something that is worth buying escape then, focus on "screw" customers releasing the minimun product to the maximun price. Most big publishers already have a fame of "evil" or "stupid". Lets remenber here that most people have other options than videogames, and may buy music, or travel, and ignore the videogame culture, if we make this culture too much anti-customers, like EA, Activision and Ubisoft are doing.
-Woof woof woof!
The funny part is, at the end of the day DRM has not yet actually *stopped* any piracy from happening. Some games are harder to crack than others, but even then the costs of doing so do not rank in the millions of dollars. Money spent on DRM should instead go to subsidising distributers to make the game cheaper.
Not sure how I feel about this. On the one hand, removing a bad DRM from a game X weeks after release is at least an improvement over not removing it at all. Maybe it gives the publisher a warm fuzzy feeling that they are fighting piracy at release. Although we all know the reality that the game is often cracked within hours of release and in some cases it's cracked before release.
But from a customer perspective, I still feel like I'm getting screwed by the publisher if I go out and buy a new game shortly after release. Consider the following questions:
1. If I wait X weeks until they remove the DRM, why should I _need_ to patch my game to remove the DRM.
2. Why is the DRM even there to begin with? Does it really do any good?
3. Referring to question 1, how many Joe Sixpack's patch their games at all, unless the game goes online and checks routinely?
4. Why am I buying intentionally defective goods?
5. How much extra cost goes into implementing, testing and supporting the DRM? This number has got to be huge for the publishers. Not to mention the licensing cost the publisher has to pay to the DRM licensor.
On principle, I am still strongly against invasive DRM. Assassin's Creed 2 and future Ubisoft titles are on my do-not-buy list thanks to their draconian, invasive DRM. I will not download cracked versions of these games either, I will just not play them. Until the publishers wise up and realize they are only shooting themselves in the foot, I will not buy their games. Here is my list of unacceptable practices:
- game requires activation over the internet
- single-player and non-online games that require an internet connection to run
- games that can only save to online game servers operated by the publisher
- games that cannot be played in 5 years because they depend on some online service/server that has been taken offline by the publisher
- games that limit the number of installations
- games that check their activation status periodically
- games that cannot be installed to more than one PC (not equal to running them at the same time)
- games that are locked-down to the hardware signature on which they were originally installed
- installs any hidden services, software or devices in my system with or without my explicit authorization (this includes Starforce and SecuROM)
My list of acceptable practices:
- basic disc checks, or
- Steam-like content delivery services, which can be used in offline mode, do not limit number of installs and do not require an internet connection except during installation, etc.
However, combining the above 2 practices is unacceptable. There are probably few if any new commercial games anymore that meet my requirements. Have I bought games which violate some of my unacceptable practices; Yes, unfortunately. I'm afraid there is no easy answer or solution to the problem.
Perhaps the brainwashing of the MAFIAA made you forget, but we started out as the dominant ones. That’s why they came up with the whole DRM schemes in the first place.
And perhaps you noticed, that DRM can not work by its very definition. It’s a physically impossible concept.
The whole reason they are getting so crazy, is because they are doomed to die, and they know it. And I’m only talking about the publishers, that nobody needs anymore since the Internet replaced them. Not about the artists, who now see a glimmer of light of getting out of the nasty wrath of publisher contracts and terms.
We already won. We were always winning. That’s the whole thing.
They would have to create a global totalitarian system to stop us from winning. Like ACTA + 1984.
And even when we ignore that that’n not going to happen (ACTA is alreary revoked by most states)... it wouldn’t be the first revolution where heads get cut off for freedom, now would it?
The can not win this one. So stop the loser attitude. Because in the wars of psychology and social engineering (which this one is), you usually get exactly what you prophecy to happen.
Think about how you influence people, when you stand there on your soap box, and don’t say “Those crazy people have no chance. We laugh in their faces.”, but instead ask in that suggestive way “Oh god, how can we even possibly win that one? We’re doomed! DOOOMED!!!”.
Because the second one is what you’re doing. And it’s not cool!
So come on! Take off the reality distortion glasses of the MAFIAA, look at factual reality, and see that even according to their own predictions, their death struggle is over in about 5-7 years!
Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
Early sales are often one of the big quantifiers in whether a studio will start working on a sequel
The author says this as if a sequel is a good thing. If it's true that all sequels are better than the original version, wouldn't the wise choice be to skip version 1 and buy the sequel?
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
The crux of this is they don't expect the regular user to figure out all of the above, they expect them to get frustrated but just end up buying their content all over again. That was the only reason DRM was ever used with video/audio media, it certainly wasn't to fight piracy, even casual piracy is still idiotically simple. Suddenly the media companies were facing a switch from physical formats which degraded over time to a pure data format which would theoretically last forever. How else are they going to sell your grandkids the same disney movies they sold you as a kid if your copy is still valid?
I totally agree we should complain more when stuff doesn't work, but good luck proving which bit of software/hardware was at fault in GP's case to the checkout monkey at your local media store. The interactions between all these things are so baffling to the average user (and even the not so average user with specialist knowledge) that they've got very little chance of getting their money back, let alone dealing with stores which have a no returns policy for PC software, etc.
I do not buy games. Period. I don't pirate them either.
Plenty of free games out there! Sometimes free demos are enough for games like halo, half-life 2, (sorry if I'm talking about old demos, I don't even bother with most new games anymore because even the demos are DRM'd up the wazoo). Freeplay MMOs like Runes of Magic and Allods keep me pretty well entertained after serious pointless grinding on an MMO like Anarchy Online. However! The point being is they are not only free of DRM they are free of cash outlay! No way am I about to risk my system with some DRM'd game that I may or may not like and risk my whole system on it. And pay cash for it beforehand.
The whole commercial game industry (well most of it anyway) is snake oil sales. They have quickly reached a point just slightly better than used car salesmen or the riaa. Feck it, stick to (real) indy games and/or play only the free games. If they lower the DRM bar later have we won? No, the game is still full of DRM bullshyte.
Anyway, apologies for the ramble. I hope you get what I'm after here (and no I'm not new here, but damn I bet any replies will make me feel like it)...
Soooo many free games to explore out there, I don't get why people bother with DRM shyte. Keep up with the Joneses? Not if it means compromising my system :P
I bought an XBOX to avoid dealing with DRM on the PC (I know the XBOX is DRM'ed to death, but at least stuff generally just works out the box), but now that I have a shiny 250gb hard drive with my favourite games installed to the drive I *still* have to stick the original disk in when I want to play (which makes me sound lazy, but in reality I have two XBOXes in different parts of the house so I have to go disk hunting whenever I want to change games or just go play upstairs so my other half can have the big TV, etc), which is absolutely ridiculous in this age of cloud computing and digital distribution. Meanwhile people pirating games have none of the hassles of DRM, while other people can use no-CD cracks to circumvent the need to have the disk in the drive. Add on the hefty price tag of games and you have to wonder what incentives there are to honesty these days.
Don't get me wrong, I entirely agree with you!
And let's face it, that's exactly the reason *WHY* games companies *CAN* do it, because their audience probably aren't going to be people who are, or even want to be, particularly tech savvy people.
And likewise, I am not saying there's an easy solution for us - because if you hold back buying games then games companies may well start putting on less DRM but they're also going to start releasing a lot less as well... as I said elsewhere, they want the majority of their sales in the first few weeks after release, that's what their business strategy is based on.
So if people don't rush to the shops with their wallets to do that, then they *WILL* release a lot fewer games.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Anyone remember Chess? Go? Cribbage? Bridge? Risk? Tabletop D&D? Monopoly for chrissakes? How about Mancala? Reversi? Pente? Dominoes? Darts? How about a friggin game of billiards/pool? Gin-Rummy anyone?
Oh right, the lack of DRM is what killed those games :P
Why did you get a MP3 player that is encumbered with such shitty DRM? I'm sure there are much more open devices out there.
There is a war going on for your mind.
Oblig. xkcd comic :
http://xkcd.com/488/
Yes, insomuchas they will start removing it if sales start to hurt because of DRM. Think music sales from amazon and e-music.
No, insomuchas the oblivious in the board room still see it as due diligence. They don't get out much. Their collective finger can't find the pulse of their customers.
They're using their grammar skills there.
For every person who avoids purchasing a game with DRM, 10 more will buy the game because they are not aware of the DRM, do not consider the DRM to be significant enough to warrant avoiding the same, or simply don't give a shit anyway. Hence, a minority boycott does absolutely fuck-all to convince game publishers to change the status quo of crappy DRM strategies. It is the wider community's indifference which is giving publishers free reign to do what they like and continue it.
What you CAN do is stick to your principals. If you don't like the DRM, don't buy the game. Don't even pirate it. Stick to your principals if only so you can say you did so. It may not matter in the long run but at least your mind can be at rest that you aren't part of the problem.
It generally took a while, but it was always one of the good things with some of the patches from Relic Entertainment (creators of Dawn of War). Dawn of War and its expansions were all DRM protected (although I think each was broken before release) but after a while one of their patches removed the DRM. Some companies would keep it on indefinitely, but at least some get it half-right and remove it in the end.
The bad thing about that DRM was that it was the only thing stopping the game running fine in Wine. The demo (even the last expansion) worked fine, but the game then failed because of the DRM. Granted, Linux isn't a supported platform, but it is technically sufficient for the game, just not for the DRM (which is all a "treat your customers as criminals" thing anyway).
And when they do "embrace" something, "extend" and "extinguish" are sure to follow...
'Hey, you'll be a criminal either way'
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
Why use anything at all?
My 360 can see my network share. It can navigate through the folders. I only exchanged short keys to get the XBOX talking to the PC. It plays Xvid and VOBs. I don't use the Media Centre [sic], although that was needed to exchange keys.
I'm baffled.
This post contains benzene, nitrosamines, formaldehyde and hydrogen cyanide.
That's what I do. Waiting before buying games has one big drawback: you're out of synch with the rest of the market. And several advantages:
- less/no DRM
- lower price
- patches
- mature community/forum
- more feedback on how good the game is
- opportunity to try it at friends
The Cloud - because you don't care if your apps and data are up in the air.
I feel for you, but I'd like to weigh in with my experiences using the 360 for media - I've found that it's generally pretty painless and works as expected (though it doesn't support MKV, which is disappointing). You occasionally have to manually add new files to the library, but that's it. The only difference is I used Vista/Win7, so support was built directly into Windows.
Also, I was under the impression that the recommended software for sharing media under XP was Windows Media Connect (DL, link courtesy of wikipedia). AFAIK it doesn't use any DRM.
Most human behaviour can be explained in terms of identity.
IMHO, escrow should be used for doing away with DRM (and proprietary licensing as well, btw) completely, from day 0. Producers set their price, the escrow receives payments, then when proper amount is amassed those who payed can download the installer, or ISO images if they like, and are free to give, rent or sell copies of it to whoever they like. My bet is, if the unit price is high enough to drive away end-users, there would be folks who would invest into buying original (publishers') releases and, if this model prevails in industry, make living of it. Thus, software companies would be able to cut their expenses abruptly and toss them over onto community of reseller entrepreneurs, keep only their core competencies payrolled, use FLOSS code pool (remember: if you uphold the terms, you are free to charge for it as much as you want, besides, being anal about IP is superfluous if you get money up front), elevate their standings among end-users, all that while still making arbitrary high profits (as long as you don't overestimate your market capacity), and best part of irony is: former "Pirates" (fore mentioned "reseller entrepreneurs") would work on YOUR side, bringing you money instead of taking it away from you, while doing all of manufacturing (making copies), transport, distribution, even advertising and user support, on their own budget. Of course, any optional MMO subscriptions would be marketed separately, direct from publisher, or from affiliates - independent MMO games hosting service companies. Clearly, there are some interesting business opportunities in this picture.
Stardock seems to have grown and prospered by selling games that have no DRM on the disk. A "friend" gives you a copy, you can see if you like it. If you do like it and want bug fixes, updates, and other benefits, then you go online, register, and pay for it. Works for them, maybe, because their games appeal to more intelligent gamers who are also usually honest. The big houses that sell games that are mostly fluff aimed at the 95% of gamers who only have fluff for brains have to defend themselves against the subhuman fuel screws that are their chosen market.
I have a masters in computer science. And this is the shit they expect your regular consumer to figure out.
No! An emphatic no!
They don't expect regular people to figure this shit out. They expect people to become annoyed, give up and buy more of their stuff, because paying more money "makes the annoy go away".
That of course just "a side effect" of the battle against those evil pirates whom the good regular customers should blame for the rising prices.
(... My ass!)
Lenslok was more fun that some of the games it came with!
I've had hours of fun with that little prism.
And why would you do something Microsoft suggests? I am a gamer myself and have a 360 but it was clear to me from day one that MS and their stuff were an obstacle, not a friend and a service.
Pirating the game sends the same message. The publishers do have some idea of the numbers of peopls who are copying their games, and if there are many more than expected, then the DRM scheme will be made worse!
Yeah, pirates should worry about not encouraging nasty DRM, because the nastier the DRM, the fewer paying customers there are to freeload our DRM-free version off of.
Can you fight DRM with patience? Of course you can, but patience requires (as others have already pointed out) a working brain. It's the same with music and movies. If people had had patience to think and wait a bit we would have solved for good the problem with RIAA, MPAA and similar ten years ago: staying a few months without buying nor dowloading music would have left them with no cash AND, above all, with no argument at all to use as basis for things like ACTA. I already explained this in a format that, hopefully, most teenagers could understand in "Mr Label's nightmare: what really, really scares him", a very short novel I wrote six years ago.
I'm a gamer and I don't have to deal with drm.
Same with my movies and music.
Why?
Because I have a brain and either don't buy crap with drm, or break the drm on it.
My games? get cracked.
My music? never.
My videos? oh, hell no.
Granted I don't really buy new music anymore, but when I do, it's cd's. drmless cd's.
DVD's, they get ripped. now, though, I do like bluray movies, but hey, those get ripped too!
Of course, they say i'm a pirate and stealing from them, but the way I see it, they are dickwads and stealing from me.
Don't buy stuff with DRM. if you want it, download it for free, but don't give the companies that are using DRM any money.
Be seeing you...
Funnily enough I have this cheap no-name external-HD/Media-Player device that allows me to play XViD and DivX encoded files on my TV. I can either play files from my PC via Ethernet (NOT streaming, just files in shared folders), from the internal HD or from USB mass storage devices.
There are out there other (more expensive) devices just like it that play HD.
No DRM, no issues: my PC doesn't even need to be on. It's not even brand new technology: I've had this for 3 years now.
Going for media playing solutions from the likes of Sony, Microsoft or Apple is like tatooing on your forhead "I'm a Dumb Media Bitch".
Going for media playing solutions from the likes of Sony, Microsoft or Apple is like tatooing on your forhead "I'm a Dumb Media Bitch".
Oh sweet! I have to have it! How much and who do I have to pay to get it in Official Comic Sans MS ©?
But in all seriousness I thought I was just bending over backwards to play by the rules although in reality it seems I've been grabbing my ankles so the rich can get richer.
My work here is dung.
DVDs / cd's for games will not go away with usa slow download speeds as they are it's just takes to long for most people to download a 9gb+ game and a steam like systems is ok with you just need to be-online form time to time and not 24/7 with good up time.
So cookie-cutter sequels are a good thing now? Someone's drinking too much Kool-aid.
I believe they disabled the use of 3rd party memory cards. I say this, because I have a USB HDD plugged into my 360 for the purpose of watching movies and TV shows. The Media Player on the 360 recognizes the drive just fine, and reads the video files without issue.
I would prefer to stream them across the network, but I got really frustrated with the XP and XP Media Center setup that MS required. It never worked well, and TVersity never really worked the way I wanted it to either. It's an ok solution, but I find a USB HDD to be a better one.
This isn't entirely on topic, but here goes: I wait, often years, to play a game. Unless it's downloadable only like Star Monkey or Thomas & the Magic Words (for instance), I wait until the next generation of games has come out, typically. There's a sweet spot where the games get REALLY cheap and I can snap them up at bargain basement prices.
I try to keep a "wanted" list over time and it immensely lowers my cost for gaming. I'm still buying and playing ps2, xbox, and dreamcast titles that still have life left.
There is only so much time, why try to keep up and not get my money's worth from games? Will I get a 360 or PS3? Eventually, but probably not until the new systems have come out and I've finished picking the bones of the PS2
That's my patience. It's ingrained in the way I game. So, DRM? What's that? I haven't even played a game that has it, yet.
-
So, the manufacturer of your OS and your gaming system (which is the same company and one known for supporting DRM that interferes with the user) suggested that you use a particular software (that they produce) to do something. Oh yeah, this is a manufacturer known for promoting end user lock in as part of their business plan. So, of course, they are surely a reliable, unbiased source on the best way to do something.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
You could always freeze yourself until the DRM is gone. Just make sure some asshole doesn't forget to unfreeze you and send you 500 years into the future.
When the game is started, it tries to update itself and there is a server login, which makes sense as the game is multiplayer only. The first screen shows the change log from previous version, then you go straight to the main menu. Between clicking the nice icon and joining an ongoing game, probably it takes always 1 minute or less - just the way it should be. Instead of using patience for bypassing different intro screens, films and adverts, I'm using it to find the games that are worth playing. Altitude won an award in a competition between different "indie" games produtions, and I am sure that this will be a better place to search for new games than if I went to the high street shop.
In that time I've seen some *CRAZY* game protection schemes including Lenslok on Sinclair ZX Spectrum games, as well as unlock keys generated from coloured stripes in manuals (because in those days there were only black & white photocopiers).
For Worms (or was it Worms: Reinforcements), the anti-copying scheme was a booklet (~8 pages) of tables; you had to enter the code on page x, row y, column z.
The booklet was printed on matt black paper with shiny black writing. It took us a few hours to type the codes into a spreadsheet. Ho hum.
Anyone who cares enough about the software to complain about its DRM is already a hardcore fan. And a hardcore fan is GOING to buy it, one way or the other. The "I'll just pirate it" option is becoming less and less an option as online play becomes more important and games are starting to block the option to use private servers.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
This whole gaming DRM debacle seems like a huge deja vu. Ubi this, EA that... Sony rootkit fiasco, anyone?
Quick recap: Before iTunes, CDs were the only option, cost $20+, and sometimes the antivirus would complain. Talk about motive for piracy. Everyone was unhappy, complaining out loud and learning how to use P2P. The result? Full album online for $7 tops, or $1 for the single, and NO DRM WHATSOEVER. Even most CDs are down to $12-14. And the best part, except for the stupid lawsuits, almost no complaints!
Games should follow the same path. Eventually, prices will drop, the DRM will "vanish", and everyone and their uncle will stop the complaining and the copying.
See the pattern? That's exactly where we can push to make them get there faster. So first part: complain, be vocal, spread the message - teach your friends, or (if they're really dense) burn them a copy. Evangelize. Brag about how you didn't go through any hoops to play. Show the Ubis and EAs that YES, there are a lot of players in the PC, but they're unhappy with the way they're being treated. Spend some time on this, cause (2) is easier: unless it's cheap and DRM-free, get it cracked from The Pirate Bay.
And if your uncle is a lawyer and the debate starts up, YES, you're willing to pay. You're just not willing to be treated like an ass.
And if a lot more people completely boycots DRM-crippled software/games/music/movies
I'm willing to start doing this with a little help. First, what local multiplayer games (that is, not requiring two PCs for two players) aren't DRM-crippled?
Early sales are often one of the big quantifiers in whether a studio will start working on a sequel
Looks like publishers will have to find a different metric to use.
Twinstiq, game news
If by 'Patience' you really mean 'The Pirate Bay', then yes. I can fight DRM with patience. In fact, I've been fighting it with patience for about 5 years now.
Waiting before buying games has one big drawback: you're out of synch with the rest of the market.
And watch the online multiplayer matchmaking servers be down permanently. PlayStation calls it DNAS error -103.
lower price
Try finding a lower price for any major Super NES RPG nowadays. Often, just the cart without box and manual sells for as much on auctions nowadays as the entire package sold for when new. Even disc games like Rez have become collector's items in this sense.
mature community/forum
Even if a matchmaking server is still running, it's hard to have fun when you go 0W 50L against the "mature community" because there aren't enough newbs on the server for the server to give you a comparable opponent.
opportunity to try it at friends
The drawback here is that more and more games on every platform but Wii are switching to the system where each player in a multiplayer match has to buy his own copy.
In my unfortunate above example, DRM is unavoidable. I couldn't "wait" that out. I couldn't watch streaming media on my game station.
Nonsense. You could indeed have waited that out. You could be using a hacked $50 Xbox to play the last generation's games, while using XBMC to stream media to your TV. The Xbox does 1080i over component so it's really not that bad. Meanwhile, you wait for the DRM to be defeated on the 360 so that you can run your own streaming software which can talk to an XBMSP server (let alone a SMB server) so that you don't need to run the Zune software. Meanwhile you use the $100 Netflix streaming box to watch Netflix on the same TV. It's still cheaper than a 360, and cheaper than the eventual price break on the 360. You're an impatient early adopter (from the viewpoint of outwaiting DRM) and you're paying the price.
Mind you, I'm in the same situation, except that I kept my Xbox so I can stream to it, and I don't expect my 360 to be a media player. It has a shit interface anyway, so why would I want to use it? Also cheaper than buying a 360 would have been buying an Aspire Revo, but those didn't exist when I got my 360 anyway.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
When you're a company, it doesn't matter how much money you're making, so long as you can make more, you are never happy.
Do you know many companies? Are they good friends of yours? Do you go to their birthday parties? Have they told you this "fact" personally over a beer or two?
Companies are not people, and cannot be happy. Companies are owned and run by people, and those people have values. Those values (good or bad) will determine how the company will be run. The people involved in the company will be happy (or not) with a certain amount of revenues, of market share, of margins, and of net profit that the company generates.
If your only goal in life is to get "more", then IMHO you have the wrong values.
No one prospers unless he renders benefit to others. -- Tadao Yoshida, founder of YKK, world's largest zipper company
Someone else pointed out here that EA is currently waiting about two weeks to re-release titles sans-DRM, in light of the fact that the initial high-profit sales window is within said time frame. Considering how bad most sequels are, and in fact how bad many initial titles are, I would offer that buying titles with DRM to encourage sequels is not a convincing argument.
Consider Assassin's Creed. Sure the sequel is all the rage and by all accounts a great game, but AC1 was not at all a great game. Fun for a few minutes, but after the first level it was shampoo, rinse, repeat for the rest of the game. A shiny toy who's mechanics became clear by level 3. It didn't get any harder, in spite of the game SWEARING the guards would become much more difficult. I am glad I waited as long as I did to buy AC1, because had I bought it straight away based on it's mostly glowing reviews I'd have been pissed to waste $50 on a crap game.
We must show game companies that DRM is not the answer.
You want a Popcorn Hour. I've had one for two years now, and I get a chubby just thinking about it. This thing plays anything. I honestly don't know how I ever did without one. I haven't watched a preview or FBI warning in months. Seriously. Check it out.
There aren't any incentives to honesty. DRM is an attempt to force 'honesty' on you in a draconian way. To date, there's not been a way to do this without inconveniencing honest people.
Weirdly, the companies seem to have followed the "it doesn't matter if a thousand innocent people suffer as long as we can catch one guilty", which society has shown over the course of thousands of years simply doesn't work (people rebel against it).
The only way to get honesty to play out is to act honestly, and alas, the content industry in general has shown itself to be anything but honest (copyright extensions anyone? They used to be 12 years when it took a good 5-10 years to pass the work around the market, and people still made a good profit from that. When the market can theoretically be saturated in a day, having life + 70 years is not an honest deal).
Personally, I hate intrusive DRM with a vengeance, because it is inherently dishonest (you've bought something, but we decide whether we feel like meeting our side of the contract. If we don't then tough).
Rather than just use a stick, they should go back to time honoured traditions that used to work (before the 90s), and find a deal that works. Stick and carrot always worked nicely when the bargain was honest; these days, vendors seem to prefer stick or cattle prod, and wonder why people start fighting back.
DRM is an intellectual issue, not a populist one. It's like software patents and copyright- basically no one else cares but the most intelligent. Why? Because they can't be bothered to.
These are private companies and they won't be swayed by reasonable arguments. Or anything 'reasonable'- I mean, honestly, they don't have to listen. You're nattering on forums, so they get some hired crony to placate you without having to actually change anything.
What needs to be done is we need to whip up some kind of populist frenzy, Tea Party/Republican style. Just spread baldfaced, outright lies about DRM spreading through your computer and leaving it open to viruses. How companies are going to steal your credit card numbers, your social security, and you'll never sleep at night because you're called 24/7 by telemarketers.
What we need is real honest to god fear mongering, and it wouldn't hurt to harass people/exploit vulnerabilities left by intrusive DRM to REALLY hit the point home. We need some Karl Rove tactics here.
Not only that, we need to sue. Sue Sue sue sue sue! Legislation is really the only thing that's going to stop companies from spitting out DRMed titles.
Game sales haven't changed a wit since they introduced DRM- they've just made customers angry. And you know what? They don't care. What we need is to hurt the game companies, rip the publishers a new one to see that consumers can't be trifled with.
I would like to see a company like EA or Ubisoft buried and dusted from a massive legal lawsuit stemming from their intrusive DRM schemes. I know Apple and Microsoft are guilty of the same, but they're too big to truly hurt.
That's what I do, if the game has crap DRM on it that's going to stop my computer from burning disks and other nonsense it's not going on my computer. I recently saw Civilization IV 'The Complete Edition' for sale and reading the back of the box it said in a nice yellow box "DRM Free. The Complete CIV IV experience with no Digital Rights Management limitations." - so I bought the game finally.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
Besides, both 360 (as well as PS3 and even many TV's) use Universal Plug and Play for streaming on network, not some proprietary 360-only technology.
It's too bad it doesn't actually work. I couldn't even get my 360 to play media from my Windows XP WiMP, which Microsoft swears works, nor from the WiMP beta in early Windows 7 Ultimate.
The 360's streaming functionality is a total lemon due to being designed by Microsoft. XBMC is a thousand times better and Microsoft should donate some Zune streaming support (however universal it's supposed to be) into XBMC and release it themselves. I'd probably even pay for it. It would be worth it so long as I got updates, and was still allowed to install themes. I don't even need local media storage and playback, I have all kinds of computers that can stream.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
But streaming from Windows Media Player or Zune is just shit. Try the alternatives.
From one who HAS tried the alternatives, Windows Media Center works rather well. The windows 7 edition is rather reliable and zipping forwards and backwards in video hasn't been faster. I do recall TVersity utterly failing when trying to fast forward or rewind, and even causing blue screens, but that was about a year ago that I last tried it.
off topic but I also have 2 xbox360. one online account. I use one for netflix in the bedroom, and one for gaming in the family room. Do you know of any way with out "recovering" your account every single dang time, to be able to turn off the gaming xbox go to the bedroom and then turn on that xbox and sign in? maybe memory stick with account on that?
love the taste, hate the texture
I had to do a double-take when reading this summary. Most of the time when I'm impatient with DRM hoops and loops, I just go out and pirate the damn thing. Yes, even after I've bought it.
Don't forget the "Interstel Security Access Code Wheel" for Starflight!
http://otherelectricities.com/neckdeep/starflight_wheel.jpg
[UID-HeinzIntel]
Please tell us more about this no-name device, including its name and roughly what it costs. :D
You can also use Windows Media Player 11 to share music and video from your Windows machine to your 360 over the network. I'm not clear on whether or not this is what you're already doing? I don't know anything about Zune software. Anyhow, this is what I do at home, and I'm not aware of any DRM, except on things like .wmv files that you get that come with DRM.
http://www.e-typedesign.co.uk/windows/windowsmedia/knowledgecenter/howto/mp11/sharemedia.aspx
Funnily enough I have this cheap no-name external-HD/Media-Player device that allows me to play XViD and DivX encoded files on my TV. I can either play files from my PC via Ethernet (NOT streaming, just files in shared folders), from the internal HD or from USB mass storage devices.
There are out there other (more expensive) devices just like it that play HD.
No DRM, no issues: my PC doesn't even need to be on. It's not even brand new technology: I've had this for 3 years now.
Going for media playing solutions from the likes of Sony, Microsoft or Apple is like tatooing on your forhead "I'm a Dumb Media Bitch".
While I admit that *what* you use does have a real-world effect, it's really beside Eldavojohn's point. The problem wasn't what he purchased, instead it was DRM. The solution shouldn't be "lol you should have bought this instead," but instead should be the removal of the DRM.
Yes! I patiently wait for movies and music I want to hit the torrent sites. Sometimes I have to wait patiently for a whole hour, sometimes it's a whole month!
sometimes I wait a whole day before getting a NO CD crack.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
You're not in the social loop
You have to go out of your way to avoid spoilers
May not be able to find people to play with
other players may get too good for you to really compete.
Game may be updates to make certain achievements harder. I have been in games where everyone has something nice, but a patch went out to fix a drop rate and then I was never able to get one.
Neither was is correct. I generally buy late, and those are some issue I have come across.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Yes you can, by withholding said profit from them. I refuse to buy games at new prices unless I know in advance the game is completely worth it... for that there needs to be a basis of trust that goes back some games. Once i've been screwed by a mediocre game that's made even crappier by requiring activation/disc inserted/internet connection I see this as a reduced value for those games... DRM devaluates games. I won't refuse to play it, but I will wait until it hits the bargain bins (and that can be surprisingly fast sometimes).
Well, it depends. If you withhold the profit from them long enough, and they have enough other customers, they stop listening to you at all.
Case in point - TV. I avoid 'reality' TV shows and a lot of other TV I find insulting (to my so-called intelligence) Yet 'realiity' shows are more common than ever, and now TV is so bad I hardly watch at all.
Do the TV networks sit in their board meetings, wondering how they can get my vote back? No, they've given up, and they are happy with the crowd that loves their horrible reality shows.
Will game publishers sit in their board meetings, wondering how they will get back your business? I'd suspect no they won't. You will end up being considered not part of the potential customers and therefore unimportant.
I am convinced that the current industry must almost completely die at this point. A boycott does nothing, even the most strident calls for change (e.g. Spore and Bioshock) do nothing. DRM often times is patched out, but sometimes it's patched in. The only winning move is to not play, don't play on the servers, don't advocate the games, don't review the games, don't do anything to make the community surrounding said games better. If you pirate (it's largely meaningless whether you do or not, do or don't according to your ethics) you must play on unofficial servers and not promote the game in any way.
I've tried for years to do it the "right" way. I never pirated, I bought thousands of dollars in games, often getting burnt when I didn't do enough research beforehand. I've advocated to players, I've advocated to developers, it all does nothing.
So, now I just won't take part. You should see my games library, it is literally amazing. I do buy an occasional 360 game (around 2 a year), refusing any games that have a PC counterpart with heinous DRM (i.e. I won't get AC2 on my 360 as that would reward Ubisoft who is screwing PC gamers). I won't use Steam or Impulse, I won't play Torchlight (unless the box version truly has no DRM, then I will), I'm done.
Not for sale anymore.
Here's a similar one from the same store (note that this one doesn't have ethernet).
FYI, £50 is roughly 75 USD. It will probably be at least 20% cheaper in the US than the UK: it always is.
By the way, these thing are often sold as HD enclosures by Computer component stores.
Maybe it's just me but I learnt my lesson regarding DRM (remember that R, it means Restrictions, because that's what it does) with the simplest of them all.
The humble DVD.
Remember some 10, 12 years ago, before DeCSS? Some DVD would play find under Linux, others not. Then DeCSS came, and suddenly those other DVDs would play fine.
Those stupid region codes sweetened it all up nicely.
Now that was my first experience with DRM. I suddenly found my self restricted in playing DVDs on my computer (running Linux, I didn't own a stand-alone DVD player at the time, no Windows) that I borrowed legally. Since then I avoid DRM unless I know it's so utterly and entirely cracked that it completely loses its function. The DVD is an example of that: region codes don't work, CSS is solved, there is no restriction left.
Unfortunately on my iBook I still sometimes run into it. I have PDF files that don't allow me to copy/paste some text out of it. Luckily my Linux box doesn't have that issue.
With all respect for content producers, who I believe deserve to be paid for their content, but not for anything involving DRM. Oh and I do prefer to download my anime... no need for an actual physical disk or so (too hard to find, have to go out to a shop, hoping they happen to have that one, etc)... but no way to make a small donation for a job well done. I mean is it that hard? I happily give double the $0.04 or so they make from every retail sale. Directly to the artist/studio.
Oh well I'm not a gamer, but DRM has my interest. I really feel sorry for you that you have been fucked by the content providers so badly. And I hope you will also now do your best to get your content as restriction-free as possible.
Unless a game play requires internet access, I will not purchase a game that requires me to ever be online. I generally won't buy any game that has DRM in any event although I'll mostly ignore it with the playstation-series. (I have one game with broken DRM that refuses to play on any legal playstation-type platform but will work fine if ripped and played in an emulator: "Legend of Dragoon")
I don't find there's any reason for DRM beyond publishers being arses. My study of sales history hasn't shown any real difference between DRM/no DRM in game sales except where DRM became inconveniencing for users causing drops of sales. This is merely a "casual research" though so I've no real references beyond it being an industry I wouldn't mind working within.
I will toss out though that if a company is criminalizing its customers (DRM assumes customers are guilty - and I'll include encoding of DVDs in that) - there's something deeply wrong in how a company is doing business.
Too many people ignore it or brush it off - until it directly effects them. I think the
news and game media has been letting us down. There should be a greater knowledge and
dicussion of DRM, but there isn't. Why is that? The only recent article that even
approached 'mainstream' was a CNN *Opinion* piece.
I know a lot of people read game reviews. We need to start including 'What DRM this game has'
in each and every review.
It needs to become part of the common vernacular and lingo so that people start understanding what it is,
what it does, and why they may want to include it as part of their purchasing decision. I don't think
there is a realization of consumer rights being infringed, abridged or otherwise impugned. I don't think
there is a realization of that fact that the game *just might not work* due to flawed or bad DRM
implementations.
This movement of knowledge has to reach a certain mass such that companies can make fiscal decisions based
on :
We lose X legitimate sales due to our DRM
We lose Y possible/maybe sales due to pirating.
Until X > (Y * (conversion of pirate to purchaser - certainly not 1:1)), this will only get worse.
The main discussion in the article is about what to do with regards to reducing DRM (although game focused).
Although not game focused, my post shows that, at least in some areas, you can vote with your wallet away from the usual suspects in the hardware-DRM arena without actually having to give up on anything (in fact, by voting with my wallet I ended up having a better experience overall).
This is also why I own a gaming PC (which costs more than a non-gaming home PC because of the need for better CPU and Graphics Card) which is an open solution instead of an XBox or Playstation, why I have neither a BluRay player nor an HD TV and why I'm never going to buy an Apple product again (my 7 year old iPod is gathering dust somewhere).
Whenever I see a Slashdot story about a shinny new gadget from one of the usual suspects all the fanboys come out of the woodwork and plenty of people that should know better by now go all glaze-eyed about it.
I have plenty of money to get all the latest and greatest new gadgets and yet I choose not to buy products from some manufacturers preciselly because of their past and currenty history of shafting their costumers both directly and indirectly.
I've been preaching this around here for ages now (mostly as "don't buy Sony") but I get the impression that plenty of techy people are just switch their brains off whenever they see a new gadget and are (unknowingly) prone to peer-pressure in the form of tech fashion and fads.
The specific example of the parent of my OP, just proved me right and reafirmed my commitment to being choosy, so allow me my little moment of glee.
I almost never buy a new game until it's marked down in the $10-$15 rack. By that time the DRM is often gone and/or irrelevant, the bugs are patched, add-ons sequels are available, and the necessary hardware is pretty cheap too. As long as I stay consistently several years behind, it's all fresh and exciting to my eyes, because I'm only comparing it to even older games.
I'm probably in the minority, but once Mass Effect for PC was announced, I was excited about it. I griped several times about the DRM, and finally gave up. It was only a long time later that I noticed it was on steam, cheap, and with only steam drm; so I finally picked it up. With Dragon Age, they just had a cd check. I pre-ordered a collector's edition. There is no question that I paid $40 less, many months later, for Mass Effect than I would have without the DRM.
And I never pirate anything.
Let me point this out: people say that people would pirate a lot less if DRM went away. I'm not going to dispute that; I'm not sure. But I am also sure that DRM would go away if everyone stopped pirating, also.
You aren't *fighting* DRM that way; you are completely justifying the need for it.
With a pirated version, the DRM becomes irrelevant to users, courtesy of game crackers wayyyy up the supply chain. DRM only affects paying customers, because pirates completely bypass the DRM.
You can make an argument that pirated games mean DRM isn't strong enough, because it can be cracked. Sadly, the time and energy of 15-year-old wunderkind game crackers is effectively unlimited-- stronger DRM is just an interesting challenge to them.
So, you can implement ever-increasing layers of DRM that only inconveniences your paying customers, or you can focus on providing additional value that makes people want to purchase the software.
Guess which business model is more effective in getting people to buy your product.
It's not about right or wrong. Any major software release will be pirated, it's the nature of cheap bandwidth and the ability to create copies of software ad infinitum. DRM is a technical 'solution' to the social 'problem' of abundance, and like most technical solutions it simply does not work.
"We have to go forth and crush every world view that doesn't believe in tolerance and free speech." - David Brin
I’ve been in the U.S. Army Infantry for a number of years and during my last deployment to Iraq a few of my buddies and I picked up Dawn of War II at one of the bigger COBs with the intent of setting up a LAN in our tent to unwind from the daily suck. We were furious when we discovered that our install disk only contained the Steam client and that you actually had to register and download the software from their servers. A broadband connection to download a game we purchased three copies of retail? While we were wishing we might as well have been wished for a floor or an air conditioner that worked. We were happy to have electricity... in our tent.
We were forced to abandon Steam and their digital fascism in favor of older games that didn’t discriminate against people who don’t readily have access to broadband. For a lot of guys in my unit and other units I’ve been in, mini-LAN parties are our primary source of entertainment anytime we can secure a reliable power source. These increasingly Orwellian systems of combating piracy aren’t just an inconvenience for us, they are a showstopper. We simply can't do anything about it. Try as we might, we can’t squeeze Wi-Fi out of a rock.
The only way I think you can get through is to get people not to buy the game and explain why. As it is, you get people who don't know any better and therefore don't care or you get people pirating it which sends the message that people want the product and the publisher just needs to try harder to stop you from stealing.
The only thing they understand is profits so if you get most people simply not buying they game because of the DRM it would have an effect.
Hehe - I remember lenslok - I had a friend who got to the point where he could read them without the lens though - that was talent :)
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
I just use a media centre mostly built out of old computer parts, I spent A$150 on a decent HTPC case, A$90 on a decent AM2 motherboard with onboard graphics, used old CPU, RAM, HDD and ODD.
Myth has no problem streaming from an SMB share on my gaming box (which has all my storage) or from my Ubuntu laptop or just playing off the HDD.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I have simply stopped considering buying games from the worst DRM'ers. EA is out. I was very curious about a few of their games, but due to their DRM i have simply settled with not playing their games.