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People Keep Trying To Scam Their Way Into Free Video Games (kotaku.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: It's an epidemic that has been affecting indie game developers for years. When a game launches, strange emails start coming in. Sometimes they claim to be reviewers for websites that don't exist. Other times, they pretend to work for major outlets, using misleading email addresses to con developers out of their games. The scams have grown increasingly elaborate over the years, and for small-time developers who don't have a ton of experience dealing with press, it can be tough to sort out which requests are legitimate. (The problem appears to be more common in the indie scene -- one PR rep working in big-budget games told me they don't receive any scam requests like this.)
Emily Morganti, who handles PR for adventure games like Thimbleweed Park and West of Loathing, said in an email that these key scammers have become a regular feature of her job, like yanking weeds out of a garden. "I have the benefit of working for a lot of different indie devs, so I notice patterns that a developer who's only putting out their one game wouldn't see," she said. [...] Last fall, someone who went by the name Dmitry Tseptsov sent several emails to Morganti to ask for codes, explaining that he operated a coffee shop in Ukraine where he'd give out video games as prizes for trivia. "Even 1 key will help me a lot, for which I will be grateful," he wrote. "The cafe opened quite recently, but has a demand, and many people go to us. I mean, for my part, I promise to advertise your game." The coffee shop did exist, but Tseptsov had nothing to do with it, and as one developer discovered, the story was full of holes.
Emily Morganti, who handles PR for adventure games like Thimbleweed Park and West of Loathing, said in an email that these key scammers have become a regular feature of her job, like yanking weeds out of a garden. "I have the benefit of working for a lot of different indie devs, so I notice patterns that a developer who's only putting out their one game wouldn't see," she said. [...] Last fall, someone who went by the name Dmitry Tseptsov sent several emails to Morganti to ask for codes, explaining that he operated a coffee shop in Ukraine where he'd give out video games as prizes for trivia. "Even 1 key will help me a lot, for which I will be grateful," he wrote. "The cafe opened quite recently, but has a demand, and many people go to us. I mean, for my part, I promise to advertise your game." The coffee shop did exist, but Tseptsov had nothing to do with it, and as one developer discovered, the story was full of holes.
Question:
Why would you not make "review copies" tied to an account that you can just turn off at any time, date-limited (i.e. terminate on the game's release), etc,?
If there's one use of DRM that seems worthwhile and valid, that's it surely? It doesn't mean to say that you'll need the same functionality in the final game, but at the very least you'd lock it down a bit, no?
And they wouldn't even need "the full game", you could purge have the level data, etc. remove the endings, splat "Review Copy" over the image output, etc. etc.
Anything else - like giving out free codes to competitions... that seems to me to be a bit pointless - a cybercafe in the middle of the Ukraine isn't going to generate anything in terms of measurable sales for you, but you could still track those still.
In a way this underscores the importance of having a verifiable certification for reputable media organizations, even if it is just some small game blogger. The world has stepped backwards in this regard; ANYONE who can post on a social media site can be taken for news. It can't stay this way. In any major sporting event, concert, etc there is an established set of credentials to display. No reason why there couldn't be credentials for this as well.
Laws are rules for the court, but merely a bottom bar to hit for life. Think beyond laws in your actions always.
Linking to hardware is annoying since you have to ask for the hardware specs of the person requesting the key. A lot of reviewers wouldn't go through that.
The idea I've seen that looks promising is to have a key be something like "DEMO-ONLY-JFQ2-NG43-KFA4" (and include the expiration like you said). That way it's clear the purpose of the key if it's sold and people won't complain that the game they bought doesn't work anymore.