One false belief most customers seem to be under, is that DRM is for the sole purpose of stopping those nasty pirates from swiping their game. Many game companies use DRM like SecureROM to halt the resale and rental of games, which any (honest) game company will tell you is a MUCH larger hit on their profits, than the horrors of piracy that people like EA would have you believe. This is not to say that this justifies using DRM which treats your customers like criminals, but that a better DRM system is needed, to curb these markets. To date the best system I have found is one in use by Daemon Tools, which requires you to log onto their site to generate and download and encrypted key file. There are no install limits, and if you format you computer you simply go to the site a create a new key. This system not only DELAYS (you can't beat them, you know) pirates, but makes the resale of games worthless unless you are the actual owner, and is NON-INVASIVE.
Bioware us one of the few gaming companies trying to create alternative DRM such as code-hooks to delay pirates during the initial release. If they paired that with a Daemon-Tools like key system for their games, they could delay pirates, restrict game resales, and in the process not piss off their customers. Really all this system needs is a website which allows you to register (which all game companies have) and a small program to generate CD-Key based encrypted files which the game EXE will check. Honestly the biggest killer here, is that game companies are too willing to take the easy route and lease out their protection to Third parties, who make money selling to the studio themselves, and not the game purchasers. There is no shortage of good ideas out there for companies who are willing to listen and retool their DRM model, but more and more big corporations like EA are buying up smaller studios and slapping their 'one size fits all' DRM onto them.
At the end of the day the phrase 'you can't please everybody' should be the motto of every game developer simply because it is true. The mark of a good game developer is not ether or not they can please everybody, but rather that they take the time to address their fans concerns to make sure their game is one that will be hailed as a major success. Another mark of a good game developer is that they listen to their fans and (where possible) change their system to fix what is proven to been a game crippling mistake. Blizzard has had an excellent game track record, and I have been a fan of EVERY game they have released simply because they understand what it is that their customers want. The fact that they actually took the time to address their fans concerns and presented their arguments in a clear and mature fashion, also speaks volumes to their commitment to gamers, rather than their commitment to money, since surprisingly the two are not mutually inclusive.
That being said no doubt Diablo III will have issues, all games do, but I will happily lay down my money for a game made by a company that addresses their customers directly, and values their concerns, rather than those companies out there who only act when you start petitions. Personally I believe 'modding' is the future of all gaming, X3 being a good example, since it allows those who desire small tweaks to their gaming experience (such as atmosphere darkening), to run wild, and with a small ammount of support from the company can even be supported for online play.
Sadly Blizzard seems to have lost the point behind expansions first with Outlands, and now with this new class. My greatest concern is that rather than focusing on new content that everyone can enjoy as they did in the original, instead they have just ramped up the difficulty on mobs so much that only insanely well geared people will even SEE most of the end game content.
Now I'm not sure if this was an attempt by Blizzard to introduce more of the 'teamwork' element that served them so well, but it seems to have come at the cost of alienating the casual gamer. Tank classes in particular seem to have it the hardest since they are REQUIRED to have nothing but the best in order to survive, and often get replaced in favor of Druids and their 'I Win' tank form (Dire Bear). Now granted all classes are situational but it seems that in their haste to apply a multi-use class system, they have succeeded in seriously unbalancing key aspects. Needless to say this will come as no surprise to long term players, as Blizzards track record at 'balancing' classes is spotty.
Heroic Dungeons were also a poor idea, since by the time you are capable of doing them, your... well, sick of doing them. A better idea would have been to create more Zul'Aman type instances for heroics so that once a player can run them he will have new content to explore, rather than repeating the cookie-cutter method of getting through the instance as fast as possible for the badges. At the end of the day I believe this expansions success will have less to do about what new bells as whistles they add (after all everything gets old eventually), and more about how well they cater to the casual gamers. Please Blizzard remember that some of us want to have FUN, not farm gear endlessly.
Microsofts solution to piracy is to charge even MORE money for Vista (up to $400 depending on the type). Ironically rather than lower the price to make it more attractive for people who would normally pirate it, they charge the legitimate people MORE which essentially encourages the legit people to pirate it. Following the huge WGA fiasco even the legitimate home users are going to be running pirated versions soon; as far as I can tell Microsoft only makes money off businesses.
Microsoft and EA both seem to be engaged in some massive stupidity campaign with the way they are handling their customer base of late, and it seems to be a raidly emerging pattern that the bigger you are, the less you care about your customers. What really boggles the mind is even tho this defies all logic they still seem to stay afloat.
While I have to salute the KQ9 team for their graceful acceptance of the end of their project I can't help but think this is just another nail in VU's coffin of respect. First of let me point out that while VU does own the rights to KQ shutting down non profit organizations that operate purley for the enjoyment of gamers is just another way of saying 'we don't care about our gamers unless they pay us for the priviledge'. Even this to some degree is disproved by the lack of patches many of their games need yet never seem to get. Assuming for the moment their reason behind the shutdown is because they may have a sequel coming, there is no reason that one must cancel the other, since i'm sure both could be enjoyed equally.
In addition to KQ9, SQ7 may also be next to come under the axe, although they are apparently in talks with VU and Phoenix Online Studios about this new turn of events. All this being said I hope that VU will come up with a slightly better reason than 'because we said so' since it only encourages people to see VU as another namless corporation that is more concerned with grinding out endless titles for the sake of money. At the end of the day however VU is, as VU does, and it seems it will continue to follow the Microsoft creed of 'if its original, buy it up and make more money'.
The basic facts are, that for all intensive purposes Jack Thompson is a zealot. If you read the interview it is clear the further along you read, that in his view "controlling the sale of games to minors" quickly degrades into "Violence of any type on games is bad and terrorists will use it against us!".
The notion that the console/game/rating system ect... are all in 'chaoots' seems to make me think that perhaps he working under a conspiracy theory. While I grant you that all the companies have a vested interest in selling more games, this whole 'dark shadowy underworld' of which he speaks is more a product of loose laws than the 'dark side of the force' infecting our youths.
I also love the way in which he casually assaults the ethics of the federal judges as a whole. While I realize this is most likely on purpose and an attempt for JT to show he isn't afraid, insulting the judges as a whole, becuase you don't like what they ruled, rather than reyling on hard evidence is not a wise move.
Essentially the further I went down the interview I saw less and less quoting of facts and details, and more and more of evil plots filled with terrorism and brainwashing.
Once again the RIA and government fails to grasp the bigger picture on how to USE file sharing rather than fight it. Essentially all this tarrif will accomplish will be to encourage those people who do download music legitimately via such systems as Napster to seek other methods.
Essentially people are left with two options:
1) Accept an increase in cost-per-download to help companies like Apple cover the 40% charge.
2) Download these programs illegally because the price has become too excessive for a per-song download
Slashdot Mirror
One false belief most customers seem to be under, is that DRM is for the sole purpose of stopping those nasty pirates from swiping their game. Many game companies use DRM like SecureROM to halt the resale and rental of games, which any (honest) game company will tell you is a MUCH larger hit on their profits, than the horrors of piracy that people like EA would have you believe. This is not to say that this justifies using DRM which treats your customers like criminals, but that a better DRM system is needed, to curb these markets. To date the best system I have found is one in use by Daemon Tools, which requires you to log onto their site to generate and download and encrypted key file. There are no install limits, and if you format you computer you simply go to the site a create a new key. This system not only DELAYS (you can't beat them, you know) pirates, but makes the resale of games worthless unless you are the actual owner, and is NON-INVASIVE.
Bioware us one of the few gaming companies trying to create alternative DRM such as code-hooks to delay pirates during the initial release. If they paired that with a Daemon-Tools like key system for their games, they could delay pirates, restrict game resales, and in the process not piss off their customers. Really all this system needs is a website which allows you to register (which all game companies have) and a small program to generate CD-Key based encrypted files which the game EXE will check. Honestly the biggest killer here, is that game companies are too willing to take the easy route and lease out their protection to Third parties, who make money selling to the studio themselves, and not the game purchasers. There is no shortage of good ideas out there for companies who are willing to listen and retool their DRM model, but more and more big corporations like EA are buying up smaller studios and slapping their 'one size fits all' DRM onto them.
Their Ugly!... Ugly!! UUUGGLY!!!!
At the end of the day the phrase 'you can't please everybody' should be the motto of every game developer simply because it is true. The mark of a good game developer is not ether or not they can please everybody, but rather that they take the time to address their fans concerns to make sure their game is one that will be hailed as a major success. Another mark of a good game developer is that they listen to their fans and (where possible) change their system to fix what is proven to been a game crippling mistake. Blizzard has had an excellent game track record, and I have been a fan of EVERY game they have released simply because they understand what it is that their customers want. The fact that they actually took the time to address their fans concerns and presented their arguments in a clear and mature fashion, also speaks volumes to their commitment to gamers, rather than their commitment to money, since surprisingly the two are not mutually inclusive.
That being said no doubt Diablo III will have issues, all games do, but I will happily lay down my money for a game made by a company that addresses their customers directly, and values their concerns, rather than those companies out there who only act when you start petitions. Personally I believe 'modding' is the future of all gaming, X3 being a good example, since it allows those who desire small tweaks to their gaming experience (such as atmosphere darkening), to run wild, and with a small ammount of support from the company can even be supported for online play.
Sadly Blizzard seems to have lost the point behind expansions first with Outlands, and now with this new class. My greatest concern is that rather than focusing on new content that everyone can enjoy as they did in the original, instead they have just ramped up the difficulty on mobs so much that only insanely well geared people will even SEE most of the end game content. Now I'm not sure if this was an attempt by Blizzard to introduce more of the 'teamwork' element that served them so well, but it seems to have come at the cost of alienating the casual gamer. Tank classes in particular seem to have it the hardest since they are REQUIRED to have nothing but the best in order to survive, and often get replaced in favor of Druids and their 'I Win' tank form (Dire Bear). Now granted all classes are situational but it seems that in their haste to apply a multi-use class system, they have succeeded in seriously unbalancing key aspects. Needless to say this will come as no surprise to long term players, as Blizzards track record at 'balancing' classes is spotty.
Heroic Dungeons were also a poor idea, since by the time you are capable of doing them, your... well, sick of doing them. A better idea would have been to create more Zul'Aman type instances for heroics so that once a player can run them he will have new content to explore, rather than repeating the cookie-cutter method of getting through the instance as fast as possible for the badges. At the end of the day I believe this expansions success will have less to do about what new bells as whistles they add (after all everything gets old eventually), and more about how well they cater to the casual gamers. Please Blizzard remember that some of us want to have FUN, not farm gear endlessly.
Microsofts solution to piracy is to charge even MORE money for Vista (up to $400 depending on the type). Ironically rather than lower the price to make it more attractive for people who would normally pirate it, they charge the legitimate people MORE which essentially encourages the legit people to pirate it. Following the huge WGA fiasco even the legitimate home users are going to be running pirated versions soon; as far as I can tell Microsoft only makes money off businesses.
Microsoft and EA both seem to be engaged in some massive stupidity campaign with the way they are handling their customer base of late, and it seems to be a raidly emerging pattern that the bigger you are, the less you care about your customers. What really boggles the mind is even tho this defies all logic they still seem to stay afloat.
In addition to KQ9, SQ7 may also be next to come under the axe, although they are apparently in talks with VU and Phoenix Online Studios about this new turn of events. All this being said I hope that VU will come up with a slightly better reason than 'because we said so' since it only encourages people to see VU as another namless corporation that is more concerned with grinding out endless titles for the sake of money. At the end of the day however VU is, as VU does, and it seems it will continue to follow the Microsoft creed of 'if its original, buy it up and make more money'.
The notion that the console/game/rating system ect... are all in 'chaoots' seems to make me think that perhaps he working under a conspiracy theory. While I grant you that all the companies have a vested interest in selling more games, this whole 'dark shadowy underworld' of which he speaks is more a product of loose laws than the 'dark side of the force' infecting our youths.
I also love the way in which he casually assaults the ethics of the federal judges as a whole. While I realize this is most likely on purpose and an attempt for JT to show he isn't afraid, insulting the judges as a whole, becuase you don't like what they ruled, rather than reyling on hard evidence is not a wise move. Essentially the further I went down the interview I saw less and less quoting of facts and details, and more and more of evil plots filled with terrorism and brainwashing.
Once again the RIA and government fails to grasp the bigger picture on how to USE file sharing rather than fight it. Essentially all this tarrif will accomplish will be to encourage those people who do download music legitimately via such systems as Napster to seek other methods. Essentially people are left with two options: 1) Accept an increase in cost-per-download to help companies like Apple cover the 40% charge. 2) Download these programs illegally because the price has become too excessive for a per-song download