Chair With DRM Collapses After Being Sat On Eight Times

[Robot Number V]

*looks at chair*
...What I'm trying to say is that the two things aren't really comparable.

That's part of the joke. The idea is to show how ridiculous DRM can be by showing what it would be like with other products.

Yeah, and my point was that since a chair and a game aren't comparable, that point is fairly meaningless. They're two different kinds of products, obviously what makes sense for one won't necessarily make sense for the other. The only thing that proves is that chairs aren't like games. It doesn't actually say anything about the effectiveness of DRM with games, all it's saying is that it WOULDN'T work for a chair.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to say DRM is effective. Frankly, I'm not a PC gamer and I've never had to put up with it, so I have only the vaguest idea of what it even is. I'm just saying the chair isn't an effective comparison.

 

[Aikayai]

In EA's case, the chair would fall apart when no one was sitting on it since they'd take the server down. This certainly does visualize what DRM just by applying something outside gaming.

 

[Epona]

Has no-one stopped in their fervent anti DRM rants to think that this video is actually poor at describing the problems with DRM? There's a whole bunch of different people using that 1 chair. Translate that into a whole bunch of different people using that 1 game and you have a game getting banned because it's pirated. I do wish people would think more...

I dislike restrictive DRM as much as the next gamer, but I know a bad metaphor when I see one.

8 different people can play the same game on the same console/PC at different times. In this case, the chair never changed rooms and the 8 people came to the room with the chair.

I do wish you had thought more...

 

[Vault101]

...just like most smartphones/PCs/TVs/consoles.

Get it? We are all sold temporary Jenga puzzles.

aside from the quality of said products (like the red ring of death) and even the "Planned Obsolescence" thing (which I'm not sure how true it is)

theoretically you can keep those things going for longer,(as things are now) a console doesn't become unusable when the next model comes out...I still have a perfectly functional Nintendo64 and Super Nintendo, TV's arguably even longer...we had an old TV still working fine from the 90's and even one from the 80's a while back

PC's dont last long...but how long you can keep one physically running depends, my mum still has an old Dell from 2001 which still works...a little slow but she uses it...granted thats the exception to the rule and you might not want to but you can have a compupter running for a good while if you dont kill it with a virus

my point is with these things its how long htye can physically go before breaking thats their use by date...the use by date is not set on purpose by somone else

of coarse in our ever connected world that may change as things can become obsolete as soon as they are not suported

 

[Vault101]

I didnt know limited installed was a thing

Are you serious?

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AkpnvSH1C7zMdFRpTXRYRUx6Ukw5Vm1NRk8zM0JQamc&hl=en_US#gid=9

It's been a thing for a while, with Ubisoft and EA having massive hardons for it.

how does limited installs stop piracy?...that confuses me

 

[Genocidicles]

how does limited installs stop piracy?...that confuses me

Not piracy as such, but it stops people from lending their game to all their friends.

 

[Vault101]

how does limited installs stop piracy?...that confuses me

Not piracy as such, but it stops people from lending their game to all their friends.

..............well we clearly can't have that..can we?

more recent methods (like steam) prevent that anyway

 

[dagens24]

This is about built in obsolescence; I fail to see the connection to DRM.

 

[Treblaine]

*starts downloading "chair.torrent"*

It's a good thing DRM does not happen with physical things.

Please don't ban me.

It's an analogy...

When I say "a human heart is like a pump" I don't mean a human heart is a metal piston that needs an external source or electrical or steam power to function.

You can't possibly approve of this DRM for consumers, just because it's only applied for data that they have bought and not for anything else they pay for?

Compare real life to piracy: YOU CAN'T DO THAT ITS DIGITAL MEDIA AND COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, YOUR ARGUMENT IS INVALID!
Compare DRM to real life: Yeah that's right, this totally supports my ideas and shows how right I am!

It's a fun little absurdity but by no means anywhere near a valid comparison. Still, it's an interesting idea.

I refuse to be a whipping boy for other people's piracy.

I don't pirate, yet I am left with the DRM and the pirates are not. And cracks to remove DRM from games you have legally bought are considered piracy.

 

[Something Amyss]

You can't possibly approve of this DRM for consumers, just because it's only applied for data that they have bought and not for anything else they pay for?

You mean, it's illogical to take different measures for items which function different?

I mean, unless you have a way to create identical copies of physical items, there's still a large difference in approach whether or not you particularly like it.

 

[Treblaine]

You can't possibly approve of this DRM for consumers, just because it's only applied for data that they have bought and not for anything else they pay for?

You mean, it's illogical to take different measures for items which function different?

Uhh, is that my stance?


So no.

I mean, unless you have a way to create identical copies of physical items, there's still a large difference in approach whether or not you particularly like it.

DRM doesn't stop anyone making copies.

It just impedes me from using my legitimately owned copy.

 

[Treblaine]

This is about built in obsolescence; I fail to see the connection to DRM.

That's just a diplomatic way of saying "shoddily built".

Most things don't have built in obsolescence, they simply aren't built to a high quality enough to last in normal use, it frankly looks better for companies (especially as far as shareholders are concerned) that their products fail out of greed rather than the incompetence and stretched resources of the people who made them.

Normally when a chair breaks after normal use, they swear blind they'll never buy another chair from the same people and go to the company that promises sturdy long lasting chairs... even if they cost more.

The problem is while people are indifferent to what kind of chair they want, they just want one that won't become unusable, people don't have a choice with SimCity, there are no real alternatives but to get SimCity with the DRM.

 

[geizr]

Meh, easily defeated. A little glue, a couple nails, and some bracing in the right places, and the chair will hold up about as well as any other non-DRM'ed chair; although, the weight limit might be slightly reduced.

EDIT: added qualification to compare to non-DRM'ed chairs.

 

[Steven Bogos]

This is about built in obsolescence; I fail to see the connection to DRM.

"DRM Chair' is what the creators themselves called it.

 

[lostlevel]

Honestly, I feel like this gets the point across better http://wearcam.org/seatsale/ but still a good project.

Wow where on earth did you find that? A good link though. It does seem to have a much clearer point, although perhaps the major difference is that one chair looked more flimsy to begin with.

Maybe its depressing that almost 12 years later it's the same old issue we're discussing but also maybe it shows piracy is not the industry destroying monster companies fear it as or it works very slowly.

 

[Something Amyss]

Uhh, is that my stance?

It kind of is. You've even tried to justify bad metaphors to that end.

Quoting the witless and banal Dr Cox doesn't really change the flaws in your argument.

 

[Something Amyss]

That's just a diplomatic way of saying "shoddily built".

On the contrary, designing something to reliably fail takes a fair amount of craftsmanship.

The problem here is that you don't like it, so you're attaching terms and concepts that don't match but carry negative weight in an attempt to drag it down.

You could simply say "I dislike this," or "planned obsolescence is dumb" and be both more honest and more accurate.