Poll: DRM, your thoughts?

[zfactor]

What is your opinion of DRM? In video games, mostly, but also DVDs and music CDs/online purchases. Should everything use DRM? Why?

EDIT: Where'd the poll go????

 

[Something Amyss]

I'm against it. I dislike being treated like a criminal for actually buying their product.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

Personally I think if they stopped trying so hard to stop pirates then there wouldn't be as many pirates, we all know hackers are just looking for a challenge, it's like an idiot poking a bear with a stick, the bear is just gonna rip the stick out of your hands and eat you for bugging him. Sure piracy would still happen, but if they didn't take all this time building in DRM there is a lot of money they wouldn't have to make back in sales which could give a drop in price.

I don't agree with your logic at all. If you make something trivially easy to pirate what reason would there be to have people pirate it less than if it were moderately easy?

That said, I would like to believe that making something trivially easy to pirate would not increase the level of piracy either, but games like Demigod and a recent charity event indicates that this is almost certainly not true.

I don't like DRM, but then I don't like being robbed any more than Activision does. I will say that once a particular form of DRM becomes too annoying I simply stop purchasing any games that use it (My system at the time could only run games that used the StarForce DRM after long coaxing, the recitation of a number of litanies and several dark rituals so I just gave up on the lot of them). If nothing else, I would represent a demonstrated case of a lost sale because of excessive DRM on more than one occasion.

 

[zfactor]

Personally I think if they stopped trying so hard to stop pirates then there wouldn't be as many pirates, we all know hackers are just looking for a challenge, it's like an idiot poking a bear with a stick, the bear is just gonna rip the stick out of your hands and eat you for bugging him. Sure piracy would still happen, but if they didn't take all this time building in DRM there is a lot of money they wouldn't have to make back in sales which could give a drop in price.

I sort of agree. If there was simple anti-piracy measures (that stop the average comsumer and do not interfere with his or her experience), most people would not pirate because buying the game is easier. I think it is a matter of convienence, really. People see no DRM as eaiser to use than DRM, so if the DRM operated in the background and you never knew it was there, problem solved. People would buy the game because it is easier than getting a pirated version.

 

[zfactor]

EDIT:.........double post

 

[rsvp42]

I was thinking of bringing up another DRM topic, but there seems to be a lot, so I'll just share my thoughts here. I've honestly never had a problem with any kind of video game DRM. I think I had more trouble losing the cases with the CD keys than I've had with Steam. So even though I can understand why people oppose it, I haven't had any problems. I feel like DRM probably helps keep the average person from going online and downloading pirated copies. Dealing with cracks, key generators and the like can be obnoxious. Like me, for instance. I probably have the technical prowess to pirate all my games if I really wanted to, but I don't really have the patience to get into all that because I don't really play enough to outpace my own income these days.

 

[Zhukov]

DRM means that the pirates are offering a superior product.

Think about it.

 

[AdmiralMemo]

Necessary evil. They need to make it work better, though.

Heck, some DRM isn't even to stop pirates. It's to stop resellers of used games.