So DRM doesn't stop piracy... what do you think developers should do instead?

[Not G. Ivingname]

What clever ways do you think developers can stop piracy that don't effect players who bought it legit? Should we get more of the Batman no jump, or that "you have to admit you are a pirate to play this porn game" trick? Or do you think they should get rights to that "You are a pirate!" song that would play as soon as you turned the game on with pirated copies? How can we stop piracy without affecting the player?

 

[DazZ.]

The batman no jump thing was sorted a day later when the people who usually put it online put the actual game online instead of the one the Devs of batman put up. So that wouldn't work.

Why don't they just keep things as they are, they don't seem to be stretched for cash. Maybe if they had less money to throw into a crap game and going over the top on marketing they would try hard to make something awesome.

 

[Gunner 51]

Just not bother with the DRM.

If it doesn't work, it should be discarded. With the money saved from not pirate-proofing, the publishers can give it to the devs to make the game better or longer.

Plus Joe Public won't have to put up with all this DRM gubbins which slows down their PCs.

 

[benoitowns]

Maybe they should just...hell I dont know.......But it does seem like a useless waste of money and time and hurts the consumer......maybe they should put it on like a super blu ray disc so that downloading it would suck and then it could run from the disc..........Oh and if they get to run on the not disc, like then they could like release like a bunch of virsues or something to the people making cracks so their computers get fucked over every time they try to edit or change the .exe file....I dont know but that would be fun...and really expensive to invent super blu rays

 

[Petromir]

Just not bother with the DRM.

If it doesn't work, it should be discarded. With the money saved from not pirate-proofing, the publishers can give it to the devs to make the game better or longer.

Plus Joe Public won't have to put up with all this DRM gubbins which slows down their PCs.

They can't be seen to do nothing. Most DRM is a token effort to keep bakers happy. THey have to keep producing new systems (backer arent completely stupid) to show that they are continuing to fight back.

 

[BritishWeather]

no drm or developers just won't support pc and we will end up playing strategy games with what 12 buttons or on the wii 4 buttons.

 

[AlanShore]

As someone has already said, just don't bother with the DRM at all. It's a total waste of money that could be better spent elsewhere.

There was an interview with Gabe Newell where he spoke of severe piracy problems in Russia, but instead of tightening their grip with DRM they realised that the problem was to do with poor quality localisation so that's where they focussed their efforts and the piracy problem was significantly reduced. So better quality ports could be one path to go down.

Another could be to provide more tangible things with the game that can't be pirated like the way the text adventure company Infocom did with their idea of "Feelies" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feelie).

Ultimately, there will always be a core contingent of people who will pirate no matter what publishers do, so striving to eliminate piracy altogether isn't a realistic goal and I believe publishers should go down the route of improving the experience for paying customers, not trying to harm pirates.

 

[armaina]

Honestly, the developers should give the buyer some incentive to purchase a legitimate copy of the game and just keep the whole normal CD Key activation thing. This can sort of be done by the way of preorder incentives or some sort of special edition box, but they need to consider something with the normal packaged release. I would totally dig some mini art-books. Or you have things like the release of American McGee's Alice, that included a booklet that was read in the style of Alice's Doctor. Sure this may not seem like a big deal at first, but for me, I'm glad I have a legitimate copy of the game for that alone, as it's brought an interesting perspective to the game itself.

The other option would be to give us a real reason to register our game keys, because honestly, getting 'hints' because you registered your game key is not really worth it. But hey, maybe if you could get free in-game goodies from time to time, like special character outfits or other extras, some people might find it more worth it to purchase a game.

 

[snow]

Lower prices...

I mean... I don't pirate games, but I'm sure as hell not paying $60 dollars for it either... Maybe back in the good ol' days when games were longer, harder, and had more depth to them.

Yes there's always an exception to that though, so don't start lashing out at me for that.

 

[havass]

Cry and stick their heads down a toilet bowl.

THEN find a better and more complicated way to irritate the arse out of people by creating ultimately pointless DRMS! Yay!

 

[Petromir]

Honestly, the developers should give the buyer some incentive to purchase a legitimate copy of the game. This can sort of be done by the way of preorder incentives or some sort of special edition box, but they need to consider something with the normal packaged release. I would totally dig some mini art-books. Or you have things like the release of American McGee's Alice, that included a booklet that was read in the style of Alice's Doctor. Sure this may not seem like a big deal at first, but for me, I'm glad I have a legitimate copy of the game for that alone, as it's brought an interesting perspective to the game itself.

The other option would be to give us a real reason to register our game keys, because honestly, getting 'hints' because you registered your game key is not really worth it. But hey, maybe if you could get free in-game goodies from time to time, like special character outfits or other extras, some people might find it more worth it to purchase a game.

like Project $10 you mean?

I agree in the main, incentives for the genuine buyer, free DLC, the good bits of cloud gaming (saves and preferences avaliable anywhere, unlimted installs on as many machines as you like).

I also have an alternate way for the latest UBI DRM to work. Instead of stopping the game from working, do things like spawn special enemy types, unusual weapons etc. Don't punish us for not connecting (becasue you know there are legitimate reasons not to have a constant net conection) give us bonuses for doing so.

Racing games I can see struggling for such bonuses, at least traditional track based racers, burnout paradise style open world racing has pleanty of such options.

 

[Maxman3002]

Downloadable extras for registered games. Not stuff removed from the game but more stuff added to it. I often dont like EA but project $10 is a good idea. It helps them with both piracy and 2nd hand gaming. Sure people can still pirate the games but if they cant use downloadable content without paying a $10 fine to the company then most people will just pay it. People often make excuses that they pirate games because of cost but if expansions for the game are downloadable and (in my opinion) afforable then people will still buy them for pirated copys and not all is lost to the developers

Obviously theres the possibility of pirating the downloadable content. But if you base that part of the game on a cloud server and make it perfectly clear that 2nd hand copies (and so by proxy pirated copies) can pay the $10 charge and get the extra stuff online, then people will still buy them. Extras for a game based on a cloud server are less likely to be pirated because of the size, difficuly to pirate, difficulty for others to install and lack of demand

Also this helps combat the 2nd hand market which is probably the biggest loss to the industry. I personally buy every game I own 2nd hand off ebay and then sell them back on through ebay. Technically ive not spent over my £150 float that I use for gaming because of this strategy and ive played well over 100 games in the last 4 years

 

[Petromir]

I believe piracy is non-existent on the PS3 due to its use of Blu-Ray.
Undeniably technology will catch up eventually that Blu-Ray burners become common, but I think that's a hint to a solution... Not bullshit protections but something within the hard copy itself...

Nope I believe its more to do with the DRM requireing modding your console to avoid it, and that voids tha warrenty, and risks your console being briked by an update.

Bluray wirters have fallen in price more than enough.

 

[Rauten]

I think VALVe has it right, in my opinion. Don't bother with super-restrictive DRM, just try to turn the pirates into legit users, tempt them with goodies, offer awesome products, all that.
And you know what? It worked on me, and many other people I know (and know of). *Raises fist in anger* Damn you, Newell, and your perfectly planned evil schemes!!

I believe piracy is non-existent on the PS3 due to its use of Blu-Ray.
Undeniably technology will catch up eventually that Blu-Ray burners become common, but I think that's a hint to a solution... Not bullshit protections but something within the hard copy itself...

Nope, thing is, most modders didn't bother with it, because most of the big time modders that actually find out how to pirate consoles want to be able to run homebrew code, not pirate games. The PS3, at least the old model, offered that possibility with the Other OS, so instead of having to hack & crack the thing, it came as a feature. Therefore, uninteresting.

Then, a week or 2 ago, some guy showed how he managed to run just a feeeeew lines of code as game by abusing some sort of glitch in the Other OS. Sony freaked out, and launched that upgrade that removed the Other OS. Thus, the big modders suddenly found themselves unable to run their homebrew programs anymore. So they got down to the hacking & cracking, and within days, they had the PS3 not only running their code, but also made the system think that it was signed by SONY, and they even created a modified firmware. In DAYS.

And now, SONY releases a new patch and an update to the EULA, stating they can update the firmware at any given time, whenever they feel like it, without having to ask for your permission.
My, I wonder why such sudden change? XD

 

[Baby Tea]

Cloud Gaming

Well that would certainly work.
It would suck for people with shoddy, or dial up internet, though.

What ever happened to the CD-Key solution?
I know it's pretty basic, but the idea is solid: Can't install without a CD-Key.
Turn that up a bit, so they can't play online without a registered, unique CD-Key.
You can't access patches without a registered, unique CD-key.
It's not perfect, though.

It's a hard thing, really.
On the one hand, no consumer wants annoying or intrusive DRM. That sucks.
On the other hand, no company wants anyone getting a product they created for free. That's a dick thing to do.

Honestly, were I a developer, I'd probably drop the PC as a platform.
I know that's harsh, and there is a huge market there, but at what risk and what cost? Having a team full of people pouring hundreds or thousands of hours into a game, releasing it, and then firing a bunch of people a few months later when it's pirated at a higher rate then sales?

The fact that companies are even bothering with DRM should show that they want to develop for the PC gamers. They want to reach that market. But they want to get their due. It costs a lot of money to make a game, and it's not unreasonable to want to be paid for that work. Piracy is just a slap in the face of those who worked so hard on that game. You're effectively saying to the developer that you don't think his hard work and time and effort is worth the money to buy a product, but it's obviously worth the time to download and play.

I don't think piracy will end, really. People are selfish and you can't change that. Joe Blow sitting behind his computer doesn't care about the guy who is trying to pay his mortgage with the sales of the game they just made, he just wants to play a game for free.

 

[mikecoulter]

Entrust people with their ability to still buy things. Most pirates buy what they pirate apparently.