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

[Treblaine]

Let the Pirates win, they ain't gonna stop them.

Yeah, best let em have it. It's not wise to upset a Pirate.

That's 'cause casuals don't pull people's arms out of their socket when they lose. Pirates are known to do that.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Nothing, nobody can stop piracy it's like if you wanted to eliminate Lobby's that corrupt the Government systems around the world... it's just not very liable.

Thats not true if you remove copyprotection in all its forms you eliminate the need for groups. Half the scene would disappear.

Release groups would still be around but with no competition sharing would become friend to friend.

Similarly if you reduce the price of the title to such a low value that it took longer to d/l than to simply buy it piracy would be non-existant.

If a game cost say £5 a game whats the point in copying it ?

yes, but that's what you call a Utopian concept.

well, i find several reasons why to copy a cheap game, 1st because if in the place where you live in there's no game stores nearby.

2nd moreover if the game is rare you won't be able to buy it on amazon or Ebay unless a collector sells it for 80 bucks or make an auction.


etc

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Let the Pirates win, they ain't gonna stop them.

AY AY CAPT'N !


Arrrrr !

XD

 

[Fallingwater]

I was going to reply, but then, this...

NOTHING.

Instead of focusing on trying to fuck over the pirates, and inevitably hitting your legitimate customers with the fallout, give your legit customers incentives to hold on to the legit game. Things like including the soundtrack, appealing box art and booklets, bonuses for registered games, free DLC... etc. It's all good.

At the end of the day, no matter how horrible and complex your DRM is, it's a matter of time until it is reverse engineered and broken, and when that happens it usually turns out that the legit customers are paying money to have "additional malaware" and inconveniences that the people downloading it for free don't have to put up with. Then why pay?

...already says everything I wanted to say.

Just do as Stardock do (or used to do; I hear they're dabbling in DRM too nowadays - a sad thing indeed if true): focus on the paying customer, and completely ignore the pirates.

 

[Poofs]

they should stop wasting money on it
theyre not gonna stop the pirates but enough people buy games that it wont be an issue

 

[Veldel]

DRM is evil and crual to us

 

[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.

LOOK I SAID SOMETHING INFLAMMATORY AND THEN ASKED TO BE LEFT ALONE.

What long, inexpensive, deep games are you referring to? when compared to the era of the longest, deepest games in history?

Lay off the caps lock, then maybe we will talk.

Edit:

Wasn't asking to be left alone, just stating I know there are exceptions out there in the market today, and that pointing that out would be fruitless.

 

[JuryNelson]

Do nothing because you cannot stop piracy,you have to accept that,so the developers should stop trying to fight it because the DRM sucks and it doesnt work

You could say this about lots and lots of crimes. You could say it about lots and lots of things. "Can't win don't try"

You have to realize that you are arguing that "Stealing is okay if you are very, very good at it."

 

[f0re1gn]

improving the experience for paying customers, not trying to harm pirates.

Very good thought. Exactly what I was trying to come up with.

 

[tehweave]

What should developers do to combat piracy? Nothing.

Now don't flame me, but piracy will always exist. It always has and always will. There isn't much that developers can do, and if someone wants to be a pirate, they will.

 

[JuryNelson]

Actual online support is tough because of how many games that multiplayer doesn't make sense for and how many gamers don't care about multiplayer.

And DLC with any kind of value would be prohibitively expensive in the same way that graphics engines are. You have to BE a successful games company in order to succeed as a games company.

The fact is that Ubisoft makes a whole lot of games that I really, really want to play, and I can be connected to the Internet all the time.

So companies should just do THAT.

What games companies (developers, publishers, marketers) REALLY need to do is start talking about this issue. Because if players are the only ones talking about it, the tone will remain as it is: That companies that protect their interests do so while slitting the throats of the people who give them money and all their friends.

These aren't mustache twirling, puppy-kicking psychopaths. But until they speak up, we'll always be allowed to pretend they are while we watch the torrent bar fill up.

 

[Ekonk]

They should try the Steam approach, which is rewarding people for not pirating. What they are trying now is preventing people from pirating, but in such a way that people who do NOT pirate are punished.

 

[Pendragon9]

To quote half the people on this thread, NOTHING.

If you're actually putting money into a great game product instead of trying to screw your legitimate customers with horrible DRM, people will trust you again and pirates will be looked down upon.

Instead we get Ubisoft's "constant online" rubbish which gives massive sympathy for the pirates.

 

[2012 Wont Happen]

Considering that the DRM usually only affects legitimate customers, and actually makes me sort of want to pirate games just because I have the nagging suspicion it would be better than my legal copy of the game, I would propose they do nothing.

 

[Denamic]

Steam.
It's the only 'good' DRM out there.
It doesn't actually hinder pirates, obviously, but it doesn't shove shit down the customer's throat and it actually provides features!
Automatic downloading and application of patches and really fast downloading, 5MByte/s+, is awesome, pure and simple.
Not to mention the elimination of DVDs.
Disc swapping fucking sucks.

 

[JuryNelson]

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.

LOOK I SAID SOMETHING INFLAMMATORY AND THEN ASKED TO BE LEFT ALONE.

What long, inexpensive, deep games are you referring to? when compared to the era of the longest, deepest games in history?

Lay off the caps lock, then maybe we will talk.

Edit:

Wasn't asking to be left alone, just stating I know there are exceptions out there in the market today, and that pointing that out would be fruitless.

I think that the exceptions are expensive, easy, short, shallow games. I think that games today are longer, deeper and more difficult than ever before. I also think that I did turn off the caps lock when I asked calmly and legitimately "what the hell are you talking about?"

 

[DaOysterboy]

Invite all people who are considered gamers to meet at one place and all the heads of the game development studios as well. When we're all there we'll pinky-swear not to steal games and the developers will pinky-swear not to screw us over with DRM and dumb installation policies. Things will be back the way they were.

I'm all for us developers boycotting the consumer for a while and simply not releasing anything for a year.

I'd certainly buy more games if the developers offered to come around my place and gave me piggyback rides for buying the game.

A short list of possible options:
1. Stop making games, cure the disease by killing the patient.
2. Stop publicly executing pirates, Once they know shit got real they will think twice.
3. Take the time that is usually used to develop a game to instead develop a virus that targets torrent sites.
4. Starting producing product for a market that is not full of selfish assholes.
5. Continue to do what you're doing, because at least then you can try and stop piracy.
6. Do nothing and pirated even more by less experiences malicious assholes.
7. Sell stuff on Steam (assuming that it's not single player).
8. None of the above.
9. All of the below.

These are the best ideas I've heard so far. Seriously are you all four years old? "We want games that don't suck!" "Make them longer!" "With special editions!" "Oh yeah and give us more free stuff that comes in the box!" "Yeah it's like cereal! If you put a toy in it you'll sell more!" "Yeah! And make them cheaper!" "Yeah 'cuz we're all broke!" "Yeah we don't have jobs, so make 'em really cheap!" "Yeah then we'd buy more!" "Yeah we'd get more toys that way!" "Oh yeah, and you should treat us like GODS!" "Yeah you wouldn't get paid if it weren't for us!" "Yeah I'm feeding your kid tonight!" "Yeah, and I'd be feeding him tomorrow night if I didn't pirate the game! But I'm not buying it because after 30 hours of playing it I decided it SUCKS and you don't deserve my money!" "Yeah! I had to beg for hours to get my mom to give me that!" "Yeah why isn't every single game you guys produce as good as the best game I've ever played in my life!? Don't you bastards CARE about your customers?!" "Yeah and stop trying to prevent people from breaking the law!" "Yeah people have ALWAYS broken the law and they're always GOING to break the law!" "Yeah just give it up already dude!" "Yeah people breaking the law is a very old tradition!" God... it's just embarassing... I hate the DRM scheme as much as anyone, but sometimes I think we'd all be rightly served if the entire games industry collapsed, merged with Exxon and the creative minds got REALLY fucking rich by drilling the everloving hell out of ANWR.

 

[Zulu-Echo14]

Make good games?

 

[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.

LOOK I SAID SOMETHING INFLAMMATORY AND THEN ASKED TO BE LEFT ALONE.

What long, inexpensive, deep games are you referring to? when compared to the era of the longest, deepest games in history?

Lay off the caps lock, then maybe we will talk.

Edit:

Wasn't asking to be left alone, just stating I know there are exceptions out there in the market today, and that pointing that out would be fruitless.

I think that the exceptions are expensive, easy, short, shallow games. I think that games today are longer, deeper and more difficult than ever before. I also think that I did turn off the caps lock when I asked calmly and legitimately "what the hell are you talking about?"

So that way this doesn't turn into an argument over misunderstandings of who we are and the what not. What was the first game you have ever played? For me it was Altered Beast for the Sega Genesis. I was a wee little squirt when my brother had first received the console for Christmas, and while that game isn't a good example of an older game that is long, deep, and/or difficult, I hope that it gives you an idea of where I started off in the gaming world as opposed to where I am today.

I've also tampered with older systems. The Atari and Colicovision to name a few. Then as I got older, I've played a variety of different gametypes on various different systems including the PC. Sega CD, Saturn, PS2, PS3, xbox and 360, the n64 and gamecube to name... A majority of them, LOL.

While there are exceptions to my first statement like I've mentioned. I feel that some of the games from the nostalgic days of the gaming realm that a majority of the games can't compete in terms of depth, length, and more importantly, difficulty.

Though I feel that my opinion on the difficulty in gaming may be a bit biased, considering the amount of experience I've had with gaming. Games that I find way too easy, even on harder difficulty settings will appear impossible to others who have taken interest in other hobbies over the course of their life. So while I and others who feel the same way will grumble about the lack of difficulty in games today, there will always be others that raise an eyebrow at us for stating such nonsense.

No, I'm not trying to have an experience war with you, and I'm in no way trying to tug my own ego strings in this post. I'm simply stating who I am and where my opinions on the matter come from. You may even have more gaming experience than I do but still feel that the games being made today are a lot better than those that were made yesterday. It all comes down to personal preferences and opinions really.