theshadavid said:
hURR dURR dERP said:
Still not buying it. Community backlash obviously doesn't mean much to Ubisoft, so the only way to tell them you don't like it is to, as they say, "vote with your wallet". I doubt it'll make a big impact because it's been proven again and again that people will eat their shit-twinkies anyway, but I'm not wasting my monies on this.
I think the worst thing is that this will (yes, will, not might) happen:
- Ubisoft puts shitty DRM on games to fight pirates.
- Most gamers will eat their shit because they still like the game underneath it and it's "not a big deal" compared to other DRM.
- Piracy continues, unaffected by the taste of shit on their games.
- Ubisoft puts more shit on their games to fight pirates.
- Most gamers will gladly shovel more shit down their own throats because it's not a big deal compared to previous flavors of shit.
- Piracy continues, unaffected by the taste of shit on their games.
- etc.
In short, refer to the <url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_frog>boiling frog story but replace "boiling water" with "DRM" and "frog" with "gamers". Also add a boat full of pirates laughing in the face of everyone involved. That's pretty much how I see the future of DRM.
So you think the best defense of piracy is to not do anything? It's better they make money off their products and people think they are stingy than give something they've been working on for years for free.
No offense, but that's a really dumb way to interpret my post.
First of all, pirates will pirate. Whether you put no protection at all on your game or you invent the most draconian DRM in the history of computing, someone will crack your game and put it on the internet, and a lot of other someones will pirate it. I really can't imagine that anyone who wants to pirate a game has ever been put off by DRM since pirates download those games with the DRM already cracked anyway. It's just a matter of copying one patch file and they've got the full game. The presence or lack of DRM does not influence piracy in any way, expect perhaps that the crackers will spend two days patching a game in stead of one. And if you're planning to steal the game anyway, I don't think one day will change your mind.
Assuming all DRM will get cracked, you could say that DRM is useless. But wait, it gets worse. You see, DRM costs money. That money could've gone into the game itself, or into advertising, or into hookers and blow for the programmers. All of these are better than spending it on something that doesn't work anyway.
Doesn't work anyway? Hah, if only that was all. Because yes, it gets worse still. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who the real victims of DRM are. Certainly not the pirates, as we've established earlier on. They hardly even notice the DRM. The second-hand market?
What second-hand market? Who then? Well,
you and me of course. Us, the legal, paying customers get screwed with online activation, limited installs, and
getting kicked out of your game when your connection has a momentary hickup. The publishers aren't thanking us for buying the game, they're putting on rubber gloves and telling us to bend over, because while we're supporting the company with our money we
just might suddenly become pirates of a game we already bought. That's lunacy.
Now, to the point why I said your post was dumb: "
It's better they make money off their products and people think they are stingy than give something they've been working on for years for free."
That's the most lame-brained argumentation I've heard in quite a while. Who ever said anything about giving away a game for free? Do you really believe that if a game is unprotected suddenly noone would buy it anymore? Do you honestly believe that a game without DRM would be pirated more than a game with DRM? Do you honestly believe that Joe Q Public will go "Normally I don't pirate games, but this one doesn't have DRM so let's steal the shit out of it!"
Joe Q Public hardly knows what DRM is, let alone cares about it! Do you honestly believe that pirates will suddenly
not pirate something just because it has DRM? If you do, we've got games like Galactic Civilizations II proving you wrong (look it up if the name doesn't ring a bell).
Having said all that, I do recognize why publishers want DRM even though I believe that at least the current forms of DRM are completely useless. I don't necessarily dislike DRM itself. However, when DRM treats paying customers like thieving criminals and hinders legal buyers in playing the game they payed for, that's pure idiocy and I will not be a part of it. Of course as I pointed out I'm the minority here, and there will be plenty of people who'll happily swallow this crap to play a cool game. I can't even really blame them for that. But I'll be standing at the sidelines going "I told you so" every time they decide to screw over their own customers again with an even more restrictive DRM.
DRM should target pirates, not customers. That's the bottom line.
