What can Developers & Publishers do to combat Piracy?
- Thread starter D0WNT0WN
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Absolutely nothing.
People like to make excuses for why they pirate things, they'll say 'Oh I'm just trying it out' and then 'try' the entire game from beginning to end before deciding conveniently not to buy it. Or perhaps they'll say 'I'm protesting the DRM' except that when a game comes out with no DRM they pirate it anyway. 'It's too expensive' is another fun one, because apparently having some patience and waiting for a sale or just, you know, living without it because it's just a damned game isn't an option.
Point being people will find an excuse for anything. Really the only option is to not give people that option by creating such a robust piece of DRM that it can't be pirated but as of yet that just hasn't happened and at the rate things are going never will. So right now the only option available is to either give DRM a shot and at least try to protect their work or to use no DRM at all and pray the pirates find a conscience when it comes to their particular game.
People like to make excuses for why they pirate things, they'll say 'Oh I'm just trying it out' and then 'try' the entire game from beginning to end before deciding conveniently not to buy it. Or perhaps they'll say 'I'm protesting the DRM' except that when a game comes out with no DRM they pirate it anyway. 'It's too expensive' is another fun one, because apparently having some patience and waiting for a sale or just, you know, living without it because it's just a damned game isn't an option.
Point being people will find an excuse for anything. Really the only option is to not give people that option by creating such a robust piece of DRM that it can't be pirated but as of yet that just hasn't happened and at the rate things are going never will. So right now the only option available is to either give DRM a shot and at least try to protect their work or to use no DRM at all and pray the pirates find a conscience when it comes to their particular game.
I got a warning for saying this once, so I'll have to figure out how to word it so that I don't get another one...ah...oh. I know.The Madman said:
I have this friend. He only pirates games as a sort of 'tech demo' because his computer is rather shit. If the game doesn't run properly, then that's that. It gets deleted because the game can't be played. But if the game does work without issue, then this friend will delete the pirated copy and go buy the game. Of course, games with actual demos are exempt from this because the demo serves as...well...the demo.
So...I guess my point is, some excuses are sliiiightly more valid than others. But I still don't condone piracy. I'm sure that my friend doesn't condone it either.
How about you give me something that I can't get by being a pirate. I pre-ordered and bought SC2 mostly for the poster ffs. Obviously DRM doesn't work, it's always cracked in the first 2-3 weeks, so give your paying customers some extra :0 revelations I know!
the problems is d-bags who don't want to pay for your stuff, are not going to pay for your stuff, no amount of bitching moaning or DRM is going to stop that. sorry.
the problems is d-bags who don't want to pay for your stuff, are not going to pay for your stuff, no amount of bitching moaning or DRM is going to stop that. sorry.
Why bother combating it? They must spend more attempting to combat it, and lose in legitimate custom for future titles when intrusive DRM is used to stiff the honest customer.
I say accept it is happening and you can't win, and then realise the vast majority of your games out there are being played by honest people who payed for it and those few who had no intention of paying for it anyway arn't really harming you as much as you're harming yourself and your honest customers.
I say accept it is happening and you can't win, and then realise the vast majority of your games out there are being played by honest people who payed for it and those few who had no intention of paying for it anyway arn't really harming you as much as you're harming yourself and your honest customers.
A verification that has to be made by an employee of the company.. Constant streaming everything from company servers and require a phone call constantly... if you don't get your code verified you get you console/computer corrupted... Free employee with every copy that is armed and if you even try to connect anything that might be not totally legal or unsupported they can kill you...
Stop making games, make them free.
Or if you are really thinking out of the box make a good game and be nice to the ones that bought the game and build company goodwill...
Stop making games, make them free.
Or if you are really thinking out of the box make a good game and be nice to the ones that bought the game and build company goodwill...
Offer better prices, stop charging 60 dollars for a game that's 5 hours long. Or have the option of buying the multiplayer separately from the singleplayer.
Even when a game bombs they still make a profit, they don't need to charge 60 for every single game.
And cut out the stupid DRM bullshit, seriously that's the biggest reason I avoid buying some games. Hey that game looks fun! DRM? ...Well I guess I'll wait till the console version goes into the discount bin.
Even when a game bombs they still make a profit, they don't need to charge 60 for every single game.
And cut out the stupid DRM bullshit, seriously that's the biggest reason I avoid buying some games. Hey that game looks fun! DRM? ...Well I guess I'll wait till the console version goes into the discount bin.
Sorry but there really is nothing you can do, other than treat every single customer like they're a thief. Piracy exists, it has done for years, decades even and yet the gaming industry keeps growing and growing. I think it's safe to say piracy is not an immediate threat to them.
I think you should contact Microsoft, Sony and Nintedo to propose them this ideausmarine4160 said:
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Simple answer: Stop asking "How do we combat Piracy" and instead ask the question that SHOULD be asked: "How do we maximize profits." Because in the end, that's what matters more.
The plain and simple fact is that combating piracy is impossible, so instead of wasting all of those huge chunks of money and time in a futile attempt to do it (when you might as well just use a simple DRM scheme which is broken just as fast but is much cheaper anyway and annoys the customer less), start doing other things that either increases sales or lowers expenses.
Examples on how to improve profits:
1) Make games more affordable to attract customers on a lower budget (more digital sales, lower price faster after release). This DOES yield profits, with Valve's data being proof of that.
2) Stop solely focusing on super-mass AAA titles on huge budgets that you want to sell for 50-60 dollars. It's not rocket science that when everyone and their dogs make titles that sell for those prices, then customers can't afford them all (and remember: The customers goal is to get as many games as possible as cheaply as possible and with as little waiting as possible). It floods the market with expensive titles that customers can't afford. Game companies just don't get this. Instead they bet everything on outperforming the competition, hoping that their game will steal sales from the other guy (emphasis here being on 'bet'. When you bet, you tend to lose sometimes) instead of focusing on on the gaming markets where demand is actually higher than supply. While the current approach is better for the consumer (more choices between AAA titles), it's bad for the companies themself, and if i were starting up a game company, i wouldn't take that route at all. I'd go for a lower budget niche-market instead. A market that actually has a lot of unexplored potential. At the end of the day, the only guys laughing is the pirates, because they get to play all of those AAA titles.
3) Put emphasis on features that the pirated versions typically won't be able to get (multi-player), increasing the value of the legally bought product.
4) Make better games. Or more importantly: Maximize your budget-to-game-quality ratio as much as possible.
Core part of the 'piracy problem' is that game companies simply spend too much money to make games, and we as customers simply don't have the money to finance it (which, in short, means that the 'piracy problem' has nothing to do with piracy, and everything to do with "Not enough minerals"). So the only way for the companies to increase profits is to lower their budgets = I.E. make games that cost less to produce (and sell them cheaper). Yes, this will cause a degrade in high-end titles with state-of-the-art graphics which is ultimately bad from the consumer standpoint because we get less high grade games to choose from. But it's the only way to increase profits for companies, because we simply just don't have the money to feed them if they want bigger turnover rates.
The plain and simple fact is that combating piracy is impossible, so instead of wasting all of those huge chunks of money and time in a futile attempt to do it (when you might as well just use a simple DRM scheme which is broken just as fast but is much cheaper anyway and annoys the customer less), start doing other things that either increases sales or lowers expenses.
Examples on how to improve profits:
1) Make games more affordable to attract customers on a lower budget (more digital sales, lower price faster after release). This DOES yield profits, with Valve's data being proof of that.
2) Stop solely focusing on super-mass AAA titles on huge budgets that you want to sell for 50-60 dollars. It's not rocket science that when everyone and their dogs make titles that sell for those prices, then customers can't afford them all (and remember: The customers goal is to get as many games as possible as cheaply as possible and with as little waiting as possible). It floods the market with expensive titles that customers can't afford. Game companies just don't get this. Instead they bet everything on outperforming the competition, hoping that their game will steal sales from the other guy (emphasis here being on 'bet'. When you bet, you tend to lose sometimes) instead of focusing on on the gaming markets where demand is actually higher than supply. While the current approach is better for the consumer (more choices between AAA titles), it's bad for the companies themself, and if i were starting up a game company, i wouldn't take that route at all. I'd go for a lower budget niche-market instead. A market that actually has a lot of unexplored potential. At the end of the day, the only guys laughing is the pirates, because they get to play all of those AAA titles.
3) Put emphasis on features that the pirated versions typically won't be able to get (multi-player), increasing the value of the legally bought product.
4) Make better games. Or more importantly: Maximize your budget-to-game-quality ratio as much as possible.
Core part of the 'piracy problem' is that game companies simply spend too much money to make games, and we as customers simply don't have the money to finance it (which, in short, means that the 'piracy problem' has nothing to do with piracy, and everything to do with "Not enough minerals"). So the only way for the companies to increase profits is to lower their budgets = I.E. make games that cost less to produce (and sell them cheaper). Yes, this will cause a degrade in high-end titles with state-of-the-art graphics which is ultimately bad from the consumer standpoint because we get less high grade games to choose from. But it's the only way to increase profits for companies, because we simply just don't have the money to feed them if they want bigger turnover rates.
Oh, oh, I know! Start putting ninjas in all your games. As we all know, pirates hate ninjas.
For serious: There isn't a damn thing you can do to stop pirates in the long run. Lowering prices won't stop the pirates. Anti-piracy software won't stop the pirates.
Birds gonna fly, fish gonna swim, and pirates gonna pirate. Nothing you can really do about it. I'd tell the developers to worry more about catering to their PAYING customers, rather than trying to punish the non-paying customers.
For serious: There isn't a damn thing you can do to stop pirates in the long run. Lowering prices won't stop the pirates. Anti-piracy software won't stop the pirates.
Birds gonna fly, fish gonna swim, and pirates gonna pirate. Nothing you can really do about it. I'd tell the developers to worry more about catering to their PAYING customers, rather than trying to punish the non-paying customers.
There really isn't anything they can do within reason that will combat piracy efficiently. Pirates are usually just assholes that don't want to pay for a game. I would actually love to interview a pirate to ask him what things he/she would want changed for them to actually pay for games. It would be either very predictable or very eye-opening.
Brilliant! They'll never see it coming!Marter said:
...And probably the only way to eliminate piracy....