Ron Carmel, co-founder of 2D Boy, speaking at this year's Game Developers Conference in San Francisco said that the best solution to piracy is to not bother with digital-rights management (DRM) altogether. Carmel, who spoke about the business decisions made with World of Goo said that there is little reason to use DRM especially when a cracked version of the game will be created anyway. "Don't bother with DRM--it's a waste of time. You just end up giving the DRM provider money. Anything that is of interest gets cracked, and the cracked version ends up having a better user experience than the legit version because you don't have to input in some 32-character serial number. Anybody who wants the game is likely to find it on BitTorrent sites. It's going to get cracked even with DRM, it's going to be available very quickly, so we don't see the point in having DRM. Piracy rates have been released before, and there's no difference between World of Goo and other games."
He continued by saying that developers of other independent video games are better off not getting involved with publishers and sticking to digital distribution. "Retail distribution--which is what publishers are good at--doesn't generate many sales for indie games. Go with digital distribution--you won't need a publisher for this. Self-fund your game--and when you get to retail, go for per-country flat-fee deals."
To be honest there's nothing stopping you from doing it now, pretty much any game out there can be found for free. So that reason holds little water with me. I have pretty much stopped buying pc games all together they are too much hassle to play because of their DRM methods. I have Guild Wars, and then I play some other OSS or Free games, but for the most part, I enjoy my xbox and ps.
people pirate because its easy, your options are limitless, your copies of games never get lost or get damaged, without DRM and decent prices people would lap up games like they were somebodys favorite candy, think if all games were DRM Free and say 15$ ... even with that huge price cut, the $ would still be made, you would have probably double the retail buys and many more online
restriction of almost anything stifles innovation and f*cks the consumer, i'll add that i no longer buy games... last games i bought were Far Cry and Half-Life, after seeing some of the install processes, i just said screw that, its not even worth it, i dug out an old atari and enjoy that quite a bit
its great to see some companies starting to just 'get it'
Last edited by artfuldodga on 25 Mar 2009 - 03:06
Look for example at the game Spore creature creator, it is built with a draconian DRM which is very difficult for game crackers to crack this game, it has been very successful.
Wait, so because some games have DRM, you think not paying *anything* for stuff is justified?
What an odd world you live in.
That's why I love the Zune Pass that Microsoft offers on Zune Marketplace. Even though it uses DRM, it uses it in a more beneficial way where if you choose to play a flat fee of $15 a month, you can get access to millions of songs very easily, LEGALLY, and not even have to pay millions of dollars to access full-length songs. You also get to keep 10 FREE songs, and they are DRM-FREE of course. Actually, 90% of Zune Marketplace is DRM-free. The Zune Pass is a great way in how DRM doesn't get in the way of consumers. As long as you keep paying the monthly fee (like any subscription you tune into), then it's still there to access. Of course, you could buy songs 'a la carte', but Zune Pass is the best subscription service out there.
An all you can eat game subscription fee sounds cool too, do you think?
People like artfuldodga are the reason why DRM exists. I think the creators should still get paid, and it's not fair if there are idiots that will continue to pirate, just because they're a freeloader.
I dont like DRM, I was turned off buying games, just pirating them.
But I have to say, buying Half Life 2, was the best purchase I made in about 10 years, especially the free MODS released with Steam.
DRM does what it is supposed to do most the time and that is to stop day 1 cracks however once a game is cracked, it usually runs like crap because of a crappy crack and of course these rumors get started that the game runs like crap and of course some would be buyers do not buy the game because they believe that the game runs like crap. So really, DRM may do more harm than good however, there is no valid case that it is useless.
I did this too, based on positive reviews and the attractive price. Apparently when Team Fortress 2 was on sale for $9.95 during the weekend sale on steam it sold like 500% more than usual (I also bought this). Steam distribution seems to be the future for PC gamers and piracy. It's not like no one has Internet who is a gamer these days, for the mandatory connection that Steam requires.
I avoid all EA games now due to DRM (and the lack of time!) I mean they practically killed 'Spore'.
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