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| [July 21, 2008, 10:02 am ET] - Share - Viewing Comments |
7 Replies. 1 pages. Viewing page 1.
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| 6. |
Re: No subject |
Jul 21, 2008, 19:37 |
Asmodai |
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Think about the DRM for Titan Quest.
Deliberately inserted sabotage code to detect nocd cracked executable's which would cause the game to become unstable and crash at points, ewhich subsequently corrupted characters(sometimes making them 100% irretrievable).
Two problems:
1. The game was pirated. A lot. And all those pirates got the crashes and everyone went and complained about it. It created a massive amount of noise about how the game was crap which Iron Lore never got on top of handling in the PR dept. It wasn't until too late (when the reviews had gone out describing the "problems" people were having that they tried to rein it in).
By then, people who might have purchased the game were reading reviews that told of massive problems and (surprise surprise) avoided it as a buggy piece of junk.
2. Legitimate users could get the same problems as the pirated version using the disc. I reported the problem on the TQ forums (I got crashing at the first cave you came to, just like the pirates) and was accused of piracy by other members and mods despite having a registered copy of the game and not using the nocd. It obviously never occurred to them that their black box crash code might ever malfunction... I shelved it until a later patch made it playable, but was glad I didn't purchase the expansion when I heard about the rubber banding which was introduced.
And eventually Iron Lore sank (flagshipped?)
If they hadn't bothered, they wouldn't have had to pay for the black box code, would have less pirated copies (I'm sure a few tempted buyers probably pirated after they read up about the faults) and more sales due to reviews that stick to the game rather than the wildfire rumours of massive bugs.
Generally, their customers would be happier, the pirates would be pretty much the same.
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| 5. |
Re: No subject |
Jul 21, 2008, 15:42 |
Jerykk |
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They don't have to, unless the DRM is broken. All of my games work without cracks. Are you are making this a bigger issue than it needs to be? 1) Define "broken." 99% of the time, DRM is cracked and doesn't prevent piracy. Given that that is its primary purpose, I'd say it's inherently broken. Then you also have the numerous technical issues that come with DRM...
2) Your own personal experience is not representative of all experience. If you've read the official forums for Mass Effect, Bioshock or any other game with excessive DRM, you'll notice a lot of users having problems. I know a guy at work who couldn't play The Witcher because its protection didn't like his optical drive. Hell, just recently there was a news post here about the Securom in C&C3: Kane's Wrath causing Explorer to crash when you right-click on programs.
3) The issue is that DRM does more harm than good. When pirates have an easier time playing games than legitimate users, that's obviously a big problem.
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| 4. |
Re: No subject |
Jul 21, 2008, 15:25 |
James |
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That's a great idea...let's see, do any retailers give a refund for opened games? And hire a lawyer to sue a company to get your money back for a broken game? What lawyer is gong to take that case without a multi-tens-of-thousand dollar retainer?
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| 3. |
No subject |
Jul 21, 2008, 14:27 |
LittleMe |
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"Legitimate users shouldn't need to use cracks just to play their games."
They don't have to, unless the DRM is broken. All of my games work without cracks. Are you are making this a bigger issue than it needs to be? If a patch is broken, that's one thing. If a game ships that is broken out of the box with no patch available, that's a issue not only with DRM but quality control and also perhaps an issue for the courts to settle.
The legal system is supposed to be the way to settle such matters. If you buy software that DRM breaks, sue them or get a refund. No computer game is of a critically important nature where if you can't run it, people's lives are in danger. heh. Well, not technically. 
This message was edited at Jul 21, 14:28. |
| 2. |
Re: shocking |
Jul 21, 2008, 13:33 |
Jerykk |
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Rootkits are a different matter, but securom and the other lesser copy protection methods are probably somewhat effective at retaining some software sales and are not too intrusive. Legitimate users shouldn't need to use cracks just to play their games. As for retaining sales, I'm not so sure about that. To date, Alone in the Dark PC hasn't been cracked. Does this mean sales have skyrocketed? No. In fact, copy-protection is much more likely to lose sales than gain them. I know a lot of people (including me) did not buy Bioshock or Mass Effect because of their copy-protection.
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| 1. |
shocking "what's wrong with PC gaming" |
Jul 21, 2008, 11:38 |
LittleMe |
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Why call it 'wrong'? I can remember 8 bit games in the 80s used copy protection heavily back then too. Cracked games were available on local BBS's. Its just the way gaming on home computers has been for 25+ years, and probably will continue to be. This story is a nice reminder, but has that much really changed?
I don't mind things as they are now. If you want to use the cr4ck, ok. Rootkits are a different matter, but securom and the other lesser copy protection methods are probably somewhat effective at retaining some software sales and are not too intrusive.
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