Ubisoft Vs Pirates. Whoever wins, we lose.

[krogothwolf]

Originally Posted by NonCon

So you'd rather miss out on what might otherwise be a totally and completely fun game? Have fun with that.

Yeah, its how consumerism works ya know. You buy what you like. If you don't like something don't buy it. Pirating isn't something I think is right so why should I do it? Plus it doesn't "teach" the companies a lesson at all. If I miss out on a game so be it. It's not like there aren't other games out there that can take up my time and be just as enjoyable.

[Mirai Gen]

Originally Posted by krogothwolf

Yeah, its how consumerism works ya know. You buy what you like. If you don't like something don't buy it. Pirating isn't something I think is right so why should I do it? Plus it doesn't "teach" the companies a lesson at all. If I miss out on a game so be it. It's not like there aren't other games out there that can take up my time and be just as enjoyable.

This isn't exactly a wrong philosophy, but I seriously doubt companies wouldn't take this opportunity to tack on more DRM and squeeze every last dime out of consumers who might be legitimately renting or buying a used copy.

[Kim]

The cost of purchasing PC games is a necessary compensation for the fact that you can't rent PC games. If you want it either you pirate it or buy it. There is no in-between.

[Azisien]

Originally Posted by NonCon

The cost of purchasing PC games is a necessary compensation for the fact that you can't rent PC games. If you want it either you pirate it or buy it. There is no in-between.

This is totally true, though I find myself in a unique position. I have a friend who is a video game hoarder. So I do end up buying any of the PC games I want to own anyway for cheaper, but for games where I range from "Enngh" to "I'd never pay money for this ever, not even for $2 in a bargain bin" I can usually just borrow it from him.

Man, it is sad to see PC gaming on a bit of a decline. I'm hoping it'll open up again from WoW dies, and the world is re-consumed back into SC2 and D3. I think I would blame economics more than DRM or anything else, but still. Blah.

[Ryong]

Consoles are the only place where anti-piracy protection works - and even then, not always - but they don't screw with legitimate players. The DS is a great example: There are, yes, games with no Anti-Piracy Protection at all, but then there's stuff like Zelda Spirit Tracks with an APP consisting of checking - somehow - if you're pirating. If you are, when you get into the train, no controls for you. It works and only screws pirates and it takes far longer to crack than PC games.

Guys, remember that Penny Arcade comic about limited installs DRM so the game producers can get whores for longer? Yeah.

Originally Posted by Bells

As for console hacking... yeah... Microsoft has a decent response to console hacking, Sony still has a unbreakable brick wall (aside from a few Faux news saying otherwise), and Nintendo is still the Pirate's bitch... point being that Consoles still managed to deal with Pirates with at least a notable degree of success without pissing of their consumers.

I heard modding the Wii has a stupid high chance of console bricking, although, yeah, the DS is mostly piracy's bitch because only a few games have good APP.

[bluestarultor]

I'm personally anti-piracy, myself, but before everyone goes jumping on me for it, I always was, even before becoming a programmer. It just goes against my moral code. On the other hand, I think that piracy often tries to overstep its bounds. I, frankly, absolutely LOVE abandonware. I have a ton of the legal stuff on my computer right now. My only issue is that I think more of it should be legal, but I'm not going to start in on copyright and derail the whole thread.

The point being I can both understand the desire to protect your games and also the desire to be able to play them without being hassled. I think there IS a place for DRM, but not in its current form. I think DRM has its place in that until we can curb the paranoia of piracy, there should be kinder, less intrusive means of it. Simple stuff. Maybe a decoder ring for a randomized password lock, or a novelty dongle shaped like the main character's weapon. Once we have trust back down, maybe DRM won't be needed anymore because the public and game companies will have made amends and the relationship will be more like it used to be when the shareware model ruled the land.

And you know what? The shareware model is still effective. We're seeing this a bit in episodic content, but I'm talking more about the real thing from way back. 3D Realms is still selling a lot of their old DOS games, and they have the free shareware out for download, with the full game at a fee. Not only do they provide the games, but they also package them with DOSBox. It's a really considerate thing to do. In fact, take a look around: http://www.3drealms.com/downloads.html . Buy something. There's good stuff there. Maybe if we can encourage more companies to focus on giving customers that kind of support, DRM will die out naturally as the market shifts from "what can we do to punish pirates" to "what can we do for our customers."


Fake edit: This probably isn't the most coherent post, so, TL;DR: there are kinder ways of preventing piracy involving both kinder methods and plain old trust coming back into the system, so let's find ways to encourage companies to build back that trust.


Real Edit: I'll just reiterate that my ideal protection is:

• Offline (or online for purely online games or the online portions)
• Painless
• Effective, but just enough so to deter casual piracy unless it doesn't conflict with the first two
• Given adequate support, so if you lose your key or whatnot, you can get a replacement with only the necessary hassle

[Bells]

Originally Posted by Ryong

I heard modding the Wii has a stupid high chance of console bricking, although, yeah, the DS is mostly piracy's bitch because only a few games have good APP.

Funny enough. "stupid" is the keyword in this thing... a Full brick (no recovery) and Semi-Brick (might have some recovery) are VERY easy to get. But if you take a day to read up before doing anything, it's almost impossible to fall on that pit. And once you "Unlock" the Wii, the only chance of Brick is if you update your console with a System Update from another Region (like going from 3.1 on a NTSC system to 3.2 with a PAL game).

I know this because i play a lot of Imports, but to this day my Wii is Still on 3.1u, i just don't update anything on the Wii or the Homebrew until i'm sure it's safe. But to this day every single time i go looking for news on games or homebrew there is always something about someone who bricked their Wii... so, it's very common, but stupid easy to avoid.

[Kim]

The are a few things I was just thinking, in regards to pirating...

1. It's true that if you decide not to buy a game because of DRM, and pirate it, you aren't supporting the people who developed the game and whatnot. This is sad. Unfortunately, if you do buy the game, in spite of DRM, you're supporting DRM. You're showing that no matter what ridiculous measures the company puts in place to make obtaining the game legally unappealing, that you are willing to put up with it to play the game. I don't think this is a good thing to do.

2. Any statistics a company claims in regards to lost sales or lost money due to pirating are completely and totally full of shit, will always be full of shit, and have no possibility other than to be full of shit. It is certainly true that there are plenty of cases where a person chose to pirate a game instead of buying it, but there are also plenty of cases where a person chose to pirate a game instead of not buying it anyways. Even were a company somehow able to catalog the number of people who pirated the game, something I doubt their ability to do accurately, it is quite literally impossible for them to differentiate between those who pirated because it was the appealing alternative, and those who pirated because it was the only way they were going to end up playing the game at all.

[Lost in Time]

When I buy a PC games I go through the checklist of:
Do I like it?
Can I run it?
Does it have no/light DRM?

Light DRM constitutes as GFWL and Steam. Anything else really goes out the window. I really applaud Bioware to only give Dragon Age and Mass Effect 2 a simple disk check. It's very simple.

[Seil]

Consoles are the only place where anti-piracy protection works - and even then, not always - but they don't screw with legitimate players. The DS is a great example: There are, yes, games with no Anti-Piracy Protection at all, but then there's stuff like Zelda Spirit Tracks with an APP consisting of checking - somehow - if you're pirating. If you are, when you get into the train, no controls for you. It works and only screws pirates and it takes far longer to crack than PC games.

Ahahahahahaha. My friends have something akin to this that allows them to download whatever games they want to play on their DS'.