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[qubodup]

I'm calling out to all gamers to join me in convincing publishers that not only pirates want DRM-free games.

(for entertainment and smarts)

Flickr group (for images of you with games you bought).

Thank you!

[Craig Stern]

Putting in a serial number when you install your game is a little annoying. Okay--I get that. But as long as the game isn't doing super-obnoxious things like limiting you to 1 install or requiring you to keep the CD in the drive, what's the harm? I have no problem entering in a little code when I first install if it means I'm helping to ensure that developers get paid for their hard work. (After all, if I thought they didn't deserve the money because their game was terrible, I wouldn't have bought their game.)

[qubodup]

Putting in a serial number when you install your game is a little annoying. Okay--I get that. But as long as the game isn't doing super-obnoxious things like limiting you to 1 install or requiring you to keep the CD in the drive, what's the harm? I have no problem entering in a little code when I first install if it means I'm helping to ensure that developers get paid for their hard work. (After all, if I thought they didn't deserve the money because their game was terrible, I wouldn't have bought their game.)

I think that in the scope of this affair are the protection measures that are annoying (install drivers or other software) and/or cause problems (disc drive incompabilities).

[mrfredman]

I'm very nervous about taking the bait of a pirate troll, because these days they seem do be everywhere, and boy to they bite hard.
But I'm gonna take that bait, because its an argument I haven't had in a week or two, and I've got a few minutes to put together an internet rant.

I have no problem with DRM in theory. Artists and creative people deserve money for their work and there is nothing wrong with attempting to create some sort of security system to prevent people from taking advantage of the internet to pirate media without any difficulty or consequences.

That being said, I do agree that the way publishers are attempting to protect their games is broken, invasive, and/or ridiculously annoying. So I totally understand and mostly sympathize with much of the anti-DRM sentiment floating around these days.

There either needs to be some sort of universal DRM that all publishers adopt so that us gamers don't have to deal with the frustrations of every new-fangled and half-assed DRM that keep getting thrown at us. One of the big problems is that every publisher has its own take on DRM so that rather than pooling their resources to find an ultimate solution, they keep trying to fix these pathetic little band-aids that don't do anything and just infuriate the paying populace.

The other problem is the inefficiency and invasiveness of these programs. Most recently I've been wrestling with the Rockstar Social club so that I can play GTAIV online, and let me tell you; what a headache! Its a cpu hog, it tends to crash once a day or so. I purchased the game off Steam in hopes that I wouldn't have to download any new software, but instead I have to run the both! Not to mention Windows Live which pops up as the game loads, but this is an inappropriate place to rant about the failings of the PC GTAIV port, let me get back on point.

...actually let me summarize and wrap up;
DRM is a necessary evil as digital distribution becomes more and more pervasive, but the big-wigs over at the giant publishers really need to take their heads out of their asses and realize that if their DRM is small, polite, and uninvasive most paying-gamers will stop complaining, and because the pirate's opinions don't really matter in this argument anyways, everyone relevant will be pleased.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I've no strong feelings toward DRM either way. I don't use it for my shareware games, but that's mainly because I can't be bothered to set one up rather than because I'm anti-DRM.

One thing I do find funny though is that it seems like most people who are anti-DRM are pro-Steam, when Steam is DRM (and more invasive than most forms of DRM, at that).

[mrfredman]

One thing I do find funny though is that it seems like most people who are anti-DRM are pro-Steam, when Steam is DRM (and more invasive than most forms of DRM, at that).

Steam was actually a big factor in turning me to the pro-DRM side of the argument, because Valve has really proven that DRM can be fast, easy, and painless, which is probably why a  lot of anti-DRM people accept it and look the other way. Those same people definitely commit the crime of overlooking its invasiveness though, it can certainly be devious when it wants to.
Steam is definitely the most user-friendly and functional example of DRM to date, but its still far from perfect.

[Aik]

DRM is not only terrible - it's pointless. When your game is cracked before you even release it - why bother? Stop annoying the people who paid for it, so that they can have as good an experience playing it as the pirates do.

[Laremere]

The only thing that companies should really try to fight is casual pirating.  Just people sharing with their friends because they can.  Hackers can 99.99% of the time get through stuff if they try.

[team_q]

DRM is not only terrible - it's pointless. When your game is cracked before you even release it - why bother? Stop annoying the people who paid for it, so that they can have as good an experience playing it as the pirates do.

This just in! Most DRM is to prevent games from being cracked before release! Why bother? Here is a question "Hey, do you want a game now, before it is released, for FREE? or do you want to wait and pay for it?" This is a question publishers do not want users to have the opportunity to ask themselves.

[Lucaz]

I have no problems with DRM, as long it's not excessive. And for what I've seen, excessive DRM doesn't takes substatially longer to crack. Maybe GTA4 style DRM takes more time, but that's too much, some people ain't willing to go through all that stuff just for a game. Yet, by a couple of days there is crack.

Steam is an example of a well done protection, from what I've heard. Also, asking for cd in the reader is fine, just to be sure twenty persons aren't using the same copy.

[Alec]

This is one of those issues that unfortunately gets taken to either extreme by a lot of people. Clearly nobody wants insane DRM, but at the same time some light DRM can go a long way without annoying people. There are reasonable compromises, and Steam seems to be one of them.

[PaleFox]

If you had a better way of checking for false keys, I think the old Blizzard DRM was just fine by me and could still be viable. That way pirates can't play online, which basically became the point of Starcraft, Diablo etc after a while, and everyone is happy. I mean, they even took away the need to have a cd in the drive a while ago.

I do dislike large-scale DRMs (Starforce seems like an example of this) where the whole process is convoluted and sometimes even harms the computer. Remember Sony's rootkit?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

DRM is not only terrible - it's pointless. When your game is cracked before you even release it - why bother? Stop annoying the people who paid for it, so that they can have as good an experience playing it as the pirates do.

A little-known fact is that DRM does work to prevent casual piracy. Most people know how to copy a game for their friend, but not everyone knows about torrents, cracks, and keygens. In other words, DRM prevents piracy in those people who don't know about all that technical stuff, and without DRM any soccer mom can email the copy of the game she bought to all her friends. So even if DRM fails for the elite hackers, it succeeds for people who aren't technically inclined -- and that's why it's still used. Just because a game is cracked before release doesn't mean that DRM doesn't prevent some piracy in some people. The point of DRM is *not* to fight the hackers or to prevent piracy totally, it's to fight the people who just want to make a copy of their CD and hand it out to people. Nobody who uses DRM expects it to prevent all piracy, they just want it to prevent some.

[Lucaz]

Precisely, that's why most DRMs are stupid. Casual piracy is prevented by any DRM, more hardcore piracy goes over any DRM. So, what's the point in having intrusive or complicated DRM? None.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I wouldn't say most DRM is intrusive, it's only 0.1% that install rootkits or secret unclosable programs and all that. Most DRM is fine, it's only because of the worst offenders that everyone thinks that they all do what the worst offenders do.

[Alevice]

I don't know, I have seen many DRM approaches that harm more the legitimate user than it does for anyone going piracy full scale. I know of friends who got pissed off because ither starforce or securom prevented them from playing their retail copies because they had 'faulty' cd rives.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Being able to name a few examples of it happening doesn't mean it's widespread though; it's never happened to me, and I'm sure that even for your friend it doesn't happen for every single game they buy, it's only the rare games that stick out. Whenever something is annoying, we tend to overestimate its prevalence, but more attention on something doesn't mean it's more widespread.

[Pacian]

For me this is about peace of mind.  I want to know that my game will keep working even if the company that made it goes bust or decides to stop supporting it.  I want to know that if I have to reinstall Windows my new game won't refuse to run.

The number of actual problems I've had with DRM have been small (mostly to do with Steam, actually, which keeps feeding me corrupt updates for Portal and HL2 Episode 2), but knowing that the game works fine now but could stop working at any moment due to the publisher changing their mind... well, it feels like I've paid full price to rent a game.

I'm perfectly happy with disc-in-drive stuff and CD keys.  I don't mind having to jump over hurdles to play a game.  I just don't want to have to play "Will it work today?" Russian roulette when I start up the game each time.  How am I supposed to invest myself in a world and its characters if I'm never sure I'll be able to continue from where I left off tomorrow?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

I agree with that, but I do think that most DRM is of the basic CD keys and disc-in-drive variety. I think it's all the hubbub about the worst examples of DRM that gives the false impression that most DRM is like Spore's, when most is more like Starcraft's.

[agj]

One thing I do find funny though is that it seems like most people who are anti-DRM are pro-Steam, when Steam is DRM (and more invasive than most forms of DRM, at that).

I hate Steam. When I bought the Orange Box, it took me like a whole hour to finally get to play Portal, just because I had to keep installing things, downloading patches, inputting security numbers, registering...

Also, rinku, I think most DRM nowadays is Internet-based. Which does mean that playing your game depends on, at least, having an Internet connection, and an online server to check stuff for you, before you can install your game.