next »

[Pandara_RA!]

My idea is simple, make the game size large as hell, I'm talking about 50-100gigs large, this can be achieved in many ways, for example by lack of compression on video content.

This idea is mostly for console games

In my head this would be effective for a few reasons.

1. Pirates depend on seeders to transfer files.
2. After a certain period of waiting people get pissed off and deter.
3. Bandwidth has a cap to it, meaning everyone in the US is limited in up/down speeds.

4.In my head on launch of a game a warez group would crack the game and put the game up online, then a TON of people try to download the game all at once (hype/excitement for the product) but because the file size is so large at ~100 gigs potential "seeds" (peopel who finished the download) who will speed up the other people downloading will be limited to the patient.

5. From there even at good speeds of 1-2 mb per second the download would take many many hours if not a day/two/three to download depending on your isp, and how many other things you do online limiting the speeds.

6. For most games the majority of sales are within the first few weeks, meaning if the pirate solution isn't viable due to the limit of speed/time/patience. The value of having the convince of the game right on it's own disk is higher.

Issues with this that I can think of
1. If applied to a PC Game it taking up so much room on the computer (100gigs) may deter legit sales.

 

[emacs]

How do you expect people to be able to get the game then?  You wouldn't want to wait for 100GB to download from PSN or XBLA.  You wouldn't be able to fit it all on a DVD or CD to distribute physical copies either.

[ink.inc]

ya

this

wouldnt work

if you make it impossible for pirates

how are you going to get it to consumers

[C.D Buckmaster]

Unless it's sold on hard drives, you would need a boxset of dvds to contain it.

This is like shooting your horse so that nobody can steal it.

[Dacke]

Well, there are 256GB USB-sticks on the market now. So if you're prepared to sell the game for ~$600 you'll be fine.

I would still be able to download a 256GB game in 6-7 hours, though. Much faster than getting it sent to me by snailmail.

[noah!]

But wait...what if you filled that 100GB with CONTENT...it could work.

Think about it!

1. Pirates would download the game, seed, and start playing.
2. Pirates would be sucked into the game world for a period of MONTHS to YEARS.
3. Stuck inside the game world, they would be unable to pirate and distribute further goods.
4. So while you take a loss with this game, you will have solved the piracy problem for generations!

oh wait this applies to consumers too

5. Consumers get sucked into the game world too.
6. Stuck inside the game world, they would be unable to serve their necessary societal functions.
7. Families would go neglected, jobs uncompleted, outdoor pools left in disrepair.
8. The economy would collapse one sector at a time.
9. Eventually, unable to sustain their own mortal bodies, they collapse by the thousands, their swivel chair becoming their coffin.
10. Those few remaining would do whatever it takes to stop the spread of this virus, but to no avail.
11. Those few remaining would die off as well, from the resource deficit caused by the shattered economy.
12. TRANSLATION PATCH
13. I open my eyes to the expanse before me. The ruins stretch on for miles; grass and weeds intertwining between behemoths of glass and steel. This, my father says, is the sin of idleness. These were the homes of a once-great civilization, who once took the whole world under its grasp. Nature could not scratch them, nor technology, nor any outside force. Instead, it was mere idleness that caused their total obliteration. Just as it has destroyed an empire that controlled the world, it can easily destroy you as well. That was what my father said, and though I could not believe it, I simply had to accept it as fact. And thus I walk away, eyes fixed upon the ground, never to return.

[PompiPompi]

lol, Pandara, this is a bad idea.
If you want a game you can play offline, the best thing you can do is have a dongle you need to attach your computer to play. But even that can be cracked.
Most solution that will make it a nightmare for pirates will make it a nightmare for users too, only pirates remove the nightmare by cracking your game.
There is also always the online solution, but then users can't play their game offline.
(isn't this is what games who require you to be online to play do? like star craft 2 and etc?)

[moi]

But wait...what if you filled that 100GB with CONTENT...it could work.

Think about it!

1. Pirates would download the game, seed, and start playing.
2. Pirates would be sucked into the game world for a period of MONTHS to YEARS.
3. Stuck inside the game world, they would be unable to pirate and distribute further goods.
4. So while you take a loss with this game, you will have solved the piracy problem for generations!

oh wait this applies to consumers too

5. Consumers get sucked into the game world too.
6. Stuck inside the game world, they would be unable to serve their necessary societal functions.
7. Families would go neglected, jobs uncompleted, outdoor pools left in disrepair.
8. The economy would collapse one sector at a time.
9. Eventually, unable to sustain their own mortal bodies, they collapse by the thousands, their swivel chair becoming their coffin.
10. Those few remaining would do whatever it takes to stop the spread of this virus, but to no avail.
11. Those few remaining would die off as well, from the resource deficit caused by the shattered economy.
12. TRANSLATION PATCH
13. I open my eyes to the expanse before me. The ruins stretch on for miles; grass and weeds intertwining between behemoths of glass and steel. This, my father says, is the sin of idleness. These were the homes of a once-great civilization, who once took the whole world under its grasp. Nature could not scratch them, nor technology, nor any outside force. Instead, it was mere idleness that caused their total obliteration. Just as it has destroyed an empire that controlled the world, it can easily destroy you as well. That was what my father said, and though I could not believe it, I simply had to accept it as fact. And thus I walk away, eyes fixed upon the ground, never to return.

the best part would be the developers that would get sucked into the game making for years and then the company would get belly up becasue of poor sales

As for the first idea, pirates themselves would just put some compression on the video and the pirate version would be better than the legit version

[Capntastic]

Instead of making my point and click adventure game occasionally have a section where you need to look up the answer to a riddle in the code-wheel included with the game, I'm going to make the whole game a code-wheel.  Your move, pirates.

[Muz]

Lol, no. Hackers aren't stupid, they'll just compress it. I've said it before, DRM means the pirates offer a higher quality game than the developers offer

Bandwidth is cheap anyway. We're in the fiber optic era. I can get 100GBs within a week. It's not so much about being patient, I'm not even doing anything else with the bandwidth.

One thing that does work is putting up fake torrents of the game that appear to be cracked, and requires you to play the game for like 30 hours before it crashes, so you don't realize it's a fake torrent until long after you've certified it as a real one.

Unreal World did this, was too annoying to find a fake torrent vs the $3 minimum they wanted, which is why it's the first game I've bought over the Internet.

[Capntastic]

Of course, Unreal World also makes you pay for new versions*, which is an entirely different albatross. 

An important thing I've noticed is that I have no problem doing the whole Netflix thing, or the whole Kindle thing, paying a few dollars for content beyond avarice.- because it's easy.  The only time I ever stream movies illegally is when it's not on Netflix, Hulu, Amazon streaming, etc, and it would require both a ridiculous price and shipping time to get my mitts on a DVD, CD, or book that I could otherwise get 'for free' with a few minutes of effort.  And recently, two DVDs I've purchased simply refuse to work on my computer, so I had to end up torrenting them anyways.

You can ascribe all sorts of high minded notions about intellectual property rights and debate the ethics of piracy all you want, but to me, the very existence of a path of least resistance when it comes to 'getting what I want' makes DRM annoying. 

If you can find a way to get your product into a customer's hands without making them sign up for one or more different services, registering for things, jumping through hoops, and you don't charge an insulting amount, you're pretty solid.  This is why emporium models like iTunes, Amazon, etc, seem to do so well I think:  One place for you to get pretty much everything you need with one or two clicks.

*But don't worry, I've been reassured that they don't even come out very often so it's not that big of a deal!

[Moczan]

That's has be described as 'pain-in-the-butt' currency in 4 currencies of piracy article. And that's the reason I really like Steam. The buying process is few clicks once you save your preferred payment info, Steam will download your game AND update it automatically. Not only finding a working torrent can be pain-in-ass but often you have to rely on 'underground' versions of the patches, which usually you don't get any auto-notice about.

Oh and Steam will do all of this again if you even change a computer a buy a second one, just leave it for few days and your complete library of games is ready to play.

[SundownKid]

There is no "good" DRM, the only way to prevent people from pirating a game is to make it easier to download, not harder. Steam makes it easier to play a game then pirating it, and allows you to see what your friends are playing - that's why it succeeds. Padding the game is yet another way to make consumers suffer and it would be quite easy for pirates to remove the padding.

[Pandara_RA!]

ya

this

wouldnt work

if you make it impossible for pirates

how are you going to get it to consumers

I'm talking about physical on disk console games, like an PS3 game, which are already on a blue ray disk. nothing you'd just "download" online lol

I now completely accept this as a terrible idea written at like 3am

[Evan Balster]

This is like shooting your horse so that nobody can steal it.

It's more like cementing your horse to the ground so no one can steal it.  Or riding a giant slug.

In any case this thread is immensely amusing, so it's not a total loss. 

[BlueSweatshirt]

Best way and only way to stop piracy:

Be good to your customers.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

Best way and only way to stop piracy:

Be good to your customers.

i think eliminating poverty would also work. most pirates only pirate because they are poor. if you make 100k a year you tend not to pirate

[BlueSweatshirt]

Yeah, like that's a viable business strategy.

But, going back to my "Be good to your customers" thing, generous pricing helps to mitigate purchase barriers of poverty-level income, and it's something you actually have control over.

[ஒழுக்கின்மை (Paul Eres)]

i don't think anyone mentioned anything about business strategy

but another option which some have had success with is subterfuge -- upload fake pirated versions of your game. if you confuse pirates with an array of fake pirated versions (which may just be pictures of kittens or something) it's harder for them to track down the real pirated versions, and they may give up and just buy the game. the goal would be to make it so that the real pirated versions exist somewhere, but are not the first result or even on the first page when you search for "[game name] torrent" or "[game name] download full version" or whatever in google

[BlueSweatshirt]

How is discussing methods to reduce piracy not referring to business strategy?