Copy Protection, etcetera

[Dhampir]

While I wholeheartedly agree that copy protection is quite useless for stopping piracy, it does serve a purpose.

It's good PR. More copy-protection- the less chance that the government will feel the need to step in and screw things up completely.

So to save the game industry from being ruined by government regulation- let's just be patient. Take a deep breath and accept a small burden for a great reward.












Disclaimer: This post was fueled by a lack of sleep and four bottles of a really decent pils.

[Mikeus Caesar]

Dhampir - all i can say to that is this - eh?

Why would lack of copy-protection be bad pr that would lead to government regulation?

[Vuk]

While I wholeheartedly agree that copy protection is quite useless for stopping piracy, it does serve a purpose.

It's good PR. More copy-protection- the less chance that the government will feel the need to step in and screw things up completely.

So to save the game industry from being ruined by government regulation- let's just be patient. Take a deep breath and accept a small burden for a great reward.

The government would not step in. It cannot force people to include certain types of copy-protection, etc. (If they don't want to, that is their own risk...we all know how well copy-protection works anyway. )

let's just be patient

Tell that to the three DVD drives I've had to buy in the last few years. Various games' copy protection software has messed with my computer so bad that it is not funny. I use different computers to do business on because of that crap. CD keys and all that other stuff is great (a bit annoying, but I dare say we will all get over it) if they want to protect their stuff, but it has gotten to the point where if you install the game you may have to start worrying about protecting YOUR stuff. That is ridiculous. As much as love the Splinter Cell series I have started boycotting UbiSoft (and will continue to do so unless whatever they replace StarForce with isn't invasing or destructive) and don't want to do that with Sega. (as I love the TW games) I got SecuRom infected Kingdoms because I learned that I already had been infected by another game, but am going to be buying a leet new gaming rig soon and am not going to install anything with that crap on it. I hope that doesn't mean that I won't be able to install Empire:TW.

Down with copyprotection!
Long live the US!!!



Vuk

[The Foolish Horseman]

Ah Copy Protection! Or should it be called 10 second delay for honest customers. Ever since daemon tools was realesed (google or wiki it) Copy protection has not been a problem for pirates. In fact it never really was.


I admit on the off hand to dabbling in Pirate Copys of other games not worth paying for like Alpha Centauri, But never with total war.



CA: Putting Copy protection on would just be a waste of time, disk space and work

[Neoncat]

I say nay. Copy protection is only annoyance for honest customers and no problem for pirates. Sometimes it even can be major annoyance for honest customers and still no problem for pirates. It won't even stop casual copying, because all those cracks are available on net.

With programs its not even like in war, you build walls to get it more costly to conquer your lands, because theres no cost on other side. Most people just crack games for fun. Its like youre building a fine wall that cracker will crush with his hammer and have fun with it. I just can't see reason in copy protections.

[Daveybaby]

I admit on the off hand to dabbling in Pirate Copys of other games not worth paying for like Alpha Centauri, But never with total war.

I take offense to this. Not the piracy thing - but saying AC is not worth paying for!??!?!??!?!?!?

Dude, that's so wrong it's not even funny. One of the best TBS of all time (still better than Civ4 IMO).

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

Piracy is a real problem for many developers, some very talented companies had to close the books in recent years because of the high investments and development costs to produce good games. When a big part of the revenue is flowing away due to illegal copies and piracy, I can understand protection is required and desired by many developers.

Although it will always be a cat and mouse game. I wished it should not be a necessity in the future, but game protection is something we should better get used to as piracy will never be halted.

LZ

[hellenes]

Piracy is a real problem for many developers, some very talented companies had to close the books in recent years because of the high investments and development costs to produce good games. When a big part of the revenue is flowing away due to illegal copies and piracy, I can understand protection is required and desired by many developers.

Although it will always be a cat and mouse game. I wished it should not be a necessity in the future, but game protection is something we should better get used to as piracy will never be halted.

LZ

Now I see games without any crazy copy protection selling like crazy...(WarcraftIII comes to mind)...
Plus your post is contradictory why should the honest customer be troubled when it solves nothing?
As I said in my previous post: A 100% pirate proof game is a MP game...

[Juvenal]

When you buy a game that won't install without phoning home, you are effectively being cheated out of your purchase because you are in reality only renting the game for an unknown period (i.e. until the publisher withdraws the authentication service).

I still play games that are ten or more years old. What are the chances that current publishers' authentication servers are still going to be available ten years from now?

I had been so looking forward to BioShock - being a System Shock 1 & 2 fan of long standing. But now I find that I can't actually buy the game at all - I would only be allowed to "visit" it until the publisher gets fed up with me.

There must be a better way than this.

[Whacker]

Hi LZ

Piracy is a real problem for many developers, some very talented companies had to close the books in recent years because of the high investments and development costs to produce good games. When a big part of the revenue is flowing away due to illegal copies and piracy, I can understand protection is required and desired by many developers.

I don't mean to be rude, but statements like these from the gaming industry are completely contrary to what I've read on realistic projections of numbers of pirated games. It's also my suspicion that sometimes when bad sales are blamed on piracy, it's actually on the fact that the game in question is miserable and really didn't sell well at all, hence finding a scapegoat. Further, these numbers assume that a pirated game means the individual did not buy the game after downloading it, in a sort of "try before you buy" routine. I know of some publishers who've closed down, but most of those were due to horrible mismanagement (Interplay, anyone?). As the old saying goes, there's lies, damn lies, and statistics.

Although it will always be a cat and mouse game. I wished it should not be a necessity in the future, but game protection is something we should better get used to as piracy will never be halted.

That's true, but as anyone can see, even the worst copy protection mechanisms do absolutely nothing to stop the pirates. Bioshock has one of the worst variants of Securom installed, and it only took the pirates 2 days to fully crack it. The only one that I'm aware of that hasn't been cracked is the 'worst' type of Starforce which is implemented on the expansion for Lock-on Modern Air Combat, and it's apparently due to extreme lack of popularity, not for want of trying. Build a "better" armor, and the other side will build a better gun. The problem here is that the "better" armor (copy protection) is now at the point where it's becoming a problem for the average joe consumer (Starforce destroys hardware), and people are becoming more aware as technology know-how increases of what exactly is happening to their systems when they install this spyware and garbage.

I do hope that you and your company consider this when you release the upcoming game which I'm still anticipating. Doing something like Stardock or Moonpod where you don't have cd checks but simple key activation. Both companies had very successful, profitable games, and doing as such will go miles to improving your relationship with your to-be customer base. You'll always lose some to piracy, but as history indicates, there's no copy protection that'll stop it and the tools are freely available. Make a game that's worthwhile and maintain a good working relationship with us, and we'll sing your praises to heavens and spread the word to buy the game. Stand up and be an example to the big publishers that you don't need to treat your fans (customers) like criminals, it's been done before and you can do the same. And as always best of luck.

Off my soapbox now.

Cheers

[Lord Zimoa of Flanders]

I do hope that you and your company consider this when you release the upcoming game which I'm still anticipating.

My statement was made on a personal basis, that I understand why copy protection is incorperated. I did not state that I was for copy protection. In fact I voted a big no in the poll as it is not a solution, the music industry proofed it is no solution at all. I just claim that there will always be game publishers who will use it. The decision to include any kind of protection is largely the responsibility of a game publisher, as a game developer I would not promote it though.

Doing something like Stardock or Moonpod where you don't have cd checks but simple key activation. Both companies had very successful, profitable games, and doing as such will go miles to improving your relationship with your to-be customer base. You'll always lose some to piracy, but as history indicates, there's no copy protection that'll stop it and the tools are freely available. Make a game that's worthwhile and maintain a good working relationship with us, and we'll sing your praises to heavens and spread the word to buy the game. Stand up and be an example to the big publishers that you don't need to treat your fans (customers) like criminals, it's been done before and you can do the same. And as always best of luck.

Exactly, totally agree.


LZ