The Age of New DRM

[RPGmasterBoo]

Nightshape's post made me lose what little concern I had for the industry.

 

If that's the way you treat your customers, then don't be surprised if they respond in kind.

[kirottu]

As a person who works in import company

Edited February 1, 2010 by kirottu

[Mamoulian War]

I'm gonna pitch a thought, see what happens:

Sometimes when I can't be arsed to go watch a movie I'm interested in, I ask one of my friends who saw it about the plot.

So... why don't I pay a fine for getting info on the plot -which is an important part of a movie-, the freeloading conscienceless scum that I am? /sarcasm

 

 

Sorry, but that's just a bad comparison.

 

the sad thing is, that something similar happened in real life...

 

http://www.dailytech.com/British+Copyright...rticle16592.htm

Edited February 1, 2010 by Mamoulian War

[Purkake]

This is all personal opinion.

 

If I came into your house, sat at your table, ate your food, took a dump in your toilet, slept in your bed and then dressed myself in your clothes, would I be doing anything wrong? I imagine all the people who took offense to my commenting that piracy is theft really wouldn't mind, afterall, they won't have locks on their doors! So yes, I'm definately going to help myself to a beer!

 

Seriously, I'm old enough and grizzled enough to realise that there are only 2 kinds of people in the world the DRM bothers, cheapskate unemployed dole monkey pirates ( you can swap this out for student if you'd like, it's interchangeable), and paranoid computer geeks who genuinely believe the world should be running linux and don't understand why we're all left using windows, because teh command line is awesome boys. I'm willing the bet that most of those who are doing the whining about DRM are one or the other.

 

The average user genuinely doesn't care, hasn't been affected by, or even remotely noticed that DRM exists. More often than not, it doesn't cause a problem at all. The funny thing is, when Codemasters release OFP:DR (regardless of what you think of the game) it had no CD key, it had no DRM past a CD check, there was an uproar because people instantly feared, hackers, and cracked users coming and spoiling the online experience. Fact is you can't win, someone somewhere is going to get upset about it because that's what internet people do.

 

I can see a downloadable future, where everything is kind of like steam, even on consoles, except you won't have an offline mode! You'll have to connect to a server in the bowels of the company offices be that EA, or Ubisoft to even begin to see the loading screen, in effect all games single player will require a connection for authentication. Or worse, all games will be streamed via video using services like OnLive.

 

Piracy and second hand sales have driven the industry in this direction. I'll be honest, I don't see how the industry is likely to continue to grow if they don't.

 

To put this in a way people may understand easily, you see what Bethesda did with Fallout 3? Where they pissed off a hardcore group of fan's knowing they'd secure a larger fanbase regardless? Yeah, DRM haters, you're like those guys from NMA, and RPG codex, nobody is listening, because they don't have to.

 

Do you really think that in a few years time when Infinity Ward is releasing their next Quake 3 mod, that if such DRM was in place it would effect sales dramatically enough to ensure that it wouldn't make ANY money. Come on now?

So much anger, so much hate.

 

Join me, and together, we can rule the galaxy as father and son! Come with me. It is the only way.

 

Let's not pretend that PC gaming is anywhere as relevant as console gaming aside from flash games, facebook games and MMOs.

 

It's every bit near as relevant and it's absolutely disingenuous to make statements like that. The PC gaming market is bigger than the market of any single console (especially if we consider the whole international community and not just America), and I'm not even talking flash games or MMOs. Sure, PC gaming is dead in America - whatever, let's roll with that. The Europeans make better games anyway.

 

Heck, if PC gaming is dead, somebody forgot to tell every single dormie or uni student I know who is into gaming (of any kind, on any platform). I constantly see jocks playing computer games (and girls seem to be pretty fond of WoW). I constantly get called out to de-virus their computers and whatnot so they can play their computer games. Maybe this is a biased sample, because it's pretty much guaranteed that every uni student in Australia has a computer, but within this little sample at least, people are happy to use that computer to play games.

 

I never said PC gaming was dead. It is in it's own little niche as it has always been, it is increasingly less relevant to the gaming mainstream. I'll believe that the PC market is stronger than "any single console" one when you give me some software sales numbers(you're welcome to use international ones). It doesn't matter if there are a billion PCs out there if PC games still sell less copies than console ones.

 

Let's not pretend that PC gaming is anywhere as relevant as console gaming aside from flash games, facebook games and MMOs.

 

Also WoW is hardly immune to piracy, it just works slightly differently with that.

You need a cracked game and a cracked server. How many of the people who play there bought WOW and played it legally at some point, I'll throw out an unsubstantiated number 90% or so. Mmorphegers are not seriously hit by piracy compared to single player games, and this always online deal is obviously an attempt to mimic them.

Yes, obviously, but they aren't "immune" either, which was my point.

[Hurlshort]

Well, Nightshape did start his post with "this is all personal opinion."

 

I'm going to stick by my position that needing to be online all the time is a serious line to cross, whereas invasive software and disk checks are just not noticed by the general public enough for companies to stop doing it.

[Nightshape]

Nightshape's post made me lose what little concern I had for the industry.

 

If that's the way you treat your customers, then don't be surprised if they respond in kind.

 

Its all personal opinion. Taking what I say as being some kinda customer - producer interaction is way outta line.

 

I'm saying how I feel about the situation based on what I know, and have experienced. These are my personal opinions and noway represent any other entities opinion.

 

This was clearly stated.

 

If I can't continue to post without being percieved as a mouthpiece I will have to stop posting all togeather.

[213374U]

Nightshape's post made me lose what little concern I had for the industry.

 

If that's the way you treat your customers, then don't be surprised if they respond in kind.

Lame. Taking one person's stated opinion and assuming it represents a much larger group of people, as it conveniently suits your purposes?

 

Yeah, that's really helpful when you're trying to have folks not automatically picture you as dishonest when you don't instantly jump into the "copyright infringement = theft" bandwagon.

 

 

If I can't continue to post without being percieved as a mouthpiece I will have to stop posting all togeather.

However, others seem to be investing your opinion of some special authority and weight. Not necessarily your fault, though.

[Gorgon]

This reminds me of similar 'discussions' I had with my brother who is a musician. Obviously he feels the impact of music piracy very directly, his checks get smaller. There was/is very little room in his heart for the notion that piracy helps musicians.

 

It's been established by an entire generation that Lars Ulrik (who is not my brother by the way) is a wanker, but all I can say is I've had a chance to view the other side's argument, and not all artist with a couple of CDs to their name make a lot of money.

Edited February 1, 2010 by Gorgon

[Purkake]

Just when you thought this thread couldn't get any worse...

[Pidesco]

And we're done. Piracy is not condoned.