Building a Better Kind of DRM

[theultimateend]

I wonder if I'm the only one that thinks that assuming big gaming companies are "fearing" pirates is a bit of a naive comment?

They don't fear them. Most companies don't even address maintaining sales as their reason for DRM. Lately it has been in the direction of deterring second hand sales which is entirely unreasonable. Slowly changing the wording from owning the game to owning a license to place the game. People shack up with Steam and Co seeing it as the only safe option while still just counting the days till these companies vanish and now their stockpile of games are gone.

I also find it a bit silly that people say "I know a guy who..." and use that to justify a logic that all people of a group do something.

Yes we all "know a guy who..." because we live amidst 300 million people in the US alone and 7 billion worldwide. There are different people all over. I've seen a guy shit his pants in public, but people would say I was retarded if I started thinking all guys did.

This is no different. A clutch of these posts use the one guy shitting in public observation as justification for ignorance of the reality.

While I normally like Shamus's articles, this one was extremely misguided (as I mentioned earlier) and so are quite a few of the responses.

I personally just use Gamefly at this point and don't play PC games (because of DRM), when (or if I suppose) I find a good game I end up buying it and it is mine forever. I just don't see the current digital rights management system working in any other field. Perhaps gamers are just too easily convinced (as my man shitting pants point above might illustrate).

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Oh, I certainly don't think piracy is really the driving force behind DRM, it's just the straw man the industry can use to justify it. Telling the public that you want to screw over the used games retailers, while honest, doesn't strike me as something publishers want to be up front about, heh.

I've never pirated any game, but many a time I've stripped out copy-protection (when it caused the damn thing to not load properly) or downloaded no-cd patches for the games I own (because inserting a disc the game doesn't even USE apart from a launch check is stupid), so the ideal scenario is one where I never have to rely on a third party to 'fix' games for me like that.

But if they insist on hobbling games with DRM it might as well be amusing.

 

[SilverZ]

how about this... make a DRM that makes you play doom on hard when you pirate another game... like fallout 3 and what have you. and on top of that force the cracking software they are using to catastrophically fail every time they try to crack that.

 

[Playbahnosh]

As it stands, the process of cracking a game is "easy:" Just try to run the game, find the bit of code that stops the program from running, and disable it.

Trust me, as a programmer I would much rather try to crack a CD check that happens at startup as opposed to one that happens at some unknown point two-fifths of the way through the game.

And you call yourself a programmer???

It's friggin programming 101, for gods sake!

I'm not a cracker, but I fiddled with cracking a little when I was a kid. It's not that difficult once you know the basics. Lemme explain: cracking is done by removing the check not the repercussions caused by the negative check result (aka "the bit of code that stops the program from running").

When you are trying to break a serial check, you are not trying to decipher the right serial number, no, that would take bloody ages, you simply search the program code for the one tiny little switch, that asks "Was the check succesful?", and make a permanent jump to the legit, "Check succesful!" ending. Why fiddle with the lock on the door, when you can simply remove the door? If by chance, you ever came across a pirated exe in your life, you should've noticed, that most of the time, it's significantly smaller, than the legit exe. That's because the protection has not been bypassed, it's been removed entirely.

As for in-game checks, it's almost the same. Most of the time, the cracker doesn't even has to start the game to find the protection checks. Because the protection in the game, at one point, must run a check to see if the game is illegal or not. Well, the cracker just looks for those checks, and removes them, replacing them with a jump to the "Check OK!" ending. It doesn't matter if the protection checks for serial, files, registry entires or a disk in the drive, it's the same. It also doesn't matter what the game would do if it finds out the copy is illegal, since that will never happen (since the check has been removed to test for it).

This is the reason why stronger and stronger copy protections are ultimately pointless, because no matter how elaborate and strong kinda lock you put on the door, if you remove the door, the lock is useless. Of course, this is not as easy as I explained it, checks can be hidden, anchored to the program code in many places, and connected to each other, kind of "booby traps" to delay the crackers. But guess what, this is not a chore for them to crack games, it's a hobby, it's a challenge. The more elaborate and labyrinthine the copy protection, the more fun to crack it, and more rewarding the feeling once you are done.

Crackers are not doing what they do to defeat the publishers, nor to challenge the status quo (well, most of them not). They are not doing it for money either. They are simply doing it for the challenge, for fun. Then they release the cracked game to show off their success and skill. They have no intentions to bring publishers and game companies to their knees, or make them go bankrupt, they are not "evil" as many people paint them to be, no, that would defeat the purpose. In fact, the want just the opposite. Most of the cracker groups write notes in their attached info files, that says "Support companies that make great games! If you like the game, BUY IT!". Yes, it might seem like hypocrisy, but it's not. Why be a hypocrite in a txt file, that only other crackers and pirates will see anyway? That's silly. No, they mean that, they want game designers to make great games.

But making more and more elaborate copy protections only makes the crackers happy, and it raises the chance that something will go wrong with the protection and mess up the game or the computer. ONLY legitimate costumers suffer from those ill effect, because the cracked versions had their protection removed.

If you want people to buy your games, make you games suck less. Use the "StarDock method" (GalCiv 2). If you make a great game, finish it (no game braking bugs, no 0-day patches and the like) make it user friendly (no idiotic hoops to jump through to be able to play) and price it moderately, it will sell like nobody's business. That's the recipe, and it works, it has been proven a few times already.

 

[the1ultimate]

I kind of wish that while protected from piracy games could still be transferred from hand drive to hard drive as you upgraded your computer, without requiring an internet connection.

Actually, that sounds too complicated. I just wish DRM didn't exist at all and pirates were just people with boats who went "aaaaaarrrrrrr" and tried to eat gold coins.

 

[Steelwizard]

The best form of copy protection is a $25 price tag on release day.

We have our winner now. Thank you all for participating. As the winner your idea will now be implemented globally and all games will now have a maximum retail price of $25 on release day.

Obviously this wouldn't eliminate piracy but coupled with friendlier software protection such as what the article suggests, it would absolutely decrease piracy - a lot! I'm married, have two kids and am a heavy fabricator by trade. I do ok as an average wage earner but I must carefully research every potential game purchase as previous poor judgment has had me pay NZ$100 dollars (the standard 'new' game price here (I play exclusively on a PC)) for crap. I'm now the guy that will know if 50 posts on a support forum moaning about bugs are the result of inferior game coding or are instead the ravings of idiot game pirates. Drop the price and I might just lower my guard - and there's the flipside. A lower price likely wouldn't be adjusted out of the publishers/retailers pockets but it would instead come from the developer. Lower quality games would flood the market because the world is so fucked up that developers have to fight for publishers rather than vice versa.

So when all is said and done, it's those greedy cash whoring bastards that add their profit margins to our games as they travel from developer house to our house that are to blame for everything!

Oh and while I'm on it, what the hell is with the price of digital distribution!? There doesn't appear to be any justification to have a retail margin but it must be there as the prices are every bit as shit.

I'm new here - I read the rules and didn't spot an expletive limit. Sorry if I've offended.

 

[Whistler777]

Resisting piracy really is futile, and there's no way around that fact.

You can have the game fuck with pirates, but within the week it will attract Razor or SKIDROW's attention, and you'll have a fully-functioning pirated copy once more. Sure, you may have gained a few customers in the space of that week, but does that extra income fully cover the cost of implementing a complicated DRM scheme?

Really, so long as release groups are in competition with each other, all DRM schemes might as well not even exist.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

If we must have DRM, I agree that it should be funny and snarky rather than an outright violation of our Right to Privacy, the way SecuRom and the like is.

But there is no way to defeat piracy. None. Can't be done. Entire countries have software piracy as a VERY big part of their economies. You really think we can stop that with slightly more subtle DRM? Or ANY DRM? Absurd.

If pirates/crackers really get enjoyment out of cracking games, maybe we should all stop giving them the attention. And please, go after the big boys. Don't punish Johnny Pirate who downloaded a few games to play at home, go after the ENTIRE COUNTRY of Iraq, or Hong Kong, or other countries that make a tidy sum off of counterfeit games.

It's also fairly simple economics that more people will buy something new if it's less money. After all, when a game is $20 new, is it even worth it to track down a pirated version?

 

[Arcadia2000]

This is brilliant. And to be honest, with the kind of media hype that major releases get nowadays, telling the market in advance that the game has DRM that will cause pirated versions to break down isn't a bad move. Look at the media attention SC2 has gotten. I say we call it NDRM. N for New. Next, we need to work on developers delivering on those promises they make us OR clueing us in before the release date that it's not gonna happen. Honesty is the best policy!

Edit: Okay, I'm naive and optimistic. Now that we've established that, I'm going back to my happy hole in the ground where the rock fits comfortably over my head.

Also, do we have a ruling on whether games with lower price tags, no DRM-anything, good gameplay, and solid programming no bugs etc, will equal success? Isn't the point of making and selling a product to be successful? If you're successful, shouldn't you not give a shit whether people are reselling or pirating your game? Re-read the edit if you're in doubt as to what I'm smoking.

 

[slopeslider]

So if the DRM makes the game buggy for pirates, what if a legitimate customer has actual bugs?! They may think that the game thinks their version is a pirated copy when it actually isn't. Which may make them think the DRM is just like any other DRM, extremely useless.

Two it may also stop people from reporting bugs, (More so with online games) Because they may think that they might be seen as a pirate and get banned from playing.

Three, what happens if there's a bug that cause the same problems with legit customers as it does with pirates, i.e jumping becomes unresponsive. Wouldn't that be a little difficult to tell whether it's a pirated version or an actual legit problem?!

If the pirates get CRAZY glitches like rainbow colored guns and inside out bodies then I highly doubt that a normal customer would get that same glitch and be afraid to report it.
making jumping unresponsive is hard to limit to pirates, but if someone's complaining the sky is a pic of the dev team mooning them and the menu system's options all say 'YOU ARE A PIRATE!' I think we can safely say they're a pirate and not a customer.

 

[Aesthetical Quietus]

How about you stop trying to stop pirates, and instead spend those resources on making a better product. Or find out where the pirates are getting there pre-release copies, and stop that and on top of that release your own pre-release, make sure it's popular and well seeded, but with incredibly nasty DRM riddled throughout it.

 

[jubuttib]

Old. rFactor had this sort of thing in 2005, your car would quite often break (engine blowout, tyre puncture) before the first corner. I know because I used a cracked version to use multiple installs of the game (and I hate having to keep the disc in the drive, the noise drives me nuts). I also remember a few earlier games doing stuff like this but can't remember any particular titles.

Aaaanyway: This is the best form of DRM I can think of. It enables people to try out the game before buying (and saves the publishers the trouble of having to host a demo version) and doesn't f-up your comp. But only if everyone knows that the bugs are only in the cracked versions, and they must never ever bother people who've bought the game. For example I first thought that the rFactor thing was a bug, luckily I noticed that the regular install never behaved like that.

A great system if done properly.

Though the prices of games are ridiculous and seem to always be on the rise. And why on earth are many (if not most) of the Steam downloadable versions just as expensive as the retail packaged ones?

 

[jubuttib]

Or you could provide a quality product for a reasonable price and not be an asshole.

Believe it or not but people who do that always profit enough to grow happily.

Three Words: Looking Glass Studios.

Their games had a few things in common. They were groundbreaking, highly praised by reviewers and tended to sell dismally.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Why not stop trying to put DRM into games and focus more on making the game better?
There's absolutely no point in DRM. It will eventually get cracked, and I'm pretty sure most "pirates" are willing to wait a few days until the game becomes playable.

Even if you DO try and be sneaky and hide the "DRM", it will eventually still be found. There's no use fighting it.

 

[theultimateend]

Or you could provide a quality product for a reasonable price and not be an asshole.

Believe it or not but people who do that always profit enough to grow happily.

Three Words: Looking Glass Studios.

Their games had a few things in common. They were groundbreaking, highly praised by reviewers and tended to sell dismally.

So of the hundreds or thousands of studios that have existed that have made games (of some kind or another) you come up with one example?

Don't get me wrong I appreciate it but it isn't exactly the worlds best sampling size. Likewise, I have never heard of them, now that doesn't mean they don't count but it may have something to do with their sales issues.

Generally if people at my sort of information level (that is not much) don't know about something it probably is a bit too 'indie' .

I couldn't not hear about games like World of Goo, Defense Grid, Hinterland, or Braid (Albeit the last one doesn't really feel indie given the money put into it). Do I think everyone has heard of these games? Nah. But I have which means likely enough people do that they succeed.

for the TL;DR, if something is so unheard of that people who don't keep up with any commercials, television, or most of the internet, haven't heard of it, it isn't likely to find followers even if it causes folks to orgasm when they install it. Which is a real big shame and I don't like that that is true.

 

[jubuttib]

So of the hundreds or thousands of studios that have existed that have made games (of some kind or another) you come up with one example?

Don't get me wrong I appreciate it but it isn't exactly the worlds best sampling size. Likewise, I have never heard of them, now that doesn't mean they don't count but it may have something to do with their sales issues.

Generally if people at my sort of information level (that is not much) don't know about something it probably is a bit too 'indie' .

... I feel so old now.

Looking was one of, if not THE greatest game studio of the early to mid 90's. Here's a few of Looking Glasses greatest hits: Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock, Flight Unlimited, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri and Thief. If you haven't been gaming since the early 90's then you haven't heard of them, but none the less, they did prove that you can do better games than anyone else at the time and they still wouldn't necessarily sell well. I hope that anyone who lived through the same period will back me up on this.

Also worthy of notice: Ex-Looking Glass people have worked on Deus Ex, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Half-Life 2, TES4: Oblivion, Fallout 3, Bioshock, Freedom Force and other classics. Too bad Eidos put pretty much all their money into Ion Storm, and while Ion Storm Austin (lead by Warren Spector, ex-Looking Glass) did produce some great games like Deus Ex, Ion Storm Dallas (lead by John Romero) pretty much destroyed Looking Glass Studios.

 

[theultimateend]

So of the hundreds or thousands of studios that have existed that have made games (of some kind or another) you come up with one example?

Don't get me wrong I appreciate it but it isn't exactly the worlds best sampling size. Likewise, I have never heard of them, now that doesn't mean they don't count but it may have something to do with their sales issues.

Generally if people at my sort of information level (that is not much) don't know about something it probably is a bit too 'indie' .

... I feel so old now.

Looking was one of, if not THE greatest game studio of the early to mid 90's. Here's a few of Looking Glasses greatest hits: Ultima Underworld I and II, System Shock, Flight Unlimited, Terra Nova: Strike Force Centauri and Thief. If you haven't been gaming since the early 90's then you haven't heard of them, but none the less, they did prove that you can do better games than anyone else at the time and they still wouldn't necessarily sell well. I hope that anyone who lived through the same period will back me up on this.

Also worthy of notice: Ex-Looking Glass people have worked on Deus Ex, Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Half-Life 2, TES4: Oblivion, Fallout 3, Bioshock, Freedom Force and other classics. Too bad Eidos put pretty much all their money into Ion Storm, and while Ion Storm Austin (lead by Warren Spector, ex-Looking Glass) did produce some great games like Deus Ex, Ion Storm Dallas (lead by John Romero) pretty much destroyed Looking Glass Studios.

Don't feel too old. I am old enough to remember all those games. I just didn't keep track of studios back in the day.

I barely do now.

If it isn't stardock, atlus, or nippon ichi I tend to not remember who made it. I just mention the game and games like it instead of saying the studio.

In the 90's most of my time was eaten up by gamefreaks and their Pokemon line up.

 

[Poopie McGhee]

*SNIP_TASTIC* The best form of copy protection is a $25 price tag on release day.

Couldn't agree more, though that doesn't really apply to 360 games
(although it could, as cheaper games = more sales (unless people think it's cheap because it sucks))
Further down the Spiral...

 

[Poopie McGhee]

The best form of copy protection is a $25 price tag on release day.

We have our winner now. Thank you all for participating. As the winner your idea will now be implemented globally and all games will now have a maximum retail price of $25 on release day.

Obviously this wouldn't eliminate piracy but coupled with friendlier software protection such as what the article suggests, it would absolutely decrease piracy - a lot! I'm married, have two kids and am a heavy fabricator by trade. I do ok as an average wage earner but I must carefully research every potential game purchase as previous poor judgment has had me pay NZ$100 dollars (the standard 'new' game price here (I play exclusively on a PC)) for crap. I'm now the guy that will know if 50 posts on a support forum moaning about bugs are the result of inferior game coding or are instead the ravings of idiot game pirates. Drop the price and I might just lower my guard - and there's the flipside. A lower price likely wouldn't be adjusted out of the publishers/retailers pockets but it would instead come from the developer. Lower quality games would flood the market because the world is so fucked up that developers have to fight for publishers rather than vice versa.

So when all is said and done, it's those greedy cash whoring bastards that add their profit margins to our games as they travel from developer house to our house that are to blame for everything!

Oh and while I'm on it, what the hell is with the price of digital distribution!? There doesn't appear to be any justification to have a retail margin but it must be there as the prices are every bit as shit.

I'm new here - I read the rules and didn't spot an expletive limit. Sorry if I've offended.

I (un)Officially Welcome you to my home on the internet, please wipe your feet...
Have a great time, Don't flame/murder/rape/etc. and you should be safe...

 

[Zefar]

Most of the time the DRM is just there to block the pirates as long as possible.

Because if they see people playing the game while they are having problem getting it running it might make people buy the game instead. Yes this can actually work on pirates but not all of them.

Now for those who say that companies shouldn't care about DRM. Here's the thing with not putting any kind of DRM in. The DL stats of the game on any torrent site triples. Sometimes higher than any other game for the moment.

I'm all for putting in new ways to block people from playing, like Mass Effect did or Titan Quest. But you gotta be careful because for Titan Quest it backfired and I read a lot of people claiming it was their fault and shouldn't have bothered. Now people seems to have a different opinion about it.

SecuROM is harmless to the PC now though, I have had it since Spore and it hasn't done anything. It might have been bad for some people in the start but right now it doesn't do much to your PC.