Building a Better Kind of DRM

[DeadlyYellow]

Strictly cost-benefit, that's true. But excluding moral choices from a piracy discussion is not a good idea. The choice between buying a game or pirating it isn't black and white. Some people are prepared to buy games without knowing whether they're good, some people don't buy anything, and others buy what they think is worth it, even if they've already pirated it.

Theoretically speaking, if they were really concerned about morals they wouldn't pirate in the first place. Paying for a legal copy does not abolish the fact you still pirated it in the first place.

 

[Ravek]

Theoretically speaking, if they were really concerned about morals they wouldn't pirate in the first place.

Not everyone is a moral absolutist. Obviously there are people who think it's fine to never pay for a game, why would it suddenly be unbelievable for there to be people who think it's fine not to pay for a game as long as it's bad?

Paying for a legal copy does not abolish the fact you still pirated it in the first place.

Yes it does. Tell me, what exactly are the adverse affects to anyone if you pirate a copy and buy a copy?

 

[DeadlyYellow]

Not everyone is a moral absolutist. Obviously there are people who think it's fine to never pay for a game, why would it suddenly be unbelievable for there to be people who think it's fine not to pay for a game as long as it's bad?

Well since you've been so kind to continually remind me people are morally obscure thieves, what's to say they also won't pay for the game if it's good?

Yes it does. Tell me, what exactly are the adverse affects to anyone if you pirate a copy and buy a copy?

Honestly? The tracking. Each download counts towards the total number for each particular torrent or whatever. While one may not be too big of a number, having thousands use the same is. Only really becomes an issue when company's hunt down these numbers and use them as justification for discontinuing releases for PCs or for more awkward and intrusive DRM.

But even then it only really matters during the game's prime shelf-life. Once a game stops being hot, it's not longer news.

I'd also question downloading content from shifty individuals with poor grasps on the concept of grammar. But perhaps that's just paranoia spawned from scam e-mails from shifty individuals with poor grasps on the concept of grammar.

 

[Ravek]

Well since you've been so kind to continually remind me people are morally obscure thieves, what's to say they also won't pay for the game if it's good?

All I was saying is some people do. I have no idea what fraction of pirates they constitute. I'd think it'd be a fair amount, but I have no way to tell.

Honestly? The tracking. Each download counts towards the total number for each particular torrent or whatever. While one may not be too big of a number, having thousands use the same is. Only really becomes an issue when company's hunt down these numbers and use them as justification for discontinuing releases for PCs or for more awkward and intrusive DRM.

For torrents, I suppose there's still some small negative effect. Although I'd say that giving game publishers a chance of you buying their game offsets that plenty. Obviously just buying the game would be better from the publisher's point of view, but that's not realistic to expect.

I'd also question downloading content from shifty individuals with poor grasps on the concept of grammar. But perhaps that's just paranoia spawned from scam e-mails from shifty individuals with poor grasps on the concept of grammar.

I don't understand what you're talking about.

 

[DeadlyYellow]

All I was saying is some people do. I have no idea what fraction of pirates they constitute. I'd think it'd be a fair amount, but I have no way to tell.

It is questionable, the gray area here doesn't exist in the business world. Results would likely be skewed anyway unless they were to track and match the IP of a downloaded and legitimate game copy. Even then it's questionable.

For torrents, I suppose there's still some small negative effect. Although I'd say that giving game publishers a chance of you buying their game offsets that plenty. Obviously just buying the game would be better from the publisher's point of view, but that's not realistic to expect.

You already have the chance of buying the game when it hits store shelves (albeit at a later date that when the pirated copy goes up.) It would be rather depressing to expect never to sell a game unless a pirate felt it was acceptable enough to purchase. Why bother making games at all if that's the case?

I don't understand what you're talking about.

I'm talking about viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, keyloggers and all those other nasty little things that have a habit of attaching themselves to downloads and torrents.

 

[theultimateend]

Building a Better Kind of DRM

Shamus Young switches sides and goes pro-DRM.

Read Full Article

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.

I usually like your articles, but this time I'm gonna have to curb stomp the metaphorical being that is this article.

As people will mention, there are 3 groups of people.

People who will buy the game no matter what.
People who are on the fence but will buy the game when its a reasonable price (IE not 60 bucks for a single day of story/play like Infamous)
People who will never buy it.

The first group of people are only hurt by DRM losing sales, the second group of people are on the fence and may be persuaded not to buy because of the DRM (which consequently lowers the value of a product). Finally the last group won't buy it regardless and the best your DRM does is inconvenience them and turn you, the developer, into a whiny child. Since those would have never been purchases in the beginning it is best to ignore them, I agree that that group sucks but many of them were made by years of faulty/shady practices by companies.

I'm talking about viruses, spyware, trojans, worms, keyloggers and all those other nasty little things that have a habit of attaching themselves to downloads and torrents.

8 or so years of downloading and torrenting and haven't got one. Or if I have it hasn't done anything to my credit score, games, software, or web accounts.

I'm somewhat convinced that the fear people have for this stuff is like STDs, mostly propoganda. You can get them if you act like a retard but that's the consequence of such actions.

 

[spyder25000]

I like the idea of modifying game play, i *gasp have Black and White 2 and the pirate version made it that your kids could not grow up, and yet i still manged to finish the game.
So when you change the game play make sure it has an effect that will make sure you cant beat the game.
Also to the post above me, ever heard of undetectable virus?
Personally i like Steam...but DRM is good, but they always screw it up.
here is a few steps
1. Make DRM with features descrbed
2. Make sure none gets their hands on the product until release date
3. Customer feed back for the DRM
4. Improve the DRM
or they could just dump drm since its a massive waste of cash

 

[similar.squirrel]

I like this approach. Annoy the hell out of pirates instead of acting all hurt, indignant and protective.

 

[Master_Fubar23]

Think most would accept that type of DRM, and yes could be cracked but would be a lot harder to do so, especially if technique varied from game to game built into the engine to begin with not added on later as be interwoven into the game. Add fact could randomise it a lot from game to game to keep pirates on their feet will eventually be too much effort for some to bother with as could never be sure got them all.

That and go on the offensive and spam the hell out of p2p sites what promote piracy with dud fake copies what do nothing so hard to find the ones what work. Get anti viruse software compines in on this and make those dud flag up as viruses when not what makes people doubt that p2p sites reliability.

the whole anti virus thing sounds like a great idea. no one likes viruses so i doubt they'd return to a place that gave them it. even if it is a fake

I like this approach. Annoy the hell out of pirates instead of acting all hurt, indignant and protective.

agreed

 

[drunken_munki]

Let me explain this very simply.
Nowadays, any game with DRM such as Securom/Starforce etc which I have played has most likely been obtained illegitimately. And guess what, nearly all of these games were shit piles in the first place. I laughed at the irony.

I do not want that DRM crap on my system. I've had problems in the past with it, and its a piss poor attempt at controlling piracy because it was hurting me, the customer.

The way I see it is today's gaming market is a massive ball of confusion to me. People rave on about 10/10 for drivel like GTA4 and SPORE, and I literally can not take it anymore. I disagree with how some developers manage their businesses and treat customers like sheep (which they mostly are - ZOMG HALO3!!!11111111winwinwin).

I pirate games (or shall I say, I ask my brother to get games for me) because I want to play them first, or because as I previously mentioned to get away from draconian DRM rootkits buried in the legal copies of the disks.

You would be happy to hear I don't pirate all the games I play... Pretty much anything on steam I am happy to purchase. Particularly any game with multi-player content requires a legit key anyway. I buy the game, I play the game. Simple. No bullshit associated with it. I can delete and install my entire library on as many pc's as I want as many times as I want, and play on either one. I can backup my steam folder so my games are safe, and I can even play my games not connected to the internet.

This is the only system that works in my mind.

Maybe Off topic from here on:

My brother bought the Batman game on pre-order, yes with that pathetic boomerang shit as well - completed the game in two days... I watched some of it, played a few fights here and there and thought this is OK. It was nothing amazing. He clocked it in 2 days? wtf?
The ending pissed me off, and I was ranting on about it for 30 mins to my brother about why cant you even have a proper fight the the last boss? Before I played the game I was going to buy it on steam as pre-order, but now after that I cant be arsed. I cant even be arsed to pirate it, because it is just so meh.

I am happily waiting for my pre-order of dragon age: origins, thank you very much Bioware, my shining light. Until then my L4D and COD4 will keep my busy.

 

[Darenus]

The facts as I see them:
Pirates: there are always going to be the ones that will pirate no matter what and there are the ones that simply couldn't deal with the rip-offs of the companies anymore. Not all of them are the sheer evil minded, company destroying anti-Christs of gaming and programming but how does one know who is who without getting through the most personal right of privacy and going all anti-ethnic observation?

Companies (as the likes of EA):
They are threatened by the pirates, hardcore or desperate one-timers because if they wouldn'T do anything at all, what would be the point of buying ANYTHING then if not for the hope that honest customers will buy stuff to support the actual developers. But then again, it's not the best way to feed your PAYING CUSTOMERS with damn fishing-hooks that will pierce everyone who rightfully purchased the games, be it pirate (who will just no longer bother with rightfully bought stuff) or respected customer (who will be rightfully pissed off and be dampened in his right to enjoy a game he or she purchased)

Customers/buyers:
Going to be the ones that always get the shaft, by either being the silent and good lambs that take everything the companies do to them, either drop the whole gaming business with a jaded heart or are being busted by law because they were more or less just too fed up with the way the law predicts because the DRM (for example) just destroy their entire properties, i.e.: PC and all that is saved on it.

Shamus does have his points set right, so far I can say. He demands less devestating DRM that will kill off or backstab the PC or the user constantly but allows a once done and simple method that applies to every faction of the games, be they the casuals who are often underway and like to kill pegs while waiting for a plane or the hardcore that play like they breathe in their free time.

DRM shouldn't interfere but it should restrict uncontroled copying of the console. Else: why would ANY company then want to even keep making games if their profit to effort ratio is only somehwere around 101/100?

 

[rasmusernst]

I don't care about that DRM stuff anymore. I just can't be pissed off after watching that video he linked: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQrC_C6SexI

 

[BlicaGB]

You do not want to make pirated versions of the game broken! If someone who has pirated the game enjoys it, maybe he'll buy it later. If someone who has pirated the game hates it because it's broken, certainly he won't ever buy it.

For someone who wants to pirate a certain game, there are two possible outcomes: He pirates the game, or he doesn't play the game at all. No pirate is going to buy the game JUST BECAUSE there is effective DRM in it. People only buy games when they are convinced it's worth their money. If pirates were convinced of that without playing the game, they wouldn't be pirates.

So this kind of DRM (and in fact any kind of DRM) is not going to increase the amount of sales. It might even decrease the amount of sales, if there are indeed people who would buy the game if they enjoyed the pirated copy. What is the point of DRM if it doesn't actually increase the amount of sales?

That's a bit naive. People don't buy games because they don't want to spend the money. I know people that played it, cleared it, burned it, played it again and never purchased unless they felt they might be missing out on the online play.

This article and the point in it, to me is sheer genius. Random checks, purposeful breaks. It all makes sense.. to be one better would be to have the game running ok until a random check, then break. So all your features are 100% for the first hour or so, then jump stops working, of the mouse axis is inverted.. something crazy. Then the red key to the red door that they must access. and in that red door, in Graffitti style. 'Buy the game and register online to get the full features available, like the jump stopped working properly'

That's my 2 bits

 

[ReverseEngineered]

There is a better solution...just ignore the pirates, they aren't your customers. The people who pay for your game are. Hurting pirates costs money, doesn't increase sales, and in the end doesn't stop piracy. Spending the same money/dev time making the game rock solid, bug free, and enjoyable does increase sales.

Thank you! Thank you for saying this so clearly and succinctly. I only wish the studios and publishers would get this.

The companies all ***** that it costs them millions of dollars just to fight piracy, yet do they consider what the benefit is if they win? There are probably hundreds of thousands out there that download the thing just because they can -- if they couldn't, they'd just never see that game. They aren't losing money here -- these are people that will never pay them a dime no matter how cheap the game is or how impossible it is to pirate.

The real question is how many pirates would pay if they couldn't pirate. Nobody can say for sure, but I'll bet you it isn't much -- not enough to justify the millions of investement in preventing piracy or the myriad freedoms the public has given up to tougher copyright laws.

 

[ReverseEngineered]

Shamus, as far as tricking the pirates go, your suggestions are brilliant. Having done some research on how to crack copy protections, I'll confirm that up-front "you failed" dialogs make cracking software a breeze. Delayed checks, multiple checks throughout the app, and subtle breakage make it much more difficult to detect. Just think of a copy protection as if it were a bug; an obvious failure can be detected and fixed quickly, whereas a subtle and inconsistent defect can be a right pain in the ass to fix.

But Shamus, I worry about your suggestions, for fear that the industry might actually listen to them. One of the major concerns about DRM is that even innocents get caught up in it. I've had several games that eventually failed to work because whatever mechanism thought I had pirated it when I hadn't. The more technological ones like SecuROM often exhibit this, mainly because they are less robust to false negatives, but any scheme can fail unintentionally. When that happens, how will people know? I'd be a very unhappy customer to find out that my jump didn't work half the time because the game screwed up and thought I was a pirate, or if some equally-devastating thing like saving was disabled. And can you imagine how it would hurt reviews if even a few reviewers were (accidentally or legitimately) affected by this? When DRM looks like a defect, the egg is on the producer's face.

You've said it yourself before, so I'm sure I don't need to convince you of this, but let's stop trying to make DRM better and find a totally different solution to the problem. When there's no way to win the game, you have to change the nature of the game.

 

[Gildan Bladeborn]

Making a game riddled with bugs that only pirates see, while inherently amusing, has definite potential to come back and bite you in the ass - unless you make the "bugs" obviously linked to the act of piracy. For example: When your ammo disappears right before a boss fight, have a message pop up saying something like "No ammo for you pirate, yarrrr!". Sure, the subtlety is gone, but the game is still broken for the freeloader and nobody would mistake that sort of glitch for a real bug (I am now envisioning the game singing sea shanties while making enemies invulnerable at random intervals and replacing textures with the jolly roger as your weapons fire backwards, heh).

Since you don't have to spell out which features you've broken to avoid confusion about your "buggy game", you can make it publicly known that pirate copies will be riddled with intentional bugs that openly mock you for being a pirate and you will have accomplished the goal of making the legitimate copies more attractive while not helping the crackers find any of your "fun features", since you haven't actually specified what those are (just that they are there).

 

[Skratt]

Shamus, I love your thoughts on DRM and support them (mostly). However, let me play Devil's Advocate (apparently like many other people on the pages of comments I didn't read. )

How will the user know if their "activation" failed to unlock the DRM or if the game just sucks and is broken to shit?

Because we all know how infallible current DRM is for those of us that are legitimate...

 

[Skratt]

There is a better solution...just ignore the pirates, they aren't your customers. The people who pay for your game are. Hurting pirates costs money, doesn't increase sales, and in the end doesn't stop piracy. Spending the same money/dev time making the game rock solid, bug free, and enjoyable does increase sales.

Thank you! Thank you for saying this so clearly and succinctly. I only wish the studios and publishers would get this.

The companies all ***** that it costs them millions of dollars just to fight piracy, yet do they consider what the benefit is if they win? There are probably hundreds of thousands out there that download the thing just because they can -- if they couldn't, they'd just never see that game. They aren't losing money here -- these are people that will never pay them a dime no matter how cheap the game is or how impossible it is to pirate.

The real question is how many pirates would pay if they couldn't pirate. Nobody can say for sure, but I'll bet you it isn't much -- not enough to justify the millions of investement in preventing piracy or the myriad freedoms the public has given up to tougher copyright laws.

Pretty much this. Awesome posts!

 

[retro himself]

Greatest ideas ever. First of all, if a pirated copy leaks on the web first, mostly it's THE one that gets pirated, and all other wither and die. And if it's the broken one.. well, less pirated copies (at least around the game's release). And if you actually play the broken copy, well.. you still get the taste.. it's not a demo.. but you still want (and have) to buy it after playing until the "bug" occurs. I know I would. If it's a good game, I'd definitely shell out the cash to play it, and I'd do it immediately, not first playing it and then buying it.

 

[baconfist]

I think a better way to get people to not pirate games is to makes them less expensive and easier to get a hold of. I don't know about everyone else but Steam has done more to stop me from pirating games then anything else, whereas DRM has actually made me consider pirating games that I would rather buy. (ie: spore, company of heroes, bioshock, and mass effect)
It's nice to know that even though I bought bioshock I can't install or play it now.