Now this isn't a piracy good/bad thread. This is more about what a game company can do to make sure their product sells. Tactics like using DRM or having preorder bonuses have proven to be very unpopular and have encouraged fans to pirate these titles to circumnavigate these measures. Do you think the industry should just accept piracy as a problem that won't go away and continue on business as usual or is their an alternative solution waiting to be used?
How do you think game companies should combat piracy
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It's easy, they shouldn't.
Having antipiracy measures never stops piracy, because pirates always find a way to get around it, but at times it does stop people from purchasing a game because the anti-piracy measures are just too big a hassle to be worth dealing with.
Devs should just bite the bullet and stop thinking of piracy as lost revenue, and more like free advertising, this will make things better for EVERYONE involved.
Having antipiracy measures never stops piracy, because pirates always find a way to get around it, but at times it does stop people from purchasing a game because the anti-piracy measures are just too big a hassle to be worth dealing with.
Devs should just bite the bullet and stop thinking of piracy as lost revenue, and more like free advertising, this will make things better for EVERYONE involved.
Piracy has only one "selling point": you get things for free. In every other respect there are drawbacks: it's often difficult to find what you want, or to know what you want. Often it's inconvenient or frustrating to get that thing, and it may turn out incomplete or broken.
In short, piracy wins on price by default, but fails on convenience and quality. These are the aspects that game companies must tackle.
Adding restrictive DRM to your games often makes them lower quality than the DRM-broken pirated version. This is absolutely a failure.
Improving the convenience of acquiring games is certainly the right strategy, and you can see it working in the form of Steam. A simple, streamlined way of getting the games you want, with a well-designed store and social system that makes it easy to find other games you might like.
People will almost always pay for convenience. This is how to win.
In short, piracy wins on price by default, but fails on convenience and quality. These are the aspects that game companies must tackle.
Adding restrictive DRM to your games often makes them lower quality than the DRM-broken pirated version. This is absolutely a failure.
Improving the convenience of acquiring games is certainly the right strategy, and you can see it working in the form of Steam. A simple, streamlined way of getting the games you want, with a well-designed store and social system that makes it easy to find other games you might like.
People will almost always pay for convenience. This is how to win.
By building links to the community, making games things people want to buy and want to support as opposed to having a difficult decision between buying Blur and screwing over Activision. With DRM go with Steam, you need something and Steam is a nice balance of positive and negative. Release a DRM free version a year after launch too
eh, I don't know if they should go that far. Way too easy to copy-paste the files then.Dirty Hipsters said:
I think the cd-key and the "is the proper legit cd in the drive" check is far enough for drm.
I think it's just to make online versions of products available, and at a price that reflects the far lower costs of distribution. If I could, say, buy a new release, complete and legit with a speedy download for, say, 70% of the box price, I'd choose that over a slow crappy copy off a torrent any day.
Public relations.
Fans won't rip you off. Faceless companies have a hard time to make fans and spokesmen won't change that.
Now a lead developer coming on GT, posting on community forums and communication like that will help. Then a publisher's profits suddenly mean the ugly mugs working hard to make the games you like, get to keep their shitty jobs.
That won't convince the vast majority to buy games, but it will increase the minority that does and they are the only ones who matter.
Fans won't rip you off. Faceless companies have a hard time to make fans and spokesmen won't change that.
Now a lead developer coming on GT, posting on community forums and communication like that will help. Then a publisher's profits suddenly mean the ugly mugs working hard to make the games you like, get to keep their shitty jobs.
That won't convince the vast majority to buy games, but it will increase the minority that does and they are the only ones who matter.
Gaming companies have to build relations with their customers instead of treating us like criminals even before we buy the game. I do not pirate games, I don't even download games I just buy hardcopies. But there is nothing worse than getting stuck typing in codes are having to confirm things on the Internet etc etc when I just want to play. The bricking function of the ds 3d completely put me off buying one, not because I pirate games, but I do not like the gameboy monitoring my activities.
Having playable demos is a great way too because there is nothing worse than shelling out at lot if money on a game you won't enjoy
I think they should let the pirates pirate, and start building up better relations with their paying customers. These anti-piracy measures feel like punishment
Having playable demos is a great way too because there is nothing worse than shelling out at lot if money on a game you won't enjoy
I think they should let the pirates pirate, and start building up better relations with their paying customers. These anti-piracy measures feel like punishment
simple: make great games and package them with sweet extras that you cant get from downloading them, like posters, art books, figurines, etc.
honestly though, theres probably little to nothing game companies can actually do to prevent piracy. every new and improved DRM is just another challenge to overcome for the pirates. they eat that shit up (even going so far as to thank Ubisoft in the opening credits for the challenge).
the best way is to create games good enough to SELL on their own merits. i myself download games (if they're PC only and i can't rent them) to try them out. some games i KNOW will be good (skyrim) so i just purchase them outright, others (civ 5) i have no idea, so i donwloaded it, loved it, and then bought it, and then there's far more (the witcher, kings bounty, etc) that i download, absolutely can't stand, and then delete.
the main problem there's very little consumer protection when it comes to games. buy a game for $60, turns out to be shit, sorry you can't return it, sell it back to gamestop for $30, or if it's a PC title just throw it away cause you can't sell OR return it. if this fundamental flaw were fixed, i probably wouldn't download games ever again. it's just that crushing fear that my hard-earned $50-60 will be totally wasted if i dont pick the right game the first time, and every time.
sorry for the wall of text
honestly though, theres probably little to nothing game companies can actually do to prevent piracy. every new and improved DRM is just another challenge to overcome for the pirates. they eat that shit up (even going so far as to thank Ubisoft in the opening credits for the challenge).
the best way is to create games good enough to SELL on their own merits. i myself download games (if they're PC only and i can't rent them) to try them out. some games i KNOW will be good (skyrim) so i just purchase them outright, others (civ 5) i have no idea, so i donwloaded it, loved it, and then bought it, and then there's far more (the witcher, kings bounty, etc) that i download, absolutely can't stand, and then delete.
the main problem there's very little consumer protection when it comes to games. buy a game for $60, turns out to be shit, sorry you can't return it, sell it back to gamestop for $30, or if it's a PC title just throw it away cause you can't sell OR return it. if this fundamental flaw were fixed, i probably wouldn't download games ever again. it's just that crushing fear that my hard-earned $50-60 will be totally wasted if i dont pick the right game the first time, and every time.
sorry for the wall of text
All can be bypassed.dyre said:
Things like keygens aren't needed much anymore, cracked exe's are more common that don't require any authentication.
Whatever measure a company puts in to stop piracy someone will find a way round.
I know a few people who cracked Assassins Creed 2 after Ubisoft claimed it had made it "safe". They made it more difficult but not impossible.
By moving into the 21st century. Digital distribution, but none of this always-online crap. Also, Minecraft's DRM works very well - you register online once on a computer, then that is absolutely it. Although their pirated version message seems to get a few false positives now and then, which is irritating.
get rid of the DRM
have Steam Offline mode work Offline (seriously I,m considering pirating games I already bought so I can run them on my laptop whenever I want)
make buying the game easy (like releasing it on steam)
add something cool like a OST.
pretty much this
have Steam Offline mode work Offline (seriously I,m considering pirating games I already bought so I can run them on my laptop whenever I want)
make buying the game easy (like releasing it on steam)
add something cool like a OST.
pretty much this
don,t invest into piracy prevention but in making purchasing the games attractive.Esotera said:
Fighting piracy is impossible. These people sacrifice huge amounts of their life to find a way to get these things for free and nothing anybody can do will stop them. It's come to the point of internet restriction laws in some places. But those people are still posting on pirate threads about how they got around it. The combat against piracy is enough already, if you've pirated a game you are not playing with your friends.
I'll admit it, I've pirated games before. But in the end within a week I'd go to my local game store and shell out the money because I wanted to play against humans. And I'm not the only one, I have friends who have also done this exact thing.
Piracy is becoming more of a way to screen games before one has to buy them. Although this may cut into the profits of game makers (because they couldn't sell a crappy title to an unsuspecting buyer) in the end it will improve games because game makers will have to make better games for pirates to believe it's worth the small amount of money they have.
They've already solved the problem, they just need to realize WHY the games are being pirated in the first place and then they'll know how to make up the loses.
I'll admit it, I've pirated games before. But in the end within a week I'd go to my local game store and shell out the money because I wanted to play against humans. And I'm not the only one, I have friends who have also done this exact thing.
Piracy is becoming more of a way to screen games before one has to buy them. Although this may cut into the profits of game makers (because they couldn't sell a crappy title to an unsuspecting buyer) in the end it will improve games because game makers will have to make better games for pirates to believe it's worth the small amount of money they have.
They've already solved the problem, they just need to realize WHY the games are being pirated in the first place and then they'll know how to make up the loses.
project ten dollar isn't too bad, i can see why its there and i don't think its too bad for what it is right now..
however beyond that? they need to stop thinking we are the problem and making customers the solution, and piracy won't be such a pain in the ass
however beyond that? they need to stop thinking we are the problem and making customers the solution, and piracy won't be such a pain in the ass