How would you implement DRM?

[playinthedark]

Hypothetically a game company employs you to combat piracy of their software.

You already know that pirates can crack just about anything way faster than you can create it.

You've learned from customer feedback that it is certainly not the EA or Ubisoft methods that will work.

So how would you go about it?

 

[Jekken6]

With Steam, but if it had online multiplayer, make it work with steam cloud

 

[VoidEternal]

Accept it for what it is. People are still going to buy the game. And a lot of pirates post a little thing at their info. "If you like this game, buy it. Support the developers" or something along those lines.

 

[Plurralbles]

Right, go to the ISPs & tell them, "Tell us who's pirating!", they give me their address, & I go in & fuck their shit up.

THAT'll work...


Yep.


Completely.

Anyway, I'd give perks to legitimate customers and call it a day.

 

[dkyros]

Hmmm, a virus that is activated upon cracking the DRM that will send information to the parent company that could be later used for penal action.

 

[Zannah]

Pretty easy things -

-Make buying the game worthwile (Remember the time, where games came in boxes, rather dan dvd-cases and had goodies, and maps, and artbooks, sometimes even actual books and posters and all that stuff with them? You can't pirate those, and they will definately be a selling point. When what you get by buying is nothing but a Dvd with even the handbook on pdf - why bother?

-Seperate Lan-mode, for free download. 99,9% of the acts of piracy that I've encountered, are in the situation, where your sitting on a lan, and want to play a particular game with a cuple of friends. You obviously won't buy ten copies for that. Now if the publisher just allowed Lan-only versions of the game, with no single-player (or maybe a couple of demo-levels) and no online-multiplayer, and gave them away for free, Number one reason for piracy would be eliminated (and sales would even rise, due to more people trying things out, getting interested, buying to play online.

-Treat customers well. If you treat legal customers like their all criminals waiting to happen, you will only make them pirate more.

-More fan-service - free dlc, the means to get to know other players, modding tools, goodies all exclusively for those, who signup in an online-social thingie, that you need to have an original code for. If someone pirates a game, plays single-player then likes it, and buys it to play online, or get dlc - thats fine, a sale is still a sale.

-Make the things cheaper: Why is it, that some games are 30 bucks, some 40 and some 60? That's not due to the 60 buck games being so much more expensive to make, the publishers are just more greedy. And someone who pirates, because he (or she) is a piss-poor student, desperately trying to finance herself, and can't afford to buy all those shiny games she'd like to have because they're so damm expensi... oh sorry, getting a little carried away there. And yes, it's kinda sad, nobody from the industry asks me.

 

[squid5580]

For starters better cover art, better bonuses and better instruction books. You want me to buy your game make me want it. Make it so even if I do pirate it well I'll always feel like I'm missing something.

Then I would send out the game with minimum protection. No CD keys or verifications (unless it is an online thing for an MP game). Mega install for no disc. Make it so easy why a child could copy it.

 

[Vek]

No drm is best DRM.

CD key for MP, fair price point, one edition, extras with the game; pretty much as Zannah said. Go the route of RTCW Platinum edition; buyers get not only RTCW, they get the full registered Wolf3D, and Enemy Territory. No DRM other than MP cd key for regular RTCW MP.

 

[MiserableOldGit]

Throw it out the fuckin window - free to play with micro transactions is the future

 

[Void(null)]

A modern day version of the code wheel.

I would sell a dongle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle] with every copy of the game. Your USB Dongle would store your CD Key along with encrypted data. They are becoming cheaper to produce and more secure with greater functionality with every passing year.

You could install the game on as many computers as you wished, but you would be locked to only playing one at a time because of the dongle.

This sort of copy protection is already used by big business for software that costs in the $5000 and up price range. If it works for them, it can certainly work for PC games.

If you put it on a flash drive, you could also use the dongle to replace the DVD for installing the game. No more scratched or damaged disks and people could carry their entire game library in their pocket.

Dongle Requirements:

1: Plug and play driverless system
2: Smart card Technology
3: Data Encryption required to play
4: Act as a replacement for both the Installation DVD, The DVD Check and the DRM.

Thus you are providing security, functionality and convenience all in one.

I would also cut the cost of games in half.

People are far more willing to pay $20-$30 for a brand new game, than they are $50-$80.

 

[AlanShore]

A modern day version of the code wheel.

I would sell a dongle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle] with every copy of the game. Your USB Dongle would store your CD Key along with encrypted data. They are becoming cheaper to produce and more secure with greater functionality with every passing year.

You could install the game on as many computers as you wished, but you would be locked to only playing one at a time because of the dongle.

This sort of copy protection is already used by big business for software that costs in the $5000 and up price range. If it works for them, it can certainly work for PC games.

If you put it on a flash drive, you could also use the dongle to replace the DVD for installing the game. No more scratched or damaged disks and people could carry their entire game library in their pocket.

Dongle Requirements:

1: Plug and play driverless system
2: Smart card Technology
3: Data Encryption required to play
4: Act as a replacement for both the Installation DVD, The DVD Check and the DRM.

Thus you are providing security, functionality and convenience all in one.

I would also cut the cost of games in half.

People are far more willing to pay $20-$30 for a brand new game, than they are $50-$80.

It doesn't work for them though, it's entirely possible to just write an emulator that simulates the actions of the dongle. Yes, it takes a bit more time to crack but it can still be done. DRM will never be 100% hack proof simply because of the nature of the hardware we use today. It doesn't matter how much you encrypt your data, at some point the decrypted data will have to be processed by the CPU and you cannot stop people getting access to it without a fundamental redesign of hardware (See trusted computing).

 

[Plurralbles]

A modern day version of the code wheel.

I would sell a dongle [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dongle] with every copy of the game. Your USB Dongle would store your CD Key along with encrypted data. They are becoming cheaper to produce and more secure with greater functionality with every passing year.

You could install the game on as many computers as you wished, but you would be locked to only playing one at a time because of the dongle.

This sort of copy protection is already used by big business for software that costs in the $5000 and up price range. If it works for them, it can certainly work for PC games.

If you put it on a flash drive, you could also use the dongle to replace the DVD for installing the game. No more scratched or damaged disks and people could carry their entire game library in their pocket.

Dongle Requirements:

1: Plug and play driverless system
2: Smart card Technology
3: Data Encryption required to play
4: Act as a replacement for both the Installation DVD, The DVD Check and the DRM.

Thus you are providing security, functionality and convenience all in one.

I would also cut the cost of games in half.

People are far more willing to pay $20-$30 for a brand new game, than they are $50-$80.

It doesn't work for them though, it's entirely possible to just write an emulator that simulates the actions of the dongle. Yes, it takes a bit more time to crack but it can still be done. DRM will never be 100% hack proof simply because of the nature of the hardware we use today. It doesn't matter how much you encrypt your data, at some point the decrypted data will have to be processed by the CPU and you cannot stop people getting access to it without a fundamental redesign of hardware (See trusted computing).

yes but that specific DRM doesn't fuck over paying customers in any way.

 

[Plinglebob]

Lots of good suggestions

All this. Also, I would go the Stardock route and make it a requirement to register the game and log in to access patches.

 

[vaderaider]

Tell them that it is impossible, whatever system they create to combat piracy it will be cracked.

 

[Plurralbles]

Hmmm, a virus that is activated upon cracking the DRM that will send information to the parent company that could be later used for penal action.

the legality of that is dubious.

 

[AlanShore]

yes but that specific DRM doesn't fuck over paying customers in any way.

Yes, that's very true. Given the choice I'd rather have your solution than any of the other, frankly ridiculous, schemes we have now. But I wish that publishers would just give it up though and didn't bother trying to invent something crack-proof (which I'm sure is impossible) and put the money saved to better use, such as little extras like they used to do with the old Infocom text games.

 

[AlphaOmega]

Steamworks or Free Release day DLC (Like DA:O and ME2) to promote buying the real thing.