I thought of a new anti pirate measure.

[SailorShale]

That'd be cracked in no time in all.

I like what Earthbound and what Spyro Year of the Dragon does. Those two games are still stumping people to this day who try to play them illegally.

 

[Xealeon]

I would have to say that the responsibility for stopping piracy falls not on the game companies but on the people who buy pirated games and/or want DRM free software. Instead of expecting the companies to put heightened security into their games (and then subsequently complaining about the heightened security) why not just stop pirating the bloody games so that DRM is no longer needed? Everyone and their dog has mentioned how pirates just crack through DRM as soon as it appears and how the increase in DRM because of this is annoying everyone but DRM only exists because people pirate games so if people no longer pirate games then DRM no longer becomes needed and will stop being annoying.

If somebody robs a bank and then the bank puts in annoying security measures to stop themselves being robbed, do you blame the bank or the robber?

 

[Android2137]

Bah, just add more cannons to the the starboard side. That will make those scurvy dogs think twice before trying to plunder our galleon!

But wouldn't that make the starboard heavier and the ship easier to capsize, Captain?

OT: Sounds messy and the pirates would probably rip the patch out to distribute. In the end, you have the same problem.

 

[TCPirate]

I feel I should clear something up for the OP. Pirated games (For PC anyway) are normally downloaded in a format called .Iso

The .Iso format is a file that emulates the game disk. Once this is downloaded, you use a virtual disk drive and mount the .Iso file and it runs like a CD. Anyway what i'm trying to get at is... The pirated version of the game NORMALLY (Not always) comes from a retail / purchased version first. If this person is willing to put a pirated version of the game online for others, they'll do the same to a patch.

 

[zehydra]

Wouldn't that promote game devs to release buggy games?

No thanks.

this. It makes sense in theory, but Marketing and the whole business side of Gaming would frown on this to a great degree.

 

[RobfromtheGulag]

DRM has generally been a great hindrance. And I'm not talking about the pirates.

You fix the DRM, then I don't care what you do with it. But stop the have-to-be-online sod, the register-with-our-particular-organization dross, etc.

 

[infohippie]

The best anti-pirate measure is to make a good game in the first place, do proper quality control to minimise the number of bugs, don't use DRM at all, and most importantly, be responsive to your community.

There is no real way to stop piracy completely. The closest anyone came was Ubisoft with their "You must stay connected to the Ubisoft Server to play." system, and that was hated with a passion.

And as well as failing to stop piracy, it did stop quite a few people, including me, from ever again choosing to buy a Ubisoft game.

 

[FalloutJack]

It will actually promote more piracy with people fixing bugs with patches on the sly. In a word: YAR.

 

[barash]

When publishers start releasing decent-length demos again so people can actually try their product before they shell out 60$, copyright infringement will go down a bit. Most people I know download purely to test gameplay and if they like it, they get it digitally. Mostly on Steam.

One thing I never do personally, is buy games with overly retarded DRM. Like limited activations, always online etc. Those publishers can go fuck themselves right up the arse.

One thing I do do however, is buy indie games based on the developers inspirations. Like fractalsoftworks.com's Starfarer.. (not-so-shameful plug, them guys deserve support ^_^)

 

[Tax_Document]

That'd be cracked in no time in all.

I like what Earthbound and what Spyro Year of the Dragon does. Those two games are still stumping people to this day who try to play them illegally.

And what did they do?

You didn't really finish your post.

 

[SailorShale]

That'd be cracked in no time in all.

I like what Earthbound and what Spyro Year of the Dragon does. Those two games are still stumping people to this day who try to play them illegally.

And what did they do?

You didn't really finish your post.

Oh sorry. I assumed it was common knowledge .

Earthbound would crank the difficulty through the roof with crap-loads of enemies. So pirates had to suffer through insane difficulty, and after they beat the game, their saved game is erased. So they did all that work for nothing. It was effective too. Pirates would just buy the game, or hear of the stories and just buy it. Same with Spyro. The game would crash and freeze at certain locations. Random languages would play (making certain directions and instructions impossible to know about) and it erased your game after you beat it. If you really don't want people stealing your game, put in quirks like that. Make it deep. Arkham Asylum had the right idea, but it should've gone all the way.

 

[triggrhappy94]

God invented Patches and Cracks for a reason.... or so I'm told... I'm not a pirate

 

[Baralak]

I would just ask the pirates nicely not to steal my game and not include any DRM. Nothing else devs do will really stop them and they might get a few people to say "wow these are some nice Devs I think I will buy the game and support this kind of behavior." It removes all the moral excuses for piracy and means that if you do pirate the game you are just a greedy bastard. No lost sales to piracy (because hard core pirates are going to steal it anyway) and its a PR win for me.

This, and I find that online play and... frequent content add-ons, you heard me, even for say, a Fallout game, you have a little free, optional patch that gives you a new weapon every week. Sure, you could pirate, but incentive is lost, and the pirates just go to more trouble. It makes buying the game more appealing, and makes you feel bad for pirating with the dev's good service.

Didn't a company or two try asking nicely not to be pirated, and wound up with an incredibly miniscule number of copies pirated? Seriously, people, especially greedy execs, underestimate how far niceness, politeness, and total honesty goes. Too many are concerned with "total control over everything at all times" And they don't realize that it doesn't work. It's why, if possible, I'll grab a classic off GOG rather than Steam or something. I don't advocate it, but I admit I've pirated things before. Mostly music, but that's totally a convenience issue. I'm one of the few people who don't use iTunes and love owning and holding a CD. Sadly, that only place around that sells music that I enjoy (metal) shut down, so I can't buy the way I want around here. Again, I don't advocate it, but I admit it. Although come to think of it, I probably should just start getting things off Amazon. Next paycheck, I may just look and see what they have...

Don't pirate games though, if at all possible. Too many companies spew out too much crap and DRM, and I'm happy to throw my money at companies like GOG, sale or no, to prove that I'll pay for a game without DRM, and I don't just copy and send the files to friends. I'm happy knowing I supported an idea with my wallet like that.

 

[Wintermoot]

Isn't that kinda what Minecraft does? If you pirate it, you can't get updates, so you need to RE-pirate it every time an update comes out. Which can be such a chore that most people pony up the cash just to not have that issue anymore.

actually pirated version of MC can also update (don,t worry I eventually bought a MC premium account)
OT
this isn't going to prevent people from cracking and distributing the updated files.

 

[Wintermoot]

That'd be cracked in no time in all.

I like what Earthbound and what Spyro Year of the Dragon does. Those two games are still stumping people to this day who try to play them illegally.

And what did they do?

You didn't really finish your post.

I think earthbound calls you out for a pirate and freezes the game but some crackers managed to circumvent this.

 

[Vakz]

A lot of people with legal copies crack their games as well. Some DRMs out there really are horrendous, even if you have payed for the game. Just a CD-check can be annoying. I grew up with divorced parents, moving every week, my stuff being split between two houses with about an hour in between them. SO annoying when I had installed a game, then moved, and forgot the CD. Should I make the drive (two hours back and forth) or go online and find a no-CD crack?

 

[xPixelatedx]

Orrrrrr, you could just make a fantastic game, and keep in close touch with it's fanbase for tips on how to make it better and implement those improvements-making it more fantastic. I have noticed that the games with the best developer/consumer relations have the least % pirated. I guess that's what happens when you make people feel genuinely bad about stealing from you.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well I in no way want to give developers permission to release broken games, because that's what they already do.

So instead of a stick try a carrot, have updates plus free DLC every week/month, people with legit copies have an easy time obtaining those and those without will haveto put in extra work to make new versions usable, extra work is always a poke in the eye that scares people.

 

[godofgamers]

If I made a game I'd just implement no DRMs whatsoever (besides the standard CD-key). If I take the approach of say... Assassin's Creed 2, and bundle my game with intrusive and annoying DRMs which often cause problems for people like me living in South Africa without good internet connections and limited bandwith, I'd just be giving people more cause to pirate the game. I gladly buy games without annoying DRMs and boycott ones with them.

 

[tlgAlaska]

If I had a small game company, I would try to have some fun with the pirates. No DRM, but instead I would flood the download and torrent sites with special pirated versions of my own game, until you would have a hard time finding a "legit" copy there.
Added features for them could be things like hard-coded jump scare pictures in random intervalls, every piece of soundtrack replaced with some Barney the Dinosaur-Song, lines of dialog replaced with out of context your mom-jokes or the naked pope as unchangeable character model.
And when someone comes on the forum and asks why his character is sitting down and taking a dump when he tries to walk backwards, everyone who hasn't wasted his time downloading a broken game can point at him and laugh.

Have fun, pirates!