I thought of a new anti pirate measure.

[Orinon]

The pirates have a large number of justifications for piracy
the game is buggy
the DRM is ridiculous.
are two major ones. well here's my idea
make the The code of the game that allows patches be a part of the DRM. if you remove the DRM you can't get a patch for the game, this means that the people who pay for the games get better games while the pirates have a game full of bugs and glitches. its like a buggy demo, its free but it sucks.

Thoughts?

 

[Daystar Clarion]

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

No thanks.

 

[henrius]

You just get a cracked patch I'm pretty sure. I don't think this would work.

 

[Kahunaburger]

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

Oh, we're talking about software pirates? My advice is don't mess around with DRM at all. It's trivial to get around, and it makes the game worse.

 

[JRCB]

I like what the developers for Arkham Asylum did, which was prevent (some or most) moves from being utilized, making the game unplayable.

 

[Neonit]

every system has a workaround, spending money on this "arms race" leads to lower quality games.

in the end, pirates will crack every system, and what we will be left with is game with unnecessary load on processor. instead of fighting the pirates, reward the paying customers.


still, the best way to combat piracy atm seems to be mmo's.

 

[Imat]

And what happens to those who wish to play a game over LAN, with a friend or family member, but don't want to buy an extra copy of the game to do so? DRM restricts this functionality, whether by CD-checks or Serial keys (Which for some reason don't allow multiple copies over LAN), so those who simply want to enjoy a multiplayer game in house without shelling out $100-120 wouldn't be able to update their copies.

 

[Orinon]

My basic plan was people who downloads it illegally don't get a good game but if you pay for it you get a nice game. It sounded like a good idea

 

[Gill Kaiser]

The patches would just be cracked.

 

[King Toasty]

What everyone else said. You can't really "win" this pirate war with more/different features on the game. And if you purposefully make a shit-buggy game, people are gonna turn to hacking even more. Basically, in this case, consumers are like jello: The harder you try to grab them, the more slip between your fingers.

 

[TrXster Dinu]

the piracy will not be beaten, why, because there will be smarter persistent and more hackers that will crack the "new" protection that will come for the future games, it sounds bad, but that's the ugly truth

 

[thedeathscythe]

I like what the developers for Arkham Asylum did, which was prevent (some or most) moves from being utilized, making the game unplayable.

I remember that. They took the gliding with your cape ability away if it was pirated, so you could only play for 2 hours until you really couldn't progress any further.

I think games should focus more on their community to combat piracy. Let's say if you're playing Counter Strike Source, you can pirate it, but if you want to play custom made maps or build your own, it for some reason won't work if your copy is pirated. Then the community benefits from having another person who makes sweet maps, and the pirate is eventually persuaded into buying the game to expand it further. Pretty much online gaming is what will stop the most piracy, since if you pirate a single player game and remain offline, no one will really know.

 

[Orinon]

I was worried that would happen well good thing I'm not a game designer

 

[Fujor]

My basic plan was people who downloads it illegally don't get a good game but if you pay for it you get a nice game. It sounded like a good idea

thats not a plan is it. I also think you've not fully grasped how easy it is to crack games work.

people have already said that they'll always be a work around. as bad as it is I think EA has got it as good as it can get for a while with their codes to unlock content. yeah it damages the second hand market but consider that the trade off.

 

[Erana]

The pirates have a large number of justifications for piracy

Well, part of the problem in your perception is that you assume they need justification.
For pirates, its just "Free game, yum."

But yeah, until DRM provides nothing but benefits above what should be expected from the product, its punishing the customers.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

You anti-pirates just don't get it. Games should never ever be bugged or DRM'ed, period. Doesn't matter if the customer is legit or not.

But yeah, until DRM provides nothing but benefits above what should be expected from the product, its punishing the customers.

And this.

 

[Canid117]

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.

 

[Lucane]

The pirates have a large number of justifications for piracy
the game is buggy
the DRM is ridiculous.
are two major ones. well here's my idea
make the The code of the game that allows patches be a part of the DRM. if you remove the DRM you can't get a patch for the game, this means that the people who pay for the games get better games while the pirates have a game full of bugs and glitches. its like a buggy demo, its free but it sucks.

Thoughts?

Note everyone has internet access so this would mean that some people would end up buying unfinished products or broken games compared to others who get a small update right away.

Something similar was on Arkham Asylum where one of Batman's required skills killed you once you tried to use it.But a few weeks later there was a updated version of the pirated version that removed that bit of code.

The only way to somewhat insure a less hacked/pirated game using that system is to have a consistent online requirement to verify legit copies which is considered a bad form of DRM for non online multiplayer games.

 

[puffy786]

Okay heres what a pirate do:
1. Remove the DRM
2. Crack the Patch
3. Play

As you can tell, the anti-pirate measure does little to stop pirates.