Poll: What sort of piracy protection would you choose?
- Thread starter Skinny Razor
- Start date
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This man speaks the truth.Veret said:
If I was a game developer, I would include a notepad file in the main game directory which says;
"Please! If you like this game please buy it legit. It is how we feed our families and the only way we will be able to make more games.
Thanks"
and nothing else. That would actually be more effective than restrictive DRM, which encourages piracy because people who don't want to deal with crap of DRM will go private. Ironically, DRM only affects legitimate users. It doesn't hurt pirates.
1) A lot of piracy happens on Lan-parties, so give away free trials that contain the lan, and only the lan mode. At best it will attract more customers, at worst a couple of friends somewhere had a couple of hours of fun on your cost...
2) Make "buying" worthwile - you know, regular support, booklets, artbooks, nice box gimmicks (I've seen games in the earlier days, where there were entire books shipped with the dvd) - all those things are easy to produce, and give the customer a better feeling than handing him a dvd and a sheet saying "handbook's on pdf". And even giving out free t-shirts will still be cheaper than developing the new 100% piracy-secure drm, that get's its teeth kicked in a week before the release (Hello Ubisoft)
3) Worthwile multiplayer - admittedly won't work for all titles, but simply put, games like starcraft or cod, that draw a lot of their appeal from online multiplayer - why protect them with anything beyond a multiplayer code?
4) Reasonable Pricing - Any 50-60 buck game could easily hit stores for 30-40 bucks instead - only than the publisher wouldn't have like 50% of the selling price as direct gain - give stuff away for what it's worth, getting greedy get's your fans mad.
5) Don't bother- pirates will always win, so a)Be nice, so people will want to support your b)live with the pirates, don't challenge them c) enjoy free publicity, because every single pirate is a potential buyer for the games multiplayer / sequel.
2) Make "buying" worthwile - you know, regular support, booklets, artbooks, nice box gimmicks (I've seen games in the earlier days, where there were entire books shipped with the dvd) - all those things are easy to produce, and give the customer a better feeling than handing him a dvd and a sheet saying "handbook's on pdf". And even giving out free t-shirts will still be cheaper than developing the new 100% piracy-secure drm, that get's its teeth kicked in a week before the release (Hello Ubisoft)
3) Worthwile multiplayer - admittedly won't work for all titles, but simply put, games like starcraft or cod, that draw a lot of their appeal from online multiplayer - why protect them with anything beyond a multiplayer code?
4) Reasonable Pricing - Any 50-60 buck game could easily hit stores for 30-40 bucks instead - only than the publisher wouldn't have like 50% of the selling price as direct gain - give stuff away for what it's worth, getting greedy get's your fans mad.
5) Don't bother- pirates will always win, so a)Be nice, so people will want to support your b)live with the pirates, don't challenge them c) enjoy free publicity, because every single pirate is a potential buyer for the games multiplayer / sequel.
Hmm...
I really dont know, the cheapest semi-effective method (Like a disk check/serial)
Something that dissuades casual piraters or people who burn games for friends, etc, but nothing so crazy as to waste lots of money and not effect the more hardcore piraters at all.
Probably just make a multiplayer game? The only thing that realllly stops piracy (And even thats not perfect sometimes).
Plus i wouldnt charge countrys outside america 50-100% more for the same game.
I really dont know, the cheapest semi-effective method (Like a disk check/serial)
Something that dissuades casual piraters or people who burn games for friends, etc, but nothing so crazy as to waste lots of money and not effect the more hardcore piraters at all.
Probably just make a multiplayer game? The only thing that realllly stops piracy (And even thats not perfect sometimes).
Plus i wouldnt charge countrys outside america 50-100% more for the same game.
Best Piracy protection is a GREAT multiplayer mode and a list of sold CD-keys. Of course all things are going to get cracked. But be a nice company with entertaining games which are not that expensive and at least they won't hit you so hard.
A disc check and CD-Key.Rosicrucian said:
Ultimately it's no more effective than any other DRM system (as in, not effective at all). But it is low cost, relatively unintrusive and is enough to deter what analysts would call the casual pirate. It's also enough to keep the shareholders convinced you are doing something.
But ultimately all DRM is pissing to the wind, the sooner publishers realise how much money they are wasting the sooner gaming gets a lot healthier.
Which is fine for DD but doesn't help the retailer versions of the game.Mad Stalin said:
The only effective DRM you will ever find is not on a disc. Make the packaging attractive to the customers. Give us a trinket and a cool looking box for our shelves. Project 10 is a good start. The unfortunate side effect is this stuff can be pirated as well.
"Pay a 10-25% premium on every game (the usual retailer method)"
Huh?
OT: I'd just use Steam, or I'd do that thing where the pirated copy "degrades" as you play - basically where you prevent weapons from doing any damage, or stop the character from being able to jump, etc. so the pirate can't play past a certain point.
Huh?
OT: I'd just use Steam, or I'd do that thing where the pirated copy "degrades" as you play - basically where you prevent weapons from doing any damage, or stop the character from being able to jump, etc. so the pirate can't play past a certain point.
A code in every game, that should you download it ilegally, your posistion is transmited to my headquarters.
Then I nuke you.
Good day sir.
Then I nuke you.
Good day sir.
Other: NONE! All current methods to fight software piracy to date have been more harmful to the actual legitimate consumer then they have the pirates and any new strategy or method is just seen as a challenge by the pirates and usually beaten within a months time of it's implementation, becoming another pain in the ass for legitimate paying customers. You're not going to stop software piracy, at least not by hurting your paying customers anyway. You're only, by extension, hurting yourselves.
