What can Developers & Publishers do to combat Piracy?

[Kopikatsu]

Still while I think there are better ways for your friend to be testing these things I'm not so uptight I can't at least see the reasoning behind this IF, and this is a big if, they do what they say and don't occasionally 'accidentally' go overlong on the demo and then say 'I'm poor right now, but maybe...' only to conveniently forget down the line. Something I suspect all too many people do.

No way, bro. I have enough disposable income that buying games new isn't a problem for me. I think I still have like $400 left for video game expenses. Of course, this is because I have no life and my ENTIRE entertainment budget goes towards video games. No clubs, no movies, nothin'. Just video games. Which is lame.


I-I mean, my friend...Eh. Bored of that now.

 

[Aprilgold]

Nothing, or just simply fucking MAKE paying, legal customers rewards for buying it new, or donate products to a well meaning orginization, BUY CALL OF KILL ALL MUSLIMS 72 and feed all the hungry muslims with half of the profits.

I ain't got much more, but DRM is no way to do anything to stop, and it will never stop.

 

[AnotherAvatar]

Release their games for free.

 

[zerobudgetgamer]

I say adopt Steam, or at least its policies. Sell all your games online, have constant sales going on, and, probably most importantly, stop blowing the rage horn every time one of your games gets pirated and treat the people who buy your games with some damn respect.

 

[Bocaj2000]

Lower. The. Price.

Honestly, having to pay 50 bucks for a game, THEN add 25 bucks for the DLCs that pop up over the following year simply is too much. Why on Earth would anyone want to pay that much money for a game they don't even know whether they'll like? Of course that ends up with them not paying at all - if possible.

It would only work if they pay people to play their games.

You can't beat 'Free'.

OP: Include a virus with every copy that completely melts your computer if you do anything do the game files besides play the game. Everyone wins!

free sounds too expensive. must pirate it.

OP: On a serious note, the only thing a publisher can do to make piracy work for them is to do what Deus Ex did: a month before the game gets released, leak a preview of the game. I'm NOT talking about a demo; a preview is the first chunk of the game up until the first boss is beaten (which took a while). I have seen the comments in the demonoid page saying, "holy shit! I'm so buying this!" This is not a lie nor an exasperation; that is a direct quote. So... it looks like something worked irl.

EDIT:

I say adopt Steam, or at least its policies. Sell all your games online, have constant sales going on, and, probably most importantly, stop blowing the rage horn every time one of your games gets pirated and treat the people who buy your games with some damn respect.

I agree. I have bought more games on steam than anywhere else. Mass Effect 1 & 2 for $10 - Bioshock for $5- etc. I have never bought a game off of steam for more than $20 and I have a large variety from indie to AAA titles. Steam is the BEST thing that I have ever come across to combat piracy. The only reason that I would still pirate is to preview games that I am considering buying, but don't know if I would like them or not.

 

[thelonewolf266]

Make games cheaper, won't get rid of the problem entirely but it will cut down the amount of people downloading pirated games by a huge percentage.

 

[Dfskelleton]

I know! It would be intrusive, but it might work if the developers are honest.
Imput a complex code into the game that nobody would notice, that transmits to a certified team of people who can determine of the copy of the game was paid for. If not, they can upload a virus to the pirates computer that deletes all of their files and fills up their ENTIRE HARD DRIVE with pictures of Bill Cosby.

 

[Bocaj2000]

I know! It would be intrusive, but it might work if the developers are honest.
Imput a complex code into the game that nobody would notice, that transmits to a certified team of people who can determine of the copy of the game was paid for. If not, they can upload a virus to the pirates computer that deletes all of their files and fills up their ENTIRE HARD DRIVE with pictures of Bill Cosby.

That's cute. do you have a serious answer?

 

[Quaidis]

Best way I can think of to combat pirates is to release a bunch of the games free online over major pirating sites. Then load the games full of trojans and viruses, enough to disable the person's computer and then some. Seriously, put the viruses directly in the code of the game so it literally comes with the package. And, if the pirates manage to disable the viruses, you have the game be unplayable at some point. If you have enough bunk copies of the game out, especially released to the pirate sites a day or two before the official game is out there, it will really rattle some pirate cages.

 

[Something Amyss]

Best way I can think of to combat pirates is to release a bunch of the games free online over major pirating sites. Then load the game full of Trojans and viruses, enough to disable the person's computer and then some. Seriously, put the viruses directly in the code of the game so it literally comes with the package. And then, if the pirates manage to disable the viruses, you have the game be unplayable. If you have enough bunk copies of the game out, especially released to the pirate sites a day or two before the official game is out there, it will really make the pirates out there extremely paranoid.

Yeah, except it hasn't stopped anyone before.

I know! It would be intrusive, but it might work if the developers are honest.
Imput a complex code into the game that nobody would notice, that transmits to a certified team of people who can determine of the copy of the game was paid for. If not, they can upload a virus to the pirates computer that deletes all of their files and fills up their ENTIRE HARD DRIVE with pictures of Bill Cosby.

Intrusive, and of course, illegal.

Verification would be a real bear anyway.

 

[Epona]

There really isn't anything they can do within reason that will combat piracy efficiently. Pirates are usually just assholes that don't want to pay for a game. I would actually love to interview a pirate to ask him what things he/she would want changed for them to actually pay for games. It would be either very predictable or very eye-opening.

You wouldn't like their answers. If they said they pirate to demo a game, they are assholes. If they said they pirate to protest the DRM and they only wanted to up the download count and didn't even install it, they are assholes.

This is an industry that wants to sell buggy products with no return policy and many times, without a demo. What recourse do you think consumers should have?

 

[WaruTaru]

People are looking at this from the wrong angle. Its obvious that:

1) DRM doesn't stop piracy.

2) Selling games for 1 cent doesn't stop piracy.

3) Making a good game doesn't stop piracy.

The logical step is to do the exact opposite of it, namely:

Remove DRM, give it out for free, and make it as crappy as possible. After all, you don't hear Zynga complaining about piracy, do you?

Just gotta get that out of my system. I'll stop trolling now.

The real reason which makes piracy so rampant is:

1) The law (and the law enforcers) is practically useless and their effort is pretty much negligible in the face of it, so people do not fear the repercussions.

2) It is so damn easy to do and anyone with a computer and an internet connection can do it. Did I mention how convenient it is to get something for free without leaving your house?

Only the government can solve (1), so we'll leave that bit to them. But for (2), there is a solution to it. Make the game files so large that it'll take them days and weeks (and months, hopefully years) to finish their download that its just not worth downloading in the first place. Ideally the total file size should be so large that your hard drive couldn't possibly store the entire file on the computer/laptop.

The right way to fight it is to make piracy extremely inconvenient to the pirateers. Imagine if the pirate's connection runs at 16kb/sec and the game file is 2 Terrabytes. It'll turn the pirates away from a life of crime.

 

[Something Amyss]

as people have said, I think make it more attractive to actually buy the game

like with preorder bonuses and such I supose..or cool collectors editions

Also, make people excited for the game itself.

It's a novel approach, but I think they might find it to work.

Games will still be pirated, but with the sales Skyrim and MW3 are doing, who freakin' cares?

 

[Something Amyss]

But for (2), there is a solution to it. Make the game files so large that it'll take them days and weeks (and months, hopefully years) to finish their download that its just not worth downloading in the first place. Ideally the total file size should be so large that your hard drive couldn't possibly store the entire file on the computer/laptop.

I am very amused you think this is a viable model. How exactly will they sell it to the consumer, then? Even BDs cap at 50 gigs and people pirate them, and if they want to sell their product digitally (and they do), they need it to be a viable size.

 

[lylemcd]

Since they can't seem to combat piracy without hurting legit customers I say: Don't combat piracy. All you do is combat your legit customers while pirates get around your anti-piracy techniques.

As an example, Lego Harry Potter Years 5-7 came out 2 days ago but the Securom prevents the game from running. No PC customer can play it until they get this worked out.
http://www.amazon.com/LEGO-Harry-Potter-Years-5-7-Pc/dp/B0051TON12/ref=sr_1_12?s=videogames&ie=UTF8&qid=1321230890&sr=1-12

This. Back in the 80's, computer game companies did everything they could to try to limit piracy. This ranged from code wheels to unreadable books of numbers; one company even had a physical device you had to plug into your computer. None of it worked and all it did was

a. Drive up the cost of the product
b. Make life more difficult for the legal purchaser

The solution is to not bother. Accept that piracy will happen that regardless of price or anything else, pirates will crack it and steal it in no time flat. It's life in the modern age and nothing can be done to fix it.

So just don't bother. The people who are going to buy it legally will, the people who are going to steal it are going to no matter what and they might as well quit throwing money and resources at a problem that is insoluble and only hassles the legal purchasers anyhow.

Lyle

 

[Drakmorg]

Charge less money.
For quite a few people $60 is unreasonable risk for a game that they might not enjoy.
I have a friend who only ever pays for indie titles because $10-15 is a much more reasonable risk for him.
Now I'm not saying all games should only cost $10-15, because then companies wouldn't be able to make a profit on AAA games, but would something like $40 be too unreasonably low?

Sure it wouldn't get rid of the cheap/just don't give a shit pirates (but then nothing short of tracking them down and taking their computer away is likely to stop them), but the ones who actually care about the industry but just can't afford to buy new games would be much more likely to make the jump to respectable consumerism.

 

[Epona]

Why would we want to combat file sharing? Copying files costs next to nothing and benefits the society as a whole ? we should embrace it. If we can agree that games benefit the society as a whole, like science does, then we should finance it like science, using public funding and peer review. The system has been tested by centuries and we know it works.

It's a funny game we play. It costs nothing to copy something which publishers believe has a value of $60 and yet we accept it and pay what they ask. If I offered to sell you a tomato for $1 and you could easily walk a few feet and get your own for free, would you pay me $1?

 

[Kopikatsu]

Lower. The. Price.

Honestly, having to pay 50 bucks for a game, THEN add 25 bucks for the DLCs that pop up over the following year simply is too much. Why on Earth would anyone want to pay that much money for a game they don't even know whether they'll like? Of course that ends up with them not paying at all - if possible.

It would only work if they pay people to play their games.

You can't beat 'Free'.

OP: Include a virus with every copy that completely melts your computer if you do anything do the game files besides play the game. Everyone wins!

free sounds too expensive. must pirate it.

OP: On a serious note, the only thing a publisher can do to make piracy work for them is to do what Deus Ex did: a month before the game gets released, leak a preview of the game. I'm NOT talking about a demo; a preview is the first chunk of the game up until the first boss is beaten (which took a while). I have seen the comments in the demonoid page saying, "holy shit! I'm so buying this!" This is not a lie nor an exasperation; that is a direct quote. So... it looks like something worked irl.

How is that different from being a demo? Srs question.

 

[Lord Fedora]

Publishers: Hire pirates themselves, because clearly they're better and more creative programmers than anyone on their staff.
Developers: Be glad that people are playing their games at all, because they shouldn't be doing it for the money but for the art and/or making people happy.

In all seriousness though, there's nothing anyone can do, at all, ever. Remember the Humble Bundles? You could literally buy them for a penny, and that penny didn't even have to go to the developers but to CHRISTMAS PRESENTS FOR CHILDREN, and people still pirated them. With that kind of motivation you can't possibly win.