I don't see why they still use software that has been proven many times to be ineffective. IE: Splinter Cell: Conviction
Why do publishers still bother with DRM?
- Thread starter Your Fearless Captain
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Why do publishers still bother with DRM? Because they believe annoying and punishing your customers is good business.
DRM isn't about keeping pirates out forever, its about keeping them at bay long enough so impatient little twerps who are going to pirate can't get it for free on day 1, forcing them to purchase it.
See Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, which lasted nearly a year, or AC2, which lasted more than a month.
Also to keep the laymen from simply handing the disc or downloadable file to a buddy so they can play it for free.
See Splinter Cell Chaos Theory, which lasted nearly a year, or AC2, which lasted more than a month.
Also to keep the laymen from simply handing the disc or downloadable file to a buddy so they can play it for free.
It's a sound decision, people do similar things in every walk of life:
When your mugged in the street, what do you do about it? Kick your dog, of course.
When your wife is leaving you, what's the logical reaction? Pick a fight with the person closest to you, obviously.
And finally, when pirates are stealing your games, how do you respond? You punish your paying customers.
[sub](This way, at least you're not the only one suffering)[/sub]
When your mugged in the street, what do you do about it? Kick your dog, of course.
When your wife is leaving you, what's the logical reaction? Pick a fight with the person closest to you, obviously.
And finally, when pirates are stealing your games, how do you respond? You punish your paying customers.
[sub](This way, at least you're not the only one suffering)[/sub]
Can someone explain to me what DRM stands for, and what it actually means. I've played a lot of games that apparently have it but I never really noticed anything.
Basically. It keeps the "casual" pirates at bay. It won't stop the dedicated, but a lot of folks are lazy.MisterShine said:
However, they'd probably cleave to it even if that wasn't the case.
Not even there have been plenty of cracked games literally hours after being released and days before release. But i do miss the old days of just typing in a cd-key and no other crazy crap to ruin a game
This. It keeps the shareholders happy, and even though it pisses off the customers, their first duty is to keep the investors happy. It's pretty sad, especially since the investors should realize that keeping the customers happy is priority number one at any business, but that's how it works.Zhukov said:
Digital Rights Management, it is a catch-all term for any kind of encryption or restrictions on a digital file purchased.NinjaDeathSlap said:
For example, it used to be on ITunes when you purchased a song, they gave it to you in an encrypted format that could only be played through itunes itself or through an apple product it was loaded onto. That was one form of DRM which was eventually discarded (songs can now be played on any device or player on the computer)
For games, DRM can be anything from a disc check (when you boot up the game, it will look for the game DVD in your drive, if it isn't there it will not boot until you put it in), a serial key put in when you're installing the game, something like Steam which makes games only launch through the steam program and not by itself, or something like a game which constantly talks to the game publishers servers to make sure your copy is legit, if your internet goes down and the game cannot check in with the server, the game will boot you out.
Hope this clears things up for you, feel free to ask any follow ups.
Most certainly, for reasons Zhukov outlined. Investors simply don't know or care about the details, they just want to know they're protected, even if it is paltry and breeds only discontent in their consumers.Zachary Amaranth said:
edit:
This usually comes from a build given to reviewers or distributors which a pirate might know in real life and can get the game early from them, giving them more time to crack it.SmashLovesTitanQuest said:
DRM: "Digital Rights Management"NinjaDeathSlap said:
With regards to games, it's usually special software and methods that come with the game to try to prevent pirates from being able to copy it. For example, CD keys are a form of DRM.
Ordinarily, this isn't much of a problem, but recently the DRM methods have been getting more and more obtrusive for regular paying customers. Now we're being told we have to be connected to the internet at all times to play games we have bought, or we're now not allowed to mod our games, or we're only allowed to install our game 3 times.
This is bad enough, but what makes it worse is the fact that pirates simply remove any DRM that comes with games. The pirates get to do whatever they want with their un-paid for and illegal copies of the game, yet the paying customers are saddled with all sorts of restrictions and inconveniences that get in the way of playing our games.
It's almost like some companies are encouraging piracy.
Note: If you mainly play games on a console, you may not have noticed much DRM. Console games tend to have much less obtrusive DRM methods, mainly because piracy is much less of an issue on consoles. (The anti-piracy systems that are present are mostly included as part of the console in the first place, as un-modified consoles will refuse to play copied games.)
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. I was always under the impression it was a bunch of vodoo and hacks that made pirating a game a pain in the ass.NinjaDeathSlap said:
I'm guessing 90% of the potential PC customers don't actually care about the DRM. The 10% that're left are vocal but not necessarily going to avoid purchasing a game because of the DRM (see http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/08/08)Zachary Amaranth said:
Personally - I love "always connected to internet DRM" as opposed to the old SoftDisc (or whatever) DRM that is supposed to be the "ok" one. I don't know anyone who would try and play "non-casual" games away from their home computer, and always fiddling with discs that get scratched pisses me off.
DRM helps, as it does give publishers a week or so before their game starts ending up on torrent sites. It doesn't stop pirates completely, but it does slow them down and makes their life harder, and that's something at the end of the day. It's not much, but it's something.
Also, in business, you never trust your customer, as if you trust your customer, then there is the inevitable risk that such trust may be abused or exploited. If you need proof of this, go see how hard it is to find GOG's entire library of games on a torrent site (spoiler: it isn't). This is an interesting dichotomy: businesses don't trust customers, yet customers expect to be treated with respect. It leads to people being bitter over what amounts to companies making sound business decisions.
Also, in business, you never trust your customer, as if you trust your customer, then there is the inevitable risk that such trust may be abused or exploited. If you need proof of this, go see how hard it is to find GOG's entire library of games on a torrent site (spoiler: it isn't). This is an interesting dichotomy: businesses don't trust customers, yet customers expect to be treated with respect. It leads to people being bitter over what amounts to companies making sound business decisions.
This is where I disagree. Modern DRM methods are actually must LESS obtrusive than they ever were. Old school DRM was entering a character or word on a random page of the manual, and this was the day before you could easily find a copy of the manual online. Hell, these are even better than CD keys, which are easy to lose (since they never manage to appear on the same place) and a total pain to have to enter sometimes. To be quite honest, if you look at the history of PC gaming, then DRM nowadays is quite unobtrusive to what we have been getting.lunncal said:
I was more talking about who would copy games if they could do it easily.peter-lavalle said:
Honestly, "Always-On" DRM, like most DRM, doesn't meet complaints until something goes wrong. The problem being, when it fails, it can fail spectacularly.