Falaricae
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Posted - 2008.10.08 16:48:00 -
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I don't have a problem that companies use some simple protection to prevent straight copying of games. I know it's almost effortless to actually pirate games, but as long as it doesn't interfere with legitime customers I don't care. There are two issues that I do care about.
First, what troubles me is that some publishers(I'm looking at you EA) have started to use DRM as a way to limit the customers from using the product they bought the way they want. I think the purpose of installation limits for example isn't to prevent piracy, but to kill the secondhand market for PC games. Lending, renting and selling a game after using it is now impossible, so every person has to get his own copy. This strategy includes selling incomplete games and selling the content as expansion packs later. They are ****ing people off just to sqeeze every last penny from you.
Second, some anti-pirate software seem to have gone into an armsrace against the pirates. Their primary goal seem to be to prevent all piracy and everything else comes second. I would guess most DRM developers fall in to this category. The problem is that it is a hopeless fight. No software is immune to being pirated. What is worse is the length that they go to cause problems for legitimate users. So what if the users DVD-drive can't read the disk, DRM installs malware on the users PC and causes conflicts with other programs. It doesn't matter since they are fighting ebil pirates and anyone who complains must also be a thieving pirate.
Now you have ****ed of customers, pirates that brag about not having to deal with any of that DRM crap and you didn't even prevent the pirating, huzzah. Doesn't help that every A+ title gets 90+ points in reviews these days and is written for teenagers who haven't played basicly that exact same game dozens of times already. There comes a point when you would rather play minesweeper than another FPS clone, let alone waste money on one.
They need to start putting buying customers needs first by stop treating them as criminals, selling complete games that work and don't install anything extra on the PC. If the DRM conflicts with those goals, it isn't ready to be put into the game. Even after that I'm not wasting my money on clones of games I already own, unless they actually have great plot or gameplay innovations. Those few games that do meet these criteria have my monetary support as long as they keep going.
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