DRM in PC games

[Data]

PC games used to need a serial number and sometimes an internet connection to verify legitimacy. Game makers have tried multiple encryption methods like Sony's Securom but only hours after the game is released, hackers or crackers and even script kiddies have it busted.

In the early nineties to mid nineties if a game was released on diskette or cd rom it was as easy as copying the files straight off the medium onto the hard drive.

Now the game makers are requiring an internet connection to play even an offline game. The game must continually call it's pre programmed home server and verify legitimacy or the game will not run. If you're in the middle of a game and you lose your connection you cannot save and lose everything from after your last save.

There are so many reasons why I don't like this but the biggest one is that sometime in the future I may want to fire up some of my old games and if that game is Assassin’s Creed II or Grand Theft Auto 4 then I may be out of luck if Rockstar or Ubi soft go out of business or change their DNS connections.

The PC used to be the best way to play your games if you had the choice between a console. It shouldn't be necessary to have to crack your own games but it's getting more like that.

[unknown3125]

I hope this new drm fails miserably, i don't understand why makers of pc games just can't sell their stuff on steam or games for windows live, have it drmed to a persons username (which is allready is), but have the usernames be authorized on up to 5 pc's at a time like itunes is. If all 5 pc's authorizations are taken then no more pc's could play it until an authorized one has been taken off the account, any pc thats authorized to play the games on the account can deauthorize at anytime. Also just like itunes you can only deauthorize all pc's once a year. If not 5 authorizations then 3, anything to ease the software company's concerns.

[KiwiArcader]

You'd think it would be fairly simple ....

1. Sell through Steam or suchlike with the CD-Key locked to your username and with a mecahnism for someone with an original cd-key/purchase documentation to transfer ownership if they want to sell the game. Or if someone has managed to guess your cd-key and you want to get control back.

Then you don't need to put protection on your disc's thereby letting legit users play the game without all the crap of needing disc's in drives etc. And can backup their game in case the kid takes a screwdriver to it.

All that is happening currently is legit users are being tainted by poor magament decisions & bad gamings experiences while pirates are still playing the games anyway, often without the headaches associated with owning legit.

Lastly, content owners agree that if they shut down their servers etc they will provide an executable that is DRM free. So that again, legit users aren't screwed over .... again.

Unfortunately, most companies seem to think legit purchasers are a nuisance going by the way they treat them.

[Gnash]

Pirates remove any copy protection anyways so it's only a bother for the person who actually buys the game. I'm quite happy with Steam although I'm not sure what kind of security it uses besides login.

[KiwiArcader]

Pirates remove any copy protection anyways so it's only a bother for the person who actually buys the game. I'm quite happy with Steam although I'm not sure what kind of security it uses besides login.

Correct. The only person affected is the legit user.

My point was that a service like Steam where your CD-Key is tagged to your login removes any requirement for other forms of protection anyway as long as the install mandates the aligning of the key to the online account. After that why they need securerom or persistent online crap forced upon legit users is beyond me.

[kbf_private_joker]

Pc game manufacturers are definitely getting more crafty. In the last 6 months, I downloaded both GTA4 and Arkham Asylum illegaly. I spent about an hour trying to get GTA4 to work, but eventually gave up, figuring it wasn't worth spending most of my Saturday trying to get a $30 game to work. I just asked for it for Christmas. I'm not sure if the creators of the Batman game knew about this or not, but there was a place about 1/3 of the way through that you couldn't get to with a cracked version. Genius on their part because it gets the user hooked on the game. I eventually bought the game off the MS site when it was $12.50 a few weeks ago for the download.

The bottom line for me is that if I have to spend hours trying to get it to work, it's not worth it. Frequently cracked games have all kinds of problems and sometimes never work at all. If I really want a game, I'll just either save for it or work a little more. The older you get, the less time (and patience) you have to deal with hacks

While the DRM is annoying, I'm not going to stop playing great PC games because of it.

[KiwiArcader]

Pc game manufacturers are definitely getting more crafty. In the last 6 months, I downloaded both GTA4 and Arkham Asylum illegaly. I spent about an hour trying to get GTA4 to work, but eventually gave up, figuring it wasn't worth spending most of my Saturday trying to get a $30 game to work. I just asked for it for Christmas. I'm not sure if the creators of the Batman game knew about this or not, but there was a place about 1/3 of the way through that you couldn't get to with a cracked version. Genius on their part because it gets the user hooked on the game. I eventually bought the game off the MS site when it was $12.50 a few weeks ago for the download.

The bottom line for me is that if I have to spend hours trying to get it to work, it's not worth it. Frequently cracked games have all kinds of problems and sometimes never work at all. If I really want a game, I'll just either save for it or work a little more. The older you get, the less time (and patience) you have to deal with hacks

While the DRM is annoying, I'm not going to stop playing great PC games because of it.

You obviously haven't purchased C&C 4 then?

Now EA has populated persistent internet connectivity on users as a DRM measure with this game. So if your DSL connection is a tad flakey and drops for a millisecond ... Bam ... and your back to the last save point. Even their own staff have been annoyed by this issue. No single play without a constant internet connection is beneficial to which legit users?

[kbf_private_joker]

I agree that is outrageous DRM. I wouldn't buy a game that had that type of DRM. I'd hope that developers would release a patch after determining that forcing the user to have a consistent connection is ridiculous. If not, I'd probably not buy that type of game. Also, usually there is enough bad press from a stupid move like that which reverses their future decisions on DRM. When Itunes first started, it had DRM. Apple eventually realized it was a stupid move. I guess PC game developers have yet to learn that decision.

Fortunately for me I don't need to have a game when it is first available. I'm usually a year or 2 behind the normal PC gamer. I'm also "casual" enough that I don't need to (and can't) play every great game out there.