Just for kicks and grins ;-)

[Golgatha]

The ME3 thread got me thinking about layered DRM. Let's see if you can come up with something less consumer friend and draconian than what I'm proposing.

Buy game from Steam, Steam launches Origin, which also protected by Tages for Online activation with only 3 activations, deactivates on swapping your graphics card (ala Anno 2070) with no revoke tool available. The online multiplayer is protected by a unique CD-key you must register for using a proprietary program that's protected by Starforce, which stealth installs on your system. Once you get the game running, GFWL pops up requiring you register and run it at all times, and while you play Ubisoft's always on DRM is running in the background. Just for good measure, the DVD you install it from also installs a rootkit Sony style.

If you want to take it further into something currently outside what is currently going on in the industry. You could have a user agreement print out, that's like 100 pages of legal speak, which you must sign and mail by certified mail to the game publisher to get a hardware dongle you must insert for the game to run at all.

Edit: Let's add in biometric scanning for Steam to launch as well.

 

[Maximilian]

All that + you must post proof of identity a week in advance of the time you wish to play, you must also phone in to inform them you are ready to play and if the person on the phone thinks you are a pirate you dont get to play in which case they permaban your entire account and all games attached to it.

 

[rivan]

One of the very early forms of copy protection I always found amusing was where the game would ask you about details of the printed materials - code wheels and words from the manual, etc.

Add some of that in, for good measure.

Maybe require webcam iris scans?

 

[DirkGently1]

Don't forget three levels of age verification and a lateral thinking puzzle to prove that you're not a spam-bot.

 

[Red Storm]

To play you must also register by creating an account on the game's website. Complex passwords required, so at least 14 letters (5 of them uppercase), 6 numbers, 4 special characters, and 2 additional characters from a foreign language (see Page 5, Section C, Subsection WTF in the EULA for approved languages).

 

[rivethead]

Ah, hell let's just add.......pee to play.

 

[thespyder]

You can only play on an onsite dedicated server with a hard line to where the single installation of the game exists. in order to gain access to the room where the terminal is located, you have to pass DNA testing, urinalysis and an extensive 500 page written exam verifying your identity. The 500 page exame is randomly generated from a list of 50 thousand questions colated from an FBI black file compiled on your life and the lives of those closest to you. Missing 3 questions equals a fail and a perminent ban from the game.

You can only play the game in a single white room where no food or drink are allowed and going to the bathroom means having to exit the room and thus be subject to all of the above tests all over again.

Honestly, it's a self propagating problem. The more companies try to build "Unbreakable DRM", the harder the hackers work to crack it. And every time the hackers succeed, the companies start all over again. And the more "Secure" things get, the more invasive it ends up being. Ultimately, the normal joe consumers are pretty much the only ones who are impacted as the hackers have a significant edge over the companies. None of which isn't already known.

And what is really more horrible is, the harder the companies have to work to incorporate DRM, the more expensive the IP is, which drives up the ultimate cost for the games, which push more and more gamers towards hacking to get around the rising costs.

 

[Kalmah]

You have to link your game to your facebook profile.

edit: also...

The video input into your monitor is encrypted which requires a DRM-friendly monitor with the ability to decrypt the video signal; this is done so that programs such as fraps can't record video of the game as it's being played.

New Sony 24" LED with Ubisoft licensed video decryption technology!

 

[PhatoseAlpha]

As only people who want to play a game pirate it, any desire to play a game is proof of intent, and will result in an instant complete banning of your account. Attempting to load the game is sufficient proof of desire to play the game.

 

[Dankk]

All that + you must post proof of identity a week in advance of the time you wish to play, you must also phone in to inform them you are ready to play and if the person on the phone thinks you are a pirate you dont get to play in which case they permaban your entire account and all games attached to it.

Before you can start playing though, you need to write a letter to the president, after which you'll have to wait 2-6 weeks for official approval. With that, the federal government sends a special agent to your house to type in the activation key for you. If you're playing an online game, you're required to have one of these agents stand over your shoulder and watch you play, to make sure you're not cheating or using hacks. By default you're only allowed to play for 1 hour; however you can pay an additional $89.99/hour for the agent to stay at your house and allow you to play for longer.

If you are caught hacking or cracking, EA/Activision/Ubisoft sends an execution team to your home, claims ownership over your house, and harvests the souls of you and your family for the purpose of researching fancier, more strict DRM systems.

 

[Markbnj]

You will need to transfer the game code to your computer's memory using a set of sixteen toggle switches.

 

[Barfo]

You have to use your multiplayer account to post int the support forums and if you displease the 18 year old no lifer moderators, your forum account is banned and you can't play your game either.

 

[thespyder]

As only people who want to play a game pirate it, any desire to play a game is proof of intent, and will result in an instant complete banning of your account. Attempting to load the game is sufficient proof of desire to play the game.

This might very well explain why EA is saying there is zero pirating of DA2.

In fact, EA Might have hit on the ultimate DRM. Make the game so horribly unplayable that no one WANTS to pirate it.

 

[BladeVenom]

Edit: Let's add in biometric scanning for Steam to launch as well.

Fingerprints and eye scanners are too easy to fake. Everyone can get your fingerprints or take a picture of your eyes.

What they need is a rectal scanner.

 

[MrWizzard]

Fingerprints and eye scanners are too easy to fake. Everyone can get your fingerprints or take a picture of your eyes.

What they need is a rectal scanner.

UGH!, and if you are willing to go through all that to play a game. You are stating you are pretty much neutered already. So one must be castrated by a cheese grater as final verification…………

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I think ultima 4 required you to look something up in the manual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_(series)#Anti-piracy_measures

 

[GrumpyMan]

I also have a note from my mother in pdf format, just in case.

 

[Dankk]

I think ultima 4 required you to look something up in the manual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_(series)#Anti-piracy_measures

Lots of old games did this.

 

[IonusX]

Lots of old games did this.

in china when you get a WoW account you need to log in using a rubric you need to buy weekly to play (im not making this up)
its like a $9 dollar rubric card that you use in place of a password. and you need to enter certain character combo's of the rubric each time you log in.
it makes ubi-drm look like a joke

 

[thespyder]

I think ultima 4 required you to look something up in the manual.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultima_(series)#Anti-piracy_measures

As stated, lots of old games did this. In the old Gold Box SSI Forgotten Realms games you got a cardboard wheel key that you had to put together. You spun the two wheels till the symbols lined up to a given value and then entered the key word displayed in the overlay. In another version, you had to look up a given clue from a passage in the manual and enter the appropriate response. but that was back when manuals were more than 10 page pamphlets. Now a days you are lucky if you get a three page diagram on how the control scheme works. Back then you got cloth maps to hang on the wall and peuter figurines in the box.

Couldn't do that stuff today because copying the manual would take 30 seconds. And that is assuming you hand wrote it.

 

[BrightCandle]

No no no. None of this is about identifying you, its about ensuring the game files are perfect and unmodified and that its a bought copy.

One simple way to ensure that - the entire game is hosted on their servers, the game.exe is a thin client that downloads into encrypted RAM (a key that changes daily) the necessary parts to play the game. Of course load times will be considerable.

 

[PrincessFrosty]

No no no. None of this is about identifying you, its about ensuring the game files are perfect and unmodified and that its a bought copy.

One simple way to ensure that - the entire game is hosted on their servers, the game.exe is a thin client that downloads into encrypted RAM (a key that changes daily) the necessary parts to play the game. Of course load times will be considerable.

Until someone reverses engineers the encryption key generator since it's installed on the clients machine, then it's all over. A lot of security comes down to encryption like this but as long as all the components of the encryption are on the local machine it's beatable.

Let's not speak of the RAM and bandwidth issues with such a system

 

[Zenoth]

Everything mentioned so far at once, add to that:

º Retinal scan (scanner must be bought separately, required)
º Voice recognition ("Hello, Mr. Joe, welcome to <game name>)
º Must be on-line at each and every single one of your component manufacturer's official web-site to continuously identify your components as you play the game.
º A CAPTCHA window pops every 'x' minutes (not hours, that would be too risky) in-game (usually while the game still goes on and isn't paused) requiring you to pass the challenge to ensure that a human being is playing the game.
º You must call the game's publisher AND developer to confirm that your game-play session is over, for them to make sure that the human being that identified himself before launching the game and during game-play was indeed the good person after all.

I'm worried about this thread though, it might give actual ideas to some in the industry.

 

[BrightCandle]

I'm worried about this thread though, it might give actual ideas to some in the industry.

Ubisoft will already have a list and its much worse than ours!

 

[thespyder]

It wasn't strictly speaking DRM, but back just before Y2K, a friend of mine bought a virtual aquarium. The way it worked, your fish aged and changed over time regardless of if the application was running or not. So if you went 3 days without opening it up, the tank got messy and the fish starved. So when Y2K happened, something happened where the internal PC clock jumped ahead a year. And they all died.

My friend tried to get more fish from the manufacturer, or simply reinstall, but the code was written in such a way that (at the time) we couldn't find a way to restore them. And the manufacturer indicated that was by design and to alter it would have been a violation of terms. You had to buy more fish, even if they all died as a result of a computer glitch. Needless to say she didn't buy more, or anything else from that company.

I could see someone doing DRM wherein your avatar or other NPCs in the game aged and died or were otherwise irretrievable if the program were moved or not used in a certain amount of time. Wouldn't that be horrible? "Yep. Sheppard is now an old geezer and just can't save the galaxy anymore."