Securom on Games

[Red Irish]

Great article mindcycle, thanks for posting that. I certainly find myself warming to this ECA chief; however, as wanderer suggests, the companies, EA in particular, have a long road to walk in order to regain our trust and the fact that they have to be repeatedly urged to do what they should have done from the outset speaks volumes.

However, the article also draws attention to the situation of World of Goo, a game employing no DRM that is suffering significant piracy rates, despite the fact that its cheaper than most other games. I provided a link a few posts back wherein the developer of this title outlined his philosophy on DRM. Here it is again:

http://gdc.gamespot.com/story/6206551/

I strongly urge anyone with a pirated copy of World of Goo to go out and buy a copy. In addition, if anyone is aware of links to illegal copies of this game, please report this to http://2dboy.com/. As a community, any action we can take to combat piracy of this title must be taken.

Given the current situation, when a developer is brave enough to take this stance on DRM, I find piracy of this game more reprehensible than Sony's deservedly and much maligned malware. Perhaps this decision was foolish as I think most of us would be willing to put up with a simple disk check; in any event, we certainly do not want to provide the Securom apologists with any pretext for the continued use of this rootkit.

 

[mindcycle]

10 Ways to Fight Piracy

The whole thing is a pretty good read. Below are the 10 points. I provided brief quotes of ones that I particularly like, but definitely read the entire article if you get a chance.

1. Drop the onerous DRM.

It doesn't wo rk. It pisses off paying customers. It costs you money. It just gives people another incentive to download a game instead of buying it.

Cut it out.

2. Make dev teams more public.
3. Provide a demo.
4. Put out meaningful updates.

Paying customers get to upgrade their game with a nice patch and pirates get to fumble around on the torrents. If it's more convenient to buy than to pirate, then you're doing it right.

5. Be open about piracy.

The common tactic is for publishers to make outrageous claims about their losses from piracy. If you're going to talk about piracy, then at least acknowledge the basic facts which every gamer has already grasped: Piracy is hard to track, and most of your numbers are guesswork. More importantly, not all downloads are lost sales.

6. Get gamers on your side.
7. Stop the leaked games.
8. Lower Prices.
9. Accept piracy.

Your plight is not unique. All businesses suffer losses at some point, and smart businesses will account for these inevitable losses in their plans. Wall-Mart puts up with shoplifting. They could probably catch more shoplifters if they strip-searched people on the way out, but they're smart enough to know that such a policy would do more harm than good. Retailers know and expect a certain degree of losses due to theft. (They call it shrinkage.) Piracy happens. The goal should be to mitigate it without annoying or accusing paying customers.

10. Make games for people who buy games.

 

[Red Irish]

Once again, another great article mindcycle that reflects my own views on the subject, thanks for that.

 

[Red Irish]

Breaking News

http://www.techspot.com/news/3...nce-securom-joins.html

The PC Gaming Alliance suffered a bit of a blow yesterday after a few of its members decided that in the current economy they cannot justify the budget required to maintain an active role in the organization.

Among those few members leaving the group whose mission is to improve the landscape for PC gamers, developers and publishers alike are Activision Blizzard and hardware vendor Acer.

Other major industry players such as Microsoft, Nvidia, Intel and AMD are still part of the PCGA, but Activision's departure leaves the group a bit lighter on the game publishing and developing side of things. The Alliance does get a couple new members in the form of video game retailer Gamestop and Sony DADC, the firm behind the SecuROM DRM technology so often criticized by consumers.

Whether the latter means we?ll see more ?consumer-friendly? types of DRM in future game titles or the complete opposite remains to be seen.

We?ve yet to really see anything major come out of the initiative, which last year promised to set new minimum requirement standards for the PC, agree on methods to combat piracy and develop new business models.

Stay tuned to this channel.

 

[mindcycle]

Great interview with Brad Wardell of Stardock

GameBiz: GameStop recently broke the street date on Demigod, and you've said that it could be a test case for just how rampant piracy is. Is it a problem?

Brad Wardell, CEO of Stardock: We know that piracy exists in massive levels. We don't put any copy protection on our retail CDs. We do know, because our games connect to our servers, how many people are playing the pirated version. It's huge. I mean HUGE.

Demigod may be the most popular game in a very long time based on the numbers we're seeing. That said, our position has been that 98 percent of those people would never have bought the game. I don't want to do anything that inconveniences our legitimate customers because even if I stop all piracy, I don't agree that it would noticably increase our sales.

Piracy is more of an annoying thing. It's an ego thing. You put your heart and soul into a game and you see someone playing it online who stole it. It pisses you off. You're just really mad. You have to take a step back and say, "if you had stopped them from pirating it, would they have bought it?" The answer is probably no.

As a man who is against DRM, what is your take on SecuROM joining the PCGA?

Wardell: I'm not a big fan of aggressive DRM, but I think SecuROM gets a bad rap. They're like a gun maker. Some of their customers occasionally will misuse the product. There is nothing in SecuROM that forces a publisher to have [a game] be locked to three activations, or whatever. Probably what they need to do is update their agreements with publishers so that the more annoying things that are possible are not done. We could set it with our stuff so that you could only install one time, but that would be terrible business to do that.

So some of these digital rights management providers need to take more ownership over their tools...

Wardell: I don't have a lot of sympathy for SecuROM. Their business model is their product. They make their money by selling SecuROM. The customer has incredible leverage over them. If the customer wants to be obnoxious with it--they need these sales. The downside of that model is that if company X wants to only let people install the game three times in its lifetime, the customer is going to hate SecuROM.

Read the rest here:
http://www.gamebizblog.com/gam...view-brad-wardell.html

 

[Modelworks]

The reason they left the gaming alliance is because the alliance was pure crap. It did nothing for the developers or gamers. It was just an organization that was all about the organization and money that could be made from it.

If the publishers would allow it the only DRM software needs is a serial number. Those that are going to buy it will buy it. Those that will not buy it and have no intention of buying it are not going to buy just because it has securom, safedisc or any other DRM.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Those that will not buy it and have no intention of buying it are not going to buy just because it has securom, safedisc or any other DRM.

Sorry, I need clarification here. Are you arguing that Securom and other forms of DRM do not deter potential customers from buying?

 

[mindcycle]

Another great article I just ran across.

?I'm one of those people that is all about the industry moving forward, as technology and pirates always will,? he wrote on his blog, following the conviction of the founders of The Pirate Bay, one of the world's largest file-sharing websites.

?This decision will slow down the "overt" sharing but it's an impossible battle to win. It's like Sony when they release new firmware updates for the PSP handheld because hackers keep breaking the previous one. After countless firmware updates, at some point you accept that this battle is going to go on forever. Jail-broken iPhones being another example. It's actually impressive to last a full 24 hours before the next crack happens."

?I personally am investing my money into game streaming, hoping that it will give people a dramatically cheaper choice, and (for pirates) be way more convenient than having to download, burn, install, fix drivers and patch (then worry about malware.)

?Our industry has very smart people too, and so if anyone can get this right, our industry can. But the solution isn't to fight in courts, or to play "revision ping pong" with hackers, it's to move forward and design convenience, quality and access at a mass market price. That's what will get people to pay, even if there's an inferior pirate version available on some dodgy website.?

Read the rest here: http://www.edge-online.com/new...ls-needed-fight-piracy

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Red Irish

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Those that will not buy it and have no intention of buying it are not going to buy just because it has securom, safedisc or any other DRM.

Sorry, I need clarification here. Are you arguing that Securom and other forms of DRM do not deter potential customers from buying?

No , I'm saying that adding DRM does not make someone go " Well, I can't get it by downloading, so I guess I will buy it ".


People are either going to buy your product or they are not.
Adding DRM to try to make them buy it will never work.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
No , I'm saying that adding DRM does not make someone go " Well, I can't get it by downloading, so I guess I will buy it ".


People are either going to buy your product or they are not.
Adding DRM to try to make them buy it will never work.

:thumbsup:

 

[frozentundra123456]

I am more concerned with the lack of innovative PC games (especially single player ones) than with the use of Securom. I have never had a problem with this software on my computer, and I have played a lot of games that use it. For instance, Spore was one of the most disappointing games I have ever bought, not because of securom, but because the game just was not very much fun to play. One install of that game was quite enough for me.
If a game is good, I have no problem with install limits. No other software these days has unlimited installs, so why should games. To me 50 dollars for a game is quite reasonable if the game is really a good one that one can play for many hours, and especially if it has replay value.
The main thing I have against Securom is that it is usually not made clear when you install the game that Securom is being installed, and when the game is uninstalled Securom should be uninstalled automatically with the game.

 

[mindcycle]

Originally posted by: frozentundra123456
To me 50 dollars for a game is quite reasonable if the game is really a good one that one can play for many hours, and especially if it has replay value.

The problem that I and many others have with install limits is that you may want to play the game a few years in the future, and if you've already used up all of your installs then you may be out of luck if the publisher is either out of business or hard to contact. Neither of which are too far fetched.

With the recent release of Atari's Chronicles of Riddick: Dark Athena, there are a few reports of customers trying to contact Atari to get more installs (due to hardware failure or other legitimate reasons) and the only number they find listed on Atari's website has been disconnected. Sending an email to Atari doesn't get a quick response either, and in one case took a few days for the response of "you need to contact the DRM provider for help". To me that's unacceptable. If I want to install and play a game I legally purchased I shouldn't have to potentially jump though hoops to be able to do so.

The main concern those against DRM have with it is that pirates always get the better experience since they don't have to deal with the potential hassles. It should be other other way around. Publishers need to provide their paying customers with more incentives to buy games, like better support, an easy to use product, quick and meaningful updates, etc.. not more roadblocks like limited install DRM. That just drives more people to piracy.

Originally posted by: frozentundra123456
The main thing I have against Securom is that it is usually not made clear when you install the game that Securom is being installed, and when the game is uninstalled Securom should be uninstalled automatically with the game.

I agree with you on that one.

 

[Red Irish]

Originally posted by: mindcycle

Originally posted by: Modelworks
No , I'm saying that adding DRM does not make someone go " Well, I can't get it by downloading, so I guess I will buy it ".


People are either going to buy your product or they are not.
Adding DRM to try to make them buy it will never work.

:thumbsup:

You had me worried there for a minute, but thanks for clarifying, I second the "thumbs up".

 

[Pray To Jesus]

Look for it in the PS4.

Necromancers will be shot on sight.
-ViRGE

 

[Anteaus]

Look for it in the PS4.

Why are you bumping a 4-year old post? It's like kicking an anthill. lol

Many of the problems cited in the beginning of the post aren't problems anymore. Securom of today is different from the older versions of securom.

 

[Maximilian]

Why are you bumping a 4-year old post? It's like kicking an anthill. lol

Many of the problems cited in the beginning of the post aren't problems anymore. Securom of today is different from the older versions of securom.

How?