With the piracy of PC games as rampant as it is today, I often wonder if PC gaming will even surrvive. I know this topic has probably been debated here and elsewhere already, but I just wanted to give my take on the whole situation and hear what you people have to say about it.
Let's face it, compared to pirated console games, pirated PC games are much easier to get running. To run a pirated console game you must first have a modded console, physically burn a CD or DVD and hope it works. With PC games it's as easy as firing up Bit Torrent, downloading a cracked version of the latest game and away you go.
I've read various places that the main reason so many PC games are becoming nothing more than ports of console games is that there is little to no profit for a game developer to target just the PC market. The reason there is no profit is because most PC gamers pirate all thier games instead of buying them. Some experts estimate that there are more pirated games on computers than there are legitimate ones.
Now, instead of boring you guys with things you probably already know, I'll get to the point of why I decided to start this thread. The reason I started this thread is because like many of you, I'm worried about the future of PC gaming. I haven't played a console game in nearly 5 years and honestly, as long as there's decent PC games to play, I don't see that changing. I think that consoles are, and always will be inferior to PC's.
So I started thinking about how much it'll truly suck if PC gaming goes down the toilet and fades away. But then another thought struck me. If PC gaming dies, then what about ATI and nVidia? Their empires will surely crumble along with it. I also assume that Intel and AMD would both feel some degree of the sting as well because let's face it, you don't need a 3.6GHz Quad to run Windows.
If you think about it, it would seem like out of the game developers, GPU makers, and CPU makers, the GPU makers would have the most to lose if PC gaming dies. Without PC games, there's little to no reason for ATI or nVidia to develop and produce new products. The game makers have consoles to fall back on and while the CPU makers might lose a chunk of their enthusiast market, every computer (gaming rig or not) still needs a CPU in it.
There has to be a way to eliminate or at least minimize PC game piracy folks. I think if something isn't done soon, then PC gaming is going to end up being something we read about in the history books instead of talking about in these forums. Lot's of people complained about Steam when it was first implemented and I suppose to a degree, some people still oppose it. And while Steam might prevent online gaming, it has done nothing to prevent offline play. From what I can tell, Steam is pretty darn effective at preventing pirated copies from playing online. I think that in order for PC gaming to surrvive, there has to be a Steam-like system in place for ALL games that authenticates your game each and every time you play it whether its single or multiplayer. This might be somewhat of a hassle for some people, but how many PC gamers do you know that don't have an Internet connection? If it takes that for PC gaming to live on then I'm all for it. Anyone that opposes it might as well head on down to Best Buy and pick up and Xbox or PS3 because I don't see any other way.
Here's one idea I came up with. Now don't get me wrong, I know very little about encryption, authentication, or anything like that. But logically it seems like this would work. This idea could easily apply to any game or game developer, but for this example I'll use Valve and Half-Life 3.
Ok, let's say Valve puts out HL3. The easiest way I see to make this work is with direct2drive type games, but I suppose with a little extra thought it could just as easily work with retail box games. It all involves the use of a security key to play the games. Here's how it would work:
Valve releases HL3 and allows customers to buy and download the game through Steam. After purchasing the game and before downloading it the customer is asked a series of security questions. The answers the customer provides to these security questions is what is used to encrypt that individual copy of the game. The game is encrpyted with the answers and the customer downloads the game.
Next, the decrytpion key is emailed to the customer. Without this key file the game cannot be installed or ran. Once placed on the user's computer a hardware profile much like Windows utilizes is used to profile that particular machine. This would prevent the key from being used on multiple machines. After being placed on the machine, the user is asked once again for the answers to his unique security questions for verification. Upon giving the correct answers the game is installed, and as long as that particular key is present on that particular machine the game will run normally. A reinstall of the game would require answering the security questions again, but after installation, the use of the security key and decryption would be transparent to the user.
In the event that the customer wants to move the game to another computer, they would simply return to the Valve website, login, correctly answer the security questions and a "fresh" key would be emailed to them. But what if you have 2 or 3 computers you want to install the game on? For a nominal fee, say 5 bucks per computer, you can purchase additonal keys that will allow you to install on additonal machines.
I don't see why something like this isn't possible. Is it a hassle? Yes. Would it be worth it to save PC gaming? ABSOLUTELY.
Just my $0.02
Let's face it, compared to pirated console games, pirated PC games are much easier to get running. To run a pirated console game you must first have a modded console, physically burn a CD or DVD and hope it works. With PC games it's as easy as firing up Bit Torrent, downloading a cracked version of the latest game and away you go.
I've read various places that the main reason so many PC games are becoming nothing more than ports of console games is that there is little to no profit for a game developer to target just the PC market. The reason there is no profit is because most PC gamers pirate all thier games instead of buying them. Some experts estimate that there are more pirated games on computers than there are legitimate ones.
Now, instead of boring you guys with things you probably already know, I'll get to the point of why I decided to start this thread. The reason I started this thread is because like many of you, I'm worried about the future of PC gaming. I haven't played a console game in nearly 5 years and honestly, as long as there's decent PC games to play, I don't see that changing. I think that consoles are, and always will be inferior to PC's.
So I started thinking about how much it'll truly suck if PC gaming goes down the toilet and fades away. But then another thought struck me. If PC gaming dies, then what about ATI and nVidia? Their empires will surely crumble along with it. I also assume that Intel and AMD would both feel some degree of the sting as well because let's face it, you don't need a 3.6GHz Quad to run Windows.
If you think about it, it would seem like out of the game developers, GPU makers, and CPU makers, the GPU makers would have the most to lose if PC gaming dies. Without PC games, there's little to no reason for ATI or nVidia to develop and produce new products. The game makers have consoles to fall back on and while the CPU makers might lose a chunk of their enthusiast market, every computer (gaming rig or not) still needs a CPU in it.
There has to be a way to eliminate or at least minimize PC game piracy folks. I think if something isn't done soon, then PC gaming is going to end up being something we read about in the history books instead of talking about in these forums. Lot's of people complained about Steam when it was first implemented and I suppose to a degree, some people still oppose it. And while Steam might prevent online gaming, it has done nothing to prevent offline play. From what I can tell, Steam is pretty darn effective at preventing pirated copies from playing online. I think that in order for PC gaming to surrvive, there has to be a Steam-like system in place for ALL games that authenticates your game each and every time you play it whether its single or multiplayer. This might be somewhat of a hassle for some people, but how many PC gamers do you know that don't have an Internet connection? If it takes that for PC gaming to live on then I'm all for it. Anyone that opposes it might as well head on down to Best Buy and pick up and Xbox or PS3 because I don't see any other way.
Here's one idea I came up with. Now don't get me wrong, I know very little about encryption, authentication, or anything like that. But logically it seems like this would work. This idea could easily apply to any game or game developer, but for this example I'll use Valve and Half-Life 3.
Ok, let's say Valve puts out HL3. The easiest way I see to make this work is with direct2drive type games, but I suppose with a little extra thought it could just as easily work with retail box games. It all involves the use of a security key to play the games. Here's how it would work:
Valve releases HL3 and allows customers to buy and download the game through Steam. After purchasing the game and before downloading it the customer is asked a series of security questions. The answers the customer provides to these security questions is what is used to encrypt that individual copy of the game. The game is encrpyted with the answers and the customer downloads the game.
Next, the decrytpion key is emailed to the customer. Without this key file the game cannot be installed or ran. Once placed on the user's computer a hardware profile much like Windows utilizes is used to profile that particular machine. This would prevent the key from being used on multiple machines. After being placed on the machine, the user is asked once again for the answers to his unique security questions for verification. Upon giving the correct answers the game is installed, and as long as that particular key is present on that particular machine the game will run normally. A reinstall of the game would require answering the security questions again, but after installation, the use of the security key and decryption would be transparent to the user.
In the event that the customer wants to move the game to another computer, they would simply return to the Valve website, login, correctly answer the security questions and a "fresh" key would be emailed to them. But what if you have 2 or 3 computers you want to install the game on? For a nominal fee, say 5 bucks per computer, you can purchase additonal keys that will allow you to install on additonal machines.
I don't see why something like this isn't possible. Is it a hassle? Yes. Would it be worth it to save PC gaming? ABSOLUTELY.
Just my $0.02
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