Any clue who is gonna be the European distributor?

[Blackdog_kt]

I agree with Revvin. The only people discouraged by DRM are the casual pirates and the legitimate customers.

Let's face it, DRM is a different piece of software running on top of your favorite gaming title. In many cases it wasn't integrated during development and even if it was (in the case of in-house developmebt by big studios), it's still not a custom made solution for a specific game.

It's either a case of a big company like Ubi or EA following a "one size fits all" approach for all their in-house developed titles, or in the worst case scenario a developer studio hooks up with a certain publisher who, a few months before release, demands that the DRM be tacked on in a hurry so that they don't miss the deadlines.

Of course it's going to cause all sorts of technical problems when it's done like that


The only prevention lies in the demographic of casual pirates and people who are somewhat "computer illiterate", they can't make an illegal copy work or they want participation in online ranking systems, so they fork over the cash for a legit copy, but these guys are the minority of the piracy problem.

So, since DRM is not any better at preventing piracy than the old copy protection systems (they get cracked pretty much immediately in any case), why do the companies waste money on researching, implementing and supporting (in some rare cases) it? Simply because it's not the hardcore pirates they're after, they know they can't force them to buy their titles. The return of investment they're betting on is not by means of forcing the pirates to buy but by stopping you, the legitimate user, from reselling or giving away your legacy purchased copy as a gift.

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by Blackdog_kt

I agree with Revvin. The only people discouraged by DRM are the casual pirates and the legitimate customers.

Let's face it, DRM is a different piece of software running on top of your favorite gaming title. In many cases it wasn't integrated during development and even if it was (in the case of in-house developmebt by big studios), it's still not a custom made solution for a specific game.

It's either a case of a big company like Ubi or EA following a "one size fits all" approach for all their in-house developed titles, or in the worst case scenario a developer studio hooks up with a certain publisher who, a few months before release, demands that the DRM be tacked on in a hurry so that they don't miss the deadlines.

Of course it's going to cause all sorts of technical problems when it's done like that


The only prevention lies in the demographic of casual pirates and people who are somewhat "computer illiterate", they can't make an illegal copy work or they want participation in online ranking systems, so they fork over the cash for a legit copy, but these guys are the minority of the piracy problem.

So, since DRM is not any better at preventing piracy than the old copy protection systems (they get cracked pretty much immediately in any case), why do the companies waste money on researching, implementing and supporting (in some rare cases) it? Simply because it's not the hardcore pirates they're after, they know they can't force them to buy their titles. The return of investment they're betting on is not by means of forcing the pirates to buy but by stopping you, the legitimate user, from reselling or giving away your legacy purchased copy as a gift.

You are assuming that because these are big corporations the DRM decisions are being made for informed rational reasons by intelligent pragmatic people.

This is almost certainly not the case.

[Flanker35M]

S!

How many copy protections have remained uncracked up to date? My bet: none. Go figure how usefull these DRM's are. I do NOT endorse piracy, I buy all my games as I want to see the collection grow

[Blackdog_kt]

Originally Posted by WTE_Galway

You are assuming that because these are big corporations the DRM decisions are being made for informed rational reasons by intelligent pragmatic people.

This is almost certainly not the case.

Actually, i'm not assuming anything. I know this is not the case, i just wanted to phrase the post in a "give some benefit of doubt" fashion to be impartial

My personal opinion on DRM is generally negative.

[nearmiss]

Anytime a thread progresses towards discussions of piracy and preventative measures the real pirates start jumping on. We have all read the usual verbiage = I'm not going to buy anything with software protection,etc.

There are plenty of people spewing and noising against protection from piracy methods. Yet, right now this instance on the torrent applications there are over 1 million thieves every hour of every day on every torrent application stealing software, music, videos and other media.

Anyone that thinks there isn't a problem with thieves is probably one of those million plus...

[philip.ed]

Ladies, ladies

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

Anytime a thread progresses towards discussions of piracy and preventative measures the real pirates start jumping on. We have all read the usual verbiage = I'm not going to buy anything with software protection,etc.

There are plenty of people spewing and noising against protection from piracy methods. Yet, right now this instance on the torrent applications there are over 1 million thieves every hour of every day on every torrent application stealing software, music, videos and other media.

Anyone that thinks there isn't a problem with thieves is probably one of those million plus...

I do not think anyone is arguing in favor of piracy. Its more a comment on the stupidity of some corporate reactions to the problem.

The real life equivalent of some recent DRM schemes would be opening a supermarket that required customers to go through the equivalent of airport style security and customs every time they entered or left the store in order to reduce pilferage in the snack aisles

By sheer coincidence one of the women at work only yesterday told me she decided not to buy a game for her children that we had been discussing because the shop attendant in the games store said "don't buy that one we get people bringing them back because you need to connect your kids computer to the internet before they can play".

It's not just crazy anti-DRM activists making idle threats about boycotting these titles it has a real effect on sales.

[nearmiss]

I wasn't pointing the finger at anyone.

I really don't care what Oleg does to protect SOW. I trust him to make choices that are good for all of us.(including his interests) He knows the issues, he's heard it all by now.

A thief is a thief if he only steals a penny or 10,000. Stealing media is stealing, even if it is faciliated by downloads, and poorly prosecuted as a crime.

I guess some us need Pinochio's best friend (a cricket) to remind us of doing right or wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgmfV5VLHvs

[WTE_Galway]

Originally Posted by nearmiss

I really don't care what Oleg does to protect SOW. I trust him to make choices that are good for all of us.

It is not really up to him. It is the distributors call.