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Posted By Leon Thomas about 1 year, 9 months ago
We won’t take this lying down.
In this week’s episode, Leon Thomas takes on digital rights management and the increasing control that companies have over the games we own.
Follow Leon Thomas on Twitter at @heartofgaming
The official website can be found at HeartofGaming.com
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This is prob one of the best eps yet!
The DRM thing will not go away just if you do not buy the software/Game…It is a result of overextended copyright laws that have been common in the western world in recent decades. These laws although originally where made to motivate creators to make more original content are now extended beyond their intent. Now they are just there to defend the publisher’s profit , while the creator himself taking just a fraction of his creation’s reward and on the same time the user rights are violated to ensure publisher’s profit…If you want this to change then demand a renewal of the copyright laws…That is the only solution.
There are many organization working for that, that one can support with FSF being the most known.
Steam has the most reasonable DRM ever. If only we could get everyone to follow their model.
Not long ago I was re-watching Robocop 3; the movie is bashed by critics because of many things,( SPOILER ALERT) one of them being the unreal modos-operandi of the Industrial Company OCP, witch is to forcefully vacate people from their homes to build a brand new city without the consensus of their occupants or any branch of the government (END SPOILER).
People watched that sort of thing in 1993 and thought it to be science fiction, our rights as people would never sink so low; and now this happens.
Everything Leon said was news to me, my mind immediately drew a comparison with this two situations… I have no words for what I’m feeling right now.
I am not buying games anymore from EA, UBisoft, Activision and probably won’t buy anything from ID software.
I am a gamer, I always gamed. But the Bullshit those companies bring upon me isn’t something I take. My heart weeps cause I wann buy but don’t.
I am asking the question, if the publisher can afford to loose customers, because DRM and other bullshit, while using DRM doesn’t bring any positive effects and costs a shitload of money.
DRM is a loose loose situation for customer and publisher. The only winning one is the DRM programmer.
I can’t get into my head, why they think this fucking shit works.
You know, I LOVE pirates. Why? They make everything easier, and work for the users. I bought Morrowind NEW with my own money. I couldn’t get it to work on my fancy new computer. So I went onto piratebay, downloaded a torrent, and presto! Works like a charm. Same with Half-Life. I have all the games and CDs, but I’ve long ago lost the CD keys. A simple crack and I can play all my old games THAT I PAID FOR without a problem.
Great episode as always Leon. I agree with you completely on this, just because some people steal/pirate games doesnt mean we should all be treated like criminals. Yeah the more they try and restrict how we play ARE games then the more people are gona retaliate by hacking the games, its not a privilege to play something you own its a right
Seriously the hell? I bought one game from a russian developer which had 3 installs. I thought it was just russians screwing up but now i hear that there is more crap like this? That is pretty much a giant glowing neon sighn “PIRATE THE FUCK OUT OF THIS GAME!”
What I really don’t like is the “pirates are supposed to pirate” thingy. “You can’t blame pirates for pirating, I expect them to pirate”
I’m sorry, is this a respected full time job nowadays? No, you blame people of piracy because it’s a crime.
Yes, there will allways be pirates and they will do what they do. It’s still illegal though.
If a pirate wouldn’t pirate, wouldn’t that mean they’re no longer a pirate?
Exactly. And what are pirates? People that pirate.
So you can’t blame people for pirating…….wha?
It’s like “you can’t blame a murder for murdering” – it’s just wierd and wrong. Being a criminal is not a job or an excuse for doing illegal things.
Of course you expect a criminal to do illegal things, But can you blame them? erm…yes? 0o
I meant murderer of course -.-
If right is wrong than wrong is right…PIRATES!!!!!
The point he was making is that it is to be expected that the pirates will pirate. If 8-bit Mickey lived by a petting zoo, you shouldn’t be surprised when he starts f#cking the goats. He’s not saying “goat f#cking” is right, but the companies shouldn’t force everyone that likes animals to wear a chastity belt.
At no point in the episode did I justify or excuse piracy. I even said “I’m not trying to justify piracy.”
When I said that I don’t blame pirates, I clearly meant that I don’t blame the pirates for DRM. I blame pirates for piracy because that’s what pirates do. Pirates pirate. I blame the game companies for DRM. That’s what the episode is about. DRM and used games. This episode isn’t a pro-piracy speech. If you want that, go look up Geohot. This episode isn’t an anti-piracy speech either. If you want that, go look up Jim Sterling. As I said in the episode, I don’t care to make an argument for or against copyright infringement, and that is why the morality of piracy was never broached. This episode is not about pirates against software. It’s about game companies against their own fans, a fight that never should have happened.
When the topic of DRM comes up, some people stalwartly defend the game companies for their practices, saying “It’s not their fault that they are making us rent games at full price! We must only blame the pirates!” I find that to be flawed reasoning. Regardless of *why* someone or something is reacting, they are still accountable for their reaction, and in the case of DRM, their reaction is rotten.
Yes that is an extremely irritating trend.
There is no middlefinger big enough for DRM apologists.
As for the lovely “second hand games = piracy” crowd, when developers first coughed that pearl of wisdom up, people were laughing at how ridiculous it is but it only goes to show that some people somewhere will gobble anything up and parrot it.
I know a number of people that work for reputable, if not industry leader developers. Not all of them publish their own games, and not all of them endorse DRM. By and large though, they all agree that shit rolls downhill. What I mean by that is, that there is never a situation where a publisher decides that poor sales of a game mean there was more they could have done; it means the developer fucked up, and they should close down. Loss of sales on a game makes more sense to executives that a certain company screwed a game up, and it’s better for them to close a developer down and acquire a new one than it is to actually examine what business practices caused a game to crash. You get to keep the license, your salary, and somebody falls hard for the poor sales; it’s why a lot of developers, against their desires, put publisher “recommended” DRM into titles… because to do otherwise is to invite taking blame, and losing your job because you made yourself an easy target.
Similarly, they all agree that the used game market damages the industry. While gamers can easily be divided into three categories of people (those that WILL spend money on your game, those that MIGHT spend money on your game, and those that WON’T spend money on your game), the used game market is taking a bite out of BOTH profitable sections of that market division. It is a rare pirate that spends their time walking into stores looking for something to buy, while other customers will enter with money to spend, and the eagerness to spend it. If that “maybe money” goes to buying used games, the publishers never see a dime of it, and again that shit rolls downhill.
When dealing in a creative medium, it’s never particularly easy to discern what’s going to be a successful formula, and what won’t. People spend years of their lives pouring efforts into games, and when things usually come out, those on top get protected, because they usually knew a guy who got them the position in the first place. Your regular artist, programmer, IT jockey usually bear the brunt of those sales… EA won’t go out of business because they’re being dicks about their DRM… a guy who WORKS for EA will go out of the business. Second hand games DO play a part in that… they bring all the money of the “maybe” customer right into the hands of the retailer, rather than the dev/pub.
That said, I agree with all the piracy talk. They will do what they do… there’s nothing any marketing/coder/executive can do to change that.
Both subjects are just a result of developers going slowly crazy.
DRM is the developers way to try and gain back money they will never get in the first place. Chances are a pirate rather not buy a game if they can’t pirate it because A) They don’t have the cash to pay or B)They are not interested enough to pay for it. Developers think its the other way around,, that pirates really want their games for free and are willing to do anything for it. They think if it is un-crackable they will break down and pay (I don’t know why). They can’t let go of a product for free, at least without some sort of “fight” (which is only with their paying customers in the end).
The Card system is at least a bit saner as a concept. The reasoning for them is incentive to buy new rather then used. But unlike you I think the system could work if they do it right. (i.e incentive to buy new not locking out content). Mass Effect 2 had the card, but it gave customers content released later. You get they full game used, but also get more for buying new. Home Front did the other type, limiting leveling in multi-player. But at least they didn’t lock you out of Multi completely, the same con not be said of some of the harsher DRM. In the end its a way to get some money away from Game Stop’s used sales and into their hands. I can’t blame them too much either, GS makes tons selling used games and all of its is profit. I’d go a little crazy too, but they will probably take it too far sooner or later.
As for the one save slot, is their not way to delete the save? When I buy a used game with one save I delete it and start fresh. Can you not delete? Also why do you need a save on a Pac-man/Galiga game?
I’ll try to go even further, not buying the game will not stop stop DRM and all the other ankle straps around our already chained to the wall legs. If sells are coming to a near stop developers will blame the hackers and things might even get worse.
We must let our voice heard even more, to politicians and costumer rights groups. Both think most of the time that the complains they DO get about this are pimpled 15 year old . So for the politicians there are no votes to win so why should he care and the costumer rights groups don’t see a problem the size of Godzilla unless large groups of people complain about it in a short amount of time .
If the group that openly complain about this is getting larger and people see it is those hard working economy providing 30 year olds that are screaming the word , politicians see the potential votes and will try to do something about it, costumer right groups can be effective (at least they have been here in the netherlands) and for the country there fighting the fight they might find a subnote in a law that bans a piece of DRM. That might be just for that country but it is a small beginning.
The problem is that we don’t speak our mind out loud, we never do. We just jell at our computer screen or some anonymous forum or website at most. The developers, anti hacker groups, anti sex and violence groups ect ect. Are the ones that DO speak there mind at loud and because WE hardly go against that in they open, our gaming lives, our once so save and free world will get worse and worse until in the end you will pay full price for a game that you are only allowed the max amount of hours they think you need to complete the game.
I do the same thing, I am a mindless zombie to and I let my self be fooled over and over again just like the rest of us. But it just might be time to awake together with some other gamers and let our voice be heard.
I got a simple solution. Don’t buy it then. Really, this is the only way the companies will ever listen. If it has shitty DRM added to a game then don’t buy it. Yes even if it’s a great AAA title, this will only show that we will not take this crap, but sadly people will just be sheep and just but it and then complain and not do anything about it.
Just dont support any tittle that has these awful implementations. If these developers are going to do this then show them that we don’t want this. It’s entertainment no one is forcing you to buy anything, even if it is an amazing tittle. Just stop buying these games and show these companies that we wont take this shit anymore and when these huge AAA tittles fail and loose everything they invested into the game maybe then they will realize that it was wrong to do this and maybe just maybe wont do this again.
I don’t really think it’s that simple. It’s not often that before a game comes out that they will advertize or even quietly announce that their game will have DRM or some other bullshit. By the time you actually know about the DRM either you have already bought the game, or millions of others have.