Simcity

[snoopy369]

It almost seems like requiring always-online DRM for a traditionally single-player game is a suboptimal decision.

[Wiglaf]

It's very easy to say that until you see the game you worked on for 5+years being stolen for free by hundreds of thousands of people.

[snoopy369]

You're talking to the wrong people then, Wiglaf. Guynemer is one of the most anti-piracy folks on the site, and I'm up there as well. That doesn't mean DRM that impinges on the experience of paying customers is the answer.

If I'd worked for 5 years on a game and saw it stolen, I'd be sad; but if I got handed a six digit paycheck as a result of huge sales, I think I'd get over it quickly.

[Wiglaf]

That doesn't mean DRM that impinges on the experience of paying customers is the answer.

Then what is? This is the best solution available. It's the most effective. No one is forcing you to buy the game, or preventing you from getting a refund if you do if it doesn't work.

[kentonio]

If I'd worked for 5 years on a game and saw it stolen, I'd be sad; but if I got handed a six digit paycheck as a result of huge sales, I think I'd get over it quickly.

Why would you get a six digit bonus?

[snoopy369]

Then what is? This is the best solution available. It's the most effective. No one is forcing you to buy the game, or preventing you from getting a refund if you do if it doesn't work.

No DRM is better than DRM that interferes with the ability of a paying customer to play, because it means paying customers will not pay. The happy medium is something like Steam, that is largely unobtrusive and makes it somewhat challenging to pirate a game. It's not that different from retail stores. If you lock all of your product behind glass doors, you lose a lot of sales since someone has to call a salesman over to unlock the door. So most of the time they just stick a little tag on the item that makes the alarm go off; sure, some people will still steal, but the barrier is sufficient to prevent casual theft. That's exactly how retail Loss Prevention psychology works, and in general it is sufficient.

Why would you get a six digit bonus?

Well, either you're someone who gets paid based on sales, or you don't care about piracy (in a fiscal way). One of the two...

[Wiglaf]

Steam does nothing to make piracy challenging. It never really did, but it's especially useless now. The vast majority of games on Steam are ****ty ports and crappy indie games for a reason. Hell even XCOM was a console port.

[kentonio]

Well, either you're someone who gets paid based on sales, or you don't care about piracy (in a fiscal way). One of the two...

Not that true actually. Very few devs below exec level get paid directly based on sales, but it's still very annoying when you see your games pirated. There's also the threat of too much piracy causing studios to close of course, so that's always a worry. I'm still much more a fan of trying to offer a great experience and winning over fans that way though, rather than trying archaic anti-piracy measures.

[kentonio]

Well, either you're someone who gets paid based on sales, or you don't care about piracy (in a fiscal way). One of the two...

Not that true actually. Very few devs below exec level get paid directly based on sales, but it's still very annoying when you see your games pirated. There's also the threat of too much piracy causing studios to close of course, so that's always a worry. I'm still much more a fan of trying to offer a great experience and winning over fans that way though, rather than trying archaic anti-piracy measures.

[Sava]

They could have taken the mechanics of Simcity 4 RH with the transportation mods, given it pretty graphics and curvy roads and I would have been happy.

[Wiglaf]

Intelligent people do not care about shiny graphics.

[snoopy369]

Steam does nothing to make piracy challenging. It never really did, but it's especially useless now. The vast majority of games on Steam are ****ty ports and crappy indie games for a reason. Hell even XCOM was a console port.

What? Most major games are on Steam nowadays. Origin is EA's attempt at replicating Steam, which is a pile of garbage. The vast majority of games _period_ are ****ty ports, because the industry goes for that nowadays. There are still plenty of legitimate good games on Steam.

Steam doesn't make it _really hard_, certainly; but it raises an important barrier, forcing people who want to pirate to turn to illegal websites and such. That's all that is needed to prevent most piracy from potential purchasers, particularly in the US. You don't have to prevent all of it - prevent 90%, at a very low cost and a very low barrier to legitimate purchasers, and you do well monetarily. Preventing that last 5-10% will likely cost more than it will save you (both in expense, and in lost sales).

[snoopy369]

Intelligent people do not care about shiny graphics.

Still playing your text based adventure then?

[Sava]

Intelligent people do not care about shiny graphics.

ITSW FUNNIER WHEN YOUR REPSONDE IN ALL CAPS AND OTHERIWSE IT SEEMS LIKE YOU DONT CARE ENOUGH TO INMSULTS ME

[Hauldren Collider]

They could have taken the mechanics of Simcity 4 RH with the transportation mods, given it pretty graphics and curvy roads and I would have been happy.

QFT. This is similatlr to how I feel about Civ5.