Mass Effect PC: DRM'ed Alien Sex

[Jon Miller]

To be honest, if the game is too annoying (and even having a CD required to be in basically makes it too annoying) I am inclined to skip it or pirate it.

JM
(generally more often the former these days)

[Solver]

Originally posted by Verto

When the former equation is not greater than zero, and the latter is (or the former equation is less than the latter, and the latter is greater than zero), people will pirate. The game companies are able to affect this equation in several ways:

1. Lower/raise price.
2. Increase/decrease game utility (ie, better game)
3. Decrease/Increase DRM difficulties

Those are all, for the most part, flimsy excuses thrown around so people can dignify their piracy. Companies should LOWER the cost they charge for games, while development costs increase? A few gamers might decide to buy the game instead of pirate it, but at what price point?

The argument that making a better game would lower piracy is complete bull****. Producing ****ty games on the other hand might help, by lowering the incentive one has to play it, much less pirate it.

Increasing DRM is a losing, escalating war, as it will inevitably be cracked.

So it seems obvious to me that game companies should write off the PC completely and publish exclusively to consoles, specifically the Xbox 360, where piracy, cheating, etc is considerably lower.

What companies should do is provide games that, when bought legally, at least match their pirated counterparts in quality. Really. Buying games is an act of support towards the developers and publishers, like it or not. I generally have no problem if the game only has some mild annoyance, like requiring the CD to play. I may occasionally circumvent that or I may not - anyhow, it's something I can deal with. Ideally, the legal game is actually notably superior to the pirated counterpart quality-wise (example: Stardock games).

The problem with heavy DRM is actually just that it discourages legal purchases. People who buy the game legally will rightly feel pissed if they have to cope with some rather major annoyances. SecuROM can be annoying itself, but if you throw in additional stuff such as freaking disabling the game if your network connection goes down, or having games that you can only play on computers connected to the Net, well, you are really providing a product more annoying than what pirates offer.

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Verto

When the former equation is not greater than zero, and the latter is (or the former equation is less than the latter, and the latter is greater than zero), people will pirate. The game companies are able to affect this equation in several ways:

1. Lower/raise price.
2. Increase/decrease game utility (ie, better game)
3. Decrease/Increase DRM difficulties

Those are all, for the most part, flimsy excuses thrown around so people can dignify their piracy. Companies should LOWER the cost they charge for games, while development costs increase? A few gamers might decide to buy the game instead of pirate it, but at what price point?

The argument that making a better game would lower piracy is complete bull****. Producing ****ty games on the other hand might help, by lowering the incentive one has to play it, much less pirate it.

Increasing DRM is a losing, escalating war, as it will inevitably be cracked.

So it seems obvious to me that game companies should write off the PC completely and publish exclusively to consoles, specifically the Xbox 360, where piracy, cheating, etc is considerably lower.

No, those are simple economic calculations. Everyone - including you and I, who both presumably are on the far end of this - has a 'cost' associated with committing illegal acts, that we weigh against the benefit from doing them. Some have a low cost, some high; for me, the (moral) cost to pirating a game is (much) higher than the enjoyment value of the game, so I don't pirate (and is in any event higher than the $50 cost).

However, it is a simple fact that for the population as a whole, there is a utility curve that describes this decision, with a dividing line between (utility > 0 and > purchasing) and (utility < 0 or < purchasing). People on one side will pirate and on the other side won't.

Note that I'm not suggesting that this makes it 'better' to pirate, or in any way excuses the piracy. I am not looking at this from the user's point of view at all; this is solely from the producer's point of view. It is basic economics; certainly there could be other factors, but those are the three I think are fundamental to this decision.

I am also not suggesting primarily that 'making a better game would reduce piracy'. I am suggesting that making a better game would improve sales, which should be the sole focus of the producer. Piracy itself does not cost anything, except in that some of the pirates could be sales; so certainly if you can convert pirates to sales that's great, but if you sell 1,000,000 copies of a game and have 200,000,000 copies pirated, you make the same as if you sell 1,000,000 copies and have 0 pirated. Sales and profit MUST be the sole focus of the rationally acting public company.

The way in which increasing game experience does affect piracy, however, is that the 'piracy utility' can change with this. People often will feel 'morally justified' in pirating a game that is not that good, because they just want to test it out or somesuch; but games that they actually play for a long time they will buy.

My main point was that of those three items (price, game experience, DRM), only one really gives a strong affect on the decision to pirate while not reducing profit: DRM. Unless you can truly protect a game, DRM doesn't increase sales; it only decreases sales. Therefore, reducing DRM to the point that it doesn't bother people will increase sales, and is a rational decision.

[Standup]

Well I still haven't got Bioshock to work which meant my initial frustration with the DRM makes it seem the easy bit.

My main concern about this method is that it assumes that all gamers are connected to the net or even have broadband. In the UK broadband take up is about 55% but its still not an option in some areas. So not only do I have to not got on holiday or have a break from playing the game some gamers may have to pay a regular (if small) charge. And if its the same as Bioshock I'll probably have turn off my firewall.

This sort of complexity in DRM just makes me more tempted to pirate it - something I haven't done since my Spectrum days.

[DaShi]

At least get the crack to play the game you bought.

[Apocalypse]

We won!

BioWare producer Derek French recently caused an uproar after announcing that copy protection on Mass Effect PC and Spore would require online validation every 10 days in order for the games to continue functioning.

In the face of increasing pressure, BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts today relented, updating its official FAQ to note that validation will now only be required when the player downloads new game content.

Q: If the game isn't going to require an authentication every 10 days, will it ever require re-authentication?

A: Only if the player chooses to download new game content.

[snoopy369]

[asleepathewheel]

so more of a stardock style with authentication for patches?

[snoopy369]

Nice

Means I guess i'll get it right off the bat after all Might as well buy the DVD version I suppose, since it doesn't look to be at D2D, and EA's version of direct downloading is annoying...

[Kuciwalker]

[DaShi]

Hurrays!

[DrSpike]

Obviously everyone here is so scarred by the experience they are going to download it anyway.

[FrostyBoy]

What boggles my mind is why they didn't think of that in the first place? Why did they opt for the worst solution they could think up?

[Heraclitus]

I personally think it was a purpose scare so that we are all happy that they rolled back to "just" what we have now.

[Apocalypse]

Well I am alright with their current setup. Not happy. It was just that the old one was completely unworkable. That was the problem. It wasn't that people might be unhappy with what they will use, it is that many people like me just would not be able to play with the original plan.