Hard Light Productions Forums
Off-Topic Discussion => Gaming Discussion => Topic started by: FlamingCobra on November 26, 2011, 12:22:36 pm
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If video game companies want to stop piracy, why not just use disc technology that the public doesn't have access to? They don't even make HD DVDs anymore. Why not go with that?
There's probably a really simple answer to this question, but I just don't know what it is.
HVDs would be even better, but they'd be prohibitively expensive. But you could get some damnnnnnnnnn good graphics with those. On the other hand, you could go with regular graphics and make a really game. But it'd be goddamn expensive.
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...because if the discs can't be read by existing hardware, then people won't buy them at all.
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If video game companies want to stop piracy, why not just use disc technology that the public doesn't have access to? They don't even make HD DVDs anymore. Why not go with that?
There's probably a really simple answer to this question, but I just don't know what it is.
Didn't work for the Dreamcast, won't work for anyone else.
HVDs would be even better, but they'd be prohibitively expensive. But you could get some damnnnnnnnnn good graphics with those. On the other hand, you could go with regular graphics and make a really game. But it'd be goddamn expensive.
.... :banghead:
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there are only 2 sure fire ways to stop piracy.
1. stop charging for games
2. remove theft from the law books
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If video game companies want to stop piracy, why not just use disc technology that the public doesn't have access to? They don't even make HD DVDs anymore. Why not go with that?
There's probably a really simple answer to this question, but I just don't know what it is.
HVDs would be even better, but they'd be prohibitively expensive. But you could get some damnnnnnnnnn good graphics with those. On the other hand, you could go with regular graphics and make a really game. But it'd be goddamn expensive.
I'm sorry, but only someone who has literally no clue whatsoever could post something like that.
Here's the problem with all DRM schemes: At some point, they have to give the customer access to the encrypted content. Meaning that the content will be accessible. If you have DRM'ed music, you can grab the audio via an analog recording device, for example. Games need to be decrypted before they can be played, given that decryption takes an amount of time you simply do not have when rendering a frame every 30 milliseconds.
That said, there are DRM schemes that are more effective than others, Steam for example is the best one currently available. That's not because it's hard to break (it isn't), but because Steam offers an easy way to turn my money into games, while adding a few services on top (Cloud saving of savegames, cross-game instant messaging, easy multiplayer setup).
In closing, I would say that as long as there are people who do not want to pay for something, there will always be piracy.
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In closing, I would say that as long as there are people who do not want to pay for something, there will always be piracy.
This is exactly the point. And to make it even worse, all the DRM and copy protections are getting so evil, that they pain honest buyers, while people who wanted to pirate games in the first place doesn't affect, because they, well, go pirate it. But those silly DRM's drive even more people to piracy.
Theoretically, all DRM measurements can be seized completly. Honest buyers will continue to buy, but will not face problems with DRM anymore, while thiefs will steal further. The thievery can't be stopped, you can only try not to scare to many honest people away.
BTW, remember the good old days, when a copy protection consists of fat handbooks with code layouts ? Like the ones in Zak Mc Cracken ? Of course, today that wouldn't work either, because it can be easily duplicated today. Everyone has a scanner and Internet, but the days back, not everyone had a copy machine :D
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BTW, remember the good old days, when a copy protection consists of fat handbooks with code layouts ? Like the ones in Zak Mc Cracken ? Of course, today that wouldn't work either, because it can be easily duplicated today. Everyone has a scanner and Internet, but the days back, not everyone had a copy machine :D
I must've been extremely well-off. :nervous:
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Publishers decisions on DRM really bug me
I have a drm scheme for sale, not only is it just as ineffective as other drm schemes but it is also cheaper
and yet publishers will not license it
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I must've been extremely well-off. :nervous:
Pretty much :D I played that game on my first PC, it was a X386 sx 25..... something about 20 years back in the past (man, I'm grown shocking old :lol: ) Every handy today is much superior than this thing.
But regarding DRM, i see no sense in it at all. The hackergroups "skidrow" and "reloaded" and what else are doing tournaments who cracks games faster. Each new game, no matter how good the DRM is that is praised, will be available for download within latest 24 hours.
Also look at steam. Didn't it just start as some DRM system that FORCES players to use it ? Seriously, 90% of the Steam Users are forced to use it still. Just because it's now grown to an online shop doesn't makes it better. Look at skyrim. The first Exe allowed to game to start it without Steam. Now it has been patched out extremly fast, so that people are forced to start over steam again. Luckily, I saved my original exe. But latest with the new patch, I will be forced to use Steam again. And I hate it being forced to do something, I don't want, in order to play something that I want. :hopping:
Same goes for the new "Spysoftware" that EA Games is now using. It's just another reason, that makes you think to start pirating stuff. All this stuff is totally pointless. :banghead:
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there are only 2 sure fire ways to stop piracy.
1. stop charging for games
2. remove theft from the law books
I'ma go with something closer to #2; intellectual property law has gotten ridiculous, and ought to be re-written from scratch. As I see it, here's how it should be:
- Protection against plagiarism. I mean willful misrepresentation of the origin of a creative work, not trivial stuff like forgetting to cite a source. Get an injunction, maybe a fine.
- If somebody sells your work (with attribution), you would be at most entitled to how much profit they made.
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...because if the discs can't be read by existing hardware, then people won't buy them at all.
I was talking about next generation console hardware.
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Console piracy simply isn't a high priority for the manufacturers. If was "20 pirated copies for every purchased copy" like you'll encounter on some PC titles, it would be a higher priority - but it's just not.
Absorbing the extra costs involved in using non-standard media thus doesn't make a lot of economic sense. Too many extra production costs, and if you allow hard drive installs (necessary for downloadable full games) the media becomes totally irrelevant anyway.
Then you factor in the possibility of using technological means of piracy control that would also impair the second hand market, and it makes no sense to try to stop piracy in that manner. Poor return on investment. Much much better to focus on downloadable full versions and use technological means to protect that. That way the console makers don't spend extra money on manufacturing, plus they get the share of profit that used to go to retailers, plus they get to remove the second hand market as a competitor.
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...because if the discs can't be read by existing hardware, then people won't buy them at all.
I was talking about next generation console hardware.
Again you are showing your cluelessness. Console piracy simply isn't that much of a problem, because console hardware is pretty well locked down. Just look at all the trouble people have to go through in order to pirate PS3 games; given that modern consoles (excluding the Wii) are rather expensive things, it's not like there's a high incentive to mess with your hardware. Not to mention that hacked consoles can and will be bricked remotely, which means that you will lose some functionality if you do do a hardware hack.
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One would think it would be much better to focus on other revenue models, such as micro transactions and ads, than it is to focus on anti-piracy measures.
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Except that microtransactions and ingame advertisement are pretty annoying by themselves. Avoiding the "Free to play, pay to win" model is rather hard, while the revenue from ingame ads is pretty small.
In the end, I think the only thing that can work is for the game publishers to stop making live harder for people who legitimately buy products, while stopping to worry about piracy so much. I mean, CD Projekt are doing pretty well with their "No DRM" approach.
But then, at the heart of the matter is the failure of game publishers (not game developers, necessarily) to understand the modern marketplace. While they have adapted better than, say, the movie and music industries, there's still executives around who think that the clock can be turned back to the early 1990s, where piracy was something that happened via word-of-mouth and discs sent around via snail mail.
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Yeah, but those models are still in their infancy, hence why they are still in their annoying phase.
For example, movies are just starting to get the hang of it, managing product placement without you even realizing it, so why can't games do non intrusive ads? It's a matter of experience.
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Game publishers need to come to the realization that pricing is always going to factor into piracy. You can classify game consumers in three categories:
1. People who will always pay for the game because of the legality and their morality.
2. Pragmatists, who will generally pay for something if convenient for them and they are convinced it is both the best and easiest course available, and
3. Pirates - those who will virtually always pirate software except in very specific circumstances.
Groups 1 and 2 are much larger than group 3. Right now, most publishers implement DRM to stop group 3 and more-or-less ignore groups 1 (who they know will always pay), and 2 (who they figure are really just group 3 members in disguise).
Thing is, 2 is the largest group of the bunch. Publishers piss off people who would otherwise buy their games through outrageous pricing and draconian DRM. Why should we pay large amounts of our disposable income, Group 2 asks, for your software when you make us jump through hoops and put up with terrible DRM, but we can get games WITHOUT the hoops, DRM, or cost simply by pirating your software?
Game publishers don't get that... or most don't. I suspect the sad fact is how many people making the decisions concerning DRM don't have technical understanding of how ineffective it is (given that every major release is cracked within 24 hrs of release), and don't understand their behaviour is actively encouraging piracy.
Valve is one of the brighter publishers with Steam, as they've turned their DRM scheme into a content-delivery, social networking, and multi-game platform. EA is stepping into the game with their new platform. Steam has shown that many people are willing to put up with mildly intrusive DRM if there is a net benefit to the service. Other publishers would do well to learn that lesson. Valve has also shown that you can reduce the price point of games on your content-system and actually increase your profits because of the effect that has on sales (Robin Walker gave a good presentation on that subject when talking about why Steam runs such massive and frequent sales a few years back. This is partially why TF2 still has such an enormous online following, which was bolstered even more by making it free to play).
Piracy is not something that will ever be 100% preventable, but publishers could make it irrelevant by targeting their marketing and technical limits to Group 2, instead of focusing on hardened pirates, against whom their efforts are usually ineffective anyway.
TL;DR: The solution to piracy is innovation in marketing and public relations, not technical counter-piracy measures.
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You missed a few groups really (subsets of group 3 you could argue but not really truly so);
Those that refuse to pay full price and pirate waiting for reasonable price drops to buy the game later.
Those that pirate the games to try them out and buy the ones they enjoy/play a fair amount/wish to see more of.
The latter in my experience, spends more on games, and more on different kinds of games than the others.
I certainly bounce between groups depending on my disposable income, I generally tend to be in group 2, I'd certainly be in that group a bit more often if games weren't more than triple the price they were when I started gaming.
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You missed a few groups really (subsets of group 3 you could argue but not really truly so);
Those that refuse to pay full price and pirate waiting for reasonable price drops to buy the game later.
Those that pirate the games to try them out and buy the ones they enjoy/play a fair amount/wish to see more of.
I'd say the two groups you named are part of group 2 - pragmatists influenced by price and convenience. What you've named is their rationale for basing their decisions on price and convenience. Three groups covers it all - the strictly-legal payers, the strict pirates, and everyone else. The trouble is that game publishers (and the music and movie industries) have this false belief that there isn't an 'everyone else', and if you aren't a strict payer then you are always a pirate, which obviously isn't the case.
The only reason I belong to group 1 and don't vote with the combined power of my wallet and a BitTorrent client is the legality aspect. In my profession, less-than-legal behaviour is frowned upon, but that doesn't mean I support the bull**** that publishers do to consumers and I do find other ways to express my displeasure. There are a fair number of gamers out there like me, too, but "everyone else" is still the largest bunch, and if pissed off enough they will wreak havoc on title sales and publishers. Look at what happened during the StarForce debacle with UbiSoft.
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Yeah, but those models are still in their infancy, hence why they are still in their annoying phase.
For example, movies are just starting to get the hang of it, managing product placement without you even realizing it, so why can't games do non intrusive ads? It's a matter of experience.
product placement in movies ruins the immersion, id hate to see what it does in games. i could see you warping in at the beginning of into the lions den, diving and hitting your burners only to see a floating space billboard with a penis enlargement ad. no thank you. it might work in some games, like racing and sports games, where you would normally see a bunch of fake ads anyway. place a modern add in a futuristic sci-fi game, i dont think that would work very well.
games are rather large these days, and im capped at 20 gigs a month. so for the most part pirating games is not an option for me. likewise neither do services like steam do me any good. i also prefer to have some kind of media that says i own this game. though these days i have doubts of being able to play some of the newer games in the long term. i often pull out a game i haven't played in 10 years and give it a spin, sometimes they work, and sometimes they dont because of forward compatibility issues. but id hate to see games not work because the publisher decided to decommission the activation server. i kinda a game should become public domain the second the publisher decides to stop supporting it.
there are only 2 sure fire ways to stop piracy.
1. stop charging for games
2. remove theft from the law books
I'ma go with something closer to #2; intellectual property law has gotten ridiculous, and ought to be re-written from scratch. As I see it, here's how it should be:
- Protection against plagiarism. I mean willful misrepresentation of the origin of a creative work, not trivial stuff like forgetting to cite a source. Get an injunction, maybe a fine.
- If somebody sells your work (with attribution), you would be at most entitled to how much profit they made.
this. the only kind of piracy you need to stop is that done by organized crime. busting poor kids downloading games aint going to do anything, and adding drm will just **** your customer base. im none too happy with the way corporations have been pissing all over their customers as of late. and while i dont pirate anymore do to the size of the games, i do give salute to the hackers and pirates that do, because someone has to **** back.
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If I recall correctly, HD DVD was the antithesis to Bluray
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The answers to this thread are very well thought out. And yet I can't help but sense a tone of exasperation in them. Just how often does a thread like this pop up? And also, how long until someone pops up saying: "U R DIFENDIN' PIRAETS SO U R PIRAT 2!" or something along those lines.
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U R DIFENDIN' PIRAETS SO U R PIRAT 2!
You're welcome.
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The answers to this thread are very well thought out. And yet I can't help but sense a tone of exasperation in them. Just how often does a thread like this pop up? And also, how long until someone pops up saying: "U R DIFENDIN' PIRAETS SO U R PIRAT 2!" or something along those lines.
The exasperation has little to do with the subject matter.
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It's a result of the bad experience that certainly most people already had with DRM stuff.
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I really like the "try now, buy later" approach. That should be taken more often.
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I really like the "try now, buy later" approach. That should be taken more often.
its called shareware, i see your too young to possibly remember that.
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Or Demos, which are increasingly rare.
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omg Doom, wolfenstine 3d, One Must Fall 2097, capture the flag. The early 90s was loaded with them and its where the cover disk started :)
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I really like the "try now, buy later" approach. That should be taken more often.
its called shareware, i see your too young to possibly remember that.
winrar says hello.
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I really like the "try now, buy later" approach. That should be taken more often.
its called shareware, i see your too young to possibly remember that.
winrar says hello.
No console games are shareware. I meant for this topic to be about console games.
If I recall correctly, HD DVD was the antithesis to Bluray
Actually, HD DVD and Bluray operated on the same basic principle. They competed with each other but used the same technology.
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I meant for this topic to be about console games.
This is HLP. Your topic will drift into areas more suitable for discussion. Get used to it.
Besides, as has been pointed out, Consoles are not where the big piracy problem is. It's PC gaming that gets affected by it the most, so PC gaming is what we're discussing.
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I meant for this topic to be about console games.
This is HLP the internet. Your topic will drift into areas more suitable for discussion. Get used to it.
Besides, as has been pointed out, Consoles are not where the big piracy problem is. It's PC gaming that gets affected by it the most, so PC gaming is what we're discussing.
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which is why many UK game shop will only give you credit rather than money on PC game purchases if they accept them at all
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A question to the o.p
as a console owner what exactly would you hope to gain from zero piracy on the console ?
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Do note that piracy on the PS3 is practically nonexistant.
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Do note that piracy on the PS3 is practically nonexistant.
At least partly due to the shear cost of Bluray disks and burners. I cant imagine HD-DVD being much fun to play with either.
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a $1 BD disk is still cheaper than a $60 game. for those that have a BD burner anyway at least.
which is why many UK game shop will only give you credit rather than money on PC game purchases if they accept them at all
in the US software, music and movie purchases are exchange defective copy only, no store credit option at all. i think that might even be a law. i lay partial blame on this for the decline in quality of PC games. demos are a rare thing these days. if you want to try it, you have to buy it. if it sucks, too bad your money is gone.
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Dude, GameStop. It may not be the best deal, but it's better than no deal.
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Dude, GameStop. It may not be the best deal, but it's better than no deal.
Or even BlockBuster, you can rent a game for a week for waaaay under $60.
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i just stick to games from developers that usually produce good ****.
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Due to the fact that I don't download games from the net (and rarely buy any), I've been abusing the hell out of a majority of the Megadrive and Snes releases. So far I have made Megaman X (1-3), Chrono, Ryu & Co, all the Gundams from 'Wing' and Andross my *****es in the last six months. Why settle for expensive (or illegal) mediocrity, when I have all the great classics at my fingertips?
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Dude, GameStop. It may not be the best deal, but it's better than no deal.
last i checked they don't take PC games. granted i haven't checked in a long time because they are such a ripoff. is blockbuster even still around? if so, probably won't be for much longer. there haven't been any near me for a LONG time. even so, renting is only for consoles.
i just stick to games from developers that usually produce good ****.
even that doesn't work anymore. even a lot of the traditionally great developers are starting to put out unimaginative or wasted potential crap. why waste time making a masterpiece of a game when CoD clones and console ports sell better anyway?
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I'm type 2.
And I do 90% of my game shopping from GamersGate.
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Dude, GameStop. It may not be the best deal, but it's better than no deal.
last i checked they don't take PC games. granted i haven't checked in a long time because they are such a ripoff. is blockbuster even still around? if so, probably won't be for much longer. there haven't been any near me for a LONG time. even so, renting is only for consoles.
i just stick to games from developers that usually produce good ****.
even that doesn't work anymore. even a lot of the traditionally great developers are starting to put out unimaginative or wasted potential crap. why waste time making a masterpiece of a game when CoD clones and console ports sell better anyway?
Is it just me, or did some of the most creative (and sequel-less) games come out for the nintendo 64/ps1 and then creativity started to decline with every subsequent console because developers figured out what sells?
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It's just you.
Any old timer would tell you either about the SNES/Mega Drive, Amiga, Spectrum, stone tablets, whatever...
It's a similar phenomenon to "ARGH... those damned kids!"
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It's just you.
Any old timer would tell you either about the SNES/Mega Drive, Amiga, Spectrum, stone tablets, whatever...
It's a similar phenomenon to "ARGH... those damned kids!"
I'll grant there's a nostalgia component at play, but the late 1990's and early 2000's represented a bit of a golden-era for gaming. I argue that this is the case because there was enough money in the industry that the technology available to developers was taking big leaps forward, but not so much that the financial risk would scare publishers away from taking any kind of chance on niche products. In the years preceeding, slow computers and consoles limited what developers could do, and in the years following, so much money had to get pumped into a project that any risk that didn't pay off could sink a studio. That's not to say that nothing good came out before or after that late-'90's/early-'00's timeframe, but there was a better concentration of quality and classic titles during that period.
Where I'll break from the "Those damned kids!" bunch is in that I think we're approaching or already in the beginning of another such golden era. With the emergence of the XBox Live Marketplace, Steam, and other widely-used digital distribution platforms, smaller developers have the ability to both make a game that takes some chances and get it out to an audience that will enjoy it. When one of these independent titles does manage to hit it big, the talent gets absorbed into larger studios, and elements of the gameplay find their way into more mainstream games. It's the best of both worlds coming together again, albeit in a slightly different manner than before. Instead of mainstream games being able to evolve new gameplay forms and drive technology forward at the same time, larger studios drive the technology forward, while smaller studios drive the evolution of gameplay mechanics.
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even that doesn't work anymore. even a lot of the traditionally great developers are starting to put out unimaginative or wasted potential crap. why waste time making a masterpiece of a game when CoD clones and console ports sell better anyway?
entertainment in general has gone down the ****ter. tv sucks, movies suck, mainstream music is ****. they mass produce drivel and use marketing to pass it off as top notch content, and people in general are too dumb to realize that they are feeding parasites. in contrast games have actually fared quite well. we had a little bit of a slow time there with pc gaming but i think its kinda picking up the pace. lets just hope that they wont also go down the high profit low quality **** tube like the other forms of entertainment.
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even that doesn't work anymore. even a lot of the traditionally great developers are starting to put out unimaginative or wasted potential crap. why waste time making a masterpiece of a game when CoD clones and console ports sell better anyway?
entertainment in general has gone down the ****ter. tv sucks, movies suck, mainstream music is ****. they mass produce drivel and use marketing to pass it off as top notch content, and people in general are too dumb to realize that they are feeding parasites. in contrast games have actually fared quite well. we had a little bit of a slow time there with pc gaming but i think its kinda picking up the pace. lets just hope that they wont also go down the high profit low quality **** tube like the other forms of entertainment.
Possibly because in part of the strong indi scene in pc gaming there is still room for passion in game developing and it's allowedto shine because that is where the quality ideas come from. The big game devs have to compete to some degree with the little guys producing games and selling them in the £0-£20 bracket thanks to the internet.
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I think anyone who unequivocally states "TV sucks today" hasn't been keeping their eyes open much. Yes, there are mountains of drek, but there are probably more top-tier high-class series airing right now than there have been in a very long time. Hell, when a movie-replaying cable network like AMC can produce such masterpieces as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, you know at least something is going right.
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While indie games tend to be rather good entertainment for the buck, they really can't compete with professional studios when it comes to visuals and audio. And let's face it, those are what drives the masses towards your game because in the end, it is really hard to capture gameplay in screenshots and trailers. In trailers you can show off what happens on the screen, but not necessarily how player interacts with the game. Worst of all, trailers usually have HUD and other elements disabled to provide a cinematic trailer, in those cases we won't see quick-time events and whatever else. So we cannot distinguish scripted events from quick-time events and dynamic events.
But regardless, back to the topic. There's no stopping piracy, but it is possible to reduce it if those publishers would get a clue.
The first is DRM. The harder you make it to buyers of legit copy of the game to play it, the more likely it is that they will resort to piracy. Now I am ready to come half-way and recognize the need to identify each copy of the game. Here's where I am willing to accept cd-keys and online authentication at install time. I however may not accept the need for online access while playing. Individual copies can be said to be necessary to make it fair game and encourage people to buy their own copies. Copy-protection like SecuROM, StarForce and any other copy-protection that may potentially do harmful changes to your system and in some cases, prevent you from playing the game definitely drives people to piracy. Requiring CD or DVD to be in the drive while playing is also stupid.
The second is delivery platform. Providing games right off the internet is really convenient, some delivery platforms are better than others. Steam of course is bigger than the rest combined, but it also does most things right. The games you've bought are locked to your own account, but in turn many of the games do not have any other form of DRM. So this is definitely step to the right direction. People who would normally download a pirated copy for the convenience of it can now turn to a delivery platform like Steam and do it roughly as conveniently, but legally.
Publishers still stick to their old traditions of region locked launches even with delivery platforms, there is absolutely no need for this stupid region locking anymore these days. But the bigger failure of delivery platforms are the myriad of problems that tend to occur on launch day. A lot of games have had problems when they've become available on delivery platform like Steam. There seems definitely be a lack of QA from both publisher/developer and delivery platform to ensure that the game is ready to be launched when it does.
And of course price. Why are online copies as expensive as retail copies when you should be able to reduce producing of the game medias, storage and shipping expenses from the price? There was this one indie game that was being sold for mobile phones. At first the price was about 10$, it didn't sell well. But when the price was reduced to 5$, it started selling albeit still at lowish numbers. At last resort the price was reduced to 3$ and it started selling like hotcakes, easily trumping expectations the developer had for 10$ price bracket. In the end the developer earned a lot more from selling the game at 3$ than 5$ or 10$. There's a lesson to be learned from here folks.
TLDR version.
1) Don't **** with your customers. They're the ones who provide food on your dinner table.
2) Adapt to the times and needs/wishes of your customers. If you don't, they'll look elsewhere.
3) Be reasonable in pricing. Selling more at lower price can earn you more than selling less at higher price.
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I really like the "try now, buy later" approach. That should be taken more often.
its called shareware, i see your too young to possibly remember that.
winrar says hello.
No console games are shareware. I meant for this topic to be about console games.
If I recall correctly, HD DVD was the antithesis to Bluray
Actually, HD DVD and Bluray operated on the same basic principle. They competed with each other but used the same technology.
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/hd-dvd.htm
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/blu-ray.htm
*cough*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IBH4g_ua5es
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Is there a game whose DRM hasn't been compromised?
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There may be one or two.
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3) Be reasonable in pricing. Selling more at lower price can earn you more than selling less at higher price.
The real irony here is the number of people who don't realise this. If your game isn't a MMO or somesuch where you are required to provide servers in order to play the game selling 1,000,000 copies costs you no more money than 100,000. The only difference is going to be bandwidth used downloading the game and you're on someone else's content delivery system that's not even your problem. :p
I think anyone who unequivocally states "TV sucks today" hasn't been keeping their eyes open much. Yes, there are mountains of drek, but there are probably more top-tier high-class series airing right now than there have been in a very long time. Hell, when a movie-replaying cable network like AMC can produce such masterpieces as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, you know at least something is going right.
There always have been mountains of drek. People forget this. How many truly world class films can you name from 1950, 1970 or 1990? Is that really so much more than the number of truly awesome films from this year?
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I think anyone who unequivocally states "TV sucks today" hasn't been keeping their eyes open much. Yes, there are mountains of drek, but there are probably more top-tier high-class series airing right now than there have been in a very long time. Hell, when a movie-replaying cable network like AMC can produce such masterpieces as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, you know at least something is going right.
There always have been mountains of drek. People forget this. How many truly world class films can you name from 1950, 1970 or 1990? Is that really so much more than the number of truly awesome films from this year?
The problem is, we only remember the stuff coming out of those decades that people think are worth remembering. The 90% of stuff produced then that was crap has long since been forgotten. Because we do not have this benefit of hindsight regarding stuff that has come out recently, the perception that old stuff is better is hard to shake.
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Is there a game whose DRM hasn't been compromised?
If there is, it's because the game wasn't good enough for anyone to bother.
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English version of Wing of Prey seems to be one such game, I still didn't managed to find a proper non-russian crack (russian version has different DRM than English one). :)
It's not a very good game though, I heard that IL-2 Sturmovik is much better when it comes to WWII simulators. Exactly the reason why I didn't just bought it on Steam. If they start selling it for one or two euros (which happens with amazing frequency on Steam), then I might get it.
TLDR version.
1) Don't **** with your customers. They're the ones who provide food on your dinner table.
2) Adapt to the times and needs/wishes of your customers. If you don't, they'll look elsewhere.
3) Be reasonable in pricing. Selling more at lower price can earn you more than selling less at higher price.
If you take a look at Steam, it's great precisely because it addresses all three points. It provides it's own, non-intrusive DRM system, is easy to use and flexible and, thanks to having a big sale every time something significant happens (and sometimes just out of the blue), makes games really cheap if you know how to use it. Making an item overpriced, then cutting the price to more acceptable level is an old and proven strategy (and you can gouge die-hard fans of a franchise by doing that, as they're the ones most likely to get a game as soon as it comes out).
Not to mention it also advertises other games, trying to fit them into what you bought (I've got a few games that way, almost symbolic price+a recommendation. I don't regret.).
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I think anyone who unequivocally states "TV sucks today" hasn't been keeping their eyes open much. Yes, there are mountains of drek, but there are probably more top-tier high-class series airing right now than there have been in a very long time. Hell, when a movie-replaying cable network like AMC can produce such masterpieces as Mad Men and Breaking Bad, you know at least something is going right.
there are a lot of exceptions to the rule, i really like what amc is doing. but the utter collapse of former stalwarts like sci-fi, history, and discovery have essentially made tv unwatchable. music, movies and games still all have their indie scenes and there's a lot of good work there. i admire the work of those who do more with less.
3) Be reasonable in pricing. Selling more at lower price can earn you more than selling less at higher price.
this! i would buy more games if they were cheaper. right now i can afford (at your typical price of $50-$70) about 2 a year, and there are many that i want that are out or near release. right now im going to have to wait for a lot of those to hit the bargain bin before i can buy them.
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this! i would buy more games if they were cheaper. right now i can afford (at your typical price of $50-$70) about 2 a year, and there are many that i want that are out or near release. right now im going to have to wait for a lot of those to hit the bargain bin before i can buy them.
Good thing maybe two really worthy games come out a year
I mean, there are times where there's a sudden influx of great stuff, but two a year is pretty well standard as far as games worth buying at 60$ go.
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this! i would buy more games if they were cheaper. right now i can afford (at your typical price of $50-$70) about 2 a year, and there are many that i want that are out or near release. right now im going to have to wait for a lot of those to hit the bargain bin before i can buy them.
Good thing maybe two really worthy games come out a year
I mean, there are times where there's a sudden influx of great stuff, but two a year is pretty well standard as far as games worth buying at 60$ go.
the millennium was a serious pita for this
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this! i would buy more games if they were cheaper. right now i can afford (at your typical price of $50-$70) about 2 a year, and there are many that i want that are out or near release. right now im going to have to wait for a lot of those to hit the bargain bin before i can buy them.
Good thing maybe two really worthy games come out a year
I mean, there are times where there's a sudden influx of great stuff, but two a year is pretty well standard as far as games worth buying at 60$ go.
the millennium was a serious pita for this
On the plus side, when you have to wait for the price drops, you get all the bugfix patches rolled in the first time you pick up the game to play it. I think the unofficial bugtracker thread on Skyrim's up to about 500 items, as of this morning...
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I've actually pre-ordered two games this year, which is two more than I've ever done before.
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i tried to pre-order rage but i couldn't find a place that did pre-orders that would also ship to a p.o. box. i still dont have it yet.
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i have paid more than $30 for a game ONCE in my life. even $30 is rare, it's usually $20 or less. it was when i was 10 or so and i bought an N-64 game (battletanx) for $60 i think it was. buying a year or more late has awsome advantages. price first and foremost, potentially having a better PC that can run it maxed without problems (ex: crysis), plenty of time for reviews so you don't waste money on a dud (ex: far cry 2, C&C 4), and the aforementioned bugfixing. sometimes multiplayer might already be dead by the time i get it, but that doesn't bother me because 1) i'm not really into multi anyway, and 2) that's probably a pretty good indication that the MP sucked.
woops, twice it was i paid more than $30. i bought FS2 for $80 on ebay, because i thought the sim of the year edition actually had meaningful extra content. oops.
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While indie games tend to be rather good entertainment for the buck, they really can't compete with professional studios when it comes to visuals and audio. And let's face it, those are what drives the masses towards your game because in the end, it is really hard to capture gameplay in screenshots and trailers. In trailers you can show off what happens on the screen, but not necessarily how player interacts with the game. Worst of all, trailers usually have HUD and other elements disabled to provide a cinematic trailer, in those cases we won't see quick-time events and whatever else. So we cannot distinguish scripted events from quick-time events and dynamic events.
Like Minecraft, huh?
Publishers still stick to their old traditions of region locked launches even with delivery platforms, there is absolutely no need for this stupid region locking anymore these days. But the bigger failure of delivery platforms are the myriad of problems that tend to occur on launch day. A lot of games have had problems when they've become available on delivery platform like Steam. There seems definitely be a lack of QA from both publisher/developer and delivery platform to ensure that the game is ready to be launched when it does.
As long as there are different currencies and economies, there is a huge incentive for region locks in order to maximize profit. That's all there is to it really.
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plenty of time for reviews so you don't waste money on a dud (ex: far cry 2, C&C 4),
What was wrong with Farcry 2? D:
I loved that game and it's infinite maps
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plenty of time for reviews so you don't waste money on a dud (ex: far cry 2, C&C 4),
What was wrong with Farcry 2? D:
I loved that game and it's infinite maps
The idea and technology was fine, the execution of it on the other hand?...It left much to be desired.
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I would love to be at a developer meeting with a drn company
drm salesman : "And so that concludes my presentation on our latest drm product, any questions ?"
dev : "so it will cost several hundred thousand dollars, how much piracy will having this product prevent"
drm salesman : "prevent! none its totally infective at preventing or indeed lowering piracy, the same as all the previous products you've bought from us"
dev : "excellent we'll take it"