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I have noticed that younger kids these days are showing an aversion to piracy, more so than when I was young(er). Maybe those anti-piracy ads are working?
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WORKING?
Hell, with movies, the F.A.C.T(ed up) campaign has piracy of movies equated to the same as stealing handbags, cars and the like, and beats us over the head with all-caps "PIRACY - IS - STEALING - STEALING - IS - AGAINST - THE - LAW" like we're all retarded children, and then proceeded to leave these adverts on copies of DVD we PAY for!
Hell, TV has finally broken the camel's back with adverts IN/ON a show! Screw that, I'm watching bittorrented shows. But I will buy the DVD/Box Set of either TV or Film entertainment that I enjoy.
Of course, if gaming is reasonable with both pricing and anti-piracy(preferably the lovely system of purchasing keys - it does nicely), I'll happily pay for it, like I already have for Sam and Max : Culture Shock.
I was very sad watching Lost last night and about every 10 minutes seeing a dancing couple go spinning across the bottom of the screen and fading into the ABC logo. I don't even know what show they were promoting (because I TiVo'd passed the commercials ¬ ¬), but it was extremely lame ... and occasionally confusing, because I kept thinking they were in the show and my eye kept trying to fit them into the shot even though they were tiny and in the foreground.
We will be doing this in the next Sam & Max episode.
I was very sad watching Lost last night and about every 10 minutes seeing a dancing couple go spinning across the bottom of the screen and fading into the ABC logo. I don't even know what show they were promoting (because I TiVo'd passed the commercials ¬ ¬), but it was extremely lame ... and occasionally confusing, because I kept thinking they were in the show and my eye kept trying to fit them into the shot even though they were tiny and in the foreground.
We will be doing this in the next Sam & Max episode.
I can seriously see this being integrated into a WARP broadcast with the Bones running across the screen being chased by those monster guys. And it would work. (Which is why networks do this sort of thing now...)
I was very sad watching Lost last night and about every 10 minutes seeing a dancing couple go spinning across the bottom of the screen and fading into the ABC logo. I don't even know what show they were promoting (because I TiVo'd passed the commercials ¬ ¬), but it was extremely lame ... and occasionally confusing, because I kept thinking they were in the show and my eye kept trying to fit them into the shot even though they were tiny and in the foreground.
We will be doing this in the next Sam & Max episode.
TBS is infamous for that. They now have in-show ads that take up almost half of the screen... 4 or 5 times a show. Thank gods all I watch on TV regularly is Frasier and The Simpsons, or I'd start strangling TV execs.
(You really should do that in the next episode, that would be hilarious...)
I think that the most stylish copy protection was actually in an old (but excellent) game called Starflight II. The basic protection was pretty typical: It would show you some star charts and you had to identify something or other by referring to matching star charts in the manual. That part is kind of vague in my memory now.
The neat things were that first of all, it did this only when you tried to leave the starport. That meant you could spend a long time picking out crew and configuring your ship and so on before you ran into it. At a time when every other copy protection scheme happened as soon as you launched the game, that was pretty inventive. But the part that made it really fun was that no matter what you answered, it opened the starport doors and let you go. The problem was that there was a "police" ship. If you entered the wrong code, you'd leave and fly around thinking that you defeated the copy protection (or that it didn't work) but soon enough the police would track you down. You could try to fight them or run away and it gave you just enough leeway to think maybe it was possible but you could never really manage it. And they'd state something about not having the proper clearance codes and haul you back to starport.
In theory, you could lounge around starport as long as you wanted on a pirated copy, but there wasn't THAT much to do there, and every time you left you'd get hauled back again by the cops.
In some ways it served a dual purpose because it was not only a means of preventing pirates (who didn't also copy the manual) from playing, but it allowed pirated copies to double as a demo. You got enough of a sense of what the gameplay was like by just fiddling around starport and then flying around and communicating / fighting / running from the cops that you'd probably want to buy it once you realized what was going on.
Maize, the Starflight II story reminds me very much of the copy protection in Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, where you would be sent to jail if you repeatedly failed to input the correct international visa code at the airport (which also enabled you to play a good bit of the game since you don't immediately need to travel overseas.) If all copy-protections were that fun and wacky, who could complain about intrusiveness?
A pretty similar protection, but still different, was the one they used on Sam & Max : Hit the road and on some of the Larry games. Like, it will ask you to "What is the color of this or that on this or that page?" and you got this manual with all these pictures. A lot to scan just to copy the game. Combining this with what you mentioned from that other game would be pretty good. Because if it is the same code everybody shall input(not random), people can just write down the code when they publish it on the net. Also, using colors or shapes people must select between, can also be more efficient than numbers.
In Hit the road it asked for the cloths of sam & max on different pages in the code book or manual or whatever...
did anyone ever read about the copy protection for the game XIII? at a certain point in the game, it prevented the player from obtaining an object and had a message saying 'if you want the object buy the game'. i thought that was the most inventive (and guilt creating) piracy preventive i'd heard of.
Actually VERY BAD example. XIII had insane amounts of problems with the stupid copy protection because it also prevented huge amounts of legal customers from playing the game. It ended with them removing the entire copy protection in the last patch, to help people run the game without any problems. Of course this lead to abyssimal sales because a lot of people returned their copies and word of mouth did the rest, with the result being the cancelation of the sequel of this great game. Very sad indeed, as the game was really good (own it myself) and the ending of the game had a bad cliffhanger.
All I can suggest to telltale is keep going like now and you will see quality and good customer support will prevail in the end. Yes it sucks seeing people pirating your game, but what people forget is that piracy can also benefit developers. I know sounds crazy but just think about it. Someone might actually have downloaded a previous Sam&Max episode that he really liked, and then decided to buy the whole season. It's not as unlikely as it may sound.
Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for telltale, because the episodes keep getting better and I can't wait for the rest of the season and for the start of season 2
If they're going to go through the hassle of pirating software, there's a high probably they never would've payed for it anyway. You might lose potential sales if said pirate gives copies to friends, but you do gain marketing, which means they may possibly buy future products. Sometimes you lose some with pirating, and sometimes you gain.
These are all original games I have that I have downloaded cracks for (or made images of) so I can keep the CDs/DVDs in their boxes at all times. I hate having to be a discjockey just to play games.
So I don't pirate games but I do crack the ones I buy.
Well good luck to anyone trying to crack sam and max episode 4. (Which I bought) I was curious so I, shall we say, had a poke around. The game is protected by 'SoftwarePassport - a greatly enhanced version of the Armadillo Software Protection'.
Basically it goes something like this. You open the original, it unpacks the real exe into memory and runs it as a separate thread, then shares memory across the thread (I think) using some fruity variety of API calls. You can’t get an unpacker for the armadillo packer, I didn’t bother trying any generic ones.
Anyway once you have the application running it generates a fingerprint of your hardware and sends it off to the activation server at drh.digitalriver.com with your account information. If the registration is successful the server will reply with a valid serial key and also tell you how many registrations you have left, you start with 10. I believe that means you can install your copy of the game on 10 separate computers, or 10 times on the same computer after 10 sets of hardware changes.
If the key is valid then something magical happens. I haven’t managed to work this part out. I’m not sure if the game writes into the registry, or into a file, or into itself or maybe even into some hidden file in some hidden folder deep in the recesses of the windows directory structure. But once its written there’s no getting rid of it.
And then you can launch and play the game. Which I enjoyed, very much , and was glad that it was a good deal harder than the first three.
Anyway I was curious to know why no cracks had appeared for the new game, and now I do, because it has *really* good anti-crack protection. The unfortunate part of having really good anti-crack protection is that crackers only crack for the challenge of cracking. So naturally they look for the most challenging and naturally they will hit armadillo’s system eventually.
For the meantime at least it looks as though the telltale engineers have found a sufficiently good means of protecting their games. Which means future piracy will be nil.
A cautionary note however: Remove the phone activation. This is a major weak spot. I’m no professional cracker, I only play around for fun and education, but a professional cracker could probably extract the generation algorithm which turns a fingerprint into a serial key for comparison using a low level debugger like softice. Once the algorithm is known they could simply write a generator which generates keys given fingerprints. (I know you think no one would bother for such a cheap game, but I’m betting you want to use this system on more expensive games in the future.)
We definitely can't get rid of the manual activation system, since that's how we unlock people who can't unlock automatically or who aren't connected to the internet. For what it's worth, though, it's really really hard to write a key generator, although obviously I'm not going to go into detail
I completely agree with removing phone activation. That would at least eliminate potential keygens. The only problem is, that would alienate those who activate by phone.
I completely agree with removing phone activation. That would at least eliminate potential keygens. The only problem is, that would alienate those who activate by phone.
Yandros: Since you seem to be knowledgeable about this stuff, how often are these protection systems upgraded? Is it basically an arms race between crackers/protectors? (Just curious)
Yandros: Since you seem to be knowledgeable about this stuff, how often are these protection systems upgraded? Is it basically an arms race between crackers/protectors? (Just curious)
It is an arms race of sorts. New systems of protection come out steadily as the old systems become unworkable and thoroughly cracked. I believe, from the software developers point of view, its about getting the best protection for the smallest cost, both financially and performance wise. Generally when there’s money to be thrown around anti-crack system developers spring up with new ideas and innovations and the cycle continues.
I suppose the best way to answer you would be to say that new systems come out with new games. A new system might come out at some given point in time, but until that system is protecting a popular game (or piece of software) it won’t be actively attacked.
I really despise fingerprinting copy protection methods but I understand it's necessary for Telltale to use it so I don't blame them.
However, how about removing the protection say five years or so after the game was released? If there was any guarantee that something like that would eventually happen then I wouldn't really mind much at all.
Well, I can't speak for Telltale's policies regarding copyright protection, but many companies often bundle old classics with new games or in collections. I can imagine Season 1 being bundled like that someday in the future. Like, 6-12 years from now of course.
i am on the side that i do not mind copy protection as long as it is not intrusive, only affects the game itself, and is active only while the game is running, unlike the corrupt russian copy protection system that shall otherwise remain nameless
i just hope that the copy protection on the disc copy of the season does not require the disc or an internet connection to play it, maybe they can figure out some way for the installer to detect if it is on an original pressed disc, then have a serial number encoded and hidden on the disc that ties into some complex activation key system, and that is tied into both the installer and the game launcher itself. so even the installer will not run or unpack if it is not being run from the original pressed disc.............. these 3 protection methods if successfully combined and integrated around the installer and game itself should protect the game from ending up on the internet for quite a while
For those worried about copy protection on the retail cd, here's an "optimistic" line of reasoning: since episode 6 hits the internet as early as may, there is a good chance that all six episodes will have been cracked by the time it's august. If this occurs, then Telltale and The Adventure Company will have little incentive to equip the cd with strong copy protection (or, indeed, any at all). Add to this the fact that in a few cases TAC has in fact released games without copy proctection on them.
I sadly have to say that there is still incentive for some sort of copy protection. Although I would love for there to be none, even the slightest bit of CP prevents casual users from falling into the bad habit of downloading and copying games for their friends... so it will still prevent some illegal copies, even if cracked copies are floating around the net.
On a side note, I was wondering what Telltale thinks of second hand games... one person buys it, plays it, then sells or trades it to another gamer... wherein the second sale nets no profit for the game publisher and developer. The only difference between this and "piracy" is that there is only one, non-replicating copy circulating.
I wonder how much more piracy there would be if there was no copy protection at all? Are really that any people prevented from pirating games because of copy protection? I mean if someone wants to pirate a game it's really no problem even with copy protection.. the worst case scenario for pirates is having to wait a week or two.
I know I would feel much better about supporting game companies if they did not use copy protection. Of course I don't pirate games, I'm doing pretty well and can afford more games than I have time to play (I have over 500 now! Scares me to think of how much I've wasted on that).. but copy protection really gets to me. It's such a hassle and all this activation crap that's around these days is what I like the least.. you have to trust the companies to remove the protection should the worst happen and the company went bankrupt and I don't really trust companies that much.
Stardock, one of my other favourite developers, released Galactic Civilizations II (and expansion pack) with no copy protection at all. Once installed, you don't need the disk anymore. You can throw it away if you like. You can re-download the game for free if you've kept your serial number (and even if you haven't, they can e-mail it to you if you have an account with them). The serial number is also required for patches (a big issue, as the support Stardock give the game is fantastic; forever tweaking the AI, improving and adding new features, etc). Their sales don't seem to have been affected by increased piracy.
My view is that any anti-piracy feature that harms the quality of the product in any way is not worth it. Unskipable ant-piracy propaganda on DVDs; music CDs that don't play on my PC; security software that acts as spyware and countless other things actively encourage piracy by making the illegal copies better than the real thing.
I wonder how much more piracy there would be if there was no copy protection at all? Are really that any people prevented from pirating games because of copy protection? I mean if someone wants to pirate a game it's really no problem even with copy protection.. the worst case scenario for pirates is having to wait a week or two.
I know I would feel much better about supporting game companies if they did not use copy protection. Of course I don't pirate games, I'm doing pretty well and can afford more games than I have time to play (I have over 500 now! Scares me to think of how much I've wasted on that).. but copy protection really gets to me. It's such a hassle and all this activation crap that's around these days is what I like the least.. you have to trust the companies to remove the protection should the worst happen and the company went bankrupt and I don't really trust companies that much.
Ahmen, brother!
I agree with you completly. Copy protection gets to me too, because I know sooner or later I will have some problems with it. Either when I try to take a backup of my game or when I have some new hardware or operating system the copy protection apparently has problems with. Also, I feel copy protections are a sign of mistrust. "We don't trust you enough to let you do what you want with your product, so we will control you and make decisions for you".
I am like you. I have bought a lot of games in the recent years, and I've bought a lot of the classics I never thought I would even consider buying just 3 years ago. Still, it really annoys me that I am getting punished because of somebody elses "crime"(and I of course use the term loosely, because it's not about crime. It's about responsibility and expressing the ability to make proper judgements). In fact, if I find out there is a strong copy protection that is likely to cause me problems, on a game, there's a bigger chance that I will avoid buying that game compared to if there were none. The Elder Scrolls : Oblivion was released without a copy protection(just a dvd check). That game has sold over 3 million copies, and still growing. Duke Nukem 3D, 3DRealms big success was released without even a cd check. I am not sure exactly how much it sold, but it must have been pretty well.
Have nobody in the game industry heared of McGregors theory X and theory Y? These theories can be transfered and used for getting people to buy instead of copying games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_theory_Y (in case people are unsure. Most of the game industry are currently playing by the X theory. Try Y and feel the success
Of course, X-Y theories are about management, but exactly the same rules goes for customer - producer relationship.
EDIT: Sorry about the angry tone near the end, I was a bit upset. I also want to add that I have nothing against copy protections when they don't harm me or my computer(in other words: only prevent piracy, but still keeps my right to make backups and all that which I could usually have done with an unprotected cd/dvd, without making the process more complicated or complex than it would be for an unprotected cd/dvd) The sam & max protection seems to work pretty well for me. I am excited to see how the final cd/dvd will be protected - if at all.
I never said privacy would be broken nor that people would not be concidered innocent. Right now, you agree to get your bags inspected when you enter an airplane, or (at least in Israel) enter a shopping mall. A cop stopping you by the road can test your breath for alcohol even if he has no reason to suspect you might have been drinking. Remember - "innocent until proven guilty" still needs to give the law enforcement the ability to try to prove that you are guilty.
If privacy is the matter, this could have many solutions. For instance, the randomly chosen computers could be picked up, brought to the "lab" where they would have anonymous tags. There would be strict restrictions on what the person scanning the computer could look through (for example, he will not be allowed to read your e-mails etc.) Even better, a program could scan the computer for illegal software and could be entirely automated, and not allowed to keep any personal information on the scanned files.
These are just a few simple solutions I thought of in a few seconds. I'm sure if people seriously gave it thought they'd find much better solutions which allow people to keep their privacy, while also easily allowing the law to be enforced.
I don't know what's the deal in the US or anywhere else, but at least in Israel it's a real plague. Most people I know have many gigas of illegal software on their computer. I'm sure the value of all this software can sum up to a lot of money. Actually, most people have a principal not to buy any software. Even when you buy a new computer, it is usually delivered already with a pirated copy of windows, Office, some cd burning program, some games etc. I think the way it's going right now, it DOES deserve such a "witch hunt".
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Unfortunately, even if such a "witch-hunt" is a good idea, it's unconstitutional in the U.S. See the 4th Amendment above.
Unfortunately, even if such a "witch-hunt" is a good idea, it's unconstitutional in the U.S. See the 4th Amendment above.
I bet we would see a great increase in the amount of encrypted harddrives in peoples homes too if they knew the cops had the right to just knock on your door and come in and search through your computer, without even suspecting you of anything. Also, who are going to pay for this? I am sure the cops can't afford such a big operation and would the tax payers really be willing to accept having to pay for this kind of invasion?
I say for once don't feel guilty Derwin, you bought that copy fair and square and if you don't keep any copies of it, then you can sell it or give it away if you want.
I live in a place where finding an original game is almost impossible. (even if you manage to find them you basic run off the mill PS2 game costs around $100-$150... keep in mind the average salary of a working person is a 1/3 of the average in the US)
So...
Pirated games are sold in stores and given freely from person to person.
In my whole life. From the good old C64 to the brand new Wii. I have never seen ANY video game which cannot be obtained easily, BECAUSE it has copy protection.
I have never seen copy protection stopping piracy. More importantly...
I have never seen a person who changes his mind and buy the original because there is copy protection on a game.
In short. I do think that money spent on copy protection is money spent for nothing at all. Developers better spend it for development of the game.
After all... we all know good games usually sell good too.
Season 1 is so cheap that a bum should be able to afford it. Gee, this must be like the most popular thread in the history of the TellTale message boards. 15,500+ views?!?
Bottom line is.. piracy and lack of general pc knowledge killed the pc games industry. I remember a time when it was wall to wall pc games now its a little rack. Sigh. Im 100% against any and all copy protection for one reason, there are ways around every protection, trust me I know I bypass them all daily making copies of my legally owned games. The ONLY time I will dl a game I dont have is if its not found on ebay or in stores due to rareness or lack of availability. I eventually buy it. But its a sad thing that most people dont buy the games that are good. I dont mind not buying the ones that stink ;p
Sam & Max is soo worth the small price asked for.
Also I host tons of old games that are now considered abandonware or to old for corps to care. its a 1999-pre thing. LOL I love the oldies and most times they are super hard to find.
Thats my piece... now go buy a good pc game.. when one comes out that microsoft hasnt demanded requires vista...(which they dont BTW) :P well not unless its a dx10 game which the two in mind are not.
Anyway thats my dime
Comments
WORKING?
Hell, with movies, the F.A.C.T(ed up) campaign has piracy of movies equated to the same as stealing handbags, cars and the like, and beats us over the head with all-caps "PIRACY - IS - STEALING - STEALING - IS - AGAINST - THE - LAW" like we're all retarded children, and then proceeded to leave these adverts on copies of DVD we PAY for!
Hell, TV has finally broken the camel's back with adverts IN/ON a show! Screw that, I'm watching bittorrented shows. But I will buy the DVD/Box Set of either TV or Film entertainment that I enjoy.
Of course, if gaming is reasonable with both pricing and anti-piracy(preferably the lovely system of purchasing keys - it does nicely), I'll happily pay for it, like I already have for Sam and Max : Culture Shock.
How about using the brutally annoying, unskippable adverts on DVDs then?
We will be doing this in the next Sam & Max episode.
I can seriously see this being integrated into a WARP broadcast with the Bones running across the screen being chased by those monster guys. And it would work. (Which is why networks do this sort of thing now...)
TBS is infamous for that. They now have in-show ads that take up almost half of the screen... 4 or 5 times a show. Thank gods all I watch on TV regularly is Frasier and The Simpsons, or I'd start strangling TV execs.
(You really should do that in the next episode, that would be hilarious...)
I think this is a joke?
The neat things were that first of all, it did this only when you tried to leave the starport. That meant you could spend a long time picking out crew and configuring your ship and so on before you ran into it. At a time when every other copy protection scheme happened as soon as you launched the game, that was pretty inventive. But the part that made it really fun was that no matter what you answered, it opened the starport doors and let you go. The problem was that there was a "police" ship. If you entered the wrong code, you'd leave and fly around thinking that you defeated the copy protection (or that it didn't work) but soon enough the police would track you down. You could try to fight them or run away and it gave you just enough leeway to think maybe it was possible but you could never really manage it. And they'd state something about not having the proper clearance codes and haul you back to starport.
In theory, you could lounge around starport as long as you wanted on a pirated copy, but there wasn't THAT much to do there, and every time you left you'd get hauled back again by the cops.
In some ways it served a dual purpose because it was not only a means of preventing pirates (who didn't also copy the manual) from playing, but it allowed pirated copies to double as a demo. You got enough of a sense of what the gameplay was like by just fiddling around starport and then flying around and communicating / fighting / running from the cops that you'd probably want to buy it once you realized what was going on.
A pretty similar protection, but still different, was the one they used on Sam & Max : Hit the road and on some of the Larry games. Like, it will ask you to "What is the color of this or that on this or that page?" and you got this manual with all these pictures. A lot to scan just to copy the game. Combining this with what you mentioned from that other game would be pretty good. Because if it is the same code everybody shall input(not random), people can just write down the code when they publish it on the net. Also, using colors or shapes people must select between, can also be more efficient than numbers.
In Hit the road it asked for the cloths of sam & max on different pages in the code book or manual or whatever...
Actually VERY BAD example. XIII had insane amounts of problems with the stupid copy protection because it also prevented huge amounts of legal customers from playing the game. It ended with them removing the entire copy protection in the last patch, to help people run the game without any problems. Of course this lead to abyssimal sales because a lot of people returned their copies and word of mouth did the rest, with the result being the cancelation of the sequel of this great game. Very sad indeed, as the game was really good (own it myself) and the ending of the game had a bad cliffhanger.
All I can suggest to telltale is keep going like now and you will see quality and good customer support will prevail in the end. Yes it sucks seeing people pirating your game, but what people forget is that piracy can also benefit developers. I know sounds crazy but just think about it. Someone might actually have downloaded a previous Sam&Max episode that he really liked, and then decided to buy the whole season. It's not as unlikely as it may sound.
Anyway, I'm keeping my fingers crossed for telltale, because the episodes keep getting better and I can't wait for the rest of the season and for the start of season 2
These are all original games I have that I have downloaded cracks for (or made images of) so I can keep the CDs/DVDs in their boxes at all times. I hate having to be a discjockey just to play games.
So I don't pirate games but I do crack the ones I buy.
Basically it goes something like this. You open the original, it unpacks the real exe into memory and runs it as a separate thread, then shares memory across the thread (I think) using some fruity variety of API calls. You can’t get an unpacker for the armadillo packer, I didn’t bother trying any generic ones.
Anyway once you have the application running it generates a fingerprint of your hardware and sends it off to the activation server at drh.digitalriver.com with your account information. If the registration is successful the server will reply with a valid serial key and also tell you how many registrations you have left, you start with 10. I believe that means you can install your copy of the game on 10 separate computers, or 10 times on the same computer after 10 sets of hardware changes.
If the key is valid then something magical happens. I haven’t managed to work this part out. I’m not sure if the game writes into the registry, or into a file, or into itself or maybe even into some hidden file in some hidden folder deep in the recesses of the windows directory structure. But once its written there’s no getting rid of it.
And then you can launch and play the game. Which I enjoyed, very much
Anyway I was curious to know why no cracks had appeared for the new game, and now I do, because it has *really* good anti-crack protection. The unfortunate part of having really good anti-crack protection is that crackers only crack for the challenge of cracking. So naturally they look for the most challenging and naturally they will hit armadillo’s system eventually.
For the meantime at least it looks as though the telltale engineers have found a sufficiently good means of protecting their games. Which means future piracy will be nil.
A cautionary note however: Remove the phone activation. This is a major weak spot. I’m no professional cracker, I only play around for fun and education, but a professional cracker could probably extract the generation algorithm which turns a fingerprint into a serial key for comparison using a low level debugger like softice. Once the algorithm is known they could simply write a generator which generates keys given fingerprints. (I know you think no one would bother for such a cheap game, but I’m betting you want to use this system on more expensive games in the future.)
EDIT: Damn your faster posting! :P
Faster like a fox
Perhaps ship the hardcopies with phone activation and don't put it on the downloadable copies?
It is an arms race of sorts. New systems of protection come out steadily as the old systems become unworkable and thoroughly cracked. I believe, from the software developers point of view, its about getting the best protection for the smallest cost, both financially and performance wise. Generally when there’s money to be thrown around anti-crack system developers spring up with new ideas and innovations and the cycle continues.
I suppose the best way to answer you would be to say that new systems come out with new games. A new system might come out at some given point in time, but until that system is protecting a popular game (or piece of software) it won’t be actively attacked.
However, how about removing the protection say five years or so after the game was released? If there was any guarantee that something like that would eventually happen then I wouldn't really mind much at all.
i just hope that the copy protection on the disc copy of the season does not require the disc or an internet connection to play it, maybe they can figure out some way for the installer to detect if it is on an original pressed disc, then have a serial number encoded and hidden on the disc that ties into some complex activation key system, and that is tied into both the installer and the game launcher itself. so even the installer will not run or unpack if it is not being run from the original pressed disc.............. these 3 protection methods if successfully combined and integrated around the installer and game itself should protect the game from ending up on the internet for quite a while
Said copy protection system has already been mentioned a few times in this thread. Let's hear it everybody - Staaaarfooorce!
On a side note, I was wondering what Telltale thinks of second hand games... one person buys it, plays it, then sells or trades it to another gamer... wherein the second sale nets no profit for the game publisher and developer. The only difference between this and "piracy" is that there is only one, non-replicating copy circulating.
I know I would feel much better about supporting game companies if they did not use copy protection. Of course I don't pirate games, I'm doing pretty well and can afford more games than I have time to play (I have over 500 now! Scares me to think of how much I've wasted on that).. but copy protection really gets to me. It's such a hassle and all this activation crap that's around these days is what I like the least.. you have to trust the companies to remove the protection should the worst happen and the company went bankrupt and I don't really trust companies that much.
My view is that any anti-piracy feature that harms the quality of the product in any way is not worth it. Unskipable ant-piracy propaganda on DVDs; music CDs that don't play on my PC; security software that acts as spyware and countless other things actively encourage piracy by making the illegal copies better than the real thing.
Ahmen, brother!
I agree with you completly. Copy protection gets to me too, because I know sooner or later I will have some problems with it. Either when I try to take a backup of my game or when I have some new hardware or operating system the copy protection apparently has problems with. Also, I feel copy protections are a sign of mistrust. "We don't trust you enough to let you do what you want with your product, so we will control you and make decisions for you".
I am like you. I have bought a lot of games in the recent years, and I've bought a lot of the classics I never thought I would even consider buying just 3 years ago. Still, it really annoys me that I am getting punished because of somebody elses "crime"(and I of course use the term loosely, because it's not about crime. It's about responsibility and expressing the ability to make proper judgements). In fact, if I find out there is a strong copy protection that is likely to cause me problems, on a game, there's a bigger chance that I will avoid buying that game compared to if there were none. The Elder Scrolls : Oblivion was released without a copy protection(just a dvd check). That game has sold over 3 million copies, and still growing. Duke Nukem 3D, 3DRealms big success was released without even a cd check. I am not sure exactly how much it sold, but it must have been pretty well.
Have nobody in the game industry heared of McGregors theory X and theory Y? These theories can be transfered and used for getting people to buy instead of copying games. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_X_and_theory_Y (in case people are unsure. Most of the game industry are currently playing by the X theory. Try Y and feel the success
Of course, X-Y theories are about management, but exactly the same rules goes for customer - producer relationship.
EDIT: Sorry about the angry tone near the end, I was a bit upset. I also want to add that I have nothing against copy protections when they don't harm me or my computer(in other words: only prevent piracy, but still keeps my right to make backups and all that which I could usually have done with an unprotected cd/dvd, without making the process more complicated or complex than it would be for an unprotected cd/dvd)
Unfortunately, even if such a "witch-hunt" is a good idea, it's unconstitutional in the U.S. See the 4th Amendment above.
I bet we would see a great increase in the amount of encrypted harddrives in peoples homes too if they knew the cops had the right to just knock on your door and come in and search through your computer, without even suspecting you of anything. Also, who are going to pay for this? I am sure the cops can't afford such a big operation and would the tax payers really be willing to accept having to pay for this kind of invasion?
I know it is absolutely legal, but I still feel a bit odd doing it, seeing as game/music industries make no profit on such resales.
Feeling bad about selling or trading games is just ridiculous.
I live in a place where finding an original game is almost impossible. (even if you manage to find them you basic run off the mill PS2 game costs around $100-$150... keep in mind the average salary of a working person is a 1/3 of the average in the US)
So...
Pirated games are sold in stores and given freely from person to person.
In my whole life. From the good old C64 to the brand new Wii. I have never seen ANY video game which cannot be obtained easily, BECAUSE it has copy protection.
I have never seen copy protection stopping piracy. More importantly...
I have never seen a person who changes his mind and buy the original because there is copy protection on a game.
In short. I do think that money spent on copy protection is money spent for nothing at all. Developers better spend it for development of the game.
After all... we all know good games usually sell good too.
Sam & Max is soo worth the small price asked for.
Also I host tons of old games that are now considered abandonware or to old for corps to care. its a 1999-pre thing. LOL I love the oldies and most times they are super hard to find.
Thats my piece... now go buy a good pc game.. when one comes out that microsoft hasnt demanded requires vista...(which they dont BTW) :P well not unless its a dx10 game which the two in mind are not.
Anyway thats my dime