Educate Me on DRM
I caught wind of how a large chunk of people are cancelling their pre-orders of Spore because of some faulty security thing that was used on Mass Effect and again on BioShock. I couldn't find any infromation on what happened on my own, but the term DRM kept coming up. I checked it out on Wikipedia, but from what I was able to understand, it sounds like another attempt of protecting copyright through a program similar to what TTG uses to authorize access to their games that I've bought (most recently with TTH).
Can someone with more technical knowledge and the ability to explain this kind of information to a fifth grader tell me what the deal is and why so many people are so upset?
Can someone with more technical knowledge and the ability to explain this kind of information to a fifth grader tell me what the deal is and why so many people are so upset?
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Try these
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Securom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_effect
I found some info in there, it is not much however.
From this new information, it just sounds like the main concern now is that any game with this SecuROM in its programing will be unplayable. I can see why people would be concern about it given just that long chunk of problems in the links.
That is, if I'm understanding what I read correctly...
The main problem is some DRM can be very limiting (eg, you can only install a game so many times, you have to connect to the net to play, even if it's a single player game, etc).
The other problem is, pirates crack it in days, sometimes even hours, and can play the game without any of the restrictions legitimate players have to put up with.
I'm not much of a PC gamer myself, so I've not really got any reason to hate on DRM too much, but I can definitely see why it annoys people.
I can see why it's used though, if there's no DRM it almost encourages people to copy the game and hand it around to friends. It's just some companies take it too far, and far from stopping piracy, it seems to force some people into it.
I think what developers need to start doing, instead of piling as much piracy protection onto a disc as possible, is to start being more imaginative.
One game I saw once didn't have anything in the way of DRM. In fact, they uploaded their own game to torrent sites. The torrented version did have a guilt screen though (which didn't appear in the game itself) in the installation screens, which encouraged players, if they enjoyed the game, to properly buy it and support the creators so they could keep making new games. From what I remember, it worked out pretty well for them.
I know this wouldn't work in all cases, but it's good to see that people are thinking of other, better ways to get people to buy their games than DRM.
Now, with Telltale Games games if I recall correctly you have to input your account details before you can play - it checks the server online to see if that actually is your account name and password and if you actually do own it.
Once you've done that, however, it's registered and you don't need to do it again.
The difference here is that originally Mass Effect and Spore required you to do it every 10 days and that they require you to be online every single time you try to run the game.
If I recall correctly, EA have since published statements saying those measures won't be in their games.
If I recall correctly BioShock was something about max installations.
I think that's it. I don't know. I'm tired.
I'll make a note not to call your offices and just e-mail all my Customer Service needs.
I did some more research on the issue and found out that as of May 12, EA announced that Spore will not have the crippling SecuROM, but some mumbo-jumbo about CD Key authorization that needs to be checked every time the game downloads new content (which will be every session, as marketted).
Thing is, even with this announcement, there are still people saying that EA is not getting rid of this SecuROM thing. I found stories from The Sims community saying that they've lost the ability to add music to iTunes or even burn a DVD of when their grandfather was alive because SecuROM thought the action was a form of piracy. There are ways around this program from what I've read as well.
Thing is, I don't know who to believe, and as my pre-order date gets closer to delivery, I find myself not being able to find more information on this issue.
Where else should I look? You know, as an educated gaming consumer...
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52547
And EA decided to took it off and allow the user to have offline play if it was not validated every 10 days.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/52618
However, I think they haven't really solve the problem. Since they are fighting against a bunch of programmers aimming to crack their software and validation system probabbly for challenge and fun, it's just a matter of time before they crack this one.
I guess the only solution is when they realize they have scare off game companies making games for PC.
Similarly, there are differences in DRM companies. SecuRom doesn't install anything extra on your computer (as far as I know), whereas Starforce was known for hiding all sorts of persistent drivers that couldn't be uninstalled, many of which broke lots of perfectly legal programs.
Really, one of the best sources for information is to load up the wikipedia page on DRM and peruse the External Links and Further Reading sections.
what telltale does seems reasonable to me...hothead got critizised for their penny arcade drm, because they also limit installations. from what i read the limitation is not that severe and only used to prevent people from doing several installations a week. ea is becoming quite nasty however and actually i don't feel comfortable buying from them. okay, the last ea game i bought was ultima9, i think...but now they also aquired bioware and i want my mass effect...:mad:
Ah, I still remember the last game I bought from EA... It was Skate or Die for my Commodore 64. That must have been over 15 years ago... memories.
I just hate limited installs, as I reformat my computer every 6 months or so.
anyway, it is sort of ridiculous that a major software developer believes two installations per lifetime would be enough...or just...or make any kind of sense, except forcing customers to buy a game twice.
an absolute limit of installations is something that simply makes me feel uneasy buying a product. i have no problem if the limitation is bound to a certain period of time...let's say, you can't install and activate a game two times a week..or even a month. that way you can prevent casual copying and still let the customer enjoy his/her product for countless years to come.
...or you give them a disc after all the downloadable content is released...but, i guess, only the really cool companies are doing stuff like this. being a cool company already helps a bit as well. people are a lot less tempted to steal your games, if they believe you are not trying to rip them off and don't give a :eek: about them. best copy protection ever...