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I MIGHT go back to Piracy...

Started by Prozak Oct 25, 2007 at 9:58 AM 89 replies 13.3k views

Original Post

Oct 25, 2007 at 9:58 AM

Hi there fellow GameDevers... regarding the title of this thread, no, I won't give into piracy, but it's just how I feel right now, how the industry seems to want me to feel... ...or perhaps that is a bit harsh. Not the industry, just EA, just that Nexus of Evil. You can read everything here, but I'll summarize it for you. EA has this digital store software, similar to Steam, you buy a game and the software allows you to download it. I used it to buy Command & Conquer 3 a few months back. Right now over lunch a friend of mine was going to pre-order Crytek's Crysis. He called me over to ask me if he should purchase the "2 year extension". I was confused... what was this two year extension deal? When I got back to my PC I dug and dug and found some answers. EA's digital download store, EA Link, had been shut down. Great stuff... Under the new service you have a set time period where you can download your game, default seems to be 6 months, if you pay the extra 4$ you can up that to 2 years. This whole affair just saddens me. Yes I know this is EA, but the whole industry seems to be going hand in hand with the movie industry and their paranoid dealings in enforcing DRM, to the point where certified BlueRay tabletop readers can't read a certified BlueRay movie. Recently I bought World in Conflict. It comes with SecureROM, and SecureROM and Visual Studio don't seem to play nice together. Apart from that, I need to have the DVD in the drive to play the f*cking game I bought. My neighbor probably downloaded his copy off of eMule and burnt it to a 30 cent dvd, and he's as happy as a clam, he doesn't have to jump through hoops, so why have I? Before that it was the Bioshock demo with a rootkit (I don't care about discussing semantics here, it installed something I, the user, wasn't aware. In my book that is a rootkit). I was so turned off by that I haven't touched the demo or bought the game. I can still remember getting home with a copy of Warcraft 3, still hot, opening the box, installing it, and the game refusing to run because apparently I had a DVD burner drive, and that HAS to mean I'm a goddamn pirating king... Long story short, went online, downloaded the no-CD version of the warcraft executable, and played it. Why Crytek went to bed with EA is beyond me, they should have partnered with Valve. I haven't had a single problem with Steam. Perhaps even better than Steam is Stardock's system. Allows you to pack up a game into something you can burn, the original game files, the patches, the mods, even savegames I think. I just loved seeing it work when I bough Galactic Civilizations 2. Industry hear my plea, I have no problem spending my hard earned money in your products, but please do make it worthwhile for me, don't make it so people who are pirating your software are the ones having the superior experience!

OrangyTang

Oct 25, 2007 at 10:25 AM

I can understand the attraction - piracy has lots of advantages with little or no downsides. Someday I may return to piracy as well. The smell of sea air, the spray of the sea in your face - ah, good times. Plus the swashbuckling of course.

Sneftel

Oct 25, 2007 at 10:26 AM

Quote:
Original post by Prozak
Perhaps even better than Steam is Stardock's system. Allows you to pack up a game into something you can burn, the original game files, the patches, the mods, even savegames I think. I just loved seeing it work when I bough Galactic Civilizations 2.

I'm with you there. Any digital distribution service, of ANYTHING, needs to either (a) make it simple and easy to burn the thing to a DVD, or (b) allow you to download it forever. It is beyond unreasonable that a hard disk crash should result in you having to buy a piece of software again.

Moe

Oct 25, 2007 at 10:36 AM

Your reaction is completely understandable. I think you should write a letter to EA complaining - how else will they know that you are displead with thier product? It's not like they troll the forums here...

I seriously wonder what would happen if someone released a game (a big title, not some small indy game) without any copy protection at all - just a nice little screen at the beginning that says "Please, don't copy this."

eedok

Oct 25, 2007 at 11:22 AM

Lets see, recently I've bought 3 commercial PC games(Dark Crusade, Quake 4, Hellgate(hopefully the full version will be just like the demo/beta)) and part of the purchasing factor for these games were that they don't require the disc to play. Before purchasing a game look to make sure they don't use crazy restrictive measures on their discs, and if they do make sure they know you didn't purchase their game because of it. Some companies(like Relic) will give in and release a patch while some others will just outright ignore you.

Another option is to start looking into indy games. They're starting to get a lot closer to the quality of commercial games these days. Plus I've yet to see an indy game with crazy copying restrictions

Avatar God

Oct 25, 2007 at 11:25 AM

At this point, if a game isn't released on Steam, it's pretty damn unlikely that I'm going to buy it. Crysis may be the exception, but even that may wait until I've got a computer worth running it on - and I'd prefer to buy it from the store than go through any more of EA's online muckups.

generic_name

Oct 25, 2007 at 11:28 AM

I know what you mean about pirated games being easier. I downloaded both Half Life 2 and Episode One because I couldn't justify spending $50 for a game I'm going to play once. Thats literally what I did, went through both on easy to see what the fuss was about and deleted the install and torrents. But anyway, Half Life 2 had a mock Steam server running so the game though everything was alright and Episode One just seemed to bybass it all. None of the tomfoolerly of a DRM system and all the fun of the game. The more DRM stuff the more piracy will become popular. There are cheap bastards like me who just don't want to pay for a game. But I think a lot just don't want to go through the B.S. and want it like the old days where you just pop a CD in and the game plays.

Prozak

Oct 25, 2007 at 11:29 AM

Quote:
Original post by Moe
Your reaction is completely understandable. I think you should write a letter to EA complaining - how else will they know that you are displeased with their product?

Oh, don't worry, I'm going to voice my displeasure with the only means they seem to understand, by not buying their products, period, yes, because at the end of the day it's us consumers that empower these companies to behave the way they do.

Take away their money and they are quick to do our biding. What many companies fail time and time again to understand is that a happy costumer is a returning costumer.

Some have already understood this, Valve, Blizzard, Stardock, to name a few...

To companies like EA, all we are left do to is publicly tell them, NO MORE!

Extrarius

Oct 25, 2007 at 12:14 PM

Somebody needs to do something!

What really needs to happen is that a new lobby group working for digital rights needs to be formed so that we can get laws passed to protect the consumers of digital goods. Unfortunately, I have none of the required things (time, money, or relevant skill) to start such a thing =-(

About the only thing I have is a really basic idea for a domain name - "Vote Digital Rights".com is not taken should anybody want to use it for such a good cause. I can also provide free web hosting to anybody that wants to take a serious stab at organizing a group to try to fix the situation. Something like the FSF but for digital rights would be very nice, and could probably win quite a few class action laws suits (I'm not a lawyer and this is not legal advice).

Luckless

Oct 25, 2007 at 12:23 PM

Quote:
Original post by Moe
Your reaction is completely understandable. I think you should write a letter to EA complaining - how else will they know that you are displead with thier product? It's not like they troll the forums here...

I seriously wonder what would happen if someone released a game (a big title, not some small indy game) without any copy protection at all - just a nice little screen at the beginning that says "Please, don't copy this."

I've been writing up a research proposal that I will hopefully get around to finishing (well, actually finding it)

My theory is that if AAA titles were released in jewel cases for $4 at most local stores, they would have a higher profit than selling it for $50 by simple volume.

Iron Chef Carnage

Oct 25, 2007 at 12:50 PM

PC gaming is in a tight spot. I was amused by all the complaints about Portal's compatibility. Wrong card, wrong drivers, install patches, manually edit files... I played it on the XBox 360. Maybe console gaming in the answer to all these problems.

Extrarius

Oct 25, 2007 at 12:56 PM

Quote:
Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
[...]Maybe console gaming in the answer to all these problems.

Not until they have 104+ button controllers (aka 'Keyboards') and mice that are the standard inputs supported by most games. And, of course, they'll need to innovate a way to make both devices comfortable for gaming away from a desk.

eedok

Oct 25, 2007 at 12:58 PM

Quote:
Original post by generic_name
I know what you mean about pirated games being easier. I downloaded both Half Life 2 and Episode One because I couldn't justify spending $50 for a game I'm going to play once. Thats literally what I did, went through both on easy to see what the fuss was about and deleted the install and torrents. But anyway, Half Life 2 had a mock Steam server running so the game though everything was alright and Episode One just seemed to bybass it all. None of the tomfoolerly of a DRM system and all the fun of the game. The more DRM stuff the more piracy will become popular. There are cheap bastards like me who just don't want to pay for a game. But I think a lot just don't want to go through the B.S. and want it like the old days where you just pop a CD in and the game plays.

Why didn't you just wait till now and buy it for $10? You know you don't have to buy games the day they come out.

generic_name

Oct 25, 2007 at 1:23 PM

Quote:
Original post by eedok
Why didn't you just wait till now and buy it for $10? You know you don't have to buy games the day they come out.

Plus the $15-$20 for Episode One. I buy games, I'm all over Call of Duty 4 when it comes out, I also have a large collection of boxes in my closet. I was just saying when you can download the warez version of a game and its easier to play then the retail then there is a problem at large. And literally just about all I had to do was unRAR the games and I was playing.

Iron Chef Carnage

Oct 25, 2007 at 1:26 PM

Quote:
Original post by Extrarius
Quote:
Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
[...]Maybe console gaming in the answer to all these problems.
Not until they have 104+ button controllers (aka 'Keyboards') and mice that are the standard inputs supported by most games. And, of course, they'll need to innovate a way to make both devices comfortable for gaming away from a desk.

How do you figure? With a few exceptions, current gameplay systems can be managed amply on a gamepad, and with the exception of high-precision clicking (i.e. headshots), two analog sticks is less clumsy than WASD for navigating 3D environments. Add in analog shoulder buttons and you've got way more input control than a keyboard and mouse at your fingertips. Unless you're typing or clicking, Gamepads are preferable.

To me.

necromancer_df

Oct 25, 2007 at 1:49 PM

Quote:
Original post by generic_name
...like the old days where you ~~just pop a CD in and the game plays~~ have to enter a specific word from the game manual before it lets you play

Corrected.

Just to add my 2p, it's a classic case of the copy protection only hurting the legitimate users. Any idiot these days can get hold of illegal downloads and play the games hassle free. Us legitimate users on the other hand have to fumble around in a stack of cds/dvds (which by now are probably all scratched due to the amount they have to be handled) every time we want to play a game. It's rediculous. Some people don't like steam, but at least with games you bought through there it's less hassle (so long as your internet connection is up and the servers never go down).

zedz

Oct 25, 2007 at 1:50 PM

Quote:
I've been writing up a research proposal that I will hopefully get around to finishing (well, actually finding it)

My theory is that if AAA titles were released in jewel cases for $4 at most local stores, they would have a higher profit than selling it for $50 by simple volume.

whilst i would love to see $4 games, i dont believe your theory is true (or not even close)
youve gotta factor in developement costs, marketing, if for a console then u have to pay sony/nintendo/ms $5-$10 a game as well

Extrarius

Oct 25, 2007 at 1:55 PM

Quote:
Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
[...]How do you figure? With a few exceptions, current gameplay systems can be managed amply on a gamepad, and with the exception of high-precision clicking (i.e. headshots), two analog sticks is less clumsy than WASD for navigating 3D environments. Add in analog shoulder buttons and you've got way more input control than a keyboard and mouse at your fingertips. Unless you're typing or clicking, Gamepads are preferable.

To me.

A gamepad for movement is better than WASD, but a mouse is vastly superior for precision input like aiming. Also, for a game like an RTS you need tons of buttons because you need to be able to quickly input many commands. For an RPG, a keyboard can greatly simplify the interface as well.
When they're not crappy ports, games on the PC and console have vastly different input mechanism and IMO the PC input mechanism is superior for RTS and RPGs at least.

For FPSes, I think a joystick for moving and a mouse for aiming would be best, but I've never found a joystick that was accurate enough to compete with the keyboards digital greatness. N-direction gamepads can compete, but they're digital just like keyboards. I haven't seen a quality analog input before, and games that use them have to make serious concessions to make them work IME. That isn't to say you can't get used to them, merely that in getting used to them you're giving something up.

Moe

Oct 25, 2007 at 2:02 PM

Quote:
Original post by Iron Chef Carnage
To me.

Exactly. I MUCH prefer to play with a keyboard and mouse. I am sure there are plenty of people on both sides of the fence with this one.

Phaz

Oct 25, 2007 at 2:05 PM

I wonder which big game studio will be the first to release their game for free online having people pay what they want for it like Radiohead did.

Yes, lots of people wouldn't pay, or wouldn't pay much for it, but I can't imagine that the studio actually gets a large chunk of that $49-$59 you pay for a game as it is. $5-$10 directly to them could be a big improvement.

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