june gloom on 20/10/2008 at 05:22
Koki do you like to pick pointless arguments that have already been going 'round and 'round because it provides you some sort of satisfaction or gratification? Perhaps on a sexual or emotional level? Because you really should seek therapy.
The entire point of this is money, and that's the whole problem. They want to wrest control of the product from the hands of the consumer, and dictate to them what they should buy and what they can do with it. They're trying to protect their investment by forcing the customer to buy into their system- which is the wrong way to go about it, as we've seen, because by and large the customer, who wants to actually use the goddamn thing he paid for in the manner he wants to use it, will rebel and just get it some other way, either from another legitimate seller without these silly DRM hangups or through outright theft- circumventing having to deal with corporate bullshit.
Consumers have rights- because it's their money they're buying these things with. DRM takes away those rights, and that's why people hate it.
Scots Taffer on 20/10/2008 at 05:33
Actually when consumers can't get the goods or services they want (in the way they want it), they typically buy something else from someone else - they don't break into the companies warehouse at night and unload a few palettes for themselves.
The_Raven on 20/10/2008 at 05:41
Theft isn't quite the same thing as copyright infringement.
Scots Taffer on 20/10/2008 at 05:52
Back to this old chestnut. I tried to make the example vague FOR A REASON.
Aja on 20/10/2008 at 06:43
Quote Posted by Scots Taffer
Actually when consumers can't get the goods or services they want (in the way they want it), they typically buy something else from someone else - they don't break into the companies warehouse at night and unload a few palettes for themselves.
hahaha oh yes
Fafhrd on 20/10/2008 at 06:47
Quote Posted by The_Raven
Theft isn't quite the same thing as copyright infringement.
Downloading a cracked game is theft. DISTRIBUTING a cracked game is copyright infringement.
Quote:
Game publishers will only be able to pull crazy shit like this if the market supports it. If intrusive DRM has developed a stigmata that significantly hurts their bottom line, then they won't use it.
I think it's been proven to be far more likely that they'll just abandon the platform that they feel they're losing money on. I don't like DRM, but if you're going to pirate a game just because it has some form of DRM, then all you're doing is pushing the publisher into using more stringent protections on their later products, and eventually stop making PC games altogether.
Scots Taffer on 20/10/2008 at 06:50
^ This.
redrain85 on 20/10/2008 at 07:02
Quote Posted by Fafhrd
I don't like DRM, but if you're going to pirate a game just because it has some form of DRM, then all you're doing is pushing the publisher into using more stringent protections on their later products, and
eventually stop making PC games altogether.
They can't. Or, more like, won't.
Why? Because without games, nVidia and ATI won't be able to constantly sell new video cards any more. And they won't make as much profit by providing the guts of consoles, as they do by providing discrete cards.
AMD and Intel might be able to weather it a little better, because CPUs have a broad enough range of applications that they'll still continue to sell. But, who are we kidding here . . . games also sell the majority of CPU upgrades.
Companies like nVidia, Intel, and AMD will bribe the game publishers into continuing to do PC games.
But, for the forseeable future, I can see the majority of publishers continuing to treat PC owners as second-rate customers with third-rate ports. :grr:
Slasher on 20/10/2008 at 07:49
I don't mind the publishers protecting their property, but they really need to refine their DRM protocols so legitimate users aren't left with coasters after a few weeks.
It's funny this is being discussed now because earlier today, out of the blue, I loaded my copy of Crysis Warhead only to be told I had exceeded the maximum number of installs and had to go "repurchase" the game and reinstall. Since mine was the only machine it had been installed on and the only hardware change that had occurred since that time was a video card swap, I did not find this amusing. I say "out of the blue" because the game had ran fine for a good week after the video card was installed, and the only thing that I think could possibly have triggered this was me messing with GPU/memory clock speeds in EVGA Precision, nTune, etc.
I don't know if EA Tech Support could have helped. I'd like to think I would have gotten through immediately on my first call, given them my CD key, and had them unlock my copy of the game remotely somehow. In any event, an 850kb .dll from some torrent site got things running as I payed for them to run, so it's cool.
I don't know how many other people have had experiences like mine, but if current copy protection is defeated by downloading a <1MB .dll and putting it in the game's folder, what's the point?
Matthew on 20/10/2008 at 10:43
Slightly off-topic but perhaps relevant point: I am at the stage of possibly making a small claim against [a leading online purveyor of books, CDs and everything else - Ed] in respect of some eBooks that I can no longer read, as I don't have the computer they were downloaded on any more and they are being arses about activation.
Edit: also Slasher, the old DRM that hates so many of the newer DVD-burners is massively annoying to me, to the point where I'm having to download '.exe assisters' for the first time since my early Amiga days.
