For shame, Ubisoft.

[Scotty]

I'm quoting a dear friend of mine off another forum.  I think everyone can find at least some sense of agreement in something she says.  I personally think this is spot on:

They will never create a DRM that pirates cannot get around. Ever. Know why? They do this for fun. They love a new challenge, and that's exactly what new DRM schemes are to that sort of brain.

Every single new "haha, this'll stop em for sure!" DRM scheme that comes out comes down to nothing more than a brand new fun challenge for the big crack groups, and the prize is e-peen bragging rights. There is literally nothing you can do to stop people like that.

The only thing you can do to curb piracy is to produce good games, at a fair price, in a manner that is convenient, fast, and simple for your paying customers.

iTunes proved quite nicely that if you give people a fast, simple way to let them give you a reasonable amount of money for a product they previously might just have pirated off Limewire, they will. Hell, look at the recent Norwegian study that showed people who pirate music were also ten times as likely to buy music.

http://arstechnica.com/media/news/2009/04/study-pirates-buy-tons-more-music-than-average-folks.ars

Sure, the record companies have flagging sales, but that's because the way consumers are willing to purchase music changed drastically over the last decade or so, and the record companies still refuse to recognize that, for better or worse, their customers changed their business model for them.

Steam is another good example. I buy a crapton more games these days since I use Steam alot more. Hardly a week goes by I'm not tempted by either a Midweek Madness or Weekend deal. Sure, I may not buy many Triple A titles at full price the minute they come out anymore, but that has far more to do with the fact that I'm tired of spending 50 bucks on a game that's an over-hyped piece of crap, or a potentially great game, but it's so strangled by bugs until the first patch it's largely unplayable. On the other hand, I've bought 28 games off Steam just since the beginning of Steam's last month-long Holiday sale bonanza dealie-o, so i have such a big backlog of games I'm willing to wait a couple months till the first big glaring bugfix patch comes out and Steam has it on a weekend deal for 10-15 bucks off.

Game companies don't need to spend a hojillion dollars to make a great game, nor does having a huge budget mean it's going to be a great game. Spore didn't fail entirely due to pirates (though due, again, to craptastic DRM, more people than usual probably pirated out of sheer spite...I know I downloaded the copy I actually installed off Usenet and just used the retail key I'd purchased to register it), it failed because it was a sh*tty game. Avatar the video game didn't flop due to piracy, it failed because no one wants to play horrible movie ports that are barely a step above shovelware in game quality but millions were spent on licensing.

On the other hand, Torchlight, a budget game by an indie company, I bought at full price back in November for 20 bucks, have since bought, at various sale prices ($5-10), 5 additional copies for friends (via Steam, because buying games for friends is ridiculously easy to do in Steam), recommended to at least 7-8 more people and still load up every few weeks, because it is a ridiculously good and fun game, the company is active in their community, and gave modders a crazy good set of tools to play around with to extend playability even further. I don't know if sales numbers for the game have been released, but I read an interview with one of the devs that said they were very pleased with their preliminary numbers.

I won't even get into how sick I am of PC gaming bearing the brunt of the blame for game piracy when there's plenty of Xbox 360 pirating going around, and I am willing to bet quite alot of money I don't have that there's *far* more actual big-time professional pirates dealing in pirated 360 games than PC games. And they're actually *selling* those.

Piracy has become kind of the catch-all excuse for the total failure of media companies to willingly adapt their business model to the current environment of consumers. That album didn't sell well? It wasn't because the artist was an untalented-but-pretty hack who sings trite drivel (but according to test groups should totally do well!), it was piracy. That game failed? It wasn't because it was so buggy it wasn't playable for a month and a half till that first patch of major bugfixes came out, it was pirates. That 450KB e-book you were trying to sell for 19.99 fell off the NY Times bestseller list? Piracy, not the sheer ridiculousness of paying almost as much for a few KB of data as you would a hardcover book (and on that note, now that publishing companies are trying to force the 9.99 Amazon e-book format issue so they can charge what they think appropriate, i.e. 14.95+, watch em crying in about 6 months to a year about how piracy of e-books is killing them, there's no money in e-books, a bloo bloo bloo. Mark my words.)

So, to sum up. Quit making horrible, boring, bug-ridden, barely-better-than-shovelware in quality but still big-budget games and blaming their failure on piracy, quit giving us craptastically convoluted DRM schemes that make your willing-to-pay customers want to pirate your game to avoid, and give us a fast, no-bullsh*t way to pay you, let me download our games and get to playing them without alot of hassle (Steam, Good Old Games, etc.). That will reduce quite alot of "casual" piracy, as it did in the music industry with iTunes.

Hardcore pirates, crack groups, and groups who make big money on selling pirated games on street corners and markets? I dunno what to tell you, cause there's literally not a damn thing you can do to stop em. All you can really do is curb the desire for casual piracy as much as you can, and you can't do that by pissing off your paying customers with crazy DRM that is useless within a week of release anyways.

[Chaos]

That is EXACTLY what I believe.  There is not a single thing in that post that I would change.

[ARTgames]

and on that note, now that publishing companies are trying to force the 9.99 Amazon e-book format issue so they can charge what they think appropriate, i.e. 14.95+, watch em crying in about 6 months to a year about how piracy of e-books is killing them, there's no money in e-books, a bloo bloo bloo. Mark my words.

The publishers know people will pay $10-$20 for a book (my mother for example) and they can make even make more money because there is no dead tree involved.

Amazon was price fixing there stuff and publishers did not like it. publishers felt like Amazon was devaluing there books. Amazon did try and push back and removed a big publisher from there store but soon backed out and gave in.

Now Apple is out with this Ipad and publishers can use them as a point for there lever to push Amazon around.

You have now entered THE EBOOK WARS! please toon back in when the nook and ipad comes out!

Now for the rest of the post i agree and have been saying. Make it a tun more easier to buy then steal and people will most likely buy. But i also feel its not ok at any time to steal video games, music, or videos. Now buying them and then breaking there drm is ok (not legally ofcoures).

[Lingus]

I too agree with the above post. The one thing I want to point out is that the example of iTunes doesn't prove that selling the product at a reasonable price in a convenient manner will eliminate piracy. It will make people more likely to buy, but it will not eliminate piracy. The example actually shows that even with the iTunes model, people will continue to pirate... but you might make more sales anyways. The only thing that will eliminate piracy entirely would be to eliminate the ability to pirate, which will never happen. But if there's the possiblility then people will always be tempted regardless of how little it is actually saving them in money or convenience.

[Chaos]

I too agree with the above post. The one thing I want to point out is that the example of iTunes doesn't prove that selling the product at a reasonable price in a convenient manner will eliminate piracy. It will make people more likely to buy, but it will not eliminate piracy. The example actually shows that even with the iTunes model, people will continue to pirate... but you might make more sales anyways. The only thing that will eliminate piracy entirely would be to eliminate the ability to pirate, which will never happen. But if there's the possiblility then people will always be tempted regardless of how little it is actually saving them in money or convenience.

That's the thing.  It ISN'T possible.  There is no possibility, and there never will be.  Anything that can be programmed can be 'unprogrammed'.  The sooner they understand this fact, the better for everyone.

@Scotty:  Incidentally, that is exactly what I was talking about when I was saying that DRM isn't a deterrent. 

"They will never create a DRM that pirates cannot get around. Ever. Know why? They do this for fun. They love a new challenge, and that's exactly what new DRM schemes are to that sort of brain."

The people who crack it see it as a challenge, and the people who follow only have to use the crack made by the former.  Thus, as much as the companies wish to claim it, it can't even be classified as a deterrent, because it achieves nothing in the way of preventing pirating. :-X

[Lingus]

I too agree with the above post. The one thing I want to point out is that the example of iTunes doesn't prove that selling the product at a reasonable price in a convenient manner will eliminate piracy. It will make people more likely to buy, but it will not eliminate piracy. The example actually shows that even with the iTunes model, people will continue to pirate... but you might make more sales anyways. The only thing that will eliminate piracy entirely would be to eliminate the ability to pirate, which will never happen. But if there's the possiblility then people will always be tempted regardless of how little it is actually saving them in money or convenience.

That's the thing.  It ISN'T possible.  There is no possibility, and there never will be.  Anything that can be programmed can be 'unprogrammed'.  The sooner they understand this fact, the better for everyone.

In other words, there will always be piracy in some form or another. The only way to entirely eliminate it would be to give away the product for free AND make it MORE easily available and accessible than it would be to pirate AND remove any hint of advertising. Which will obviously never happen, so yea... there will always be piracy.

[Jake]

Piracy might go away one day. Can anyone say cloud computing?

[ARTgames]

i already have....on page 4 of this topic!
http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=769.msg20422#msg20422

[Cactuscat222]

While I agree that piracy will never go away... that doesn't mean no measures should be put in place to prevent it.

Crime will never go away, but that doesn't stop us from putting laws and punishments in place to deter people from causing them. Yes, current DRM screws over the buyer - however, I think its fair that the companies seek out ways to prevent it to the best of their ability, so that only the hardcore junkies can get through it, and not your average computer user.

[Jake]

i already have....on page 4 of this topic!
http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=769.msg20422#msg20422

I talked about it on page 1 or 2! HA I win!

Cactus: Sadly, the average computer user can pirate whatever they want.

[ARTgames]

i already have....on page 4 of this topic!
http://www.stick-online.com/boards/index.php?topic=769.msg20422#msg20422

I talked about it on page 1 or 2! HA I win!

i dont see it!

Cactus: Sadly, the average computer user can pirate whatever they want.

i will not say every one but its close to it.

[Chaos]

While I agree that piracy will never go away... that doesn't mean no measures should be put in place to prevent it.

Crime will never go away, but that doesn't stop us from putting laws and punishments in place to deter people from causing them. Yes, current DRM screws over the buyer - however, I think its fair that the companies seek out ways to prevent it to the best of their ability, so that only the hardcore junkies can get through it, and not your average computer user.

DRM doesn't prevent pirating.  DRM doesn't DETER pirating.  There's evidence that DRM even CAUSES some people to pirate.  Your analogy doesn't work.

[Scotty]

While I agree that piracy will never go away... that doesn't mean no measures should be put in place to prevent it.

Crime will never go away, but that doesn't stop us from putting laws and punishments in place to deter people from causing them. Yes, current DRM screws over the buyer - however, I think its fair that the companies seek out ways to prevent it to the best of their ability, so that only the hardcore junkies can get through it, and not your average computer user.

I understand what you are saying, as I've fought that battle earlier in this topic for you, and I can even understand the necessity for companies to try and protect their income, but the part that I do disagree with, is that it takes ONE "hardcore junky" to crack it, then the average computer user can pirate it.

[Jake]

My bad Art, bottom of page 3.

[ARTgames]

My bad Art, bottom of page 3.

i see it now. yup you beat me to it.