28% of Gamers avoid protected games.

[Robert Kosek]

A digital copyright protection company has conducted a survey that found “only” 28 percent of consumers avoid protected games
http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3910&Itemid=2

Food for thought for all ya'll.

[WILL]

So what is left to play besides Java/Flash-based web browser games?

And what kinds of game do these people play...???

[Robert Kosek]

Games that are independant, or copy-free such as Galactic Cilvilizations 2. It's really on the corporate level that the design companies start needing to pay attention. No, we don't want our PCs bogged down or randomly rebootted because your copy protection drivers say we're doing something questionable.

[cairnswm]

I have many cracked games at home. It allows me and my kids to play the game without the CD.

However for every cracked game I have the game bought legally in my cupboard. Its just easier for the kids to play if they dont need a CD.

[jasonf]

“I am not against copy protection. I am against copy protection that treats gamers like criminals or inconveniences them,” Wardell concluded.

I absolutely agree with this part.

I think he makes a good point but I'm not 100% that his approach, to shy away from copy protection completely is wise

In my option, the Anti-Copy industry is making life difficult for pirates and regular gamers alike because they are implementing overly heavy handed solutions to the problem. It becomes a real pain for regular players.. Take Half Life 2 for example. Although I never purchased it myself (I was put off by the copy protection) I heard of plenty of people who installed the game then had to wait for a long time for their copy to be authenticated.. the fact that it doesn't even mention this on the box was suprising. I was really excited when it came out, I almost brought a copy then backed out.. I'm not a criminal and don't want to be treated as one.. and I don't want some spyware on my machine checking that my version is legal. HL2 is not that important.

But on the flip side, I understand Valve's reasons for using something like Steam. But their sourcecode being stolen is their own fault for leaving their servers unsecured.

There was another game which I saw called "Ragdoll Kung Foo" which looked awesome. I wanted to purchase it.. and found it was only available over Steam.. Great! Another game sale lost.

I purchased another Game "XIII", A really cool looking anime style FPS which I really got into. I shut it down then later, went to play it again and it wouldn't recognise the CD.. turns out there's a problem with the copy protection on some drives. I've never played it since.

I've no problem entering CD Keys though or receiving a Key via email.

[Andreaz]

The newly released Company Of Heroes from Relic is free from any form of copy protection aswell (still need serial to register a online account through, but thats a one time thing).

And on top on that its a really fun game to, i have the original purhcased :)

[czar]

Company of Heroes is an amazing game.

I got it last week - can't stop playing. I got the collectors edition - comes in a tin box. Nice.

I put a no-cd crack on all my games. Finding a cd is a pain in the butt.

[tanffn]

Wow sounds surpassingly high.. I always download a pirate copy of the game, and if I like the game I buy it (I even bought 3 copies of MOOIII, that are still in the wrapper, even thought the game came out unplayable).

Point is I never encountered a game that didn’t have a ‘patch’ and it sounds like all of those protection layers effect the legal gamer then the illegal one... maybe sticking with the old faction technique of CD-Key is the way to go, blocking updates and online playing (dynamic DB that keeps a set of produced keys and used keys).

[jasonf]

Online games seem to have it the easiest. Games like Eve-Online.. you can download the client for free.. but you need an active account to play.. It's impossible to pirate because there's nothing to copy that you can sell or use without an account.

I can't think of a decent system that doesn't have some penalty for the average user or require a constant service to be provided from the vendor.

I've seen all manner of Anti-Piracy techniques in my time, from plastic lenses you put over a box on the TV to help to unscramble a code on the screen to badly printed code sheets, black paper with gloss black ink that can only be read at an angle, in good light.. but defeated photocopiers..

I could never get the Lenslock thingy to work, it required some sort of voodoo majeek to get it working that I never understood. Probably involving bouncing a laser off a full moon or something. The codesheets are great for someone with perfect vision but make the game useless as soon as the codesheet is lost/damaged. Some games used images and codes in the manual to be looked up.. but it's all hassle.

Long ago, On my old Spectrum, the big companies would use extremely sensitive tape recording systems so that if you recorded the tape to another, it wouldn't work.. but it just meant that the chances of it not working on some legal persons PC were higher.. again, the regular joe suffers.

All of these techniques rely on something tangible, Something physical, something else.. which is not the game. which can be lost/destroyed or stolen. Does this mean the license to play the game is the protection itself? When the means to authenticate the game have dissappeared, so does the right to play?

If I build protection into a game which relies on a server and a database to generate keys and keep track of legal versions, then that's an expense that I'd have to pay and as soon as it becomes unprofitable to keep that server running, it would be shut down. If this server authenticates each time the game starts, that's it.. game's dead. No more.. finito.. unless, someone hacks it, removes the copy protection and releases a version on the net. Or I release a version without protection.

It is a good reason to not include protection in the first place.. but then there's no incentive at all to buy the game.

Unless I provide a free download for the demo and then only let registered/paid up members download the full game.. what a dilema..

[savage]

I think the shareware model is not ideal, but the best of the worst case scenarios. Try before you buy didn't stop Doom or Quake becoming the mega-hits that they became and Id is where it is today because it started from those humble beginnings.

Anyway you cut it, someone will probably want to get something for free.
At least give them a trial version and then get them to pay for the full version once their appetites are wetted. Just like pushing drugs, only crunchy.

[Robert Kosek]

If I build protection into a game which relies on a server and a database to generate keys and keep track of legal versions, then that's an expense that I'd have to pay and as soon as it becomes unprofitable to keep that server running, it would be shut down. If this server authenticates each time the game starts, that's it.. game's dead. No more.. finito.. unless, someone hacks it, removes the copy protection and releases a version on the net. Or I release a version without protection. Jason, one check per install/update is adaquate. That means they can install it and then use it while offline. And if you are going to remove the server email all your registered users and give them a full copy of the game minus the protection as a reward for sticking with you. ;) You'd keep me plenty happy this way. Or if once per update/install isn't enough for you, just make it check weekly or monthly. The always at startup check isn't really required.

[WILL]

Anyone here old enough to remember the kinds of copy protection they had in the ole' DOS days, way before the standard 'cd key approach' as we know it today?

The most interesting one was Sierra's games. They would ask you 3 or so questions. And if you answered with the correct word or symbols it would allow you to play further.

There was 2 types that I can recall; 1 was where they'd give you the paragraph, line and word numbers and you had to type in that word. The other was a pinwheel (or a simple fold-open card) that they would ship with the game and you had to line up a number of symbols and click on the symbol that matched the pattern.

And this was back in the late-80s to mid-90s. Same thing, different medium. Of course computer users where far less patient with anything-computer back then anyhow. Boot an old 386 with DOS 5 up and you'll know what I mean. ;)

I find it funny that even after 20 years big companies are still having anti-piracy debates like it's day one. :lol:

[jdarling]

Well, Autocad used to use a hardware dongle (you could build your own if you knew what you were doing). Then there was the scratch and sniff codes for Infocom, and I seem to remember a few games that shiped with decoder rings (much like your other pin wheel).

Of course we also had MajorBBS for multi-user back then, and 300 baud blue box modems for our commador's that you could build yourself from parts readily available from RadioShack (before they sucked).

[czar]

I remember the password wheel.s Three rings and you had to set eachone in order to get the right password. A pain to make - oops!

Others used the "type in word from page 67". The paper was printed on special brown paper - very hard to photocopy :)

I had a version of Pascal for my amstrad where you had to find the colour in a large grid of colours gievn a row and column to look up - that was a right pain in the arse to do as they dots were quite small.

[marmin]

“68 percent of consumers are happy with a technology that protects games without impacting game play -- even if the solution allows a minute or more of delay.”
I'm surprised..
I don't buy a lot of games, but my music programs use protection in the form of online authorisation . it kind of 'sucks' , but it's a good way and I'm used to it now.

[cronodragon]

I remember Larry Leisure Suit for DOS had a kid-protection... it asked question about USA history and so, it was hard even for adults lol

[WILL]

:lol: Now thats innovative! :D

Amazing how some good ideas get lost with time huh?