Eliminate.. piracy?

[jezcentral]

Oh, I agree that not every pirate will buy. The 90% comes from server logs of people using pirated copies to play multiplayer versions of COD and Crysis. That's why I said 10%. That may seem a little bit high, but that means that if someone plays about one new game every month, then they just have to buy one game a year to double genuine sales. that sounds a reasonable thing to ask.

Ok can you explain why they can't stop online play from pirated games, i mean surely it would be easy for them to do?

That is truly one of life's mysteries. I have no idea.

[Psyk]

You can't play online on cracked games, that's why they want things like GFWL its basically DRM that encompasses single player and LAN play. I heard starcraft 2 going to make you sign into battle.net for LAN aswell. I pirate some games, if i can't afford it at the moment or i want to see how good it is. As an individual i do no damage to the company i wouldn't be in favor of legalising it, because then companies would really be damaged. I also buy games that i have pirated if they have been exceptionally good and i have 59 steam games most of those i could've pirated. So in short, yes pirates can be customers to and that's how steam is so successful by treating them as potential customers rather than excluding their business.

[Jamstruth]

I've mentioned this in other threads about piracy but Companies do want to stop piracy, yes we know. It potentially loses them money every year (although you can't really "lose" money you haven't gained so all the millions that they say they're losing are hypothetical and exaggerated) but they use stupid DRM techniques and the problem with these is that they just don't stop the hackers. The PC hacking scene is huge and any new protection get cracked incredibly quickly (anywhere from 2 weeks to 2 weeks before the release) so the companies end up screwing over their legit customers by making them put up with the crap. The ACII DRM is a good example. It requires a constant internet access so no offline gaming for you legit buyers meanwhile the pirates will patch the game so it sends to a fake server being run on your computer (perfectly possible) so they DO get offline gaming.

If companies stop DRM they will actually increase their revenue as people will not boycott their products, piracy might decrease slightly because guys who would have bought legitimately aren't pushed away by the horrible DRM techniques but it will probably remain high, just like it would have done with the DRM. It just doesn't work...

[jezcentral]

If companies stop DRM they will actually increase their revenue as people will not boycott their products

Jammy, I don't think it's as clear-cut as this. DRM is there to try and stop casual piracy. (I've read one article that likened it to locks on doors. It stops people passing in the street from popping inside and taking stuff, but it won't deter people who are determined to break in.) I don't think anyone (other than marketing types) pretends that DRM will stop the hardcore pirates.

If there was no DRM at all, I think we would see even more piracy, because it would be easier to do, and casual pirates would get involved.

[Jamstruth]

Disk encryption is fair enough Jez. The "casual piracy" you mentioned is pretty easy as you can just borrow a disc off somebody. This kinda stuff happens all the time, the intrusive DRM measures such as SecuROM and the ACII method just piss people off and you don't even get that initial sale to somebody. I suppose I could be called a pirate as most of my PC games have been through my brother first (Fallout 3, all my HL1 games, Morrowind etc.) They're still legit copies but I didn't buy them.

[Vimesy74]

What happened to the old school anti-piracy measures like asking for a random word from the manual? Used to say give me the 4th word on the 8th line of page 23 for example. Sure pirates could include a PDF of the manual but it's a start.

One of the things that makes me laugh is the use of pass keys. Install a game and it asks for your "key". You flick over your manual/case and enter the key found on the back. So where are these keys recorded? If I get an illegal copy of a game they normally give you 4 or 5 keys to use. Now surely this means that several people are using the same key so why aren't they blocked from playing it?

Admitedly more and more pirated games are coming "shipped with" key-gens but, again, it's a start.

[Jamstruth]

If I get an illegal copy of a game they normally give you 4 or 5 keys to use. Now surely this means that several people are using the same key so why aren't they blocked from playing it?

The key is like a barcode, all the numbers and letters have a value and they have to add up to the correct number for the game to install (the Check Digit, which I think is in the code, cunningly hidden) What Keygens do is make up a key which has the correct number after going through the calculations and ping install.
Most pirated games don't play online so online activation (where the legit codes are checked against a white-list) is avoided at all costs to stop blocking people from using the game.

[Enza]

Plus if you connect to the internet via an illegit code you're buggered anyway, most games can't "get to the master server"

[Jamstruth]

Plus if you connect to the internet via an illegit code you're buggered anyway, most games can't "get to the master server"

The end of my post wasn't the clearest. Illegit codes can't play online as the Matser Servers have a Whitelist of all legitimate codes on them, blocking any code which is not on that list from accessing it.

[Enza]

My rant comes again!

Bought C&C4 and the DRM says im not connected to the internet when i blatently am, a crack is in order and if the police raid my house my excuse is "im making a shitty DRM work."

[jezcentral]

I didn't buy C&C4 due to the always online thing. It's a shame as I would lobe to buy it and play out the end of Kane's storyline.

I hope they patch it out in the future, so I can buy it.

[willo745]

Well assuming anyone is still here this is also causing concern on consoles, especially the likes of EA. My mate cant play his copy of Mercs 2, it wont let him connect to the Ea servers, i had similar problem with Dragon Age (I know Jez), i couldn't access the servers hence no access to my dwnloads. Pc gaming needs to get easier to plug a game in and play. Otherwise Consoles will continue to dominate and the pc will no longer be a viable outlet because theres nobody coming to fill the gaps of older gamers.

[jezcentral]

PCs do have a plug-and-play system, Willo. It's called Steam.

[johnxtreeme]

i was reading about steam and i read about there anti cheating system or something
can someone explain that to me?

[jezcentral]

It has VAC, Valve Anti-Cheat. I don't know how it works, though,