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DRM 'A Waste of Time,' Says World of Goo Dev
by Chris Faylor, Mar 23, 2009 3:00pm PDTUtilizing digital rights management as a means to prevent piracy is "a waste of time," according to 2D Boy co-founder and World of Goo co-creator Ron Caramel.
"Don't bother with DRM," he said during a GDC 09 talk attended by GameSpot. "You just end up giving the DRM provider money. Anything that is of interest gets cracked, and the cracked version ends up having a better user experience than the legit version because you don't have to input in some 32-character serial number."
The topic of digital rights management has become increasingly controversial, as publishers feel they must make some effort to prevent piracy while protesters complain that DRM punishes legitimate buyers with install limits and online activations.
"We don't see the point in having DRM," he added. "Anybody who wants the game is likely to find it on BitTorrent sites. It's going to get cracked even with DRM, it's going to be available very quickly."
Comments
OK, I'm on an x64 OS (which I have reasons for using, reasons that are none of your fucking business and have no bearing on this topic), and I just installed KOTOR (for the record, I legally own this game) and I tried to run it. The wonderful DRM which is there to protect their investment kept the game from launching. Went to Bioware's website and there's no patch to remove or even upgrade the copy protection. I didn't pirate this game, why is the DRM affecting me? In the end I had to crack the game and what do you know... it worked like a charm. Good job DRM! You kept an honest user from using their purchase.
Sure, I could have went out and purchase a license for a 32 bit OS, repartition (or fuck it, buy yet another harddrive) and install it just for this game. Sure, I could have blown > $100 for a $19.99 game. But I didn't. Clearly I'm a horrible pirate.
The real rub is that there are pro-DRM asswipes out there claiming it's all just a case of "nerd-rage" which is just a weak reply to an argument they CAN'T WIN because they aren't intelligent enough to refute the problems with DRM.
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 3 replies.
Or even, the publishers' unwillingness to embrace change. The internet is now fast enough for us to download movies and games rather quickly. And our computers are fast enough to decrypt DRM. The people that guy games legitimately have to deal with the DRM the old fashioned ways. Internet activation, serial keys, keep the disc in the tray, etc... This stuff only makes it harder for people with perhaps limited gaming time to spend as much time enjoying their purchase. Hence, they stop buying as much.
Hence why pc gaming has been suffering so badly. Ease of use. Not to mention the fact that windows is a junky mix of 20 puzzle boxes with 2000 missing pieces. So as you try to load up some game, you may not be able to because of some other puzzle piece conflicting with it, or not being up to date enough.
I do think though that Steam makes it simple enough to help. It's the way to go for sure. Or just get a console and things are simpler anyhow. No serial keys or install time needed. The puzzle pieces all fit.
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