Ask a hundred PC game developers about
piracy, and you're likely to come away with at least as many ideas on how to keep games from being flown beneath the Jolly Roger. There's even those who have
thrown up their arms already, sailing instead for calmer console waters or opting just to keep piracy '
in perspective.' However, when it comes to
Mass Effect dev BioWare, fighting piracy is as trivial as simply making games that people want to buy by nurturing customer fidelity through DLC and engaging multiplayer options.
"That's ultimately the best, most successful path to prevent piracy," noted BioWare's co-CEO Ray Muzyka, "to have players that want your games, want to believe in them and think they're high-quality and realize they're going to get a lot of value out of them as platforms for long time afterwards." It's a great theory, though we imagine that getting players to want your game isn't exactly the problem; it's getting them to open their wallets for them that's the trick.
(Page 1) Reader Comments
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:P
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It was the nasty drm by securemom( i beleive thats the drm company) that made ppl feel violated which I agree should have been watered down a bit so it wouldnt turn ppl off.
And whether it was EA's decision or not its Bioware's child, as a developer they could've step up to EA instead of being man-handled so badly...
Also, it's spelled SecuROM, just so you know.
Copy protection isn't a piracy-deterrent, it's a sales-deterrent.
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But make a game good enough and that alone will curb some (I repeat, some) of the problem.
I like what BioWare is saying.
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When I purchase a game I want to play it, not pre-activate, install, activate, register, validate game assets (I'm looking at you, Valve), and finally, FINALLY play the damn game.
It should be install then play. Period.
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This is sarcasm for you that are slow and/or Democrats.
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Not that I want to stray too far off topic here...
@LaughingTarget
Wrong on numerous accounts. IQ tests aren't always perfectly accurate, but they are a reasonable gauge of ones mental ability, especially when you look at groups of people instead of just one or two. Also, most science related fields are pretty liberal, while conservatives have a lock on economic related fields.
Why do you think college campuses/professors are always so liberal?
Liberals certainly don't flock to Universities for the pay.
Also, engineers and chemists tend to heavily favor conservatism, as to financial and accounting professionals as you mentioned. To get in these fields requires a college education. Working as an educator tends to attract leftists (I refuse to let liberal be hijacked, Jefferson was a liberal, FDR and current Dems are leftists), but actually attaining higher education doesn't favor a political leaning.
To expect every game company to allow their products to be used as defined by each user alone would be back breaking for them. Besides, the vast majority of PC gamers are fine with the security measures.
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So what's a better solution? I can't say. The bottom line is that BioWare is entitled to receive money for their games, just like everyone else.
If Bioware actually did what the guy was saying, I'd buy their games, but any game that comes bundled with uninstallable malware, I won't buy.
Bioshock and Mass Effect and Spore will never find their way onto my PC, until SecuROM dies.
If something like this happened to you PS3, Wii, or 360 fans you'd be at EA's door with pitchforks and torches.
As far as the guy basically saying its not fair you can lend console games to friends and not pc games - I fail to see how that matters at all. What does the PC market care that you can lend a console game to people? If anything, they would rather console games were not shared at all either.
The guy next door to me drives a much nicer car than I do, why don't I get to drive such a nice car!? Life doesn't work that way. PC games are not console games. His car is not my car.
It makes me happy that 64bit OS's tend to be almost immune to rootkits. On the flipside, DRM'd games tend to crash fairly often when they go looking for their own software.
You could ask to drive the nice man's shiny new car. If you two are buds, it might actually happen. I know I certainly wouldn't loan my console game to somebody I didn't know.
P.S. Console games are not inherantly less piratable - it's just more of a PITA to modchip or hack your console but once you have the ability to copy one console game you can copy all of them.
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The only game that I might want on PC would be Spore.
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I know that it's an unpopular opinion on the internet, but as an artist, I can understand why piracy is wrong and I pay for my music / movies / games. It's only fair that the people responsible get paid for the work they put into the product.
Don't get me wrong - I completely despise the RIAA / MPAA for the way they handle these things, and I know that the money you put into these products doesn't always find a way back into the hands of the people doing all the grunt work, but frankly, I'd rather not see another good game franchise go bust just because too many assholes felt entitled to play for free.
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I do believe in supporting the publishers by purchasing their software. I wish I could go back in time and buy psychonauts instead of just renting it (partial support).
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Economics and all that.
The trouble is, it may not be enough. I'm sad to say it's all too easy to encounter people who have had this value. They've played games for months if not years. Had productive communities they've formed and been involved in for years. All based on PC games none of them have paid for. These are often people with plenty of income. I know these people exist.
One interesting experience (though this isn't the only way I encounter them) was WoW, as it was probably the first MMO to see an influx of FPS players. One thing way too many people said was WoW was the first game they'd paid for in ages as they copied everything else. This was despite the fact they formed guilds and communities around them that lasted years. And they still didn't want to pay 30 GBP for that.
There is a good number of people who just don't believe they should pay.
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Meanwhile, if I get it on PC, I can play it on my desktop, my laptop, and a third computer...and then that's it? That's kinda lame.
If anything, they should allow 3 installs, and then a ROM-only mode, something where it can play off the disc just like 360 would. If it's not getting copied it's not piracy, right?
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