Game piracy on Gamasutra

[GaiaDreamCreation]

I read an article about game piracy on Gamasutra (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4020/pc_game_piracy_why_bother_with_.php)

On the third page (http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4020/pc_game_piracy_why_bother_with_.php?page=3), there is a paragraph saying.

"Stardock's Wardell believes that, in the next year or two, the industry will adopt a system similar to Goo -- on installation, a game will need to be activated online at which time it will be linked to the gamer's e-mail address."

I have not bought Goo and I am wondering what is this system with the email address. I use a simple serial key for my game. How does this system compare to the serial key system for game bought online?

Other question after the first one: Will that be your approach in the next years?

[puddinlover]

I have not bought Goo and I am wondering what is this system with the email address. I use a simple serial key for my game. How does this system compare to the serial key system for game bought online?

My yellow bear game uses online serial key registration but the thing is that you need to find a way so that someone can not crack it and just skip the checking/reg process all together... that to me is where I see the biggest problem even with using online authoring. Unless you have your game stored and than ported every time a user is authenticated from your server but no clue what kinda resources that would use or how to do it.

(keep in mind I'm still new but this is where I'm sorta at when it comes to protecting from piracy and also answering your question... others know lots more than I do )

[Bad Sector]

I have not bought Goo and I am wondering what is this system with the email address. I use a simple serial key for my game. How does this system compare to the serial key system for game bought online?

When a user buys a game from your payment processor/e-store, the processor/e-store can call a secret URL (PHP script or something similar) or send you an email or something like that containing the buyer's email and a code for the game (or the game's name or something similar). Your PHP script (or email parser or whatever) extracts the game's name/code and the email and adds them to a database in your server. Then when the game starts for the first time, it asks the user for the email. The email is then checked against the database (the game does a query to your server for that) and if it is there the game unlocks. The serial number is extra cruft, i'm not sure why its needed.

The above is basically what Steam does but instead of email they use a username/password combination so they can provide additional stuff.

[dylanite]

When a user buys a game from your payment processor/e-store, the processor/e-store can call a secret URL (PHP script or something similar) or send you an email or something like that containing the buyer's email and a code for the game (or the game's name or something similar). Your PHP script (or email parser or whatever) extracts the game's name/code and the email and adds them to a database in your server. Then when the game starts for the first time, it asks the user for the email. The email is then checked against the database (the game does a query to your server for that) and if it is there the game unlocks. The serial number is extra cruft, i'm not sure why its needed.

The above is basically what Steam does but instead of email they use a username/password combination so they can provide additional stuff.

And that actually achieves what exactly? Steam Games are pirated a lot afaik.

[Bad Sector]

Achieves that i cannot copy the game to my neighbour. Also i cannot resell it (for boxed games). When it comes to Steam, it also adds some extra functionality some might or might not need.

There is no method to protect a game from piracy.

[Executrix]

There is no method to protect a game from piracy.

OnLive, and future similar implementations will make piracy simply not possible! :O

[vjvj]

Achieves that i cannot copy the game to my neighbour. Also i cannot resell it (for boxed games). When it comes to Steam, it also adds some extra functionality some might or might not need.

There is no method to protect a game from piracy.

Perfect answer right here. I'll add that Steam is also a great community building tool, with official support for mods and a nice social network infrastructure.

[Game Producer]

OnLive, and future similar implementations will make piracy simply not possible! :O

You wish.

Somebody at some point will have cracked server hosted in cracked world where cracked players play with cracked clients.

Will that be your approach in the next years?

like others said - it's quite similar to having reg key or email... doesn't have much difference.

[zoombapup]

UNLESS you build value in the online component of the system and that still requires the code. Then no matter if a player has "cracked" the online code, they still dont get the advantage of that particular element.

In most cases, that will be a lobby system say, or some user content sharing, or online forums or whatever.

Maybe the french will save the day

[Executrix]

Somebody at some point will have cracked server hosted in cracked world where cracked players play with cracked clients.

OnLive is streaming video. It's not like it's an MMO that can have its server emulated and played using cracked clients.

[dylanite]

Not everyone likes what Steam does you know. I got an Steam Account myself, and i bought the Orange Box back in the day. Its okay, but i still prefer a real copy on a disc. I never bought any other game over Steam.

[Executrix]

dylanite, I take it you don't have friends on Steam or have not bothered to check if your friends play? I play games over Steam with my friends every other evening. The community features are great, and the ability to download any game that I've purchased faster than pirates can download warezed copies is awesome.

Using material media to distribute games will slowly die. The future generations of the consoles will all be streaming video based or purely downloadable content. Downloading a 4gb game can take a few hours on a decent connection. That's faster than having a game shipped over night, and with Steam's tech a game can be pre-cached (encrypted) so that you can play it the moment it is released. With physical media you have to either wait in line to buy it, or wait for it to be shipped to you.

I wonder why you prefer physical media? The physical media can easily be damaged, and in many cases would require you to rebuy the game if you want to play it again. It also takes up space, can get lost, it depreciates over time anyway, it's bad for the environment, and I am impatient.

With new services like Steam the games you buy are always there for you, and always up to date.

[dylanite]

I wonder why you prefer physical media? The physical media can easily be damaged, and in many cases would require you to rebuy the game if you want to play it again. It also takes up space, can get lost, it depreciates over time anyway, it's bad for the environment, and I am impatient.

The very same reason i usually prefer to buy a physical copy of a CD, instead of downloading it from iTunes. I like to stuff those things in my shelves. I´m fine with the new DVD Covers, the oldschool Disc Boxes (Anyone remembers the one from Monkey Island 2? ) took up quite a lot of space on the shelf.

I agree that it depends on the kind of game though. If its an online shooter, yeah, thats okay to buy online. But if its an pure offline game, lets say an Adventure, i will prefer a boxed copy. I still got friends w/o internet too, now if not with a physical copy, how should we get this game on their computers?

Besides that, does no one enjoy the artwork of the physical boxes anymore? Some are still great.

[Executrix]

Internet access is growing exponentially all of the time. Physical media isn't going away right way too, but the reasons I listed weigh more than the vanity part of "owning" a physical memoriability item that will one day likely be in a landfill after you die regardless of how well you take care of it while you're still alive. Do you have any friends who have massive DVD collections but have only watched each movie once or twice? That's a lot of waste.

For indies doing retail is largely irrelevant anyway.

[dylanite]

Now this is your opinion, i personally find it rather "dumb" to force a user to be online or even have internet access to play an offline game. For an online game, i´m all with you, and thats where Steam is great for sure. I finished Portal (an offline game) via Steam, and yeah, the Achievements in Steam have been fun to play around with, but they are not really necessary if you ask me.

For indies doing retail is largely irrelevant anyway.

Sure, last month i bought the game "Super Jazz Man", i got the exe supplied via Plimus. For that i need internet access, but i dont need any internet access to play this game on any computer i want, as its an unprotected retail exe.

So yes, doing boxed retail is not necessary or even financally doable for an indie, but that doesnt mean he has to supply me with some uber protected drmed Executeable.

[Executrix]

Once all gaming is streamed DRM won't matter anyway. The streaming services will be super convenient for legitimate customers (a game can be 500gb in size and it doesn't make a difference: the gamer gets to play instantly), and pirates will hate that they can't just download games without paying anymore.

Most indies don't use "uber protected drmed Executeable." None of our games do, and the Steam DRM really isn't all that crazy, and is no way invasive or obtrusive. You CAN play offline only games from Steam you just MUST enable offline mode for it to work (which is on by default). If Steam doesn't have an Internet connection, and you have offline mode enabled, you'll be able to still play any single player games that are in your Steam account without any problems. Seriously, how often is your Internet connection disrupted?

[HairyTroll]

Internet access is growing exponentially all of the time.

Really? Why then is the fastest DSL connection I can get 384Kbits down? And I live in Los Angeles.

[dylanite]

Once all the games are being streamed, it wont matter anymore you are right. Because this will be the time when i stop playing games alltogether, or switch to consoles.

You CAN play offline only games from Steam you just MUST enable offline mode for it to work (which is on by default).

I can do that, but i can´t easily put the game on my home pc, and my notebooks at the same time without too much hassle along the way i guess. Its the same annoying crap with hardware based serials, they only work on this one computer. And dont even get me started on multiple activations. Any game thats restricted to the hardware, is not worth buying.

[vjvj]

Not everyone likes what Steam does you know. I got an Steam Account myself, and i bought the Orange Box back in the day. Its okay, but i still prefer a real copy on a disc. I never bought any other game over Steam.

And... Not everyone doesn't like Steam, either... This is why business decisions aren't made based on message board posts but rather off of real, tangible sales data. At the end of the day, all data seems to indicate that Steam (and some other similar systems) is a success, and retail is on the decline. Companies would not be investing millions of dollars into digital distribution if they weren't forecasting better profits/less waste from it (why do you think EVERYONE is doing it?). If DD ever hits critical mass, that'll be it; over and done with.

This all reminds me of when banks started rolling out ATMs back in the 80s; you'd always hear people saying they'd never use ATMs because "they just prefer interacting with a human being" or they "can't understand how anyone could trust banking with a machine". I'm sure those people were very secure and confident in their opinions back then, but you don't see anyone saying anything like that now without getting laughed at.

Not to say I don't appreciate some physical media, because I do (especially stuff like limited edition collector items). But I think physical media overall is eventually going to settle into its own little niche market.

[Bad Sector]

I like Steam although i don't use the Friends part much. On the other hand i like how Zeno Clash is integrated with the Friends feature so you can compete on how fast you complete the "Tower" part. Stuff like this makes Steam likeable, not the DRM.

And btw you don't even have to turn Offline mode on while you're connected. If Steam was in Online mode and you start it without net connection, it will ask you if you want to run it in Offline mode. What you're NOT allowed to do is to run two copies of the game at the same time.

I believe OnLive is a scam. There is very little to no chance this will ever work. And even if it does, it won't replace everything (btw you can still do banking in person :-P).

[Executrix]

I believe OnLive is a scam. There is very little to no chance this will ever work. And even if it does, it won't replace everything.

It's not a scam. Watching HD video online is impossible, right? The latency isn't detectable on a stable connection, and on unstable connections the quality level is dropped a bit so the game is still playable. Graphics don't matter anyway, it's all about the fun right? :P

With exclusive content it will, and I'm certain future consoles will follow the same or similar model (downloading games directly to the console only). It may be possible that OnLive partners with Microsoft to make all 360 consoles instant OnLive ready consoles with a little extra code.

[Bad Sector]

It's not a scam. Watching HD video online is impossible, right? The latency isn't detectable on a stable connection, and on unstable connections the quality level is dropped a bit so the game is still playable. Graphics don't matter anyway, it's all about the fun right? :P

I want to see how this can be totally realtime. As for HD video online, i have a 24mbit connection and i still need to pause some HD content until the whole video is downloaded to void pauses.

[FlySim]

Watching HD video online is impossible, right?

Don't think you can compare watching HD video to what OnLive is proposing. You can buffer video to compensate for varying internet speed and latency, but you can't do that with most games.

[Executrix]

I want to see how this can be totally realtime. As for HD video online, i have a 24mbit connection and i still need to pause some HD content until the whole video is downloaded to void pauses.

If your "ping" is less than 100 then for you it will be indistinguishable to real time. Servers will be located all over the US this year so anyone in the US with a decent connection will be able to use the service without any latency problems. It won't be any worse than playing any other online game, except that the graphics quality may scale down if someone at your house uses a lot of bandwidth too.

With free HD video, such as YouTube's, you're competing for bandwidth with thousands of other people. With OnLive every user is a paying customer.

[vjvj]

I like Steam although i don't use the Friends part much. On the other hand i like how Zeno Clash is integrated with the Friends feature so you can compete on how fast you complete the "Tower" part. Stuff like this makes Steam likeable, not the DRM.

I believe OnLive is a scam. There is very little to no chance this will ever work. And even if it does, it won't replace everything (btw you can still do banking in person :-P).

Yeah, I don't really use the Friends part of Steam either, but I recognize that a lot of modern gamers probably do. Much in the same way that everyone uses XBL and PSN, but I don't care about those, either. I'm just too old I guess... As for banking, hardy har Yes you can still bank in person, but it's rare these days that you find someone afraid to use ATMs who isn't at least 80 years old.

The input latency isn't detectable on a stable connection, and on unstable connections the control responsiveness quality level is dropped a bit so the game is practically unplayable. Control responsiveness don't matter anyway, it's all about the fun right? :P

See what I did there.

My take on OnLive is that it will stick around, but only after a major shift in business model. The claim that "anyone can play Crysis now!" is horseshit when you consider the fact that most games requiring beefy rigs also generally demand low input latencies. I think they'll eventually have to shift to slower-paced games only, until people start realizing that their current rigs play those games just fine locally. At that point, I wouldn't be surprised if OnLive started pursuing exclusive content to stay alive.

[Ricardo C]

I'm with dylanite all the way. And could whoever's tagging him as "dylanite the pirate" kindly drop it?

(Remainder of rant deleted. Just not worth it. Also, OnLive will never, ever, EVER take off )

[vjvj]

Well, I think the point being subtly made about Steam here is that it is more than just DRM. I use Steam for the convenience and features it offers me. I don't use Steam for the sole purpose of inflicting DRM upon myself.

And it's funny that you mention the Wii, because I was just remarking to one of my friends the other day that the ONLY thing I ever seem to use my Wii for is Virtual Console. I think the rest of the world is beginning to realize that the motion controls on the Wii SUCK...

[Bad Sector]

If your "ping" is less than 100 then for you it will be indistinguishable to real time.

Real-time = 0 ping. They need to achieve 60fps (30fps just doesn't feel the same) which means 16ms between frame updates. This means they have to have at most 16 ping latency and be able to render whatever stream format they use inside these 16ms. This also includes sound playback (streamed too) and controls.

Servers will be located all over the US this year so anyone in the US with a decent connection will be able to use the service without any latency problems.

I'm not in US and i don't plan to be soon.

It won't be any worse than playing any other online game, except that the graphics quality may scale down if someone at your house uses a lot of bandwidth too.

In my own computer i don't have to scale the quality down.

With free HD video, such as YouTube's, you're competing for bandwidth with thousands of other people.

So i'll be the only one playing with OnLive?

With OnLive every user is a paying customer.

Maybe. We'll see about that when (if) it rolls out.

[desmasic]

And... Not everyone doesn't like Steam, either... This is why business decisions aren't made based on message board posts but rather off of real, tangible sales data. At the end of the day, all data seems to indicate that Steam (and some other similar systems) is a success, and retail is on the decline. Companies would not be investing millions of dollars into digital distribution if they weren't forecasting better profits/less waste from it (why do you think EVERYONE is doing it?).

I bought HL2 offliine, bought even L4D offline (it's a different matter that I find it boring enough to not bother with it anymore). The only reason I bothered installing steam was because of activation it required. I would never bother with a game on steam simply because I have a 512kbps connection, it's not fun downloading 15 GB games (GTA4, Fear 2, Turok.. etc.) for weeks at this speed.

I have the disc, I can just activate it. I don't hate online activation, but I also returned HL2 once to the store (didn't know they were testing steam with it) when I didn't have active net connection for days and even after purchasing the game... nothing to play at the same time. I returned it, bought Doom 3 instead (which uses serial key), had fun playing instantly.

So the only reason I will ever get a game with online registeration process is when it's a MP only game (like L4D). I don't use any Steam feature, most of it is slow and pointless advertising with no "STFU AND LET ME PLAY" button. I have to wait for slow ass software updates and retarded patching system in which if a patch screws up your save games, you really can't do anything about it anyway but re-install the whole thing.

[vjvj]

I bought HL2 offliine, bought even L4D offline (it's a different matter that I find it boring enough to not bother with it anymore). The only reason I bothered installing steam was because of activation it required. I would never bother with a game on steam simply because I have a 512kbps connection, it's not fun downloading 15 GB games (GTA4, Fear 2, Turok.. etc.) for weeks at this speed.

I have the disc, I can just activate it. I don't hate online activation, but I also returned HL2 once to the store (didn't know they were testing steam with it) when I didn't have active net connection for days and even after purchasing the game... nothing to play at the same time. I returned it, bought Doom 3 instead (which uses serial key), had fun playing instantly.

So the only reason I will ever get a game with online registeration process is when it's a MP only game (like L4D). I don't use any Steam feature, most of it is slow and pointless advertising with no "STFU AND LET ME PLAY" button. I have to wait for slow ass software updates and retarded patching system in which if a patch screws up your save games, you really can't do anything about it anyway but re-install the whole thing.

This is why I brought up the ATM analogy. The existence of detractors (even with valid arguments, like the ones you presented) in itself is not really an indication of anything. If anything, detractors should be expected with any new tech or business model.

When it comes to stuff like this, everyone has an opinion and opinions basically don't mean jack shit here. Market conditions ultimately will decide what happens, and in this particular case I believe that the forces pushing the transition to digital dist far outweigh the any initial consumer resistance. Sure, you still see "people in droves" being very vocal about their protests/boycotts of DD and other dramatics, but when you put that up against the actual economics of DD (massive increase in gross margins, elimination of several stages of middlemen, elimination of parasitic business models, elimination of corporate sales haggle nonsense, the list goes on and on), combined with the fact that millions of gamers are already happily adopting DD, it's easy to see how this story ends.

Does anyone actually believe we will still be buying games on physical media 20 years from now? Because honestly, I think it's just a matter of time before DD becomes the culturally-accepted "normal" way of buying software. Everyone uses ATMs now... But a lot of people didn't think that way 20 years ago.