Gaming Piracy : Set your priorities straight

By Cikomyr Posted March 31, 2008 17:41:36

Here is a small text I want you to read: http://www.ataricommunity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=637984

Hi everyone,

My name is Keehwan Her and I am the Atari producer for Mysteries of Westgate (MoW) among other D&D products. Most of you know that the release of Mysteries of Westgate has been delayed because of ongoing development of a new security system. Near the end of MoW’s development last year, we realized that the traditional protection of the .exe file would not work with it so we scrambled to find a reliable commercial method that would do the job. At the time, there was no solution that met our requirements. That is why, since the end of 2007, Atari has been working hard to develop a new security system that can be used not just for MoW but for all Atari products that need protection for data files without using the traditional route of wrapping the .exe file. Unfortunately, developing this system has taken longer than we anticipated and MoW’s release has suffered as a result, because it is the first product that will use this new system.

Atari has been working closely with Obsidian and Ossian to try to integrate the new system with NWN2 and MoW specifically. Although we wanted the security modifications to go out with Update 1.12, it simply was not ready in time so we unfortunately had no choice but to push it into Update 1.13.

I realize that many of you are anxious to get your hands on Mysteries of Westgate, and I know from firsthand experience that it is a fantastic adventure. MoW has been ready to ship for a while now and we are close to finalizing the new security system that will ensure that it has its proper day in the sun. In the meantime, we are working hard to keep cool information about the game coming.

So... We see a game developper that refused to publish a game in the CHRISTMAS SEASON just to have the best-top-notch possible anti-piracy program. They clearly are stating that the game was at the end of the development! THE GAME WAS READY TO SHIP!

If I remember right, those anti-piracy programs are meant to protect losses for the company. Do you think they would have lost more money if they had shipped the game in Christmas with nil anti-piracy programmation, or when they will publish it in the near future with this anti-piracy that (I hope for their sake) maybe will stop the pirates for 1 week.

Gaming companies have to set their priority straight. They want to EARN money by selling games, not creating the greatest challenge for pirates..

(I once more comment Stardock for their great anti-piracy policy, which I am sure kept their losses to a minimal!)

0 Karma 10 Replies 4 Referrals

(I guess no one will never notice it if it doesn't pop up in the list at the entrance of the site)

(speechless)

Hahaha....When the game tanks and they take a loss on it, will they be brave enough to blame it on their choice to hold the game off and wait for "better" security or will some low level coder with a wife and two kids get fired.....

I know which i would bet on will happen.

There are reasons that Atari as a company is in the position, both organizationally and financially, that they are. This seems to be one...

Speaking of ridiculous antipiracy nonsense, I bought Bioshock when it first came out, even got the collector's edition. It won't be recognized by my PC, though I've gotten it to read on *a few* of the other PCs I've tried it on. I emailed about the problem and they explained that it was their super beefy antipiracy software that must be mistaking something on my computer for proof that I pirated their game.

Among the programs they listed was Daemon Tools, which *gasp* is a program you can use for legitimate means. But if you happen to have this tool which *might* be misused on your PC, then sorry, you can't play the copy of the game that you paid money for. I even tried deleting daemontools from my system and it still won't read. I once got it to read in safemode though that hasn't been repeatable, and to date I still haven't been able to play this game I paid for. Their tech support eventually just stopped answering my requests for help or a refund, and I am now in the process of filing with my state attorney general.

I will never again purchase a game from Bioshock's publisher, but I gleefully dream of pirating them until the day that I receive my refund. (Ironically at this point, it would appear that I will indeed only be able to play Bioshock if I somehow get a pirated version rather than the official one I originally bought. This is fucked and this is why the game industry has such a big problem with piracy imo.

I applaud stardock for their method of digital distribution with no copyprotection. I faithfully purchase stardock games and will reward them with my lifetime loyalty just as soon as I'm in a financial position to buy more than just a few games every so often. (Another factor that burned me up, by the way, since I paid money for a damned game that wouldn't play when I could have bought something else that would have; didn't have enough money for another game so I ended up digging up my old copy of Rome Total War instead.)

Sadly, the only "priorities" pirates have is to steal from hard working people, and whine and cry about the prices of completely unnecessary products, as if they're hard done by.

Perhaps, but we don't really care about them. A company should aim at making the maximum money possible. THAT is their priorities, THAT should be their priorities.

On the balance sheet at the end of your quarter, there is not place to show "only 10% of our users used pirated copies! We are the best!", only the # of sales you got.

Let me tell you that they forgot that they have a goal as a business to earn money rather than create fancy anti-piracy software for their game. They DELIBERATLY reduced their potential earning because.. they couldn't stomach the fact that some people might pirate their products.

Well, these anti-pirates are the pirates because they are stealing from us!!!

I bought two big-name games a year or so ago that would not load on my system because the anti-piracy software failed to recognize my CD drive. I had no recourse at all. Once you open the package, it's yours, no return. Soooo, they basically stole $100 from me. Evil bastards! I'd love to see people getting screwed by anti-piracy software filing lawsuits. I don't have the resources to do it so to the guy in reply #5, good on you!

Agreed.

Ang great... I just bought Bioshock. I loved SS2. I'm planning on saving it till the summer when I have more alone time/boredom while the wife is out of the country for 6 mos. So its past its return date to teh store as I've hade it for a couple of weeks now. Maybe by then, the puplisher will make a patch to fix the anti-piracy ware. That's just plain ridiculous, the way they treat cutomers. I mean, we've had photocopiers for decades and I don't see book publishers doing this to people.

I think it would be more entertaining to see hwo the hackers and crackers will break the new system first. Come on...this must be some news to the hacking community, new challenges for them, and then of course, the next thing will be the definite possibility of causing inconveniences to their customers whom has purchased and waited for so long to play the game.

I am betting within one week after this game is released, i will be sseeing it on some bit torrent site and the people complaining about the problems due to this new fancy digital security system will be extremely noticable.

I am not sure if having a great security system against pirates will be necessary and sufficient condition for more profit. I am sure there is a high probility that such a connection do not exists at all, period.