DRM / Starforce vs. Frequent Updates as a means of Copy Protection

The problem with Starforce and other such software is that it's not always stable. Granted, the games themselves are not always stable, but I'd personally rather that the game is unstable because of itself and not because of some third-party software. At least that way the developer is not at the mercy of that other company to fix problems.

I like the 2nd method. It's simpler, attracts more customers, and in the long run has less problems.

Besides, the frequent updates are a long standing way to defeat cracks, hacks and other illegal things. Change codes and locations of variables and functions and you can add alot of time to hacker's work.

My question to the GC2 developers is: In your opinion, is it cheaper to have a programming team that creates frequent updates (and also making more content thus making the game better) than it is to subscribe to some form of copy protection scheme?

It's far better to have no copy protection on the CD in terms of support. Ubisoft made us put copy protection on the Political Machine and it was a support nightmare. 

I prefer registration for more updates - which authenticates me as per the Steam for online play or through a website for single player. Therefore if you have a legal copy of the game you can play, but with an illegal copy you can't.

I would have preferred for the Stardock developers to give people everything they needed but the exec file, which they would have had to download from the Stardock website. I think putting a playable game out there is just too dangerous. Or insist on registration after turn 52 of any game if the player hasn't already, by phone if necessary.

I personally believe that DRM copy protection hurts the very people it is designed to protect, the people who pay for it.

The issue is with something like Starforce is that there is going to be a sizable portion of people say 1 to 5% who will be unable to play the game because of:

a) The CD/DVD drive they are using isn't recognised by the disk. Thus meaning they are unable to read the software on the disk or they can't run the game when it is installed because the protection thinks that their drive is an emulated drive from Alcohol or something like that.
b) They have installed software that the copy protection does not like - something that not even uninstalling said software will take care of (due to the protection software looking for registry entries). Even software as simple as Nero or sadly even !!!a competing product!!! can cause these issues.
c) The protection software interferes with their drive and causes it to stop working altogether. (very rare tho)

These people then flood developer forums for months complainign they can't play the game. In many cases people are driven to the pirate sites where they have to download a no-CD exe to play the game. Then of course they see all the 'free' games they can play and are tempted to use things like torrentspy and isohunt to download other games illegally. Thus causing the very problem the copy protection was designed to stop!!

IBM have a nice article on the future of copy protection as they see it: Link

There were a lot of little bugs in the game that weren't immediately obvious during the first week the game was out. The game played fine, and you could win, but in reality some of the racial and governmental bonuses weren't working right, and so it was harder than it should have been.

So now anyone who has a version that was hacked from the first week is getting a semi-hampered game, and there are probably further issues they won't fix right away, like the misaligned/directed connector points on ship models. If they just wait a few more weeks to patch those then lots more illegal copies will be messed up that way while the rest of us are fine!

Let's see, as a user, do I want:

1. Invasive drivers that always run, are installed without notification, and that nobody sane would ever install if given a choice. StarForce, WebTangent, etc.

2. CD required to launch a game I've paid for (usually applies alongside #1 too for double the nuisance).

3. No copy protection, enter serial number once, and not only get bug fixes but additional free content, gameplay enhancements, quality support, and dev interaction for months and months after release.

Tough choice! NOT!

I'll take #3 over #1 and #2 - it's a frickin no brainer.

The anti-piracy measures taken by publishers do nothing to stop piracy - all they do is punish legitimate buyers.

It's far better to have no copy protection on the CD in terms of support. Ubisoft made us put copy protection on the Political Machine and it was a support nightmare.

A fair point. However, while you were in your nightmare (as support and maintainance often are), the game designers were able to move on to other projects.

I don't think the case is nearly as cut and dry as people try to make it out to be. Draconian DRM mechanisms like StarForce are a bad idea in and of themselves; they don't need the StarDock mechanism to act as a comparison for it to be a bad idea.

In the middle, I don't have a problem with light DRM techniques, like requiring the CD to be in a drive. Even when I'm not using Daemon to mount disc images of a game, getting up and using the disc is hardly an onerous problem, particularly for PC games where making the game run is often far more challenging.

On the other side, I don't see StarDock's updating mechanism as being a decent global solution either. As I mentioned in another thread, it only really works for a certain kind of game (games that have finite content quantities of content). Imagine Zelda: Ocarina of Time being released under the update mechanism. The developers constantly tweaking encounters, changing AI, maybe adding a new creature here, altering a boss fight there, etc. It makes it feel like the primary release of the game was actually a beta, thus exacerbating one of the general problems with PC game development (that is, the idea of using the initial release as a beta test, and patching later).

Ultimately, the general solution is for developers to just let it go. Implement some light DRM, perhaps, and be done. Accept that there's going to be some piracy and move on.

I prefer neither. Both systems are broken and will not stop hackers.

Right now, I can point to at least 5 downloads of GalCiv2 as well as the patches. There are people right now playing GC2, fully patched, without paying.

I could also point to downloads of the latest StarForce games. The workarounds people go through to defeat SF are extreme, but hackers love a challenge.

Right now, the hacker/developer arms race is coming to a peak. And the only ones getting screwed are the customers.

Devs need to admit that downloads do not equal lost sales. A good percentage of people out there download things they'll never play. Or, they d/l something, play it a few times, then move on. I've been in the scene long enough to know that's how it works.

Another hefty percentage of people pirating are those too poor to buy. Highschool kids and college students. They don't have a lot of free income. To them, $44 is just too much to pay. They do, however, have a lot of free time. Some of the better mods out there come from this crowd.

Finally, there are a few lowlifes that download and play the shit out of your game for months. These people may or may not have bought it at retail.

In any event, just because you see 200 leeches on BitTorrent, does not mean you lost $9000.

I'd be willing to bet that you lose more sales due to SF and/or Steam/StarDock than any other reason. On top of that, the more anti-pirate systems you implement, the harder it is for the paying customer to enjoy his/her product. That harder you make it on the customer, the more actual sales you will lose.

Another thing devs need to "get" is the fact that online distribution is the way of the future. I think these devs understand, but many don't. You have to embrace things like BitTorrent and authentication keys.

1. Put up a page where I can buy the game.
2. E-mail me my activation key and a link for BitTorrent download. Direct download would be nice too.
3. Let me use my key to access the game, the forums, and some nifty extras.
4. Don't allow anyone without a key to access forums or the extras. Announce patches and updates in forum areas only.

StarDock is a huge step in the right direction. However, every minute you spend in the boardroom discussing pirates and hackers is a minute you could have used to make the game better. Every dollar you spend on SF or other DRM systems is another dollar you could have put towards marketing.

Don't waste your time or money on things you can't stop.

Don't count BitTorrent leechers as "lost" sales; most wouldn't buy it anyway.

Do distribute online.

Do market the game in a positive light; advertising as a DRM-free game would get a shit-ton of sales.

Do tell everyone you know that SF is evil. Big publishers are evil. Devs who make deals with big publishers are evil. Evil does not deserve our money or respect.

Do call us "customers". I'm not a "consumer". Learn to treat me like a "customer".

Oh, you mention that Ubi forced DRM on you. The proper response would have been to make a few presses of non-DRM CDs. When a customer complains, get their info and mail the disc to them.

Maybe put a serial in one of the game files. If the game got into the wild, you'd know who got that disc and where they live.

I prefer neither. Both systems are broken and will not stop hackers.

The StarDock method is not attempting to stop hackers, so calling it broken with regard to that is inaccurate.

The StarDock method "encourages" non-pirating behavior, rather than discouraging pirating behavior.

Personally, I don't want to have to download some BitTorrent client just to get a game. Steam and StarDock are much nicer solutions than some off-the-OSD-shelf poor-UI client that lets other people leech my bandwidth. I'm BitTorrent free, and I intend to stay that way.

Here's my story and attitude towards copy protection, piracy and whatever.

I met GalCiv2 first through a bittorrent download. The uploader was pretty enthusiastic about the "Optional step: serial" and I though "what the WHAT ... gotta try this". Downloaded and played through a couple of times.

Second thought was: "man these people who developed the game are really nice people and they're treating everyone as adults ... there are no threats". A pretty weird experienc after having tried copy protected CDs and games.

So I bought the game (loved the fact that it was EASY to pay), got the serial and am looking forward to getting a couple of fixes for the errors in the game (like crashing if loading/saving or even if you have Laser III the Shipyard still insists that there a no available weapon techs (until you quit and reload)).

I know StarForce says no one buys the game BECAUSE it's not copy-protected. Well, I did

To the company and the developers: