Stardock's and GPG's conflicting views on piracy & DRM

from Demigod Forums
Anyone else surprised to see Chris Taylor of GPG working with Frogboy and co. so soon after that piracy discussion? Must've been a little awkward, after Chris (among others) went off on a rant about how piracy will doom us all and then our Frogboy (and other Stardockers) replied, "LOL NOT RLY, make games they don't need to spend $800 to play", and then proceeded to release a game which did just that, and went on to be one of the best-selling games thus far of 2008.
demigod
13,630 views 17 replies
Reply #1 from Demigod Forums Top
Well Chris Taylor I'm sure has talked to Brad. :)
I heard they met in person, Brad got showed around the offices, right?


Also, Stardock games DO have anti-piracy, they just don't have annoying DRM(which only affects the customers that bought it, not the Pirates.)
Reply #2 from Demigod Forums Top
Well, GPG isn't a big lover of DRM either, every first patch for SupCom and FA respectively removed the Securom protection (usually a few days after release). I think that for a multiplayer-oriented game like Demigod it was an easier choice to provide no on-disc protection at all.

I do think it's still very easy to patch a cracked copy without any problems, all the 'pirates' need are the stand-alone patch downloads of SupCom/FA (or even of SoaSE).
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I heard they met in person, Brad got showed around the offices.


Lol, at first I read that as 'I heard they met in prison'
Reply #4 from Demigod Forums Top
Yeah when games are multiplayer oriented you just check cd key when they connect online.

2 other people are online with it? Ban the key.
Or whatever like hat that they generally do.

That is anti-piracy, but it doesn't hurt the customer that bought the game.

Single player games are much easier to pirate.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
2 other people are online with it? Ban the key.
Or whatever like hat that they generally do.


Lets not just automatically ban that key. There can be cases where having 2 people online at the same time with the same key isn't piracy. For example, if I have two computers and forget the second one is logged in... Or my brother snuck onto my second computer while I'm at school (in between classes, of course)
Reply #6 from Demigod Forums Top
or you have a bad crash that doesnt log your CD key out and then you try to log back in and it BANS YOUR ACCOUNT?! :P
Reply #7 from Demigod Forums Top
Yeah, I figured that one was easy to filter though. Only one account is "active".
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top

Yes. We met. :)

photo

And we discussed software piracy a lot. It's a  big topic amongst anyone who works to create intellectual property. ;)

Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
That is awesome , I saved that picture, and added some sheep :SURPRISED:
Reply #10 from Demigod Forums Top
It's a lie! Photoshop! :P ;)
Reply #11 from Demigod Forums Top
LOL THEY LOOK SO SIMILAR.

I love you brad. <3

no homo.
Reply #12 from Demigod Forums Top
Geek Prime, meet Geek Alpha! *giggles*
Reply #13 from Demigod Forums Top
It's like a micro convention of two of the strategy genre's biggest names.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
Crysis would have sold alot more, if they shipped it through Steam and Impulse. When you use EA as your publisher, you are basically asking to get pirated.

Birger :)
Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
I hate steam for their overcharged prices in Europe.
I pay for games one Steam more than retail? Can anyone explain this crap? Game industry is just as bloated as the music industry.
Hope Stardock stays the other way, one price (to rule them all) for all, thats fair!

Cheers Omni
Reply #16 from Demigod Forums Top
Crysis would have sold alot more, if they shipped it through Steam and Impulse. When you use EA as your publisher, you are basically asking to get pirated.


When you use a DRM measure that fucks up the CD to the point where some drives can't read it, your just asking for piracy.
Reply #17 from Stardock Forums Top
Oh, I really hate games require CD/DVD to play. It always kills drives. :/