How anti-piracy measures SHOULD be done

cherryghost

It appears as though the DS version of Michael Jackson: The Experience DS is one of those games. Users who grabbed the title illegally are reporting that there are two game-breaking features that are triggered if a copy is detected as being illegitimate: one is that important on-screen prompts are missing, and the other is that a vuvuzela plays over the top of all of MJ's hits.

Funny as it is, it's a good measure to tackle piracy

RedXIV

and the other is that a vuvuzela plays over the top of all of MJ's hits.

This is quality. I'm 110% in favour of that kind of hilarious measure

Mr E

I read about that on Kotaku or Joystiq this morning. Pretty funny way to counter piracy, but you have to imagine the scene groups will rise to the challenge and patch it (with a lot less effort than it probably took to implement)

Good sense of humour from the developers, though!

Stev_o

Nothing new though. Operation Flashpoint gave everyone giant heads if it detected it as a pirate copy!

Duggy747

Funny & good idea but nothing a tiny patch couldn't fix from SCENE groups.

Willbbz

LOL that's actually a brilliant idea!

I know that if the sims 2 is patched with a cracked executable file the build mode doesn't work.
But I think games like Assassins Creed 2 where you have to be connected to ubisoft servers to play, is a bit far considering the game is campaign only

PogMoThoin

Its funny as long as it never hurts a legitimate customer. Bet a scene group gets around it within days. Pirates usually get better playing copies, with less hassles

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

Developers could try invest into making games? Just a thought.

jaykhunter

ha, that is great. Good job developers!

I think though, Batman : AA had it right. The game works for about 1/3 of a game, then you can't get a certain item to progress. If you wanna continue ya gotta buy the game. Basically an extended demo.

aidan_walsh

Clare Short Sortie wrote: »

Developers could try invest into making games? Just a thought.

Which will be pirated, and the same excuse trotted out again.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Which will be pirated, and the same excuse trotted out again.

IMO a large amount of piracy is due to consumers being pissed off spending 50 euro on a game that lasts 4 hours or that is marketed well and the game is actually tripe.

PogMoThoin

jaykhunter wrote: »

ha, that is great. Good job developers!

I think though, Batman : AA had it right. The game works for about 1/3 of a game, then you can't get a certain item to progress. If you wanna continue ya gotta buy the game. Basically an extended demo.

Which hurt some legitimate customers too

5uspect

Clare Short Sortie wrote: »

IMO a large amount of piracy is due to consumers being pissed off spending 50 euro on a game that lasts 4 hours or that is marketed well and the game is actually tripe.

I don't accept that. Why refuse to buy a game you think is rubbish but still want to play? Most pirates do it because they simply don't want to pay anything. The piracy of the pay-what-you-want indie games is a classic example.

A lot of pirates are students with little disposable income, beyond booze money, very fast internet connections and an ability to use college networks to share a vast amount of content easily and a sense of entitlement.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

5uspect wrote: »

I don't accept that. Why refuse to buy a game you think is rubbish but still want to play? Most pirates do it because they simply don't want to pay anything. The piracy of the pay-what-you-want indie games is a classic example.

A lot of pirates are students with little disposable income, beyond booze money, very fast internet connections and an ability to use college networks to share a vast amount of content easily and a sense of entitlement.

I wouldn't buy a game that I knew 100% wasn't going to be good, but how can you be sure? I would take a look at reviews and the likes but they are subjective. I used to buy games when they first came out but now I wait a few months and get feedback from friends, look at youtube videos or test out the game if one of my mates have it. Wasted a fair few bob on buying new games on release.

Oh and I am not condoning piracy as it's quite harmful to the gaming industry. I don't see too many demos anymore either which was a great way of knowing if a game is going to be decent or not.

5uspect

Clare Short Sortie wrote: »

I wouldn't buy a game that I knew 100% wasn't going to be good, but how can you be sure? I would take a look at reviews and the likes but they are subjective. I used to buy games when they first came out but now I wait a few months and get feedback from friends, look at youtube videos or test out the game if one of my mates have it. Wasted a fair few bob on buying new games on release.

Oh and I am not condoning piracy as it's quite harmful to the gaming industry. I don't see too many demos anymore either which was a great way of knowing if a game is going to be decent or not.

You're correct about a reduced number of demos but piracy was around and was as prevalent as ever when demo's were plentiful. iirc demos were seen the main way to produce cracks?

Your argument applies to any form of published entertainment. You always take a risk when buying books DVDs etc. At least with books you can have a brief read in the shop but movies and games are subject to subjective trailers.

But I still think your incorrect to say that one of the main causes of piracy is the absence of demos and poor games forcing gamers to pirate. Pirates pirate because its free and easy. Simple as that.

Zillah

This isn't exactly new. Operation Flashpoint had measure whereby your weapon accuracy and **** would go down over time. I think they called it "Fade" - as in your game play experience fades over time :pac:

Varik

Demos are a lot of work and i would rather that time be spent on the game rather than being used for a demo, a demo is also only a tiny sample of a game and when people are saying how short full priced games are getting all the time a demo won't show that.

The best way to know is to just wait a week and get the game if you still think you'll like it.

On the DRM side i like the methods that ruin any progress a pirate made after a decent time investment (that can be at point known for DRM) but the use of degrading features is better used on console where the vast majority don't pirate so when negative reviews come in on forums about how the developer can't code anything and how these Operation Flashpoint like DRMs were just bugs and the game is just broken don't happen.

jaykhunter

Clare Short Sortie wrote: »

IMO a large amount of piracy is due to consumers being pissed off spending 50 euro on a game that lasts 4 hours or that is marketed well and the game is actually tripe.

surely they're just ignorant -- there are many magazines and free online reviews to make an informed decision on where to spend your cash. The general quality of games is of a high standard these days; you can gleam many hours from 'em. Considering relative cost of watching a movie etc it's quite fair!

PogMoThoin wrote: »

Which hurt some legitimate customers too

That's a disgrace. If ONE paying, legit customer is negatively affected like this then that anti-piracy measure shouldn't be enacted.