immagikman :
The idea that PC gaming is dying due to piracy is propaganda myth based on invented numbers of "lost sales" or in other words, someone's made up number of how many games they would have, maybe, possibly, if pigs could fly, sold if only those darn pirates didn't exist. I have no beef against a certain level of protection but what we are seeing with DRM now is just an abuse of the Fair Use rights that the legitimate consumer has.
And how do you propose to expose this propaganda myth such that it cannot be used anymore by those evil publisers?
I agree that DRM is totally going the wrong way. The idea of putting malware on a customer's system that is there to stay, is absolutely atrocious and any company that thinks this is a legitimate way of doing business should be publicly disgraced and I am amazed at the apathic response by Joe average Gamer. In fact, the combination of lazy customers with availability of cracked software is why this whole debate is still going on.
I am convinced that most companies only want to make honest money, but when you see your work being used without any reimbursment for it, then at least you should have understanding on their position and stop seeing it as a single big industry conspiracy. Whether they would have made the actual sale if their software hadn't been pirated is not all that relevant. Piracy is undermining the regular supply and demand drivers and that is bad, for consumers as well as the industry. Industry would not invest in these DRM measures if they knew it would just be wasted. They are investing because it gives them a means to keep the current price level, whereas if consumers would simply stop buying their stuf because they're dissatisfied with it, they would certainly adjust those prices. Joe average Gamer is acting like a junky buying his fixes (games) regardless of what he actually gets, and as a result we all get what Joe average Gamer is stimulating the industry to make: crapware. In the case of BioShock at least you also get a great game on the side. The only reason Joe does that is because 1) he can get another fix just around the corner (pirated games) that will satisfy his cravings and/or 2) he doesn't care, is not knowledgeable enough to care.
There are companies out there that denounce DRM and even not put a simple put CD in drive protection in their products. Are these companies hugely succesful? The talk of the town? Showing that DRM is not the way to go? They're not, yet. Therefore I have to conclude that at the moment the industry is still looking for a busines model to get them out of this mess.
Personally I like the business model of Steam. Sure they have protection in their software and in the games, but they usually ask a fair price for their products (in my opinion) and as a bonus the user gets a free patching service, and an easy way to carry around his/her gaming portfolio on different systems. Steam games are still cracked but I would like to see some sales number comparison between retail-only games and games that are aslo available on Steam. At least technology (the steam software but also the internet itself) is becoming stable enough for Steam to be a very reliable service. Online delivery of software only games is definitely the way to go, but this will cost a lot of jobs in the current industry area's of logistics, retail, packaging etc (all stuf that is eating up the product margin anyway, and not really adding to the gaming experience, still a lot old school gamers want to hold a box with nice artwork in their hands), actually it is a transfer of jobs to people that will have to make and maintain the online delivery service. Many old style publishers are unwilling to change or unable to see that this is the way to go.
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