Dawn of War II: Fall of DRM?
Posted 01/09/09 at 09:30:42 PM by Nathan Grayson
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PC gaming’s anti-piracy measures seem to be proceeding along a path not unlike the one the games they’re sworn to protect once traveled. First, games (and anti-piracy) were merciless and cruel – prone to punishing players whether they succeeded or tattooed the underside of a tire with their pixilated frog’s surprisingly red guts. But now, times are a changin’. Today’s games are nice and gentle, giving players a gentle pat on the shoulder if they fail, and a big ol’ lie cake if they finish the fight.
Ok, enough with the overwrought metaphor.
See, with companies like Valve – and now Relic – in the picture, anti-piracy measures no longer have to punish gamers. As explained by Dawn of War II lead designer Jonny Ebbert:
“We want to give out steady doses of free downloadable content because we believe in rewarding people who buy the game and the reason we don’t like DRM solutions is because they punish the innocent and they have to jump through all these hoops.”
“We don’t want to do that so we’re going with the approach that Valve pioneered to just reward the people who actually bought the game with cool stuff,” he added. “Free downloadable, regularly accessible stuff that enhances the game and then that’s an incentive for the people who didn’t buy the game to buy it. So we’ve got a really bold, robust strategy for that and we’re going to be revealing more details in about a month, but I think players are going to like it.”
A robust open beta? No DRM? Free goodies on a regular basis? We're only nine days into 2009, and Relic may already have snatched the "Best Developer of 2009" award right out of our hearts. Bravo, guys and gals.
Wow am I lost. I could
Submitted by Muerte on Fri, 01/16/2009 - 1:56pm
Wow am I lost. I could have sworn that they said that they were doing away with DRM and rewarding people who buy the game with free content.
Where did the spyware come in?
Sounds like this is exactly how we want a gaming company to treat their customers.
Submitted by Shalbatana on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 9:37am
The article talks about a company doing away with DRM and offering bonus features to those that buy instead, so we reward them by saying they're pushing spyware? I'm not following.
Also, don't kid yourself. Consoles have copy protection, it's just so embedded that it's not cost effective for everyone to copy the discs themselves, as it requires proprietary methods, and can't be done with standard home equipment and supplies. It also requires the purchase of hardware hacks.
At that point it's easier to just borrow someone else's disc, or buy a new one. But you have to buy it if you want it for yourself. So you do.
Thus you don't notice it because you don't try to fight it.
_______________________________
"There's no time like the future."
Submitted by tehR0XX0Rz on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 7:45am
I was looking forward to the release of Grand Theft Auto IV on the PC (I can't stand playing anything on a console).
But then the reviews came out. Aside from the poor porting of the game, there were issues with DRM and "value-added content" being FORCED on players (you MUST login to Windows Live, for example).
I just want to play a game; I don't want spyware shoved down my throat.
I'm not buying GTA IV, not if it means having the extra services in the background, monitoring my every move. In fact, I would consider downloading a cracked copy, just to avoid the spyware. But I won't buy it, not unless they patch out the spyware.
Rootkits, trojans, and all the other crap is too much to deal with. Unless the publishers don't want any money from PC gamers, they really need to come up with a better alternative.
Lower game prices
Submitted by windbane on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 9:29pm
If publishers would lower the cost of games to around $30 bucks a game then people would start to buy games again, also making less but better games would also help. But paying $50 to $60 for a computer game is highway robbery. Game publishers are the real pirates.
Lowering the cost of a game
Submitted by Antilogic81 on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 10:39pm
Lowering the cost of a game during an economic slump? That's probably not going to happen. But yes Publisher's are evil...a few of them aren't so, but EA should really think about this...When Northern Strike came out for BF2142, they had to have a help page on their forums explaining how you had to go about installing it to your computer. It was so convoluted and sad that some people still couldn't get it to work. All in the name of fighting piracy...EA felt they could ride the storm then, and they think they can now. It's a shame they aren't the Electronic Arts I knew back in the 90's. There isn't anything art worthy in their stubborness.
It's going to happen soon when EA's DRM is going to scare away game developers that aren't already under their coattails - that or they get to cringe when their title gets the spore treatment. Infact, they probably foresaw this happening. Hense the constant buyouts of other companies. If they have enough developers within their grasp they can keep their current practice regardless of consumer rage.
But I hope it will come to pass when not wanting DRM on your system simply means not buying from EA. That and constant pirating of their games will frustrate their share-holders who will cave in long before the company itself does.
Submitted by Phated1 on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 6:15am
This is true, over the years I somehow managed to get multiple EA online accounts. As a result when i purchased BF2142 online, and then purchased NS online, they somehow got tied to different accounts. As a result, I basically just donated the money for northern strike to EA. Their customer service told me there was nothing they could do.
Submitted by windbane on Sat, 01/10/2009 - 12:39am
This is the one thing consoles have over pcs...no DRM. Pirating console games is quite the hassel with mod chips and the chance of bricking your system. There may come a time when PC gaming just won't be a viable solution anymore. I think this just might be what game publishers want, a closed system (console). They keep making draconian DRM schemes just to get people to ditch the pc in favour of consoles, where even with the licensing fees, publishers make more money due to less pirating. Also with "micro-transactions" for new game content, consoles are where its at, as far as making money is concerned. The openness of PC's scare the big publishers, cause really you can do anything you want on a PC. Pirating software really isn't going to get PC gaming back on its feet, but I think even if people all-of-a-sudden started buying PC games in huge numbers, it still won't stop the likes of EA from ditching the PC in favour of consoles.
Like I said before, if publishers spent their money on quality and not quantity then thing would be better. Do we really need a new Madden or NHL every year?...no we don't, adding one new "feature" doesn't a new game make. People are fed up with the garbage that companies like EA keep pushing on us. Whats funny is that EA makes the Sims, and every 3 months or so releases new exp packs for it. Why don't they do this for the sports games they make? Instead of buying a whole new version of NHL, why not release new exp packs, with updated rosters and new modes of play. Then after say 3 years do a new version of the game engine to take advantage of newer tech?
Making people jump through hoops with DRM, and treating PC users as crooks is counter-productive. The people who pirate games, will always pirate games. Publishers aren't losing money from pirates, cause they never would have bought the game in the first place, just like they never would have bought any software for their PC's. I would love to buy games, but ya know real life gets in the way. There's just no way I'm gonna pay a weeks worth of groceries to get 8 hrs of entertainment. Especially when you can't return a crap game, which by the way customers should be able to do. It's not our fault that a game sucks.
So for people to buy games again - get rid of DRM, make less, but better games, stick with one game iteration (but add more content i.e. the Sims/2, Rock Band...)for a couple of years, change return policies so that consumers aren't stuck with crap they don't want (it's not our fault your games suck), and make games affordable (even when times were good games were way too expensive).
On a side note I picked up Assassins Creed for 360 for $15 brand new at Blockbuster during Boxing Week, best damned $15 I have spent in a long time!!
Submitted by decapitor on Fri, 01/09/2009 - 8:08pm
This seems like the best idea by far concerning DRM. I'm at the point where I'm buying PC games that have no DRM on principle even if I don't want them as much as the DRM ones, so please end the madness and chuck DRM all together.
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