Macrovision for PC games

[cka]

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994248

Interesting idea, in theory. Doubtful it'll work in the long run, but interesting nonetheless.

[Diff-chan]

I actually read about this technique a long while back for Spyro The Dragon in GameDeveloper. Basically the developers set it up so that pirate copies play, but they will degrade and the game will be broken.

This is a very effective technique. Here's why:

01. Casual Pirating will Decrease - Uhh lets say I want GameX. I go find a pirate copy, which takes a while (at least a day, usually more if youre not some 31337 Kr3w m3mb3R). I install it, I play it, its all fucked up! Then I just say, ahh fuck it, and I either uninstall it and buy or uninstall it and I just say fuck it and dont bother. Because I certainly dont want to spend another day looking for another pirate copy.

02. It will delay crackers. Crackers will lets say crack the game, post it on the net, and forget about it. Then, in a few days or a week or 2 weeks, people will be like, "hey fucker! The game doesnt work". Since the bulk of sales on a game is made in the first month, this small window without a working pirate copy available is critical.

The trick is to make sure the brokenness of the game, though, is just right: Make it happen too fast and people will just go right back to cracking it, make it too slow and it wont even matter.

[jiji]

SafeDisc and other existing copy protection packages are routinely cracked and removed from pirated games. What would keep this new scheme from being removed in the same way, once crackers learn to recognize it? I don't see it lasting very long as a viable means of stopping non-casual piracy.

[Despair]

They keep improving versions of Safedisk software protection. Most recent .9 version checks what drive you using, and if you have popular copy soft installed, and then in few cases wont even run the LEGAL store bought copy.

[Diff-chan]

Yea but thats just bullshit trash Despair.. whoever came up with that idea should be fired without question. The whole idea of copy protection is to let the legal owners play the game without restriction but make sure no illegal users get the same rights.

Thats why that whole shit about Morrowind bugged me - people who installed the game was running it with a REALLY shitty frame rate, but thats because the CD-check software was running all the time! The no-cd hack raised framerates like 50%! So

Current copy protection is trash, I agree it needs to be in there but it needs to improve. Hopefully this Fade or whatever is a step beyond whats out there.

[MechDeus]

Current copy protection is trash, I agree it needs to be in there but it needs to improve.

Agreed. Was it UT2k3 that created a huge mess where tons of actual owners couldn't run their own game?

[The Bastard]

I think so. Fortuneately, the latest patch lets you play without a CD.

[GohanX]

Personally, I think that many of today's copy protections schemes suck major ass.

I mean, there are a LOT of people who buy the full versions to support the companies, but leave them sealed and just use pirate copies because they are cracked and they don't have to deal with bullshit.

[Diff-chan]

Gohan, its not that "many" suck ass, its that "all of them" suck ass.

The problem is that youre trying to shoehorn DRM and restrictions into a system that was designed from the start to be open, and, well, free of restrictions.

Thats why MS and the like are trying to push Palladium, so that they can build a system designed around DRM, so they can make copy protection and DRM schemes that actually work... but no sane consumer would want that trash.