''DRM can really force people to use pirated games'': StarForce speaks to games.on.net about piracy, customer anger, and more

[News Portal]

There's no subject more contentious among PC gamers than DRM, and there's no DRM more contentious than StarForce. James Pinnell sat down for a chat with StarForce's Dmitry Guseff, who explained that the company's protection systems often made people angry and sometimes with good reason, but that things weren't really as bad as they seemed.

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Read full article by James Pinnell

[Mekon]

We asked Ubisoft for statistics on end-user appeals and received data that indicated that not more than 1% of all gamers had problems with protection.

Or that gamers didn't see the point of complaining without actual proof.

I had a DVD drive back in the day that crapped itself and I blamed it on Starforce (and thereafetr avoided all Starforce products), but that was just a gut feeling - I have nothing to back that up. No point complaining to Ubisoft about it... even if it seemed to be a common issue.

[Mearehear]

Interesting read, and the logic of making a profit before the inevitable game crack makes a lot of sense, after the peak sales period most games income would be just drip feeding the company anyway.

I can already sense a lot of DRM hate/rage/"I will just pirate" filled posts coming.. especially after the Diablo thread yesterday

[cyclobs]

except these days i seem to find a lot of pirated games out before the game is even officially released... (i couldn't name any off the top of my head though but there has been a few)

[ub3r]

did anyone else read Dimitry's responses out loud with a Russian accent?

[Drakand]

great article and good area to follow up, really enjoyed the read

[xanarax]

A very interesting read, he's been saying what I've always suspected of DRM.

People think it should be bullet proof or not used at all, when in reality it's to allow a title to launch and be as profitable for that period as possible.

My thoughts on DRM are "Keeping honest people honest", it should be difficult enough that your average user can't pirate it, but a cracker could given enough time.

I'm always reminded during an internet outage (which is an extremely rare once a year deal) about Internet only activation, but as we're moving further and further into systems like Steam or into MMOs DRM is more server side and it looks like they're clever enough to realise that.

[PalZer0]

In my opinion, activation limits of any kind are unacceptable. Limits on deactivations are just as absurd (if not more so).

DRM should go nowhere near a user's PC hardware. User accounts, on the other hand, are more preferable as they can be used for more than just DRM (leaderboards, community features, achievements, etc). Computers change. Our identities don't.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201

[James Pinnell]

except these days i seem to find a lot of pirated games out before the game is even officially released... (i couldn't name any off the top of my head though but there has been a few)

You'd find a lot of these titles have been torn away from the DRM, rather than the DRM being removed, and as such aren't full game experiences.

I think most people would be hard pressed to feel a game is fully featured if the multiplayer doesn't work.

[PalZer0]

You'd find a lot of these titles have been torn away from the DRM, rather than the DRM being removed, and as such aren't full game experiences.

I think most people would be hard pressed to feel a game is fully featured if the multiplayer doesn't work.

Requiring a legitimate key for multiplayer is actually one of the more successful DRM schemes. This is most commonly tied in with user accounts as well.

EDIT: Given that Starforce has had a lot of negative publicity in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if people avoided games protected with any form of that protection due to the "guilty by association" mindset that they have about Starforce due to said bad publicity.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201

[Tas]

lol this idiot actually thinks cloud gaming is the future... I will NEVER buy a game that has such a moronic system of pay to play by the hour. You can bet 99% of I know will pirate any game they actually like if it has such a **** feature.

This guy is living in a fantasy world.

[brimlad]

Thanks James that was a great read, especially like his comments on cloud gaming; having game code locked away of a secure servers will certainly present a challenge to professional hackers selling hacks, though we'll need a fully functioning nbn for cloud gaming to be a reality in this country.

cheers

[PalZer0]

Cloud gaming is never going to take off here in Australia. The lag would be unbearable.

Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201

[Cas Bitton]

lol this idiot actually thinks cloud gaming is the future... I will NEVER buy a game that has such a moronic system of pay to play by the hour. You can bet 99% of I know will pirate any game they actually like if it has such a **** feature.

This guy is living in a fantasy world.

I'll bite

How do you intend on stealing a software licence when games in the future are delivered:

With a sole distribution channel
When no files are stored on your computer
Content is streamed directly to you on demand
An internet connection is mandatory
All character progress, save games, content are synced to the cloud after gameplay session has ended
No resale of software licence, tied to your primary account

This is the part when you boycott the game, right? The truth is, these are all existing methods used by games today.

It's disappointing to see a total disregard for the games I enjoy, then read a few comments highlighting exactly why we are in this postion.

I'm glad a few of our members dislike games enough to see it's downfall, kudos.

[Marius]

@Palzero: Sure it will.

Diablo 3 is going to take off, and that's cloud gaming.

@Cas: I'm going to address that very question on Thursday.