This isn’t going to be an Angry Internet Man rant. I don’t have the energy to just place a few hundred words of anger on this page. Instead I’m going to brainstorm and try to get to the bottom of this, and of course, I’m going to succeed where the corporations can’t or won’t. I’m going to solve the problems of Piracy and DRM. I’ve got a few ideas on the subject, things that will help combat this vicious cycle that’s just perpetuating both sides. Bear with me and I’m sure something insightful will come at the end of it.

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I haven’t been keeping track of Dead Space really, but I read Jim’s review of the game in the next issue of PC Gamer and, I must say I was intrigued. I thought it would be worthwhile seeing how much it was on various websites. My first port of call was amazon.co.uk and I was shocked to see a rating of only 1 1/2 stars. I was obviously puzzled as this is meant to be a pretty good game.

Some investigation revealed that there were ten reviews giving the game one star and they all put forward the same complaints that I have numerous times.

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In the past Ubisoft have earned a name for themselves as being ones to blame the woes of the PC squarely at the feet of video game pirates. So it comes as no surprise to read that Far Cry 2 will be using the same DRM as found in Spore, Red Alert 3 and other recent EA titles. Ubisoft forum manager bukowski113 has posted the details of the DRM on the Far Cry 2 forums.

-You have 5 activations per machine on 3 separate PCs.

- The 3 machine activations can be concurrent, but you must have the disc in the drive to run the game

- Uninstalling the game “refunds” an activation. This process is called “revoke”, so as long as you complete proper uninstall you will be able to install the game an unlimited number of times on 3 systems.

- You can upgrade your computer as many time as you want (using our revoke system)

- Ubisoft is committed to the support of our games, and additional activations can be provided.

- Ubisoft is committed to the long term support of our games: you’ll always be able to play Far Cry 2.

While I obviously am not best pleased to see constrictive DRM methods used in this game, I will still be buying it. However I fear that this is going to lead to a similar backlash as to what happened with Spore with many people refusing to purchase the game due to the DRM. In fact I think that the DRM will do more harm than good and we will see more people pirate it as there will likely be a non-DRM version of the game on the usual suspects soon.

Furthermore EA CEO John Riccitiello has commented (as reported by Yahoo) on the use of DRM in EA games.

“We’re still working out the kinks. We implemented a form of DRM and it’s something that 99.8 percent of users wouldn’t notice. But for the other .2 percent, it became an issue and a number of them launched a cabal online to protest against it. I personally don’t like DRM. It interrupts the user experience. We would like to get around that. But there is this problem called piracy out there.”

We have a policy at work, if we see a product on the shelf that we wouldn’t buy ourselves then we remove it from display. It is something which should apply for a whole lot of other businesses too. If the CEO of EA doesn’t like DRM then why of why would he insist on it being implemented in his games? He may have a point that only a minority of people will actually be impacted greatly by DRM, but even this is too much. It is more the fact that people shouldn’t be affected by the actions of the pirates. Hell I already know that people go out and pirate non-DRM versions of games that have it. These are people that had pre-orders in place or were just waiting for the game to be released before purchasing it. Due to the DRM they went and pirated it.

The game companies should realise that DRM is doing more harm than good and is contributing to the (overblown) problem of piracy on the PC.

Those 2D Boys behind World of Goo have posted an update regarding their no DRM experiment with their game.

so far, the experiment is going well. we’ve sent the full unprotected game out to the few thousand people who pre-ordered it before this past monday and we haven’t yet found the game on any torrent sites.

They do request that you get in touch with them if see any illegal copies on the internet.

The crucial thing is though that currently the game has only gone out to people who pre-ordered the game. These are people who were willing to pay the money for the game, and as such are less likely to go out spreading the game illegally. It must also be noted that the game hasn’t been released properly yet and hasn’t been covered madly in every magazine out there. No, it has just been me and a few other sites that have been doing that.

The true test will be what happens when the popularity of Goo explodes into a big world-wide thing. If piracy remains a small issue then, well 2D Boy will have proved in some small way that by creating a great game with no-DRM that piracy can be fought.

Here is to 2D Boy for having created a master-piece of a game.

EA caused an outrage amongst many with some dubious decisions regarding the DRM that came with Spore. It seems that they are starting to realise the damage they have done to the game with the DRM and are back tracking rapidly in order to appease fans of the game. It emerged a week or so ago that the install limit had been bumped up to 5, now EA are taking things a step further and changing the account system.

The long and short of it is this, you can now have five screen names for one account. You will have to go to the Spore website and set up the screen names there, from then on you will be able to log in to any of the screen names when you log into your account. Creatures will appear in the Sporepedia under the name of the screen name which created them. There is no current timeline for when this will go live, just a matter of waiting I guess. It obviously isn’t an ideal improvement, but it is a small improvement. More details can be found here.

DRM and the Piracy issue in general has been causing a hell of a load of debate, anger and frustration for many people over recent months. The issue has become increasingly pressing since the release of Spore and the announcement of DRM for Red Alert 3. I have seen threads popping up in forums all over the place discussing DRM and piracy within and seperate from the context of Spore.

The first thread, and I the biggest that I am aware of so far is this one from the PC Gamer forums. This thread has spiralled around for over a month now and has featured many arguments on the role of DRM in pushing people into piracy.

Secondly we have this slightly less extensive thread from halflife2.net where many people again deride DRM and the measures implemented in Spore. This has seen a craze of DRM related threads including this one revealing Crysis Warhead will be requiring online activation.

Finally we can see that the madness has even spread to the Football Manager forums with this thread discussing people’s fears that Football Manager 2009 will include some draconian DRM measures.

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The copy protection DRM information for Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 has been made public on the Red Alert 3 forums by Executive Producer Chris Corry. It is…interesting, there are some things which I like the sound of, yet some things which I am still disappointed are being put upon us. The rundown of the DRM policies for Red Alert 3 now and a bit of analysis to follow.

- We will authenticate your game online when you install and launch it the first time.

- We will never re-authenticate an installation online after the first launch. In other words, no reaching out to a central server post-install to see if you’re “allowed” to play.

- You will be able to install and play on up to five computers. If you uninstall the game while connected to the Internet, the entitlement will be preserved and that install can be transferred to a different computer.

- This system means you don’t have to play with the disc in your computer. Personally, I think this is a huge improvement over our previous copy protection requirements, which have always required a disk to play.

- Life happens. I know it’s unlikely, but for those unlucky few who install the game and have their machines nuked (virus, OS reinstall, major hardware upgrade, etc.) five times without being able to do a clean uninstall first, EA Customer Service will be on hand to supply any additional authorizations that are warranted. This will be done on a case-by-case basis by contacting customer support.

-You can, of course, play offline without impediment or penalty.

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Some might say I was calling for blood when I talked about the anti-piracy measures being implemented with Mass Effect and Spore, well now I can take back my outrage and let you all know about some good news.

EA have changed tact and the anti-piracy measures announced the other day are not going to be part of Spore and Mass Effect when they come out later this year. While both will still be using SecuROM and require an initial online activation the 10-day re-activation has been done away with.

Great news (with more infomation following) as it shows that EA have listened to the many complaints that were raised following the initial announcement and have changed tact to better cater to many users. Also this stops us feeling like we are being punished for legally buying games!

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