Copy protection blues..

Published on November 14, 2004 By Kobrano In PC Gaming

I've really had it with copy protection. As a gamer that BUYS his games, i'm incredibly inconvenienced with horribly obnoxious copy protection to the point I don't even feel like buying games anymore! They should start putting the type of copy protection on the outside of boxes, so I can make my buying decision with this method.

Consider that I have two children, and both play games. Even with caution, kids scratch CD's, its just a part of life. So with protection schemes that require the CD to be in the drive for the game to function, that means the kids have to keep removing CDs from their protective sleeves and swapping them out every day. This leads to broken CDs or scratched CDs. Worse, its a proven fact that games that require the CD to function, get played less than the games that don't! I can't tell you how many times I think about playing Warhammer 40k, then decide not to bother, and play JointOperations - because JointOps doesn't require a CD.. Take a guess which game i'm buying the expansion for, and which i'm not? Worse, what happens if you LOSE your CD? I've lost a half dozen over the years, how about you?

This is bad enough, but how about those copy protections that prevent you from even playing the game? Safedisc is notorious for this. Painkiller was released, and a full 20-30% of the people that purchased the game, couldn't even run it - much less install it - and I was one them.. Painkiller sat on my shelf for 3 weeks while I waited for a patch to make it so it would work. Well sorry, I got tired of waiting, and eventually sold the game to a friend - I won't be buying the expansion for this needless to say. Or how about Starforce? If you aren't familiar with Starforce copy protection, I recommend a Google search. This copy protection installs hidden drivers on your computer that disable your CD-RW/DVD-RW drives, and copying software while you play your game! Some consider it a trojan horse in that respect, and i'm of the thought that they are right. Worse, Starforce has been known to damage hardware, and otherwise prevent your drives from working at all - I have a Plextor 708A Drive in my main PC, and Starforce completely disables this drive.

Last week a new Beta Test game arrived on my doorstep, I installed the game, and it wouldn't run. Yup, you guessed it, the copy protection was broken. I waited 5 days for a patch from the developers, and it was finally fixed, but the bad news is, when I installed the game on the computer next to my main one, it wouldn't run, and disabled the CD drive in.. Wonderful stuff! I'm aware its beta, but when you guys ship a BETA TEST with copy protection so obnoxious that people can't even test your game, do you think we will buy it? I sure won't! I think part of the decline in game sales has to do with copy protection, I really do. I've purchased about 10 titles this year so far, and of those 10, half of them have had copy protection issues that don't allow me to properly enjoy the game. I've ended up selling 5 out of the 10 because of this, and don't plan on purchasing products from those companies again. Net effect = lost customer.

Certainly there has to be some protection from thievery, but not to the extent it kills your legitimate customers. Because statistics show, if someone wants to pirate your game, they will, regardless of the protections you place on it, so why bother ruining the experiance for the people that actually pay for your game? JointOperations has a great system, when you install it, it encrypts your CD Key into your registry, and then ties this encryption to an online registration system that is required to play the game. If you try to give out your CD Key, it won't work, because its tied to your personal information that you registered with. It sounds complicated, but its seamless and painless to the end user. You install the game, register, and you are done.. The CD is never required again unless you need to reinstall it on your PC. Take a guess which game gets the most play around here? Yup, JointOperations, and we're anxiously awaiting the expansion pack for it..

Software companies really need to re-evaluate their stance on these obnoxious copy protection systems, I firmly believe it is costing them thousands of sales of their products.

Comments

greywar

on Nov 14, 2004

The copy protection is almost wholly ineffective against piracy as well. I much prefer Stardock's methodology.

BlueDev

on Nov 14, 2004

Here here. I find it extremely insulting to be honest. Any one with half a brain cell knows that these copy protection schemes do nothing to stop game piracy. I know, for a fact, that most games are even available and cracked before they make it to the stores. The only person invasive copy protection hinders is the honest folks like us who want to play the games we purchased.

I am with greywar, Stardock's method is great. I have conversed with another developer regarding this and he was incredibly obtuse about it. But that came as no surprise.

MythicalMino

on Nov 14, 2004

i was going to buy Painkiller, but after reading all over the place the debacle of the copy protection causing it to not run, I decided against it....oh well....

Santiago

on Nov 14, 2004

Same here...as soon as I read this piece, it stopped me cold. I can see the reason for copy protection, but not the logic behind implementing it in a way to frustrate the average consumer. It makes one wonder how they manage to stay in business...

Spaceon

on Nov 14, 2004

I'd advise that you return dud games rather than selling them on. If you simply sell the game on then the distributors/makers won't care... they got your money anyway.
But if they start seeing people buy their game and then return them the same day then the shops will get pissed as it costs them to restock etc. The retailer will then bite the distributors/makers who will be more likely to do something faced with a retailer threatening to not stock future titles by them.

Kobrano

on Nov 14, 2004

Thats great, except remember that a majority of stores have a "No Return" policy on PC games. They claim this policy was put in place because of people copying games, but the reality was, it was put into place because of BAD GAMES.. A good majority of PC games stink in my opinion, and if people suddenly could return bad games, how much more sales would the industry lose? OMG, you mean they would have to start putting more quality control in their products? They'd have to release games with playability? Oh no, they'd have to make sure copy protection didn't kill the cd drives on gamers PC's?? Oh the horror of it all.

Spaceon

on Nov 14, 2004

Hmmm... a good point. In Australia the 'no return' policy seems to be enforced mainly by large retailers. (Think Australian version of US WalMart etc)

A lot of the smaller retailers (those specialising in games) seem to be a bit more lenient in their return policy. Especially if they are getting a lot of returns/complaints for a particular game... it helps that the people who work there are also game-players and hence know which games are problematical.
(Of course, the first 10 or so people who try to return the game will more than likely be met with suspicion, until the weight of complaints convice the retailer that there's a real problem.)

This also seems to be the case for copy-prevention (or play-protection) schemes in audio disks. My local music store will happily allow you to return a CD that you can't play. Apparently a LOT of music CD's are being returned these days, by people unable to play them in their Cars/Computers/newer DVD/CD players.
(Of course if I was a less ethical person I could just rip the CD with EAC and return the copy/play-controlled CD's as a form of protest... but that would be stealing... which is bad... or so I'm told)

mgosh

on Nov 15, 2004

We are all SPOILED with the copy protectio of CD's today. Remember the old days, Dark Heart of Urkel when the copy protection CODES were on pieces of black and red paper (read can't photocopy) and you required them to play. PLUS you had to have the ORIGINAL disks. Remember the key-wheels, and key codes ON TOP of the CD-ROMS.

My favorite form of copy proteciton is NEVERWINTER NIGHTS! Reminds me of the good old days of unfair and insane copy-protections. First I got the gold edition and the First TWO KEYS to unlock the main and the first expansion pack is, yep you guessed it, not printed on the CD-ROMS that are REQUIRED to play the game with, nope you get the fun thrilled excitement of installing the key from the MANUAL so if you lose the game manual your out of luck! Oh to be a gluton of punishment I bought the expansion becuase it's a teriffic game and guess what?!!! ANOTHER key! Yep! Evidently the two keys aren't secure enough and again it's in the stupid manual and not on the CD-ROM. STUPID! STUPID! STUPID!!!!!

YES this is the #1 reason why consol games are better than PC games! NO STUPID COPY PROTECTION. Pop in the DVD-ROM and it works. OH YES! THEY ACTUALLY USE THE DVD's instead of shipping with 3-5 CD-ROMS to get a game working. STUPID STUPID STUPID game manufactors, I've had a working DVD player since 1997!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(End of Rant)

Frightlever

on Nov 21, 2004

Copy Protection is only designed to stop casual copying by less technical users. As the tools become more user friendly and the users become more technical copy protection as it exists now really will be pointless. Even HL2 has had a Steam-free fix released. I pay for my games (far too many games) but have rarely been disappointed because I read reviews and use demos. (The most bizarre incident I had lately was Chrome, which wouldn't run if Zonealarm was running. That's pretty DUH for a game with multiplayer.) But when I was a kid with an Acorn BBC B computer I thought nothing of copying a tape and passing it round my friends. Same with the ST later on - I had hundreds of disks for it. I read somewhere once that it's not until you reach later teens that your brain develops a sense of responsibility but the problem is I know plenty of people who have just gotten out of the habit of paying for legitimate CDs, DVDs and games so some form of copy protection is needed or the industry will die. I assume that the subscription policy that Stardock has is going to be a lot more popular. Even Valve's plans with Steam has impressed me (I downloaded and was playing HL2 off there inside three hours on launch day - how can that not impress?)

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