PA release and DRM

"Quibbling and quabbling" over "abstract data" is the entire history of mankind. We are human beings not mollusks. Quibbling and quabbling is all we do. It's called thinking.

B-but LAN parties... Nostalgia!

You can still have "LAN" parties, with a bunch of people gathered at your house connected to the internet.

GOG-release has been hinted by GOG-team a long time ago! Uber offered them to GOG, but GOG wasn´t sure if the game really fit in the portfolio.
So they did a community voting and community wanted PA, so it´ll be there---and that´s why it simply has to be DRM-free, as there is non Non-DRM-Free gaming at GOG!

Pffft.. Not nearly as awesome

>using government... ever
hahahahahahahahhaahahahahaha

I agree. I don't really think we disagree in what the IDEAL is. I think we are only disagreeing of how to best get there.

The problem I have with your post is that DRM is what causes pirates to want to pirate more, not the other way around. DRM creates a black market, something to be "wrong" or "illegal". The more you stop people from doing something, the more curiosity gets the best of them and thus creating demand.

It's seen with popular mmorpgs with private servers that the companies try but fail to take them all down. It's seen with restrictions to drugs, weapons, and other such items that are now harder to come by than before. Ever hear of the Boston Tea Party? Same thing. Wonder why kids have such an obsession with porn before they're an adult? It's hidden from them, creating a wondrous world that they're not allowed into. Obviously, they want to know why.

DRM removing pirates is impossible, and you will never win that fight. In fact, if you allow piracy and flow your fanbase instead of restricting them, you'll actually succeed in every way. It spreads information, allows users to test the game, grants respect from lack of DRM restrictions, and if correctly ran, with high-quality customer support, you can even take a Pay to Win model and make it more successful and popular than any other DRM game out there. If you want proof of non-DRM popularity, Take a look at the Touhou Project.

The sole creator, Zun, allows players to take and create derivative works of the series as long as it's labeled as such. Touhou is the biggest single-series in Comiket, has it's own massive convention dedicated to it, was in the Guinness Book of World Records for the most prolific fan-made shooter series ever. https://web.archive.org/web/2013042...s-8000/most-prolific-fan-made-shooter-series/

Not only is Zun treated as like a god by the fanbase, people will go out of their way to pay for many things for him, though he declines it. Companies can do the same thing, but on an even larger scale. The problem lies in that DRM is what causes people to hate online-only games. Diablo 3 is a perfect example of the pre-orders fueled by it's Diablo 2 popularity, only to have several websites and massive customer backlash for the horrible status of it's release and it's core mechanics. Just because it sold well from a pre-order standpoint does not mean the game itself was glorious. Been there, done that.

I'm sorry but I literally don't have any idea what you're talking about

When was government mentioned? X3

here

Clearly someone hasn't purchased a game that DRM made literally unplayable. Or spent money on a game which DRM ruined. Or had a rootkit installed by publisher DRM. Or had an old game not work because the servers for the DRM were down. Or been unable to play the game at a particular hour for no reason whatsoever. Because the DRM servers didn't feel like it, and you are powerless to do anything about it.

DRM does not work. Both from a functional standpoint, and for its intended purpose. They are an invasion of your privacy, your rights as a consumer, and there is no benefit to the publisher. It's just bad. And there is no upside.

What happens is that the pirates are the only people who get to actually play the game without the DRM. Usually a DRM-free version is on pirate websites less than 24 hours after a game is released.

Oops missed that.

Yeah the government could never catch pirates, too illusive.

Diablo 3 did not sell well "from a pre-order standpoint" -- it sold well from an order standpoint. Extremely well, in fact.

As for the rest, you make a good case for your viewpoint. My problem is that, if we draw the ultimate conclusions from your reasoning, we are left with no IP protection laws, or with useless laws that are not enforced. Is this better from a cultural perspective than the model we have been working with for the past few centuries?

I don't know. My gut feeling is that it is, but we don't have enough data to tell either way. I guess the ideal would be a large-scale experiment, or a series of them.

The rabbit hole certainly goes very deep with this issue.

Has nothing to do with piracy. Not even DRM because at the moment its strictly online only until the server is released.

I could see some time in the far, far, future when high speed Internet is the norm for the entire world DRM being more realistic, but at the very least for now... Internet limits and people that just plain don't have Internet need the ability to play offline.

I don't really see an issue for offline play. Removing the DRM will allow:
People to play the game offline, or play at LAN party with 1 license (which Uber suggested themselves). It might be old fashioned however it's still fun! What it doesn't permit is on-line play.

I have over the years borrowed the disk for a game from a friend, tried it and then purchased my own copy so we can play together. This is what allowing offline play is all about. Thing is, OK a pirate can play the game (single player only) or even host a private server to play with a small group, but eventually those players are going to want to play on the real server, you know where all the players are.

That's when Uber will make a sale. The modern idea of 'piracy' has gotten a bit out of hand, if you followed the idea of many media companies they view someone lending a friend a dvd to watch is a form of piracy. I'm thankful that Uber have decided to take a sensible approach, making the license key provide access to the online features people want (and that cost money to maintain) while being a little more relaxed about the offline bit. I actually think this could increase sales in the long run

As for when the offline version is available, well that has to be when it's ready. It would be worse IMO for them to rush the server out in an unstable state to hit a deadline, than to delay it a little and do it well. We know it's being worked on, so I personally don't see the issue.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-10-25-cd-projekt-red-announces-6-million-the-witcher-sales

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/10/30/the-witcher-3-pc-to-have-absolutely-no-drm

? What are these?

Fair enough, I see your point.

Well, From what I understand, Diablo 3 sold so obscenely well based off the popularity and well-made predecessor. It didn't take much for the game to have the biggest PC launch in history. It's just that a majority of the game's purchases, pre-orders and direct buys, were either before, or a few months after the game's release. Blizzard's fanbase was quick to label D3 as the Best Game Evar™ based on the sales alone, and while it was a pretty strong game, it didn't live up to the expectations. Pretty disappointing.

To be fair, though, it was majority a different team that developed the game, and not the entirety that made Diablo 2, so I think it was pretty good in that respect.

Yeah, there's really not enough companies that do the non DRM thing, and most of society thinks that piracy is a bad thing. Now, I won't say for or against, but it does cause some good things. Popularity and spread into countries that you can't release is one of them. I don't know if the Touhou Project has created the be-all-end-all of commercial game markets, but it's a move in the right direction and has some serious positives. DRM, while good intentioned, has some major negatives. You can't force one thing upon everyone in the world, but I truly believe if we, as a whole, stopped trying to force DRM, and give a more positive role in playing the game via purchase, then I can totally see people giving their everything to buy into it. Hell, I would. I'd fund that all day every day.