DRM In Your Game

[dejai]

DRM in games has become a very popular choice to "protect" content amongst major game publishers. Personally I see this as an uphill battle as DRM is cracked and the software applications still end up available for bit torrent without the restrictions of DRM. All it does is punish the users who purchase the games. However it would be crushing to see thousands of people illegally downloading your video game on the Internet which definitely does happen to big PC titles. Publishers combat this by making only certain online services which they control available to those that buy the game effectively locking out pirates from multiplayer experiences or they just avoid the entire thing and write exclusively for consoles ( which takes a lot of the mainstream pirates out). But how does this apply to idie games? Do you think people will still steal them? It seems to be an issue with popularity if your indie game goes viral people will start stealing it we have seen this with Plants vs Zombies, Meatboy the list goes on. So after all the effort you put into your game to find half of your potential audience is just blatantly stealing your content what are you going to do about it? Are you going to implement some kind of DRM that offers some flimsy half-arsed protection for your game which punishes the users that actually buy the content? Or do you not see these downloads as lost sales but simply people who wouldn't by the game anyway but want to play it? Is it a complement for people to go to the extent of downloading your game in the first place even if it is against your wishes? It will be interesting to see how you respond to this question as I know a lot of you are looking to sell your applications across a variety of platforms. Cheers.

[JaxDragon]

My personal opinion is that you're screwed either way. I say go open-source and ask for donations if people appreciate your work.

[davidthefat]

Or you can implement 3 serial system, each with their own algorithm and the client sends the data to the server and if the 3 serials are legit and they can be activated, IDK what to do about cracks though

[eatcomics]

I'm all for pirating... If someone (like me) can't afford a game but really wants to play, that just sucks, but if I had the money I would donate to a publisher I supported :P so i'm all for what was said previously about open sourceing

[dejai]

Consider the senario that you want to make money off your game, making it free does not really accomplish that and open source won't stop pirates.

[eatcomics]

Consider the senario that you want to make money off your game, making it free does not really accomplish that and open source won't stop pirates.

If I want to make money I'll be an accountant I guess... Or dev for a console

[davidthefat]

Consider the senario that you want to make money off your game, making it free does not really accomplish that and open source won't stop pirates.

If I want to make money I'll be an accountant I guess... Or dev for a console

Only devving for the PS3 is the only choice if you don't want pirates... 360 and Wii are both hacked, one more reason why PS3 is better

[JaxDragon]

Consider the senario that you want to make money off your game, making it free does not really accomplish that and open source won't stop pirates.

If I want to make money I'll be an accountant I guess... Or dev for a console

Only devving for the PS3 is the only choice if you don't want pirates... 360 and Wii are both hacked, one more reason why PS3 is better

Pirates do, in fact, exist on PS3.

[eatcomics]

lol silly, no matter what you do someones gonna crack it, but its less likely to have people pirate it, cause most pirates are pussies

[davidthefat]

Consider the senario that you want to make money off your game, making it free does not really accomplish that and open source won't stop pirates.

If I want to make money I'll be an accountant I guess... Or dev for a console

Only devving for the PS3 is the only choice if you don't want pirates... 360 and Wii are both hacked, one more reason why PS3 is better

Pirates do, in fact, exist on PS3.

yes, you can rip it, but you can't run it after, so I really don't consider that pirating

[Scoody]

I think putting DRM on it will cost you unnecessary and scare away otherwise potential users, so you'll lose money either way.
Look at it this way: those who pay would do so if you had DRM or not, and those who pirate will do so if you have DRM or not.

[eatcomics]

exactly scoody

[TheBuzzSaw]

I know I'm late to the party, but I just want to add my thoughts quickly.

Do not waste your time implementing any kind of DRM into your software. You conquer pirates by offering great value in your product, not by sinking to their level in technological warfare.

Frankly, as an indie developer, I would be ecstatic to see my game being downloaded by thousands of pirates. I would much rather have that than have no one playing at all. Obscurity is far more deadly than piracy. You'll never be able to prove how many of those downloads cost you sales nor how many people are actually playing the game. (Some pirates just hoard content for others to sift through. The pirate does not even derive any enjoyment from it.)

[ismetteren]

I know I'm late to the party, but I just want to add my thoughts quickly.

Do not waste your time implementing any kind of DRM into your software. You conquer pirates by offering great value in your product, not by sinking to their level in technological warfare.

Frankly, as an indie developer, I would be ecstatic to see my game being downloaded by thousands of pirates. I would much rather have that than have no one playing at all. Obscurity is far more deadly than piracy. You'll never be able to prove how many of those downloads cost you sales nor how many people are actually playing the game. (Some pirates just hoard content for others to sift through. The pirate does not even derive any enjoyment from it.)

QFT

[Ginto8]

I know I'm late to the party, but I just want to add my thoughts quickly.

Do not waste your time implementing any kind of DRM into your software. You conquer pirates by offering great value in your product, not by sinking to their level in technological warfare.

Frankly, as an indie developer, I would be ecstatic to see my game being downloaded by thousands of pirates. I would much rather have that than have no one playing at all. Obscurity is far more deadly than piracy. You'll never be able to prove how many of those downloads cost you sales nor how many people are actually playing the game. (Some pirates just hoard content for others to sift through. The pirate does not even derive any enjoyment from it.)

Exactly. And open-sourcing something shows that you'd like the community's input, which makes it more likely for people to want to donate, so that you can create more cool stuff that is also usable in any number of ways to the community as a whole.