Diortem’s Rants II: DRM

Alright, let’s talk about DRM or D.igital R.ights M.anagement.

Lately from out here in PC-gamer land, this has been a rather hot-button issue on the forums, even if it doesn’t show in sales. It seems like everyone who has access to a keyboard and the internet is getting pissed at publishers who dare include something to protect their software from pirates on the disc with the game… iether that or they are a console fanboi who is crowing how all these pissed of gamers mean the death of their hated PC competition.

This…. all of this… is absolute and utter bullshit. As I meantioned in my last article, PC gaming is not dying, so xbots, shut the fuck up and sit down. You are loud. You are annoying. And you. Are. WRONG. Want to know why? Read my last rant. Now, don’t go away completely on me since this also effects you, but for now, stop raving against things that are not your beloved box and shut up.

Now for you angry PC gamers. Shut up. You are not being abandoned. Well, ok Rockstar might as well be for what they think passes for quality PC coding these days, but aside from them, no… it’s not happening. In fact, DRM is almost as old as PC gaming itself, and for the most part better now then it used to be. After all, when was the last time you had to enter a CD-key to play your game… not just install it, but every time you wanted to start the game up? And when was the last time you had to use on screen information to pick between dozens, if not hundreds of CD-keys from the manual? Believe it or not, we old-timers used to have to do just that.

But what about modern DRM schemes? Or the evil SecuROM? For the most part, I do not believe they are so bad, and certainly better then what we once had. The only thing bad is if a company decides to use them wrong. Want to know what I mean?

Let’s look at “EVIL” SecuROM. This program has been around for a long long time… ever play Area 51? The Suffering? Guess what checked your CD before it let you play? That’s right, our old friend. But now, something has clearly changed. SecuROM is no longer just checking your game’s disc on startup, but logging online to check with an online database if you have a legitimate copy! How DARE THEY!

Well, once again, shut up. The old way doesn’t work anymore… because we are quickly racing to a disc-less gaming age on our favorite machine. No discs means nothing to check, so in the name of some kind of security, someone had to step up to the plate. And if you try to tell me “DRM treats us all like criminals” and “it’s about our rights,” don’t even try. I will reach through the screen and backhand you myself you whiney worthless piece of shit.

Look around you… how mature is the average gamer? Im willing to bet almost all of us are not pirates, but we are also a crowd who include not only a small portion of brats who scream “gimmie! It’s my right” and pirate away (who I will backhand above), but a large portion who if we were honest with ourselves, would not be able to say “Im not tempted” if offered our games for free. Now, Im not saying we would do it, but is it not a smart idea to avoid putting the temptation out there? The developers are doing just that… much like the lock&key your local retail store puts games behind.

And that is not to say I back everything done in the name of DRM, just that the fervor against it is over-blown and frankly kinda stupid. When EA universally told us we had limited how many machines we could install to at all (and that is NOT SecuROM’s fault… it’s how EA was using it) for all their new games, I was as pissed as the rest of you. This use was a direct limit to how often we could use our games just due to one of the big benefits of PC gaming… you can use YOUR OLD GAMES years later on your BRAND NEW RIG as well as your new games!

Which brings to my absolute point… DRM is not going away so stamping your feet and acting like four year olds throwing a fit in the local mall is not going to do anything but prove to me and anyone else who reads you to laugh at the idiocy before them. What you CAN do, is take a rational look at how the game handles it, decide if you feel it’s alright and be smart about what you do with that decision.

1) Do NOT PIRATE the game. You do NOT make a statement of protest doing this. All you do is show the publisher that someone got past their security, therefore the security failed… NOT the policy behind it that you are actually protesting (at least telling yourself you are protesting, but hey… whatever lets you sleep at night). All you are going to do is encourage them to build a stronger glass case (more intense DRM).

2) Do NOT rant and rave like an idiot on the forums. Even if you are educated about what you are talking about, you will not look like it. What you will look like is a complete retard like the kind who so completely fill the interwebz.

3) DO choose not to buy the game unless properly compensated. In my case, this means if I decide the DRM is the turn-off, I want half-off the price or the situation corrected. And stick by your guns. The publisher will not learn if they get your money anyway. Yes this means self control and the POSSIBILITY of missing a few titles. Don’t like it, go whine to someone who cares. This is how you get your message across, assuming it’s what you really want.

4) DO write to customer support of the publisher in question. Be polite, but absolute. They need to know WHY their games are not selling in order to correct it, so tell them! I suspect this was a big part of why EA changed their policy… not idiots on a forum screaming their heads off.

That’s it… that’s my message…. oh, and console users, take notice…. PSN has already felt the sting of the newest breed of DRM (Final Fight needed a constant live connection Ubisoft PC gaming style) to run…. so if this isn’t your fight yet, it will be soon.

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