DRM ideas (actually just copy-protection)

Business and Project Management Discussions
#1

Way before necessary, I start thinking of ideas how to do it.
I read Cas’ DRM.

I have ideas like: register this game copy to this pc. when shipped, all the contents are encrypted with a hash that is a combination of personal info and the pc’s mac address.
Then if you do want to play it on another pc, you have to manually register it for another pc.
also save games are encrypted per user.
You would want to make it more complex then to just have some boolean in your game; especially with java, thats hacked very easily
and Cas’ stuff you could hack as well
also in Cas’ example, you could just scramble the data that is being displayed on the screen, and everybody would just see garbage for a short moment

now you might say, yea, “but how many people are actually going to do that, its not like you game is super popular or something”
still being idealistic, I would like a copyright protection that is just intuitive to the gamer, not obstructive and still works without server connection.

as Michael Steil said on Xbox and 360 hacking: Security through obscurity doesn’t work, there is no such thing as “more secure” or “less secure”, either security is effective or it isn’t. Given enough time, all secrets of a system will be revealed, and a security system should still work, even when the attacker knows everything about it.

obviously for a whole different level of product, but I still like to think innovatively about ways to make this secure; distancing myself from todays tradtitional DRM -> a user who payed, should never even feel/see DRM, let alone have problems because of it.

#2

“pc’s mac address.”

there is no such thing… if you plugin a wifi-dongle, you’ll have yet another mac address.

#3

yeah you may get multiple mac addresses. assuming every mainboard has a onboard network card, which has a mac address, you could always take that
in it sense, always take the first [0] network adapter

yeah but still, you would have to make sure…

#4

Obfuscate (or AOT compile) the code and if you’re really worried about piracy then add a super nice multiplayer mode. As long as you have done the server side correct for the multiplayer part, and they play through your server, you can limit the pirates to only play single player (missing the nicest part of the game).

There is no such thing as a non intrusive good DRM. :slight_smile:

#5

I beg to differ :slight_smile: Just go with my system, it solves all the problems that exist in DRM in a way that is pleasing to both customer and developer. Provided you as a developer are prepared to understand the reality of cracking.

I don’t obfuscate my code, and indeed I even release it open source. In fact I even release games entirely DRM free (HumbleBundle.com). And I explain how it all works clearly and even how you can circumvent it without even hacking it. I’m still making a living.

Cas :slight_smile:

#6

Then what’s the point in having a DRM and spending the time on adding one? :wink:

I’d still say that if your main reason for one is to not get your game on piratebay then don’t bother, the time you’ll spend on making one that is secure enough is probably going to be longer than for someone to hack it, and if it’s that secure it’ll probably have some part of it that’s annoying for people.

Mike

#7

I pay the games I want to as long as I can affort it. Most people I know only play cracked games they wouldn’t buy or can’t afford anyway.

And for the kids: they play the games they get as a present or the ones they downloaded “for free” - cracked or uncracked. Most of them simply don’t buy games at all. I don’t see how this could be changed by DRM - they simply would ignore that game, so how does this make any money…

#8

That’s like saying change BioShock so that multiplayer is the best part. Not going to happen, vast single-player story experience in my case.

#9

Yeah for the sake of reaching more people, I do want to release it for free.
But in case I do want to sell… something.

#10

Good 'nuff, but other than that there is no great DRM system that is non-intrusive and stops hackers from putting your game on torrent sites. The best thing you can do then is what Cas does, make a great game and hope people respect you enough to pay some money for it :slight_smile:

That or come up with the DRM system that big game studios can’t and sell it to them and become a millionaire :wink:

Mike

#11

Let’s do that.

#12

I simply don’t see how DRM or copy protection would help you with that…

#13

The main reason we use it is because we like the idea of having a single download to manage rather than maintaining two separate builds (which I tried in the past, and it was somewhat irritating). It’s also very convenient for customers. So it does have a purpose: it is the absolute minimum required to make sure that a customer gets what they’ve paid for, and it gives us a low support burden. I dunno, your mileage may vary, but why not think in terms of if you were buying it, what would you like it to do?

Cas :slight_smile:

#14

How to make a game:

Step 1 - Make the game
Step 2 - Make it fun
Step 3 - Tweak the difficulty
Step 4 - Make it more fun
Step 5 - Fix bugs
Step 6 - …
Step 999,999,999 - Worry about pirates

#15

like I said, it’s more like technical curiosity/interest and not really applicable right now.

#16

You can even find all the source code and image/sound files for Minecraft. Yet although there are attempts at clones, most of them fail to take off the ground.

Even if you stop a few pirates, or a few people get your code. Most of the time its not that big of a problem. Sometimes pirating even helps your game

#17

But it should be stressed that rarely does pirating help your game, unless it is specifically designed to make use of piracy as a vector.

Cas :slight_smile:

#18

piracy is always a vector for getting your game known, more than that, unless you made the one only unbeatable and surely annoying DRM if your game is not pirated it is only because your game really really sucks, so much that no one would play it even for free.

there are people who don’t want to pay for your game -> don’t worry, unless your game sucks and they give bad reviews, they will only get more people to know your game
there are people who are honest and wont pirate a game -> they rock, enjoy them
there are people who pirate your game, love it become fans, and buy it or the following ones -> they really rock, and more likely will talk a lot about your game, and get their friends to buy it, etc
there are people who can’t play your game -> no credit card, no money, etc, it makes no harm if they play your game and the moment they can pay for your games you will have someone who already likes your stuff, and not someone who doesn’t know it
there are people who would pay for your game, but they pirated it -> this are the people you want to transform from pirates to customers

why would people who are willing to pay, pirate instead
too expensive
annoying drm
wanted to try it, but they completed it in one go with the pirated version (demo? make it longer? add replayability?)
didn’t have/trust your payment handler -> get it on steam if you can, or use a known method, paypal, etc

the more likely reason why your game will fail (assuming that you finish it) is being left unknown, no one plays your game, no one buys your game, in this situation having your game pirated only means more people get to see your game, more people talk about your game, could be seen by someone that can provide a nice review, etc

if your game is good, and you price it appropriately don’t worry about piracy, and specially don’t treat the pirates better than your fans (don’t make it so that the pirated version is better than the original full of drm one)

END OF LINE

#19

Games that are pirated are already well known or popular. People don’t bother for “unknown” games. I know a lot of “free loaders” (free downloaders) want to believe that piracy helps the developer. It does not, any more than working all day for free will make you a living. There are even cases where the cracked versions have brought the servers to there knees with ratios of 10:1 pirated:legal versions of a game.

Tell me how having a huge number of people that didn’t pay a cent and then forcing you to have 10x the server capacity is “helping you sell the game”.

People will pirate, bits can be copied, code can be [de]compiled and cracked. But call a spade a spade. It benefits the pirate not the developer.

#20

Indeed, you are basically deluded if you think the exposure gained from 1 pirate will lead to enough leads to make even a single sale. It doesn’t work that way. Exposure through piracy is just dust compared to the sale you could have made.

We’ve got one more single player game in us, I think, before we go online-only, which solves the issue completely. One of my friends is making $1m/year doing this, on his own. And the bastard’s only 24.

Cas :slight_smile: