At what point will you actually stop buying games?

Duff-Man said:
In short:

1. Because it is ineffective - the games get pirated anyway, usually within hours of release.

2. It is inconvenient, and often interferes with the game

3. People who DO pay for the game resent the fact that pirates have the convenience of not having DRM.


Take the 'constant internet connection' DRM. When the server goes down, you can't play the game at all (even as single player). Not true with a pirated version. Or take the popular "only so many installs" DRM. If you change your hardware a couple of times your game is no longer valid, or you need to go through a lengthy support processes with the game publisher. Not true with the pirated version.

If DRM actually stopped people pirating games, then there could be an argument in favour of it. However it does not. To my knowledge, every single game released with DRM has been pirated.
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Assassin's Creed 2. There's a reason EA jumped straight into the 'always on' DRM idea after that came out.

Plus, Steam is essentially 'always on' DRM. You can have offline mode, yes, but you still need connection to download the games or update them, it's merely a more sophisticated always-on system.
 
Gaming sure has changed a lot these past couple of years, DLC, DRM and now EA with paid for demos :(
Anyway DRM, only time i will buy Assassin's Creed 2 , Splinter Cell and these other DRM infested titles is when/if they release a patch that removes it which by that time the game will be in the bargain bin anyway. And then of course there is always a chance that they won't remove it.... Remember Chaos Theory and getting it to work on Vista with that damn Starforce, they never did fix that leaving people who upgraded their OS unable to play the game.

Unfortunately i can only see it getting worse with other companies jumping on the bandwagon :(
 
Can someone please explain to me the problem with this? (People with shoddy internet connection aside) If this helps stop piracy, therefore making PC gaming more profitable, therefore hopefully making companies pay more attention to the PC market and in turn we recieve better, good quality games, what's the problem?
 
It's not just about the internet connection - the publisher has to have authentication servers for the game, and therefore they have complete control over when and if you can play it. If they go out of business or simply decide not to support the game after a certain amount of time, your game's dead.

If you don't want to apply a patch because of gameplay changes it makes, tough, it's going on anyway.

If you want to mod your game, the authentication servers might not recognise the modded game and won't start it.

The publisher has complete knowledge of what you play, for how long. Expect them to use this to push ads to you, sell the info to other companies, etc.

This has zero benefit for the user, and is all about control. Look at CD Projekt - they have zero DRM and massive sales because they create loyalty and incentives not to pirate via extra content, free goodies, and bloody good games.

The likes of EA wouldn't use the extra revenue to make better games, just more mediocre ones.
 
Not sure how to read into your post so i will answer both!

1. When will i stop buying games entirely as a result of DRM:
a. Never. There will always be publishers who manage to release games without ridiculous DRM on them. Valve manage it now... it's worth the higher prices. I very rarely buy games on release any way so i dont mind waiting 6 months for prices to drop.

2. What type of DRM would have to exist for me to not buy the game that incorporates it
a. Any DRM is enough. I'm a fickle man, stubborn to the bone. I wont buy any games that require me to make some ridiculous 3rd party account to log in (Windows Live etc) (although yes, WoW and DA:O i own and need accounts). I wont buy games that have install limits, and i certainly wont buy games that force background software to run (punkbuster etc) (again, exception WoW with it's Warden program) or force you to be online all teh time.

DRM has already long crossed the line for me.
 
Swi1ch said:
Can someone please explain to me the problem with this? (People with shoddy internet connection aside) If this helps stop piracy, therefore making PC gaming more profitable, therefore hopefully making companies pay more attention to the PC market and in turn we recieve better, good quality games, what's the problem?
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It doesnt stop piracy. Not one little bit. It was cracked in under 25 hours of release.

It doesnt make PC gaming more profitable. Companies don't make better quality games as a result of sales. Christ you only need to look at EA for proof of that.
 
I doubt I will ever stop buying games because of DRM.
The only time I would stop buying games is if there was nothing being released that I liked.
 
I haven't bought AC2 yet because of the DRM. As much as I want to play it, console version is still too expensive and PC DRM is stupid. So I guess now is my answer :D
 
DRM is going to get worse on PC as now Ubisoft & EA have paved the way for future PC DRM trends! I can see why publishers are so fed up with pirates getting their greedy little hands on almost every PC game for nothing & I agree with them trying to protect their IP.

I do not like it at all for the hassle when it will cause's lost SP progress due to an ISP problem & most do give you minor problems every month.

Splinter Cell5 is probably the first game on PC I will buy with this system as I was going to buy the 360 version instead but the gfx for starters are 576P (yep thats correct sub-720P HD) & look pretty bad then the controls on 360 are also poor as the animation jerks all over the place so the controller cannot even handle it @ 576P :eek: PC naturally will have the best gfx/controllers :D

Expect future big budget PC games to all be DRMed more than they currently are as its either that or they drop PC games altogether so its probably a last stand experiment for the publishers as already they are finding as many excuses as possible to not make a PC game!
 
i very rarely buy games, if i buy a game it normally lasts me ages! so i don't mind paying the £30-50 that seems to be the standard RRP.

DRM does seem to be a bit of an issue, and i can udnerstand why companies use it, but it is just totally annoying... just get an external HDD and all works fine.
 
hard qestion, but I think its when I don't have enough time for gaming as I already have a lot, or if all the newer games are rubbish


the only games I considering of the new is Just cause 2, and silent hunter

from the old Rfactor and GTRevo
 
When playing BF2 last night I wondered whether I will be playing it till I can't game any more.
I don't know how much it's all going to bother me I s'pose until BF3 comes out but I can say Nothing will stop me buying BF3 on day of release.
I will be buying BF3 but if it doesn't feel right I'll go back to BF2. :p
 
edscdk said:
not everyone knows how to download pirated games,

Locking your house makes it a bit harder for someone to break in but they can still break in if they want... but you still lock your house?

even if the DRM only stops a few 10's of 1000's of people making copies thats 100's of 1000's of extra profit.

What other choice do they have?
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"not everyone knows how to download pirated games"

That's true, but then what has that got to do with DRM? If someone doesn't know how to download a pirated game then how does that have any bearing on whether the original had active DRM or not? :confused: If you don't know how to download pirated games, then you will be buying originals anyway :confused:


"Locking your house makes it a bit harder for someone to break in but they can still break in if they want... but you still lock your house?"

Not even remotely the same thing. Once a game is cracked, it's just as easy to use whether it had DRM or not. You get it from the same place, and follow the same procedures. To continue the house analogy; once the house is unlocked it cannnot be re-locked. And the developer has little to no control over when the house will be unlocked for all to enter. At best, DRM delays this unlocking by a few hours or days.


even if the DRM only stops a few 10's of 1000's of people making copies thats 100's of 1000's of extra profit.

Not if that "extra profit" is smaller than the cost of developing and maintaining the DRM, or smaller than the number of people put off buying the title due to invasive DRM.


What other choice do they have?

They could NOT include DRM? Take the example of sins of a solar empire. No DRM or any other form of copy protection, yet one of the most successful games of recent times (in terms of sales to development cost ratio).
 
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I have both AC2 and CandC4 and other than the DDOS attacks the other week the DRM is relatively seamless.

As long as the DRM just involves registering and logging into an account I dont really care. I've never had technical issues with Starforce etc either.

I prefer not having to have the disk in the drive and also the online saves you get with uplay.

I would draw the line at Jet Set Willy style colour charts though. :D
 
AC2 crossed the line for me. I refuse to buy it until they pick a less intrusive DRM system, or they drop the DRM completely on the Steam version (it's completely redundant). And no, I haven't downloaded a pirate copy either (don't have space on my external hard drive in any case). Ubisoft's loss.
 
I hate this DRM crap.

I only want to enter a serial and away I go.

I stopped buying the Battlefield series due to the crap with that advertisements in the game thing. I know it's not the same thing but something as intrusive as that has put me off.

Having to be online all the time to play games means I won't touch them.

I've only been buying Console games lately. Ohh and Star Trek Online but got bored of that.
 
I honestly don't know what they would have to do to make me stop playing. Chances are it would only be once the games/drm/whatever makes it impossible for me to play the game...in which case the choice isnt mine :P
 
I won't buy anything with DRM or anything similar. In fact I'm more likely to do the dirty and take a look to see if someone's hacked it.

If developers actually took the time to put together a good game in the first place, that didn't need three to four patches before it was usable, then the vast majority of people would buy them outright I believe. Throw together weak, half-cocked, unfinished or supposedly more secure games, then more people will likely look for alternatives as above.

Put together a good game with decent support however and people will be more likely to buy it in the first place and come back to your company for your next offering too. You'll be quids in regardless of the few percent that grab a copy online, who by the way you'll never change regardless of what you do.
 
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