DRM. Three little letters that can make you cringe. The uproar with spore releasing really brought this into the open (well more into the open) as the ideas producers come up get crazier to try to lock down their games from being pirated. Sure trying to prevent theft is fine, but there becomes a point where you need to rethink whats going on. Digital media ISN'T going to work exactly like the products of old. You can't just slap plastic cases and set up large door alarms anymore, the internet doesn't work like that (WIND MILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY). Game producers are trying to come up with more and more ways to keep things the same, ormove things backwards, and halt all progress we've made on digital distribution, because that's the only way they can think to fix things. Your games being downloaded illegally? “Slap some authentication codes on there, limit installing a game to only three times, create online checks to verify the program, set up region specific codes,” they say, not realizing what they are really doing. All this work on the companies end is just pointless, the files will just be cracked in a matter of days (potentially days BEFORE the release date), uploaded, seeded, and leeched. All they do by putting these limitations is encouraging people to pirate their games. No one wants to pay forty to sixty dollars on a new game, only to find out “oh sorry you don't REALLY own it, your just renting,now jump through these hoops to play our game!”. Companies need to quit this devolution. Someone somewhere in the company has to have the common sense to see the harm to the fan base as more and more people find that its much easier to download a game, than to face the ever increasing limitations being presented with purchase. Valve's steam system is a perfect example of a developer trying to move forward. By purchasing the game, you gain access to all the features of steam (and there are a lot) that you wouldn't get through a cracked .iso file. Here's a quote from a member in another industry (television) struggling to maintain the status quo on their products:

Yamaga said that “he really can't blame fansubbing or the internet, because japanese animation wouldn't be as successful as it is now without those. Additionally he compared fansubs to watching the stuff for free on TV. However he said that most people who like the series will buy the DVDs. We'll produce works worth buying so we're not worrying about running out of business because of pirates. Only those insecure about their own worth or with mediocre shows should be complaining about it.”

The restrictions put up are just too much, I am not buying games that I had looked forward to a few years ago (like spore), because I am not willing to deal with shitty DRM, I'll save my money for those developers who don't prevent me from playing their game. This isn't about whether piracy is or isn't theft, either way you debate it, DRM hurts the consumer more than it hurts the pirate, it doesn't work, just stop.


Unfortunately embedding this didn't work, just watch it though, cool viral marketing ftw: Wario Land Shake It