Weekly Opinion - Piracy

Gaming and Piracy go together, much like music and piracy. Like music, gaming is heavily impacted. However, the results from said piracy have gone in two different directions. Music pirates were once haunted by the Recording Industry Association of America. However, starting last December, the music pirate's boogeyman ceased their mass lawsuits. They are still suing some, but their days of suing people wrongfully accused are over.

Pirates and gaming are a bit different. To my knowledge, I've never really heard of a suit like the RIAA has done with music pirates. That may have something to do with the fact that the gaming industry does not have an RIAA of its own (its tried a few times, and certain organizations, such as the PC Gaming Alliance, are trying now). So it fell to the various developers and distributors to sue others.

Consoles and PCs

Piracy itself has seemed to have come down the hardest on PC games. Numerous developers have complained in the past about how games they release on the PC get pirated and they lose money.

While piracy exists on the consoles, from the research I have done, it is of a somewhat different sort. For them, it is more of a problem of exported games and mod-chips. As I am a PC gamer, I only know of those in passing, though to my understanding mod-chips often allow consoles to play games they otherwise wouldn't.

PC Gaming has taken a major hit with piracy. Some developers steadfastly refuse to make games for it now after bad game sales. Many of those that remain, however, are beginning to turn to DRM - Digital Rights Management. The problem is, many are getting quite zealous.

DRM and Controversy

DRM, Digital Rights Management, is exactly what it sounds like. It is a way for someone, whether it is a band, a music label, movie studio, or game developer, to protect their creation online. There are a number of ways to do it, ranging from keeping it from being ripped from DVDs (doesn't seem to work from what I have seen) to software installed in it to keep from being ripped, to software being installed to ensure it isn't pirated (this happens mostly in gaming cases). DRM is disliked by many as people often hold the opinion that, as they are the ones who bought it, it is their right to use it as they see fit, and attempts to keep them from, say, ripping a movie from a DVD in order to have it on their computer, is stifling them.

One of the best, most recent cases of over zealous DRM is the game Spore, released by Electronic Arts. Spore used a type of DRM known as SecuROM, a type of DRM that has caused problems for users in the past. SecuROM sometimes blocks installation based on the software a user has, even if they are innocent. SecuROM, for Spore anyway, at one time required the game to be authenticated upon installation as well as every time it accessed the internet (as one could download content).

The backlash was quite harsh. The game was ratings-bombed on sites like Amazon.com, EA and the Spore forums lit up with posters, angry over this. Some minor changes were made, but the DRM remained. Did the DRM live up to EA's expectations?

Not in the slightest. Within 9 days of release (Spore was first released in Australia on September 4th, 2008), the game had been pirated over 171,000 times. Effectively, the DRM failed in keeping the game from being pirated. All it did was make legit buyers into suspects.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

That is what gets me the most about DRM and video games on the PC. Some companies, like EA, seem to treat real buyers as pirates, even though we aren't. I understand that they need to protect their interests, no argument there, but I draw the line at being held guilty before being proven innocent. I bought the game with my own money, I don't want to be restricted by how many times I can install the game, locked out of installing it because of one type of software I have, or what have you.

However, while this angers me, I can also kind of understand why some are so heavy handed. They're losing money, and it seems that nothing they do can help. But at the same time, I should not be held accountable for something that I am not doing.

Some companies have done away with DRM entirely (Stardock, off the top of my head). Good for them. But I don't see that happening with every company.

Unfortunately, piracy will continue, there's no denying that. I just hope that game developers will at least try to realize that not all of us out there are trying to steal games.

"Of course, that's just my opinion, I could be wrong" ~ Dennis Miller