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DRM.

While I'm not one of those people who think DRM is the spawn of the devil, I do think it creates far more problems than it solves. When possible, I buy my games without it. Sometimes DRM interferes with you being able to play the game, and it's very annoying.

Also, DRM will eventually kill the used game market, which is a bit sad. The DRM thing on the Xbox One was terrible, since physical games are limited run. It makes games essentially become disposable once they don't run on latest hardware anymore.
 
Eh, like Cerberus87 I don't think that DRM is evil or anything, but in many situations causes more problems than it solves. Of course DRM that really doesn't impact my experience (Like Steam DRM) then I really don't mind.
 
Satoshi Ookami said:
Ehm... am I a bad gamer since I didn't know what this was?
Is this US-only thing?
Because I haven't experienced anything related to this.
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If you play games from EA, Valve , or buy music from iTunes, you're already acquainted with DRM. It basically means you can only play that game or listen to that song you bought under very specific conditions, like installing a program like Steam or being online all the time, or only being able to play it on very specific devices. It effectively limits how you play the game and can be extremely intrusive if done wrong. EA especially is bad for this because their DRM program scans your entire computer and keeps tab on what's on your hard drive (as in everything, not just the folder the games are stored in.) It's meant as an anti-piracy measure but there's better ways of doing that.
 
mew_nani said:
If you play games from EA, Valve , or buy music from iTunes, you're already acquainted with DRM. It basically means you can only play that game or listen to that song you bought under very specific conditions, like installing a program like Steam or being online all the time, or only being able to play it on very specific devices. It effectively limits how you play the game and can be extremely intrusive if done wrong. EA especially is bad for this because their DRM program scans your entire computer and keeps tab on what's on your hard drive (as in everything, not just the folder the games are stored in.) It's meant as an anti-piracy measure but there's better ways of doing that.
Click to expand...
I see, thanks.
I'm not a PC gamer, I got all EA games on PS+ and I don't use iTunes so it makes sense I haven't experienced it.
 
Satoshi Ookami said:
I see, thanks.
I'm not a PC gamer, I got all EA games on PS+ and I don't use iTunes so it makes sense I haven't experienced it.
Click to expand...

Actually, you probably have experienced it in that case. DRM is what prevents you from loading your PS games onto a usb stick and copying them to your friend's Playstation for free. ^^ The system on 3DS that locks you to a single ID per 3DS is another form of DRM, albeit less obvious/evil.

DRM, executed correctly, should be like any other technology. The role of technology should really be to get out of your way and let you do what you want to do. Steam, Nintendo, Sony...etc for the most part do this pretty well, but mainly since Steam DRM already leverages the account that you're using for social/shopping, while Nintendo and Sony DRM are platform locked. DRM gets a little more annoying when you enter media outside games, though.

@Gardevoir: The problem is that you didn't buy the game, at least in the current game industry. This gets into the messy field of software licensing- you don't own the software you buy, but you pay for a license to use it. If you owned it, piracy wouldn't be an issue. Think of it in the following:

If I buy a potato, I own it. If I make copies of the potato (growing more), that's not a big deal, since it's my potato. Maybe I share these potatoes with my friends, and they grow their own copies from the one that I share. (Buying Software)

I think I bought a potato, but I actually bought the right to use the potato. It's not actually my potato, so to do anything other than eat it/cook with it, I'd have to check with Corporate Potato Inc. There's also an annoying code that I have to type into the cutting board to use the potato. (Licensing Software)

I buy the right to use a potato. Monsanto's pretty sticky about people doing things they don't have permission to do, so the potato is genetically modified to be sterile- even if I wanted, I can't grow copies of the potato. Still, it's not actually my potato, so to do anything other than eat it/cook with it, I'd have to check with Monsanto. There's also an annoying code that I have to type into the cutting board to use the potato, in addition to installing a Monsanto camera above my shower (what does my shower have anything to do with a potato?). (Licensing DRMed Software)

It's an odd situation where you own the physical DVD, but not the information contained within it.
 
Cocoa said:
Actually, you probably have experienced it in that case. DRM is what prevents you from loading your PS games onto a usb stick and copying them to your friend's Playstation for free. ^^
Click to expand...
Oh, that was also a thing. =D
Well, we trade physical copies anyways so I don't mind not being able to trade digital ones =D
I don't really buy that many digital games and majority of my digital library is from PS+ which my friends also have =D


Okay, thanks for responses guys, I now kinda get why I didn't know about it =D
 
Since DRM isn't for the benefit of the players, but the companies who made the games and who are therefor able to restrict the players using their games, I feel like the player should definitely have the right to not be able to realize that they're getting restricted. If people who buy the game and realize that they can only do so much with it, then the DRM is done poorly.

Also, last thing you want to do, is letting your customer know that they have to suffer, because you want to better control ont the minority (pirates, etc.), especially when they are easily able to circumvent the DRM at some point, anyway.
 
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