DRM: Can there ever be a compromise?
March 31, 2010 - By Erin Stuelke
Digital Rights Management (DRM) is a thorn in the side of every PC gamer. The measures put in place by game developers to protect their product from piracy range anywhere from slightly annoying (requiring the game disc to be in the disc drive) to the outright absurd (requiring continuous online access). But don’t the game creators need a way to protect their bottom line? After all, retails stores use lots of methods like sensors, cameras, security guards, receipt checking to protect their inventory. So why shouldn’t game developers implement their own methods? They should. But they’re doing it wrong.
The developers believe they are protecting their assets but they’re completely ignoring the issue that DRM punishes their paying customers rather than preventing piracy. They are rigid in their thinking that they can completely eliminate piracy altogether instead of being flexible and coming up with a solution that minimizes theft but isn’t a huge hassle for consumers.
Imagine, if you will, that you’ve purchased a video game for $60 (the current going rate for new releases). You install it, put away your discs and settle in for a fun evening in an alternate universe. But wait, you have to create an account with the developer and register the game first. Okay, no big deal. You get that out of the way, close your browser and open the game. Now you get an error message asking you to for disc 1 before you can continue. All right, fine. You put the disc back in. The logo splash screen appears, the loud ominous music plays… and then a pop-up appears asking you to log in to your account before you can start gameplay. Er… okay… Finally, you get down to playing. A few hours pass, you’re really into the story, then your internet goes down. Not a problem, right? Guess again. You’re kicked out of the game and since you haven’t saved in over an hour, you’ve lost all that progress. Pretty frustrating, right?
Now imagine, if you will, the DRM of said game gets cracked (as most DRM does), the game gets uploaded to the torrent cloud, and it’s available for free to anyone with a bit torrent client and the patience to wait for a 10gb file to download. So now that game you paid $60 for, that required you to jump through numerous hoops to set up and play, is cost-free and DRM-free. You’re the scrupulous consumer who likes supporting the game developer, so you’d never download the game, but you can’t get past how unfair your situation is compared to those willing to pirate the game.
What do you do? Well, there are two major steps that can happen to get the ball rolling on making games DRM-free or at least making DRM fair. First, explain why DRM doesn’t work, and why it’s harmful to the consumer and does nothing to prevent piracy. And secondly, come up with ways gamers and game developers can compromise so that everyone gets a fair deal.
Different types of DRM and why they don’t work.
- Requiring the game disc. This seems like a minor form of DRM, but what happens if your disc gets scratched, broken or lost? Now you have no way of playing the game and anyone who’s tried to get replacement discs knows that’s probably a lost cause.
- Limited Installations. It seems reasonable to limit the number of times a game can be installed. But what happens if your computer dies? Or you get a new computer? Once you use up your installation limits, that’s it. No more game unless you want to buy a new one.
- Requiring an online account. It may come as a surprise to some, but there are people in this world who do not have internet access. There are also people in this world who would prefer not to have to make an account.
- Requiring continuous online access during play. See above and also to freshen everyone up on Ubisoft’s recent DRM fail; they required this little bit of DRM. However, their servers were attacked and brought down on game-day release of Assassin’s Creed 2 making it so no gamers had access to play the game. Even still, servers have to come down for routine maintenance, which will limit some gameplay.
How can developers and gamers compromise?
Just like all compromises, there are going to be things each party doesn’t like, but the overall result will be beneficial for both. But what can be done? Well, I believe the path to the answer is already out there in the form of digital distribution platforms. What’s a digital distribution platform, you ask? Valve’s Steam is a great example. But wait, that’s still DRM! Yes, it is still DRM. But like I said, every compromise has some downside to it. So why do I think digital distribution platforms are the way to go? There are several reasons.
There are no disc requirements for games since there are no discs to begin with. All games are downloaded onto your harddrive and you’re good to go. The downside, of course, is that it does require an online account which limits those without internet access. But there’s the bit of the compromise we’ll have to tolerate. Hopefully, as the internet is more widely disseminated, this will become less of an issue (even though it does inhibit those players who prefer not to have accounts in the first place). The upside is you can install the game on as many computers as you like and continuous online access is not a requirement. You do need internet access initially to log into an account, but most game saves are client-side which means if your internet goes down, you don’t lose your progress.
Not only do digital distribution platforms strip away most of the annoying DRM issues, they also have other benefits. A player always has access to the games he owns since they are associated with his account and not his computer. This means if his harddrive crashes, he won’t lose the game. He will probably lose his save data, but some platforms support server-side saving as well. These platforms also make updating games a breeze by automatically updating your library as the game updates are released. Another major benefit is the ability to quickly make an informed decision about a purchase since the gamer is supplied with information and ratings about the titles. Plus, there are tons of other bells and whistles to be found on all these platforms which might entice the player even more to use them instead of looking for pirated alternatives. And hey, who doesn’t love achievements?
As for the game developers and publishers, if all games are distributed this way, it pretty much means an end to used-games sales. It’s also a convenient way to distribute their products and in a less expensive manner. It’s likely that most hardcore gamers that buy games on release day will pay the going rate of $60 for a new release even if it’s digital. That means increased profits for the game industry which will hopefully allow them to make even better games in the future. Not to mention, having all their titles in one easy-to-access location means consumers are more likely to be exposed to their product. The downside is that piracy will still happen. There is no sure-fire way to eliminate piracy, but making it easy and convenient for the consumer means fewer will feel like they have to resort to illegal downloads.
Of course, digital distribution platforms are not perfect and not without their own hassles, but I believe they are great start in the compromise between gamer and publisher.
