{"id":1676,"date":"2008-05-22T11:03:17","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T16:03:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=1676"},"modified":"2020-09-16T21:29:14","modified_gmt":"2020-09-17T01:29:14","slug":"rspod-drm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=1676","title":{"rendered":"RSPOD: DRM"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the comments of people who have gotten the game, it sounds like Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness<\/a>, the Penny Arcade game, has pretty much the same DRM scheme as is being used in Mass Effect<\/a>: Online activation, limited to three different machines, with more being given on “a case by case basis”. <\/p>\n

It’s slightly less risible here because the title is a digitally distributed budget title, but in the end you still have to ask Hothead games if you can play. I just assumed that there wouldn’t be any DRM. I mean this is Gabe and Tycho<\/del> Mike and Jerry<\/em> we’re talking about here. Being ex-PC gamers themselves,I would imagine they would recognize the futility of the system. Why go to all the trouble of developing their own digital distribution system if it’s just going to be another implementation of the same stupid thing everyone else is using? <\/p>\n

(By “everyone else”, I mean everyone besides Stardock. Bless them. A few weeks ago, I bought Sins of a Solar Empire. They mailed me the game, but let me download it as well. An hour after I made my purchase I had the thing installed and ready to go. No DRM fuss, no mess. I did<\/em> have to type in a CD key, but I can do that as many times as I like. It was beautiful. I still have Collector’s Edition box sitting here, unopened. Like a present I’m saving for later.) <\/p>\n

I actually object to the activation less in this case. I consider RSPOD to be a more or less “disposable” game. Play it once, and forget about it. It’s a budget title, and probably not something I’ll want to repeat five years from now. But still, the principle of the thing is the same, and the very idea<\/em> of asking permission just rubs me raw. <\/p>\n

I don’t know if I’ll skip the game over this or not. I’m certainly not going to run out and buy it right away. <\/p>\n

Sigh. My hope that publishers will come to their senses over this is waning fast.<\/p>\n

EDIT:<\/strong> Thinking about this the next day, I don’t know why I was so eager to give them a break. I guess because they are “indie” and I have a soft spot for indies. But my soft spot for indies comes from the fact they they don’t<\/em> act like the big publishers. If I’m going to miss out on Mass Effect and Spore then I’m sure not going to indulge Hothead games in the same scheme. <\/p>\n

The quote, from their forums: (Thanks to DaveMc<\/a> for finding this.)<\/p>\n

We don’t anticipate having to limit the number of redownloads but remember that each new machine or major hardware change may trigger a new key to be issued against your license. Our plan is to allow multiple installs and to be generous in that regard to cover murdered systems, planned upgrades, people wanting to play it on their PC and their Mac or even Linux box etc. Even if the limit is reached–a limit that we have not determined yet–we will be flexible in resetting or increasing the limit for paying customers. If you are registered, we will keep your license keys stored for you in your profile and you will be able to see the number of times that license has been used for various systems so there will be no surprises.<\/div>\n

To hell with them. They should know better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the comments of people who have gotten the game, it sounds like Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, the Penny Arcade game, has pretty much the same DRM scheme as is being used in Mass Effect: Online activation, limited to three different machines, with more being given on “a case by case basis”. It’s slightly less […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[30,89],"class_list":["post-1676","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-videogames","tag-drm","tag-rspod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1676"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50766,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1676\/revisions\/50766"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1676"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1676"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1676"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}