{"id":25380,"date":"2014-12-16T15:51:58","date_gmt":"2014-12-16T20:51:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=25380"},"modified":"2014-12-16T19:05:35","modified_gmt":"2014-12-17T00:05:35","slug":"experinced-points-drm-is-over","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=25380","title":{"rendered":"Experienced Points: DRM is Over"},"content":{"rendered":"

The title is hyperbole, of course. I don’t think DRM is over in the sense that the big publishers are going to abandon it. But it’s over in the sense that we’ve shouted ourselves hoarse trying to get through to the non-gamer executives running these companies, and there’s nothing left to say. My column this week<\/a> details just how obviously pointless DRM is for any possible purpose.<\/p>\n

(Disclaimer: When I say “DRM” here I’m talking about “naked DRM”. Steam is DRM, but it’s DRM PLUS convenience, a store, a community, etc. For the purposes of this article, when I say DRM I’m talking about standalone stuff like SecuROM, Starforce and such.) <\/p>\n

In the end, I think what pisses me off the most isn’t the DRM, it’s the fact that the people running these companies have been so completely insulated from their decisions and the debate itself. This, I could live with:<\/p>\n

Me: Please stop using DRM. It hurts my experience using your product and doesn’t do anything to stop piracy.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Actually, our sales show a measurable benefit when a title is equipped with DRM. <\/em><\/p>\n

That sucks and I’ll still resent the DRM, but I’ll be happy to offload the blame onto the pirates at that point. I don’t blame publishers doing what they have to do to protect their investment. But in all these years, that particular conversation has never happened. Instead, we’ve had this conversation:<\/p>\n

Me: Please stop using DRM. It hurts my experience using your product and doesn’t do anything to stop piracy.<\/p>\n

Publisher: We understand your concerns but we need to use this DRM to stop piracy.<\/p>\n

Me: I JUST SAID THAT IT DOESN’T DO ANYTHING AGAINST PIRACY. IT WAS CRACKED BEFORE RELEASE. What are you basing this on? Why don’t you remove the DRM once the game is done selling?<\/p>\n

Publisher: Thank you for your feedback. We value your opinion.<\/em><\/p>\n

It’s been something like a decade of that same stupid exchange, over and over again. We’re not mad that DRM is a hassle. We’re mad that DRM is a hassle for no benefit<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

We’ve taken the issue apart multiple times, and the publishers haven’t even grasped the fundamentals of the problem. Lots of people say things like, “The publishers wouldn’t keep doing it if it didn’t give them some benefit.” I think that’s giving them entirely too much credit. Heck, the publishers could shut me up by just straight-up lying<\/strong> and saying that DRM makes sales go up. I wouldn’t be able to prove them wrong. But they can’t even be bothered to do that. <\/p>\n

This is why DRM is over. There’s nothing left to say. Denuvo was the best DRM ever devised, it did nothing, and still nothing will change. We can either boycott a game or put up with the DRM. That’s it. <\/p>\n

What a stupid waste of time, money, and aggravation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The title is hyperbole, of course. I don’t think DRM is over in the sense that the big publishers are going to abandon it. But it’s over in the sense that we’ve shouted ourselves hoarse trying to get through to the non-gamer executives running these companies, and there’s nothing left to say. My column this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[102],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-weekly-column"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25380","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=25380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25380\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}