Is there any way to actually fully stop game Pirating?

Well, just curious but is there a way? *punches out creator of pirate bay*

probably never really. always some type of way to beat the authentication.

Nope.. I mean a publisher can try to enforce the most outrageous drm to make it harder for pirates to pirate their games.. but that just ends up pissing off the people that matter.. the people who are buying the games. See that's why Stardock is smart... they know people are going to pirate their games no matter what so instead of going through the trouble of putting drm.. they don't really put any at all on the game itself.. it's only if you want to play their games online.. you just need to register your game onto impulse and away you go.

The only way pirating ends is when people feel it is morally wrong and don't do it. You can't change people so it is something that will never go away.

The only way pirating ends is when people feel it is morally wrong and don't do it. You can't change people so it is something that will never go away.

Whiteblade999

Well look at Empire. It was released a buggy mess and it's steam only. It's been cracked by pirates, but assuming the devs will patch it in the future it would hardly be worth the trouble of pirating, especially if you own a legit steam account. I think steam-only releases are the best way to combat piracy, especially for single player oriented games.

Yeah it is possible there are several ways, stop making games completely, make all games freeware so then people wont bother pirating them, Make the consumers have better morals. The most likely out of all of these that would happen is probably option 2 make all games freeware.

Realistically: No there is no way to stop pirating

the problem is with the cost of gaming.i mean 50$ for a game is outragous for me.hell my monthly pocket money is 40$ and im a college student and can't find any part time job here,people dont know such things around here.but i want to game,i love gaming...

the problem is with the cost of gaming.i mean 50$ for a game is outragous for me.hell my monthly pocket money is 40$ and im a college student and can't find any part time job here,people dont know such things around here.but i want to game,i love gaming...

GazaAli

i was just talking about it yesterday with my fathers.i told him the same thing acutally.i really want to see the day when we stop being a burden to the world.

but again 50$ is just wrong.im willing to pay up to 20$

Piracy is NOT theft. Rather, it's more like, if could go up to a car that looks flash, somehow make a clone of it, and then drive away without paying, would be more in line to what piracy is - which is far less damaging than actually stealing something.

Yes, piracy is bad, but a lot of the time, I don't blame pirates. Publishers have REALLY pushed buyers to the edge in recent years. 10 years ago, I was absolutely faithful to PC Gaming, and would never think about pirating a game. These days, I'm incredibly tempted for a number of reasons. The most obvious of these is the DRM that plagues legit copies of the game, and only stands to get in gamers' ways who've actually bought the game. Pirates just get away with it.

And why the hell are games so expensive? 10 years ago, they sold for about $70 (AU) which was quite steep, and this was because the market was more of a niche - not as popular as it is today. Today, despite the fact the industry has blown up ten fold, games are even more expensive, $30 more infact. It's an absolute disgrace. How dare they try to swindle our money on the clause of "What? That's just how much games cost." No, games these days shouldn't cost much more than a film on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Piracy is NOT theft. Rather, it's more like, if could go up to a car that looks flash, somehow make a clone of it, and then drive away without paying, would be more in line to what piracy is - which is far less damaging than actually stealing something.

Yes, piracy is bad, but a lot of the time, I don't blame pirates. Publishers have REALLY pushed buyers to the edge in recent years. 10 years ago, I was absolutely faithful to PC Gaming, and would never think about pirating a game. These days, I'm incredibly tempted for a number of reasons. The most obvious of these is the DRM that plagues legit copies of the game, and only stands to get in gamers' ways who've actually bought the game. Pirates just get away with it.

And why the hell are games so expensive? 10 years ago, they sold for about $70 (AU) which was quite steep, and this was because the market was more of a niche - not as popular as it is today. Today, despite the fact the industry has blown up ten fold, games are even more expensive, $30 more infact. It's an absolute disgrace. How dare they try to swindle our money on the clause of "What? That's just how much games cost." No, games these days shouldn't cost much more than a film on DVD or Blu-Ray.

1carus

Piracy is NOT theft. Rather, it's more like, if could go up to a car that looks flash, somehow make a clone of it, and then drive away without paying, would be more in line to what piracy is - which is far less damaging than actually stealing something.

Yes, piracy is bad, but a lot of the time, I don't blame pirates. Publishers have REALLY pushed buyers to the edge in recent years. 10 years ago, I was absolutely faithful to PC Gaming, and would never think about pirating a game. These days, I'm incredibly tempted for a number of reasons. The most obvious of these is the DRM that plagues legit copies of the game, and only stands to get in gamers' ways who've actually bought the game. Pirates just get away with it.

And why the hell are games so expensive? 10 years ago, they sold for about $70 (AU) which was quite steep, and this was because the market was more of a niche - not as popular as it is today. Today, despite the fact the industry has blown up ten fold, games are even more expensive, $30 more infact. It's an absolute disgrace. How dare they try to swindle our money on the clause of "What? That's just how much games cost." No, games these days shouldn't cost much more than a film on DVD or Blu-Ray.

1carus

all in all,piracy and pirates exist because of the developers and publishers.sure its not thier fault 100%,but thier need to make a huge profit doomed us all.btw what is DMR

well that actually makes sense to me now ,my point of view was very one dimensional before reading this neo8888

Ah cool, that's got to be like, the first time I've successfully changed someone's mind or opinion on a forum ever. Hah. :)

all in all,piracy and pirates exist because of the developers and publishers.sure its not thier fault 100%,but thier need to make a huge profit doomed us all.btw what is DMR

GazaAli

DRM is Digital Rights Management. This is software installed on programs or hardware to intentionally restrict certain features of said program or hardware. For example, Cd keys are a light form of DRM - restricting users to playing the game unless you have a serial key. Another form of DRM is Region encoding on DVDs - used so users can only use a certain film in certain areas of the world. And finally, usually when DRM is mentioned on these forums, they are referring to the install limits featured on most games these days. There is usually a 3-5 limit install on games so users don't install the product on more than one system.

While publishers and producers claim DRM is used to prevent piracy, it's clear it doesn't stop it at all (because DRM is cracked by pirates SO quickly) so the only ones affected by it are actual paying customers. Thus, the only real reason DRM is there is to force users to pay more in the end. For example, Region encoding on DVDs is used so pricing can be changed in one region, and high prices can remain in others. I was trying to buy the Blade Runner collection but the Region 4 copy was $100 (I live in Australia) while the Region 2 copy was only $40. Fortunately my DVD player is multi-region, but otherwise is a disgraceful premise.

Overall, DRM is vicious software that intentionally hinders or restricts its paying users so publishers can control its market and earn more money. DRM = Bad.

pretty interesting,thanks for the info.

best way to stop piracy is not fighting it (sins of a solar empire,world of goo)

There's going to be some major cracking down in the future I would think.

Internet connections that are fast enough to download an entire game in a few short seconds already exist. When that type of technology starts making it into public homes...

There's going to be some major cracking down in the future I would think.

Internet connections that are fast enough to download an entire game in a few short seconds already exist. When that type of technology starts making it into public homes...

FlyingArmbar

I agree with this 100%. It's getting so that now in some cases it's more convenient to pirate a game then to go out and actually buy them. Things are gonna change regarding game distribution.

Yes, but all methods would probably demand much faster internet connections than we have at the moment. Centralising games' running, so that much of the work currently done by the client computer would be done by the server side, kind of like OnLive have been attempting but localising some of the high speed tasks to the client, would be one approach. Maybe there is a point at which that strategy would meet the MMO tactic of having at least the bulk of the enjoyable experience online only. We've already seen Sims 3 attempt the same thing to a lesser extent.

The only plausibly effective method I can see coming in the near future is OnLive, since all the game data will be hosted externally.

However, even then I'm sure there'll eventually be some sort of hacked client that will connect to the OnLive servers and bypass account authentication or something.

So no, I don't think pirating will ever be completely eradicated.

And why the hell are games so expensive? 10 years ago, they sold for about $70 (AU) which was quite steep, and this was because the market was more of a niche - not as popular as it is today. Today, despite the fact the industry has blown up ten fold, games are even more expensive, $30 more infact. It's an absolute disgrace. How dare they try to swindle our money on the clause of "What? That's just how much games cost." No, games these days shouldn't cost much more than a film on DVD or Blu-Ray.

What people seem to fail to realize is that DRM has been around in one form or another for a while.. it wasn't always called DRM though. Copy Protection was the most coined phrase - remember games where you had to find certain words on certain pages of the manual in order to play/continue playing? These were around before pirating became a big thing and were, in my eyes, more annoying than DVD/CD checks & authentication. Disk Checks have been around since floppy disks, hidden sectors for copy protection were also around in the floppy disk era.

Sure the install limits are annoying, but most companies are pretty good about giving legit owners more activations (not all, but most in my experience). Some even provide tools to free up an install by de-authenticating a computer.

Piracy won't stop anytime soon, but it isn't just because of DRM. It is because there will always be a subset of people out there who want something for nothing. Period. How else could you explain the origins of the current P2P networks - the BBS/Usenet system? There also will always be people out there who get a kick out of seeing if they can break the latest security features, whether it be on a copy protected software package, an operating system, a DVD, etc.

People can say that its because of DRM, they can say its because companies are releasing too many buggy products (of course, that one brings to question: why the heck are you pirating a game if its so darned buggy you don't want to buy it?!), they can say anything they want to 'legitimize' piracy - the fact is that it is a combination of a whole slew of factors that keep piracy going. Removing DRM from games will not stop piracy - as long as people want to get something for free, piracy will exist.

(I do wish game companies would release more demos though :/ - hate having to rely on just word of mouth without testing gameplay myself)

the best way to stop pirating would be to require a connection to the internet and an account for every game. But then people would just complain about needing the internet.

On the distribution side of things I really like the model that gog.com is using (and maybe steam, but I haven't used them so can't comment). They have a great and growing library of older games which you download easily and they're very cheap to purchase. I've bought more games from them in the past 6 months then I have major modern games in the past 3 years. It's because of the price $4-10 and that I have the game DRM-free to be used on any computer I own. I really don't like shelling out ~$70-90 on a game and I have to be damned sure I'm going to like it before I'll do that.

Well, just curious but is there a way? *punches out creator of pirate bay*

dared3vil0

I agree with a lot of people here, and I identify with why people download pirated software. Go buy a crappy game for 50 at the retail store so when you get home you realize that i has a lot of DRM software to install and then on top of that it sucks, OR you can comfortably, albeit illegally, download in the comfort of your home for free. If you think it's crappy, you just deleted. Nothing to lose.

true streaming of content seems to me to be the best way. but that would undoubtedly bring loads technical problems. paullywog

Stop making games, then nobody can pirate them.

[QUOTE="df853"][QUOTE="dared3vil0"]

Well, just curious but is there a way? *punches out creator of pirate bay*

True_Sounds

You're just pulling stats outta your ass. Tons of games are hard to crack; they still always get cracked though.

Lol. Nah, actually I wasn't making the claim that exactly 99% of piracy can be stopped with current or future technology. I was just trying to convey the point that it is impossible to completely stop piracy, but we can really really reduce it with extreme efforts (I won't debate whether such extreme measures are worth the negatives or not because that is an issue in itself).

It is like stopping bank robberies. You could put all the money behind 6 feet of concrete and post 40 cops at the door. That will make it 99.99% safe (got statistic from same source as previous), but it is still possible for some guy to walk in with a grenade launcher, chaingun, and dynamite and rob the bank anyway. Super unlikely, but technically possible.

(my last edit was to fix spacing)

Stop making games, then nobody can pirate them.

Baselerd

Piracy is NOT theft. Rather, it's more like, if could go up to a car that looks flash, somehow make a clone of it, and then drive away without paying, would be more in line to what piracy is - which is far less damaging than actually stealing something.

1carus

stealing an idea or intelectual property may not be theft in the traditional sense of the word, fact is; something is taken and used that does not belong to the one taking it without consent or compensation to the owner. if this was far less damaging (not sure how you get to this conclusion) why do you think it's such a big issue today? if you came up with a great new and creative idea for a game, then put a lot of effort into making this idea into an actual game only to find out that peoples everywhere are playing it yet you struggle to earn back the costs of making it. how would you feel the next time you had a great idea?

Yes, piracy is bad, but a lot of the time, I don't blame pirates. Publishers have REALLY pushed buyers to the edge in recent years. 10 years ago, I was absolutely faithful to PC Gaming, and would never think about pirating a game. These days, I'm incredibly tempted for a number of reasons. The most obvious of these is the DRM that plagues legit copies of the game, and only stands to get in gamers' ways who've actually bought the game. Pirates just get away with it.

1carus

i am with you on your stance against useless anoying drm but surely you see piracy is not the answer and only helps to further bring down the reputation of pc-gamers and gives publishers the excuse to come up with delayed and crappy ports. you could simply choose not to buy the game or do something like write an angry e-mail to the publisher if that is not enough for you. I myself also have to admit that i have not once had drm cause me problems, have you?

And why the hell are games so expensive? 10 years ago, they sold for about $70 (AU) which was quite steep, and this was because the market was more of a niche - not as popular as it is today. Today, despite the fact the industry has blown up ten fold, games are even more expensive, $30 more infact. It's an absolute disgrace. How dare they try to swindle our money on the clause of "What? That's just how much games cost." No, games these days shouldn't cost much more than a film on DVD or Blu-Ray.

1carus

i don't see this huge rise in game prices. if you take inflation into account and the fact that pc-games are often half their original cost about 6 months or so after release than i don't see this as a good reason to resort to piracy. besides, the development cost of a triple A title are huge these days (pc-exclusive crysis cost around 22 million $). and comparing to movies isn't fair as movies bring in a lot of cash in the cinema's.

It's wrong to be MAKING MONEY off someone elses work. But almost noone is making money off it. They are all losing money by paying for a fast connection and a good computer.

The really bad people are those who sell pirated copies and make tons of money off it.

You can stop it by making your country a police state where privacy is totally ignored though, checking on what everyone is doing on the Internet.

I don't think there is, at least none discovered. Don't you think that if it was a way, game companies would already have implemented it yet? Most game crackers and hacker know more of programing than the game developers xD.

I think the only way to stop piracy is to hire all the game crackers to work with the game so they couldn't develop cracks and supply the world

It's wrong to be MAKING MONEY off someone elses work. But almost noone is making money off it. They are all losing money by paying for a fast connection and a good computer.

The really bad people are those who sell pirated copies and make tons of money off it.

You can stop it by making your country a police state where privacy is totally ignored though, checking on what everyone is doing on the Internet.

holibanana

i was just talking about it yesterday with my fathers.i told him the same thing acutally.i really want to see the day when we stop being a burden to the world.

but again 50$ is just wrong.im willing to pay up to 20$

GazaAli

The only plausibly effective method I can see coming in the near future is OnLive, since all the game data will be hosted externally.

However, even then I'm sure there'll eventually be some sort of hacked client that will connect to the OnLive servers and bypass account authentication or something.

So no, I don't think pirating will ever be completely eradicated.

broken_bass_bin

to execute piratesCrucifier