DRM Ponderances

[owsf2000]

With all the shit hitting the fan over Spore lately (which was predicted to happen months in advance - iirc it was originally going to have the same phone home scheme as bioshock originally.) I found myself wondering why I hate DRM on the PC far far far more than I hate it on consoles, which are all DRMed as well in their own console specific way.

I suppose the answer would be that it the DRM used on the consoles doesn't prevent or make it a pain to use the game on the console it's designed for. Although I would like to see that weakened a bit further as well. If they start selling console games that have X activations, require me to hook up a modem so the game can phone home, or if something is done so that content gets locked to a specific console. (Oh wait. The downloads stuff does that now doesn't it? :p) then I'll probably truly be ducking out of the console market in the future. (This gen is very iffy as it is. There's a chance I might purchase one or two of the consoles when the prices are down under 200 bucks, assuming games I want are still available, but like I said - that's iffy.)

DRM on the computer is all about making the game NOT work on the system it's designed to. DRM on the consoles is more about preventing copies and preventing homebrewing. (I dislike the preventing homebrewing part, which ends up needing the system to run copies of the homebrews.)

Bah. This entry probably doesn't make much sense. I'm in a rush to go to work, blah blah blah. I'll try to think it over when I have more time and see if I can piece together a more thought out explanation after work.

Comments

[owsf2000.livejournal.com]

From a developer perspective, I can agree with you. However the customer side of me is stronger thus why the DRM bitching wins out. For what it's worth, I do plan on one day finishing the revamp of the malgorian dimension, and when that happens there will be games for download and possibly even things for sale. We'll see when that day comes how strong the customer side of me is I guess. (I keep arguing over the pros and cons of various things and what to encourage/discourage.)

As I said with Ice above, DRM on the comp affects a lot more than the game. PCs aren't sold and weren't made as important and popular in our lives by being marketed as disposable game machines - which is how consoles are marketed. I don't want a game screwing up (potentially) everything else I can do with the PC. When I buy a console however, I'm buying it exactly the way it's marketed. As a disposable gaming machine. I don't plan on using notepad on it. I don't plan on banking with it. I don't plan on sending email through it. And currently I also don't plan on playing online with it.

So with consoles, I basically swallow whatever copyprotection they have on it (within limits - if I know the copyprotection steps past those limits, I just won't buy it to begin with.) and buy the games I want like a good little gamer. I'll buy accessories for it as desired. I won't pirate games. Heck, I don't even mod the consoles.

At least for the commercial life of the console. After the console has been tossed in the trash and replaced with something else, I have far less tolerance for it. Homebrewing begins, and adding mod chips are options. (Although I've never bothered going through the effort of getting a modded console yet.) In the console market, developers shouldn't care anymore. They've already made their money and are working towards newer and better things with the next generation. (This is especially true when the console starts being 10+ years old.)