Grrrrr... Me want play game.

Austin · Post by **Austin** » Thu Jan 20, 2005 3:54 pm

I wanted to make a move in my on going Civ 3 game and forgot my CD. Remind me why having to have your CD to play a game is a good thing again.

Yeah, yeah... I get it. Just wanted to vent.

Huw the Poo · Post by **Huw the Poo** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 2:39 am

Yeah I hate that too. But look on the bright side, at least games don't get pirated any more.

dbt1949 · Post by **dbt1949** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 7:48 am

Look up the no cd crack.

Kraken · Post by **Kraken** » Fri Jan 21, 2005 10:26 am

I blame inertia. Publishers feel like they have to do SOMEthing to discourage casual piracy, and so they default to the most widespread "solutions" -- CD keys and commercial schemes like SafeDisk and SecuROM. When I learned that Tilted Mill was going to use SecuROM for Children of the Nile, I made a pitch for leaving it off entirely. I presented Brad Wardell's argument about independent developers treating their customers like criminals, along with some very weak and unconvincing data suggesting that antipiracy schemes don't improve sales enough to justify their cost. Sony's SecuROM rep had numbers demonstrating a net income gain that were apparently sufficiently convincing. TM's publisher expected them to do SOMEthing, and SecuROM was the easiest and most cost-effective choice. I was pleased that our internal decision-maker had weighed the arguments seriously, even if "do nothing" never had much of a chance.

Anyway, copy protection is not usually a developer decision, and the publisher's scheme of choice is more a matter of habit, cheapness, and ease of implementation than anything else. I don't know if anyone except the people who sell them really believes such schemes improve unit sales sufficiently to justify the license and increased production cost...but the "do nothing" argument is generally dismissed as crazy talk.

If my own company and my personal IP were on the line, I don't know if I'd have the courage of my convictions, either.