Blizzard got hacked the other
week; it joins the long list of companies hit by what is becoming the
new crime wave of the century. The dictionary says that piracy is an act
of robbery or criminal violence at land, sea, or air; or now the World
Wide Web. Some gamers and journalists like to imply that piracy and
hacking are a mostly trumped up idea by some vast conspiracy of game
companies.
PC Gamers, stop complaining about DRM. Digital Rights Management is the best and perhaps the only way to alleviate the very real problems of piracy. Piracy is killing your industry and you are the culprit. It’s that simple. Are there other problems facing the PC industry? Of course, lack of real innovation outside of indie titles, a MMO market bubble primed to burst, the death of numerous developers large and small. All of these are legitimate problems that need to be solved in the coming years; but you are single-handedly killing the golden goose. PC developers are moving to console development leaving shoddy PC ports because this is a business and losing millions and billions to piracy is unacceptable. Continue to ignore the phenomenon at you own peril.
PC gamers love to spout how DRM hurts legitimate gamers and thus sales, whether by tethering them to online only game play or by limiting the number of times they can install games they own. First of all, the idea that video game companies, developers or publishers, would in any way wish in infringe on sales of their games is ludicrous. Secondly, developers always or at the very least usually, have workarounds for legitimate cases where more installs are needed. Thirdly, the argument ignores the obvious and undeniable correlation between the need for DRM and piracy. Game companies have no reason to build up levels of ill will between themselves and customers unless there is at the very least the perception of piracy hurting business. Piracy is here to stay in the digital age and beyond and game companies want to do everything in their power to be hurt by it as little as possible; PC gamers and even to some extent console gamers need to be cognizant of these facts.
But its not all gamers, sometimes companies do things that are beyond the pale and gamers have a right to take them for task for that and they should. Legitimate concerns shouldn’t be dismissed as whining or sour milk, I for one do not want to live in a mobile gaming age. We gamers deserve better but so do game companies. As they say “All that stands before the triumph of crappy IPhone garbage, is for gamers to do nothing”. End File.
PC Gamers, stop complaining about DRM. Digital Rights Management is the best and perhaps the only way to alleviate the very real problems of piracy. Piracy is killing your industry and you are the culprit. It’s that simple. Are there other problems facing the PC industry? Of course, lack of real innovation outside of indie titles, a MMO market bubble primed to burst, the death of numerous developers large and small. All of these are legitimate problems that need to be solved in the coming years; but you are single-handedly killing the golden goose. PC developers are moving to console development leaving shoddy PC ports because this is a business and losing millions and billions to piracy is unacceptable. Continue to ignore the phenomenon at you own peril.
PC gamers love to spout how DRM hurts legitimate gamers and thus sales, whether by tethering them to online only game play or by limiting the number of times they can install games they own. First of all, the idea that video game companies, developers or publishers, would in any way wish in infringe on sales of their games is ludicrous. Secondly, developers always or at the very least usually, have workarounds for legitimate cases where more installs are needed. Thirdly, the argument ignores the obvious and undeniable correlation between the need for DRM and piracy. Game companies have no reason to build up levels of ill will between themselves and customers unless there is at the very least the perception of piracy hurting business. Piracy is here to stay in the digital age and beyond and game companies want to do everything in their power to be hurt by it as little as possible; PC gamers and even to some extent console gamers need to be cognizant of these facts.
But its not all gamers, sometimes companies do things that are beyond the pale and gamers have a right to take them for task for that and they should. Legitimate concerns shouldn’t be dismissed as whining or sour milk, I for one do not want to live in a mobile gaming age. We gamers deserve better but so do game companies. As they say “All that stands before the triumph of crappy IPhone garbage, is for gamers to do nothing”. End File.
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