Playing With / Copy Protection

Basic Trope: Measures taken to prevent or curb illegal copying of games or other software.

• Straight: At the start of Tropers is a screen that requires the player to use a code wheel (which is darkened to prevent scanning) in the freaking manual to input the correct phrase to start the game.
• Exaggerated: Not only does the game start with a code wheel, the developers also inserted traps for people who attempted to disable the screen through hacks, from preventing certain NPCs talking to the player (therefore making 100% Completion impossible) to just plain crashing the game.
• Downplayed: Attempting to play Tropers in an emulator or copier halts the game with a message stating how serious it is to pirate video games.^note Truth in Television, anyone who played SNES games early on in emulation history will tell you how often this screen got encountered, since they usually checked if the SRAM size was unusually large (as was the case in early emulators and copiers).
• Justified: ???
• Inverted:
  • A freeware game begins with a message telling players to copy it as much as they want.
  • (An exaggeration of the above) A freeware game punishes the player for obtaining it legally.
• Subverted: While it seems like the player may need a code wheel to start the game, pressing a button combination allows them to skip it completely.
• Double Subverted: But doing so also prevents 100% Completion since the game (for some bizarre reason) counts legitimately getting past the code wheel screen as part of its percentage.
• Parodied: Attempting to pirate the game causes it to open your web browser and play You Are a Pirate.^note While not in the game itself, attempting to use mods with Enter the Gungeon would actually do exactly that.
• Deconstructed: Tropers becomes completely unplayable when people lose the code wheel and/or manual.
• Reconstructed: The contents of the code wheel and manual are transcribed and uploaded online, allowing Tropers to be played again.
• Played For Drama: The Lensman Arms Race between the developers of Tropers and pirates ends up costing the devs lots of money. The ordinary gamers are pissed because the the devs are focusing more on preventing piracy than actually making the game a fun experience.

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