Note to EA, Bioware: you can't stop piracy. EVER.

My editorial.

Because we really need another topic about piracy to spiral in a debate.

edited 13th Apr '11 1:53:00 PM by ColorPrinter

Nobody can stop us, to be honest

Considering the pro-piracy attitudes of most tropers, I imagine a lot of fist bumps in the future.

I thought most tropers were anti-piracy actually

The point isn't to stop pirates, it's to delay them long enough so that the majority of sales have already passed, or the pirates lose interest.

I've known diehard pirates who caved and bought Civilization 5 because there was still no crack after a month. I caved and bought Minecraft because I was sick of waiting weeks for Mac patches to come around.

edited 13th Apr '11 3:23:07 PM by Redhead

The point is not whether piracy is good or bad.

It's the fact that EA thinks it can do what humankind couldn't do for the last 50,000 years: stop crime.

You can't stop it. Period. Not without creating an absolute police state.

The problem with this police state, however, is that the criminals ARE COMPLETELY UNAFFECTED.

The fact is: people who paid for it can't use their DLC. Pirates can.

Not exactly an incentive for people to PAY for things, huh?

My Casino example perfect shows why it doesn't work.

Alright, two things:

1) What does server trouble have to do with EA trying to stop piracy?

2) No you can't stop piracy but you can discourage it. Pirating a games means taking risk, if you show that risk has real consequences you discourage people from pirating; that is (or should be) the purpose of DRM. What you seem to be saying that you won't ever stop pirates so don't bother doing anything and let them do whatever they want. Which is just as bad as using invasive DRM to punish legitimate consumers.

edited 13th Apr '11 3:43:37 PM by Neo_Crimson

"EA" "Last 50,000 years" + "Stop Crime"

Oh shit! EA ARE THE REAPERS! Cowboy Cop AND THEY DON'T WANT TO REPRODUCE, THEY JUST WANT TO STOP CRIME!

Whoops. Left a major twist out in the open. It's been spoiler'd, though.

edited 13th Apr '11 3:44:25 PM by Pyroninja42

The most effective solution to piracy is a short drop and a sudden stop.

Oh wait, that's the other kind.

EA could always post "torrents" of their games on sites like the Pirate Bay, which is actually just a 10-gig virus package that more-or-less steals your credit card number and uses it to purchase a thousand copies of said game and ships it to one of many orphanages.

Pretty sure that'd be illegal and since they're a very traceable corporation...

@herp Most companies would like that to be the penalty for it though

Personally? I don't pirate and think that whilst its impossible to stop you may as well try to do your best to not let it be easy.

edited 13th Apr '11 4:11:59 PM by JosefBugman

I don't see the issue, every other industry on the planet survives with people stealing their shit. If the industry can't make a profit while accounting for that then their is something wrong on their end.

I think the real solution is for the publishers to adjust their thinking. Instead of focusing on reducing piracy, their goal should be increasing net revenue.

Would this mean DRM? To some extent, yes, since DRM that results in people who'd otherwise pirate the game buying a copy instead increases revenue. However, the trick is that bit: a pirated copy of a game only costs the company money if it replaces a purchased copy. Preventing Pirate X from pirating a game doesn't actually *make* any money, if he doesn't buy the game. In fact, it *costs* the company money, net, since putting the DRM in the game has a cost in itself.

So, basically, stop trying to End Piracy Forever, and start focusing on doing whatever you can to increase sales. If a given change results in a thousand more sales and 10 thousand more pirated copies, *you win*.

I like the pay what you think it's worth idea, games are ridiculously over priced and game developers are payed way to much money (As are most actors, directors ect.), If they had reasonable prices they'd have less pirates , that and if they trying to create something new instead of just rehashing the same tunnels and chest high walls every year.

edited 13th Apr '11 4:51:52 PM by Vyctorian

What EA needs to do is to compare their DRM to other Copy Protection methods out there and figure out what pisses off the honest consumer less.

Set up a digital distribution system that doesn't fuck up on you and is convenient and economically priced (Steam is good in this regard but every now and then it acts like a bitch which is quite frustrating if I just want to play, say, HL 2 or something) the sales that could actually be lost to piracy will be gained if it's just as convenient as using a torrent and isn't randomly invasive or anything.

Basically...just steam without all the error issues and enabling a proper offline mode.

There are still going to be pirates anyway but you were never really going to get their sales in the first place.

What, I thought EA is the enemy of all gaming, with their evil John Madden casual game third of the unholy casual gamer trinity of Wii Sports and Grand Theft Auto. Why are we giving them pointers?

Since when was GTA deemed to be casual?

Ever since I could finish one without cheating.

@Cider: Because EA still owns Need For Speed, Battlefield, Mirrors Edge, The Sims and Command And Conquer.

And every time EA uses a DRM scheme, it backfires.

edited 13th Apr '11 5:31:03 PM by RocketDude

I'm just going to repeat my oft-repeated mantra: Steam is how you properly do DRM. (Kinda.) No hassle, no bullshit, downloads are reasonably quick, great discounts, unless you like selling stuff.

Steam is awesome. Windows Live wasn't too bad with DRM but the quality of the online connections blew ass.

^Yeah, that's probably why Relic switched to Steamworks for Dawn OF War II: Retribution.