This page is a giant mess, and I don't think the mere existence of Copy Protection in a game is a trope. There are, I think, two genuine tropes that could be split out of this.

• Copy Protection Puzzle: A point in a game where the player is forced to look up something from the Paratext to continue playing. This can be anything from an outright prompt for information to a maze which to walk through unguided is like playing iterated Russian Roulette. This is a Dead Horse Trope (though, contrary to what the page says, it didn't always involve Feelies).
• Copy Protection Failure Mode: When the game continues after failing a Copy Protection Puzzle or any other kind of copy protection check, but makes it deliberately unplayable, whether by spawning invincible ultra-powerful enemies or giving you a silly Non Standard Game Over after a while.
• Copy Protection: All the various methods, from disk-based to Internet-based. I first thought this should be a Useful Note instead of a trope, but now I think it should be a trivia page instead.

I kind of expected a reply to this. Anyone?

I see no problem with changing this into trivia (there's a thread in special efforts for this, btw). The proposed sub-tropes sounds like a good idea, though - will you take them to YKTTW?

I really think this is more of a Useful Note than an actual trope, and that examples of this in a work would go in Trivia/.

edited 15th Jul '12 7:10:21 AM by DarkConfidant

Copy Protection may be an Useful Note, but it's effects on a work sound more trope-like since they do show up in a work.

Maybe we need something like Copy Protection Tropes or Copyright Tropes like Censorship Tropes

The effects would turn up as the tropes the OP mentioned. Let's see if there's enough material to make an actual index out of it.

The part about modems only permitting 4 devices is completely inaccurate. DSL and cable modems have one network jack— this connects to a router which has as many network jacks as you need. Most have four, more expensive ones have 8. If you need even more, you plug the router into a switch, which can have dozens.

Your ISP can't regulate how many devices you connect because it doesn't know how many devices are connected, your router uses NAT to make them all appear as one. All they care about is that you stay under your bandwidth limit.

Let's not get started about factual accuracy. For example, the bit about intentionally incorrectly written discs describes the mechanism incorrectly. I'd guess that the technical description needs to be completely overhauled (but it's probably more a job for analysis, or, you know, we could just point to wikipedia).

Clocking as inactive.

What we have here isn't entirely a trope as it reads now. We have a long essay regarding the history of videogame copy protection in general. Isn't that better suited to Useful Notes?

I'm going to grab my chainsaw...

edited 18th Sep '12 9:52:10 AM by Stratadrake

Bump.

Stale with expired clock. Locking.