Clever Anti-Piracy Measures

StarTropics. Same problem with MGS requesting you to look at the back of the CD for a particular CODEC code, namely that it was nearly impossible if you rented the game, and it created considerable confusion when you tried to figure out what it was asking you to do.

Feelies, in general, tended toward this direction, both the benefits and the pitfalls.

Leave it to gamers...

edited 30th Apr '13 12:48:29 PM by Alucard

Yeah, if they did go about the regular way and just ADVERTISED THE FUCKING GAME, I would have purchased it, but nooooo, they had to say, "day one sales show that 90% pirated". No fucking shit Sherlock, if you did next to no marketing and put the game on Bit Torrent yourself. That's just bait trolling and you should feel ashamed for doing such a thing.

Signatures are for lamers.

That's a type of marketing. Spending lots of money to take out advertizements isn't the only, or necessarily the most effective, way to market a game.

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

It's a shitty type of marketing. Basically you're kind of creating a controversy to market your game, which isn't exactly the best marketing strategy in the long run.

Also, giving out review copies isn't exactly that costly.

It's like, trying to get street cred by getting yourself thrown in jail. And yes, I am aware some people actually do that, but that still doesn't make it a good strategy.

edited 30th Apr '13 1:37:00 PM by GaryCXJk

Signatures are for lamers.

.*sigh* Trying to shame people who download pirated or hacked copies won't work. Making the game unplayable or a nuisance will work, for a time at least.

Given game content, the cost and the method they used to market it, I believe they built the game for the express purpose of making this point. If they piss off a lot of pirates, who cares? It's not like they were getting their money to begin with, all they can do is continue to pirate things.

They managed to give their game fifteen minutes of fame through an advertising method that both cost them nothing and which annoyed nobody but pirates. They didn't pay for a distracting ad or make us wait to watch a video—they entertained us.

What, precisely, is the problem?

— On another note, I kinda want to get the copy meant for pirates, but ironically there's no legal way to obtain it.

Fire, air, water, earth...legend has it that when these four elements are gathered, they will form the fifth element...boron.

Dawwwww... this works for me.◊

Jonah Falcon

I do prefer positive reinforcements. They started putting that into DV Ds now.

hashtagsarestupid

I heard that Mortal Kombat Armageddon had a great anti-piracy feature...but that's all I heard about it. I can't seem to find any info on what it is. I (unfortunately) actually bought a legitimate copy.

edited 30th Apr '13 3:30:37 PM by DrFurball

Weird in a Can (updated M-F)

Okay, after I've heard someone actually play the paid version, well, this is what he had to say:

So yeah, they basically needed this controversy method to get the game out.

Signatures are for lamers.

Guys

Earthbound

I watched recordings of Total Biscuit livestreaming a play-through of the game and it was a very different story: a few successes, a lot of games that just kept him afloat and finally a string of disasters that forced him to cut back, led to more disasters, and left him bankrupt in the mid-90s.

As regards Game Dev Story, the devs have acknowledged being inspired by it, but Game Dev Story was not the first gamedev sim game either.

I would really like to know what the Antipiracy feature in Mortal Kombat Armageddon is. It makes you want to pirate it just to find out

hashtagsarestupid

I think it boots one of the Cabela's Big Game Hunter games.

---

That hentai (?) game that asked you to fill a survey full of personal information and took a screenshot of your desktop if you were playing a pirated copy.

That's just plain evil.

I think it was one of the School Days games that did that desktop-picturing thing.

Couldn't think of anything. :/

Best part (if I remember correctly) is that the pirates pretty much legally agreed to that, because they warned people about it in the terms of service, which almost no one reads.

You got some dirt on you. Here's some more!

(x6) That sounds an awful lot like my own playthroughs, actually. I'll start off with a few lesser works, create a killer game that makes me my first million and gets me out of the garage, then never replicate that success again with anything ever and slowly spiral into bankruptcy.

edited 30th Apr '13 9:20:08 PM by Specialist290

So the forum poster's experience: EA. TB's experience: most other studios. ;)

My impression was that the countermeasure increases in strength so that it will eventually overcome any sort of play, no matter how efficient.

Join my forum game!

Still there's probably a bug or glitch you can use to get around it, like putting out shitty social and pay to play online games.

edited 30th Apr '13 11:23:52 PM by joeyjojo

hashtagsarestupid

Alucard already had it pegged at "Leave it to gamers". Just because something is impossible to do doesn't mean a gamer won't find a way to do it.

Dude. Ouch.

That's funny. Some of these were in this Cracked article.

Don't Press Your Luck too many times in life. You'll just get whammied.