While I admire their attempt at a different view of the DRM model, how many here have downloaded the game to either play or to at least test their DRM? I for one have, and if that is enough to get me to buy a copy of any of their games, I'd say the DRM (or at least the blog post) is a success.
DRM done right: Puppygames
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Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#12The Pepsi Challenge of any DRM scheme is this: Will I end up regretting that I didn't just pirate it instead? (ie: Did the purchase experience leave me with anything less than warm fuzzies, and/or did the product end up being crippled in some way?) Though hardly bulletproof, or optimal, this particular mechanism clearly passes that test, and should be lauded.
Yeah, this happened to me regarding Starcraft 2. I ended up regretting buying it after it took me half a dozen tries just to play single-player with my not-so-good mobile internet connection.
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#13sad they say they aren't doing so well: "It means if our DRM system breaks, like for example our server melts down with the floods of sales we unfortunately aren’t getting, or Puppygames goes completely bust because you buggers aren’t buying nearly enough games for us to survive ," ... " Hint: you’re not :("
Well, if they aren't exaggerating with that 5% number. Then it means they are making around $270 per month.
Kind of sad compared with minecraft that made $20k or something in a day.
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#14The Pepsi Challenge of any DRM scheme is this: Will I end up regretting that I didn't just pirate it instead? (ie: Did the purchase experience leave me with anything less than warm fuzzies, and/or did the product end up being crippled in some way?) Though hardly bulletproof, or optimal, this particular mechanism clearly passes that test, and should be lauded.
Yeah, this happened to me regarding Starcraft 2. I ended up regretting buying it after it took me half a dozen tries just to play single-player with my not-so-good mobile internet connection.
Had no problems with starcraft 2 at first, but the real telling moment came when I noticed that I couldn't play single player without first registering my account for offline play with a net connection that I didn't have where I was at the time.
Felt weird having a game I had paid for and installed legit that I was being prevented from playing.
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#15This DRM doesn't do anything; it just seems like extra code to maintain for no reason.
They make a big deal about the download having your name and address embedded in it to deter people from spreading their copy all over the net.
And then they said that their demo version will be full version until it contacts the server... And you can download the demo without an account.
They defeated all of their own protections.
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#16"Firewall Revenge of the Titans so it can’t ever contact Puppygames and get your totally free full game" Using DRM at all in such a setup looks quite pointless to me.
I agree, but what they are describing sounds less like the DRM we've come to know and hate (yes, I know that's the point of the article, but let me explain). When I think of DRM in, say, music purchases, I usually think of some way of restriction. But here the title DRM actually makes sense: it's Digital Rights Management. This actually enables the developer to distribute the right to the full version of the game to it's customers, not to restrict them. By that same token things like Valve's Steam allow Valve to distribute games, although on much more restrictive terms. Of course the FSF would completely disagree with any of this, but I would definitely like to hear RMS's take on this particular setup.
I guess the big question is going to be "does this scale?"
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#17They should just take all of this out and tout that they are DRM-free. If they trusted the user as they claim, they wouldn't feel like they needed to revert your refunded full game into a demo.
Lots of people would have no problem registering the game to "Sir Pantsy Higginbothom " and then what good does their little name screen do?
If they always reset your registration count no questions asked, there is no point in even having that there.
It seems like they're trying to strike a balance but I just don't see the point. There's still extra hassle involved here, interestingly much of it is on the publisher himself, and there's no particular benefit for anyone. The publisher gains nothing from these measures because they are so easy to circumvent and they'll just creep out / bother users that registered the copy in their real name. Users gain nothing from these measures because they are almost not there and there's some slight intrusion made after buying 10 games. They don't add anything to the experience, unless you like your name flashing up as one of the intro credits.
So there's really no point to any of this. They should just rip it out and then they could put shiny "DRM-free" buttons all over.
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#18"DRM done right" is an oxymoron.
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#19They should just take all of this out and tout that they are DRM-free. If they trusted the user as they claim, they wouldn't feel like they needed to revert your refunded full game into a demo. Lots of people would have no problem registering the game to "Sir Pantsy Higginbothom " and then what good does their little name screen do? If they always reset your registration count no questions asked, there is no point in…
You ignore the fact that the purpose of DRM is to minimize piracy, not prevent it completely.
if it introduced even a slight inconvenience in pirating the games it would probably already shave off a nice amount of pirating.
PS: Puppy Games is just one guy trying to make a living from his games, it's not really much of a "company".
Re: DRM done right: Puppygames
#20They should just take all of this out and tout that they are DRM-free. If they trusted the user as they claim, they wouldn't feel like they needed to revert your refunded full game into a demo. Lots of people would have no problem registering the game to "Sir Pantsy Higginbothom " and then what good does their little name screen do? If they always reset your registration count no questions asked, there is no point in…
You ignore the fact that the purpose of DRM is to minimize piracy, not prevent it completely. if it introduced even a slight inconvenience in pirating the games it would probably already shave off a nice amount of pirating. PS: Puppy Games is just one guy trying to make a living from his games, it's not really much of a "company".
OK, but it's not going to minimize piracy at all. Big-name games get pirated more and more and their attempts to "minimize piracy" are much more intrusive.
If those don't deter people, a little flash of a name isn't going to deter people. The people who consume pirate media are just going to wait for it to pop on the torrent, just like anything, and crackers will have it out in a jiffy (assuming there's an audience that wants it...) specifically because there's nothing to crack. You just register the game as "1337 h4x0rs group", or better yet, go into a hex editor and replace the name of the person to whom the game is really registered.
If people aren't deterred from cracking out SafeROM etc., they are not going to be deterred from cracking out a little name flash. They aren't even going to bother with it, probably, and will just put the game out there. So what's the point? I don't get it at all. Who is deterred by this?