Elite / Frontier "Software Piracy" Off Topic? not really! What do you think how to prevent?

Cyborg

C
Hello folks
It is a little bit off Topic, but I think it was important to think about!

Copy Protection for Games and Software!
In the last few years more and more people think about, how to prevent Software
Piracy. But every time, they invented some new method to protect they’re Software,
some other people think about ways to go around it….
The Problem now is, that we have a many small software developing companies, witch are
very good and ingeniously in what they doing, but all of them need a big partner, the Publisher…..
The first game of such a little developer decides about its Success, but when it doesen`t
sells much enough, the Publisher quit the cooperation with- or takes over our little developer.
So in the Future our little developer is forced to produce commercial bulls-hit.
For Example: “Bullfrog”….was bought by “EA”, and then the dev-team try it once more with “Lionhard”….From “Dungeon Keeper” to “Black and White” if you will see it so…
But this was an example for one who did it!! And not for commercial bulls-hit.. ;)
So it is extremely necessary, to protect the small software developer, because they are the engine of innovation for good ideas, new possibilities and new good games…
The big Guys protect themselves by producing and producing one Series of a title after the other …like Need for Speed or Star Wars Games….ect…
So don’t buy commercial Bulls-hit, and help to protect the companies, which produce good
and innovative Games…
For more fun in the Future….buy games, and don’t support software piracy…!

And now feel free to make suggestions, how to prevent Software Piracy, or criticize my posting…or what ever…;)

By the way…late but….
A Happy New Year to all of you.

Greetings
Your Cyborg

And excuse my bad english please.. :)
 

Bounder

Bounder
I hope E4 gets released as a little black box that plugs into a USB port. Or maybe an IDE or PCIE device that the system actually boots from, so the game uses the entire system resources, can't be copied, and runs on anything with sufficient hardware, completely bypassing the OS.

The box could contain small HE charges or perhaps a Sarin cannister that detonates if a wrong security code is entered. Or maybe a spring loaded 15" metal spike that fits under your seat, thus ensuring peace of mind and worry-free gaming nirvanna.

<joke>

Happy New Year to you and yours too BTW... ;)
 

Steve

Steve
Bounder said:
The box could contain small HE charges or perhaps a Sarin cannister that detonates if a wrong security code is entered. Or maybe a spring loaded 15" metal spike that fits under your seat, thus ensuring peace of mind and worry-free gaming nirvanna.
Click to expand...

Hmm, warming to a theme here....

Could there be a way of diverting an electrical current from the PSU up through the mouse? ;)
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
The problem with a 'dongle' security solution is that it pushes the costs of mass producing the game significantly more expensive, and to be entirely honest, not all that hard to get around.

The way I like it is similar to EA in that you have an online account and to play the game and receive the benefits of the honest purchase you have to have a valid seriel number. The only thing I'd prefer to not have to deal with is constantly having to put the disk in to play the game - I find that irritating.
 

Darkman

Darkman
Steve O B Have said:
The only thing I'd prefer to not have to deal with is constantly having to put the disk in to play the game - I find that irritating.
Click to expand...

It irritates me too, however, it's not so bad considering the Amiga days of having to continuously s*** floppies all the time. At least now, its just a case of putting one disk in and forgetting about it (which was the case with Frontier on the Amiga - one of my only games that did not need disk s***ping). I know that Egosoft removed the need to place the disk in the drive after their X3 game has been out for a while by means of enabling through a final patch.

The worst thing, in regards to the serial number entry, is that sometimes a "0" can look like a "O," a "1" like an "I" and a "5" like an "S" meaning that you may get the code wrong a number of times on entering. I hate it when the printed lettering is printed that way :mad:.
 

xgermz

X
I see simular threads all over the place...

... all i can say is this.

A: Developing a software solution to a software problem (games being cracked), is like fighting fire with fire.

B: All its doing is helping train "hack0rs" to become more efficient at what they do.

------

Solution...

CD/DVD/HD-drive/Blu-ray Drive which can "see" the disk, and see its genuine.
Maybe via a mini-cam, and have the game-app-etc interact directly with this part of the drive (0 os interactivituy).

... and dont develop a CD/DVD/HD-drive/Blu-ray which can burn complex images onto a cd/print complex images.

A lot cheaper then a "black box", and would stop piracy to a large extent. Would even work with movies etc.

My 0.02 euros!
 

Kipper

K
You can never stop software piracy. I would say its impossible. It has to be copy-able in order for the original CDs/whatevers to be produced, so that technology or ability will always get into a pirates hands like it or not.

Theres all this talk of DRM (Digital Rights Management) but i'm personally dead set against them and they seem to be onto a loser anyway. As a responsible user I should be able to use the software/music/movie I buy on any device that I own that can play it. I should even be able to make a backup if I was so inclined.

You have to find a way to tackle the problem thats not to do with the actual technology or copying itself. Like persuading people not to buy, etc.

Everything I own is an original, I don't support software piracy morally, and even if I did, its too much like hard work. I spend enough time working on my computer anyway, so when I want to play a game, I want it to work.

Secondly, I buy quite a few games, easily more than I have the time/attention span to play, its a weakness... if I could have access to free games i'd have even more that I wouldnt play!

Games are expensive, but not as bad as they used to be, £24.99 I think rather than the old £39.99. Thats a big factor. I think £39.99 is a rip, and probably wouldn't buy so many at that price. I do get to play them all eventually, it has to be said, depends on how the mood takes me :)

Paying for games means you tend to shy away from any old rubbish, they're expensive enough to be a real decision which you're going to buy, which I also like to believe promotes natural selection in the industry. Companies who pump out rubbish don't make sales and have to improve or go under. Companies who make consistently good games will make even more sales (sometimes on reputation alone) and will stay in business.
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
Yeah, I'm the same - I will purchase anything that I believes warrants the spending. Generally I will DL a demo, play that and if I like it I'll buy it. The only recent exception being Battlefield 2142 for which the demo sucked but the actuall game is awesome.
 

StarGlider

S
I agree about the price of games, anything over £25.99 is asking to much.
Why I dont rush out to buy the latest consoles. Saying that, i've just purchased a new PS2 but really only buy pre-owned games from the likes of Gamestation, 2 for £20 offers, as £35 or more is just to much.

PC games I tend to buy online, as they are a bit cheaper, and I tend to use the likes of Steam to get them, and have the added benefit of not having to rummage through CD/DVD's to play them.
Or shop online at Game.

PS
Steve O, what's your name in BF2142, perhaps I might run into you one day :)
Though, I'm back to playing BF2 more now, as I think thats the better of the 2.

[HoL]Cobra - BF2
[HoL]StarGlider - BF2142 (Damed Cobra name was already taken on it :( )
 
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Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
Back on OP:I really do agree that it is nessassary to have copy protection but I don't think I'd like to go through the old Frontier system again of searching in the manual for letters before it let you in. It's a hard one and you have to sympathise with the people at the money making end as they aren't the ones breaking the law.

As you say tho, it's something of a catch 22, they need to make money to survive but if the gamers are stealing the game then they have to raise prices to continue to exist so more people steal the game etc etc...
 

Crayfish

Crayfish
I wonder how cheaply you could make the simplest USB dongle based security device. It would be pretty cool to get an "Elite" ignition key with your copy of the game.

Might be a pain for those without front USB ports though. I'd rather that than something like Starforce though.

And as regards the cost of producing a hardware security device, if I'm paying £30 or more for a game, I don't think its a big deal.
 
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Dragonstar

Dragonstar
Crayfish said:
I wonder how cheaply you could make the simplest USB dongle based security device. It would be pretty cool to get an "Elite" ignition key with your copy of the game.
Click to expand...

You could fit the whole game onto a USB key. Plus they are cheap. $25 (US dollars) for a 2GB key (generic).

I'm pretty sure a game company could approach a USB flash drive producer to create a speciallized key just for ELITE that the game would only work with such a key.

As for it being a pain-the-*** if you have rear mounted usb ports, that's becoming a thing of the past. Most reputable manufacturers of computers and computer cases are including front mounted USB ports. If this game comes out in 2012 ( check other posts for this guess-timate of release) the problem would not be front mounted ports but will USB 1.1 or 2.0 still exist.

Security from copy protection is almost useless unless something ingenious and new occurs. Remeber the film industry spent over $1 billion US dollars to develop a security feature that would not allow any copying of its media... that was until a 14 year old in Sweden? (Denmark? Norway? can't remember) broke the code in 1 week and released his findings unto the internet. The film industry unsuccessfully sued same kid.
 

Steve O B Have

Steve O B Have
Dragonstar said:
You could fit the whole game onto a USB key. Plus they are cheap. $25 (US dollars) for a 2GB key (generic).
Click to expand...

Thats the customer facing price, besides there are not many games that are less than 2GB in size, so you would be looking at around 3-4GB.

The production costs for burning a DVD with a game is rediculously cheap, a couple of quid at the most per DVD. The amount per unit that is passed back to the game developers are fairly minimal, I'd be aproximating at around 50p per unit. The game itself is resold a number of times via suppliers before it even gets to the games store itself.

They 'have to' make their margins or else selling the game is not profitable for them and they won't stock it.

The case is that producing a game on an electronic device is simply far more expensive than 'pressing' it on a lump of shiney plastic. In any industry like this the bottom line is on the margins, the cheaper you can physically produce the software the better the margins.
 

Kipper

K
Even a USB dongle would contain files. I'm sure it wouldn't take long for someone to work out how to copy those files to CD/DVD and hack out the bit of the program that wanted to see the dongle.

Anything that gets created to prevent this kind of thing will get cracked. Just as fraudsters crack credit card protection, so on and so forth.

Perhaps the best way to do it is to require an internet connection even for non internet games, and have it authorise your serial number on a central server as you play. It could be done invisibly enough not to bother legitimate players, and because the developer keeps control of the central authorisation system, they could keep the non-legit copies out.

But that might harm sales amongst the non-internet enabled market...
 

Crayfish

Crayfish
Steve O B Have said:
Only problem there is that you could potentially loose out on an online delivery system.
Click to expand...

Yeah thats a very good point, that is a huge potential drawback. Perhaps something like Valve's Steam system that requires an internet connection is the best solution, like Kipper says. Maybe it could even be distributed through Steam, I know that would make it a lot easier for me to buy it as I hardly ever venture into game stores these days.

I just liked the idea of an Elite ignition key as I never managed to get one of the Elite badges the first time around.
 
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