Found this great article over on PC Gamer about single-player games and DRM. Gonna post the entirety of the article and let's get everyone's take on it. Those of you know of me may already know on how I feel about the subject, anyway here it is...
Requiring an Internet connection to play seems to be becoming the DRM du jour for high-profile, non-Steam games like SimCity and Diablo III. Why do developers consider a constant hand-hold with your ISP to be an acceptable requirement for playing an offline game? Even if it deters pirates, doesn’t it simply inconvenience legitimate customers?
In this Face Off debate, Logan and Evan debate whether this form of DRM represents a fundamental attack on gamers’ rights, or whether its effects are actually an overstated inconvenience that (gasp) might actually have benefits?
Jump over to the next page for more opinions from the PC Gamer community, and make your own arguments in the comments. Debate team captains, BEGIN.
Logan: Single. Player.
Evan: You win! Just kidding. Listen, as Satan’s advocate in this matter, I get that people are philosophically uncomfortable with the idea of having to rely on some distant verification server in order to access what’s on their hard drive. In concept, I guess you could say it’s like calling Ford before you start your car. But in practical, actual terms, the outcry against this as an issue seems totally disproportionate to the modest inconvenience it occasionally poses. Have you really beenwronged by this form of DRM?
Logan: Oh hell yes. I’ve been thrown out of the middle of a level when my wireless network went down for a few minutes. I’ve been unable to launch a game on a plane because the Wi-Fi wasn’t working. And while it hasn’t happened to me personally, I’ve heard the frustration of gamers who pre-order games only to end up competing at launch with thousands of other players for a green light from the authentication server. I’m OK with DRM. I’m OK with developers discouraging piracy. But locking me out of my single-player game because the dog chewed on my router cable is not cool.
Evan: If you have a router or connectivity issue, you fix it—wouldn’t you want to do that anyway? And if you’re okay with DRM, wouldn’t the alternative to online connection-checking be horrific junk likeSecurROM, which has a brilliant history of locking users out of games like Fallout 3 because theydared to have something like disc-burning software installed.
We should be amenable to the idea that asking players to be online while playing might be the least-obtrusive solution in some scenarios. Compared to other DRM, it strikes a compromise between developers’ interests, the near-ubiquity of internet, and protecting the integrity of features like auction houses or a global commodity exchange, which rely on external verification.
Logan: I see what you did there with the SecuROM boogeyman. Yeah, I’d rather have the online requirement than that menace on my PC, but that’s like saying I’d rather have packing peanuts than broken glass for dinner. And I’m not sure that access to a stable connection is as ubiquitous as we might think. What about rural communities? Laptop gamers in the park on their lunch break who want to fight some bears? Or soldiers abroad? And what happens to our games when the developer decides to shut off the server? Compromise on DRM is necessary, but “be online all the time and enjoy the game until we stop supporting it” goes too far.
Evan: What precedent is there for people losing access to single-player games because a verification server was shut off? Again, I think you’re overstating the real-world effect of a rare scenario.
In terms of your offline, lunch break bear-fighter—I don’t like the idea of telling anyone that they won’t be able to enjoy what they love on their own terms. But the cases you raise are outliers, and they’ll become even rarer as online infrastructure catches up with this form of DRM. This notion that it’s gamers’ fundamental right to play every non-multiplayer game in all corners of the Earth, at all moments, is unrealistic. Compromises are a natural part of being a consumer. Paying doesn’t entitle us to everything we want. Take the most egregious recent example of online DRM: Diablo III. PC gamers lambasted its launch week issues, but it was the fastest-selling PC game ever. Do we expect to get the best seat in the house on opening night of The Avengers?
Logan: If I buy a ticket for those seats, yes. Consumers can’t take anything for granted anymore. Even Microsoft sold “PlaysForSure” digital music to consumers and then shut down the authorization servers when the service tanked. You’re right to point out that my horror scenarios are uncommon and possibly overstated, but if I don’t have a guarantee that I’ll be able to play a game when I want to and that I’ll be able to play that game 20 years from now on my holo-emulator, it’s of lower value to me–and that should be reflected in the price.
Evan: What you’re raising really gets at the heart of this issue—the established notion of game ownership grinding up against the trend of modern games operating as services more than static products. Listen, I admit that it’s ridiculous for publishers to arbitrarily ask you to be online. But thereare things we get from that seemingly raw deal. We get cloud storing for key bindings and game saves (I hate navigating the directory maze to figure out which random folder they’re stored in). We get social and economic features like auction houses—not everyone loves them, but they’re something.
But most valuably, I think, always-online facilitates automated gameplay data reporting. Don’t you think that SimCity will be a better game because Maxis will have access to vast information on the game’s entire population? I suspect it’ll allow them to balance the game better, and kill bugs faster. Honestly, I like the idea of being a part of that give-and-take relationship. Consider the campaign data Valve collected for Half-Life 2: Episode 2 via Steam, and the value it surely had in informing their approach to Portal, and Portal 2, and Left 4 Dead.
Always-online DRM’s inconveniences may outweigh their benefits in some cases, but I don’t think we should universally reject it as a security option.
Logan: I don’t reject it as a security option, and just like there are problems with DRM that developers don’t anticipate, there could be benefits that I don’t expect. The reason I feel like I have to hold the line is that Steam’s offline mode seems like a reasonable compromise; it gives me some limited freedom to be offline and doesn’t make me feel like I’m being punished for somebody else’s piracy. But I don’t want to give up any more ground.
Evan: I agree with you, I just don’t agree about the level of impact that always-online DRM has. Yes, Steam offline mode is a nice compromise, but I’ve probably used it once in my life, during the lull between setting up a new ISP after moving. Ultimately, I don’t mind being asked to give up a modest amount of convenience for the greater good—discouraging pirates and giving developers access to useful player data that will probably improve the game. In the rare instance that my Internet dies, or a login server breaks, the world doesn’t end—I just go do something else.
For more, always-correct opinions on PC gaming, follow Logan, Evan, and PC Gamer on Twitter. On the next page: more opinions from the community.
Why bother playing devils advocate tho, there is no good argument to justify a single player game needing to have online access, no from the planet I sit on at least ?
Your assessment of the article is spot on tho
@Phantom Mark It's best to have someone play devil's advocate, or you might suddenly learnthat your taken for granted argument wasn't as strong as you thought. At least this time you views were valiated, so enjoy.
Yeah, online single player games are almost as bad as having to run a shitty digital distribution client like Steam in order to play games. There is just no good argument to justify it.
It's easy to justify steam... good deals, convenient. If i get both of those things i don't give a damn about having to run a client to play a game.
Sorry but that isn't a justification, it's a sacrifice you're willing to make. They could give you the same deals and convenience without forcing you to run the client.
I guess you're right, it is a sacrifice. In an ideal world i would want to have a 3rd party platform that houses all my games no matter the source
-
This, however is clearly not going to happen so i may as well get the platform that has most of my games on it and all of my friends. Not that it would ever stop me getting a bargain from somewhere else mind. (except Greenmangaming; their download speeds are fucking abhorrent)
Steam won the war by firing the first shot and scoring a lucky hit, can't see much changing that fact so i choose to benefit from it instead.
Absolutely, what a joke! He wasn't arguing that it was okay. He was forced to pretend to argue the point. Neither of these guys like DRM on Singleplayer games.
I wish they'd just ban vexus. His goal in life is to troll as hard as he can.
Steam has side benefits such as forums(steam forums often are a good spot to go for suggestions about bugs, whereas a google search could take you to malwareonyourcomputer.com), voice chat, chat, friends list, achievements, and a central location for all of your games with ridiculously good download speeds.
Are there drawbacks? Well, losing access to all of your games for doing something in one game is just plain retarded, but apart from that it's perfect. If you really wanted to see a shitfest you could imagine a world in which valve was a publicly traded corporation. Until that day, go cry in your anti-hipster corner.
I don't know.
I "usually" have access to Internet one way or another.
I like Steam, and seeing as how I have internet, no problem.
But, I do not like that I have to be "verified" by steam each and every time I want to fire up a game.
It's a situation I don't think about that often because its a seamless process, that is handled by the Steam Interface.
Does it really change anything in the BIG picture?
No, people/groups like "RELOADED" and "SKIDROW" are always going to be able to find a way around DRM - online or not.
Unless the Global Internet Police {no idea} find the caves pirated software distribution is being facilitated from and, basically, shut them down, forever, there still going to be pirate copies floating around.
Simple view from a simple guy.
SS
I'll relate two stories to you from my POV.
I live in an CIS country.
A couple I know, 10 years ago, had opened a small internet cafe where people could play games on PCs.
A policeman/gov't person comes in and tells them they must pay $200 or so per game they are offering people.
They go out of business as $200 x a lot of games is a huge/insurmountable amount of money for a small business in this country.
Had they paid a smaller "fee" to said gov't person, they could have operated under the radar most likely. Knowing the right people and consequently paying those people to protect them, allows them to operate what the US calls "illegally". This country does not recognize the idea of intellectual property rights, or if they do, don't really give a hoot...the idea is not anywhere in their culture's traditions and historical make-up.
Second story:
If I walk out of my front door and down in to a Metro underground tunnel. I can find any number of small kiosks selling pirated software copies.
A normally $50 USA price game for $5 { in foreign currency} for example. The software works with just a little bit of finagling and the game works fine w/ no internet. Why would a kid in this country pay $50 {enough for a family of 4 to buy food for a week or two} when this kid can pay $5? Really why should he/she HAVE to pay USA prices in a country that doesn't have the same COLI and GNP that USA does? To tell the truth, these kids need some kind of escape from life here in the form of games due to the fact there is not that much to do here for recreation.
Maybe I am way off base, and I can accept that. I respect Game Developers and I want to pay money to them {for well designed games}, so they will be encouraged to make more and better games.
I guess it only hit home for me how different the World is and people are once you leave the US's borders and zone of influence...All these issues that mean something to US citizens don't matter squat to these people....
I don't really care about always-online requirements as long as their own servers work. I'm not happy about it, but it won't make me steer clear of a title.
I don't like it. I'm not in a nerd rage over it, but I don't like it. It's probably enough to keep me from ever playing Diablo 3 and SimCity. It's because I am only marginally interested in those games and this inconvenience is enough to nudge me in the direction of not buying these games. If it was a game I truly wanted, I would still buy it if it required always on connection. But it just sounds like a pain in the ass, and there are a lot of games to play and buy, so much I can barely keep up, so if I have the choice to play a game that doesn't require always connected DRM, than I will certainly lean in that direction.
DRM should be limited to online once activation.
Once you've authenticated your license and activated it, you should be able to play offline if you chose.
There are many great features available to you once you register, including:
Sign in or Create Account
