gbafan, on July 28th 2008, 01:40 PM, said:
First and foremost, any consumer friendly DRM scheme needs to allow for UNLIMITED re-installs. Period. If the game is an offline game, it needs to allow for offline play after the initial "phone home". Steam is a good example of this. I buy a game, it phones home, I download it, I play offline. Even better I can install that same game on any number of computers I own, which in my case is three Intel Macs.
That makes sense, although unlimited reinstalls would have to be linked to hardware in someway as you mentioned. If you are happy your Mac's serial number is recorded (to stop everyone in the world using one serial number) and having a cap on the number of concurrent machines (like Apple Store for example) this would be a good model I think.
gbafan, on July 28th 2008, 01:40 PM, said:
Limited activations is not consumer friendly at all. I've lost several pieces of software due to this. When I upgraded all my machines to Intel, buh bye went a good chunk of my casual games bought from a certain publisher (who shall remain nameless).
Limited activations when they are truly limited (5 installs and never again for example) are bad however I do agree with having a higher limit like 25 installs after which you need to contact the company and get your code reinstated. This would stop the situation of someone leaking the serial key everyone quickly activates the game then go offline, you now have lots of pirated games.
So yeah I agree but with some modifications to stop rampant piracy.
gbafan, on July 28th 2008, 01:40 PM, said:
Microsoft finally, FINALLY, implemented the ability to move DRM licenses on their Xbox 360 console from one machine to another. This is perfect for folks like me who had their Xbox 360 fail, get returned to a retail store via a retail store service plan yet to come home and find all my licenses weren't available for offline use or by other people than myself. Their new tool allowed me to migrate all my licenses from that console to my new one so I can now play those games offline again.
Companies need to protect their assets, I have no problem with that. However, when I go out and pay $20, $40, or $60 for a game I want to know that in 20 years I can still play. I really love those old SNES carts now. They keep on ticking, no DRM. Companies also need to consider that people upgrade their hardware devices. Hardware devices break. Software breaks. Companies remove their DRM license servers (Yahoo! Music anyone? MS Music?).
Yeah, well that is true but hardware cart stuff like SNES games has something physical attached and that physical device (the cart) is your DRM. If you want to download it without anything physical you will have to live with the associated pain of having a DRM that is also not physical.
gbafan, on July 28th 2008, 01:40 PM, said:
In the age of the internet there has to be a better way yet it can not require constant internet access. Ironic.
I think that was called a "CD/DVD in Drive Check"

But people seem to be vastly against it and want some sort of media free check which means your DRM is media free which brings me back to the above part.
If you want something that will definitely play in 20 years time you will need a physical DRM system like CD checks. If you want the ease of use of grabbing it off the internet then you will need to trust the company will keep everything running. Personally I would think maybe having a timer limit on it that allows activation with a serial key and no online after lets say 10 to 20 years from release might cover your I want to play in 30 years comment.
However by judging the increase in speed of machines and the complexity of games over the last 20 years I think games like Bioshock might end up looking like our versions of Pacman in twenty years and people only play them for the odd nostalgia, but nothing like the games of today in terms of depth or graphics.
Hell in 30 years we might have games which are VR and look like real worlds rendering stuff making new games today look like pong.
Oh and the DRM will likely be cracked just like the SNES Emulators as computers might just be a wee bit more powerful than the old 8 core under my desk at work.
We will all most likely have computers called Nbd anyway.
Edwin