I have received two questions!
The first is from our good friend Spivak who asks:
Dear Mr. Jaybird,
What is your stance on DRM for games? The new SimCity and Diablo games will require persistent online connections so they function but on the other hand you could use one of the old systems where the publisher installs a rootkit on your computer.
For what it’s worth, I’m against DRM if I’m purchasing something. If the publishers drop the conceit of “buy” and change it to “rent” then it’s not a problem since there is no illusion of ownership.
Best,
spivak
The second question is from our good friend Human Hireling who asks:
Invert Y-axis? Why or why not?
The answer to both of your questions is: Maribou has to write a paper.
HOWEVER! I will attempt to answer your question in the comments as time allows this weekend once the storm has passed.
I’m going to pretend people are interested in my opinions on these questions.
1. DRM: I am against the kinds mentioned. No rootkits, no mandatory constantly online-schemes. I won’t buy anything that requires such to play unless the game is online MP only (an MMO gets a pass). If you’re going to require me to sign up for some service to launch your product, it had better be *awesome* – ie Steam or something that gives me something comparable in exchange for DRM – Origin and GfWL!, are not awesome, for example.
2. Invert Y-Axis: For flight games, yes. For everything else – laws, no!
When it comes to DRM, I very much understand why companies use it. They know that X% of their products are pirated and that X can be astoundingly high. From what I understand, there were 5 copies of The Witcher pirated for every *1* copy sold and the company sees that as a good ratio.
Companies should probably know better than to see each of those 5 copies as a lost sale but they probably aren’t mistaken to see 1 and maybe 2 as a lost sale. We could go up to 3 if we wanted to count stuff like sales of the Ultimate Diamond Battlechest Version that goes on sale at Wal-Mart 8 years after initial release for $9.99… that said, I’m willing to wager that a huge chunk of Ultimate Diamond Battlechest Version sales are to people who previously pirated the game. Maybe not a majority, but probably a plurality.
Most of this is because I imagine that the majority of pirates are teenaged boys who have a high-speed connection but do not have otherwise disposable income… so they pirate the games they want to play (and, since pirating a second game is much easier than pirating a first game, games that might have been purchased are pirated just because, hey, it’s there in the same way that games that might never even be installed are pirated because, hey, it’s there). Once they become grownups with a little bit more money in their pocket, they may find themselves purchasing the game they pirated 10 years ago because, hey, it’s only ten bucks (and games these days are not made with the care that games were made with back in the day).
Where was I? Oh, yes. DRM.
I find DRM to be a hinderance for the most part. The biggest games that I want (New Vegas, Mass Effect 3, so on) are games that I want oh-so-very badly that I pre-order them in order to get the silly little extras (free clown wig that gives +1% experience bonus??? HOLD ME BACK!!!). When I sit down to play the game, I usually have to jump through some silly hoops (or have a full-time internet connection… which, granted, is less onerous in 2012 when I have high-speed than it was in 2002 when I used dial-up) in order to play the game that I purchased… which makes me envy games that don’t have these hoops to jump through. (And, quite honestly, Mass Effect 3 has burned a great deal of good will in the last month.)
I understand why companies see DRM as necessary but I think that they’ll have a lot more luck with carrots than with sticks. Hackers can’t really provide the same carrots that the game companies themselves can but they do know how to remove the stick.
By making DRM onerous for players without giving the players a reason to pre-order or otherwise buy the game legit, they’re handing power to the pirates.
I only invert Y for flight games. In shooters, it usually takes me a handful of rounds before I recall this and so in the first really intense fight that I have, when I find myself staring at the ceiling when I meant to be staring down the stairwell? I remember.