LGP Introduces Linux Game Copy Protection

[stan.distortion]

Nice idea, its true games used to put some effort into the box contense, cant remember the last time I saw a game in one of the paper-ream sized boxes. I wouldn't go for it myself though if there was an option DL'ing with bittorrent and paying a smaller amount to be issued with a password. I'm not much of a collector though, unless junk counts Put a dusty old soundcard and a handfull of random cables in the box and I might just go for it
cheers

[Svartalf]

Up front, nothing of the foregoing statement is anything other than my own thoughts on the matter. It doesn't
represent LGP or any other company's position on the subject. In this, I speak solely for myself- and I don't
think the move that LGP, whom I am affiliated with, has done here is at all a good response or idea any more
than YOU all do.

In all of this conversation, I have to wonder if anyone's twigged onto the fact that there's been DRM in a lot of titles NOT from LGP- some of which people were bitching about the lack of the latest installment from the franchise in one case.

Q3:A had it.

Doom3 has it.

Quake4 has it.

UT2k3 has it.

UT2k4 has it.

UT3 will likely have something DRM-ey in it.

NWN had something resembling it in it.

Penny Arcade Adventures has DRM in it.

Savage 2 has a form of DRM in it.

You can bet your bottom dollar that Rage will have something DRM-ey in it.

You can bet your bottom dollar that anything via Steam will have DRM in it.

Pretty much ANY Windows title ran under WINE will have it.

You don't know much about those having it, because the implementation of the DRM is clean and largely non-problematic like Steam or Greenhouse's stuff. Some of it is because it's non-obvious as all get out.

Now, I'm not going to tell you NOT to walk away. Heh... I'm none too happy myself about this turn of events or the list I gave you above. If you're opposed to DRM and won't buy if it's present, more power to you- but don't let the "oooh shiny" from any of the aforementioned lure you into buying or continuing to play those titles. Otherwise, you'll just look the hypocrite and be doing all that stuff for nothing.

In reality, though, you've got two fights going on here.

One is DRM in titles.
One is trying to get them to take Linux seriously for games.

Which fight do you think you can get accomplished easier and first?

[movieman]

Unless you install in the right way, Steam limits you in much the same manner- you have to be online to play single player. What is the difference there?

There is essentially zero requirement to be online to play Steam games; you need to be online to install, and if you are online you need to validate with the Steam server. But once you are validated you can pull the network cable out and continue playing the game for quite some time before it will require you to validate again; I believe it's at least several weeks, because I was running Steam in offline mode on my laptop for a few months last year and, while I did occasionally log on for updates, it never asked me to connect when I played a game.

Steam makes buying games convenient and the 'copy protection' only causes minimal hassle to their paying custoemrs, except the one weekend when bad weather took out their entire server farm and no-one who had an active Internet connection could play; hopefully they've now realised they need backup servers in other locations.

This is why I only buy two kinds of games these days: games from Steam and MMOGs (which don't have 'copy protection'). I got tired of having to jump through hoops to play games that I'd bought, when pirates could just download them for free and not have to deal with the hassles.

I also have about $7,500 worth of professional software on my PC with dongles, but again the dongle is a pretty much zero hassle form of 'copy protection'. Games just aren't important enough to jump through hoops to play (unless it's a 'jumping through hoops' game).

[Svartalf]

Unfortunately LGP doesn't want any feedback about this because they already know that or with the excuse that "it isn't that easy to do so" in this business.
I realized that when talking about opinions from the player base on the other thread.

It's not so much that they're disinterested in feedback- it's that in many cases, they have their hands tied. It's not an excuse, it's how things are done in the industry. Want to make a change? Then cut out those middlemen just like the fans and musicians are doing with the music business. There's still room for publishers- just not the labels.

Right at the moment, things are in the hands of companies like Vivendi, Paramount, Time-Warner, and others like 'em in the games industry much like it's going in the record industry.

The examples you gave in the other thread are pretty much like indies in the record business- and if you connect the dots...

Even when it's useless to talk about it, I will post at least two games which I really would like to see getting ported (yea, and even when it's unlikely they ever get there hands on those games): Deus Ex 1 and Hostile Waters (as already mentioned in this thread). I really like those titles.

Hm...

Deus Ex is probably not going to happen- if it were, the port code from Loki of the nearly completed port would have surfaced and got published by now since the code went back to the original rights holders in most cases, including that one.

Hostile Waters... That was an Interplay title. Not going to happen either for obvious reasons... Sorry.

Now... I'm trying to get a deal worked out for Falcon 4.0 on the suggestion of deanjo (and he may be working his own deal from the sounds of it... ) but haven't gotten as far as I'd have liked for it. Any other suggested titles?

[Svartalf]

There is essentially zero requirement to be online to play Steam games; you need to be online to install, and if you are online you need to validate with the Steam server. But once you are validated you can pull the network cable out and continue playing the game for quite some time before it will require you to validate again; I believe it's at least several weeks, because I was running Steam in offline mode on my laptop for a few months last year and, while I did occasionally log on for updates, it never asked me to connect when I played a game.

I suppose my friend's setup wasn't installed right- I've seen him have all kinds of off and on issues with Steam and HL2 because of his former ISDN connection.

At any rate, I'd class Steam as being one of the less obnoxious, albeit still problematic (DRM is a big problem, really...), answer to doing DRM.

[curaga]

Lemmings
Raptor: Call of the shadows
Stargunner

These come off from the top of my mind as the games I want to play, and would pay to do so natively.

[zeb_]

Any other suggested titles?

Syndicate (1,2)
Dark Corners of the Earth

[stan.distortion]

Earth 2150 and redneck rampage are 2 which may be simpler to get rights to.
The Tom Clancy series.
Grand Prix Legends. Someone already mentioned a racing sim, it doesn't get much more accurate than this and the mod community are close to releasing an up-to-date graphics pack.
My 2c

[Svartalf]

Lemmings
Raptor: Call of the shadows
Stargunner

I don't know whether Lemmings is a prospect or not- but there's this interesing DS port of that game that apparently faitfully does all the original levels.

Raptor's a good prospect- I'll be checking into it for my own inscrutable reasons and talking with Mountain King Studios here shortly...

Stargunner's a bit harder prospect. I don't know if anyone at 3D Realms is going to be willing to sign off on that sort of thing- or if they even HAVE the source lying around any more...

[Fixxer_Linux]

I really thought that linux native clients were not pirated as there is already very few native clients, petitions are often useless to have a client, so, at least, I was thinking that linux players were linux-games customers, not linux-games thefters...

If the copy protection is a way to gain more support and more linux clients, so, I'm happy with it. I don't care because, after all, I buy the games I'm playing with.

Many game studios are thinking first to develop on PS, Xbox or Nintendo DS because those games can't be pirated.
PC is made more and more only because there is also a lot of people who wants it, but that's definitely not a growing market for studios.

The only drawback I see is that you won't get the game without an internet connection. But after all, nowadays, who is the last guy not to have an internet connection ??
What also if you want to buy on a second hand market (ebay for example) ?

I also hope the see Steam soon on linux, as this will bring HL/HL2/CS/CS2 native client and probably UT3 as well.

And for the poor kids who can't pay all the games because lack of funds, I'd guess them to buy only one or two games, the best ones, and for the rest of their time, spending it walking in the woods with friends (or girl friends ?? :-)), playing sports or reading a book. That wouldn't hurt them...