Digital Rights Media: The War Continues?

It was also rumoured that the PS4 was to be a digital-only console, meaning there would be no physical discs, only downloaded games. Unlike the (relatively) new rumours surrounding the 720, I think this has since been scrapped as an idea (citation needed).

There is actually more at stake here beyond grassroots piracy and efforts to work around the need to be always-online. There will always be pirates and there will always be hackers who want to change things to work how they want them to. A prime example is the latest Sim City, which requires users to be always-online; within only a few days someone had reported to have created a work-around. This guy didn't - as far as I remember - release the edited code in respect of copyright, but had simply made things work the way he wanted (almost, anyway - it wasn't a complete removal of having to be online).

Always-online is a pretty solid way of preventing piracy, though. And honestly, who can blame them? Game developers and other IP creators have every right to protect their work.

What is more worrying, however, is the seemingly attempted efforts to remove both a social norm and very successful business model - both of which centre around the borrowing, swapping and reselling of games.

For years, it has been pretty standard for people to borrow and swap games. "Hey man, I just completed this awesome game! You should totally play it! Here, I'll let you borrow it." Then you'd go home and play the game, then give it back to your friend after you've finished. The earliest instance of doing this that I can remember is Stargate on the Mega Drive, back in the 90s when I was in middle school, from a friend. The most recent is lending AC3 and Metal Gear Rising to my brother at the Easter weekend.

Always-online and other rumoured DRM-esque strategies prevent this practice through serial-key and machine registrations written to portions of the disc. I think that, rather than helping game developer/publisher's profits, it will prove detrimental. Would I have bought the entire AC series, for example, if I hadn't borrowed the first game from a friend? Almost certainly not. The lending/swapping culture is a definite gateway into purchases, but also allows those with less access to games a chance to garner some enjoyment from them. This will be the major 'beef' of people, I think. It's become such a part of gamer (casual gamers, at the very least) culture that to remove it is offensive.

Secondly, an entire industry exists around the selling of used games. Disc-related registrations (through whatever means) or digital-only releases will effectively destroy that industry. Destroying an industry is a bad idea for numerous, very obvious, reasons. Proof of this, though, can be seen in PC games: As a kid/early-teen, I remember going into game shops and seeing PC games by the shelf-full in the pre-owned sections. Now, there will barely be a handful if you're lucky, and none of them will be modern games.

Thankfully, it's this industry that will prevent such moves by game publishers, I reckon. Especially in the current economic climate, an industry that provides so many jobs won't be allowed to be destroyed. I also think games companies are aware of the gateway-to-purchase characteristics of the borrowing/swapping culture, so fully expect MS to follow Sony in retracting such plans.

On the flip-side, however, gaming has become a much more 'social' activity (beyond the guys-in-a-room-playing-a-game aspects of 'traditional' multi-player games) in recent years; something gamers seem to have embraced pretty well. Just look at the popularity of MMOs and modern FPS's. It's been proven that people are more than willing to pay subscription fees for multiplayer games and experiences. So, maybe, if developers offer more social integration into the entire console experience (rather than just specific games), like some of Sony's promises for the PS4, always-online, device-locked games won't actually upset the equilibrium all too much on an individual, cultural level.

I suppose we'll just have to wait and see. What do you people think?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/RolePlayGateway/~3/NCnFFCigbA4/viewtopic.php

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