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So… Blizzard is adding some mandatory internet check to Starcraft 2’s installation process. I honestly don’t care much about that, since I plan on buying the game and I also have internet - just like I don’t care about the lack of LAN, or the “splitting of the campaign” in three parts.
As a Starcraft fan, future customer with “normal” internet, these measures won’t really affect me, so I don’t care about them. Still, I can’t help but feel that Blizzard might be a bit short-sighted in their attempt to control Starcraft 2 so tightly.
Let’s skip the default “DRM-doesn’t-affect-pirates-anyways” argument, and accept that all these measures will discourage pirates and make engaging in such unholy behavior a pain in the butt. But is it really beneficial for Blizzard to keep pirates away from its game?
If we are to look at a group of companies that are most “affected” by piracy, a great example would be the developers of very expensive design software, such as Adobe with its industry-standard line – Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects and so forth are used in any serious media company. Same with Autodesk’s 3ds max and so forth. If the usual “each download is a lost sale” method of “calculating damages” were to be used, these companies would definitely be the ones to suffer most from piracy – Photoshop CS4 extended costs 1000$, 3ds max costs around 5000$ if I remember correctly, anywho, crazy prices for one copy. Yet despite these “losses”, these companies are maybe the least vocal group when it comes to fighting the phenomenon. And that’s because they realized how closely linked their success is to piracy.
The reasoning is simple. These applications aren’t market leaders just because they’re the best at what they do – they’re leaders because of the insanely wide userbase. Any poor-ass student that applies for a design job knows how to photoshop, anyone that wants to do video compositing knows how to use After Effects etc. People know what software they need to learn, employers know that they can find people skilled in its use without problem – no need to buy different software for different employees, no need to spend valuable time training new people to use it - it’s one less thing to worry about for the manager and less expenses for the company. So the ecosystem is very straightforward – individuals pirate the software, learn how to use it, get a job in a related domain and the company needs to buy software licenses for its employees, because non-licensed software can be a huge problem for companies. Adobe gets paid, everybody’s happy.
Now this example might not have very much in common with video games, the conditions and business models are vastly different. But a common truth is that a big part of Blizzard’s games’ success has been its extremely vast userbase. I remember losing my first Starcraft game 10 years ago in an internet café to some sort of wraith early agression. I remember playing the game over Kali on dial-up a couple years later. I remember talking about it with friends at school, friends at my highschool, friends in college, friends at work, internet-friends, random-people-on-the-internet and everyone in between. Everybody played the game. EVERYBODY. But I’d be surprised if more than 10% did it legally. Sure, this is Romania, Eastern Europe, butthole of the civilized world etc, and the numbers might be different somewhere else. Point is, the game has always been around in some way, and in the end I did buy it because it clearly deserved my money, my time and my respect. Had the original Starcraft been impossible to pirate, there wouldn't have been such a huge community around the game, I prolly never would’ve given Blizzard one cent, and I would have lived without the experience of one of the best games ever. Bad outcome for both parties.
Of course, the world changed a lot in 11 years, and maybe it’s silly comparing “now” to “then”. The conditions are not the same, information is a lot more accessible, games are a lot more mainstream… But I can’t help but wonder what will happen if Blizzard happen to implement an anti-piracy method that’s too efficient – won’t it hinder the game’s market share? Won’t it forfeit all those players that might have tried it simply because they try any new game that shows up on torrents? All those pirates might not make you money directly, but if your game is good, the amount of value they bring to the table through some kind of direct marketing / trendsetting behavior / community management might be invaluable. All these people downloading your game aren’t “stealing” it. They’re reviewing it, they’re talking about it, they’re making it popular, they’re getting new people into the scene. They’re working for you, and if you give them enough incentive they’ll even pay you in the end, when they decide they do want to play on battlenet, or that they want their game patched without having to look for a new crack each time. Maybe working so hard to keep them away from your games isn’t that great an idea in the end.
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Sadly, most of the point that you mention only applied to the relation between end-users/gamers like us with Blizzard . It didnt apply to the 3rd-party such as game company like Haofang which gain a large sum of money each years for SC and WoW server that they provided.
The thing about software such as Adobe, most of the pirated/cracked version were only used personally, which mean the individuals that use it doesnt really gain any major/large scale profits.
Right now, Blizzard priority is to fend of company such as Haofang from leeching off their masterpiece, and removing LAN is only part of the process.
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Baltimore, USA22259 Posts
TBH, I think their sales of SC2 will hardly be affected whether they have DRM or not.
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On August 19 2009 16:43 genryou wrote:
Sadly, most of the point that you mention only applied to the relation between end-users/gamers like us with Blizzard . It didnt apply to the 3rd-party such as game company like Haofang which gain a large sum of money each years for SC and WoW server that they provided.
The thing about software such as Adobe, most of the pirated/cracked version were only used personally, which mean the individuals that use it doesnt really gain any major/large scale profits.
Right now, Blizzard priority is to fend of company such as Haofang from leeching off their masterpiece, and removing LAN is only part of the process.
Very true, unfortunately.
Anywho, my post is mostly "theorycrafting". It's obvious that there needs to be some kind of copy protection, to give customers a better experience than pirates. And I do understand how they need to protect their game from 3rd parties that might try to profit from it. I just wanted to point out that despite the fact that these measures might be necessary, there's a flip side to the coin. Probably the extra control Blizzard will have over their game will be good both from a business perspective for them, and for the community if bnet 2.0 turns out great (which I'm confident it will). However, a little niche might be lost in the process, and I hope Blizzard is aware of that.
Also, I hope they won't have to implement even more anti-piracy measures. The ones so far I understand, but if they go much further it might turn annoying for proper users. I'm confident Blizzard is smarter than that though.
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While i'm going to buy the game, i can't say that i won't eventually pirate it, especially considering this DRM faggotry. I may torrent it after buying it just to spite blizzard because i hate DRM and anything to do with it. Piracy doesn't cause noticeable damage to a lot of companies because of the fact that people WILL buy a game if they support the company. However if they put out the trilogy at 40 USD a piece for 3 games then i may end up not buying them all and just pirating the second and third games.
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On August 19 2009 17:21 ghermination wrote:
While i'm going to buy the game, i can't say that i won't eventually pirate it, especially considering this DRM faggotry. I may torrent it after buying it just to spite blizzard because i hate DRM and anything to do with it. Piracy doesn't cause noticeable damage to a lot of companies because of the fact that people WILL buy a game if they support the company. However if they put out the trilogy at 40 USD a piece for 3 games then i may end up not buying them all and just pirating the second and third games.
Maybe I'm just getting older, but I've had no problems with DRM, of any kind. I bought Spore at $50 when it came out when everyone thought it was the most awesome thing to do to pirate it. Why? Because I was really looking forward to the game and thought that EA/Will Wright deserved the support and money of the consumer.
I know what some of you might think, EA is the devil, etc etc. But I've found piracy less appealing as I've gotten older. Am I garnering a greater sense of responsibility? Or have I just been raised to be this "moral."
StarCraft II isn't a random digital good that you should just see as something you can pirate with no consequences. Developers have spent years on this game and put in a lot of blood and effort into crafting it into something the community will enjoy. I think that's worth my money, even if it's a trilogy.
Hell, how many of us have bought StarCraft more than once just to get another CD-key for whatever reason.
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On August 19 2009 17:27 shindigs wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2009 17:21 ghermination wrote:
While i'm going to buy the game, i can't say that i won't eventually pirate it, especially considering this DRM faggotry. I may torrent it after buying it just to spite blizzard because i hate DRM and anything to do with it. Piracy doesn't cause noticeable damage to a lot of companies because of the fact that people WILL buy a game if they support the company. However if they put out the trilogy at 40 USD a piece for 3 games then i may end up not buying them all and just pirating the second and third games. Maybe I'm just getting older, but I've had no problems with DRM, of any kind. I bought Spore at $50 when it came out when everyone thought it was the most awesome thing to do to pirate it. Why? Because I was really looking forward to the game and thought that EA/Will Wright deserved the support and money of the consumer. I know what some of you might think, EA is the devil, etc etc. But I've found piracy less appealing as I've gotten older. Am I garnering a greater sense of responsibility? Or have I just been raised to be this "moral." StarCraft II isn't a random digital good that you should just see as something you can pirate with no consequences. Developers have spent years on this game and put in a lot of blood and effort into crafting it into something the community will enjoy. I think that's worth my money, even if it's a trilogy. Hell, how many of us have bought StarCraft more than once just to get another CD-key for whatever reason.
I've bought about 8-10 copies of the original. Only one Brood War disc though, to be honest.
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For me most stupid thing about DRM is that people w/o net are sometimes forced to buy pirated copy just because it has been cracked and no longer requires internet connection :|
On August 19 2009 17:27 shindigs wrote:Show nested quote +On August 19 2009 17:21 ghermination wrote:
While i'm going to buy the game, i can't say that i won't eventually pirate it, especially considering this DRM faggotry. I may torrent it after buying it just to spite blizzard because i hate DRM and anything to do with it. Piracy doesn't cause noticeable damage to a lot of companies because of the fact that people WILL buy a game if they support the company. However if they put out the trilogy at 40 USD a piece for 3 games then i may end up not buying them all and just pirating the second and third games. Maybe I'm just getting older, but I've had no problems with DRM, of any kind. I bought Spore at $50 when it came out when everyone thought it was the most awesome thing to do to pirate it. Why? Because I was really looking forward to the game and thought that EA/Will Wright deserved the support and money of the consumer. I know what some of you might think, EA is the devil, etc etc. But I've found piracy less appealing as I've gotten older. Am I garnering a greater sense of responsibility? Or have I just been raised to be this "moral." StarCraft II isn't a random digital good that you should just see as something you can pirate with no consequences. Developers have spent years on this game and put in a lot of blood and effort into crafting it into something the community will enjoy. I think that's worth my money, even if it's a trilogy. Hell, how many of us have bought StarCraft more than once just to get another CD-key for whatever reason.
That kind of attitude "EA isdevil so lets not buy their games" seems kinda weird for me. I simply buy only the games i like. SC2 will be first game for quite some time that i will buy original version "blindly", before d/l'ing pirated version of it. I used to be "rightful and all" and buy only originals but i bought some overadvertised and overrated games (Saga rage of vikings, Giants:citizen kabuto, Max Payne :|| ). Sure, they were fun, but for what, 10-20 hours? And no, demo versions are simply not enough to judge.
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I would probalby not have bought starcraft if I had not played it illegaly first. And as the op said, everybody played it to some extent. Very few paid for it but everyone played it and alot of people ended up buying it many years later. I have even a few extra copies for various reasons.
Dont really know if this will affect starcraft in the same way. Do kids still have mini-lans at home with their friends on weekends?
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i bought sc:bw half a year ago, long time after i played it illegally. actually sc is the only game i own.
but yeah, comparing now and then is not really valid. i think back in the day the main way of knowing about new games was from game magazines and some demos you stumbled upon, nowadays there is a huge marketing around it and its much easier to reach the customer and i reckon that there are quite a few smart ppl at blizzard and they know how to get the most out of the game (money-wise that is)
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I'm gonna buy it for sure, but I hate all this DRM crap, they better make the game worth putting up with it.
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as long as i can make a copy of the disk idc, its my fucken right to be able to back up all my games and have extra copies.
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Sweden33719 Posts
On August 19 2009 22:04 StorrZerg wrote:
as long as i can make a copy of the disk idc, its my fucken right to be able to back up all my games and have extra copies.
You don't really NEED to do that anymore, since you can just enter the CD-key into the Blizzard online store and download the game as many times as you want (and put the installer on a dvd if you want).
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EPT
