DRM Roll

So yeah, this DRM shit. Is it good, is it bad, is it a university pig mascot that's been rolled up in a carpet and thrown off a bridge? It's sometimes difficult to speak from a game's journalist's perspective, because I rarely, if ever, pay for my games. How much ire can one raise for something you can just say "Well, I didn't pay anything for it, so whatever... next!" about. Quite a lot, surprisingly.

Regardless of arguments pro and con, the simple fact remains that someone will crack it. Unless it involves, like Barclay's ludicrous online banking system, the insertion of a physical device into a card reader or something, then it can be unworked, rewritten and slung up on the net, potentially with loads of Trojans attached if you go to a less reputable site.

The ONLY way companies can get their games to sell more is this: give people a reason to buy. Do like what the Witcher: Enhanced Edition did, like. Normal retail price, but loads of free stuff that the pirate version simply couldn't include (books, for example). What happened to the Witcher? A small, unheard of game, new IP from a POLISH developer, sold way more than a million copies. See, it's possible to make PC games that sell. Just make sure you do them right. Just look at some of the games that sell the most, in fact - most of them give the user a reason to have an 'owned' version - after-purchase material and such.

Bored now, so that's your lot.

DB