IS DRM killing PC gaming?

[ArithonUK]

Recent games like Assassin’s Creed 2 have damaged PC gaming with their heavy-handed “you’re probably a thief” copy-protection. Most people (like me) who stupidly bought the game, then found themselves unable to play, not because they didn’t have an always-on internet connection, but because UBISOFT DIDN’T!

What’s worse is the DRM creep that has seen LAN support slowly removed from PC gaming in the name of “piracy prevention”, but in reality it looks far more like protectionism. Keeping server files to “appointed” companies who pay licence fees. This may guarantee revenue from server farms in the first few months after release, but means the games are not supported in the long-term and cannot be used on the LAN. Modding is also dying. For much the same reasons as holding back the server files, the development tools are also being restricted, so landmark games like Half-Life and Battlefield 2 would never get made now, as these mods would never have been permitted or usable.

Newer games are now inferior to their predecessors in every way except visuals. BattleField 3, to be released later this year has less critical game-play features than its 2005 predecessor Battlefield 2. The number of classes reduced from six to four, the removal of the Battlefield commander, no level results report, no LAN support â€" the list goes on. It’s like selling a car with no electric windows or radio but saying the new colour scheme is a major advance!

DRM is a stick with which distributors are beating the customers, but since every pirate plays without DRM, what is achieved? DRM isn’t free, so the cost is passed to the customer making us who buy, pay for our own punishment!

The slow death of modding, the murder of LAN parties and the deliberate life-shortening of PC games life spans, all in the name of making more money on the next title, is killing everything that has made PC gaming great.

Where does the future lead? My vision is a nightmare, where all games PC or console are streamed from pay-to-play servers and every game is a minor variation of pac-man with players running around a “visually stunning” box, shooting everything to an expletive soundtrack, in order to obtain XP with no other objective. The gun would be chargeable DLC of course. Standing there with a motion controller in one hand and a credit-card in the other, the player with have nothing else to do but buy hats and shout “noob” into a headset. If you think that is utopia, then (a) stop playing CoD games and (b) seek psychiatric help immediately.

[Luminance]

Nicely put into words.

I hope these will eventually sink in with the game designers, and all folks around them, and let pc-games become pc-games again.

[Gorion]

It's pretty much why I stopped buying games.  Game devs nowadays want to F you over and over again.  Especially since DLC's were introduced.  EA and same day/week DLC releases anyone?  Content is left on purpose out of games in order to milk more cash from the consumer.  Am I paranoid?  Not really.  Gone are the good old days of the DeusEx, Baldurs Gate, Thief and other old school gems.


The solution is quite simple actually.  However, in order to teach the game devs a lesson, people need to start realising that they're being had.
Before shelling out your hard earned cash, DL the game - if it merits it's price tag; buy it.  If not, well we all know the answer to that one.