Does Bulletstorm PC Use GFWL?

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hal

hal

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Look, GreatEmerald. You simply have to have some sort of protection. By playing a PC game you're, by default, inserting the media into a machine fully capable of making a copy of it by pressing a button. It'd be like publishers releasing books in a form that could only be read on a copy machine. The temptation is simply too great. No protection whatsoever is just stupid. At least a basic CD Key or one-time activation prevents cousin bob from copying the game for every one of his friends and relatives. There's simply no incentive - other than doing the right thing - to pay for the game.

On the other hand, DRM that annoys your paying customer is equally dumb. There's a difference.
 
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GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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That's by following their trends, it was first during the first 8 weeks after the release, then it fell down rapidly during November and then during December it got back up to being the first. Of course, that's not numbers, but still something.

Hal, I never said that no CD key was a good idea. Of course it's not. In fact, retail customers would probably feel disappointed if there was no protection like that.
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

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Jan 21, 2004
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GreatEmerald said:
For example, support forum/ticket subscription. I am yet to hear anyone having cracked Invision Power Board support forums.
Click to expand...

... Seriously?

Did it ever occur to you that there's little demand for cracked forum software? Especially since there's free solutions PHPBB that do just fine for smaller groups. Contrast this to 3.5 million downloads of the CoDBlOps torrent according to TorrentFreak. Huge difference.

I think your sales analysis is flawed. We don't have numbers on Impulse or Steam so it's hard to say if anything is skyrocketing. Elemental has clearly had some "sprints" where it's sold high amounts (launch and the 1.1 patch release). That's not skyrocketing. If they can stay at #1 on Impulse for a sustained period of time then you have "skyrocketing".

Having fast acceleration isn't going to get you off the planet if your rocket only gets 20 feet off the ground :p
 
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GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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I'm talking about the support forums, not the product. You could set up support forums for absolutely any other product, be it service, game or anything else, no matter the popularity, the outcome will be exactly the same.

Now you're grasping at words :p
 
Sir_Brizz

Sir_Brizz

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Game publishers don't care about support. Their idea of support is to try to get you to leave them alone as soon as possible.

With that said, your argument there is pretty weak. Why would anyone WANT to "crack" the support forums for Invision Power Board?
 
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GreatEmerald

Khnumhotep
Jan 20, 2008
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Simple - you don't use the forum just for support, but also for making decisions, polls, possibly giving extra things. That way the company can get very valuable input about what their customers - real customers - want, and keep them content. That assures that the product is increasingly better, sales go up and customers are satisfied.

That's true, publishers do have a lack of interest in that kind of things, and often a lack of knowledge in those matters. However, if the company is self-publishing, then it works just fine.
 
Plumb_Drumb

Plumb_Drumb

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Hadmar said:
The only way that makes sense is if you have to pay for an account in the support forum, or get a code with the game that lets you create one.


I wholeheartedly disagree. And they do too:
http://www.gog.com/en/page/tw2_preorder/
Click to expand...

I ended up preordering that as a result, from GOG.com of course; they are the only place to get the DRM free version.

It's such a good deal, everything considered.
 
B

BITE_ME

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New for 2011: CPU's with built in DRM.

You can thank Intel.


Edit: This is so funny. Link : http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704723104576061821802851378.html

"A federal appeals court Tuesday restored a jury verdict that Microsoft Corp. infringed a patent related to combating software piracy, but ruled that the software giant was entitled to a new trial on damages."


"Uniloc's patent deals with technology for software registration systems that deter the copying of software. The Irvine, Calif., company filed suit against Microsoft in 2003, alleging the product activation feature on Windows XP and other Microsoft products infringed its technology. It initially sought $560 million in damages."

Microsoft can rip other companies off, so we can't rip them off. LOL
 
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Sir_Brizz

Sir_Brizz

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CPUs have had DRM crap in them for years now. You can turn them off in the BIOS.

The Witcher 2 isn't a great example. The only reason it's on GOG is because it's published by CDProjekt (aka the guys that run gog.com). I wonder how Atari feels about that?

GOG is generally a good idea because why should people care about DRM on games that are way past their selling cycle? If they sell 10 of those games, they've made a profit. You're never going to see something like that in general use on new games.
 
elmuerte

elmuerte

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hal said:
No protection whatsoever is just stupid.
Click to expand...

Protection from what? After 25 years of DRM on PC games, has there been any positive effect or a DRM that worked well and didn't cause serious issues from the people that rented the game?

DRM is a delusion that only annoys your customers.
 
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hal

hal

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elmuerte said:
Protection from what? After 25 years of DRM on PC games, has there been any positive effect or a DRM that worked well and didn't cause serious issues from the people that rented the game?

DRM is a delusion that only annoys your customers.
Click to expand...

I think you meant to quote me because Turdrive didn't say "no protection whatsoever is just stupid" - I did.

I wasn't talking about DRM, but a more basic means of copy protection like CD keys. Those don't hurt anyone and it discourages casual copying.
 
shoptroll

shoptroll

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Jan 21, 2004
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hal said:
I wasn't talking about DRM, but a more basic means of copy protection like CD keys. Those don't hurt anyone and it discourages casual copying.
Click to expand...

Discourages it how? It's pretty easy to write down the key on a sticky note and include it with the burned copy. This really only applies for single-player games. Most multiplayer games used to transmit the CD-Key to the master servers to verify you didn't have multiple users online at once.

I like unobtrusive things as much as the next guy but CD-Keys are just as easy to copy and are really only effective if there's a significant multiplayer/internet component in the game.
 
ambershee

ambershee

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The CD-Key is still enough though. The point is it is impossible to prevent piracy of a singleplayer game, because there will always be a crack, which can also be just as easily distributed.
 
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