DRuMbeats of War

HaHA! See what I did THERE? What with the capitalization, sort of hinting (you know, if you consider being ball-peened upside the head ‘subtle’) at the theme of this missive? I can LEARN, dammit!

Anyway, yes…as anyone who has seen the multitude of articles about Spore’s DRM, complaints about it, problems with it, etc. that I’ve shared recently has probably figured out, I have somewhat of an axe to grind with DRM. Well, not with copyright protection itself…I don’t take issue with the idea behind it, or really with the vast majority of schemes for implementing it. What I have a very big problem with are the invasive, imperialistic methods that are being put in place with some frequency these days.

(Sweet merciful crap…I knew this was a lengthy post, I didn’t know it was as long as it is. Seriously, while I hope people will read it, you definitely want to have some spare time to do so…and maybe pack a lunch).

So, before going any further, I’ll just lay my cards on the table. I am someone who would most definitely fit in to the category of ‘avid gamer’ (if, as comparison, one might describe a homeless crack addict as an ‘avid smoker’). I have a lot of games. Installed on my computer right now would be…let’s go with about 15, with a crapload of extra content (full mods, levels, scenarios, campaigns, etc.) on top of that. I have probably…oh, Christ, for the sake of throwing a number out there, let’s say about 25…others sitting currently uninstalled because I either finished them (FEAR, World in Conflict) or wanted to make them a corporeal being whom I could then beat with a cue ball in a sock (Hi there, stupid Company of Heroes…ahhh, your potential, so utterly ruined because you just HAD to be like all the OTHER goddamn RTS games out there, you fucking clone).

I also freely admit that, yes, I have (insert a rapid intake of breath here to show shock and dismay) downloaded pirated games. In other news, I also breathe on a regular basis. In some cases, it’s to play an older game that can’t really be purchased any longer (I ain’t sending some limey on Amazon 60 goddamn dollars to buy a used copy of Age of Wonders : Shadow Magic…and even if I did, I rather doubt he’s sending a percentage to the original game designer, anyway). In others, it’s to try out a game that doesn’t have a demo. For example, I absolutely love Paradox Games. Big grand strategy titles…the Europa Universalis series, Hearts of Iron series, etc…they really remind me of the stuff Koei used to put out, Genghis Khan, Nobunaga’s Ambition, etc., before they decided endless clones of Dynasty Warrior hack and slash bullshit was the way to go. Trouble is, they don’t release demos. So, I treat torrents like demos. Since trying their stuff this way, I bought Crusader Kings, and, having tried EU3 (and having played its’ predecessor for about a year and a half), plan to purchase the complete edition of it when it releases next month. (I also avoided spending money on some of their other stuff, like the Hearts of Iron games, which didn’t really interest me, despite seemingly being right in my wheelhouse). I have occasionally downloaded something I have no intention of ever buying, simply because I really can’t stand the company, but am curious enough to want to check it out. Every time but one the game turned out to be crap, anyway, and was quickly purged. And the one time (Combat Mission Shock Force), I later found out I could buy the game from Paradox, avoid Battlefront Games completely, and throw some bucks towards a developer I actually like.

There, honesty divulged, think of me what you will.

Now, obviously, some form of copyright protection has always existed. First, it was the need to type in a phrase from such and such a paragraph on such and such a page from the manual, or maybe you would get a sheet of codes, and you’d be prompted to enter a specific one. I seem to remember a submarine sim where it would show you a ship profile which you would then ID from a profiles section of the instructions. This was kind of silly, but really not that big a hassle, so nobody cared.

Later, things moved towards downright weird shit like code wheels, and other bizarre inventions that were more laughable than obnoxious. Once we entered the CD-ROM age, things got even simpler, with the game simply requiring the disc to be in the drive to play (of course, early on, this was also needed because computer hardware was, frankly, complete shit, and because nobody in their right mind would ever have any reason to have 500 MB of storage capacity on their PC).

However, as we entered the DVD-ROM era, and both the Internet and Burner drives began proliferating, piracy moved eons beyond these antiquated notions of protecting one’s developed property. Now, you might need to enter a Serial Key or something along those lines, basically to ‘unlock’ the game after installation. Then, things took a bit of an escalation (sort of like, after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914, things took a bit of an escalation in Europe).

Nobody really paid a whole lot of attention to where things had gone, because, quite frankly, software companies were doing a very good job of avoiding the subject. And, really, because everyone was still living in an age of innocence, they really weren’t having to do much avoidance in the least. And everything was happy…until people started having problems with their PCs. A LOT of people were having a LOT of problems. Soon, people began noticing that certain titles from certain companies seemed to be the common connections. A few PC gaming and hardware magazines started digging a little deeper. And the awareness of a little thing called Starforce popped in to our world.

If you really want to see the insane depths to which DRM got, type Starforce in to Google, and spend an evening reading page after page after page of links. To condense things a tad…

Starforce was (and still is…though no North American or Western European would ever again touch this shit with a twenty five mile long pole, it’s still in common usage in Eastern Europa and Russia), for all intent and purposes, a rootkit. It would install alongside whatever game it was linked with, with no warning, no mention at all, actually. And once you removed the game…it didn’t leave. Nope, it stayed behind.

The more innocuous problems that popped up were the game simply refusing to run…if Starforce detected a burner drive on your PC, it tended to jump to the conclusion you were a member of a leet pir8 hackerz group (it actually sickens me that people ‘talk’ like this online. Can we please pass a law allowing for these subhuman retards to be beaten with the nearest blunt object until they’re leaking at least 2 bodily fluids?), so it wouldn’t let the game run. Of course, people would post their problem on the game company’s forums, and would simply be told it was a hardware clash, and the game might not work. Some people had multiple optical drives, and would be told to open their system and simply disconnect one (which, really, isn’t simple, or…well…SANE to make one game work).

However, things frequently weren’t innocuous. Starforce would actually hack in to your system files and BIOS. It would do things like force your burner drive to run at a lower speed than it was designed for (there is actually a Windows provision that allows for it…Starforce would hack in to that, and use it itself). Since early burners were not designed to run at slower than spec speeds for long, a surprising number of drives failed completely. A lot of LAN gaming businesses had to start replacing Server machines and network cards at a high rate because Starforce decided that this was obviously a band of hackers, so it would kill the server/cards.

Once this became widespread, several long time PC forum writers/mag writers began asking what exactly was going on here. This is where things got…odd. While the game companies proffered the choice to either “Live with the DRM, or not play our damn game” (this is, by the way, an actual quote from an Ubisoft exec when complaints flooded in about Starforce on Heroes of Might & Magic 5), Starforce executives suddenly started throwing around threats like they were going out of style. Ridiculous accusations of slander and piracy were thrown down on ANYONE who posted anything saying something other than “I wish Starforce was alive, so that I could put my dick in it.”, followed by insane claims that the FBI was now investigating said complainer (making these bizarre diatribes even more entertaining is the fact that, Starforce being a Russian company, these people were not exactly gifted in the world of English). If you could even find the files to delete them (they were all stashed away as hidden Registry files, and as System Devices), removing them in the normal manner would cause harm to your system, because they were intertwined so tightly with your system files, they tended to take chunks of them along for the ride (Eventually, Starforce, once they were nearly driven out of business by horrific publicity, had to release a Starforce Removal Tool, which cleans it totally off a person’s system without damaging anything).

Finally, it was discovered (again, the hard way for some unfortunates) that Starforce was, in fact, opening massive holes in people’s Anti Virus and Firewall software…holes big enough to drive a flat bed truck loaded down with Rosie O’Donnell through. It wasn’t long after that that a class action lawsuit was launched against Ubisoft, since their products at the time were the most popular of all software infected with this garbage (and also, most likely, because, while other companies actually showed some modicum of respect to the people who had BOUGHT their games, Ubi tended to act more like dickish asswipes…certainly an interesting approach towards the very people WHO KEEP YOUR FUCKING ASS EMPLOYED). Suddenly, Ubisoft couldn’t possibly be more SORRY. A patch was almost instantaneously released which removed the need for the protection to be there. It was removed entirely from every Ubi product on the shelves. They also proceeded to pay out the ASS to replace every single component and system which had been damaged. And every other Western software company ran away from Starforce faster than any sane, blonde woman from OJ Simpson. (There is one more Starforce story that I have to tell, because it’s my favourite. Stardock had just released Galactic Civilizations, the sequel to which they are STILL moving expansions for, and one of their selling points was a complete lack of any DRM whatsoever. Within days, posters started putting up links to GalCiv on torrent sites on the Stardock forums. All of the posters were doing so from the same place…which just happened to share an address with Starforce’s headquarters. Disappointingly, when busted, they didn’t threaten to send in a Spetsnaz hit team).

Now, alongside Starforce was another program called SecuROM, which is widely used today. It’s the same type of software as Starforce…it isn’t announced when it installs, and it doesn’t go away when you delete the game it came with. You won’t even see it in your normal program files…the folders tend to hide away, and unless you know where to look, you won’t know they’re there. SecuROM hasn’t tended to draw the same ire because it isn’t a purposely programmed vindictive motherfucker like its’ buddy was. People DO have problems, though, if they have multiple optical drives. Some people have issues if they have a Virtual Drive program installed (it seems to hate one in particular called Daemon Tools).

Now, I have had zero issues with SecuROM. World in Conflict had it, FEAR had it. I haven’t even bothered getting rid of it since deleting them, because…what’s the point? It isn’t hurting anything, and isn’t affecting anything else from running. If it was, I’d chop it out. I don’t have issues with a game company ensuring I paid for the game. I don’t have issues with a Serial Key system, with keeping my disc in the drive to play, or anything like that. Where I start to have issues is with the versions of SecuROM that EA has famously started to use (other companies as well).

The first game that really got attention for its’ DRM was Bioshock. Ever since the Starforce Debacle, DRM gets a lot more focus. Hell, most major PC gaming reviews sites/mags now make mention of DRM in their reviews. Bioshock required a constant Internet connection, so it could make sure it was allowed to play on your system. Also, it initially allowed 3 installs of the game. Now, this sounds like a lot…who would need to install a game all that many times? However, let’s use my Europa Universalis 2 example here. I installed it first on the computer upstairs…after about 6 months, the System Registry on that computer was so clusterfucked I had to format everything and start over…which meant installing for a 2nd time. When I got my shiny new PC, Install #3 soon followed. Now, let’s say EU2 had the 3 install limit, and I have to format the drive. I’m screwed. My only recourse is having to contact 2K Games and ask them if I can pretty please receive another Install permission. Yes…I have to ask the company IF I CAN INSTALL THE GAME I FUCKING BOUGHT FROM THEM! In what world does this make ANY SENSE?! ESPECIALLY when the DRM software is twigged whenever you install a new major hardware component. New processor? Guess what…SecuROM just recognized that as a new install, even though the game hasn’t moved.

The biggest example of this recently, though, is Spore. EA publicized the Hell out of this…their release of the Creature Creator months before the game was actually quite a stroke of brilliance…get people hooked with a taste, then jack up the price on them (It really isn’t even surprising to me that EA’s sales tactics compare so easily to those of a heroin dealer). Everything was awesome…then news leaked out that both Spore AND the PC version of Mass Effect were going to be using the new, ‘badass’ version of SecuROM that had caused massive problems with Bioshock.

In short, people went apeshit. A MASSIVE online petition was launched, and EA was so flooded with irate emails and calls that they quickly announced that he install limit was being upped…but was still in place (as was the need to be constantly online. Remote play? Not possible). There were continued protests, but EA insisted that these measures were needed to prevent piracy. In fact, this is ALWAYS the argument stated when companies are slammed for this shit. Well, let’s look at this.

One of the most successful strategy game companies in the past few years has been Stardock Games. The aforementioned Galactic Civilizations (and the second game, with its’ neverending cavalcade of add one) have been a MASSIVE hit. Sine of the Solar Empire was one of the biggest selling games of the last fiscal year. Their DRM protection? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Yet people still purchased them in droves. But, I thought that DRM was needed to basically MAKE people buy a game, right? Well, this seems to clearly point that that ridiculous statement is as silly as claiming the French are a brave, warmongering people always itching for a fight (give me a break…a Cliff rant without a poke at the French is like Rob Schneider if he had no association with Adam Sandler…it just doesn’t work. Ha! Get it? HAHA!). What these games had in common was…they were priced $10 cheaper than other New Release games, AND they weren’t bug-laden, badly cobbled together rush jobs hurled in to the marketplace to ‘Make money now, make work right later’. Not one Stardock title has DRM, and the company has stated they never WILL, yet their success has been great.

Paradox Games also does not use DRM. With the massive success of the EU and HoI series, they’ve basically grown from a small wing of Paradox Entertainment that consisted of literally 2 guys programming in a house to a company that employees upwards of 50 people. Hell, the Gamersgate download service they (and others) use as the main way for customers to get their software can be installed on any computer, and logged in to on any computer. If I wanted to, I could log in to my Gamersgate account and download and install a copy of every damn game I’ve bought through them on 50 different machines. Yet, most people don’t.

Then, on the other hand, we have Spore. Now, EA claimed they had to have DRM to protect Spore from piracy. Yet, according to many people who monitor torrent sites, Spore is, in fact, one of the most downloaded files that has ever existed. Hell, there was a copy of Spore WITH a cracked Exe that busted through the SecuROM ‘protection’ available on Pirate Bay BEFORE you could buy the damn game in a store. SecuROM still installs, it’s just basically ‘disconnected’ from Spore. So, let’s compare. If I BUY Spore, I have limited installs, I’m constantly monitored by the software, and if I have a hardware setup it doesn’t like, it won’t run, and there’s nothing EA will do about it. However, if I download a pirated copy, it will run perfectly fine, I can install it 53,000 times, and I can play it remotely without an online connection however much I want. HOW DOES THIS MAKE SENSE?! Clearly, it DOES NOT prevent piracy…it seems to, in fact, ENCOURAGE it. And, why the fuck wouldn’t it, when the fucking PIRATES have an easier time THAN THE PEOPLE WHO BUY YOUR FUCKING PRODUCT! And NOW, of course, EA is facing their OWN Ubisoft-esque class action lawsuit (a  lot of the same lawyers are involved) for a raft of issues relating to SecuROM (mainly, that it IS a rootkit that doesn’t go away when the fucking game does, and that the newer version seems to, again, poke holes in firewalls while ensuring every 15 MINUTES that, yes, that copy of the game is STILL legal). And, again, EA’s typically dickish excuse for customer service probably had a LITTLE something to do with their being singled out. Good. ANY company that basically tells their customers “Well, we HAVE to treat you like criminals, because you are.” deserves every bad thing that fucking comes to them. Fuck em in the ass, and toss them out in to the ditch.

So now, I wait to see what comes next. Is software piracy bad? Of course it is…no rational human being is going to deny the fact that it IS a problem that IS having a financial impact on a lot of companies…though, as I pointed out, the companies that treat their customers like CUSTOMERS that have to be EARNED, and not people who should be wearing prison jumpsuits seem to be doing okay. I find it interesting that, just like in the music industry, while the smaller companies are doing okay, and often thriving, its mostly the monolithic megacorps that just do not seem to get it. Hell, take a stroll on to the message boards over at EA or Ubisoft, where dickishness still reigns absolutely supreme. There are a growing number of gamers I encounter on forums that, as soon as they hear the word SecuROM, will never, EVER buy that game. Too many companies that have just assumed sales for too long are suddenly facing the reality (or at least, I HOPE they are) that you have to EARN our money. Meanwhile, PC gaming continues to slide, while the console world explodes…and I dare say part of the reason for that is never having to worry whether my goddamn 360 game will work in my Xbox (either due to hardware setup or DRM). Obviously, if this lawsuit against EA succeeds, I think the EA’s and Ubisofts and Sierras of the world are going to have no choice but to rethink how they do business. They’ll be watched like a hawk to ensure they stop throwing shitty ‘protection’ schemes on their products that, in fact, protect absolutely nothing. They’re going to have to realize what the Paradoxes and Stardocks and Matrixes realized long before…good games sell in good numbers, bad games are available for $4.99 in the bargain bin a month after release. And in a world with decreasing PC shelf space, the name of the company on the box doesn’t mean a fucking thing compared to sales, ESPECIALLY if that company has a reputation online for treating customers like a cabal of pirates. Are they going to evolve, and start caring more about the quality of the GAME that’s installing with the protection, or are they going to go the way of the big label record companies, a dinosaur reborn in to a world in which is cannot hope to survive, thrashing about loudly in its’ pathetic death throes before it inevitably falls. I guess we’ll see. As a gamer, I hope so.

Anyway, it’s almost 5 in the morning, and I’ve rambled on for more pages than I care to imagine. Point made, sleep approaching.