27 replies to this topic

[P-J]

I have to agree with Parkydr ^^^^.

While copy protection generally works with 'joe public', you're in more of a niche market where people are probably a little more tech savvy and capable of finding a way round the protection or locating a download of a cracked or unprotected version.

Not saying that the GP2X community is pro-piracy, but they seem to be a much more techy bunch.

So I don't think copy protection is worth it in this instance. The fervent supporters will buy it, the others will copy it.

Edited by P-J, 25 September 2007 - 09:39 AM.

[Fargo]

Thank you guys for all the info.

As I said in the original post, I have to copy protect the game. The protection just needs to be as hard as possible to break. I need to know my options to weigh between cost, implementation, and security.

[yaustar]

You can always hard code the bill payer's name into the executable, run some logic off it or whatever. Then at least when it is leaked, you can find out who did it.

Or you can do what Introversion did and pump loads 'demo' versions of the game onto P2P networks passing them off as full versions in an effort to make a 'real' cracked version as difficult to find as possible.

Edited by yaustar, 25 September 2007 - 12:36 PM.

[skeezix]

There is one rule for copy protection that works --

Remember your audience -- protection is there to encourage honest people to pay.

So make it easy and painless for honest people. If you make it annoying to paying customers, it hurts a lot.

(Course, its the norm; witness Steam, which meant pirates played HL2 the day it was released, and paying customers waited a few days for the steam server to recover. But it was successful anyway, but peopel hate Steam with a passion )

This is why peopel put watermarks on videos -- it is better to let someone have something, and mark it, then to deny them and lolse the butter altogether.

jeff

But yeah, CP on SD is pretty good; its annoying enough to prevent normals from copying the file, and the blackhats will copy it anyway.

[rokdcasbah]

i think copy protection is not really necessary in the case of gp2x software, there's only so many places people can go to get it, this board being one of them, and the torrent site (i'm only kidding about that one. am i? ha, yeah. maybe?).

then you just learn a dozen or so other languages, and watch the other boards, too.

in all seriousness, if i wanted to copy a commercial gp2x game without paying, where would i go? i can't ask my friend with a gp2x, since my friends don't have one (i guess you could argue based on that they're not true friends), and i can't exactly start a thread on gp32x titled "hey someone pm me $GAME plz"

but i don't have a problem with any of the standard "name/serial" authentication deals. yeah, it's easy for people to share serials, but they tend not to do that since their name is in there, so you'd crack it instead. and if someone is enough of an idiot to spend time cracking gp2x software, well, they should have it, they need it more than you

Edited by rokdcasbah, 25 September 2007 - 11:52 PM.

[Don Miguel]

the computer piracy's killing any motivation.
in the pre-gpXX times, i used to code / sell games for some domestic PC. Alas, it made rich the f...n' pirates only

[ati]

I apply cracks to the games I purchase for my pc, just because carrying the dvd's with my laptop to play them anywhere is annoying. Copy protection doesn't work, and the only one it annoys are paying customers.
They made a really strong copy protection for Mass Effect, and in my opinion, it was the greatest present for the cracking scene, because it became an exciting and fun competition for all crack groups.
Contrary to common belief, crackers usually make no cash from their exploits. They do it for fun and the satisfaction of proving that multi million owners are stupid to pay those big amounts for crap over and over again.

[Squirrel61]

The whole business model of copy-protected games just sucks. And more and more companies are realising that.

Eg. the number of online music stores selling DRM-free music is ever increasing... As are their profits. It's what people want, and they're willing to pay for freedom.

Also, the number of commercial games that are completely free and are sponsored by in-game ads is also increasing. If people have to pay for a game, they expect added value over a pirated copy. Most pirated copies, however, have added value over legal copies. They're generally not messing up your computer, you don't have to carry around a pack of DVD's and some other advantages.

So, instead of wasting your time and money on copy protection, you'd better concentrate on added value. I think that's something Nintendo, of all games companies, understands best. Their games are pirated by the mass, but they're still selling tons of merchandise, like eg. the whole Pokemon stuff.

Well, I can understand that for a games scene as small as the gp2x's, creating and selling merchandise is far out of reach. But there are other ways to attract legal customers. Like hiding features in the game and sending clues around in regular newsletters. The newsletters will be copied, but legal gamers will be the first to read them. Send free addons to registered users.

If you really want to copy protect the game, use what the "S" in "SD" stands for. Or develop a dongle, the GP2X has enough I/O on the ext. port for that. You could equip the dongle with some kind of WORM memory and move random parts of the program code to it, so every dongle/software combination will be uniqe (you could do the same with the SD protection). But someone will manage to merge the parts in an independant executable. And be prepared that you'll never make any profit since protection will cost more than it will produce.

[rokdcasbah]

Gravedig much, guys?

Actually, funnily enough I have some new comments on this front. Recently a commercial games download did pop up on a popular gp2x site. But people complained (well, I complained), and it got taken down. Which sort of validates what I said earlier...that this *is* a community, and any sort of large scale piracy would get noticed and dealt with.

Obviously SD swapping between friends can't be helped, but one hopes that with the "face to face" contact you get with the devs via the boards and maybe IRC, people won't have the balls to steal from those whom they converse with.

[PoisonedV]

the cracking community is involved in way too much inter group politics. they aren't even running at full potential because of squabbling and self-regulated bullshit, yet they still crack stuff in the extremely fast amount of time that they do. copy protection is bullshit. it still needs to be done though.

the computer piracy's killing any motivation.
in the pre-gpXX times, i used to code / sell games for some domestic PC. Alas, it made rich the f...n' pirates only

that isn't quite how it works.

Edited by PoisonedV, 12 January 2009 - 10:11 AM.

[KungPhoo]

Just check the SD card size, and you're safe noone's gonna copy it on their 32GB pirate game collection. Check the SD card's label (name?) and you have 2 very, very cheap copy protections for low price games.

Edited by KungPhoo, 13 January 2009 - 12:46 PM.

[Qwak]

In an ideal world, there would be no copy protection / DRM on games.

Also, people should realise that game devs need to earn money from their endevours, if they want more great games to be made for their systems.

[DCurro]

Keep it in a decent price range for what is to be expected and I will pay for it.

Assuming you release a commercial game and the majority of the users download it without paying, and the very least a commercial game will look great on your resume. Money is only important in the short term. In the long term it's all about getting your name out there, then the money will follow.