SimCity launched yesterday, if “launch” is really the term you want to use. Considering the entirely predictable problems the game faced, a term implying thrust and momentum seems a bit inapt. While not everybody was unable to play the game, enough customers were locked out that angry posts proliferated across the gaming blogosphere and gave Maxis and EA a black eye, while stirring up gamer rage over DRM yet again.
It’s just another illustration of the fact that always-on DRM isn’t worth it. Here are four points the gaming industry should consider, before flicking that particular switch.
It’s Unfair To PC Gamers
Look, we’ll mock PC gamers night and day, because there’s always that guy who has to proclaim his natural superiority over those console proles. But the reality is, always-on DRM only exists on one platform, and it’s not like game piracy is impossible on PS3 or Xbox 360. More difficult, technically, but it’s not impossible. Why do PC gamers get singled out for special abuse?
It’s Probably Unnecessary
This is a serious question: How much do game companies actually lose to piracy? We’ve yet to get a straight answer. There hasn’t really been much independent research on the topic. Sure, there’s always that guy in the comments section talking crap about torrentin’ it, but is he the exception or the rule, if he even torrents it at all?
What independent research has been done into piracy, focused on film and music, has tended to show that most people think piracy is wrong and that when presented with legal and convenient alternatives, people prefer to use those.
Granted that gamers are generally somewhat different than your average consumer in some respects, but most of us pay for our games. So instead of using this software out of hand, how about actually looking into the problem, first?
It Locks Some Gamers Out
I have a good friend who has played every SimCity game in the franchise. By any stretch of the imagination, he is a hardcore fan. And his wife bought him the game as a gift.
Which was great, but they live in the middle of nowhere in New England. Their Internet service is terrible. And after a few hours of trying, and failing, to get the game to connect, he just gave up.
This is a minority of gamers; obviously EA and other companies have run the numbers and decided the extra sales aren’t worth the perceived losses in piracy. Still, they get screwed, and they shouldn’t be.
There Will Never, Ever, Ever Not Be Launch Day Issues
It’s pretty much a given: A game is announced to have always-on DRM, and the publisher promises that they’ve got rack after rack of servers and connectivity ninjas, and there is no way the game will crash.
And inevitably, the game is an unusable mess for a week. The truth is, a retail game with always-on DRM is a vast, complicated thing and the more complexity in a system, the more likely something is to go wrong. Not even console games with high multiplayer demand can really avoid bumps and hiccups.
And this will never change. There’s just too much in the way of moving parts, too many different systems on too many different connections, for something to not go wrong. Game companies aren’t fighting the limits of IT technology, they’re fighting complexity theory, and generally, complexity theory wins.
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I agree with this whole article. It’s the reason I stopped playing Diablo. Not being able to play the single player campaign for StarCraft 2 for over a week AFTER the installation process through 4 CDs was a major turnoff. In fact I will not be purchasing the StarCraft that comes out next week because of this.
I have never played Simcity. When I found out about the latest version I was all set to buy it. I was even going to break my rule and buy upon initial release. Usually I wait till the prices go down. And then I found out about the DRM. That stopped me dead in my tracks. As of right now I have no plans to buy the game. Shame too. I went through the same thing with Diablo III.
I’ve got to wonder how many sales are lost because of this. Obviously EA thinks they’re not worth the losses due to piracy, but I’d still like to see a figure.
It stopped me from buying it. After Diablo 3 I was already hesitant about another always online game. I was going to go home from work and download it, but not after reading the issues players were having. I live a well populated area with reliable services, and Diablo would still drop out from time to time. If a corpse run is a pain in the ass, imagine losing entire chunks of time that was planned and micromanaged. No thanks. The online component of a game should be an option but not forced on you then used as an excuse to quell investor fears of the big bad pirates who are going to steal your game.
And unrelated but related. It seems like when a game uses an intrusive DRM, people go out of their way to pirate it. Like they are sending a message. That may be my perception, but based on the logic publishers use, I guess thats all you need. (Read from “That may be my perception… in Andy Rooneys voice.)
*dons Captain Contrarian tricorner hat and epaulets*
This is why I haven’t bought it yet. As soon as they work the kinks out, I will be rewarding EA’s bad behavior by buying and playing the hell out of SimCity. I’m sorry, everyone, but I MUST.
Yeah, honestly I think enough people have bought the game that EA can tell anybody who doesn’t to eat it. Still, it’s worth talking about this stuff.
Oh, it’s absolutely worth talking about. I shall yell from the rooftops that there are games I won’t buy because of their DRM. “Want more of Lowkey’s money? Cut this crap out!” Aaand then I dive off my principles pedestal and roll around in a pile of SimCity.
Just pick up a used copy of Sim City 2000, the new one might be prettier but SC 2000 is the better game.
I had my finger on the purchase button, I want this game so badly, but I just can’t do it. DRM is silly to me. I remember when everyone pirated Spores, just because of the DRM. I’ve always been under this assumption of pirates, are not preventing sales by torrenting games. Most cases, they wouldn’t be buying the game anyway. So no sales lost there. Of all the people I have known who have pirated games, they either pirate first as if it’s a demo, and buy later if they find it worth ti, or they pirate a game they were not planning on buying anyway. They purchase games they would have purchased anyway.
Getting huge, complex games to work right is very difficult. DRM is a way of deliberately preventing games from working. Recipe for disaster.
“Why do PC gamers get singled out for special abuse?”
Because they are freaks who deserve it!
Or, because console come with far more server side control built into them than your average PC.
The console amrket is even jumping on board with this nonsense.
I kind of like the idea that it’s really just Ubisoft, EA, etc. are bitter after years of abuse. It caters nicely to my desire to have everything be a superhero book.
The way I see it they need me more than I need them. I’ve got plenty of games sitting on my shelves that I haven’t played yet.
To address a couple of points from the article:
- Of course PC gamers are being singled out by this. The software piracy problem is exponentially worse when it comes to PC games as opposed to console stuff, so of course the strictest anti-piracy measures are going to end up on PC. Blame the lazy theives who abuse bittorrent and Pirate’s Bay, not the game company here.
- I’m not sure why people always get so shocked and bent out of shape about launch day issues for online games. How is this any different than showing up to the biggest movie of the year on opening night, or a hot new restaurant the day it opens? Of course you’re going to have to wait a little if you want access RIGHT THIS SECOND…everybody else does too.
It’s more like buying a ticket to see a summer blockbuster, waiting in line to get in, cramming yourself into a seat, and then finding out the final act of the movie hasn’t been released yet.
“The software piracy problem is exponentially worse when it comes to PC games as opposed to console stuff, so of course the strictest anti-piracy measures are going to end up on PC. Blame the lazy theives who abuse bittorrent and Pirate’s Bay, not the game company here.”
But where’s the research on this? I know this is the received wisdom, and if independent researchers were backing this statement, I’d be OK with always-on DRM. Maybe not a fan, but I’d get it.
But most research done on piracy by independent researchers shows that piracy is A) limited and B) usually done by the kind of people who obsessively buy everything anyway. It seems we’re in Underpants Gnomes territory on this one.
The ‘reasoning’ about piracy and DRM only makes sense to a bean-counter mentality. Hence it mainly afflicts the big, gone-to-seed publishers like EA, Ubisoft and Activision.
These corporations are run by bean-counting executives, desperate to justify seven-figure compensation packages. They don’t understand software, or gaming. And they don’t really care if DRM works, or if piracy is a problem. All that matters is what looks good on a PowerPoint slide, or in the annual report. “Look: my DRM initiative saved our company $1 gazillion in lost sales.” It doesn’t have to be true, just defensible in a boardroom.
At the same time, smaller publishers – who arguably have more to lose – are more relaxed about the whole thing. (Witness the recent Anodyne incident, for example.) They don’t have shareholders to bilk, and can therefore apply actual real-world logic.
So not being able to access something you purchased for lord knows how long as well as intermittently in the future because of internet drops is the same as “showing up to the biggest movie of the year on opening night, or a hot new restaurant the day it opens” and waiting a little? You can’t be serious….
“- I’m not sure why people always get so shocked and bent out of shape about launch day issues for online games. How is this any different than showing up to the biggest movie of the year on opening night, or a hot new restaurant the day it opens? Of course you’re going to have to wait a little if you want access RIGHT THIS SECOND…everybody else does too.”
Lemme tell you something. I worked for 2 different movie theaters in my youth. If you PREBOUGHT a ticket for a midnight showing, guess what you get to see at midnight? It might start 10 minutes late if they are showing it in tandem in multiple theaters.. but still. they dont’ say.. sorry.. our projectors are glitching…come back in a week.. and IF THEY DID.. you’d be issued free passes, and the theater would be doing something to make it up to you probably including giving a refund.
Because a LOT of players did in fact reserve or completely prebuy this game a long time ago. They didn’t just show up on movie release night. They prebought their tickets ahead of time. Could you imagine if you bought tickets for your movie 3 weeks ago through moviefone. You get to the theater, and they wont’ give you your tickets or a refund? man.. they’d have a riot in there…
“So instead of using this software out of hand, how about actually looking into the problem, first?”
I think you’re quite mistaken in assuming that publishers haven’t done any market research when it comes to DRM. You don’t pour millions of dollars into developing a game, then flip a coin and say, “heads we use always-online DRM; tails we leave the game unprotected and rely on the benevolence of one of the shittiest demographics out there”.
I wish they’d find a better way to prevent piracy, but there’s little doubt in my mind that in the short run, DRM converts pirates more often than it deters paying customers. As for the residual effects of that inconvenience on paying customers? I don’t know… I’ve learned to avoid launch day, and as a result, my experiences have generally been fine. I just worry that, without some sort of protection, game budgets are going to drop, and the quality of games is going to suffer (I suppose most would say that’s been the case with EA for years, though).
Does anyone else remember the term SHARE-WARE? I sure as hell do. Unless there are hard numbers to back up this intrusive anti-consumer bullshit, game companies have no justifiable cause to punish gamers like this. So far, every study conducted on piracy has concluded the exact opposite of what these companies claim. The music industry eventually started to figure it out, the film industry is very slowly but surely following them, so hopefully, the game industry will catch on. But public outcry is the only real recourse.
@Daisy Cutter: “I’m not sure why people always get so shocked and bent out of shape about launch day issues for online games.”
Because people that purchased a single player game couldn’t play it. Period. It’s not an “online game” it’s a single player game with some multiplayer features that wont let you save or load your game without sitting in a server queue for half an hour.
Sim City 2000 had similar features and nobody had a problem playing that game, EVER, because it wasn’t hooked up to an awful, needlessly intrusive DRM scheme. And that game sold like gangbusters.
“Of course you’re going to have to wait a little if you want access RIGHT THIS SECOND…everybody else does too.”
And that makes it ok? Seriously, I’m not trolling you, do you think that justifies it? That everyone else has to wait too is a valid excuse for this?
I didnt have to wait when I loaded up every other game I’ve played this year. But that’s because I refuse to support games with this kind of DRM. EA made this choice, and I’m making the choice to not support it. And I find these anti-consumer tactics so repulsive that I will shout from the rooftops about it because I don’t want this garbage to spread.
I’m already locked out of one of my favorite arcade games (Guardians of Middle Earth) because some DRM bullshit malfunctioned on my console. Until these corporations can put up some hard numbers that justify DRM, gamers everywhere will be rightly bitching about these needless intrusions.
(I also want to state for the record that Guardians Of M.E. has some of the best PvP on Xbox, even Mr. Sietz might like it.)
Huge SimCity fan, and i’m hoping that a later version with the option to not require the “Always On” connection will be released (or jailbroken). Looks like EA would rather me get blind stupid drunk on my cross country flights from Seattle to Connecticut…
/seriously, it’s always been a Single Player campaign game
//eat a bag of dicks, EA
I don’t really give a shit if its always connected, this day and age I am always connected to the internet anyways. Sure it will suck for people whole live in the middle of no where,and dont have good internet access. But so does alot of everyday things for those people. You can Ironically learn about this in simcity. I bought the game, I love it. It is loads of fun. There will always be something to complain about as long as there is someone else to listen to it.
The last computer game I bought, I bought because I’d just moved, I had a two-week wait to get my internet and TV connected (which actually turned out to be two months, but anyhow), and I wanted some entertainment.
That’s how I found out about this new-fangled must-be-connected nonsense. So I returned the game and played Alpha Centauri and read books for two months, and have pretty much given up on new computer games for good.
Viva Steam.
Two words: Fuck EA. Just got done playing the new SimCity for an hour, and spent another five just trying to connect to play. They ruined an amazing game.
I will never understand large companies’/developers insistence on using the heavy-handed approach over quickly adapting. Steam does a lot of this bad stuff, but people, myself included, love it because they at least throw you a bone every now and then with good sales and sometimes lower price points.