What can a developer REALLY do

[Malmer]

[R0B]

[Phantom]

[Phantom]

[fzammetti]

[Michael Y]

[Dave Johnston]

I always though the Operation Flashpoint protection was good - CD copies work perfectly, but over a period of time the game degrades. Hits to your men take off more and more damage, hand grenade explosions get so big you can't run away from them - the game just begins to be impossible and therefore no fun to play. Essentially you have to complete the whole game in just a couple of days, and never play it again without reinstalling (and removing all the registry keys and hidden files the copied version places in Windows to see if youve installed it before). If the person who got the copy really liked what they could play, they go and buy it... like shareware (suckware? erosionware?).

A sense of humour in game protection is great :) (provided it isn't destructive).

BTW, how easy would it be to trace people who give away their purchased software (even if it is accidental)? It would require some sort of signature in each copy. Would certainly help with press copies - I believe game publishers already watermark exclusive screenshots to determine which sites have the rights to them and which ones have just ripped them off.

[fzammetti]

Michael, I agree completely with your thought, "one protection to bind them all" would be a bad thing once someone figures it out.

Then again, with so many smart brains in one place, I'd bet we could come up with something that can be varied from developer-to-developer enough that cracking one wouldn't affect everyone.

As I said, I'd be willing to work on it, but there would obviously have to be a critical mass of interest before even beginning.

[Malmer]

I think using the purchase e-mail is better than using device serial numbers. This is because they have to use a valid e-mail address when purchasing, and this e-mail address has to be associated with a real address, since they need that when buying using a credit card. So They can't just buy a copy with some fake e-mail, and distribute it with that e-mail. Because we will know the address of the one who bought that game and we'll nail him/her.

That way they have two options:
1) Crack the game
2) Create a keygen

If the code is complex then creating a keygen is not the easiest thing.

Which is why we have to 1) make complex keys with high encryption. 2) Make it hard to crack the game. I think that this way we can probably buy a month or atleast a few weeks. It is worth spending some time doing that.

[Malmer]

We need private dev forums for a select group of developers to discuss matters like this. But we must also make sure we keep matters that belong in the public forums in the public forums. Otherwise PM will loose its open feeling which we all love.

[Jasper]

Hi,

Is it true to say that ALL PPC 2002 devices have a Unique Hardware ID. Are there any that don't ?

A secure method of tying this into each purchased download copy should prevent usage on someone else's PPC, assuming all the above (and more) tricks are used.

Agree that some system should be thought through, as there are more small developers in this market than most others, and piracy can cripple them.

[Malmer]

I am a bit scared about having erosionware...because some ppl might not understand that it is due to them using a warez version, and then they'll go posting bad stuff in the offical board and on other newssites. If erosionware is to be used then it has to be obvious that it is just that.

[Michael Y]

Or you can go for multiple protection schemes... you can maybe do like you were saying with the e-mail, along with the device's owner's name (like in PocketGB) and maybe even some obscure information from the person's device... maybe the first time it check's the person's telephone # and it has to be the same every time.

[SM[214]]

[Cameron]