This you can install it on any computer you own ect and so on, and if barely invasive.

I have made a full 180 degree change in viewpoint in DRM over the years. I want as much piracy protection as they can add to a game anymore. Perhaps then, companies will start developing great games again. There is no question that piracy has severely hurt the gaming market for PCs and I apologize, but consoles just don't cut it for me as a gaming system.

DRM is a waste of resources. The most powerful forms of DRM may have been a royal pain for crackers, but it always was a royal pain for legitimate customers as well. Eventually, you have pirates enjoying the game more than people who actually bought the game in order to support the developer. Attempting to stop piracy with draconian measures which also affects legitimate customers is by definition wrong and a waste of resources. Strong DRM can't give any guarantees that legitimate customers won't be affected at all + will be cracked eventually, weak forms of DRM are too easy to be cracked. I still don't see why game developers don't invest all the money they could save on a DRM system into what they develop. Piracy is a very weak excuse to impose usage restrictions on legally purchased software. I don't like being threated as a criminal. My vote should be obvious: None. Since that is unlikely to happen, I'd be ok with Oblivion's simple disc check, but even that would be a waste of time and resources.

couldn't vote. other than steam, I don't know what any of those mean (and no way do I want steam)

I want what ever DRM just lets me play the damn game and leaves me alone.

Voted Other. Disk check thing. (Though unlikely) If not..

One-time activation. If not..

SecuROM. If not..

Steamworks. If not..

Spore Style. And lastly..

..if it used Ubisoft's style (which even they do not use anymore?) or something similar I wouldn't buy it. And I really want Skyrim, as it's one of if not THE most of my anticipated games this year.

Anyway I hope it doesn't come with multiple styles like Dead Space 2 did, as in activation + limited installs + new version of SecuROM, that's just going overboard IMO. Steamworks is the last thing I'm willing to tolerate in the case of DRM, I do not want or use anything with it, except to authenticate. I'm not knocking it, lots of people think the sun shines out of it nether-regions and that's fine, but I don't use it to buy games or anything but I'm ok with it as an option (Which I'd respectfully decline thankyou very much) The only reason I endure it is because of the games I bought (from either a brick and mortar shop or Play) need it to authenticate. That's the only thing it gets used for, so to me there's just no point in having the program, it's just extra inconvenience in my view.

Thought a bit on the subject for a while to find the words describing what i do want...

Unintrusive and simple.

Hmm. That' s it!

This

I try to roll with the flow and accept changes as they come down the path. I prefer Steam to SecuROM but I can honestly say I've never had a spot of trouble with any DRM that has come across my path.

I choose not Steamworks but Impulse. This way once the game is installed I can turn it off and not worry about it again untill the next patch comes out.

Impulse so much better than Steam.

Steam, or product code and disc check, is there for users like you and me. We can't circumvent any of these, or most of the really old ones either. A cracker will create a version that bypasses provided he has the skills to do it. Result; out in a day more than often.

FADE is there to make both crackers and pirates life miserable. The cracker is on a time limit to get his product out fastest - being first is everything to them. So they end up with a shipment that will start, rather than produce the normal "sorry pal, I won't start", but instead over time degrades the game. Slowly, the game that was "cracked" becomes pretty much intolerable or unplayable. Put in lots and lots of these "traps", using many disguising techniques, using calls to procedures that normal code will use too, and it becomes a tedious part to track them all down. If the called procedure is a blurred vision, they can't simply deactivate it without loosing gameplay aspects, they have to check every call once they become aware of it also being part of FADE.

With next game patch, everything is changed, with new methods of disguising, different techniques. Again, all over the place. Pirates are put on hold while the cracker is sweating. No, it won't last forever, but it will prolong the high sales period. Will the pirate want to always be left behind, or will he change his mind and actually buy the game instead? However, it's not something you easily strap the game into, but rather something you put in everywhere in the game.

So I'm not sure what you mean with "legitimate customers have to deal with the overbearing DRM". I'm playing Arma2 with a purchased DVD, which I could choose to activate via Steam or Disc Check. I chose Disc Check because I hate Steam. And since 1.05 patch that Disc Check is completely removed. There is NO DRM with this game now, only copy protection. As a consumer and customer, I can resell my game to someone else if I wanted to. I'm *VERY* concerned about things that crosses my consumer rights and consumer behavior that is common practice and common sense.

Trying to control this is outrageous, and as is already proven, it doesn't make sense to prevent it as by the time becomes a resellable item, the DRM is already circumvented and everyone can just download the cracked game if they wanted to. Especially considering how this is a single player game only. With Arma2 which is also multiplayer, I can sell the game and still play mine (since Disc Check is removed), but if we both go online with it the product key will be banned and none of us can use it. Which is why I have suggested *some* kind of online content making it worthwhile to be a legit user, and block out dupe keys.



Resales isn't a concern, since by that time the DRM is circumvented and anyone can download it from anywhere.
Unsure about rentals. I don't consider this the typical game you rent and play everything. In fact, if renting serves as an appetizer, why not use that and make the player *want* to buy the game? There are many "pirates" who only use the pirated version to try them out - I'm betting there won't be a demo here... In fact:



Must say I love the contradiction in the end here Seems to me like a pirate who changed to the right side.



While I don't agree on the first part, they *do* loose money to piracy if it's trivial enough (remember the Amiga days?), the second part is the T-Bone here. Make me *want* to buy the game to gain additional benefits, rather than scare me away to piracy by putting on unfriendly DRM schemes. Personally I consider Steam 80% unfriendly if it requires a 3rd party software to start, 40% unfriendly if it requires online activation, and 30% unfriendly if it requires a disc. Ubi style is not even on the list as they blew it more than once - and completely went off the charts, and not in a good way.



For me it depends, personally I've only had performance issues with todays, not stability, root kit'ing, or hardware failures. Even disc checks, as they require disk to spin up, and sometimes even slows down the game simply by running. A 5-10 second spinup time is a high annoyance factor if you mod and experience a lot of crashes due to modding. But I still prefer that compared to Steam. Starforce has cause drive failures for me personally. A couple of times have I had friends who couldn't install and run the game they went to a LAN party to game, because of internet connection problems. These may seem "smallish issues" to any developer, but rest assured they are not small to the gamer.

But I guess "Money talks, bullcrap just continues to smell bad"... Hail $

Key Code is always good.

Having logged more days into Morrowind and Oblivion on the PC than I can possibly count, I can say that this series is by far the most enjoyable I've ever played. I've never had a problem paying full price for anything through Bethesda because they make phenomenal games and don't treat their customers like crooks. I agree with the above posts when they say how constant checks do more harm than good in games, and while I'm impressed by the success of steam I don't think that is the right way to go either. Lets face facts, piracy isn't going anywhere anytime soon, but if companies continue making invasive (Spore, GTA, etc.) and sometimes debilitating (Assassins Creed) DRM, companies will lose more customers than they would had they not included any DRM at all. My father used to say " locks only keep out the honest people," and its true, a quick survey of torrent sites would reveal that many games requiring invasive DRM, including steam's always-on authentication, are easily accessible. In my opinion if a company makes a quality product, as Bethesda does, people will want to own a legal hard copy over a pirated version anyday. If the game we've all been waiting for since Oblivion is free of things like steam authentication and always-on authentication, I would buy it a hundred times over, but if its not then Bethesda will have lost a diehard fan, and I won't have anything to do with this game.

Steam really isn't that intrusive. Allthugh that may be because i use it regularly. I buy almost all my PC games through Steam, it's convienient, easy and most of all cheap. Paying euro saves me a ton of money on games, not to mention all the great deals Steam has. Honestly, I love Steam, it's a convenient service that hasn't let me down so far. it requires internet access to work, that's the only "downside". However, I use the internet for literally everything I do on my computer, without internet access I simply don't use my computer at all.

I can see how people find Steam intrusive when they don't use it at all, my question is why don't you? If you're someone reading this who hates Steam, I'm willing to bet you haven't used it much, if at all. Give it a try, see for yourself how nice the Steam service can be.

OBSE also doesn't work on the Impulse version of Oblivion because the EXE is encrypted and they refused to help the OBSE team make the DLLs work on it. That is the only reason I would be willing to even use Steam in the first place. Valve is willing to work with a community to make popular third party addons work.

The trouble with disk protection is that the more effective it is at stopping piracy, the more it irritates the consumers who bought the game. For example, SH5 was very effective as all missions had to be downloaded from their database online- that required a unique copy of the game. However, in doing so they royally ticked off the people who bought the game, who now need a permanent connection that is also stable- or it's bye bye progress. Ideally i would like no disk check, and the ability to play without the CD. Steam is great when the blasted thing works, but you still need an internet connection to play- somthing that screws a lot of East Europeans and Southern people in the US who do not always have access to the internet.

Pirates will always find a way to bypass the security measures, even if it takes 650 days like splinter cell chaos theory.

I selected other.

I don't want DRM.

It's a [censored] to do massive overhauls (like the engine itself) in.

Steam or disk check only.

other none.

If it must have DRM then one time online activation with optional disk check instead for boxed copies.

Do NOT force Steam on us. I have refused to buy 3 games in the past year because of forced Steam (including FO:NV), I'd really hate to have to skip Skyrim as well because of it. Having it available on Steam for sale is no problem, but to force Steamworks on us for a single player only game is frankly insulting.

Other: no DRM

I'm just gonna go on record here and say I would pay up to $20 extra for a non-Steam version.

I honestly dont see what is so wrong with steam, I was kinda indifferent in the beginning but now I kinda like it, its got achievements and automatically updates, I think that is a pretty good DRM, also you can go in offline mode

Who gives a flying owl about achievements? I just want to play my game the way I want to.

If I find out that there is a limit of installs, I'm not buying the game... EVER.

Some of us power users don't like updates being automatic. We like to be in control of our versions. Also, using Steam means I have to wait for those all-too-frequent Steam client updates -- just to play a game. Either that or I have to figure out a way to go into offline mode BEFORE triggering the auto update procedure. I'm sure it's possible, but it's a headache that shouldn't exist just to play a damn game.