Younger, poorer me would not hesitate to pirate a game if that meant it’d be free. I do not blame a company for trying to protect their investment. I’d do that, too, if I was dropping 10s of millions of USD into developing a game.
> I do not blame a company for trying to protect their investment.
I don't really blame them for wanting to prevent piracy, but I absolutely blame them for implementing it in a way that degrades the game only for paying customers.
The absurd point here (and in many other cases) is that paying customers get a worse experience than those who pirate.
For some games I've paid for a game but then still pirated it because the pirated copy removed things like unwanted software (uplay, etc.) or allowed me to play offline in a single player game.
I just want to pay for a game but still get a reasonable experience so for me paying and pirating can make sense.
1. Paying customers get worse experience than pirates.
2. Your software lifespan is reduced. (Worst if you use 3rd party DRM).
3. The company pay for something that 99% of the time doesn't work.
> literally all broken DRM like this does is punish paying customers
That's clearly not true here. The game in TFA went ~two months without being cracked - that's what the DRM was there for.
> if you don’t want me to pirate your game - don’t use DRM
This is such a weird sentiment to see on a place like HN. Do you ignore the terms of software licenses that you don't like? If not, what's the difference?
I vote with my wallet. I don't support DRM: I don't ever buy anything with DRM. I go out of my way to buy DRM-free stuff. (sometimes I buy a couple of copies)
By the same logic a broken lock on a store's door does literally nothing except prevent customers from entering the store to buy stuff. Sure, but this is just a risk of having security. The solution is to fix the problem, not discard locks and security.
Also one might argue there are second-order benefits to the paying customers, like lower prices and more products being offered since the seller can make more money.
