3 ms·

I see an evil DRM for games, you buy a game and textures will decay over time until you buy the game again to reset the decay.

jfoutz 12y ago
Back in the day, AutoCAD did that with point coordinates. No dongle, each save got progressively worse.
- keyle 12y ago
  Did you mean 3D Studio on DOS?
  - jfoutz 12y ago
    AutoDesk not AutoCAD! gah. I think you're right. There was a collection of DRM stories i read a few years ago. People (businesses, architects, professionals that should know better) calling for tech support over corrupted files was memorable (but apparently not memorable enough). I imagine there was some grim joy in informing people they were not using a legitimate copy, and thus their program was failing.
rossng 12y ago
The original Operation Flashpoint game did almost exactly that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADE https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADE
ZoFreX 12y ago
Degredation as a DRM mechanism sounds clever, and lots of developers think of it at some point (and many games have actually done it). It's actually a really bad idea, though, for a couple of reasons: * Your support site will be flooded by pirates experiencing the degredation if it is severe enough to be noticed * People will just assume it is a bug and your game sucks if it's subtle * If it's very blatant it will be removed in the pirated versions. Meanwhile you run the risk of it happening to legitimate customers due to bugs in the DRM. Why should you care that pirates think your game sucks? Well, for one, on the great democracy that is the internet, pirates' game reviews have just as much weight as legitimate purchasers. Also a pirate is not necessarily always a pirate, they may be trying before they buy, or may convert to a paying customer later in life and remember their experience with your company.

3 ms·

I see an evil DRM for games, you buy a game and textures will decay over time until you buy the game again to reset the decay.

by maikklein 12y ago

jfoutz 12y ago
Back in the day, AutoCAD did that with point coordinates. No dongle, each save got progressively worse.
- keyle 12y ago
  Did you mean 3D Studio on DOS?
  - jfoutz 12y ago
    AutoDesk not AutoCAD! gah. I think you're right. There was a collection of DRM stories i read a few years ago. People (businesses, architects, professionals that should know better) calling for tech support over corrupted files was memorable (but apparently not memorable enough). I imagine there was some grim joy in informing people they were not using a legitimate copy, and thus their program was failing.
rossng 12y ago
The original Operation Flashpoint game did almost exactly that: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADE https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/FADE
ZoFreX 12y ago
Degredation as a DRM mechanism sounds clever, and lots of developers think of it at some point (and many games have actually done it). It's actually a really bad idea, though, for a couple of reasons: * Your support site will be flooded by pirates experiencing the degredation if it is severe enough to be noticed * People will just assume it is a bug and your game sucks if it's subtle * If it's very blatant it will be removed in the pirated versions. Meanwhile you run the risk of it happening to legitimate customers due to bugs in the DRM. Why should you care that pirates think your game sucks? Well, for one, on the great democracy that is the internet, pirates' game reviews have just as much weight as legitimate purchasers. Also a pirate is not necessarily always a pirate, they may be trying before they buy, or may convert to a paying customer later in life and remember their experience with your company.