The Witcher 2 - Official GOG Announcement

Why ? I don't get the joke.

A decent game available on release day without DRM? Preordered.

Alrik Fassbauer said:

Why ? I don't get the joke.

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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/09/obama-wins-nobel-peace-pr_n_314907.html

Okay, now I get it.

But the hack I read about appeared this year.

I'll probably preorder; normally I don't but (because a few weeks after release it will be available for 25% or 50% discount) but they did such a good job supporting the first game it seems like the right thing...

Alrik Fassbauer said:

I wouldn't even know how to identify a torrent site from … well, fakes, maybe ?

And what prevents me from "loading" a virus from that site at the same time ?

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I'm ashamed to admit that I pirated more than a few games a couple of years back (I'm not doing it anymore, but that's still no excuse for what I did), and I assure you that getting pirated copies of games is a breeze. A lot of people think that "torrents" are the main source of pirated copies, but there are more than enough sites dedicated to hosting various games uploaded on file-hosting sites suchas MegaUpload, Rapidshare,… You name it. You don't need to search for "obscure torrents", you can just join helpful communities of people sharing things with each other. Out of all the games I downloaded (must be around 10-15 games) I never encountered a "fake" copy or a game that gave me trouble.

Downloading games on the first or second day is a LOT easier than dealing with the DRM that usually comes with them. The only thing easier than downloading a pirated copy is getting a legal one from GOG.

What kind of "dealing" with the DRM do you do, I wonder? I mean is entering a CD key really harder than finding a download? Is downloading a game from steam, D2D or whatever harder than downloading a torrent? I find it rather ridiculous how insistent people are to identify DRM as the reason for their pirating (not you specifically, gameSquid, at least you stopped).

I also think even if TW2 is successful with the no DRM it will not prove anything. For a single game this may well work, as it generates PR (stardock did the same thing, although I guess they are more indie). But as a general basis for the industry? No, sorry. People would quickly get used to how easy it is to just copy the archive, and if the company doesn't protect it, it can't be so bad to copy it, right? I am sorry, I have no trust in the goodness of my fellow man. My brother is a good guy, hasn't done anything illegal all his life - but he will copy any DVD film or game he gets from the local library if his copy program will copy it. Thats just how it is. So fuck the "inconvenience", DRM at least creates some awareness that pirating actually isn't OK.

I'd at least put a cd key on the thing, that's no big deal to the end user

they just lost shitload of money.
Edit: If you don't protect your property, you're making a statement it's no worth it.
People will exchange this these copies like fire.

toltec7 said:

they just lost shitload of money.
Edit: If you don't protect your property, you're making a statement it's no worth it.
People will exchange this these copies like fire.

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I doubt it, to be honest.

I think Gog will only be a portion of the sales, and not a large one. The effect it'll have on the market will be nothing as it'd be leaked and cracked before the release date anyway.

It will be pirated as much as anything is these days which is to say quite a bit on the pc but I doubt it will be more because of no DRM. If anything there is a slight stigma in pirating games where the company is willing to release no DRM like this. Not that that really slows it down but it removes the excuse of doing it to circumvent DRM. They will come up with other excuses like its buggy or something no doubt. For CDProjekt, they can spend their time and money doing something more productive.

GhanBuriGhan said:

What kind of "dealing" with the DRM do you do, I wonder? I mean is entering a CD key really harder than finding a download? Is downloading a game from steam, D2D or whatever harder than downloading a torrent? I find it rather ridiculous how insistent people are to identify DRM as the reason for their pirating (not you specifically, gameSquid, at least you stopped).
[...] So fuck the "inconvenience", DRM at least creates some awareness that pirating actually isn't OK.

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It's not so much the convenience itself, rather the feeling of being treated as a criminal who must go through several checks to prove I did not pirate it. One solution to piracy, IMO, is to make the legal options more convenient than the illegal ones. Steam is a really good service in this respect, at least for me (its only drawback is the pretty slow download speed).

As to your last point: To a lot of people DRM actually encourages them to pirate the game due to above mentioned reason: being treated like a criminal. It is of course an just an excuse, but I would feel a lot worse pirating a game without DRM since I would feel like I'm not living up to the trust they've put in me to be honest and pay. I like to be treated well, even if it is not aimed personally at me.

SveNitoR said:

It is of course an just an excuse, but I would feel a lot worse pirating a game without DRM

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This is why I plan to do a disc check on a future freeware game I might be doing one day.

Because this would put the crackers into the position of cracking a game that's already freeware. And free to copy.

As opposed to commercial games.

SveNitoR said:

As to your last point: To a lot of people DRM actually encourages them to pirate the game due to above mentioned reason: being treated like a criminal. It is of course an just an excuse, but I would feel a lot worse pirating a game without DRM since I would feel like I'm not living up to the trust they've put in me to be honest and pay. I like to be treated well, even if it is not aimed personally at me.

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this is the weakest and most childish excuse i've read, ever.

Dwagginz said:

I doubt it, to be honest.

I think Gog will only be a portion of the sales, and not a large one. The effect it'll have on the market will be nothing as it'd be leaked and cracked before the release date anyway.

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we'll see.
it'll never be calculated but the game should sell well over 1.5 M on PC given the success of the first part (and the sequels always fare better).
If it doesn't and there are no reasons due to poor scores or any technical insufficiencies maybe it'll point to this.

"No DRM" is a lot better than Steam for me since Steam's "play offline" option is in my experience extremely buggy. I had to reinstall Steam more than once because the installation broke because of that feature, which is lauded every time someone says they dislike the fact their internet connection has to be on in order to play single player games.