Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification

Post by **King of Creation** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:13 am

[ Game -> Interview ] - More info on <a href="#Fallout 3">Game: Fallout 3</a>

Pete Hines was recently interviewed by <a href="http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1012" target="_self">Shacknews</a> about a load of different things. Things that really should interest us involve Digital Rights Management and Censorship (I assume we don't care about consolification). Here are some snips from the interview<blockquote>Shack: Is the game done?
Pete Hines: Every day we're one day closer. We're right to the end of it.
...Shack: After the Australia ratings board banned the game, you guys made some <a href="http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/54168">changes to the names of real-world drugs</a>, which will now show up in all versions of the game. What did you think of the fan reaction to that?
Pete Hines: It is seriously the biggest non-issue in the history of video games. It got way more attention than it merits.
Shack: Do you think that anybody's going to even notice?
Pete Hines: Have you noticed? Does it make a big difference that it's called something other than Morphine? I mean, who gives a--
Shack: Still, does it frustrate you to have to make changes based on the ratings board?
Pete Hines: No. As I said,
Australia weren't the only folks that had brought this up. It had
actually been brought up in a number places. Like, "Hey, referencing
real prescribed drugs is kind of a little concerning." And we
went back and looked at it and went, "It's not like it's in the
original game, we just made it up. So why not just change it to another
made-up name?" It's the same thing called something else. We couldn't
possibly care less.
...Shack: Similar question in the sense
that it's an issue that can be overblown. What kind of copy protection
will be included on the PC version of Fallout 3?
Pete Hines: Pretty similar to what
we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do any--we do the
mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into
what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when
it comes to that stuff. [ed- Oblivion employed a simple DVD check.]
And it is a pain in the ass--it is a pain in the ass that we
have to do it at all in the first place. But when you spend tens of
millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something
out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around. 
And to have to support all of that--which is often the unspoken thing
that nobody really wants to point to. You can argue all day whether or
not somebody would have bought a copy of a game they pirated, but you
can't argue, and you will never win the argument that I'm not having to
provide tech support for those folks. Because I know for a fact that we
are. We catch those folks all the time, where we're providing support
for somebody who turns out didn't actually pay for the game and just
downloaded a copy.
</blockquote><a href="http://www.shacknews.com/featuredarticle.x?id=1012" target="_self">There's a lot more</a>. Pete goes on to talk about Console vs. PC, Steam, and Piracy. I'll leave you with this:<blockquote>Shack: As far as the DLC goes, do you expect that to be simultaneously released on both Xbox 360 and the PC?
Pete Hines: Yeah, yeah, that's the plan. Absolutely.
</blockquote> Spotted @ <a href="http://www.bluesnews.com">Blues News</a>

Wolfman Walt · Post by **Wolfman Walt** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 3:39 am

It's not like it's in the original game, we just made it up

I wonder if this is/was a common trend.

mixmastermind · Post by **mixmastermind** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 4:00 am

King of Creation wrote: Pete Hines: Pretty similar to what
we did for Oblivion, which was--we basically don't do any--we do the
mildest form possible. I actually don't know if I even want to get into
what it is that we exactly do, but we try to be really noninvasive when
it comes to that stuff. [ed- Oblivion employed a simple DVD check.]
And it is a pain in the ass--it is a pain in the ass that we
have to do it at all in the first place. But when you spend tens of
millions of dollars, we don't think it's right to just put something
out there and let everybody do whatever they want and pass it around.

The cracked version of this game is going to come out a week before launch and have no DRM at all.

Are these people retarded?

... oh right, Bethesda.

POOPERSCOOPER · Post by **POOPERSCOOPER** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 4:11 pm

It seems like a lose/lose situation for them. If they don't put in DRM they will get pirated even more, but if they do put in DRM they piss off the community and they download it even more.

St. Toxic · Post by **St. Toxic** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 4:27 pm

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:If they don't put in DRM they will get pirated even more, but if they do put in DRM they piss off the community and they download it even more.

Pooper is quite the wordsmith. In other words, there's no real difference between chosing to have DRM or chosing not to have DRM.

Smiley · Post by **Smiley** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 5:12 pm

POOPERSCOOPER wrote:It seems like a lose/lose situation for them. If they don't put in DRM they will get pirated even more, but if they do put in DRM they piss off the community and they download it even more.

There is a win side. Make a decent game that deserves to be supported, and you have no problem.

This is something game developers have yet to understand, to date.

rabidpeanut · Post by **rabidpeanut** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 7:49 pm

At least they are not going the drm route on this one, though i wish they did cause then i would have something extra to hate them for.

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:40 pm

Smiley wrote:
POOPERSCOOPER wrote:It seems like a lose/lose situation for them. If they don't put in DRM they will get pirated even more, but if they do put in DRM they piss off the community and they download it even more.
There is a win side. Make a decent game that deserves to be supported, and you have no problem.

This is something game developers have yet to understand, to date.

qfe

Anyhow, even with DRM, a game always ends up being cracked.

Kashluk · Post by **Kashluk** » Thu Oct 02, 2008 10:54 pm

There are some exceptions, like, Prince of Persia: Two Thrones and Templar Knights 2 for example. Or at least I think so. The cracking teams can't get a decent crack published "in time" so the pirating posse gets bored and moves on to some other illegal thing to download, especially if the games are nothing special and can be substituted with a similar one. or something

S4ur0n27 · Post by **S4ur0n27** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 12:05 am

Maybe, but most big releases always end up cracked.
Supply and demand.

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:00 pm

King of Creation wrote:Pete Hines: Every day we're one day closer.

spyder07 · Post by **spyder07** » Fri Oct 03, 2008 10:27 pm

Smiley wrote:
POOPERSCOOPER wrote:It seems like a lose/lose situation for them. If they don't put in DRM they will get pirated even more, but if they do put in DRM they piss off the community and they download it even more.
There is a win side. Make a decent game that deserves to be supported, and you have no problem.

This is something game developers have yet to understand, to date.

Stardock gets this. Sins of Solar Empire is apparently a good game and there's no copy protection on it. It's sold something like 400,000 units.

entertainer · Post by **entertainer** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 6:57 am

spyder07 wrote: Stardock gets this. Sins of Solar Empire is apparently a good game

Not really, certainly not the 4x game they're hyping it to be, just a rts in space supcom syle. And with no campaign.

rabidpeanut · Post by **rabidpeanut** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 7:26 am

Sins of a solar empire IS good. You forgot to mention that it is a fucking MASSIVE rts, the biggest i have ever played, it is bigger than supreme commander. It is not the best game out there but it is sure as hell in the top 80%.

Psychoul · Post by **Psychoul** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 9:17 am

I was thinking of downloading, but i never knew if it was worth it or not. (A space RTS??, sounds cool but i wonder if it would be worth it)
YEA, ill go for it.

When pete hines started saying that they catch people al lthe time, i started getting scared. I dont want to be caught.

Frater Perdurabo · Post by **Frater Perdurabo** » Sat Oct 04, 2008 8:45 pm

cazsim83 wrote:
King of Creation wrote:Pete Hines: Every day we're one day closer.

I bet they fucking framed this on the wall @ Beth HQ

Psychoul · Post by **Psychoul** » Mon Oct 06, 2008 5:25 am

Frater Perdurabo wrote:
cazsim83 wrote:
King of Creation wrote:Pete Hines: Every day we're one day closer.

I bet they fucking framed this on the wall @ Beth HQ

hahaha.

cazsim83 · Post by **cazsim83** » Tue Oct 07, 2008 2:48 am

Shack: Do you think that anybody's going to even notice?

Pete Hines: Have you noticed? Does it make a big difference that it's called something other than Morphine? I mean, who gives a--

I am guessing he did in fact notice, since he asked about it?

Slaughter_Manslaught · Thu Oct 09, 2008 3:03 am

The cracked version of this game is going to come out a week before launch and have no DRM at all.

They already did it.

For the Xbawks, but, still... I'm serious. I don't remember the name of the site, but it has leaked already.

entertainer · Post by **entertainer** » Thu Oct 09, 2008 10:55 am

lol piracy is killing pc

Duck and Cover

Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification

Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification

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Re: Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification

Re: Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification

Re: Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification

Re: Bethesda on DRM, Censorship, and Consolification