p>The Warez http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warez Serialz, Cracks, Crackers, Hackers, Modders, and Phreaks are alright in my book. They cannot be stopped with DRM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DRM, Encryption, Fingerprints, or any other way. All the public debate recently over SPORE http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=2617 by Maxis DRM crippling is totally legit. And here is the core of my BIG problem with it: it has NO SIGNIFICANT ONLINE component. EA and Maxis, and Will Wright have given me no REASON NOT to download the Warez version. So, the answer, HOW TO BEAT PC GAME PIRACE: Give me a reason NOT to Pirate your game.

Will Wright told the world that SPORE would have some AWESOME online content. That you could have your creatures interact with other creatures to form hybrids, or that you could play with other players or in some way ‘compare your’ creatures to others, heck, deathmatch them. Shouldn’t we be able to play/struggle/fight with OTHER humans also playing/struggling/fighting at the same time? Wouldn’t it be awesome to land on a planet occupied by a REAL human creations and interact (peacefully or otherwise) with that player? These kinds of ONLINE FEATURES, defeat piracy. Ever hear of someone pirating World of Warcraft or Age of Conan? Can’t be done!

If these kinds of features existed, you would need an ONLINE LOGIN to play. That LOGIN would be tied to your copy of the game. Done. Piracy Defeated. In other words, a reason to not pirate is online gameplay. And I’d like to play on lots of PCs… all tied to my login. If there is NO REASON to play the game online, then your game WILL be pirated. The crackers will defeat your DRM, and that is just reality.

Game developers/the world at large… are you REALLY developing applications that don’t have online purpose? Hell, tie it to Facebook! Anything… People DON’T use PCs offline much, except MAYBE for word processing (even WORD lets you get ‘clip-art’ online). So fight Piracy! Simply make your games MATTER in an Online World!