GDC 2009: World of Goo dev team says there's no need for DRM

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GDC 2009: World of Goo dev team says there's no need for DRM

Posted Mar 24th 2009 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Downloads, Indie, Puzzle

Most independent game developers would love to have a hit game like 2D Boy's puzzle title World of Goo. So with one half of 2D Boy speaks, people listen. That's what happened this week at the Game Developers Conference where the game's co-creator Ron Carmel spoke about their opinions on various subjects.

One such them was DRM set-ups in games. Publishers want to keep their games from being pirates but consumers just want easy access to their games. Carmel says the solution is simple: "Don't bother with DRM--it's a waste of time. You just end up giving the DRM provider money." Carmel also says independent game developers shouldn't bother with retail publishers for their titles, saying, "Go with digital distribution--you won't need a publisher for this. Self-fund your game--and when you get to retail, go for per-country flat-fee deals."

Tags: 2d-boy, gdc-2009, world-of-goo

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

I'd have to say that some form of DRM would be beneficial to twarting casual piracy. The use of rootkits and other draconian measures should be avoided, but a simple one-time validity check with the server (like what Evochron Legends does) isn't too intrusive. A developer could also do something similar to what Rise of Legends does and not have updates available via the web, but only downloadable via an in-game patcher. Neither of these would prevent piracy, but they would certainly make the casual pirate think twice about pirating a game, while not inconveniencing legitimate players too much.Posted at 10:32AM on Mar 24th 2009 by ArmiMaan

I disagree ArmiMaan. For one, the idea of a "Casual Pirate" is sort of odd. For one, it really doesn't take any thought on a users part in order to pirate a game. I mean, most people will include the crack right with the game download, and all you have to do is run it for a CD key or whatever version of anti-piracy they decide to use.

DRM is useless. The most it has ever done is slow down pirates by a couple of days, but even then that is only in the most extreme cases . Most DRM can be cracked incredibly easy. Posted at 1:05PM on Mar 24th 2009 by Nadril

And any sort of server side authentication means that some day (maybe 1 year later, maybe 15) but some day your game goes up in smoke when that server is taken offline. I have been spending my lunch breaks re-playing Laura Bow 2: Dagger of Amon Ra from 1993. If that had some lame DRM scheme, I would be locked out of my own game and that is simply unacceptable. I buy games to own them, not to rent them.

...bysmittyPosted at 2:48PM on Mar 24th 2009 by bysmitty