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Mobile Blogging

March 27th, 2010 No comments

I’m at the Make-a-Strip panel right now, blogging on my phone. We’ll see how effective this is.

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Yarr.

March 20th, 2010 4 comments

Normally, I am staunchly anti-pirate. Being of a ninja-like persuasion (one might say ninjesque), pirates have no place in my heart. They are sea rats and brigands, barely fit for those floating masses of jetsam they call “ships”. However, even pirates are afforded a port of safe harbor with me, sometimes.

Piracy for video games is a problem. I think we can all respect the idea that people want to be paid for services they provide and products they create, and the people who create video games are no different. They make something we enjoy, and there are a lot of people behind the project: artists, writers, musicians, voice actors, producers, directors… Modern gaming is a lot like a movie in that way. But movies and other “intellectual properties” are viciously guarded by certain entities, who take really drastic measures to protect them, and the video game industry is following suit.

Let’s take a look at Ubisoft’s latest attempt to get into the debate. Recently, Ubisoft introduced some of the most stringent anti-piracy policies ever implemented. In essence, Ubisoft requires your game to keep a constant connection to the internet so that the game can log on to their servers and authenticate your copy of Silent Hunter 5 and Assassin’s Creed 2. This policy turns what are nominally single-player games into something else, since you can’t play them alone under all circumstances. If your internet connection goes out either because your hardware at home is crappy or your ISP is having a bad hair day, or Ubisoft’s own servers go down or are DDoS’d into oblivion, you’re out of luck.

The reaction to this policy has not been pretty. (The link on “pretty” is my favorite, by the way. If you only click on one link this entire article, that should be it.)

Though this only applies to the PC version of these games, it’s definitely a slap in the face to legitimate consumers who wanted to play AC2 on their home computer. X-Box and PS3 aficionados can still enjoy wacky medieval Italy just fine, but there are still gamers who prefer PCs to consoles. A friend of mine told me that she and her father eschewed home systems entirely: “What good is an X-Box that doesn’t run the games I want to play? My computer is more customizable and does things I need it to do, other than playing games.” Her stance is completely rational, and Ubisoft’s policy is not only infuriating to those people who feel like they are being punished for their preference of system, but it doesn’t even do what Ubisoft is trying to do.

Ultimately, Ubisoft’s aim is to stop pirates. They don’t want their product stolen. They want to have it paid for, which is reasonable. Their response is unreasonable, given the fact that pirates have in fact, cracked the game.

This is normal for pirates.

Everyone in the industry saw this coming. Really, everyone. Ubisoft especially must’ve seen this coming, because I don’t believe they can be this blind, this naive. Any gaming company that has been around this long cannot possibly be this stupid, and I chose to believe that what Ubisoft really is, at their core, is this desperate. They have thrown everything else at the wall, and none of that shit has stuck.

So while Ubisoft is becoming more like the RIAA, let’s consider people who are trying new things in combating piracy.

This is Jonathan Coulton. He’s a musician, and as such, people are interested in his goods: songs. Many people in fact are interested in his songs, particularly people who are good at computers, as he tends to sing about geeky things. As a result, he’s well aware that people are going to try and take his stuff without paying him. What does he say to that? Well, he’s kind of okay with it.

I don’t wish to misconstrue his position here. He would like to get paid for his work, since he has a child and a wife and wants to be able to contribute things like taxes to his community and so forth. What he does differently than big labels though is realize the truth: “The truth is, artists are already competing with free — your music can be obtained for free, I guarantee it. So it’s important to realize every music purchase represents a choice to spend money. I’ve always been clear that while I’m happy to let you download for free, I’d rather you actually gave me money. And a lot of people make that choice.”

He’s experimenting with something called a Creative Commons license to distribute his music, and it’s worked out pretty well so far.

Really, the trick to combating piracy seems to be aware of them, and to accept them as a reality. Dealing with the existence of pirates is working out better for people who are trying it, as opposed to doing everything possible to counteract their efforts.

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