But piracy is pretty rampant and there needs to be some way to stop it. As a friend of mine said yesterday, the annoyance to the consumer is hurting the concept of DRM. I think if they made it more invisible and made it less trouble some, like the CD check always seem to be, then they might have an answer. Also, not everyone has an internet connection, so making the game check online for keys isn’t a good idea either, but you don’t have to worry about having to find the CD every time you want to play or worry about scratching it. I actually had to buy a new version of Diablo 2 cause the CD the game checks got scratched, hard lesson to learn.

I don’t know what the over all solution is, but I think that DRM is here to stay, they just need to find a better way to put it out there without making the consumer feel like they just robbed a 7-11.

Go buy a CD or DVD and they’re in these plastic cages, vacuum-sealed plastic wrap, three adhesive labels then the magnetic strip inside.

Buy some earbuds or a mouse or whatever that’s hanging on the racks. Those plastic packages are so damned difficult to open, and I’ve sustained more than a few nasty cuts because of the unwieldy plastic. Can I sue over my injuries due to their stupid anti-theft packaging? Doubtful. But then again, I can sue because my coffee was hot and I’m a klutz…

Remember software that came with dongles? HA! There’s anti-piracy gone wrong. At least with Steam’s system, I don’t feel violated, and I feel like I have some semblance of control. I don’t even notice it at all, and I can play offline too. SecuRom just goes a step or few too far over my personal line to where I won’t have it. Now… even though I said *if* I’d get Bioshock on 360 to avoid SecuRom (truthfully, Bioshock just seems like the type of shooter I’d rather do on the console than the pc… yes, there’s such a beast) if I were to get Bioshock from Steam it doesn’t come with SecuRom since Valve has their own better system in place. And I’d buy from Steam anyway. One less box cluttering my closet is a good thing.

Garth Brooks even tried to get a law passed stopping people from re selling CD’s because musicians only get royalties off the first sale and didn’t get anything if a used CD shop sold it. I’m thinking, if he’s worth all that much money, he should give his band some of what he’s getting off the first sale. A bunch of Greedy people is all it amounted too.

Now, when it comes to games, I kind of agree with the DRM. People mod consoles to play torrent files of games or burned copies. Its very rampant. This problem is different in my view to music. It think sharing music only gets people to like the artists more and drives them to purchase more CD’s in the long run and concert tickets. When I find a band I like thru a free download or rip, then I will probably go buy the cd myself, because the CD music is better than a compressed MP3 and i want to support the Artist. They did a good job, then I’m all for buying a cd. But if the free song sucks, then I’ve done my taste test and i won’t be getting anymore music free or otherwise from that Artist.

But does the gaming company get any fan base from a copied or pirated game? I can’t see how. so the potential for them to make money in the future off a person ripping them off is pretty nil. I think DRM for some stuff is ok. Why should it be a huge problem? I run Bio Shock and Orange box on my machine and I don’t have any hassles. So, I can’t move the game to multiple systems, why would I need too. So, Bob can’t borrow it and play it on his machine, so what, Bob needs to get his ass a job and buy his own games, like I do. lol

Anyway, as I said, I’m conflicted in my thought process over DRM.