Anti-Piracy Measures in Video Games

[Purple Phantom 453]

Some game devs really don't want their games being pirated. I am one of them. In fact, when it comes to things other than music, I'm extremely anti-piracy. (I full on admit to ripping songs off of YouTube so I can listen to them when the internet's gone out.) So, when I discovered that you can have anti-piracy measures in video games, I was excited! "You can stop people from pirating your games?" I thought to myself, "Fantastic!"

 

This Theory and Dev post is for people to share their brilliant ideas for anti-piracy measures.

 

 

I know that some of you are going to say, "But why not just let people get the game for free?" (Yes, I know a dev like that.) Yes, some people aren't able to afford the game at full price. I'm one of those people 9 times out of 10. (That being said, I just wait for a Steam sale or I get it at a used games store or eBay.)

 

 

Have I never pirated? No. Has it ever turned out well? Also no. Plus, there's just a satisfaction in buying a fully updated, fully functional game with your hard earned money as opposed to going to some site, clicking a few links, infecting your computer with viruses and then using that hard earned money to buy yourself a new computer because the person who put up the DL link decided to attach some nasty viruses to it or getting an incomplete/non-working game.

 

Also, that's somebody's hard work you're stealing. Would you really want somebody pirating your game?

 

 

 

 

 

Without further ado, here are my ideas (some inspiration given) for anti-piracy measures!

 

NOTE: Most of these will take at least a little coding on the dev's part to get it working correctly. Keep that in mind.

 

An access code you get with the game's purchase. - More or less, you get an access code with the purchase of the game and have to enter it. Without proper programming, however, the code could easily be leaked, as opposed to being a random code that the game recognizes.

 

A key point in the game won't activate. - If the game is pirated, it fools you into thinking you've gotten away with it, only for you to discover that a certain point in the game that allows you to continue on simply won't activate. If I used this in Aftermath: Gears of Hope, for example, I'd make it so that you couldn't get into the Ruins (an area necessary for almost every run of the game) and/or Peterson Manor (an area necessary from every run of the game).

 

Invincible Bosses. - Bosses (or at least one boss, anyway) are completely unbeatable.

VARIATION: Bosses auto-activate the second you walk into a room. Attacks do nothing. The boss' attacks do everything.

VARIATION: The game begins with a boss that chastises you for pirating the game for for one-hitting you.

 

Secret Ending. - The game starts and, not too long after that, the game abruptly ends with a "secret ending" that gives you some message. Whether or not that message is anti-piracy is up to the dev.

VARIATION: The game crashes on startup, making even the intro completely unplayable.

 

Remove a key feature. - Games like Mirror's Edge are the inspiration for this one. EA and DICE removed the ability to run in pirated copies of the game, making it impossible to actually play the game.

 

Save game deletion. - During certain points of the game (a final boss, for instance, for people like me who really want to see an end put to stealing somebody's sweat, blood, tears, hard work and the entire reason why they've been sitting at a computer with their maker of choice open for hours on end), every saved game on the programme will be deleted. If you die or close the game, you'll have to start over from the beginning. Bonus points if the game scours the computer for every instance of that particular game's save files and deletes those, too, for those players who like to back up their saves.

 

Give me more ideas in the comments below!

 

NOTE: By putting your idea on this thread, you are giving everyone permission to use it, including me, because I'm definitely going to be hooking all kinds of measures up to every one of my games.

[lonequeso 1,921]

Wowzerz, lil' Phantom. Some of those are cruel. A lot of them however also allow people to play part of the game. personally, I wouldn't bother with the vindictiveness as just add an access code. Really, I'll just sell it on Steam and hope their anti-piracy measures are up to snuff. 

[lianderson 122]

Well, the one I use right now is having a free beatable version of my game with some sealed off areas that tell you to buy it. But honestly, unless I throw it on limewire under the guise of it being the full one, it doesn't do anything in terms of actually stopping pirates. That said, the game is updated regularly and will be for years to come. So if people do pirate the full version, then they´re potentially cheating themselves. (especially if it´s a year old, in which case the current free one would have more content than their pirated full one)

[Kayzee 4,032]

...

 

...

 

Are you serious?

 

Yeah... No. Don't. Seriously. Stop. Just don't. What ever you are thinking of it's been tried and either failed or caused so much disruption it's just not worth it. Seriously PP, cut it out. Don't even try it. Don't go down that road. I don't care how anti-piracy you are. DRM. Doesn't. Work. It's literally the WORST thing you can add to a game. Yes maybe even worse then microtransactions. This is not me promoting piracy, this is me telling you that stuff like you are suggesting does more harm then good.

 

I could rant all day, point out a million examples, write a ten volume diatribe, all explaining in detail why this is a bad bad bad idea. No worse then that. It's a cancer, a unhealed wound, a disease on the gaming industry. It's a painful, raw nerve that you have poked with a stick. I know, I know. I rant a lot about bullcrap and my ideas about a lot of things are so far removed form normal sometimes. But I am telling you here and now with all sincerity that from every event I have witnessed in my life as a gamer, which I may add is long enough that I practically saw video gaming's birth, that this is a road you don't want to walk down.

 

I would say the only DRMish thing that even half works is Steam's and that's only because Steams is actually genuinely useful beyond DRM crap. I think it's entirely possible to implement in RPG Maker too if you ask for help from Valve with DLL calls. Please, if you are really that bothered by the idea that someone out there might possibly pirate your game, do this. Don't try to implement it yourself. Let steam handle it, or don't worry about it.

 

Though I still think the best anti-piracy measure is to get your money form Patreon/Kickstarter/merchandising/whatever and distribute the game for free. Like to see people pirate it then!

Edited April 28, 2017 by KilloZapit

[Traverse 144]

An access code you get with the game's purchase.

 

This is basically a CD-Key system. Developers already do this... except the pirates just use a key-gen instead of buying a legitimate key.

 

By the way, legitimate buyers can get screwed on this badly since depending on where they buy from, they might accidentally buy hacked keys or keys purchased with stolen credit cards which may later be reported (causing the keys to be cancelled). See what happened with Ubisoft and Far Cry 4 and Watch_Dogs.

 

<Everything else>

 

Everything else you mentioned requires some way of detecting that the game is, in fact, pirated. You could initially spread a "fake" version of your game with bugs/viruses on the pirate sites before you start selling the real one (ala Game Dev Tycoon) but as soon as the real one hits the shelves, the pirates will just jump onto that one instead.

 

Otherwise you need some DRM system like FADE/DEGRADE or StarForce that checks for idiosyncracies in the physical media (DVD/CD/cartridge) or an internet-based option like what SimCity and Diablo III do. Or else those hideous malware-level anti-tamper packages of Sony's like SecuROM and XCP to prevent copying in the first place, which everybody hates because it can actually screw up your computer's operating system (which, as Sony found out, leads to class-action lawsuits).

 

Your "save-game deletion" suggestion was done by Nintendo with Earthbound and from what I recall used idiosyncracies in the physical cartridge to detect piracy and that one only worked on cloned cartridges, not on digital ROMs (the vuvuzela thing on that Nintendo DS Michael Jackson game used a similar trick, except to check if a ROM was being used instead of a cartridge). Even then, I remind you that once the crackers become aware of those checks, they'll just remove those too (or find a way to spoof the check).

 

And if your game is being digitally distributed, checking CD sectors or such is not going to be an option for detecting a pirated copy, since there is no physical medium to check. Your options for piracy detection shrink down to activation keys, anti-tamper packages and online checks. I've already mentioned pirates can crack key-generating algorithms easily. Mandatory online checks are a disaster waiting to happen as SimCity proved and will also cut out all of your clientele who don't have constant internet connection (or those who tend to game outside areas with internet). Microsoft found that out the hard way that people don't like that when they tried selling always-on DRM with the Xbox One.

 

Currently, the big companies are pinning their hopes on high-end hybrid online/anti-tamper packages like Denuvo. These aren't just system-invasive, but require connecting with the Denuvo server at least once before the game will run, and needs the player to reconnect periodically and every time they alter their computer's hardware to re-authenticate. Not quite always online, but not far behind either.

 

Aside from the rumours (which may or may not be true) that Denuvo kills solid-state drives... Denuvo has also already been cracked for a whole bunch of games. And it's STILL championed as state-of-the-art DRM, which tells you something about the worth of trying to implement these things in your games. Even Denuvo markets its product as protection for "a game's initial sales release window" and don't guarantee that it'll last more than a week (which Resident Evil 7 didn't).

Edited April 28, 2017 by Traverse

[ECG Wolf 36]

I have to agree with KilloZapit on this one.  When it comes to fighting piracy, unless you're a major company like Valve with a lot of experience and money to spend, you're fighting a losing battle.  It's much better to lean on a service like Steam which already has established (and somewhat successful) DRM in place and just worry about making a good game.

[lonequeso 1,921]

Or hire actual pirates that will hunt down thieves for you. Yaarr! 

 

More than likely I'll put mine on Steam. Putting it on a console (Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo) would be interesting, but there's probably licensing issues. RPG maker is sold on Steam after all. I'm sure there's other marketplaces for indie games, too. It couldn't hurt to browse around and see who seems to have the best security features if it's that big an issue to you. 

[Wingflame 25]

Interesting topic , Since im not sure whether this topic is only for rpgmaker or in general so id give suggestions based on both sides ! . As people have already mentioned unless ur a really big company , you just dont have the resources to prevent your game from being cracked. Securing a game is really not a trivial task and pretty much all types of security for games have been broken , if you're interested though , look up Denuvo , its the latest thing game companies are using atm to secure, initially it was uncrackable , but someone was able to bypass through it. i think the way for anti piracy depends mostly on whether you can actually detect that a game is pirated or not , thats the most difficult thing. All of the above suggestion you mentioned assumed you can detect whether the game is pirated or not. But in reality if its a single player game, doing that is difficult. 

 

Ahah although not related to topic but , invincible bosses reminded me of the genesis Shadowrun. that game had an inbuilt cheat system. but if u used it , you couldnt beat the final boss so you could never see the ending x3. 

 

Edit: woops i completely forgot about the suggestion xD, This is a very annoying way but if you forced the game to check for serial number online, everytime when they wanted to play , you could essentially prevent piracy. The only way then is actually being able to crack the serial number pattern to generate legit keys. 

 

The problem with this method is you would then need to always have internet if you wanted to play the game which in alot of cases isnt possible for alot of people. i guess this is why game companies dont do it and have an offline play. 

Edited April 28, 2017 by Wingflame

[Cookie Ninja 374]

RSA is fool proof, the only downside is that it requires some work. When ever someone downloads the game you generate a random key and lock. When the game launches you just check if the key is correct. You need to make a new lock and key for every digital copy or the crackers can just pass the key along with the game.

 

Sample:

def rsa(key)
    exp = 253
    result = 1
    while exp > 0
        if exp[0] == 1
            result *= key
            result %= 15
        end
        exp >>= 1
        key *= key
        key %= 15
    end
    return result
end

rsa(711)
#=> 6

 

In this sample the lock is the number 15, this means that the chance that someone will guess correctly is 1/15. If however that number gets large it gets exponentially harder to guess correctly. The lock 239827770213546389 will have a 1/239827770213546389 chance to be pinned by a lucky guess. At this size it is very hard even for computers.

 

The problem with implementing this is that we need to generate a personal key for every download. I have simplified the whole process in this post but it works. Makes me wonder why it isn't common practice among other game developers. Maybe I'm just that much of a math nerd xD

 

EDIT: Woops forgot to mention. For the key you should use the Volume Serial Number that is tied to your ssd/hdd. If anyone tries to run the game from any other storage device the key won't pass and the game wont start.

[Kayzee 4,032]

The mechanics of generating and checking the keys isn't the problem though. The problem is distributing and entering the keys in a way that isn't extremely annoying, prone to stonewall legitimate users, and/or prone to just be patched out by a crack anyway. Now you could argue that no one would bother cracking your game since it's just a dinky little RPG Maker project (which is kind of a defeatist attitude) or that some protection is better then no protection, and that's fair. But most people who bother to crack something aren't going to end up buying it anyway, and you have made life a little more difficult for anyone who does. That's not a fair trade if you ask me.

 

Again, I have to reiterate, if you are going to do DRM then have Steam handle it. Steam is designed to be an online service that makes, distributes, and checks keys for you. I don't necessarily like it that it always has to be run in the background to check stuff mind you, but it's by far the best method for DRM. Since you buy, download, and manage the games with the program it makes sense for it to act as a DRM platform too. It's simply the most convenient and seamless DRM platform that has ever existed and I expect that ever will exist.

 

Thing is though, even with Steam there are numerous people who flat out refuse to use it because of that. I won't go that far myself, as using DRM is the choice of the developer not Valve and Steam's implementation is transparent enough that you hardly notice it. But you seriously have to understand, people HATE anything DRM related. DRM has burned too many people in the past, and even today I think developers still haven't learned the lesson. There are people who the moment they see your game has DRM will blacklist and boycott it on principle just for having DRM.

 

Look, the best way to stop piracy has always been simply to make legally obtaining it the most convenient and enticing way to do so, and if you make a good game people will want to buy (or otherwise invest in) it anyway. I am not going to glorify or excuse it. Piracy is a crime, and crimes are usually ugly. Perhaps piracy is not as ugly as drug trafficking or prostitution, but still ugly. But, like those crimes, it is mostly the product of it's environment and flawed human society. You really want to stop piracy? You have to eliminate the need for it to exist. Digital distribution and crowdfunding go long way toward doing that. DRM at best just fixes the symptoms and not the disease and at worse encourages people to do it more.

Edited May 3, 2017 by KilloZapit

[Cookie Ninja 374]

No killo, it does actually solve the problem. What you do, is you encrypt the the main lib (core of the game) and it is decrypted by way of device id on launch. the crux is wasting time and money maintain servers to provide keys whenever you want install the game.

 

You can think of it like gluing the software to the storage device, simply can't be run on any other device. Cheers.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Except, it doesn't solve the problem. Linked to a 'device id' you say? What does 'device id' even mean to you? Can it be tracked to you? Privacy concern! Also inconvenient and a hassle for everyone who upgrades to an new computer in any case. The id can probably be faked regardless. And, again, the whole thing can be easily patched out. Sorry, you have solved exactly nothing, and made a big pain in the neck hoop that everyone has to dance through. This is why DRM doesn't work and is so hated with the passion of a million fiery suns, because you can't just magically identify legitimate users that way. Trust me, this has been tried, over and over. And it failed, over and over. Steam works well because your DRM rights are tied to a common account that is legitimately useful to have all on it's own, and is transferable to other devices quickly and easily. You don't get that luxury if you are doing it on your own. And this is, as you said, besides the cost of servers and such.

 

Trust me cookie, I don't care if you are a software engineer veteran with decades of experience under your belt, making a good DRM scheme that doesn't backfire horribly is like trying to solve the Halting Problem. And if you don't know what that is, you definitely don't know enough computer science to even try.

Edited May 3, 2017 by KilloZapit

[Cookie Ninja 374]

The by device ID I'm referring to Volume Serial Number a serial number associated with any storage media. Can be accessed via OS console or clever codes. Your concern about privacy is legit, I can't be blamed for that. It is mandated by law to be there, law enforcement use this to connect individuals activities online even if the user changes IP address. Sux I know >_>

 

It doesn't become a problem if you upgrade. Since if you change HDD/SSD you will likely be reinstalling the game and OS anyway.

 

Btw it is not intended to be used in place of steam but in tandem with it. The problem with steam is that it is easy to work around.

 

The way it works is that I trick the system like so.

Game A (the one I want) is re-registered as Game B (random free to play game) and there you go. The crux is that you can't download Game A from steam, so instead you pass it around via a torrent. The RSA breaks the second step since the software is tied to VSN and thus can't be run on any other device. So you must download the game from steam in order to get a new Key that works with your VSN. Here lies the problem for crackers.

[Kayzee 4,032]

Mandated by law to be there maybe, doesn't mean your software has to use it, or report it correctly, or can't be hacked to show someone else's, or whatever. It doesn't work like that. I don't care what the law is or what you think the law is, you can't simply have a magic number to magically ID everyone unless you are using a closed system and even they can be jailbroken. And the PC is not a closed system. Anything can be hacked, anything can be changed. There is always a clever code. Always.
 
But that's besides the point. Point is, it's still inconvenient and it still sends identifying information to your servers. So why would people let you do that? Why do you think people would let that stand? It is not acceptable. It is morally, intellectually, and practically wrong. This is the type of thing that makes up the cancer in the game industry. Or the entertainment industry in general. There is no justification or excuse. Again: DRM. Doesn't. Work. Even if it did work, it shouldn't work.
 
And it's not even necessary in the first place. Steam is the only counterexample of DRM that manages to not completely screw everything up, and I don't even know if the majority of Steam games even really use it's DRM. All I know is, why the heck would I bother with piracy and the annoyance of seedless bittorrents and possible viruses if I can get tons of great games for 90% off during a sale anyway? Why would I want to miss all the neat stuff like collectibles and workshop mods and even a built in discussion forum to get in contact with the developers? And I have most all my games in a convent list ready to launch! That's how you stop piracy.
 
Edit:
 

It doesn't become a problem if you upgrade. Since if you change HDD/SSD you will likely be reinstalling the game and OS anyway.
 
Btw it is not intended to be used in place of steam but in tandem with it. The problem with steam is that it is easy to work around.
 
The way it works is that I trick the system like so.
Game A (the one I want) is re-registered as Game B (random free to play game) and there you go. The crux is that you can't download Game A from steam, so instead you pass it around via a torrent. The RSA breaks the second step since the software is tied to VSN and thus can't be run on any other device. So you must download the game from steam in order to get a new Key that works with your VSN. Here lies the problem for crackers.

 
Somehow I didn't see this part? Whatever. Uh...

 

I am not sure how you expect this to work. If you are expecting them to be able to change hard drives and reinstall the game, then the key only effects the already installed copy, which is completely useless when it comes to preventing piracy. And yes, Steam is probably easy to work around. Because all DRM is. Like I said, DRM doesn't work. If a cracker has a working copy of the game, all they need to do is bypass the check and use their key, then put it all up on a torrent. Then anyone can play that copy. VSN is irrelevant. Maybe it can track the cracker, provided it's a real VSN or the drive wasn't stolen and destroyed after. This is even assuming you are encrypting anything with the RSA and not just checking something with it, otherwise you don't even need that exact copy. And your coding it in Ruby which is super easy to overwrite and alias.

 

See, you seem to be under the mistaken illusion that you are better then the crackers or otherwise that a key will protect your whole program. You aren't and it won't. The only protection is if the crackers just won't bother with the game, but if they didn't you wouldn't need to worry about it being pirated in the first place. Though I concede if you are using Steam to manage keys, a little extra in-game protection won't necessarily hurt... if you code it right without bugs. And even then, it will be pointless since Steam is handling it anyway.

Edited May 4, 2017 by KilloZapit

[Piyan Glupak 3]

I appreciate that piracy of games is nasty and destructive, but concur with KilloZapit's opinion that anti-piracy measures can be negated, but are a pain for legitimate users.  At one time, when games came in boxes that contained floppy disks, game makers sometimes used to supply printed manuals that you had to type the word on page X, line Y, word Z:

 

"Oh [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy]! Where is that manual?  I just want to [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy] play a game this evening because I am too tired to do anything else apart form playing. games."

 

"Oh [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy]! I have miss-counted the lines!"

[Traverse 144]

@Cookie Ninja -

 

RSA is just a form of encryption. It's not anything remotely close to new, either. And since the encryption on the files would never change, all the cracker would need to do is make a patch modifying the game's initial check for the private key so that the "key" used to decrypt would always be the correct one based on his own hardware info instead of the pirate's. Even you somehow set up a system where the game was constantly being re-encrypted and new keys (still based on hardware info) reissued by an online server, the game still has to be decrypted while it's being played. At that point in time, that's when the crackers can run their debugging and memory extraction tools to get the unencrypted code. Once they have all the unencrypted files, that's that. They have your entire game, minus the encryption.

 

I mentioned in my previous post that there was a rumour that Denuvo kills SSDs. That system of decrypting/re-encrypting I mentioned? That's actually where the rumour came from - people believed that Denuvo was constantly decrypting/re-encrypting game files every time the game was launched or played, thus burning out the read/write lifespan of the drives. According the Denuvo, they do not actually do this. And I'm inclined to believe them, if only because there would be absolutely nothing in that system that would stop crackers from simply... using their own perfectly legitimately purchased game key to decrypt the game (and subsequently dump the files) while playing. And a whole lot of performance to lose, given that part of how Denuvo works already involves running the game in a virtual machine of sorts.

 

Which is the reason why nobody encrypts an entire game (to my knowledge). Because the process of decrypting an entire 8GB+ game every time you play would take an unacceptable amount of time and/or processing power. Even if you tried doing the decryption piece-by-piece as the files were loaded throughout the game, it would have a massive impact on the game's performance.

 

The whole point of anti-tamper packages like Denuvo is to prevent the crackers from running their debugging and scanning tools in the first place - i.e. try to run x64dbg while Denuvo is up and Denuvo will shut down the game. There's other stuff like taking advantage of flaws in known debugging instruments to send misinformation to the cracker and obfuscating the game code so that its logic is hard to comprehend even if it gets read. From what I understand, part of the advantage Denuvo had came from the fact that there weren't many x64 debugging tools available at the time. Fast forward to today and there's already a plugin available to stealth x64dbg from getting pinged by Denuvo.

 

As an aside, Denuvo also does hardware checks when launching games too. Not just on stuff like the SSD/HDD, but also on your CPU and likely your motherboard as well (since general consensus is that a "computer" is defined by the CPU and mobo). Possibly your OS too. Obviously, this isn't used as a key to decrypt anything but just authenticate against records held server-side by Denuvo. Yes, KilloZappit, this kind of "privacy violation" already exists. Incidentally, this is why Denuvo needs re-authentication whenever you change your hardware (and limits you to 4 hardware changes every 24 hours).

 

As I pointed out before, this kinda stuff disadvantages legitimate customers because you need an internet connection in order to pass the checks whenever you want to launch the game. Meanwhile the crackers just remove all of those online checks on the illegal version, so whoever plays the pirated version never has to worry about losing access to their game if their computer gets fried or they lose internet connection.

Edited May 5, 2017 by Traverse

[Kayzee 4,032]

I appreciate that piracy of games is nasty and destructive, but concur with KilloZapit's opinion that anti-piracy measures can be negated, but are a pain for legitimate users.  At one time, when games came in boxes that contained floppy disks, game makers sometimes used to supply printed manuals that you had to type the word on page X, line Y, word Z:

 

"Oh [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy]! Where is that manual?  I just want to [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy] play a game this evening because I am too tired to do anything else apart form playing. games."

 

"Oh [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy]! I have miss-counted the lines!"

 

 

Hehe, I remember that. I always rolled my eyes because it was pretty easy to just make a list of all the question/answers anyway, so I never saw the point. Only semi-successful anti-piracy measure I ever saw was just consoles using special cartridges or disc formats, and even that didn't really work.

 

Also, I am pretty sure you can swear here? I don't think the rules are entirely clear on that point but I have done it a fair bit.

 

@Cookie Ninja -

 

RSA is just a form of encryption. It's not anything remotely close to new, either... [snip]

Not sure if cookie was actually talking about encrypting stuff or just using it for some kind of validation. Either way, yeah. That said it would be a hell of a lot more practical to encrypt a whole RPG Maker game... in fact you already can more or less. Wouldn't be terribly impossible to write extra encryption on the scripts and database at least. Only, it's kind of pointless for all the reasons you mentioned. Ruby is also completely plain text in memory too.

 

Also, I am perfectly aware that DRM programs can and do gather serial numbers and other identifying information. I was not ever saying the privacy concern didn't exist. I was just pointing out how it is a privacy concern, and this is the exact kind of shit we shouldn't find acceptable. No one likes things like Denuvo. It's the kind of thing the EFF has a hissyfit about, security experts are adamantly opposed to, and hackers feel it's their moral obligation to patch out. Denuvo is distilled moral bankruptcy, no better then a computer virus or a program that fills your screen with a million ads you can't get rid of. It's malware, plain and simple.

 

And we are not obligated to install malware on our systems. If someone legally purchased software, following all the rules, and it had malware, they are perfectly justified to be absolutely livid over it. There are many people who will legally get a game or software and crack it anyway just on principle. More will insist the company doesn't deserve their money. I agree with the later, but unlike some I don't think piracy is the answer. I rather just go without or find an alternative that didn't come with frigging malware. And there are lots of games and other software to choose from.

 

It's kind of funny. I am not going to justify or glorify piracy, even if I was allowed to here. Piracy is, I have said, ugly. It's a open wound for too many people, and effects too many lives. One way or another, it huts people. I get that. But the shit people pull in the name of stopping it? The shit people pull in the name of keeping their status quo business strategies afloat? I will admit, it makes it harder to care about the innocent developers caught in the crossfire sometimes. It makes it harder to trust it when people talk about sales figures lost and the need of protecting their 'IP' (ugh).

 

When people pull that kind of stuff a deep smoldering hatred settles in my gut. A resentment. A grudge. It makes me want to burn it all down. Metaphorically of course! But... I don't think that would solve much in the long run anyway. I rather just promote another way. A better way! So that's what I have been trying to do. I don't know how good of a job I am doing but, thanks for reading anyway!

Edited May 5, 2017 by KilloZapit

[lonequeso 1,921]

Wheeelp, I dunno about all the fancy security measures. What I do know is that anytime anyone creates one, there's will always be people who will try and crack it. Sooner or later they will succeed. The best you can hope for is to minimize it. 

[+ Chaosian 617]

See, this whole conversation and the simple solution was just to license Denuvo for 40 thousand dollars.

That way you can get your RPG Maker game pirate-free for like, 5 months.

[Kayzee 4,032]

If you want to spend all that money to be able to package invasive malware with your game, I really have to question your sanity at that point.

Edited May 6, 2017 by KilloZapit

[lonequeso 1,921]

My method is sitting in a rocking chair on the porch with a shotgun in my lap.

[Purple Phantom 453]

Somebody please close this thread. o_o

[Kayzee 4,032]

Sorry if I ruined the thread for you PP... I think I have been ranty lately huh? Maybe I went too far...

[lonequeso 1,921]

Killozapit ranty? No freakin' way! 

 

Final thought before the thread dies. Let a marketplace like Steam worry about the anti-piracy measures. There's really nothing you can do to completely stop people to from pirating. Might as well leave it to a company that already has measures in place to minimize it., 

[Cookie Ninja 374]

@Cookie Ninja -

 

RSA is just a form of encryption.

 

 

 

I appreciate that piracy of games is nasty and destructive, but concur with KilloZapit's opinion that anti-piracy measures can be negated, but are a pain for legitimate users.  At one time, when games came in boxes that contained floppy disks, game makers sometimes used to supply printed manuals that you had to type the word on page X, line Y, word Z:

 

"Oh [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy]! Where is that manual?  I just want to [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy] play a game this evening because I am too tired to do anything else apart form playing. games."

 

"Oh [expletive omitted to conform to forum policy]! I have miss-counted the lines!"

 

 

Hehe, I remember that. I always rolled my eyes because it was pretty easy to just make a list of all the question/answers anyway, so I never saw the point. Only semi-successful anti-piracy measure I ever saw was just consoles using special cartridges or disc formats, and even that didn't really work.

 

Also, I am pretty sure you can swear here? I don't think the rules are entirely clear on that point but I have done it a fair bit.

 

@Cookie Ninja -

 

RSA is just a form of encryption. It's not anything remotely close to new, either... [snip]

Not sure if cookie was actually talking about encrypting stuff or just using it for some kind of validation.

 

 

Nope, it is not new. To clarify, I was talking about encrypting some source code by using the device ID as the key. Then decrypt it in runtime. People will have a hard time figuring out when and where this happens from a compiled file of 100s of 1000s of lines machine code.

 

I'm not the first one to use this approach, Microsoft and Apple use this as well. Microsoft goes full retard though uploading the ISO and encrypting locally. Now people just send the encryption/decryption file along with the pirated copy and thus Microsoft defeated themselves. Just to be clear I'm not saying it is morally OK just that it is a way.

 

On that note, I'm closing this as it headed way into non-dev related stuff. (I take part in the blame. Sorry )