Quote from the article: “The inclusion of intrusive DRM softwares [sic] like Denuvo is a choice that yields an unfair punishment on the consumer,” Running With Scissors says. “Respect the consumer, make a game they want to play, and you will never feel the need to fight piracy. The gaming industry deserves a better future, fight for that.”

  • privadesco@feddit.nl
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    1 year ago

    Denuvo is the apex of a long history of bad choices.

    Maybe actually sell us the games in a way we really own it, without any sort of online activation/account/telemetry/data-gathering like when we could buy a disc and just use it, and it should all be ok.

    I feel like a dinosaur every-time I think this nowadays, but what is so problematic with the “own as in physically own” that is so hard to implement? If they want to provide a service, sell a service.

    In the past I used pirate versions of games I bought just to be able to play them offline, or because I did not agree with the terms of service. It is so much for our info, it goes beyond just knowing you are the real owner of the software copy: it comes to the point where it looks like it’s to guarantee we are not its’ owner.

    Now some DRMs even destroy gaming performance and its just faster to use 'ked versions. I hope it changes somehow.

          • Sasuke [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Again, the developer chooses to work with these publishers beforehand, right?

            have you ever been employed anywhere in your life? have you ever had to pay bills, rent?

            • gjghkk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              Yes, of course. But what has that anything to do with employees? Developers are not employees, they are the developing company.

                • s0ykaf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                  1 year ago

                  i think what he means is that the “developer” has the power because he “develops” the games and without him the games can’t be “developed”

                  it’s a silly way of mistaking a role for the individual that fulfills it. the role is necessary… not that particular individual

          • Fraylor@lemm.ee
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            1 year ago

            What is it with clowns like this digging their heels in and blaming literally anything but the precious MBAs that are plaguing and ruining literally everything about modern society.

            • Piers@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              In the comment you replied to they meant video game development companies by “developers” not the individual employees at those companies who do the actual work of developing games. Typically the actions of video game development companies are driven by the MBAs who have most of the big picture decision making power rather than the individual employees who develop the games.

          • kebabslob@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            1 year ago

            Bruh… Developing is a job. Hello? You ever have a job before? The developers don’t just work for there selves? Knock knock who’s there? Oh nobody, just, ya know a BOSS… Ya mighta heard of it? No, I don’t mean the movie Boss Baby

            • Piers@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              Everyone in this thread is failing to understand that “developers” in this context can mean both “people who develop videogames” and “businesses that develop videogames.” As the people who develop videogames are not always the ones who make decisions like this at businesses that develop videogames those two different things that everyone is using the same word for often have opposing positions on the matter.

          • Clever_Clover [she/her]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            so whenever your boss tells you to do something you think is not the correct course of action you just quit right? you just leave your job without having another one lined up and probably risk losing your home, all because your boss told you to this thing you find annoying, you don’t have a choice to work or not work, the choice is to work or starve, which is not a choice.

              • Clever_Clover [she/her]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                even if they do hate it and consider it to be the work of the devil, they still don’t really have a choice, game development is a really competitive industry, if devs aren’t leaving their jobs when the studio makes them overwork 80 hour work weeks right before release for a month in order to hit the deadline then they’re definitely not leaving just because they hate having to implement denuvo.

          • Altima NEO@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            Lol what

            In most cases, the studios that can afford denuvo are also owned by the publisher. Like Sega, ea, and Activision.

          • s0ykaf [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            but it’s not like they had a gun on their head.

            they do have a metaphorical gun in the form of bills that need to be paid…

            • gjghkk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              It’s still a choice. I have been on the bad end of these deals and I just said no. I was fired and all.

              I don’t think they hate it, they just not prefer it. But saying the word “hate” means that it is their line that they won’t cross, which is false.

      • hex@programming.dev
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        1 year ago

        Nah the Devs definitely get forced to use Denuvo by corporate… Stockholders and such. Denuvo gets advertised as the best anti piracy method and stockholders see that and say I want that in our game.

      • azerial@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        1 year ago

        Not if you work for a massive publisher.

        edit: or if you publish under one. It’s likely in your contract. Devs really don’t want to use it, but they are required to do so.

  • BrownianMotion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    Release a DEMO, like the old days. So we can DECIDE FOR OURSELVES!!

    Its a simple fucking technique. We only pirate to try, if its shit - then fuck you. If its good - then you have a purchase.

    • Alimentar@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      That’s the problem though. They want you to commit to a purchase and hope that you forget about your 2h grace window

    • vacuumflower@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 year ago

      Actually yes.

      In my childhood it wasn’t very easy to find a licensed copy (TBF, even pirate copy sometimes), but demos would be distributed with magazines etc.

      And after playing a demo which you like a licensed honestly bought copy becomes emotionally much better than piracy.

      It was a working mechanism. For games which are not crap anyway.

    • setVeryLoud(true);@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      You can return games on Steam tbh, enough of a demo for me if you’re a Steam user.

      I think you can also return physical copies? Depends.

      • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        Two hours really isn’t enough for a lot of games. Some games you can’t even get through the tutorial in two hours.

  • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    1 year ago

    “Postal” is such a steaming pile of edgelord shit that even Civvie11 doing videos on the franchise doesn’t make it any more bearable for me.

    Critical support for this developer’s message here, that said.

    • axont [she/her, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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      I appreciate Postal 2 because the premise is kinda funny. It’s deliberately designed so you can beat it without doing any violence at all. You’re given tasks like get milk, pick up your paycheck, etc. And it involves standing in lines or people berating you. You’re stuck doing tedious annoying repetitive tasks, or you can get a flamethrower. I think standing in line to get Gary Coleman’s autograph takes 90 minutes if you do it normally.

      Otherwise it’s very silly early 2000s edgy white guy dudebro humor

      • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        You’re stuck doing tedious annoying repetitive tasks, or you can get a flamethrower.

        That premise, while cute, hasn’t aged well for me. The ever-rising number of chanlords shooting up their schools (and elder chanlords murder-suiciding their own families) because no one would blow them behind the bleachers (or because the wife left him or the kids won’t call anymore) sours the premise of “wouldn’t it be funny to murder everyone that mildly annoyed you” white guy dudebro humor for me long ago.

          • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            “Yo its a video game”

            Yeah, and that changes nothing about why I don’t like it. You’re giving a lazy thought terminating cliche here.

            EDIT: Christ, you activated a long dormant alt account just to stan for your edgy video game? That’s just sad.

            • winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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              1 year ago

              This is my only lemmy account and I made it before reddit killed 3rd party apps as I quit going on there. Going through my post history to try and judge me is something weird to do though

              • UlyssesT [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                1 year ago

                Going through my post history to try and judge me is something weird to do though

                Rising from dormancy while otherwise doing nothing with that account, just to announce how mad you are that your edgy game wasn’t to my liking is weirder to me.

                “Yo its just an opinion”

                • winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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                  1 year ago

                  I comment when I have something relevant to say and typically delete mean shit after typing it out cause morons like you aren’t worth my time.

                  Have a nice life man. Hope you find something you can enjoy your time at instead of whatever it is you’re doing.

    • anarchrist@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 year ago

      There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.

      The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’

      But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.

      This land was made for you and me.

      • Trebach@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        And the sign said anybody caught trespassing
        Would be shot on sight.
        So I jumped over the fence and I yelled at the house,
        “Hey, what gives you the right
        To put up a fence to keep me out
        Or to keep mother nature in?”
        If God was here he’d tell you to your face
        “Man, you’re some kind of sinner!”

  • Flax@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    I think the best way is to just have basic piracy detection, if someone trips it, then have a message that you can get past appearing guilt tripping them for it lmao

    • CluelessDude@lemmy.zip
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      1 year ago

      Back to OG times in gaming where you would have stupid hats saying pirate or other weird things happening in game like not being able to complete it if it was cracked, good times.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    1 year ago

    Crackers: We don’t do it for the piracy, we just like the challenge.

    Denuvo: Try this one then.

    Crackers: Too hard bro, at least give us a chance!

    I acknowledge that this isn’t going to be a popular opinion in a piracy sub, but the main reason people hate Denuvo is that it works.

    It’s basically killed the entire game hacking scene, because by the time they break it, nobody is interested in the game any more. There’s like one person left that can do it, and they’re more than a little bit odd.

    It may be “anti-consumer”, but you know what was worse? All the other shit they tried on PC. Always online bullshit. Single player games that you couldn’t save any more if your connection wobbled. Actual rootkits.

    • ne0phyte@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      People hate Denuvo because it requires a regular connection to the Internet and has a big impact on the performance of games.

      I’m not buying these games not because I can’t pirate games with Denuvo (I don’t really pirate games at all anymore) but because they tend to run like shit.

    • SlippyCliff76@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      I’ve seen Denuvo combined with the always online requirement with the latest Far Cry 6 on steam. The always online requirement makes a cracked version worth it in my use case.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        Most bad Denuvo stuff seems to come from any extra DRM they add as well, just in case Denuvo wasn’t enough. Always online sounds like one of those extras, because I don’t think it’s part of Denuvo itself. I think the Denuvo online requirements are when you install, every X days (seems to vary from two weeks to a month, probably configurable per game), and when you change your hardware configuration.

        Denuvo alone is enough, because as soon as Denuvo is removed, the rest can be removed by regular mortal hackers.

    • space_comrade [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      Death to the concept of intellectual property and all but I’ve never actually felt Denuvo making problems for me when I played a game using it, you’re right it seems to be working as advertised.

      I’m still hoping someone to crack it in a more reliable and fast manner, fuck large gamedev companies and their profit margins.

      • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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        1 year ago

        I’ve definitely played games that used it, and I wouldn’t even have known without the handful of negative steam reviews shouting about it.

    • gjghkk@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      I acknowledge that this isn’t going to be a popular opinion in a piracy sub, but the main reason people hate Denuvo is that it works.

      You act like this is some hidden secret lmao. You should change your name to Captain OBVIOUS.

  • HeavyCream@beehaw.orgB
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    1 year ago

    I’ve seen RWS’s take on this a bunch recently. This feels like a feel-good PR move because they don’t have any substantive updates on their actual games.

  • jray4559@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 year ago

    It is bad for the consumer… but the alternative is instant cracks, as seen with a lot of games on r/Crackwatch that don’t have the DRM.

    Denuvo is the first software in a long time that has been able to successfully stop the supposedly inevitable march to cracking. It’s a miracle that more AAA devs don’t use it, since it works so well. (EMPRESS aside)

    You can hate me all you want for saying this, but the war against piracy, for the most part, has been won.