The Gaming Lounge: Beyond - Part 5

[ProjectPat2280]

One of my fav things devs do to combat piracy is put stuff in the game, like an unbeatable boss or something. I know Rocksteady put something in Arkham Asylum that would prevent Batman from using his cape, making certain sections of the game un-passable. I thought that was a clever way to go about it.

 

[Nathan]

Now that is actually smart. Doesn't prevent anyone from enjoying the game, who bought it new or at least used.

 

[Iceman]

One of my fav things devs do to combat piracy is put stuff in the game, like an unbeatable boss or something. I know Rocksteady put something in Arkham Asylum that would prevent Batman from using his cape, making certain sections of the game un-passable. I thought that was a clever way to go about it.

Sounds interesting. So in pirated games you can't use the cape? Not sure if I misunderstood that.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Sounds interesting. So in pirated games you can't use the cape? Not sure if I misunderstood that.

Exactly. I remember when the game came out there was this story on the net about how a kid who had pirated the game got to the first section where you have to use the cape and it just wouldnt open. So he called WB support, told them the issue, then they informed him that because he pirated the game, the cape wouldnt work. He hung up.


There was another game, cant for the life of me remember what, but like the very first enemy you had to face was max leveled, making it just impossible for you to get past him. Things like that i always thought were just really funny.

 

[Nathan]

I just looked it up. It was in Arkham Asylum, when you circumvented the copy protection, there was still a mechanic that prevented you from opening your cape.

 

[Soapy]

The developers of Game Dev Tycoon were pretty clever how they handled piracy with their game. Basically, if you're playing a pirated copy the games you make will get pirated. It lead to some pretty interesting responses from players.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

I just looked it up. It was in Arkham Asylum, when you circumvented the copy protection, there was still a mechanic that prevented you from opening your cape.

Yea, thats it.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

The developers of Game Dev Tycoon were pretty clever how they handled piracy with their game. Basically, if you're playing a pirated copy the games you make will get pirated. It lead to some pretty interesting responses from players.

Oh that is classic. Haha just great.

 

[Iceman]

Exactly. I remember when the game came out there was this story on the net about how a kid who had pirated the game got to the first section where you have to use the cape and it just wouldnt open. So he called WB support, told them the issue, then they informed him that because he pirated the game, the cape wouldnt work. He hung up.

HAhahaaha!!! That's awesome. The really great thing is the pirating ******* gets a taste of how good the game is and then gets frustrated. I would go to town on these things if I was a dev. Imagine how much fun they can have. Make battles that seem winnable but just never end. Or get rid of checkpoints t:

This stuff makes devs look great.

 

[Iceman]

The developers of Game Dev Tycoon were pretty clever how they handled piracy with their game. Basically, if you're playing a pirated copy the games you make will get pirated. It lead to some pretty interesting responses from players.

Wow, that is the perfect scenario! t:t:t:

 

[Nathan]

The developers of Game Dev Tycoon were pretty clever how they handled piracy with their game. Basically, if you're playing a pirated copy the games you make will get pirated. It lead to some pretty interesting responses from players.

Why the **** don't more developers do stuff like this? It's way better than stupid DRM, that's more a pain in the ass of the consumer, than the pirate.

 

[ProjectPat2280]

Heres some more great examples:

The team at Ubisoft working on Michael Jackon The Experience DS, determined not to let pirates get the best of them, had found their inspiration. When the game ROM detects that it's been pirated, it plays vuvuzela noises over all the music tracks. Well done, Ubisoft. Well done.

Remedy's anti-piracy solution in Alan Wake isn't quite as aggressive as the others on this list, but it's still a good bit of fun. Pirated copies of the PC release give Alan... a pretty epic eye-patch. Pirates are also given a gentle reminder to please buy their software in the game's loading screen.

Arguably the most devious and notorious example of "creative" copy protection is also one of the oldest. The good people at Starmen.net have the full scoop on EarthBound's anti-piracy measures. The short version? Enemy encounters become much, much more frequent, making the game a slog. If a pirate still manages to make it to the end, the game freezes in the final few moments before the climax, and deletes the save file. Brutal!

 

[Iceman]

Heres some more great examples:

That last one is the best. Wish I could watch some pirate playing through the whole game and getting to that point. t:t:

But the one thing I don't really understand about all these examples is that they've already detected that someone is pirating. Isn't that the part that was difficult in the 1st place, especially on pcs. These just seem to be various entertaining alternative forms of punishment once already detected.

 

[Nathan]

Looked up some other funny anti piracy measures.

All your base are belong to EA

Used in: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2

How it worked: By asploding the pirates’ dreams of free RTS in a very real sense. After 30 seconds of play on a pirated copy of the game, the player’s base and units would detonate. Whether the cause was suicidal pirate guilt or an overzealous bid on the units’ part to escape the horror of war is unknown. What is known is that like more recent EA DRM, the base blasting trick caused all kinds of problems, in particular blowing up the armies of plenty of legitimate players. Call it a pre-emptive strike just in case they were thinking of passing a copy on.

Broken guns and double-hard bad guys

Used in: Operation Flashpoint

How it worked: Like Arkham Asylum, the original Flashpoint chose to punish pirates with broken dreams of what might have been. But if Arkham was cruel and unusual punishment, Flashpoint was Guantanamo Bay.

Using a system called FADE (which detected pirate copies by inserting fake errors in the original game code, which CD copiers would clean up, making rip-offs immediately obvious) dodgy copies would let the game run without any problems, but would gradually change the gameplay in increasingly horrible ways. Guns would lose accuracy, enemies would become bullet-sponges and the player’s character would gain the battle resilience of a dead jellyfish.

The never-ending boat trip/
Rapidly-ending Chronicles

Used in: Dragon Quest V on DS / Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Ring of Fates

How it worked: It’s surprising, given the vampiric ROM-feast that is the DS pirate scene, that more publishers don’t take a hard-line stance on copy protection. Maybe the 942 billion DS owners out there make profits so easy that it doesn’t matter. To Square-Enix though, it matters. It matters hard.

Thus, the most recent DS entries to its two flagship series spanked pirates where it hurt. The intro sequence in Dragon Quest V looped infinitely in knock-off copies, meaning that only very patient sailing obsessives needed apply. FFCC turned into a 20 minute demo, complete with a “Thank you for playing” kick in the stones from a couple of jolly Moogles at the end.

 

[Iceman]

The best ones are where they let the guy play on without any hints that they've been detected and just make it gradually a more and more horrendous experience. t:

 

[Nathan]

More.

Michael Jackson The Experience DS

Ah, 2010. What a great year. Fantastic games like Mass Effect 2, StarCraft II and plenty more all hit store shelves. It was also the year South Africa hosted the World Cup, forcing millions of Westerners to hit up Google to discover just what in the heck a Vuvuzela was.

The team at Ubisoft working on Michael Jackon The Experience DS, determined not to let pirates get the best of them, had found their inspiration. When the game ROM detects that it's been pirated, it plays vuvuzela noises over all the music tracks. Well done, Ubisoft. Well done.

Mirror's Edge

Ubisoft isn't the only major publisher capable of clever and devious anti-piracy measures. If Mirror's Edge from EA detects you're playing with a pirated copy, it automatically slows you down before you reach key jumps that require lots of speed. Clever!

Grand Theft Auto 4

Rockstar is yet another developer to implement a simple-but-effective method of punishing pirates attempting to play Grand Theft Auto IV without paying. If a pirated copy is detected, the in-game camera wobbles around wildly after a few minutes of play. Bonus points for any gamer that can get Niko drunk in game with this screen wobble on and still complete a mission.

Serious Sam 3

Immediately after picking up the game's very first gun in the very first level, pirates are greeted with a super-fast, immortal red scorpion enemy. Doh! If these thieves manage to cheat or otherwise get around the deadly foe, a few levels later the camera locks up in an "up and to the left" position, forcing players into running silly circles.

[YT]e91q5BtlxK0[/YT]

 

[Paladin-Hoss]

Okay, honestly...none of you ever pirated anything?

 

[Nathan]

Who said that?

 

[Paladin-Hoss]

^^LOL

Gotcha

Just noticed something...you were here when this place was still Spider-man hype? when it was still a wild west?

I joined originally in 2004 myself...

 

[The Squirrel]

Anything? Or games?

 

[Nathan]

Just noticed something...you were here when this place was still Spider-man hype? when it was still a wild west?

I honestly don't remember that time too well. I barely remember what happened last week.

 

[Spidey-Bat]

My favorite anti-piracy was in Arkham Asylum.

EDT: I see Pat mentioned it, here's an article where it quotes the post from the official forums.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/artic...s_plays_trick_on_batman_arkham_asylum_pirates

Some pirates of the new Eidos title, Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC version) might be surprised when they realize a certain "problem" in the game prevents them from advancing through it properly. While some pirates might have thought the copy protection mechanisms were beaten when the game loaded properly, Eidos has (at least) one more trick up its sleeve that probably wasn't suspected.
On the Eidos Forums, a user Cheshirec_the_cat might have gotten a surprise with the response from an Administration over the problem he has had with the game.

"Hi!
I've got a problem when it's time to use Batman's glide in the game. When I hold , like it's said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he fels down in a poisoning gas. If somebody could tel me, what should I do there." Cheshirec_the_cat asked on a new thread.

After one user told him to "try buying the game" and commented that it has not even been released publicly for PC yet, an administrator, Keir, summed up the problem for him.

"The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.

It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code."

 

[Paladin-Hoss]

Heh...It was a much better place back then IMO. The way people goes back and forth in those days...

Now it's all too..PG rated,and the new breed of fans makes me not wanna join in on most of the discussions.

Wow...2004....Oblivion was still 2 years away, and back then, i swore up and down that i'll never be a 'gamer'...

Funny how things change...

 

[Soapy]

Heres some more great examples:

If I remember correctly pirated copies of Dark Souls are flooded with super tough Black Knights.

 

[Paladin-Hoss]

"The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free.

It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code."

HA! owned!