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[Zombie James]

Lock if old, please.

“DRM solves piracy like a bag of concrete solves hunger.”

That’s GOG.com managing director Guillaume Rambourg, eloquently summarizing his views on DRM—Digital Rights Management—the copy protection measures many entertainment media companies put in place to thwart piracy.

But Rambourg isn’t convinced DRM even works, or that DRM and the piracy it purports to try and prevent are even related to one another in any meaningful way.

“Pirates remove the DRM from the games before they ever play them,” he tells me. “The people who have to put up with DRM are the very people who shouldn’t have to bother with it: legitimate customers.”

Gamers are as hungry for an older way of doing business as they are for these classic games. Video game consumers have been hit hard with DRM, with always-online schemes, and with other industry decisions like day-one DLC and locked on-disc content that are rightfully seen as anti-consumer and short-sighted.

Witcher 3 Project Lead, Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, told me recently that he believed DRM is the “worst thing in the video game industry.”

Rambourg describes DRM as reactionary, likening it to an allergic response. “A natural response,” he says, “but not a helpful one.”

The use of DRM signals a lack of trust between producers of games and their target consumers, says Rambourg. Worse, DRM can often break the game itself. Rambourg notes that nowadays “there are even games that require the gamer to be permanently connected to the internet to actually launch and play his favorite title.”

This isn’t just an inconvenience for people with poor internet connections, he points out. It’s bad for the longevity of games and the industry.

“It’s hard for the industry to think this way,” Rambourg says, “but consider this: if Zork I had an always-on internet connection requirement, do you think it would still be possible to sell the game 33 years later and have it work? It does work just fine on GOG.com, and the rights holders make revenue on this great old classic, but that’s because it’s not crippled with a short-sighted DRM policy. Of course, it wasn’t possible to use DRM like that back in the day, but I think it’s best for all of us who like seeing the classics that shaped gaming that it wasn’t.”

Always-online should be reserved for MMORPGs, Rambourg says, because large online games are built with an always-online internet connection in mind. It’s the point of this sort of game.

“However,” he says, “using an “always-online” feature for games that very much look and taste like single player titles is really a worrying trend to me and just like any short-sighted fasion out there, I hope it will just vanish in a near future.”

Like any relationship, fostering trust between a business and its customers is crucial, and CD Projekt and GOG.com have figured out how to cultivate trust and respect with a tough crowd: gamers. The video game industry should take note. Abandoning DRM may sound risky, but abandoning your customer base is a far greater threat to the bottom line. If anything, CD Projekt and GOG.com have illustrated how important service is to the video game industry, and how adding value and treating customers with respect can pay dividends.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2013/05/30/good-old-games-gog-com-and-the-drm-free-revolution/

 

[skull kid]

GOG rocks, only ones that do it right.

 

[Spwn]

So nothing new on GOG's stance towards DRM. They've been saying all of this for years now - I guess some people need to be reminded.

 

[hardcastlemccormick]

GOG is the only one in the games industry giving us that focus on creating the best package for older games, similar to how Criterion makes the best edition of a movie. I really appreciate just how much effort they put into stuff like that.

 

[RionaaM]

I don't know this man, but I like what he said, and I completely agree.

 

[Durante]

Outside of some small-scale developers selling their own games, GOG is pretty much the only platform where you can get truly DRM-free games. Current-gen console games aren't DRM free, they just don't have online DRM.

 

[Danny Dudekisser]

I just wish GOG had more recent stuff, because I like being able to buy PC games without any DRM whatsoever. And certain Steam games - for example, Riddick - still have ridiculous DRM despite that they already have Steam's stuff in place... so in situations like that, yeah, a DRM-free option is nice.

GOG isn't the most popular option, but I do think the packages they offer for games are easily the best.

 

[Sir_Crocodile]

GOG is the only digital games retailer I use for precisely this reason.

 

[bigmit3737]

I love GOG.

 

[Shalashaska161]

GoG is awesome. I wish they had new games more often, I'd definitely support them over Steam just because of no DRM.

 

[Nokterian]

“We treat our gamers like humans,” he says, “not criminals—and I think this is why our community is so active and faithful.”

You hear that other major publishers? I hope you hear it because these guys know what there doing.

 

[fredrancour]

I would support gog more if I didn't already have a backlog from them that would take hundreds of hours to play through. Wonderful site.

 

[alr1ght]

Love that last paragraph you highlighted in the OP.

 

[Cynar]

I buy the majority of my stuff through steam but gog is amazing. I love their sales and I love no drm.

 

[scitek]

Great quotes in there, especially the one likening DRM to an allergic reaction.

 

[mclem]

“but consider this: if Zork I had an always-on internet connection requirement, do you think it would still be possible to sell the game 33 years later and have it work?

I appreciate the intent, but given that Zork was derived from a mainframe title which needed to have terminals always connected to it, it's not strictly the best example

 

[Artorias]

I love GOG.

I never would have found them if not for my gf desperately wanting to play Rollercoaster Tycoon 2. Since then I've bought the Might and Magic series, Ultima VII and Ultima Underworld 1+2, and Planescape Torment. I can't say I've played any of them yet, but that's half the fun, right?

 

[Portugeezer]

Console DRM is the console itself, fuck online activation!

 

[Jotamide]

GOG > Steam

 

[sibarraz]

I'm sorry, but in this case, comparing steam catalog vs gog one, I couldn't care less if the first one has DRM since at least I don't find it intrusive and in the end, couldn't care less since I already pay for that thing

I love the idea of free drm, but in this case, I'm not excited

 

[Parallacs]

I always smile when I go to the GOG website and see all of my beautiful game icons on a shelf.

The only issue I have with DRM free is I get a little paranoid and end up saving the game zips to like four different hard drives just in case I ever lose them. I really should just delete them once I install the game