Avalanche Studios says everything you want to hear

[A user named cat]

http://www.computerandvideogames.co...iving-hackers-a-job-and-make-better-pc-games/

With Nintendo's new ability to brick consoles, Sony casting out PS3 hackers and Geohot taking a timely 'vacation', video game piracy is very much back in the news.

But is there a better way to tackle those gleefully infringing on publishers' copyright than simply wielding the ban hammer?

Christofer Sundberg, boss of Just Cause creator Avalanche studios in Sweden, certainly believes there might just be.

Sundberg is a long-term opponent of 'always online' DRM measures, and is keen for the video games industry to look at other ways of curbing piracy - including the rarely-discussed possibility of job interviews.

"Piracy is always worrying," he told CVG. "It's never been a helpful thing. We'll let our publishers fight that battle. But I mean, 50 percent of the people that work for me come from a hacker background - that's true."

When asked whether approaching leading hackers and asking them to put their programming skills to good use was a wise idea, Sundberg added:

"Oh yeah. I absolutely think that's a fair approach, to think about how these people can fit on the right side of the law. It's one way, at least. Perhaps the truest pirates are too much down the road of anarchy to ever work with you in a proper way; these are the guys who see us as evil!

"But in Sweden the [hacking] scene was huge... As a studio, we've found that there's definitely a lot of talent [in that community]."

Sundberg once again labelled DRM measures as "stupid".

"The DRM does not stop piracy," he said, "it just punishes the people who have actually paid for the game. It's completely useless. Forcing people to be online all the time and so on doesn't show respect to the people who actually buy PC games."

Sundberg's solution to denting video game piracy doesn't stop at cherry picking the brightest sparks from the hacking community, however.

He also believes that better, exclusive PC games - powered by constant updates - would reduce illegal software sharing.

"We've always made PC games, but we actually don't like [porting games from console to PC]," said Sundberg, whose Just Cause games have been hugely popular on the format.

"I've always been of the opinion that we should design PC games for the PC players. PC players and console players are completely two different types of consumer. It's always unfair to not design the game for the consumer you're targeting. The PC version is always a second thought [for publishers], like: 'Oh, and we need a PC version too.'

"You end up just doing a port, so there's not a lot of time, budget or creative thinking going into using the PC. I think that's quite sad. We [as an industry] should take the PC platform more seriously. Everyone is just complaining about piracy on the PC, but when it comes to in-game DLC or social connectivity, the options on PC compared to console are endless. I would like at some point to do a really good PC game designed specifically for PC players."

He added: "I think piracy wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were better PC games out there. We could just scrap the whole concept of stupid DRM."

 

[Archibald]

Give this man a medal.

 

[Black Bart Charley]

What for?

 

[Reject_666_6]

For most non-sequitur bottom line of the year.

 

[A user named cat]

What are these PC games he claims they've always made? Google searching shows they've only done Just Cause 1 & 2 (multi-platform) plus some hunting game. So, just shameless pandering or what?

 

[chzr]

is just cause 2 that game that won't install/start if it detects win xp?

so much about pc support

 

[ortucis]

is just cause 2 that game that won't install/start if it detects win xp?

so much about pc support

DX10/11 isn't available on XP. JC2 ran just fine without any CTD on WIndows 7. One of the better ports out there. Not to mention that they had fuckload of video options to add more bling to the visuals and the best part? You don't have to restart the game to apply/diable effects (seriously I fucking hate that).

 

[Gerrard]

is just cause 2 that game that won't install/start if it detects win xp?

so much about pc support

Apparently they also don't support retards.

 

[chzr]

yeah, my bad.

point still stands though.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

A True Patriot .

 

[J1M]

Given that he and his team are from Sweden, they would probably love to do a PC-only title or at least a product with PC as lead-SKU. He's basically saying: "Look, we made a decent product with this multiplatform bullshit and have shown we can make a profit, let us try a PC game."

 

[Metro]

He added: "I think piracy wouldn't be as much of an issue if there were better PC games out there. We could just scrap the whole concept of stupid DRM."

I doubt it would lower the numbers significantly. While I'm sure a small amount of people would ultimately purchase a game they thought was good the vast majority just use it as a throwaway line to make themselves feel better. I laugh when I see someone say they won't pay for something they pirated because they thought it was bad... but meanwhile played it for fifty or more hours. It's like saying you hate pistachios but down a whole bag of them.

Piracy rates will never be noticeably altered. People who pirate will pretty much always pirate. The goal of making quality games should be omnipresent regardless of its purported effect on piracy. Putting DRM on games is like putting a padlock on a cardboard box.

 

[ortucis]

Some form of DRM should be present. On retail discs, a no-cd check is a must to prevent casual piracy (hell, I grew up with ppl sharing DOS games on floppies and zip-drives). Downloadable games being tied to one account is enough as well. Going overboard like UBI did is a strict NO.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

No. There shouldn't be any CDs/DVDs occupying my DVD burner. Not to mention that games shouldn't force me to juggle CDs/DVDs. User-friendliness and reliability must be a priority when it comes to games.

 

[ortucis]

No. There shouldn't be any CDs/DVDs occupying my DVD burner. Not to mention that games shouldn't force me to juggle CDs/DVDs. User-friendliness and reliability must be a priority when it comes to games.

NoCD cracks? Every retail game, from Quake2, DeusEx to Crysis I have bought had one available. No need for a disc.

I'd rather have a game with CD check that I can install and play without internet over a game that comes on a disc and yet requires a shitty online DRM to just let me play... even though I have the fucking disc in my hands. I remember returning HL2 because of steam requirement when I had no net back when it was released. It has only gotten worse since those days (but now I wait for cracks to appear before buying anything from stores).

User friendly.. bah!

 

[J1M]

No. There shouldn't be any CDs/DVDs occupying my DVD burner. Not to mention that games shouldn't force me to juggle CDs/DVDs. User-friendliness and reliability must be a priority when it comes to games.

NoCD cracks? Every retail game, from Quake2, DeusEx to Crysis I have bought had one available. No need for a disc.

I'd rather have a game with CD check that I can install and play without internet over a game that comes on a disc and yet requires a shitty online DRM to just let me play... even though I have the fucking disc in my hands. I remember returning HL2 because of steam requirement when I had no net back when it was released. It has only gotten worse since those days (but now I wait for cracks to appear before buying anything from stores).

User friendly.. bah!

So, you are advocating DRM... and piracy to remove it. That's a confused little brain that you have.

 

[ortucis]

Yes, apparently the concept of downloading a crack for your legal copy is really hard to grasp for some special brains.

 

[Dr.Faust]

Yes, apparently the concept of downloading a crack for your legal copy is really hard to grasp for some special brains.

What's the purpose of the no-CD check if everyone will just bypass it?

I agree with Awor here. It does get a little annoying having to search the CD of an old game you haven't played in a while or having to constantly swap discs when you feel like playing another game or burning a disc.

 

[Turisas]

I doubt it would lower the numbers significantly. While I'm sure a small amount of people would ultimately purchase a game they thought was good the vast majority just use it as a throwaway line to make themselves feel better. I laugh when I see someone say they won't pay for something they pirated because they thought it was bad... but meanwhile played it for fifty or more hours. It's like saying you hate pistachios but down a whole bag of them.

Piracy rates will never be noticeably altered. People who pirate will pretty much always pirate. The goal of making quality games should be omnipresent regardless of its purported effect on piracy. Putting DRM on games is like putting a padlock on a cardboard box.

Perhaps not, but it's not like the pirates would turn into paying customers at a 1:1 ratio if an uncrackable DRM would be invented. Publishers (and some devs) like to use piracy as an excuse for poor sales, since it sounds better than admitting you churned out a crappy game no one thought was worth buying.

 

[ortucis]

Yes, apparently the concept of downloading a crack for your legal copy is really hard to grasp for some special brains.

What's the purpose of the no-CD check if everyone will just bypass it?

I agree with Awor here. It does get a little annoying having to search the CD of an old game you haven't played in a while or having to constantly swap discs when you feel like playing another game or burning a disc.

I have all the CD's I own in a nice lil CD album/pack you can buy from your local computer shop. I have original copies of games like Syndicate Wars back when I bought them in 90s to even old Computer Gaming World discs still intact and in one place, in a pack. How hard is it flipping through the album to find the game?

There is no law that states that you HAVE to keep them in the jewel case they original came in.

I'd rather have a disc that does only CD check (which I can crack with noCD) over a disc that comes with encrypted game data requiring a online service and a active high speed connection to decrypt and download rest of the game from. I am of course talking as a gamer. As a developer it seems people are happy locking all their games to a online service, so hey, why not? As a gamer when I get the option to stay as far away as possible from a service like Steam, I take it.

 

[Topher]

Yes, apparently the concept of downloading a crack for your legal copy is really hard to grasp for some special brains.

What's the purpose of the no-CD check if everyone will just bypass it?

I agree with Awor here. It does get a little annoying having to search the CD of an old game you haven't played in a while or having to constantly swap discs when you feel like playing another game or burning a disc.

You find it annoying to swap disks? Now let me get this straight. You're not talking about multi-disk games you're talking about between individual games? ...and you'd advocate online activation DRM similar to games like Dawn of War 2 in order to avoid it? If so then that is some major fucking decline. If you think swapping disks is such a pain in the ass just buy another drive or god forbid make your own iso an keep it on your HD.

I would deal with a CD key check over any sort of on-line activation any day. What they did with DoW2 is entirely unacceptable as far as I'm concerned.

 

[Dr.Faust]

...and you'd advocate online activation DRM similar to games like Dawn of War 2 in order to avoid it?

I'm confused. Why is this a choice between online activation and no-CD checks? I think the best option is to have neither.

 

[ortucis]

I think the best option is to have neither.

Yeah well, I believe in world peace. Oh and no religion. They should totally make it happen.

 

[JarlFrank]

OH HAI GUISE EVER HERD OF SUMFING CALLD CD-KEY? ITS THOSE NIFTY LITTLE NUMBERS THAT COME WITH YOUR GAME COPY AND YOU BASICLALY PUNCH IN THE NUMBER AFTER INSTALLING AND THAT'S IT

Really, if you just want some light DRM, just use CD-keys. Sure, everyone can download a keygen or just use the key of a friend when he's copying his CD, but it's still more of a hassle than having no DRM at all, but it's the most hassle-free DRM ever for legit customers.

Also there is neither online activation nor CD-ceck involved.

 

[Dr.Faust]

I think the best option is to have neither.

Yeah well, I believe in world peace. Oh and no religion. They should totally make it happen.

That's the weakest straw man I've ever seen.