The videogame industry is training us to steal from them, allow me to explain:

I’ve heard bioshock was a really good game, so got it earlier today. I would say I can’t wait to try it, but I actually have to. After I got the game I found out it requires an internet connection to “activate” the game. Additionally, you can only install the game twice, if you reformat your computer, change hardware, or get a new computer more than once, you could be forced to buy the game again in order to play it. Ok, I’m lucky enough to have an internet connection, and I figure I can deal with the activation system, so try to install the game. After 20 minutes it tries to download a patch, fails, and deletes the game that just took 20 minutes to install. As it turns out, the activation server is down, meaning I cannot install the game till it comes back up. The game I bought. In a store.

What if, instead of spending money to get the game, I had illegally downloaded the game, along with a crack for the copy protection. I would be playing the game right now. This isn’t the first time this sort of thing has happened. I’ve had to jump through all sorts of hoops to install software. Command and Conquer: the First decade collection requires you enter 7 different 20 digit serial codes to activate all the games. Half-life 2 requires that your computer decrypt data after installing it, a mathmatical process which makes the installation for the game take over 6 hours, you also have to connect to the internet every time you want to start the game. UFO: Aftershock, as well as many other games, install “Starforce” a form of copy protection that crashes computers even when the game is not being used and can allegedly cause physical damage to a computer’s cd-rom drive. Uplink requires that you type in special codes that are provided on a black piece of paper, printed in black letters. You have to catch it in the light just right to read it.

And what about the pirated versions of these programs? The pirated versions require no decrytion, they don’t install any copy protection software, you don’t have to connect to the internet to use them, and you don’t even have to put a CD in the computer to play the game. You can run them all from your hard drive. What service! I’de almost pay extra for that, no wait, I paid for the broken versions, the good versions are free?

I understand why the publishers and game companies do this, they are afraid people will download and copy the games instead of buying them. It would seem to make sense that you should take steps to protect things you make. But what many companies seem to not notice, is that putting these hassles and roadblocks in the retail versions of the game punishes only the people who buy them. It only takes one clever programmer to make a working pirated version of any software, and then the only people who are punished are those who don’t steal the game.

Buy the game and it doesn’t work. Steal the game and it works. Buy the game and the game takes 8 hours to install. Steal the game and it doesn’t need to install, it works instantly without the CD. Would pavlov’s dog keep buying games like many of us still do? I plan to keep buying the games, but if it doesn’t work after I do. I could always play a pirated version instead. Eventually one of two things will happen. They’ll stop breaking my games, or I’ll learn to stop paying for them.