Re: Securom: Speaking as a player, DRM drives me nuts too. For two games I bought this year I had to go look for a crack myself as I couldn't get them to work (though they were use something different than Securom). It understandably pissed me off, even if I can understand the reasons for including it. I know this argument has been done many times before, but I'm actually quite interested in a viable alternative. Afaik, experiments done show that no copy protection is worse than having copy protection. Or am I wrong ?
I suppose my own opinion is that people are basically honest except for those who aren't. Which isn't such a clever-arse comment as it might sound: the point is that the sort of people who make copies are highly unlikely to buy a legit copy anyway so it's not a lost sale; the sort of people who are likely to buy a copy anyway are unlikely to settle for an illicit version because that's what they do.
You will get a few waverers who might settle for an illicit copy if they think that they can get away with it but I suspect that education is a more effective means than force, whereas people who've "done the right thing" and been penalised may be more inclined to take an alternative route in future.
I'm not sure it's possible to even estimate the percentages in question since the argument has been dragged this way and that by various interested groups so I can only go on my personal opinions and experiences of those I know: which is that the above pretty much applies. In short, intrusive DRM does more harm than good since those who won't pay will continue to not pay but those who paid willingly will become less willing if they have a bad experience. And those bad experiences are the antithesis of user education since it gives doing the wrong thing a sort of legitimacy.
I can say that what will incite me to buy are nice odds and sods in collector's edition type packages that you won't get by simply pirating the game, such as maps, art-books and assorted other odds and ends. I think it's important for these things to be some sort of tangible goods rather than a digital add-on as there's always the temptation to pull an EA and make the "added extras" content that were actually cut from the game, which tends to be a bit of a PR gaffe when discovered.
Anyway, just my personal thoughts (and rather rambling ones at that!) on the subject.
