14 DAY TRIAL // The gaming industry certainly has quite a lot of bad sides to it, as with any type of media, but none of them has the same bad reputation as the DRM (Digital Rights Management) systems, which are employed by game publishers in order to protect them from piracy.
Programs like SecuROM or other infamous pieces of software impose restrictions to people who buy PC games and treat them like criminals until they prove that their copy is legitimate. Even then, law abiding customers still have to deal with limitations as to how many installs they can make or how many accounts they can create. Regular gamers have even started to take action against companies that use such pieces of software, like Electronic Arts, with some protests even taking the form of class-action suits, filed against the company on behalf of its customers.
But some of the large game developers think that DRM systems are quite bad for the image of companies, as Gabe Newell from Valve recently said, and that the industry as a whole needs to think of better ways in order to motivate people to buy games. Such a vision is very educated, thinks Ryan Miller, the manager of Microsoft's Games For Windows service, who recently said that it was great to see people create games from this perspective, and that the attitude behind the use of DRM needed to change.
“It's certainly great to hear this kind of talk from an industry big wig like Valve. I think the problem with DRM is not so much the particular method used, but the attitude behind it. It makes us feel like we're all being punished for the sins of the few. It is also pretty clear that most DRM is not a problem for the pirates, just for the legitimate consumers. These two factors combine to make a ton of bad feelings on the consumer side.”
Miller then went on to say that the companies had to take action to prevent piracy, but treating every customer as a thief wouldn't solve anything and wouldn't make others stop pirating games. He is quite right, as most people who use pirated copies of games tend to back up their actions by saying that evil software like DRM would harm their computers.