Chris Taylor: Authentication will save PC gaming

Oh hai, did u say pc gamin wuz dead?

y'know music is one thing but pirateing games isnt good. ><
but personally i think valve has it right with steam
as long as it doesnt greatly change how i play the game then ill go for it

So much fail in the comments so far.... c'mon guys

I will agree that PC Piracy is at an all time high. When more people pirate Crysis than buy it, thats sad.

That being said, I am an avid Bittorrent fanboy, but I only use it to (a) download anime that isn't in the US and (b) download old games that I cant buy anymore

Yes, because so many people bought Duke3D and Doom to make the platform what it became!

There are bigger motherfucking problems than piracy going on. More bullshit that inconveniences the end user will just create more piracy, jackass. Unless you're suggesting all PC releases occur via steam (which isn't infallible copy protection anyway), you're almost certainly suggesting another bullshit DRM scheme that will make it easier to pirate your game than legitimately pay for it, just like everything packaged with Securom, Starforce, or any number of other good examples of publisher stupidity in action.
Every single fucking person in the entire fucking world that has anything to do with computers needs to look long and hard of the case of Sony BMG, their DRM, the exposure of it, and the public backlash that resulted. That single event did more for the expanding of piracy than the inventions of Limewire, Bittorrent, and Usenet combined.

I agree with above posters, I enjoy PC as a gaming platform, although I'm not diehard into FPS. Anyway, I think authentication is no problem, as long as its not overly arduous.

Although what happens to multiple computer installs?? And what about those people who don't have access to the internet at the time they want to play (on a plane etc)??

I just recently bought my very first PC game: Audiosurf. Yes, I know I could find some way to get it for free, but considering the shape of the industry, and the fact that the game was so much joy for only $10, I felt it was only right to pay. Steam should be the model others aim for.

No, I think this may just almost kill it. A few, very select games will pull in revenue like Jesus' pajamas, and the middle ground: your Kanes and Lynches, your GOW PC, your Fables and your UT3's, will all suffer and die, because nobody will effing play them. At least now, some of the people that want to play the best games will BUY a "passable" game and pirate the good one.

I think they should allow all versions to be played locally, but if you want to take full advantage of the software you need to log into the servers and authenticate, then ban those users who are trying to play a hacked/cracked game like you see M$ doing with Live. I know that this solution isn't perfect, but then maybe you will find more people decide to shell out the money to buy the game after they have had a little taste. In some ways this mirrors what UglyPhil had to say.

I think Valve in general is a great role model for the PC industry at large, especially in two areas: System requirements, and ease of ownership and playing.
I have far less headaches buying a game off of Steam, having it install, and playing, compared to a game packaged with, say, Securom, because I use a program Securom black flags (Process Explorer, an official Microsoft produced replacement for the standard task maanger), meaning I have to restart my computer every time I'd want to play a game that uses Securom, besides disabling any disc emulation services and inserting the CD into my computer.
As for System Requirements, they've caused a big exodus to console gaming in the last few years. People have realized, especially since the 360/PS3 came out, that they can get just as complicated and good looking games for cheaper if they buy a console instead of a PC. This prevents them from getting a number of great, imaginative, and forward moving games, and a whole lot of other advantages of the PC platform, but the monetary bottom line is too big for a lot of less patient gamers to ignore.
Instead of pressing forward at the same rate we always have with increasing requirements, we most definitely need to be pulling those reins back, and aiming requirements at what most PCs used for gaming actually ARE. According to a Steam hardware survey, only 50% of PC gamers have computers that support Shader Model 3, and 70% Shader Model 2. SM2 has been the bottom line requirement for most games for about four to five years now, and in the last year Shader Model 3 has become standard minimum, instantly cutting off a full HALF of potential PC gamers, and that's not counting those who don't use Steam.
Valve on the other hand, has a minimum of DX8, or Shader 1.1, for their latest release, the Orange Box. According to that same survey, a full 95% of PC gamers have support for at least Shader 1.1, with the majority of that remaining 5% reporting unrecognized hardware or incorrectly completing the survey rather than flat out using DX7 or worse hardware.

PC gaming is far from dead, it's more like it was hit in the head with a shovel by the consoles and left in a ditch for dead. All I know is when it wakes up its gonna be so pissed off.

IT'S A TRAP!!! Telling us PC gaming is dead in hopes to stop piracy so they can make more money. Hmmm, Didn't the oil companies do this? I would rather play games on a PC than a console any day of the week! No fuckin way I'm paying 59 CAD plus tax for a mediocre single player game *cough* bioshock *cough*

I used to be adamantly against Steam because the idea of having to phone home to play a single player game annoyed me, and there are too many potential pitfalls. I ran headlong into one of them when I bought The Orange Box after downloading the Half-Life 2 demo to make sure it could run on my machine. HL2 ran, however, Portal did not. But I couldn't sell the game, because I'd already had to phone home to Valve's servers in order to install it, and it was registered to my Steam account. Fucking annoying.

As it turned out I was able to play eventually because my mom got a new laptop, and I've bought Audiosurf and Peggle since via Steam. I feel like a dirty damn hypocrite. Notions such as the doctrine of first sale and ownership no longer apply the way Steam works. As a collector, this rubs me the wrong way.

What was my point again? I don't know. I'm still not a fan of having to log on to the internet to play Peggle, I guess. If consoles ever start doing this I'm going to become a 100% retro gamer.

i dont mind the steam approach where you log onto a program that authenticates you and also allows you to download the games from online if you want. The whole problem with steam though is that it always seems to just chug too much in the background and the pop ups are annoying.
Streamline a steam like program where its just log in and there are your games, nothing else and i think that would work just fine.

Would you want 50 million different steam like programs on your computer? One is bad enough!

So long as it's an easy process and it doesn't become a hassle, I would think it makes sense. It's their property and they should be able to protect it any way they can. If there was a better way then great, but I can't see anything else working better than this. People will continue to pirate games on the PC otherwise.

But in the end, this only helps so much. What about people like me? The one's who refuse to spend the necessary cash on upgrades every fucking year to play the newest games? This doesn't do a damn thing for me anyway.

PC Gaming isn't going to die either way, but this could make it more viable.

If this is solely an issue with PC games (i.e. console games are more secure) and reducing piracy would truly result in lower prices then why are console games so expensive?

But really, as far as solutions, what about some sort of industry organized protest/boycott/strike. If it's something truly near and dear to them they might have to take a stand for it, one outside of our respective boxes.

Yes, because that worked so well in the writers strike.

Well, this is where the straw breaks the camels back. No, we don't need MORE protection. You'll never beat hackers because a simple math formula shows us why:

hackers brain > security

The end result is pain and trouble for the folks who pay for their games. Take BioShock. I bought it on 360 solely because I didn't want to activate a copy, have to reinstall it, and call the guys up or send them picture proof of the actual DVD, manual, box, receipt. Instead of PC gamers buying it, they revolted and cracked that silly code, making the people that stole the game have the convenience of playing the game and reinstall it all they want. You want to stop piracy? You can't. Some people end up buying a game after they've played the pirated copy, solely to support only the best games.

I agree they need to protect their property but I'm not totally for a authenticate everytime sort of thing. What if I want to play when my internet is down or at a lan party without internet access or I want to take a game with me on a laptop. Maybe when we have a connection everywhere and wireless rules the air waves this will be perfect. Would anyone want a computer OS that would only boot if you had an internet connection I think there is probably a solution but authentication on all launches is not the answer.

But to be fair I don't always mind services like Steam terribly it has its place and it works ok most of the time. My biggest gripe with stream is the loss of being able to choose where I want to install a game.

@Boggs

You Sir, are 100% correct on all points.

As an avid retro gamer I often go back and play games from companies that no longer exist, that I originally bought for a computer that no longer exists. If I had to authenticate them again I would be SOL and have to get a crack anyway. How does that prevent piracy?

I have to say that pc gaming as a hobby is already a major hasssle because of the difficulty of running old games. Adding the extra step of authentification emulation (which would still be breaking the law, even if the game is no longer sold.) is pretty much a great way to guarentee that I will give it up completely other than titles that don't require jumping through the drm hoops 12 years later when I have to emulate win xp, to play.

Only problem steam has is people phishing/stealing accounts. If someone figures out your username and password, they "own" your entire steam library. But you can report this stuff to valve and they usually help you out. This happened with my friend and all of the problems cleared up relatively quickly.

The problem is that people have cracked steam so maybe some developers need to think of something that will get the crackers to FUCK RIGHT OFF! the amount of people cracking games is too many right now and the sad thing is you can't do a lot about it. People aren't getting punished for their actions and the sooner that happens the sooner they will FUCK RIGHT OFF!