115 replies to this topic

[kovreu01]

If you made a really, really, really $500 worth game and you didn't just want to put it out for everyone to download free, is there a script to make it registerable that actually works? 'Cause if you just give someone a code to register it, they'll give the code to everyone else and soon no one will buy it.

Hope you get what I mean.

[GearGOD]

No.
You need to have a server at your disposal in order for such a system to work.

[TwistyWristy]

There's a topic about security for games (It's part of another topic, The Best Way to Design Demos)

I linked right to the post where the question was asked, and the discussion that followed.

Basically, you'll find there is absolutely no way to have a completly secure registration system.
The best you can do is to not even worry about.
A majority of your customers will be honest, paying ones, so you shouldn't have a huge problem with shared codes.
Of course, you would probably implement basic protection (such as hidden files, registry keys, etc.) so your game wouldn't be a walk in the park to copy for an average user.

TwistyWristy

Edited by TwistyWristy, 05 October 2006 - 08:38 AM.

[Finland Games]

Not even big game companies can stop this from happening. there is always a loophole.

[Thomas]

Adobe Photoshop costs over a thousand dollars! And there are almost no security measures in place. Does that mean that everyone steals it and they don't make profit? Not at all. A recent study has revealed that a scant 2% of the market uses cracked software.

I wouldn't worry about it.

[Schreib]

Not even big game companies can stop this from happening. there is always a loophole.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Quoting enough.

[GearGOD]

That's a rather bad example.
Adobe Photoshop is an undustry-leading application used by design firms who are likely to be hit by very serious fines if they are found to be using illegal copies. In general, the corporate sector always pays close attention to licencing. The small percentage of Phtoshop or Lightwave or any other high-end package copies that are illegal is actually a fairly big percentage of casual home users or hobbyists. Games are quite the opposite, coporate firms don't mass licence them, they're most appealing to those same hobbyists.
This has all been said many times, and I hope moderators will start locking these threads with the same explanation over and over.

First create a good game, then worry about protecting it.
No protection system is fool-proof, do not waste your time creating something very complex, because that time should be spent making the game better. In the end, your goal is to make more money and it's a lot easier to achieve that goal with a quality game and elementary protection than a bad game with state of the art protection.

The only protection system that can withstand crackers requires that you own a server. It is employed by most comercial games today but is limited to their online aspect. While it could be enforced even to offline games, developers realize that there's actually an advantage to be gained even from the cracked copies that are played offline. It works as follows:
You have a typical serial number approach. Your key algorithm can generate say, 10 billion different keys. Out of those 10 billion, you pick say, 5 million keys and distribute them as the registration keys with your game. When your game connects to the server, the server must verify that the key which was used to register the game is one of the 5 million keys you picked earlier. If it is not, then the game was cracked.
How this works: The first rule of computer security is that what the user has, the user has cracked. The game installer when verifying if a key is legal, must run it through a check algorithm. This algorithm can be obtained by the cracker and used to generate valid keys. However, the cracker will not have access to the 5 million valid list you have and thus the chances of his illegally generated key being validated by the server is 1:2000.
The next issue you must face is 'what if person A gives legal key to person B'. There are no clean solutions to this. The best check you can do is whether or not two copies of the game try to connect to the server at the same time (this is quite likely if the key was shared by friends, as is most commonly the case). What you do from there is up to you. You can either just make the first connection valid and kick off all the others (diablo) or you can place a temporary ban on the serial, or you can blacklist it alltogether (however since there are going to be errors, this option will mean you'll have a number of unhappy customers to deal with)

That is the scheme used by all serious games, that is the most effective scheme. Wasting time on 'unbreakable' protections is just that: wasting time. Don't do it. You must also consider that statistically you're unlikely to produce a game that will sell at all, much less become of interest to a warez crew.

[Morbid_Chylde]

"The more laws and order are made prominent, the more thieves and robbers there will be. " - Lao Tzu

The best lines of defense you can have against piracy and cracking is a good balance between qualty and price, good consumer support, and above all else not treating your consumers like they are criminals. Locks only keep honest people out.

In terms of a quality balanced against price, if your work is good and priced fairly reasonably most people would be willing to pay for it. The more financial slack you cut your consumer the more tempting it will be for them to buy it. Noone wants to pay for crap, however, especially not expensive crap.

As for good consumer support, if you are on the ball about fixing any problems that arise with the game and you are able to form a strong community around it then you can expect the majority of that community to be playing honestly. People will typically support a developer that supports its community, and is willing to chip in a little extra now and again for its community.

As for not treating the consumer like a criminal, many programs that get cracked are just cracked for sport. Warez groups are their own little communities much like the GMC (though not quite as large). Where the GMC focuses on the art of game making, Warez groups focus on cracking and distrubiting software. The higher the quality of your program, the more it costs, and the harder the locks are to pick the more appealing it is to crack and distribute it.

Beyond sport, some programs are cracked out of spite. Let's say you, the consumer, just paid $50 for a program. Why should you now be treated like you're a thief and have to do 30 minutes of hoop jumping before you are allowed to make use of something you just paid for? When you bite the hand of the consumer that pays you eventually that consumer's gonna bite back.

So in short, if you want less pirating of your programs provide less reasons for people to truly want to.

Edited by Morbid_Chylde, 05 October 2006 - 07:09 PM.

[SleeK GeeK]

GearGOD gave a good example. One of the example is Steam. Today, versions of cracked or versions where steam is removed, cannot play on steam servers. They also have protection so that an account cannot be created with duplicate CD-KEY.

The advantage here is, people using the illegal version have no access to Steam or VAC protected servers. And the number of non steam server maybe large, but not as large as the original steam servers. So after playing with the illegal versions, one might buy the original.

As GearGOD said, you need to own a server. If you do manage to create an excellent game, not in GM maybe, you can partner with Steam and make your content avaiable through Steam or any other such service providers.

Regards,
SleeK GeeK.

[Morbid_Chylde]

GearGOD gave a good example. One of the example is Steam.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I hate the Steam service with a passion. I bought Sin: Episode 1 - Emergence from a game store by my house and brought it home and it took literally 3 hours for me to finally be able to play it due to all the hoops you have to jump through. Not to mention I had to install a bunch of excess crap that I really didn't want to in order to play it. The whole experience was frustrating and wasteful, and to add insult to injury the game ended up being roughly 6 hours long.

So in short, I basically got treated like a thief for something I'd paid for, I had to waste three hours of my time before I could use what I'd paid for, and I had to install excess applications that I did not want to just to play a game. It's not worth it and as a result I do not buy any products making use of the service. I seriously hope Steam is not the future of gaming, because if so I will have to get a new hobby...

Edited by Morbid_Chylde, 08 October 2006 - 04:18 PM.

[Sindarin]

Yes, it is so frustrating when you have to connect to the internet to validate your key and also install a number of other software (not runtimes).

Just sell your game at a resonable price and seperate a demo version which you will put on the web as well as a full version which you'll give to your paying customers.

[Alex]

[sarcasm]Why don't you use that barcode engine![/sarcasm]

[SleeK GeeK]

We can't help it Morbid. Actually, similar problem was there with Windows' activation. As the piracy is increasing, more measures have been taken to protect the content. I too, dont find Steam very great, but many parts of it do a good job of protecting the content as well as providing the ease of use. Maybe only a multiplayer mode should pass through the Steam check, but still, other protections are needed.

I've experienced such problems even with protections like StarForce, which many gamers are boycotting. It sometimes, in my case, many times fails to recognize the original game disc i inserted.

Regards,
SleeK GeeK.

[theguitarhero]

Ok, so this is maybe a bit different, but I've been thinking about it quite a bit lately. Basically, this is a way to stop people from playing your game, if they haven'y bought it themeselves.

The game must be distributed on CD. The game can be installed on as many computers as the people want, but without the CD it won't be playable. How? Well, normally people would just copy the files on the CD and burn their own, but my idea is this; every file carries with it a date on which it was created, last modified and last accessed. Using these dates, a system can be produced to stop the playing of the game without the original CD.

The Date of Creation system is longer to implement, becuase it must be changed for every CD. Somewhere in each individual game that you are burning to CD, you make a variable, and in this variable you store the date the CD (or file on the CD) was created on. If someone copies your game, the variable in the game won't change, but the date the file was created on will. Using this, you can check to see if the two match, and if they don't, you know the CD was created after the original, and therefore is a copy.

Drawback: You must change the variable indivually for each CD.

The Twin Dates system works as follows. When your game runs, it check two dates, the date of creation, and the date that it was last modified, and sees if they match. This is basically the same as the previous system, except there is no variable needed to change for each CD. Everytime you save a game, the modified date is updated. This includes when you make the .exe and burn it to a CD. So this system is self referencing, however, I'm not sure if burning multiple CD's this way would work (e.g. the last modified date wouldn't change but the created would be progressively later for each additional CD, rendering useless CDs)

Please correct me if I made a mistake.

[SleeK GeeK]

@thequitarhero

I appreciate your thinking, but CD protections like SafeDisc and others already use better methods. The problem is, the entire protection can easily be bypassed, i.e. making the game run irrespective of the date of creation and modification of the cd.

While the basic idea behind all cd protection is the same, i.e. to check if the cd is original by similar methods, but the overhead is to hide where the check is performed, or confuse the cracker from reversing that portion of the application. Several techniques like stolen bytes, import segment destruction and many others have been created, and being used in customized manner, so as to prevent the analysis of the program and reversing it to cancel all the checks performed.

Regards,
SleeK GeeK.

[Morbid_Chylde]

We can't help it Morbid. Actually, similar problem was there with Windows' activation. As the piracy is increasing, more measures have been taken to protect the content.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That, right there, is one of the key factors that actually fuel piracy. The harder it is for the consumer to make use of what they can acquire legally, the more likely it is they will look for easier means to use it, even if it involves acquiring it illegally. I mean, why would you want to have to go through excessive hassle to play something you have to pay for when you can just get it nice and cracked and for free?

Ironically, one of the easiest game series to acquire without paying, the Unreal Tournament series (due to its bare minimum protections), sells like hotcakes. Most people pay for them. Why? Because they're great games, they install easily and quickly, they come with a TON of extras, and they have a very strong community backing them. When you pay for them you get what you paid for, and then some. They're a very good example of the statements I'd made in my last post. Neverwinter Nights is another good one.

I too, dont find Steam very great, but many parts of it do a good job of protecting the content as well as providing the ease of use. Maybe only a multiplayer mode should pass through the Steam check, but still, other protections are needed.

I've only tried the service once, and once was all it took for me to be frustrated enough to never want to try it again. When I want to play a game, the only thing I want to have running is the game. Not extra crap to ensure I am not a thief. Just the game.

I've experienced such problems even with protections like StarForce, which many gamers are boycotting. It sometimes, in my case, many times fails to recognize the original game disc i inserted.

Which is a perfect illustration of the poor mentality behind anti-piracy measures: you should never seek to thwart non-paying thieves at the expense of your paying consumers. Never. I mean it would be about as asinine as you going to McDonald's and ordering a Big Mac and the cashier says "Sorry Sir, our policy has changed. I am affraid you'll have to eat that right here where I can see you so that I can make sure you didn't steal it." How many customers do you think McDonald's would have left before the month was through?

Edited by Morbid_Chylde, 09 October 2006 - 03:19 PM.

[kovreu01]

Drawback: You must change the variable indivually for each CD.

This topic has turned into a huge legal debate with a quotation by Lao Tzu in it. All I wanted to know was if there was a SIMPLE way to protect your game. And yes, GearGOD, I have made a really good game (but this is why I'm not releasing it yet).

[blitzkrieg]

All I wanted to know was if there was a SIMPLE way to protect your game.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The short answer is no.

[Mordi]

Adobe Photoshop costs over a thousand dollars!  And there are almost no security measures in place.  Does that mean that everyone steals it and they don't make profit?  Not at all.  A recent study has revealed that a scant 2% of the market uses cracked software.

I wouldn't worry about it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, but a person buying it would give their code to his PC-playing friends.

If you use a good protection system, then very few people would care about cracking it. Unless its a huge game...

[TwistyWristy]

The short answer is no.

blitzkrieg sums it up well.
Anything can be broken, no matter how strong or powerful it is.
My advice to you is not to worry too much about security, but to focus moere on the game itself.

Later, once the game is complete, fully tested, etc. you can set up small security for your game, something basic, but hard enough to keep the average user from passing it off to a friend.
By basic, I mean something that takes an hour, maybe two to integrate.

Alternatively, there are many companeis that will try to handle this for you for a percentage of the profits, such as Register Now, Trymedia, etc.

TwistyWristy