I was curious about something:
The game is DRM free, you can use it on up to three of your computers
for your own use,
Now… Isn’t that three computers limit a form of restriction? AKA a DRM?? To me, it definitely is.
EDIT: Just read that is just a legal restriction, and not something actually in the code. Cool. You should put that more clear.
I think it was part of a bill signed 20+ years ago in 1989.
There is no code or program (which is required to exist for something to be DRM) that will forcibly stop you from placing a copy of game dev tycoon on more than 3 PCs. You’re just breaking the rules when you do so.
Yes, it is DRM free. DRM referes to any form of digital copy protection, any technical limitation on the usage. Our game doesn’t have any and is thus DRM free. However, DRM free does not mean that you can use the game however you want. For example: It’s not okay to share the game with your friends. They will need to buy their own copy if they want to play.
Our game license allows you to install the game on up to three computers for your own personal use. There is no technical limitation that enforces this but any other use would be against our EULA.
BTW, I in an article about the whole piracy prank they pulled with this game that you could research DRM ingame. Is that indeed true? Because I haven’t seen it yet and I am well past Y35.
Basically, this. People often misunderstand the difference between DRM and EULAs.
There are many EULAs with many different rules based on the company, but most of them only allow you to install on so many PCs - 80s and 90s software usually only allowed ONE. Most modern software allows three or five.
DRM stands for Digital Rights Management. Many modern programs have this to force people to abide by their EULAs - for example, if Game Dev Tycoon was tied to an account at Greenheart that could see how many times it was installed and forcibly stopped a 4th install until a previous install was uninstalled, that would be DRM.
It is widely agreed among games - honest customers even more so than actual pirates - that DRM sucks for three main reasons:
How it’s enforced. For example, Activision’s DRM on Diablo 3 (A 1-PLAYER GAME!!!) requires constant access to the internet to check if your game is pirated. If your internet is down, the game calls you a pirate and won’t let you play. If Activision’s server is down, the game calls you a pirate and won’t let you play. And there are decades of genuine CDs failing copy checks. If you want to honestly play your honestly paid for software and you can’t because it think’s you’re a pirate, then the only way to play is to actually pirate it.
TL;DR: DRM declares innocent people guilty.
DRM costs game producers money. Money they could be spending producing games. How many more features could EA have placed in Spore if the time and money spend in their insane DRM was actually spent on the game? Perhaps they would’ve properly developed many of the features they removed, creating a more enjoyable game experience. Maybe they’d live up to the hype they created for the game.
And that’s just the direct costs of developing the DRM. There is also the cost of sales lost due to gamers who refuse to buy games with DRM because of having purchased a previous game with DRM that called them a pirate. That’s right, there are gamers with the rule: DRM = no sale.
TL;DR: Developing DRM is throwing away money.
Finally, there is the cold hard truth that pirates are unbeatable. Feel free to search “unbeatable DRM” - MANY game producers (including Spore’s developers) have used that line in their press conferences. Spore was the #1 pirated game of 2008. It doesn’t matter how much DRM you throw at them, it doesn’t matter that your new console has more money spent on DRM than quality assurance, and it doesn’t matter how many lawyers you throw at pirates. Just like most walls in video games are not programmed to be blown up, pirates are not programmed to be ‘beatable’.
TL;DR: DRM declares guilty people innocent.
So, DRM sucks and companies that use DRM suck. Buy only games that don’t have it. Like Greenheart Games.