Client-Server != DRM

by Mercury, Chicago, IL, Friday, March 22, 2013, 15:30 (4044 days ago) @ Cody Miller
edited by Mercury, Friday, March 22, 2013, 15:37

1. DRM is anything put in place by the developer / publisher which limits your ability to play the game on hardware otherwise capable of executing the game code.

Okay, I honestly feel like I see both sides of this argument, so I hope I'm not inconveniencing anyone by chiming in, and forcing more clarifications and arguments, but it really feels like a question of semantics more than anything else. It doesn't seem to me that anyone is arguing that there will not be a restriction to play the game based on the requirement of an online presence. No online, no play. We all get that, I think, and yeah that makes the game subject to xbl bans and crap, which are separate, but influencing, systems of rights.

However, I think your above definition can paint a really broad stroke. Is DRM really simply any way of controlling access that's otherwise possible? In the past, I've seen DRM more defined as a software based way of recognizing rights, and then allowing code execution through local means, authenticating server, or whatever. But, if DRM is simply an intentional restriction in any form barring access to some rather than others, when the access is physically possible, then poverty is incredible DRM because those sneaky developers added a price, no? But is this the actual case? Is what Bungie wants to do possible without that server access?

If there is a central authenticating server, that's one thing. I understand that. But am I mistaken in thinking "always online" could simply mean there is a server running shared code for a shared world? Then couldn't you define that server as part of the "hardware capable of executing the code" rather than DRM barring the use of said hardware? If the code is running on my box, then we aren't talking the pseudo-mmo we've been promised, are we? or what am I missing?

That said, I hate restrictions to access, DRM or not, and I want to be able to play my games where I can't connect, get good enough bandwidth, or whatever. A cop can take my license... that's how I see DRM, but a tow truck, thief, hurricane, etc. can take my car, that's kind of how always-on feels to me, like the hardware I need to run the game is no longer in my control.

So yeah, I sort of see both sides. Semantics.