Client-Server != DRM

by Cody Miller , Music of the Spheres - Never Forgot, Friday, March 22, 2013, 15:38 (4273 days ago) @ Claude Errera

I think I'd also argue that #1 (or maybe #2 - not sure which perspective makes more sense) is in question - I think I would say that some of the game code is ON the server, so your Xbox/PS3/whatever can't actually execute all of the code by itself. If you had a server, you could execute all the code, and thereby bypass any 'official' servers - but you don't. (Well, maybe you will. I don't know. That's another big difference between you and me - when there's an unknown, and I can't come up with a reasonable argument to fill it, my immediate conclusion is not "this MUST be what's happening, because I can't think of anything else.")

Well, that's where the 'otherwise capable of executing the game code' comes into play. The status quo is to have all code executed locally, or if the design of the game is such that servers that run calculations are required (Q3, UT etc), allow players to run servers. If a decision is made to change that by making code run only on the server not controlled by a player and feeding the results to the client, then that's a decision restricting your access to run the game code, and by anybody's definition I hope would be considered DRM if that is the only way to run your game.

I think the possibility of players having control over a destiny server is exactly zero.