http://thereticule.com/2008/12/08/burnout-paradise-to-get-great-demo

In a way, I’m trying to move the discussion in more areas than just DRM, distribution (I’ve actually tweaked the start of the article a little; I think this needed stressing a little more ) I’m kind of sick of discussing the whole DRM only punishes the paying customer/doesn’t stop piracy/breeds endless blog articles stuff. The economics of consumerism aren’t that simple, nor are they as pragmatic as we might believe. There’s ideological drives, and ethical considerations that I genuinely think have been tucked under the rug.

The increasing trend of implementing shoddy DRM solutions is certainly an important and detrimental influence on the industry from the consumer perspective and from the perspective of anyone with an ounce of sense. But it’s clearly not the only problem. Again I’ll turn to World of Goo. World of Goo is so unbelievably easy to buy online it blows any arguement that “people pirate because it’s easier” out of the water. You Paypal your money. You get a game. It took me some 3-4 minutes from drunkenly deciding it was time to buy it to reaching that first pipe. Hell, it’s even a reasonable price. It’s the best $20 I’ve spent all year.

The pirates have absolutely no excuse for racking up that 82% piracy figure than the ideological fact that they can’t be arsed to pay. For that they do deserve demonisation. They’re scum as far as I’m concerned.

Granted, this works differently for a corporation. They’re largely faceless, callous organisations for the most part. That’s a given. But frankly, good will on the part of your consumer is the best way to make cash. You can’t “beat” piracy. You can only try offer a deal that people are actually going to like – as you quite rightly say Valve have done with Steam. But I think it’s more than that. Valve are generally held in high regard in the consumer world, despite actually having a highly intrusive DRM solution. People want to buy their games, and that’s a fact. For all the pragmatism, they’ve won the crowd over.

Not so with pretty much every other game currently being published. So people turn to piracy because it’s easy and it’s free. It has nothing to do with some perceived disconnect between corporation and consumer. It’s simply a question of convenience and sense. I don’t see why one should demonise piracy because in many cases it’s actually a more straightforward and immediate solution for most people wanting to play a game.

And as for the whole “the consumer no longer believes that the corporates have their best interests at heart” – please, when was that ever the case? A corporation’s primary concern is itself and its shareholders. It only cares about consumers because they are the ones with the cash to spend. I’m not passing an judgment on the system but that’s they way capitalism works. It’s foolish to pretend otherwise and it doesn’t help your argument.

But certainly. The new direction being taken by corporates to deal with piracy – DRM – is in itself providing a worse service than before. Which essentially goes with my point that the consumer no longer believes that the corporates have their best interests at heart – because they’re letting them down on a service point of view.