Denuvo wants to convince you its DRM isn’t “evil”
arstechnica.com
arstechnica.com
Sorry to be so flippant and appear as a devils advocate for DRM, but as far as I'm aware Denuvo runs with the game. Unlike ie Punkbuster, which is constantly running with way too high permissions.
All of this means that when Denuvo's servers get shut down, any game that hasn't been cracked will no longer run.
> Causes excessive HDD/SSD reads/writes which degrades the lifespan of storage drives. > > The origins of this rumor are various user reports from 2014 and "tests" performed using Lords of the Fallen and Dragon Age: Inquisition. This has been denied and debunked multiple times by both Denuvo themselves,[13] publishers/developers, and other users since then. As shown in the technical information section, Denuvo Anti-Tamper performs minimal read and write operations to the drive, and there is no benefit to do additional drive reads or writes in terms of security or performance.[14]
https://www.pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/Denuvo
It's fine to not like DRM. It's another thing to spread FUD and appeal to emotions.
I'm willing to update my credence on that idea. Thank you.
I think my issue with the comment I replied to was the appeal to emotion while saying nothing specific about Denuvo.
I feel the ship has sailed on DRM, and that the solution to people feeling slighted because something they purchased contained DRM without them knowing will be stores listing DRM a game uses, not stopping the use of it.
I'm really tired of the trend of people declaring whatever policy they want enacted as being "a human right". Yes, having control over the devices you own is something we should push for, but it's nowhere important to be called a human right.
computing became inalienable from human rights when we as a society started asking everyone to conduct mandatory business using them.
paying your bills, gaining access to places, applying for welfare systems, creating doctors appointments, the list goes on -- the things that can be done alternatively over the phone or in-person dwindles as the years tick by.
If we don't claim that certain computing freedoms should be part-and-parcel of human rights then we must wait for the obvious and apparent abuse-of-system to occur and damage society before remediation -- I think we as a society may just have the wisdom to avoid that damage before it happens, but it requires advocacy.
This is generally true of piracy, but hard to apply to Denuvo:
- in 2022, one Denuvo game was cracked
- you have to wait a long time
- the version cracked might not even be the latest version available at the time of cracking
- you have to deal with a transphobe
Genuinely curious if you also have this same energy towards Steam.
I think self host server options and modding helps overcome the cheaters with hands on admins and friend groups. I also get you need to pay the staff and am ok seeing good games make money.
I do wish DRM could have a built in expiration though... even 5-10 years to keep older games playable/portable.
matchmaking is fine, but let me keep playing with the people i find back on private servers
simple question : have you encountered an anti-cheat mechanism that works to stop cheaters?
I haven't.
The damage that DRM causes is almost entirely one-sided towards the consumer, aside from the pocketbooks of executives that want to boast about their games licensed anti-cheat mechanisms.
Those that want to cheat may be thrown through another loop, but it doesn't meaningfully stop them -- these people are often technical and interested , anyway. A new challenge for credit on underground forums -- great!
Anti-cheat works to reduce the number and frequency of cheaters, not to eliminate cheating completely. It means the difference between meeting cheaters every single game vs meeting cheaters once every 20 games. One means your game is mostly playable and the other means the game is completely unplayable.
This is reasoning of yours is like: "Why use vaccines at all?" "Why use anti-virus programs at all?" "Why use seat belts at all?"
None of these completely eliminate infection, being hacked, and fatalities in motor accidents. But they vastly reduce the number of them occurring.
I find them to be rare, but I consider the existence of both cheating and anti-cheat software to be a symptom of a bigger problem: shitty games and shitty game mechanics.
If cheats maximize enjoyment for the cheater playing your game, your game sucks and you should focus on retooling the game to deliver that experience without third party tools.
I won't argue your assessment, but I've played and cheated in enough games to have an experienced opinion. Games can embrace designs that obviate the use of cheats, but this takes a lot of work. It's far easier to create a zero-sum multiplayer experience instead.
>I haven't.
I have. Quite a number in fact, despite me wishing it didn't. Elden Ring used EAC to huge effect here.
It doesn't matter if a game has denuvo, if the game is bad and overpriced I won't pay money for it.
In fact, because of piracy, I spent more on games than I would have without.
That means the people who are trying to make a quick buck and turn shit into gold will still not succeed.
When I don't have money I won't buy games regardless. When I do, I do buy games but I try the pirate version first if something interests me.
In most cases it turns out I was baited by whatever and the game is only interesting for that evening, or I can tell in the first few minutes that it's not for me.
I always have buyer's remorse. It's really rare that I don't regret a purchase.
With Stream or Epic only having a 2 hour refund window, it's simply not enough. Piracy is there for a good reason.