Conference Call

GWJ Conference Call Episode 23

God of War 2 ... Free?, Sphere, The Demise of Computer Games Magazine, Piracy in PC Gaming, Your Emails, Our Contest Winner and more!

Today on the Conference Call we we gain some insight on the demise of Computer Games Magazine. Will we ever see rabbit's Bioshock cover? We also delve into the health of the PC games industry, God of War 2 and some excellent emails. We also announce the winner of the Liongames.com contest! Finally, you people can quit bugging us about including more poetry in the show.

Want to support the show? Hit the Digg link just above (it's fast and easy to register) or review us on iTunes! Read on for show notes.

To contact us, email [email protected]! Send us your thoughts on the show, pressing issues you want to talk about or whatever else is on your mind. You can even send a 30 second audio question or comment (MP3 format please) if you're so inclined.

Sponsor
Liongames.com

The Links
Sphere
God of War 2
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Line Rider

Thread of the Week 1: Spirited Debate On Game Piracy - Parallax Abstraction

Thread of the Week 2: Penny Arcade Game Episode 1 Trailer - McChuck

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Show credits

Music credits: 

Intro/Outro Music - Ian Dorsch, Willowtree Audioworks

"One Big Holiday" My Morning Jacket The Wired CD - 0:07:35
"Dc 3000" Thievery Corporation The Wired CD - 0:29:49
"Terra" - Chico Correa & Electronic Band - 0:46:57
"Impeller" Ian Dorsch - 1:12:00

Comments

Wizard Owl wrote:
Edwin wrote:

Everytime you want to play steam connects to login in and validate. Steam was bypassed almost instantly.

Hmmm. Poor implementation, obviously.

Give people enough time and they will find a work around for anything. This is why I think the solution to the problem is in changing formats. Move away from disks, and find a delivery method that makes it difficult and expensive for your average Joe to duplicate, but is easy to manufacture in bulk. It won't solve the problem but it would certainly slow it down.

Gaald wrote:
Wizard Owl wrote:
Edwin wrote:

Everytime you want to play steam connects to login in and validate. Steam was bypassed almost instantly.

Hmmm. Poor implementation, obviously.

Give people enough time and they will find a work around for anything. This is why I think the solution to the problem is in changing formats. Move away from disks, and find a delivery method that makes it difficult and expensive for your average Joe to duplicate, but is easy to manufacture in bulk. It won't solve the problem but it would certainly slow it down.

Good thing you put that clause there as HL2 steam activation was bypassed before retail/steam release by using the steam pre-loading.

Edwin wrote:

Everytime you want to play steam connects to login in and validate. Steam was bypassed almost instantly.

Thats not true.. there is an offline mode that essentially allows you to play for an X period of time if you've previously authenticated. That was the loophole that allowed the hackers a way to fool the app into thinking it was allowed to play.

A "true every single time you need to authenticate" will involve an ever changing .exe that needs to be downloaded and run. That way it would be impossible to crack since each day it would be unique.

I don't know if HL2 was cracked so people could steal it or because people got really pissed when their internets went down and they couldn't play their $50 single-player game.

I don't like piracy, but i don't think that having to connect to the internet everytime i play an offline game is the right way to go about it. First off, it's the same argument as DRM - the honest users are hurt the most. Games and services will always be cracked/hacked if there is demand for them. There is no foolproof way to do something like this.

Secondly wasting all this money on these services and security measures drains time and resources away from making the game.

Personally, i won't buy a game that requires me to connect every time i want to play it. They are assuming i am the thief and i don't like that - what if i have a problem with my internet connection or my account is suspended (in the case of steam-like services) by accident or mistakenly, i am denied access to all those games. With no real customer service in place for these cheap services that could mean a couple of weeks without acknowledgement or resolution of my issue or the possibility of never having the problem resolved.
I was really tempted to get those extra modules for neverwinter nights, but i will not pander to their unreasonable requests.

@Gameguru: Yes, Steam has the offline mode - but it doesn't work all the time. I mean, when i installed steam on my PC it all worked great. On my dad's PC though we can't get steam to work in offline mode. I've tried deleting files and redownloading them and reinstalling steam but to no avail. If offline mode is going to be a useful tool (apart from having to opt into it in the first place) you should not have to jump through hoops to be able to enable such a service.

@Gameguru: Yes, Steam has the offline mode - but it doesn't work all the time. I mean, when i installed steam on my PC it all worked great. On my dad's PC though we can't get steam to work in offline mode. I've tried deleting files and redownloading them and reinstalling steam but to no avail. If offline mode is going to be a useful tool (apart from having to opt into it in the first place) you should not have to jump through hoops to be able to enable such a service.

agreed.. thats why I'd move to the always have to authenticate an ever changing .exe. If my internet is down I'm probably playing something on my 360 instead anyway.

There needs to be more singing in falsetto on the show. Eg., rabbit's response to the Penny Arcade trailer. [ falsetto] "Awesome" [/ falsetto ].

And I need to listen to the show earlier so I'm not always the last one to post a comment.

You mean Rabbit isn't already in falsetto?! What show am i listening to?

Whee! It takes me a lot to sound even MORE effeminate then I already do.

TheGameguru wrote:

agreed.. thats why I'd move to the always have to authenticate an ever changing .exe. If my internet is down I'm probably playing something on my 360 instead anyway.

Of course, if you're on a replacement Xbox 360 you'll be stuck playing disc-only games and nothing downloaded from live...that's why i don't like all these different things being tied into one service. Not mentioning that each products' particular service will inevitably be discontinued. I know Valve have stated that they would make steam "free" or unlock their games if they went under but i can't see how they can actually be sure of this - also they are one company in a sea of others.