Submission + - SimCity vs. Piracy & The Four Currencies (Video) (youtube.com)
lars_doucet writes: "The SimCity debacle is another example of AAA publishers resorting to DRM because "game developers can't compete with free."
But piracy is only "free" in terms of Money-dollars ($M). There's also Time-dollars ($T), Pain-in-the-butt-dollars ($P), and Integrity-dollars ($I). If we look at the total "4-currency" cost, we can see that piracy is not only not "free," but that there's plenty of opportunities for legitimate services to compete through convenience ($T), service ($P), and appealing to higher principles ($I).
This short video explains the whole theory, showing how SimCity's always-online DRM not only misses a golden opportunity, but shoots itself in the foot and actually *raises* its four-currency cost well above that of piracy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP7KUVfx9ec"
But piracy is only "free" in terms of Money-dollars ($M). There's also Time-dollars ($T), Pain-in-the-butt-dollars ($P), and Integrity-dollars ($I). If we look at the total "4-currency" cost, we can see that piracy is not only not "free," but that there's plenty of opportunities for legitimate services to compete through convenience ($T), service ($P), and appealing to higher principles ($I).
This short video explains the whole theory, showing how SimCity's always-online DRM not only misses a golden opportunity, but shoots itself in the foot and actually *raises* its four-currency cost well above that of piracy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP7KUVfx9ec"
