this post was submitted on 05 Sep 2023
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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Quote from the article: “The inclusion of intrusive DRM softwares [sic] like Denuvo is a choice that yields an unfair punishment on the consumer,” Running With Scissors says. “Respect the consumer, make a game they want to play, and you will never feel the need to fight piracy. The gaming industry deserves a better future, fight for that.”

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (24 children)

Running With Scissors is a "legendary" developer?

Postal was a violent mess that didn't age well.

Postal 2 was a buggy mess that also didn't age well.

After that, it was just legitimately bad games on top of the humor not aging well. (They literally don't even acknowledge Postal 3)

Seriously, who the fuck would label them legendary? They've been a broken mess for over a decade.

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'd label them legends in the sense that they're probably one of the game studios I know by name the best even though that's all they have to show for it. Postal 2 for as bugged and edgy as it is, is an extraordinarily famous game.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

know by name

Sure

know the best

Ehh.... Even putting aside things like Nintendo.... Let's just say I know the names of actual developers on several small studios, including bad games, and I have no idea of a single person who made Postal

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 year ago (2 children)

The Titanic is a legendary ship, but it wasn't a very good ship

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

But everybody has heard about the Titanic.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago

People who agree with their stance on DRM.

Theres a definite trend of people elevating the value of opinions of those they agree with. It makes any kind of intelligent discourse very hard to do.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

They didn't release the third game, it was done by a third party (I believe with some licensing shenanigans?), which is why they don't acknowledge Postal 3. They didn't make it. Which is why they (somewhat recently) have given the A-OK to pirate that game.

I'd assume that last part is why they say legendary.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

No one said the legends were good.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

You're not the target audience, the target audience is edgy teenage boys. Postal 2 was the perfect game for 13 year old me.

You're right labeling them as "legendary" is just weird tho.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

For clicks and to bait comments exactly like this one.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

While I'm not fond of the company, and perhaps legendary is a bit excessive, they're still a big name that made remarkable videogames. With Postal 2 they nailed it, can't say about the other 3 because I've never played them.

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[–] [email protected] 63 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Denuvo is the apex of a long history of bad choices.

Maybe actually sell us the games in a way we really own it, without any sort of online activation/account/telemetry/data-gathering like when we could buy a disc and just use it, and it should all be ok.

I feel like a dinosaur every-time I think this nowadays, but what is so problematic with the "own as in physically own" that is so hard to implement? If they want to provide a service, sell a service.

In the past I used pirate versions of games I bought just to be able to play them offline, or because I did not agree with the terms of service. It is so much for our info, it goes beyond just knowing you are the real owner of the software copy: it comes to the point where it looks like it's to guarantee we are not its' owner.

Now some DRMs even destroy gaming performance and its just faster to use 'ked versions. I hope it changes somehow.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Is it really possible to own them properly? If in almost all cases we lack the source code and there are even proprietary requirements for both software and hardware, what chance do they have of working halfway well in a few decades?

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[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (22 children)

Even the devs hate denuvo. It slows down the build times and makes it hard to debug.

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Release a DEMO, like the old days. So we can DECIDE FOR OURSELVES!!

Its a simple fucking technique. We only pirate to try, if its shit - then fuck you. If its good - then you have a purchase.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

That's the problem though. They want you to commit to a purchase and hope that you forget about your 2h grace window

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"Postal" is such a steaming pile of edgelord shit that even Civvie11 doing videos on the franchise doesn't make it any more bearable for me.

Critical support for this developer's message here, that said.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I appreciate Postal 2 because the premise is kinda funny. It's deliberately designed so you can beat it without doing any violence at all. You're given tasks like get milk, pick up your paycheck, etc. And it involves standing in lines or people berating you. You're stuck doing tedious annoying repetitive tasks, or you can get a flamethrower. I think standing in line to get Gary Coleman's autograph takes 90 minutes if you do it normally.

Otherwise it's very silly early 2000s edgy white guy dudebro humor

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Abolish intellectual property (and private property in general)

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

There was a big high wall there that tried to stop me.

The sign was painted, said ‘Private Property.’

But on the backside, it didn’t say nothing.

This land was made for you and me.

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I think the best way is to just have basic piracy detection, if someone trips it, then have a message that you can get past appearing guilt tripping them for it lmao

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Back to OG times in gaming where you would have stupid hats saying pirate or other weird things happening in game like not being able to complete it if it was cracked, good times.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago

I’ve seen RWS’s take on this a bunch recently. This feels like a feel-good PR move because they don’t have any substantive updates on their actual games.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Crackers: We don't do it for the piracy, we just like the challenge.

Denuvo: Try this one then.

Crackers: Too hard bro, at least give us a chance!

I acknowledge that this isn't going to be a popular opinion in a piracy sub, but the main reason people hate Denuvo is that it works.

It's basically killed the entire game hacking scene, because by the time they break it, nobody is interested in the game any more. There's like one person left that can do it, and they're more than a little bit odd.

It may be "anti-consumer", but you know what was worse? All the other shit they tried on PC. Always online bullshit. Single player games that you couldn't save any more if your connection wobbled. Actual rootkits.

[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

People hate Denuvo because it requires a regular connection to the Internet and has a big impact on the performance of games.

I'm not buying these games not because I can't pirate games with Denuvo (I don't really pirate games at all anymore) but because they tend to run like shit.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

I pirate because the original runs like shit.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago

I haven't pirated any actual software since the 1990s (too cowardly) but my hatred for Denuvo and the like burns with unsurpassed intensity. I will never knowingly buy a game that includes it. "Anti-tampering" indeed. I'm not sure if that shit should be legally allowed at all, but certainly not in ordinary mass-market PC games.

It does require you be online, and it is essentially a "rootkit." Its malware features are more polite and better hidden than some of the worst of what has been tried before, but that just adds to the danger that it might be seen as acceptable by people who don't know any better.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Death to the concept of intellectual property and all but I've never actually felt Denuvo making problems for me when I played a game using it, you're right it seems to be working as advertised.

I'm still hoping someone to crack it in a more reliable and fast manner, fuck large gamedev companies and their profit margins.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I've seen Denuvo combined with the always online requirement with the latest Far Cry 6 on steam. The always online requirement makes a cracked version worth it in my use case.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Do I need to repeat the Gabe Newell line again?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I have always wanted to be a giant space crab?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago

"Piracy is a service problem?"

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