NOTE: First of all, this is not intended in any way to endorse piracy or bash GOG, but for a discussion about a possible misconception on GOG's side, or the side of whoever wrote that article.

http://www.redbull.co.uk/cs/Satellite/en_UK/Article/GOG-How-An-Indie-Game-Store-Took-On-Piracy-And-Won-021243288934552 Did GOG really win against piracy? Or was it just that pirates didn't want to hurt GOG any more than in their opinion necessary and thus took the disc version instead, i.e. that they used the disc version instead of GOG version to promote their point of view about DRM.

Or was it just the usual crackers who simply crack DRM so it is cracked, and other criminals then share it?

Have we arrived in a world where the best protection against piracy is to have no protection against it, because that protection only would lead to piracy? If we think of cracking DRM as a sport - as it is often romanticised by the scene, if you find interviews with crackers - and then the final product being illegaly released (pro tip to all hackers: Next time just distribute the DRM free files and not the rest that is necessary to play a game, saves you bandwidth and prevents piracy!), then this point of view comes close.

On the other hand we simply could say that the disc version was illegaly uploaded first, so the GOG version never spread as much.


How much can we trust the statistics? Did GOG win against piracy? Or did the pirates just spare GOG because there were other means? Or would the pirates not have had anything indeed if there wouldn't have been a disc version?

You can't really win against piracy, as it is a moral issue. You can try to appeal to the greater moral good, but people will be immoral douchebags and pirate games regardless.
GoG is taking a very interesting route, by trusting us enough to not put the game up on torrent sites.
But anyways, I remember reading somewhere that some people don't crack DRM to stick it to the man, but for the challenge. Furthermore, I think some crackers are putting up a little message that says "If you like the game, please buy it to support the developers".

I think it is hard to say, everyone has different things that motivates them.

I do believe that slapping DRM on something is slapping a sign on it saying "Crack me," since part of the hacker philosophy is that information wants to be free. Cracking DRM is like like doing a crossword puzzle for those people. The gog version doesn't offer any fun in that department.

Another thing, gog has done a good job building good will with people, but I think that in the end people would still have pirated that game even if gog did release it 100% drm-free.
1. Wanting to test it out
2. I don't have any money
3. Why should I buy it if it is already free for me to download at [piracy].com

Those are the three reasons I hear the most. Definitely, smart on gog to put in a little ad on their games while installing to at least put a seed of doubt into people's mind if they do pirate it.

This is what 'The Scene' does. The more 'impossible' to crack, the more each group is vying to be the one that cracks it. The bragging rights for a group that cracks a difficult DRM can be pretty immense. For example, when Ubi DRM was cracked it was pretty big news, and I believe the credit went to Skidrow, which is now one of the biggest 'Scene' groups.

Cracking is what they do, and as long as there's a challenge for them they're gonna keep doing it. That's not to say that DRM-free will reduce piracy because 'The Scene' will ignore them - there are tons of smaller groups and amateur pirates who just want to pirate for money, bragging rights, or whatever other reason. The point is you can never 'beat' piracy unless... it all becomes cloud gaming or something ridiculous.

The best thing a company like Projekt Red can do is be positive towards its fans and others in the industry. The model EA/Activision are using isn't sustainable. Unfortunately, you can't really "Stop" piracy at this point, but you can give people a reason to want to support you as a business, which is why many of us indy fans love GOG.
(the regular sales and games that will run on a wide variety of devices help, as well)

Is it like a law that the bonus contents on gog games have to always be referred to as "goodies"?
/nitpickingover over irrelevant stuff

I think they're trying to mostly stop 0-day or even pre-release piracy. I guess the idea is for every day that the game goes uncracked there's potentially more people willing to bite the bullet and actually pay for the game (not really sure if that actually makes a real difference though). Also, it's to stop you from sharing the game with your buddy across the street. Ultimately though when the game do get cracked it's often the pirated version that is superior.

Gewdies.

People will crack for the challenge of it. There is no fame or glory in just re-uploading an already DRM free game. People will go with whatever the first major scene release is, which happens to be the cracked retail version.

That said, I think GOG did at least reinforce the original business idea of there being people out there willing to buy DRM free games.

There's probably lots of people trying to crack Diablo 3 just to stick it to Blizzard to take revenge for the disappointments surrounding it.

That will take writing an entire server package to cope with calculations done server side.

Very much possible as proven by WoW private servers, but it will take a long time to get done.

The point is that DRM does nothing to stop piracy, not that being DRM-free will stop piracy.

I'm not going to touch the subject so much as get something off my chest.

Don't bring up morality on subjects like this, because here's the thing about morality: Morality is relative to the person deciding on their own moral compass; defined by the experiences and opinions of the person making the choice at that time. Just because something is illegal, or goes against a group or personal norm of others does not make it immoral to the person making that decision. It might be frowned upon by others and society in general, but that is not morality.

When you bring morality into the fray and base your opinions regarding what is morally correct to you, you've already missed the entire point.

As others have mentioned the most common pirated version of TW2 being the disc version was almost certainly due to the major scene groups being in it to show that they can crack the DRM schemes, not so much because they just want to make the games available. Simply putting up a torrent of a GOG installer doesn't exactly bring a person much in terms of bragging rights.

As for piracy in general, these days it's almost a given that a game is going to be cracked and made available, it's just a question of how quickly (with a time range usually between "a week from release" and "a few days before release"). It can be argued whether delays of a few days have any impact on sales (I'm inclined to argue that they don't have all that much of an impact outside of very specific cases), but once a cracked version is out there there's really only one thing that determines whether someone inclined and capable of buying the game actually buys it or pirates it- goodwill. Good support for the game, avoiding bothersome DRM, not trying to nickle-and-dime customers at every turn... these kinds of things can build a lot of goodwill with the potential customer base and make people inclined to buy the game even though they could easily pirate it. I think it is in this department that GOG (and CDP, for the most part, their missteps with extortion notwithstanding) are really taking the right approach when it comes to convincing people to buy rather than pirate.

Also, note that earlier, when I talked about the decision to buy or pirate, I specifically spoke of those both inclined and capable of buying the game. People who aren't interested in the game to value it anywhere close to the asking price, people who don't have the money to buy the game, people who live in countries where the game isn't even being officially offered for sale- these people are only choosing between pirating and doing without. Either of these choices results in the developer/publisher getting absolutely no money from the people, so trying to reduce piracy among these groups is at best a waste of time and money, and at worst can actually hurt overall sales (due to measures taken against this group alienating people who are inclined and capable of buying the game).

Just once I want to hear them say " a shitload of extras" or something. Stop saying goodies every single time everybody