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The Consumerist published the real life account of a gamer who struggled with DRM and eventually had to look towards piracy for a solution.
The gamer purchased the PC game Red Faction Guerrilla. But having got a "Could not start activation process." error, he/she attempted to contact the publisher in order to try and find a solution.
However the publisher, THQ/Volition, denied responsibility and redirected the user to contact Microsoft, which through the "Games for Windows" platform, may be responsible for the DRM error. However, Microsoft referred the user back to THQ, and this telephone ping pong went on for quite a while before the user decided to go on the torrent networks and download a pirated copy instead, as that was the only way he could get to play the game he purchased.
This kind of story seems to be more and more common these days, as DRM get more complicated, while publishers do not offer the level of support required. If publishers are intent on pushing harsher and harsher levels of DRM, thus punishing legitimate customers in order to catch out a few downloaders, then at the very least, they should offer top notch tech support for if, or rather, when the DRM fails. That is the price they have to pay for DRM.
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The gamer purchased the PC game Red Faction Guerrilla. But having got a "Could not start activation process." error, he/she attempted to contact the publisher in order to try and find a solution.
However the publisher, THQ/Volition, denied responsibility and redirected the user to contact Microsoft, which through the "Games for Windows" platform, may be responsible for the DRM error. However, Microsoft referred the user back to THQ, and this telephone ping pong went on for quite a while before the user decided to go on the torrent networks and download a pirated copy instead, as that was the only way he could get to play the game he purchased.
This kind of story seems to be more and more common these days, as DRM get more complicated, while publishers do not offer the level of support required. If publishers are intent on pushing harsher and harsher levels of DRM, thus punishing legitimate customers in order to catch out a few downloaders, then at the very least, they should offer top notch tech support for if, or rather, when the DRM fails. That is the price they have to pay for DRM.
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