DRM

If you haven't heard, there is a LOT of hullabaloo about DRM, or Digital Rights Management out there. Its all about how PC game publishers are trying to stop pirates from stealing their game. The fans are up in arms, boycotting the PC ports of excellent games such as BioShock, Mass Effect, and Penny Arcade: Rain-soaked Precipice of Darkness, some of the most outstanding games of the last 2 years. Their gripes:
-It takes too long to activate
-I want to be able to install it on more than 3 PCs
-I don't want to put in a key more than once
-I don't want the game checking in to the server to see if its legal for me to play
-I want to be able to play the game in 10 years, and any activation/check-in servers will be dead by then.
-None of this stops pirates, really.
-All this DRM stuff breaks the game sometimes

I think they're all a bunch of whiners. Activation definitely stops pirates. It doesn't stop all of them, but it stops some of them. Yes, there will always be cracks and hacks, but a Steam/Stardock/check in with papa type of system is simply the best. The people that complain about this are either a)secret pirates, b)like to play ridiculously old games, or c)whiny knobs. If you're a), shut up, because if you are really a pirate, you'll be able to get the game eventually. If you're c), shut up because no one likes a whiny knob. If you're b), here's my suggestion to you and to the game publishers, I hope you like it, but you probably won't.

Keep the DRM system with server check in in tact, but add a few things. First, add the ability to play the game 5 times without a check-in, or up to a week, or something. This should ease the "What if my internet service is out?" Well, then you wouldn't be able to bitch and moan ceaselessly about everything. But yes, you wouldn't be able to play your game either. The solution above solves this. The next gripe, that you can't play old games, is also easy to solve. Put in a check to the Naval Observatory Time Server. If the date is X years(say 5) after the release date of the game, then don't do a server check. Hooray, the game's now free for whoever wants it, but you, as a publisher, if you're still in existence, probably don't care too much at this point. If you aren't in existence, then the users can still play the game. Surely, users can see the benefit of this, and must realize that game companies have to protect their investment, or PC gaming will truly become extinct.

Personally, I don't care. I'm mostly a console gamer, and I could give a crap about activation on PC games. I'll do whatever it takes to get the game running. Whats a few extra key strokes or a few extra seconds checking in with the server?