5 comments

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  rafeblandford

  1 year ago

  Nice post Zach. I rather liked the N-Gagegate name :)
  
  I think to be fair to Nokia they have a point about transfer on other mobile games. But ultimately you're right - and just because others do it...
  
  Piracy is an interesting issue, there clearly is a bit of problem in some areas as a number of developers have commented. Personally I think you need enough protection to put off the casual person (e.g. some kind of code), but the more barriers you add (e.g. IMEI locking, online registration) the more you annoy legitimate users. I guess its a balance.
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  Zach

  1 year ago

  Thanks Rafe ;) and I couldn't agree more - a balance is absolutely crucial. I would say that the initial implementation tipped the scales more than anyone could have imagined, hence the backlash and Nokia's amazingly fast and necessary reaction.
  
  An example of what I view to be an excellent compromise is DRM Commons Solutions. It has good security functionality but it also gives the user many benefits, ie no need to re-input a license code when you reinstall the app after flashing, the ability to check for updates, etc. The initial N-Gage is almost a polar opposite. Extreme security along with an incredible burden.
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  Zylam Marex

  1 year ago

  Right On!! Zach, amazing post i so agree with every word man, specially the part of kids with no money lol!!! and that by using this lock real customers wouldn't even pay, nice buddy it really gets the word out....
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  Andrew Leung

  1 year ago

  Well said Zach, although I'm not a huge mobile gamer, it is a terrible excuse. Furthermore it isn't like these games are high priced pieces of software that are in super high demand. I mean i like the ability to have a cool game with nice graphics over the regular sudoku or othello clone on cellphones, but games that are a mere 8-10 bucks a pop, i think nokia can let us port them over. Otherwise it just feels like we are getting nickle and dimed. Or at least give us the option to buy a slightly more expensive version of the game that lets us port them from handset to handset without having to buy it over and over again via a special license (jivetalk from beejive for Blackberries comes to mind as software with that kind of selling model -- Buy a regular licence for 15 bucks, good for those who stick out their device for two years, or for 30 dollars, move it as many times as you like to new blackberry devices). While i'd rather not see a 2x price increase for the special license, it would certainly be a way to let people keep porting them over if they are worried about piracy, and (god willing) i might land a few more bucks in the dev's hands (as naive as that sounds).
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  anerdolev

  4 months ago

  aner dolev
  reply