The Gaming Lobby

I’ve talked about draconian DRM in this column before, but the threat grows stronger. Rise with me, men (and supposedly women) of gaming.

EA and Ubisoft again take the dastardly spotlight with new releases that are requiring players to have a constant Internet connection to play their titles. Failure to do so makes the game unplayable.

New releases like “Command & Conquer 4” treat pirates like they’re delinquent school children; a few troublemakers require a constant surveying eye by the teacher (imagine EA in a nun outfit), so every kid — even the innocent ones — has to stay inside during recess.

Every previous attempt to stifle piracy has failed, so its not a surprise that this one has as well. There are already reports that the aforementioned “C&C4” has a crack, meaning that hackers can play illegal copies without bowing to the heinous authentication system.

Remember this is an authentication system that will sign me off (and erase all my unsaved progress) if I’m in a single-player campaign and my Internet router hits the smallest hiccups. Not all of us live with T1 lines.

I care about “Command & Conquer.” I worked on the game this summer. I was in the writing room when they asked me if I thought the big reveal at the end would upset fans (and I smiled a devil’s grin as I replied that it would but that they should keep it). Despite my affections, my own technology-centric lifestyle would be hindered as I play the title.

Not only is this an inconvenience, it limits your game’s life to whenever the publisher decides to close the game’s servers. Last month EA shut down online players for over 25 sports titles such as “Madden 09,” “NBA Live 09” and “Fight Night Round 3.”

This lets a game company screw over anyone who finds they don’t need to buy every year’s updated version. By contrast, I have a “World Series Baseball” game for the Sega Genesis that I can still play a decade later.

I generally hate the pirate community. Their presence on forums consist mostly of bragging about their digital prowess and complaints of how “no one makes good games anymore” despite their lack of financial support.

But I will make an exception: pirate this game and any other one that handicaps your playing experience. You’re not buying those games anyway, merely renting them for an indefinite period of time.