Take for example the most recent bit of news from the Blizzard camp revolving around Starcraft II. The first phase of the RTS' beta has been extended beyond its slated May 31 end date--but only a smidge. The new end date, according to a recent post on the official StarCraft II community blog, is June 7.
The reason? To "prepare for the final phase of beta testing." This final phase, then, will apparently kick off just "weeks prior" to the game's launch on July 27. Blizzard has promised details about the late beta phase closer to the game's launch.
Granted, that isn't the best example of Blizzard purposefully making its fans happy. Preparation isn't intent, after all. But in both theory and implementation, Blizzard is being realistic with its SCII digital rights management scheme, which in turn, should make more than a few PC users very happy pandas indeed. Players reportedly won't be shackled to their net connections during single-player play. After the game phones home just once after purchase, they won't have to worry about the DRM again. Just set it and forget it, as Ron Popeil would say.
The idea behind this, according to SCII executive producer Frank Pearce (in a conversation with Videogamer), is that stiff DRM is pointless. The answer to fight piracy is in offering so much to a game's legal and illegal owners that they'll want to buy it. Enter Battle.net's friends and achievement features.
"That's a battle that we have a chance in," he told Videogamer, adding to thoughts on how Battle.net's features might get pirates to purchase the game. "If you start talking about DRM and different technologies to try to manage it, it's really a losing battle for us, because the community is always so much larger, and the number of people out there that want to try to counteract that technology, whether it's because they want to pirate the game or just because it's a curiosity for them, is much larger than our development teams. We need our development teams focused on content and cool features, not anti-piracy technology."
DRM gets people all kinds of sore, and I totally get why. It's intrusive and generally not fun to deal with. But at the end of the day, people steal PC games. These developers gotta do something. I, for one, am happy that Blizzard is thinking outside the box. What about you?