[game_preservation] Old PC Game Sales for XP/Vista

[Andrew Armstrong]

Yep, I don't know enough about the service - if I did, I'd provide some 
info. As far as I know, they just repackage things from the publishers - 
thus the limited catalogue, because it's all needing that legal edge 
(some games I expect will never appear there). They're not original 
media - most are tuned with patches to work on XP onwards AFAIK.

Preservation needs the original media - so it'd be nice to investigate 
DRM regarding games released purely available either tied to more 
typical DRM (limited installs, disk checks on disks will will break, 
needing the manual, code wheels etc.), or those released purely using 
online methods or online DRM, tied to server architecture (slightly 
different, since the DRM cannot be ever worked around if the server 
simply isn't there!).

Kindle is a perfect example, as is the Microsoft DRM Music Store, which 
went offline, as well as multiplayer in games themselves when servers 
shut down with no alternatives available.

Newer examples include Command and Conquerer 4 announced as "always 
needing online play even in singleplayer" as with Starcraft 2's "cannot 
play off the internet (LAN) multiplayer", obviously made in the name of 
piracy, stat tracking and DRM.

Funny, really, since either people think these companies will existing 
in 20, 30 or 100 years to keep their servers running (at cost) to keep 
the DRM going, or that they'll release patches to remove DRM if they go 
bust (no they don't - testamount to allowing a firmware patch on a 
console to disable the "cannot be a copied disk" never being ever 
released ever), or that there will even be the internet as the game knew 
it in the future - we'll have to emulate IPv4 most likely, come the IPv6 
push (we already have to emulate IPX for certain games!), nevermind what 
happens far in the future, hehe.

So, I'll work on this at some point, some kind of information gathering 
- for preservationists to be aware of (with data if available), and try 
and get some info from the companies doing this kind of thing. I'm 
worried that "original media" will be pretty much "you need to connect 
constantly to the internet", which will make it nigh on impossible to 
preserve.

As for licences and selling and whatnot, I'm not a lawyer, but the 
companies seem to think they have it both ways - "selling" you something 
as well as "licensing" it. Most bizarre, sigh. (don't even get started 
on boilerplate and untested EULA's which stop many bits of preservation 
dead!).

Large area though, will need some work.

Andrew

Henry Lowood wrote:

> Andrew,

>

> GOG is also a download service.   I think DRM is an important issue, 

> but from a preservation standpoint, we need to start (I think) with 

> the original medium.  If what we are given is downloaded data, what 

> information do we have on the source of the data?  Is it legal to 

> distribute the titles in this fashion (for payment)? 

>

> A propos DRM, see the recent articles on Amazon and their Kindle 

> service.   Same problem.  It turns out that they are able to delete 

> e-books (Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm) from devices after the sales.  

> A rights issue emerged, so they reached out and deleted the content 

> (with a refund) from the Kindles of customers who had purchased those 

> titles.  In the U.S., printed books are governed by a first sale law 

> that allows you to do pretty much anything with a printed book you 

> buy, including reselling it.   With e-books, the purchase is governed 

> by a license, which is a completely different situation, in the sense 

> that the customer really does not own anything.

>

> So, while it is nice that GOG does not engage in stealthy DRM 

> practices, I would want to know more about where they get their data 

> and what the terms of sale are.

>

> Henry

>

> Andrew Armstrong wrote:

>> Man, no, not Steam, not for us preservationists! might as well 

>> suggest EA's download service, hoho...

>>

>> I've got to seriously suggest we do a paper or some research on the 

>> use of online DRM and DRM in general and how it basically makes our 

>> jobs impossible. :D I was going to do a basic post/wiki page on it, 

>> but finding actual concrete information on what DRM is applied, 

>> company policy and so forth is nearly impossible - all the news is 

>> bloody vague, a nightmare for research on a topic no company wants to 

>> literally come out with "WE OWN THE RIGHT TO STOP YOU USING OUR STUFF 

>> IMMEDIATELY". I perhaps will suggest this as a project to investigate 

>> - and go out journalistic-ly with this SIG's backing to get some 

>> information on all the DRM currently used. :)

>>

>> Good Old Games I featured on our news feed when it opened last year, 

>> by the way :) I've not had the chance to buy anything from it (I have 

>> tons of games left to play), but they are DRM free, which is awesome! 

>> I agree prices can be a bit heavy sometimes, but it looks like it'll 

>> be a good resource if it hangs around (and if it doesn't, anything 

>> you have downloaded won't magically go poof :) ).

>>

>> BTW, if no one knows about it (and I'm trying to contact them, but 

>> man is it slow), Liberated Games still has a catalogue of free games: 

>> http://liberatedgames.org/

>>

>> Andrew

>>

>> Rachel "Sheepy" Donahue wrote:

>>> There's also Steam :)

>>> http://store.steampowered.com/

>>>

>>> On Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:35:00 -0400, Devin Monnens 

>>> <dmonnens at gmail.com> wrote:

>>>

>>>> My friend just sent me this website that sells classic PC games for 

>>>> low

>>>> prices. I'm not sure how this relates to preservation, but it's 

>>>> great to see

>>>> a lot of the old titles still available. (Personally, I think some 

>>>> of the

>>>> prices should be lower though...)

>>>> http://www.gog.com/en/frontpage/

>>>>

>>>

>>>

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>

> -- 

> Henry Lowood

> Curator for History of Science & Technology Collections;

>      Film & Media Collections

> HRG, Green Library

> 557 Escondido Mall, Stanford University Libraries

> Stanford CA 94305-6004 USA

> http://www.stanford.edu/~lowood

> lowood at stanford.edu; 650-723-4602

>   

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