For my next game, I want to give people the option of purchasing & downloading the game via the internet. I don''t want to handle credit-card processing, and I don''t really want to handle the hosting/downloading, either. I know there are services like Digital River that can do this, but I''m concerned about piracy. A customer would buy and download the game, probably as a single executable file, 10-50 MB... it would be so easy for them to email that file to a friend or whatever. As I see it, the solution to this comes down to one thing: being able to customize the executable file that each customer downloads. In my case, because my game is somewhat massively multiplayer, I could simply give each downloaded file a unique ID number, which my master server could track. I don''t know if this type of per-transaction customization is possible with services like Digital River, though. Any suggestions on this? Do you guys know of existing commercial games that have had success with digital distribution? Any ideas are appreciated.

Well if you were to make each executable file with a unique ID, the ID''s will end up spreading.

By allowing only one ID to be on the server at a time, that would limit many of the pirated copies from being used.

If the game ends up being a success, it would require a lot of overhead and would slow down the time it would take for users to get their copies. An alternative would be to have an application on the server that when a new order is processed, it writes to the executable copy the player will be downloading with the unique ID. But then you mentioned you didn''t want to hastle with the hosting.

(To myself: ) "Hey dumbass, try reading the other threads next time before you start rambling!"



Hehe, I just checked out swreg.org, mentioned here. At a glance, I see that they support "keycodes" per transaction, and I imagine their competition (other, similar services) offers this, too. Cool.

Uncaged, lemme explain more about how I would use the unique ID (keycode)...

When a client connects to the master server, it provides (1) its ID and also (2) some data about the game state -- for example, it may indicate the user's current progress through the game, the name of the user's avatar, the user's high scores on various levels, etc. All this data would probably be compacted into a checksum value. A database on the master server would tie the client ID and the checksum together. Then, the next time the client connects to the master server, it would provide (1) its ID, (2) its new checksum (because the game state has probably changed), and (3) the previous checksum, saved on the client from the last time it connected to the master server. The previous checksum would have to match the checksum stored in the master server's database.

Anyway, thanks for your input, Uncaged. As you say, I may still end up having to host the download, but I'm happy, at least, to see that there are services like swreg.org that can "sell" keycodes.

Edited by - Eric on April 15, 2001 7:58:39 PM

If you ask me, but this is really only me, I wouldn''t care much about piracy. In the end EVERY protection can be cracked.
I personally have NEVER heard of a (normal) shareware game to be pirated.

If you have a online game why don''t you let them pay by account every month and give away the game for free?

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Shareware games do get pirated. I have closed down at least half a dozen warez sites with RockyRacers on them. And that game needed a key generator, the pirates made one though.

http://www.positech.co.uk

Two points

1. Make the executable a standard one and just provide the code via email. That way you know the email of the owner of that code.

2. Store the game state info on the server so that users can''t hack the game code to improve their game state while offline.

Dan Marchant
Obscure Productions