[casual_games] Copy Protection

[Joe Pantuso]

Hey all,

We've been kicking around the idea of featuring some single-player games in
addition to the multi-player only approach.  This would allow us to increase
the number of titles available quicker etc.  Before we get too far down that
path I thought I'd ask for opinions on one of the areas that concerns me.

With the multi-player model all our games out for test and in the pipeline
follow the protection of the game is pretty simple; without the server end
the game is a door stop so it is impossible to pirate it.  If we accept
existing single-player games though, these are essentially stand-alone.
Some sort of imbedded or wrapping protection technology would have to be
used to enforce trial/paid behavior switching and prevent casual copying.

So I ask;

1) What is 'typical' industry practice on this now? I know at least a couple
companies out there have their own proprietary wrappers.  It seemed like at
least a few people resent being forced into using them over stuff they
wanted to do?

2) What wrapper or other system would you want to use ideally if you could
use anything you want?  We can be pretty flexible since we're starting anew
here.

3) My personal inclination is to offer a combination of an API that would
allow the game to do things like check whether it should run as trial or
paid, display score ladder info in-game, deliver score info at end of game,
etc. and a wrapper that obfuscates the main exe and ensures it cannot run
unless the TG client has authenticated the users rights to play.  Do you
like that or do you see some hassle with that?

Thanks
-J

Joe Pantuso - CEO
TrayGames, LLC
www.traygames.com
Online multi-player casual games community
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