It would be addressed if the rights owners are still in business and invested in their IP. And, of course, I am against piracy - that goes without saying. But no DRM scheme has managed to deter pirates one iota. What it manages to do is to make DRM-protected games unplayable down the road - just take The Moment of Silence as an example. Due to the Starforce protection it came with, legitimate owners can no longer install the game if they use a more recent OS. So the only functional copy one can get out there is the pirate one!

So "all this bitching about DRM" is due to the fact that many people believe that DRM is not just useless, but harmful.

Don't like DRM? Up your pledge to a boxed copy, you bums. hahaha.

Steam does suck though. When Gaben steps down, I bet you they'll enforce monthly fees like Playstation Plus.

Quite right. It's just naive marketing, and it won't stop at all piracy (no-cd, cracks, serials etc.). It a sign of distrust, that also scares away people that simply buy the games they like (just see the various AG forums over the years). Being addicted, I buy every new adventure game, but I have never bought a game with DRM. (internet) Activation keys are also a sign of distrust, for it makes an external check possible, and in stead one can include such a key in the game box, as some games did. That's a sign of trust, for it shows it is expected that the key isn't handed over to third parties.

Why would that eliminate the DRM?

It wouldn't.

Exactly! :D

Honestly, I don't think so. Schafer has been much more prevalent in the public eye with Psychonauts, Costume Quest, Stacking, etc. that if he announced his return to point and click right now it still would be huge. Maybe not $3.3 million huge at this point, but at least $2 million huge. Of course one can argue that without DFA blowing kickstarter wide open the other projects would either not happen or not be funded as well.

if theres two hornet-nest issues in gaming its: DLC and DRM.
Why oh why did they have to provoke both.

Honestly, i think all this PM nonsense is because they havnt completely decided on the release format details, theres nothing wrong with that. Whats wrong is they took it to private messages with unclear conflicting statements, whacking that hornets nest several time.

like i said, perfect storm: combination of his fame in different genres, in different time periods, the support from notch, but also because it hadnt been done before, giving it a magical exception to the rule. And i guarentee you DFA wouldv been scrutinized like crazy if it wasnt "the breakthrough project." My proof? its still going to be scrutinized like crazy, except only after the game comes out.

DRM aside, I hope that Chris and Aaron will take the time to take part in the Kickstarter forum during their campaign. If you look at Jane, she's put in effort to maintain an active dialogue with her fans, which makes her (IMO) really likeable. I _want_ her to succeed, because she's a great designer, of course, but also a lot because she's nice and approachable. These guys are more elusive so far (which has only been one day, granted!), and therefore also come across as more aloof (even if that's not the case at all). If they make an effort to mingle directly with their backers a bit - if only to toss in a short message now and then to show that they're around and interested - I suspect their popularity will grow.

On the other hand, Jane is struggling to reach $400k despite all her video updates and forum posts, so what do I know... :P

I agree. Jane had a great PR strategy. She made herself available for interviews, live chats, Q&A's, a reddit AMA, what have you. That was probably partly engendered by Pinkerton's fundraising trend, however. I expect that if Tex's slows down appreciably in the near future, CJ & AC will probably follow Jane's example.

thats a good point. They might not be ready for an update, but instead of taking it to PM's they should be talking about this in the comments section.

Exactly. I don't think the silent approach is doing them any favours. Better to just jump in with a quick "Hey guys - we know you're concerned and are trying to work something out!" in the forum. Who knows, it might make the grumpy ones less grumpy.

They just made an official post so everyone can relax:

Hello Backers!

We just want to make one thing very clear. We are indeed planning to have the new Tex Murphy game "Project Fedora" DRM free. We don't know where the communication errors began, but you may quote us on the fact that we are DRM - Free.

Thank you guys for the support!

Official word from Aaron Conners and Chris Jones.

I'm not a big anti-DRM person, but as a backer I do wish they'd spend my money on something that contributes to the game instead of wasting it on DRM. Not because I don't want them to protect their IP, but because it's futile. It's like spending money to make the game box fire resistant. It's not going to work and it's not benefitting the player. So I hope that if they insist on using DRM they go with Steam, and not spend money on a custom system.

Wow, great news. I hope these communication difficulties (this is the second one already) will not cost them too many (potential) backers.

Yeah, a little bump on the road. Forgotten by tomorrow I'd say.

This is simply not true. Regardless of ideal intent, DRM is not expected to PREVENT piracy, but rather to delay it. Most people buy games in the first couple months they're out. If you can come up with a protection scheme that fends off pirates for that long (which many have, in fact) then you've accomplished your goal.

That said, this new Tex game isn't planned to have DRM and I have no idea why anyone would assume it would. They've issued a statement clarifying the matter, but frankly, having people pay for a game before it exists is the best DRM ever invented, so I don't think we really need to worry about any of these games having DRM besides maybe Steam.

Wow, cant believe how upset people are. I just want the game.

New update, in case you've missed it.

Game is DRM free. Relax Chicken Little!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...a/posts/228532