This is the worst sort of DRM, as there are always going to be security holes in it, and if millions of gamers have SecuROM or Gamer Shield or whatever installed on their computer, there are going to be crackers developing programs that can obuse those security holes over the internet to gain control of your computer, usually for the purpose of using your computer and internet connection in a bot farm to do things like perform DoS attacks and distributed-cracking. They can also be used to monitor the game files and running programs to try to determine if the user is trying to alter anything they shouldn't be. This can lead to people that like to muck around with their computer hardware being unable to play a game that claims they've run out of activations.
Typically they'll be used to generate a profile of your hardware/software and manage your activations, such that say adding a new video card will be detected as requiring a new activation. You might have heard of these referred to as Trojans, and it's true to a certain extent, as they typically are installed with elevated admin priviledges which allow them to muck around with system files and even the contents in RAM, and are designed to be hidden from the user.
OS based, where a hidden utility program will install on the computer, and these come in a lot of different flavors, including SecuROM, TAGES, Gamer Shield etc. GFWL and Rockstar Social Club both fit this bill. Nowadays the game will typically require an online connection to check with a database of pregenerated keys.Īccout based, where you have to log in to an online account before playing the game.
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In the old days the game would have a built-in algorithm to check if the code was valid, and it was pretty easy to create serial number generators for an infite number of unlocks. Activation based, where the first time a game runs it requires a code or key to activate and run.