For the doomsaying that PC gaming is in it last throes, game publishers keep releasing games. Several publishers including Infinity Ward and Crytek blame piracy for low sales of their PC games, Call of Duty 4 and Crysis respectively. Thus publishers are packing their games with more and more restrictive and complex DRM, a surefire sales pitch to increase sales.

Electronic Arts released a PC-port of Mass Effect last month and users are already complaining they are being locked out of the game. The company restricts the game to only be installed three times and uninstalling it doesn’t reinstate an install. This is a step up from the proposed DRM which would have rechecked the game’s serial number every 10 days, requiring an internet connection to play a game that doesn’t require an internet connection. After the internet backlash, EA dropped the 10-day check, but made sure Mass Effect was still to difficult to be worth purchasing.

The upcoming game Spore is likely to have similar DRM.

The challenge for PC game publishers is not piracy, because pirates will pirate games. Fighting these pirates becomes an arms war of technology that the pirates constantly win. Publishers waste their time and money fighting them, and alienating paying customers at the same time.

Stardock takes a different approach. Their games contain no DRM and don’t require keeping the CD in the drive to play. Users with valid serial numbers get regular updates with rich lists of new features. Obviously pirates get their hands on Stardock’s games, but the publisher makes a significant profit with a loyal fan base and, shockingly, not spending so much money.

Brad Wardell, founder of Stardock writes:

Anyone who keeps track of how many PCs the “Gamer PC” vendors sell each year could tell you that it’s insane to develop a game explicitly for hard core gamers. Insane. I think people would be shocked to find out how few hard core gamers there really are out there. This data is available. So why are companies making games that require them to sell to 15% of a given market to be profitable? If you need to sell 500,000 of your game to break even and your game requires Pixel Shader 3 to not look like crap or play like crap, do you you really think that there are 50 MILLION PC users with Pixel Shader 3 capable machines who a) play games and b) will actually buy your game if a pirated version is available?

He goes on to explain why Stardock is successful without copy-protection.

When you develop for a market, you don’t go by the user base. You go by the potential customer base. That’s what most software companies do. They base what they want to create on the size of the market they’re developing for. But not PC game developers.

PC game developers seem to focus more on the “cool” factor. What game can they make that will get them glory with the game magazines and gaming websites and hard core gamers? These days, it seems like game developers want to be like rock stars more than businessmen. I’ve never considered myself a real game developer. I’m a gamer who happens to know how to code and also happens to be reasonably good at business.

Stardock games, like “Galactic Civilizations II sold 300,000 copies making 8 digits in revenue on a budget of less than $1 million” according to Wardell. Sins of a Solar Empire was the best-selling PC game of February, ahead of Call of Duty 4 and a World of Warcraft expansion.

Stardock is not praying for people to actually buy their games. They cater to a large enough market, spend an appropriate amount to make the game, and provide an on-going service to encourage people to pay for the game rather than pirate it. People pirate Stardock games, just like they’re pirating EA’s DRM-filled Mass Effect. But Stardock is making huge profits and not pissing off its paying customers. Revolutionary.

Konrad Zuse’s Z1 was the first program-controlled computer. Zuse developed the Z1 in 1938 in his parent’s living room in Berlin, using many of the modern conveniences of computing including a binary system and separation of storage. Zuse’s eventual Z3 is credited as the first functional, automatic, digital computer in 1941.

In 1981, a little company called IBM teamed up with Microsoft to create something called a personal computer.  And as Tandy president John Roach said, it’s not that significant.

Yes, IBM and Microsoft began the personal computing revolution with the $1,500 PC.  Microsoft included the first major release of MS-DOS, the influential operating system that gave uses a simple (at the time) way to make full use of their powerful 4.77 MHz processor.  Some geeks still use DOS to this day, feeling the world is better in black and white and hard to use.

The UNIVersal Automatic Computer, or UNIVAC, appeared in 1951 as the first commercial computer.  The United Status Census Bureau bought the first UNIVAC, and all its 13 metric tons and taking up 35.5 square meters.  Manufacturer Remington Rand sold 46 UNIVAC computers for more than $1 million each.

The UNIVAC proved its power when CBS used the computer to predict the winner of the 1952 presidential race.  Exit polls showed a landslide for Adlai Stevenson, but the UNIVAC predicted Dwight D. Eisenhower would win.  Newscasters Walter Cronkite and Charles Collingswood didn’t trust the computer and only announced the results late that night.  It turns out, the computer got the result right when the exit polls were wrong.  Something today’s newscasters could still stand to learn.

Computer viruses plague our frail hard drives like, well viruses.  The scary thought is that these viruses that can wreak so much havoc and mayhem are usual the creation of geeks like you.  More impressively, these viruses can provide jumps in programing and development.  Even now the lines between virus and spyware and helpful program are becoming tangled as the software is starting to mimic each others practices.  Not to say viruses are good, but progress is progress.  The likely first computer virus appearing in the early 1970s called Creeper.  It infected computers through modems posting text "I’M THE CREEPER : CATCH ME IF YOU CAN."  Viruses evolved throughout the years, mutating into harder-to-find-and-kill programs.  The term computer virus itself began in 1984, coined in a paper by Frederick Cohen as suggested by his teacher.

Computer viruses plague our frail hard drives like, well viruses.  The scary thought is that these viruses that can wreak so much havoc and mayhem are usual the creation of geeks like you.  More impressively, these viruses can provide jumps in programing and development.  Even now the lines between virus and spyware and helpful program are becoming tangled as the softwares are starting to mimic each others practices.  Not to say viruses are good, but progress is progress.  The likely first computer virus appearing in the early 1970s called Creeper.  It infected computers through modems posting text "I’M THE CREEPER : CATCH ME IF YOU CAN."  Viruses evolved throughout the years, mutating into harder-to-find-and-kill programs.  The term computer virus itself began in 1984, coined in a paper by Frederick Cohen as suggested by his teacher.

Forget about Republican versus Democrat, Pepsi versus Coke, and dogs versus cats. Geeks love our rivalries. We are ferociously loyal to one group over another and thing anyone who disagrees must be an idiot (which, in my opinion, they usually are). So here is, in my opinion, the best, geekiest, and most fun rivalries in all of geekdom. These rivalries must be going on currently (no Nintendo vs. Sega) and it must affect a significant group of geek, meaning Ewoks versus Care Bears will have to wait for another list.

7. Cheats vs. no cheats

Passwords. Hacks. Mods. Game genie. All tools of the trade for people who want to beat the game or just skip a really hard level. But is this ethical? Does reading a walkthrough count as cheating? Who are you cheating? Yourself or the game? Message boards across the internet when asked for passwords will sometimes have users who refuse to tell on the grounds that cheating in video games is wrong. It lessens the experience. Why waste your money on a game you aren’t going to play. Well, what should you do is (for the answer, please hold R while pressing UP DOWN RIGHT UP UP A B LEFT LEFT UP).

6. Piracy vs. no piracy

Yes, another ethical debate. For some, piracy is a way to sticking it to the Man, getting lots of stuff free and easy, or maybe just trying something out before spending the money. To others, it’s stealing, wrong, and immoral. If you want to watch a movie, listen to a song, or play a game, spend the money. It’s the only way to keep more of these movies, songs, and games coming. But neither answer is as simple as the downloading on IRC (it’s not simple, if you weren’t sure). And while lawyers try to figure out the legality of piracy and file-sharing, the practice still causes ire among geeks who are easy to ire.

5. Console vs. PC

In the on-going battle for the hearts of video gamers worldwide, the television and personal computer have been fighting the longest battle. Which works better: Controlling your character with a mouse and keyboard or a home console gamepad? Which has better graphics? Which is simply more fun? In truth, the answer to the first two questions is PC. The mouse and keyboard more often than not provide more precise and customizable control (though it’s far more complex to learn) and PC graphics will long out pace video game consoles. But consoles have many advantages from always knowing your game will play on your system (no processing power requirements), simplicity in set-up and often playability, and cost. And thus far, the market is choosing home consoles over PC by billions more dollars. 2006 showed gamers spent $6.5 billion on consoles and handhelds versus $970 million on PC games. But the battle is far from over, especially as more games are released on both consoles and PCs. Then we might see who really wins.

4. Open source vs. commercial

It’s the David and Goliath battle. Should I use Microsoft Word or Open Office…or maybe even Google Docs? What about hacking my iPhone to use user made software or should I wait for the official releases? And then there’s even those piracy questions, like should I use these open source Bittorrent programs or video game emulators or use iTunes and video game consoles. This all comes down to freedom of software choice. But don’t expect others to like it. It all seems innocent until you can’t share your files. That’s when bitterness becomes anger. Yeah, you know.

3. PC vs. Mac

Ah, this one separates the coders from the designers. Macs pride themselves on simplicity and a long understanding of being better with visual and video design software. PCs, while more complex (a lot more), offer more programs and a mountain of exclusive video games. Hardcore PC gamers will tell you there is no option other than a PC and they’re right. But Apple looks prettier. And does more faster. And you can escape from Microsoft’s Window’s loving clutches. Leaving you more time for Photoshopping. Doesn’t that make you feel better?

2. Nintendo vs. Sony vs. Microsoft

You know a geek fight’s big when it gets mainstream media attention. The video game console wars between the Nintendo Wii, Sony Playstation 3, and Microsoft Xbox 360 haven’t been this fierce since a little company called Atari ran the industry. And that might have not been this bad. The video game industry means a lot more to more people these days. The multibillion dollar industry can be quite the cash cow when mixing in game licensing fees, in-game advertising, and online downloads all of which didn’t exist in the 1980s. And that’s just what the companies fight over. The fans often barely have enough to buy one video game console. So when they buy that console, they want to validate that choice and will fight anyone who challenges them. Preferable in a battle of Street Fight II. That ends up on every system ever made, doesn’t it?

1. Marvel vs. DC

Yes, this little rival of comic book universes is one of the most rabid, cruel, and longest running rivalries in geek history. You either love Marvel or DC. You might like characters in each universe. A Marvel fan might even pick up a Superman comic on occasion. But each comic fan has his or her loyalties with only one. DC Comics is original universe…but Marvel perfected the comic universe. DC is too corporate…Marvel’s too corporate. Batman is the best character…Spider-Man is the best character. The back and forth is endless and likely will never end. The debates over the best comic book company and comic book universe only makes reading comics more fun.

Every Monday, I force my opinion on you, my fearless readers, ranking the seven of something geeky.

Are you as jealous as I am? Geekologie shows off the unattractive looking but still irresistible Microwulf Supercomputer, a staggering technical display by Calvin College professor Joel Adams and senior Tim Brom. This mess of wires, plastic, and metal boasts 26 gigaflops for less than $2,500 in 2006, all running on one power outlet. Today, the same set up would cost $1,256 (you still need one power outlet). ClusterMonkey has a detailed overview of the computer as well as Microwulf’s official site.