The next update released for the Impulse digital distribution platform will include something called "Goo," a system that publisher Stardock hopes will "pave the way to solving some of the common complaints of digital distribution."
In essence, Goo (Game Object Obfuscation) is a digital rights management scheme that both allows games to be tied to an individual (as opposed to a single computer's hardware configuration), as well as offers gamers the ability to resell digitally downloaded games that they have purchased.
The explanation for how Goo accomplishes that feat is a bit technical, so I've included it below.
An explanation of Goo's DRM scheme courtesy Stardock's official press release:
Game Object Obfuscation (Goo), is a tool that allows developers to encapsulate their game executable into a container that includes the original executable plus Impulse Reactor, Stardock's virtual platform, into a single encrypted file.
When a player runs the game for the first time, the Goo'd program lets the user enter in their email address and serial number which associates their game to that person as opposed to a piece of hardware like most activation systems do. Once validated, the game never needs to connect to the Internet again.
As a result, players are able to resell downloaded games simply by transferring a title's license to another owner.
It's either extremely timely or well planned that this announcement would arrive one day after Valve unveiled Steam's scheme to "make DRM obsolete." In case you missed it, that led to my miniature rant on the innate problems of DRM.
While I don't think Stardock's Goo scheme is perfect either -- my views on any sort of digital rights management lean toward the anarcho-socialist side of the spectrum -- I'm quite impressed that it allows gamers to resell digital titles.
As a realist I accept that publishers will always push some form of DRM to protect their products, and so far Stardock's is easily the most polite solution anyone has shown me.
"Goo" is scheduled to launch on April 7 as part of Impulse's Phase 3 update.
Image: johnnycorduroy/Flickr
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