The Crypto Piracy War for Hogwarts

As a long-lost spin-off game of world-class IP Harry Potter, "Hogwarts Relics" has become the first blockbuster work in the game circle this year without suspense.

As of February 10, "Hogwarts Relics" has set a number of records: the number of online viewers on the overseas live streaming platform Twitch exceeded 1.3 million, and the number of online players on the Steam platform exceeded 800,000. These numbers, even in the entire console/console gaming circle, are the number one scores.

However, behind the number of tens of millions of players, rampant piracy is also a serious problem that cannot be ignored.

Considering the enduring influence of Harry Potter around the world, there will always be players who want to try it early but are not willing to pay for it. In just a few days since the game's release, thousands of offline versions of the game have been traded on domestic e-commerce platforms alone, allowing the majority of second-tier dealers to make a lot of money.

Strictly speaking, offline games are not pirated games in the usual sense, but a way to spread the vulnerability of the Steam account sharing mechanism, after all, "Hogwarts" uses the industry's mainstream Denuvo anti-tampering technology, that is, the "D encryption" in the mouth of domestic players, this anti-cracking technology has always been known for its strong performance, and now there are few "folk masters" on the planet who can break the umbrella of D encryption in a short time, it stands to reason that "Hogwarts Relics" It is unlikely that there will be serious piracy in the near future.

But the reality is that the cracking of Hogwarts Relics is going quite smoothly and with great profile. Earlier this month, Empress, the most prestigious cracking organization in the overseas cracking game circle, came forward, and its founder, Empress, officially declared war on Warner Games, the publisher of the game, with a letter of war, and the tone was rampant and, and the spearhead was directed at the protection lock D encryption of the genuine game.

Unlike the pirate peddlers who everyone shouted at, the Empress's cracked manifesto was deeply popular. In this debate over piracy, wind reviews seem to have begun to fall to everyone's most shameful piracy, just like the "chicken or egg" problem, the dispute between genuine and pirated has returned to the original starting point.

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Although Hogwarts Legacy has won a lot of praise from fans of the series, the optimization of the game has been slightly problematic. According to the feedback of most players so far, even if their computer meets the recommended configuration requirements, the game will still have significant frame drops in most scenes, and poor optimization will ruin a lot of valuable gaming experience.

The factors that affect the game's frame rate are numerous and complex, and no one can guarantee where the Hogwarts Relics optimization efforts have overturned. It's just that judging from the advance statement of the queen group before the release of the game, this group of experienced professionals has long foreseen the current situation of the game optimization collapse, because countless precedents have repeatedly demonstrated the fact that D encryption will affect the performance of the game to some extent.

The frame rate performance of the early genuine (left) and cracked (right) versions of Resident Evil 8

Even though Denuvo has repeatedly stated that D encryption does not interfere with the gaming experience, games that have adopted this anti-piracy technology today still receive a large number of undeserved bad reviews. The "Dead Space Remake" released some time ago has been praised by the media and players, but many players have been dissuaded due to the performance of the game, among which the impact of D encryption is to blame.

Dead Space Remastered is not alone. More recently, games such as "Ganymede Protocol" and "Cursed Land" have different degrees of optimization problems, and perhaps it is news that games that use D encryption do not have any problems.

Game manufacturers' measures to protect the genuine are understandable, but although D encryption is safe and reliable, it is not unbreakable, many manufacturers will choose to remove D encryption independently after a period of game release, or for the sake of player experience, or unwilling to pay additional "protection fees" to Denuvo behind D encryption, in any case, the game at this time has often been cracked, D encryption is defending against whom, everyone is not clear.

"Dying Light 2" was cracked half a year ago, and the game did not officially remove D encryption until earlier this month

How long D encryption can last depends on its own difficulty of cracking and the technology of crackers. After multiple versions of the change, today's D encryption can keep most confident challengers out — but the Empress is an obvious exception.

In fact, since last August, D encryption has been strengthened again, and according to crackers, they believe that today's cracking difficulty is equivalent to "going to hell", and if you have to give the difficulty of cracking an adjective to modify it, the word "crazy" is the most appropriate.

And all this came to an end with the Empress's cracking of "Monster Hunter Rising: Dawn". On February 3, with the game's cracking resources and a disdainful attitude towards D encryption, the empress flamboyantly issued her declaration of victory.

After mercilessly humiliating Capcom and Denuvo, the Empress pointed to Warner Games' Hogwarts Relics and threatened to complete the crack within 10 days, which had not been completed in the previous 4 months.

The aforementioned "Resident Evil 8" and "Dying Light 2" are both solved by the Empress Group

Risking illegal arrest, single-handedly defy the rules of the entire gaming industry and single-handedly fight the infamous D encryption. For a while, the Empress has once again become a star in the game circle, but who she really is and what her purpose is for trying the law by example has always been a mystery.

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Empress, who began her cracking career in 2014, is one of the few wizards in the world who can crack D encryption. Considering the legal risks of cracking itself, although the empress has left a lot of personal information on the Internet, whether her words are true or false remains to be verified and discussed.

For example, the empress claims to be 25 years old and a "beautiful water" beauty. Her path to game cracking stemmed from a dream a few years ago, and her credo was "mixing philosophy with code." She says she hates men and believes that 99% of Indians are mentally retarded, even if she has never been to India... The Empress's words and deeds all reveal her unusual personality, and geniuses and madmen may really be only one step apart.

In any case, no one can question the Empress's business ability, she seems to have a job in real life that can support herself, and she has achieved her current position in the field of game cracking in her spare time. At first, the empress also knew how to huddle and share her experience in cracking with everyone, until in recent years, most of her peers were forced to give up this part-time job due to life, and now she has to work alone and do this shady job alone.

If you ask the Empress why she has been cracking the game for years, she will probably reply to you with a logic system she has figured out: "The essence of genuine games is to rent rather than buy out, and the existence of D encryption is harmful to the player's experience." ”

Speaking of which, she will probably also move out of her philosophical view of the void to export.

However, the actual actions of the empress are somewhat inconsistent with her own philosophy.

For example, in "Monster Hunter Rise: Dawn", which was just cracked the other day, the queen ended with "How dare you sell 99% of useless DLC for $450?" "Blame Capcom for her reason, but we all know that Monster Hunter Rise: Dawn doesn't have serious optimization issues, and expensive in-game purchases don't seem to be compatible with the D encryption she hates.

In fact, the queen's game cracking list is casual and utilitarian, and she will focus on Red Dead Redemption: Redemption 2, which has long been cracked, just because she is not used to the style of game developers; She also adjusts her focus as needed, as long as someone is willing to give her more than $500 in tips. To put it bluntly, those lofty ideals can make way for these two things: your mood and your dollar.

It sounds somewhat funny to let crackers pay for the game they want to crack, and it is, the queen's free-spirited personality, god-nagging philosophy, aggressive tone and clear price marking have made her reputation in the cracking community not very good over the years - until the advent of "Hogwarts" completely changed this situation, and now look at the relevant forums, full of worship and respect for the queen.

Of course, such praise is related to the Empress's business ability, her strength is obvious to all, and her efficiency is well known, but the more critical reason may be that "Hogwarts' Relic" appeared on her cracked list.

The demand for piracy behind this controversial hit game is far more than normal, and the source of all contradictions points to the original author of "Harry Potter", J· K. Rowling.

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In 2019, the UK government held a call for comments on the "transgender policy". One of the provisions of this policy stipulates that citizens can determine their biological sex according to their psychological sex, even without sex reassignment surgery.

After the draft was introduced, it set off a heated discussion in the UK, among which, J· K. Rowling insists that biological sex should not be confused with psychological gender. Since then, Rowling has been labeled "anti-transgender," and the controversy surrounding her remarks has lasted for four years.

The "anti-eyes" of the actors of the "Harry Potter" movie and the absence on the 20th anniversary of the series directly confirm the seriousness of this matter overseas. On the game side, there are also many contradictions intensified by "Hogwarts' Relics".

In principle, "Hogwarts Relics" did not invite Rowling to participate in the production or executive production, and this work can be regarded as a series of derivative works unrelated to the original author. It's just that once the world view of "Harry Potter" is borrowed, it will always bring such a problem: the revenue generated by the game will inevitably flow into the hands of the original author Rowling in the form of copyright shares.

In this context, the European and American game circles are not destined to be peaceful in recent days: before the release of the game, the PS5 section of the foreign game forum ResetEra and Reddit decided to completely ban the discussion of "Hogwarts" and Rowling's related topics;

During the unbanning of the game's media review, foreign media GamesHub called on everyone not to buy the game in the review article, on the one hand, the gender controversy mentioned above, on the other hand, there is no exquisite design that must be played in the game;

In the live broadcast section of "Hogwarts", the same incident is constantly being staged, many anchors refuse to broadcast this work, and even female anchors are frequently harassed by malicious barrages during the live broadcast, so that she has to repeatedly emphasize that the game in her hand is through free channels, and she has not paid any copyright tax for Rowling.

The streamer also raised donations for an LGBTQ+ organization

Boycott is boycott, these players who are dissatisfied with the original author also know in their hearts that the excellent quality of "Hogwarts" itself and the restoration of the original work make this work a must-miss boutique for fans. Since paying money is against their own insistence on belief, piracy has naturally become the only choice.

The original intention of the Empress to choose to crack "Hogwarts Relics" is obviously not dissatisfaction with Rowling's remarks, but now that she enjoys the treatment of the stars and moons, she probably will not reject the worship of these new players. It's just that the ten-day period is approaching, and there is really not much time left for the empress.

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The dispute between genuine and pirated copies of games has existed since ancient times, especially after the advent of D encryption, and the related controversy is even more noisy.

Recently, the masterpieces that landed on the PC platform have a clear trend of increasing configuration requirements, and the graphical progress of most of these games is not consistent with their improvement in configuration requirements. These games don't necessarily use D encryption, but vendors often leave the optimization work to emerging technologies such as DLSS, neglecting what should be done by themselves.

The burden of D encryption on game operation will indeed make the majority of innocent players become veritable "genuine victims", but those piracy behaviors that hold high the banner of "justice" are unlikely to have much positive impact on the game industry. The removal of the negative optimization caused by D encryption may not make many pirate players turn to the original, the queen's high talk is so insignificant in front of her own mood and money, even if the existence of piracy is eliminated, game sales will not show a substantial leap.

With the increasing chaos of the Internet environment, the dispute between genuine and pirated games has escalated again, and when the demand for piracy surges, the conversion rate of pirated players has become insignificant, and genuine and pirated copies have once again become the primary stage of binary opposition.

If the Empress can really complete the D encryption cracking so quickly, this anti-piracy technology will go further in the foreseeable future, and the game experience of genuine players will only continue to decline. No matter what happens in the future, it is always the player who gets hurt - the genuine player.