We've been lucky with the Trainz franchise to have it remain viable for as long as we have. This is a rare animal in today's throw away, toss away society regardless of DRM or not. In my collection of software, and computer hardware, for example, I have piles upon piles of floppies, CDs, DVDs, and downloads, of programs, games, utilities, and even operating systems, which are no longer useful. That's only the software mind you. The stacks of various old hard disk controllers, video cards, sound cards, floppy controllers, SCSI controllers, and SCSI hard drives isn't so small either. The most expensive of these, the SCSI drives, work fine and so do the SCSI controllers, but there is no hardware to plug them into. At near $400 apiece for the
9GB hard disk,
paltry by today's standards, it's kind of difficult to pull them apart for their magnets and bearings.
With that in mind, I look at it this way. This isn't a perfect system we're dealing with here, but at least what we have is
still working. At this point we never know what the future will bring, especially with computers and software. Trainz, as we know it, all parts included as we have them, maybe 100% obsolete sooner than later because there's no supporting operating system, let alone the hardware to run it.
DRM as we see it was instituted after the DLS theft. People have disagreed with this statement, but it was pretty obvious when that occurred things changed into the direction we have now. We also have a user community that asked for protections for their retail products, and although the system is flawed, it works, and as always there's room for improvement.
Instead of just kvetching about the problems, we should ask that these bothersome things get addressed. Perhaps if we come up with a concrete, well etched in sandstone rather than concrete, list that we can present to Tony Hilliam and the rest of the Brew Crew to look at, maybe some of those suggestions will be acted on. We already have a start with the ability to edit built-in and DLC routes, but there are other things that can go further than that.
But all in all. We have to keep in mind as much as this has been a long ride, a lifetime for many users here in some cases, and a century in computer software, we need to enjoy it while it lasts because like everything in the real world, nothing is forever. DRM or not.