Hines is sympathetic to the complaints of legitimate gamers. That's why there isn't anything particularly intrusive in Bethesda's PC products. "You know, I saw the Penny Arcade guys did a number of guest editorials from guys like [Kotaku's Brian] Crecente and [Gamasutra's] Chris Remo," said Hines. "It's not easy. Being a consumer, I totally see it from the consumer side. You know, get out of my way and let me play the game, right? I paid you money for this, I deserve to play the game with no barriers to entry and no frustrations."

Attempting to treat their players as legitimate consumers as widely as possible has its drawbacks, however. It becomes difficult for Bethesda to determine who is and isn't someone who paid for their game. This becomes especially distressing for the studio's customer support division. "The amount of times we see stuff coming through where it's like, the resolution to the problem was [the] guy had a pirated copy of the game..." said a visibly frustrated Hines. "The amount of money we spend supporting people who didn't pay us for the game in the first place...it's f-ing ludicrous. We talk to other developers, guys who are [like] 'Yeah, it's a third, it's 50% of our [customer] support.'"

But there's a careful line for all parties. If someone calls in for support and seems to be experiencing a problem isolated to an illegitimate copy of the game, it's not in Bethesda's best interest to take a gamble and call them out. "The worst possible thing you can do when someone calls and they're having a problem with the game is put them in a position where you're making them feeling like they better prove they have a legitimate copy," said Hines. "Really bad response." That doesn't mean they won't call someone out, thought.