10 Great Video Game Anti-Piracy Revenge Plots

Gary’s Mod – Shaded Polygons

Perhaps one of the most ingenious ways to catch video game pirates is to have them turn themselves in without knowing it. Enter Gary’s Mod, a seemingly innocuous title that brings up an unknown error if you pirate the game. The actual text that pops up reads, “Engine Error: Unable to shade polygon normals.” The catch is that this isn’t a real in-game error.

This message will only pop up if you pirate the game, which makes players effectively announce to the world that they have a cracked version whenever they search for help. Those looking for polygon shading fixes on the game’s forums were met with a permanent ban.