Join us for a Grand Tour of Teh Stupid that are Publishers. Get your free cup of nerdrage at the entrance and hop on the bandwagon as we explore a new all time low for a publisher, never before seen levels of paranoia and customer rape guarantied! And todays winner is Ubisoft with Assassins Creed 2! Taken straight from Wikipedia:The Windows version, scheduled to be released in March 2010, caused some controversy for it's use of DRM that requires that users be always connected to the internet. If one loses one's internet connection while playing the game, all progress made since the last save is lost. Now this is some anti-piracy concept right there. Not only do you have to activate your game, no, you have to be connected to Ubisoft's Annoy-honest-customers-today service all the time. And if you loose you internet connection for some reason all progress is lost. Awesome! Please bend forward dear user. Sorry, it might sting a little, we are fresh out of lube! But if you are going to screw the customer you might want to take it one step further: Let's take out some random chapters in the middle of the game and deliver them as DLC. Oops, sorry, we can't include them in the Xbox release as planned due to time constraints. Feel free to download them later for $5 each! However, you didn't honestly think Ubisoft would stop there, did you? Nope, it's getting better! Now after the customer has been properly prodded and poked and milked for every last cent he is worth, what could a publisher probably do to make it worse, you will ask. Well, they can try to blackmail the press making sure their game gets a "very good" result in the tests: A German magazine, Computer Bild Spiele, reported that the game's publishers offered to provide a pre-release copy of the game if the magazine would guarantee a review score of "very good". The magazine rejected the request and instead opted to delay their review. Please stay tuned for our next installment of: "How deep can a publisher sink?" I'm sure you don't have to wait for long...
Ubisoft's new DRM method is still preferable to Starforce and SecuROM copy protection. But don't get me wrong, it only nudges the "buy-meter" from "Never ever" to "Never" .
// huh, did my post just vanish? Starforce installs an actual driver on your system. Starforce is undoubtedly the most horrible thing that was ever unleashed on an honest customer. Even Steve Bauman from GPG agrees there . While SecuROM does not install a driver, it does put files on the system for the decryption of the CD/DVD signatures etc. SecuROM can and will cause problems on systems where 'explicit congestion notification' is activated in Windows Vista, where certain disk mounting software is running or where certain debugging software is installed, even though you have a legal copy of the game. Some games do not uninstall SecuROM properly, so you have to use the SecuROM Removal Tool. Additionally SecuROM online requires both CD/DVD validation and online activation. Some publishers even restrict the number of activations you can make on one system, or restrict you to one system in general etc. As I said, Ubisoft's way is still horrible, but at least it's not SecuROM or Starforce. // edit: something is wrong with the forum, apparently I can post in the past now
SecuROM and Starforce are just relatively annoying, and at least do make you play, maybe after some reboot or such. This system on the other hand: 1. cuts you out if you don't have Internet 2. cuts you out if your Internet connection is unstable 3. if the servers are in maintainence, you can't play 4. if the game server is shut down, you can't even start the game 5. if for some reason you aren't authenticated, you can't play 6. if for some reason your account screws up, you can't play 7. forces you to keep your Internet connection on and busy for anything 8. whatever wrong happens your game shuts down and your progress since the last save is lost 9. probably doesn't let you use the game on more PCs, not at the same time at least 10. it's another step towards the disappearance of property, as you can't use the game without Ubisoft's consent Do I have to continue? :roll:
I've never been a fan of DRM. I think it generally screws honest people and doesn't actually stop piracy. I vehemently fought against any form of DRM on the projects I've worked on (and been overruled every time from the publisher side). That being said I do think that piracy has hurt PC gaming. Part of it is the industry's fault for the ballooning budgets. It really does cost a lot of money to make these games because of the man hours involved. This means that sales have to be high just to pay for the game development.
I still think: The ultimate form of DRM is the kind Mass Effect employed on the star map. Except make it clear that it's not a bug. Like I suggested for SupCom2: At the start of a game, have the ACU start playing "You are a pirate" and then blow up 10 seconds later and quit to desktop.
Yup, it certainly did. On the other hand publishers drive even the honest customers to piracy these days. I simply will never buy a SecuRom locked game with limited installations. Doesn't matter if I can get them back by unistalling. That's a 100% no go for me. Same with the need to have an internet connection to play singleplayer. Unlocking the game is fine by me but I want to be able to play when my internet is down or something. I think Stardock has a pretty smart solution with their DRM "GOO". It encrypts the exe but you can play offline once you have unlocked your game IIRC. Easy, unintrusive, doest install drivers or malware and is as secure (or even more) than other options. Another point that is annoying IMO are too many different systems in one game. Best Examples: Dow2 and GTA4. I don't want to be forced to register with 2 or 3 different services to play a game. It won't be long before you have to register with iTunes and install the Google and Yahoo toolbar... It's ironic but these days I almost spend as much time finding out which copy protections are used as which features are in a game. Back in the day I would simply pick up a game that looks nice and interesting in my local shop. Now I search Wikipedia, forums and gaming sites to find out what nonsense publishers came up with this time. There is a long list of games I didn't buy because I considered the copy protection intrusive or annoying. However, the worst thing is that it doesn't help one bit against pirates. I bet Assassins Creed 2 will be pirated as any other new game. And then there is always the possiblity that Ubisoft shuts down the server, your internet is down or whatever. Good thing I'm not a big AC fan...
I'll be completely honest here. After I read about what they were pulling with AC2 I got mad. I then proceeded to the nearest torrent tracker and searched for it just to see hundreds of xbox seeds. I had forgotten the PC version wasn't released yet. No doubt as we approach the launch it will join the list. Now I'm admitting that to make 2 points. 1) The darling of publishers, the console version, is being pirated just fine. 2) I don't pirate games anymore; haven't in many years. I'm not a teen with no money, I have no excuse, I can afford to buy what I play. Yet I was ready to just copy it outright and probably would have. All because I was mad, which is certainly no excuse. I have since changed my mind and opted to reward this decision by blacklisting it outright. I don't even care if its a good game now I wont play it. Now if that was my initial reaction I've got to assume there are many thousands more who will actually follow through on that impulse. This is DRM that will result in increased piracy and lost sales. It's a sad thing when the pirates can offer a superior gaming experience over the publisher. Publishers have got to turn that around the other way.
QFT! Another important point to me is if I can still play the game in 5 years from now. I have plenty of great old games and sometimes I like to revisit them years later. Gems like TA, Dungeon Keeper, Civilization, KotOR... never get old IMO. But what about games with the need to have an internet access and maybe even a DRM server. Can I play them in 5 years? When Ubisoft decides to take the server down AC2 will become unplayable. They could patch it out later but I doubt it...
My assumption is that a 'feature' like this will get patched out eventually. I wouldn't go spending money based on that assumption however.
Hmm, why not take a look at an older title and see how that worked out? One of the first games with SecuRom7 was Mass Effect if I'm not mistaken. It has been released 2 years ago and an annoying online registration shouldn't be an issue anymore right? I mean after 2 year, common... http://www.amazon.de/Electronic-Arts-Gm ... B001IZYYRG Oopsy, looks like the online registration is still in the EA Classics version. And just as if to prove my point: 2 out of the 3 users who posted a review couldn't get the game to run on their PC! One of them will probably have to reinstall Windows again because everything is messed up after SecuRom did its job. EA released a tool that lets you at least get rid of the activation limit now, doesn't help you much if the activation procedure isn't working reliably. I wonder why they can't settle for a simple key to activate a 'classic' game after 2 years. Oh well... Btw, the info about the required internet activation is well hidden behind a link to 'additional technical details'.
Keep in mind securom got patched out of SupCom pretty much right away. One of the groups supposedly putting pressure on publishers to use this stuff are the retailers (specifically in Europe from my understanding).
I had no problem whatsoever with the old SecuRom SupCom and FA used, especially when THQ decided to patch it out shortly after release. I think that's pretty much the best thing next to no DRM. Even if you have trouble with it you can apply the patch and play. The trouble began when EA decided to add the online activation and restricted the number of installations with SecuRom7. I don't have an internet connection everywhere I go and if their servers are down for some reason the game becomes basically uninstallable. And the whole thing about a limited number of installations is just silly. Some people lost installations when they upgraded their graphic card. That's simply unacceptable. I should have clarified that more, sorry! The retailers are probably afraid to loose the largest part of the market to online distribution just like they did with music CDs. Frogboy from Stardock once said a wise thing, let me paraphrase: Don't worry about the pirates, they will not buy a game no matter what, cater to your honest customers. Truer words have never been spoken IMO. The people I know who pirate games, students mostly, have never once bought a game, not a single one. Even if they really wanted to play the game. Until they decided to give Battlefield II online gaming a chance - Whoozah, the first box on the shelf! The way to go is to offer advantages to the guys who buy the games: Great online clients, achievements, ladders, good matchmaking, patches, regular free DLC (doesn't have to be crazy expensive: a new gun, a new item/skin/uniform here and there)...
Yep. If there is one guy in the industry that everyone should be listening to on this topic it's Brad Wardell. If the retailers are creating the pressure on publishers that's a shame. Just as bad DRM actually increases piracy, these retailers will find such policies only hasten their obsolescence. The only online distribution system I'm willing to use right now is Impulse. They have found that perfect balance. I wont even buy anything through Steam until they stop making me run their damn client in the background.
Couldn't have said it better Techubus! Btw, Steam just failed again as DRM. I guess I don't have to tell you how and for which game... It really hurts to see how people who buy their games and pay good money for them are still waiting for Steam to unlock the game in 'The Rest of the World'. They have payed the equivalent to USD 70-100 only to wait to download a multi gigabyte patch and for Steam to unlock their game. They have the box and the DVD, all payed for, and can't play. Meanwhile... Oh well. I think online distribution is the future. But why make the same mistakes like online music platforms did. They put incredibly annoying DRM on their mp3s and at some point realized it would only hold them back. As far as I'm concerned Impulse is perfectly acceptable: You don't need it to install and play offline. It doesn't have to run in the background. It doesn't collect data without your knowledge. You can choose if and more importantly WHEN you want to update games, it's not forced on you. And they have awesome support as far as I'm concerned. Of course publishers had to ruin it for us again: Pricing is 'adjusted' for regions. For some reason I have to pay 50% more than my friends from the US. Aussies have to pay twice as much? But what's even better: Please tell my how I should feel about a publisher who specifically denies German players to buy their Ultimate Bundle? Oh, and it's not a copyright or legal thing. It was available for a few days for Germany and they already 'adjusted' it for us by removing a few titles.
