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The failure of modern copy protection and game development exemplified
Pestilencemage
Registered User new member
Registered User new member
It seems the newly releaced Assassin's Creed 3 (PC) is plagued. Random corruption of save files causes frequent destruction of all progress. Cloud seems to be mildly effective at restoreing some progress for some, but others are forced to simply start from scratch.
Developement Failures:
Clearly Ubisoft was aware of this bug prior to game launch. A bug like this does not often slip past testing phases unreported. There ARE many circumstances that demand a game be released with somewhat serious bugs, even ones I find exceptionaly serious such as the severe likelyhood of loseing all of your progress several times. What I find upsetting is that these games have never set some venue to warn users of these bugs. I know, the idea of posting a huge list of "why you shouldnt buy our game because it is broken" is not appealing to game designers as even the cleanest of games would technicly have a MASSIVE list of bugs if you posted the QA bug list. Still, I would have found this issue far more forgiveable if I had known of the issue and chosen to ignore it of my own accord (as I surely would have done). Perhapse the testers had more luck then I have on recovering some degree of the save data, this is the only acceptable explination I can construct of why Ubisoft would release such an aggrivation on us. I'm not trying to start a ragefest and single out Ubisoft as the devil, I just think there must be some happy middle ground to be found there.
Copy Protection Failures:
I immediately and without any logical reasoning, blamed the DRM and copy protection for this failure. Assassin's Creed has had some very invasive and intrudeing protection methods that cause... well... mild inconvienences to legitimate customers really. We like to yell about how horrable it is to demand I be online at all times to play a game, but that is more in prinipal then an actual inconvienence as I AM alwayse online, as are most of us now-a-days. That is not the failure I speak of here.
I wanted a way around that cursed bug, so I turned to the pirate community. Sure enough, the game was available for illegal download on launch day. Checking the comments on one, it seems they are not immune to the problems with savegame corruption and are... PROBABLY without cloud to occasionaly bail them out. The failure is that for all the money and effort they spent on copy protection, pirates were not delayed for a single molment! I didnt check times, but I think they had the game ready to steal before I managed to finish downloading my legal copy! Almost a shame they are not free from the savegame problems really, as I have no problems (moraly... not sure where legal stands) with downloading "pirate" copies of games I legitimately own if copy protection is causeing me grief. **The legal stance on that practice is dependant on the EULA and individual game company. When in doubt, assume it is illegal and/or consult the support staff**
It seems many forms of modern copy protection are excessive rather then effective. Worse yet, they are not COST effective... I assume anyway. Not only do I not see the books, but the books cannot possably count losses due to software piracy accurately even though some companies put a number in there anyway. You got a CD KEY method? that seems to be enough. Just stop the easies forms of piracy, the rest is just a fun logic puzzle for the top pirate dogs that are more then willing to share in their successful theft. I honestly think they WANT another method so they can try to be the first to render it worthless.
Developement Failures:
Clearly Ubisoft was aware of this bug prior to game launch. A bug like this does not often slip past testing phases unreported. There ARE many circumstances that demand a game be released with somewhat serious bugs, even ones I find exceptionaly serious such as the severe likelyhood of loseing all of your progress several times. What I find upsetting is that these games have never set some venue to warn users of these bugs. I know, the idea of posting a huge list of "why you shouldnt buy our game because it is broken" is not appealing to game designers as even the cleanest of games would technicly have a MASSIVE list of bugs if you posted the QA bug list. Still, I would have found this issue far more forgiveable if I had known of the issue and chosen to ignore it of my own accord (as I surely would have done). Perhapse the testers had more luck then I have on recovering some degree of the save data, this is the only acceptable explination I can construct of why Ubisoft would release such an aggrivation on us. I'm not trying to start a ragefest and single out Ubisoft as the devil, I just think there must be some happy middle ground to be found there.
Copy Protection Failures:
I immediately and without any logical reasoning, blamed the DRM and copy protection for this failure. Assassin's Creed has had some very invasive and intrudeing protection methods that cause... well... mild inconvienences to legitimate customers really. We like to yell about how horrable it is to demand I be online at all times to play a game, but that is more in prinipal then an actual inconvienence as I AM alwayse online, as are most of us now-a-days. That is not the failure I speak of here.
I wanted a way around that cursed bug, so I turned to the pirate community. Sure enough, the game was available for illegal download on launch day. Checking the comments on one, it seems they are not immune to the problems with savegame corruption and are... PROBABLY without cloud to occasionaly bail them out. The failure is that for all the money and effort they spent on copy protection, pirates were not delayed for a single molment! I didnt check times, but I think they had the game ready to steal before I managed to finish downloading my legal copy! Almost a shame they are not free from the savegame problems really, as I have no problems (moraly... not sure where legal stands) with downloading "pirate" copies of games I legitimately own if copy protection is causeing me grief. **The legal stance on that practice is dependant on the EULA and individual game company. When in doubt, assume it is illegal and/or consult the support staff**
It seems many forms of modern copy protection are excessive rather then effective. Worse yet, they are not COST effective... I assume anyway. Not only do I not see the books, but the books cannot possably count losses due to software piracy accurately even though some companies put a number in there anyway. You got a CD KEY method? that seems to be enough. Just stop the easies forms of piracy, the rest is just a fun logic puzzle for the top pirate dogs that are more then willing to share in their successful theft. I honestly think they WANT another method so they can try to be the first to render it worthless.
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