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2k games says everyone in family should buy Bioshock.
Phanman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
From kotaku.com
I really wanted to buy Bioshock on my PC, but with 2k limiting me to 5 installations for a game I legally purchased. I don't think I want to support such tactics. So I'm now refusing to purchase this game.
What do you guys think about 2k games and their tactics?
On the 2K boards, one community member found that when his brother attempted to play Bioshock on another account (on the same PC), the software prompted him for a serial number. He asked (ok, whined a bit) as to whether or not this serial would count toward another of his 5 activations.
"2k Tech JT writes: The other way to view this, is one USER has purchased the game. Not the whole family. So why should your brother play for free?"
I really wanted to buy Bioshock on my PC, but with 2k limiting me to 5 installations for a game I legally purchased. I don't think I want to support such tactics. So I'm now refusing to purchase this game.
What do you guys think about 2k games and their tactics?
Wii Code: 6596 9931 4190 2980
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Also, to my understanding, if you uninstall it off a computer and install it on another 5 times... You can call the number that prompts and then you'll be able to explain and get your keys back.
still a little lame though
Haha, thats just getting greedy.
I'm letting all my friends play my copy of Bioshock that I payed for. What are they gonna do about it?
Although, this probably could be put in the Bioshock thread.
don't most license agreements basically have a " Fuck you we can change the rules in the middle of the game if we want too" clause?
I think it's threadworthy on it's own, it's about the contract between publishers and consumers.
Actually no.
Nothing will restore that use of the key.
I'm all for them trying to protect their product from piracy, but not to such extremes that legal owners of the game get the shaft. I shouldn't have to explain myself to some call service rep. about how I had computer problems and need to install the game more than 5 times. There are much better ways to handle this that don't screw over paying customers.
Soo... What is the point of this?
Yeah, when you were a kid, and your friends wanted to play on your nintendo, you told them to fuck off and buy their own, mirite?
I am almost positive that I've read the DRM software will unregister the key when the program is uninstalled.
edit: I was half right. From The Cult of Rapture FAQ
"Also, we have in the works a revoke tool which you will be able to run on your machine if you want to free up that key and move it to to another computer (this works very much like Steam or iTunes system)
u r rite
On the other hand, if you really need to install BioShock on more than a couple of PCs, you probably need to get out of the house more.
Ng Security Industries, Inc.
PRERELEASE VERSION-NOT FOR FIELD USE - DO NOT TEST IN A POPULATED AREA
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you mean like a fucking movie theatre?
you're comparing apples and video games
Actually, at current, it does not. Originally, a 2K rep stated that uninstalling would free up an install credit, but this turned out to be false. They said they would release a separate revocation utility (which you would have to use before uninstalling the game proper), but I don't believe the tool has yet been released.
Yeah, by saying that I should always get a copy of a DVD of a movie I see in theaters, because I paid for it already, right?
Or you can buy it on the 360, and just hand your disc around to anybody you like! Or even sell it back to the shop, and gain a meagre refund for your troubles.
I was under the impression that it's 5 simultaneous installs, if you bought an off-the-shelf version (so again, get it on Steam, take it aaanywhere. Get it on the 360, do whatever you damned well please with it), and even if it's not, and you use them up, can't you call up some number and get it unlocked for more installs?
Or maybe that was starforce.
Movie theater is different because you're only paying to view the movie, not to own it.
all in all refusing to buy the game over this is fucking dumb and stop being such a whiny righteous idiot
I'm going to run some tests later on my own rigs to see if this is the true deal.
I was under the impression it was only 5 installs period.
Except you can still do that....
So it doesn't really do anything.
And the "please buy this for 360" propaganda continues...
猿も木から落ちる
edit: lol apo
I don't refuse to support M$, I just don't want to buy a broken product, so I don't own a 360.
I bet you pay for Guitar Hero I song packs and encourage these companies to screw us over so bad. I'm not trying to be righteous, I'm just trying not to get screwed.
That's exactly how it is, as far as I know.
However, the game just came out. I finished it shortly thereafter, but there's barely enough time to have loaned it to ONE friend to install and play, let alone FIVE more friends, in order for this to become a hassle.
Now, I disagree with utilizing two keys for the same machine, but at the end of the day, unless he plans to install it 6 times for his whole family and a couple friends, that should be plenty.
All this says to me is that if I loan out Bioshock to a friend, I just have to warn them to not uninstall it until said removal tool comes out, which really shouldn't be that big a deal, unless the utility becomes available, like, next year.
Imagine a situation where a non-tech-savvy consumer buys Bioshock, they install it on one computer, have unrelated problems, so get a friend/the store to do a reformat. There goes one install. Then in 6 months when their Power Supply busts, they decide to get the new PC they had been thinking about, they ditch the old one, head to PC world and get a new shiny PC, only to find that they have used their allotted 2 installs of Bioshock - they are screwed.
To me, upping the amount to 5 is no way near enough, I will not buy Bioshock for the PC with that kind of crippling DRM. They will either loose out on my money, patch it out and get my money, or I will eventually get a 360 and cement my position as a disillusioned 21st century PC gamer.
This issue is about legitimate consumers having to put up with puclishers efforts to prevent piracy, it's ridiculous - the illegitimate pirates are getting a better quality product for free, and publishers still make efforts to make the process of buying and playing a game as inconvenient for legitimate consumers as possible.
broken as in the RRoD?
you are aware that the new heatsinks have been in the system for almost 2 months now yes?
PC games have, for years, had the same protection console games have, i.e. you need the disc in the drive to play it, and you ain't got but one disc (and copying this disc in a way that the game recognizes as legitimate is very difficult). On PCs, this has been rather easy to get around since the only thing on the disc that the program actually needs is, well, the copy protection data, as opposed to, say, my Wii, where the whole game is loading from the disc.
Bioshock incorporates a new, improved copy protection scheme where, in addition to the usual crap above, you're only allowed to install the game on two (was later increased to five) computers. You can still only run it on one computer at a time because of the usual disc requirement. Consider the frequency that the average PC gamer upgrades or replaces his computer and you see the problem this presents.
Now, it's surfaced that separate Windows accounts on the same computer count as separate computers for the purpose of that license. This is, well, not good, especially since if you just steal the whole goddamn game off the Internet in the first place you don't have any such restrictions. This is called a "BTO vulnerability" in the DRM industry: where the pirated copy is Better Than the Original. This is why, for instance, the practice of having PC gamers look up the word on line n of page k of the manual fell out of style: pirated games didn't piss off the user in (ironically) an attempt to keep him from pirating the game. It seems that the industry as a whole is going to have to re-learn this lesson, as they re-learned it previously when they all wanted to use the (easily bypassable) Starforce and paying customers didn't want to give their computers cyber-AIDS.
And even though the tool to get some of those back doesn't exist, I'm pretty sure there's a clause where you can actually call up the company's support line, talk with them for a bit, and get some or all of them back.
Unless you have an entire college dorm playing off one copy, I really don't see what the big deal is.
I am aware, and waiting to see how they perform. I have plenty to keep me busy in the meantime.