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Mass Effect and Spore PC to require online validation (every 10 days)
GrimReaper
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
From here.
This sounds to me like such a monumentally bad idea, activating a game once is bad enough. But every ten days?
UPDATE: This version of SecuROM will from this point be included in all EA games. The new comic is up too, covering this issue.
Also, please try to keep things civil people.
Danger Wil Robinson, personal opinion follows:
I don't see how this is stopping piracy, up to this point Bioshock was one of the most heavy handed games in regards to copy protection. And here's the thing, when I first started buying pc games you'd install it and put the floppies or cd away and that'd be that.
Nowadays they seem to be finding new ways to annoy the people who bought their games, which brings me onto my next point: no-cd cracks and mini-images, we all know they exist. What i'm finding nowadays is that i'm using them more and more frequently for all these games I buy on the pc. Have pc games makers learned nothing from Stardock?
This sounds to me like such a monumentally bad idea, activating a game once is bad enough. But every ten days?
UPDATE: This version of SecuROM will from this point be included in all EA games. The new comic is up too, covering this issue.
Also, please try to keep things civil people.
Danger Wil Robinson, personal opinion follows:
I don't see how this is stopping piracy, up to this point Bioshock was one of the most heavy handed games in regards to copy protection. And here's the thing, when I first started buying pc games you'd install it and put the floppies or cd away and that'd be that.
Nowadays they seem to be finding new ways to annoy the people who bought their games, which brings me onto my next point: no-cd cracks and mini-images, we all know they exist. What i'm finding nowadays is that i'm using them more and more frequently for all these games I buy on the pc. Have pc games makers learned nothing from Stardock?
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DUMB ASS IDEA.
and if that were to happen, losing time on Spore would probably be the least of my worries
I will, once a year every year I go to Australia to see my brother. For a month every year I have no net access.
EDIT:
Damnit.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
According to a posting by a Bioware employee on the official thread this version of SecuROM isn't limited to just Spore and Mass Effect but to all EA games from this point forward. So that means Battlefield 3, <insert your sport game 08 here> etc. (the posting is in there, can't remember what page)
The official Bioware thread on this is growing exponentially, so it's hard to keep up with things that go on there.
Also, the new comic is up covering this.
If there is a new posting since the locked thread that I have missed then I shall eat something which is neither a certain body part nor disgusting.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
The worst thing about this form of copy protection is that it requires a new thread be started about it every 10 hours.
As mentioned I decided to update with new info since that thread is now dead/locked.
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I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
And the main thread was locked when it became... uncivil. Basically the mods said they'd leave things to cool off for a day before letting anyone else post about the topic (since it's still fairly significant news). This thread is as good as any.
First: This system checks automatically, meaning that once you have put in the CD key the first time, you will not need to actively do anything to keep the game running. As long as you have an internet connection at some point in the 5-10 day cycle where it attempts to verify, you will have no interruption for playtime, and as long as you have an internet connection when you want to play after that time, it will play as normal.
Second: The game does not "lock you out" after 10 days unless you have no internet connection. This means that if you go on vacation for 11 days, and return to your computer, as long as you have an internet connection, you will be able to play the game.
Here are my thoughts on the matter:
EA is shooting themselves in the foot here. There are people that were discovered in the last thread who have a computer capable of playing Mass Effect PC, want to play Mass Effect PC, do not have a 360 to get a comparable experience, but do not have any access to the internet. Also there are people who spend large blocks of time without internet connections available(Troops in Iraq). EA is going to lose sales from these people who will see "Internet connection required for play" on the box and not buy it.
However, there is absolutely no reason for anyone to get in a huge huffy about how they have to "jump through hoops" to play the game, as all they have to do to play the game is enter a CD key. There is also no reason to get upset over going on vacation often and having Mass Effect become unplayable suddenly because you were away for 10 days because that's not what happens. There is also no reason to say "This is just the first step on a slippery slope" because this is an incidental step on a slope that has been sloping since CDs were required in drives, or you had to leaf through the manual to play the game, or you had to enter a CD key, or whatever.
EA chose to make an Internet connection required for play, despite it not adding anything to the game play. Despite the fact that it is not required by the game itself, it is required. EA will have to deal with the consequence of lost sales because of this. Any increase in piracy of this game will be purely because of users trying to show some civil disobedience or something like that, and not supporting EA by downloading the pirated version. These people are completely wrong, but hey, they're going to do it. The reason for this is that the pirated version still requires the internet, just it only requires it once.
Also, EA is not treating everyone like a pirate. That is really not a cogent argument. If they were treating you like a pirate then they would attempt to fine, sue, or jail you. I don't believe that this game does any of these things. They are attempting to curb piracy. They cannot simply DRM the copies owned by pirates, so they DRM everything, and hope that it stops the pirates. This is similar, in my opinion, to if there was an increased police force in the region of someones apartments, due to a higher incidence of Drunk driving. The person in that apartment is paying to live there, and not Driving drunk. Are the police treating him like a DUI offender? No, the police are trying to curb DUI in his area.
Now, on the subject of DRM in general, I think the best solution would be to have crazy restrictive DRM up to the point of crack, and then patch in no DRM. Most DRM is set to delay the pirates, because most of the time first day sales are given a massive weight. Once the game is cracked, the developer has nothing to gain from keeping the DRM, as piracy will continue on the game regardless of what they do, and DRM is not simply punishing the customer.
In conclusion: Yeah, it's kind of dumb. Yeah, it won't last for all too long. It is absolutely nothing to throw a giant bitch fest about. There is no personal affront in this, it is simply a precautionary method against piracy, which EA has every right to put on a game they're selling.
Actually, it'd be more like getting pulled over by police on a regular basis and breathalised (or having your tyres checked or whatever). Which the police often do do, especially at times of year when there are higher occurrences of DUI (or the weather is getting colder and bald tyres become more dangerous). Of course, the police have legally granted power to police the population so you might argue that EA aren't the copyright police and they should leave it up to the authorities to do that but whatever. Even when the police have legitimate reason to do spot checks, some people are still going to wah wah wah about discrimination and you're only pulling me over because I'm black or whatever, so yeah, I still agree with your point in principle - EA are just running regular spot checks, not assuming guilt until proven innocent.
I think the only real mistakes EA have made here are a) not announcing this in advance of the game going out for distribution and b) launching it with a game that technologically savvy people actually care about. If they'd issued a press release that they were going to start doing this with the new Madden or whatever a month before it was released, nobody would give a shit and by the time they did it with Mass Effect or Spore, everybody would be like 'yeah, they've been doing that for a while, it's not a big deal' (assuming it didn't fail horribly, in which case they'd probably come up with something else by then ala Starforce's rise and fall).
EA aren't the police, and unlike driving on the roads, you don't need to buy Mass Effect for PC. Fuck 'em.
The police maintain public safety on an important public infrastructure system. EA sells entertainment products with bullshit checks to make life difficult for customers.
But yeah, if this is a major pain in the ass for you, don't buy EA games. It's not like we haven't been there before.
Yeah, that might be sketchy in terms of legality as well. It depends on whether or not the courts consider reselling games to be fair use or not. Even Adobe provides a license transferal service that lets you transfer 'ownership' of a licence if you want to sell a copy of their product (although it is a ridiculous, request forms to be mailed to you, fill them in in triplicate and mail them back to here, here and here, sort of process rather than an easy to use web-based form thing).
You don't need to drive on the roads either.
And it's not like getting pulled over, breath tested, etc., because you're not inconvenienced in any way when it checks online. It does it automatically. It's just like passing a police car. If your light is out, you'll be pulled over, but if everything is right, then you'll just keep driving.
Also, saying "It's not EAs job to oversee their own product", yes it is. They don't want it to be pirated, so they put DRM in. EA isn't the police, EA is the City in this case, the Police are the DRM.
Who is Batman?
Last time I actually read a EULA, uninstalling a game fully off your computer is all that a transfer of ownership requires to be legal.
Of course, since no one reads them (I sure as hell don't), EA could very well have changed it up.
I've said it before, but I would never buy games like this if I didn't have the cast iron certainty that the DRM would be cracked and allow me to play the game that I purchased. So yes, I fully intend to obtain a crack for my purchase when the crack becomes available. I don't care about the DMCA, I just care about being able to play my game when I want, and not on somebody elses terms.
And believe me, I've also had plenty of occasions of internet downtime. Requiring constant online validation for a singleplayer game is going overboard to say the least. There are other means of combating zero-day piracy. And beyond the zero-day piracy, these methods aren't going to do jack to stop the game being pirated.
This.
This is important.
The last thread had the "EA doesn't support the troops!" argument, because apparently every soldier wanted to buy Mass Effect and Spore, then when they left home and came back 11 months later, would have to buy a new copy or something. No, just reactivate it actually, and all is good.
I actually think it's quite a smart method of anti-piracy (as much as any method of anti-piracy is actually smart at all - I honestly suspect that it is actually perhaps just a waste of a company's time, money and resources), but perhaps it's just too soon? Once we're all honestly just 'jacked-in' 24/7 this would be no bigger a deal than 'Requires an Electrical Supply to play'. Once worldwide wifi coverage is here there will be no 'offline', but EA aren't living in a William Gibson novel.
Sell 360's.
Yeah, the first idea is that almost always companies who have something like this will release a patch that makes it no longer necessary to have the validation before they bow out.
Also, remember that you don't need constant online validation, you need online validation once every 10 days. There is a difference.
...
Does it involve Lizard Men?
Great conspiracy theory, or greatest conspiracy theory ever?
I'll believe that when they actually put that in the contract. Oh wait, I should just trust them right? Look, I'm not going to get on the whole "EA = Evil Antagonist" bandwagon, but if there's no legal obligation for them to go to extra expense and difficulty to re-enable the game and circumvent their own anti-piracy measures and potentially (in their own eyes) cost them more sales by doing so, then no, I don't just accept that they'll do that.
If they're honestly going to do that, let them put it in writing that's legally binding, otherwise they can sod off. And just so you know that I'm not picking on EA in particular, I feel the same way about Gabe Newell's so called "promise" as well. The reason that you won't see any official and legally binding documentation on that front is because Gabe Newell doesn't have complete control over these things and cannot guarantee it himself.
Perhaps consistent would be a better word. Either way, I still say that it's overboard for what is a singleplayer game.
Also someone will crack in in like, a week anyways, so they really don't even have to do that much work/it won't really be a problem if the server goes down.
And Bioware are good people. They gave us the best games ever before.
Regular I think is the world you are looking for.
Also, I think they need to do this in the traditional style of Mass Effect minigames. Every time it tries to do the check you have to do the Simon Says four button game common to every single task in ME otherwise verification fails and you need to spend 25 units of Omnigel to have the verification happen.
Every single person who posted here complaining about online validation obviously has an internet connection. As long long as that connection is either up or at least accesible once every ten days there is no problem.
And if it isn't then you need to bitch at your ISP, not EA.
Extrapolating from when people validate they can gauge playtime and play session length. If it attempts to validate everytime you start the game they can accurately determine how often you play the game and from where.
Yes, and then they can pick the most suitable host bodies for the legions of Lizard Men and will know exactly how and when to find you when the silent invasion begins.
(The simon says minigame has been replaced on the PC)
Its intrusive and unnecessary. We(ok, you people, I have the 360 version) will have to patch this shit out with fanmade cracks every time you install it, which brings us to the next point:
It also uses limited installs. For a product you paid money for and own.
Buying this encourages this sort of behavior. And if you like bing treated this way, then by all means buy it.
It already has begun, they start at the top. IIRC, the British Royal Family are all Lizard-men.