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Ubisoft busting out the online DRM beams

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Posts

  • cooljammer00cooljammer00 Hey Small Christmas-Man!Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    We've already discussed that this means that Ubisoft can never ever do server maintenance, lest their customers not be able to play a game they paid for. Cue lawsuit.

    cooljammer00 on
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  • SmokeStacksSmokeStacks Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    GrimReaper wrote: »
    There's one thing people haven't mentioned, people being dicks. You just know some idiot(s) at some point will DOS the ubisoft auth server either resulting in their servers being taken offline or the connection for players becoming intermittent resulting in people being randomly dropped out of their single player games like AC2 and Settlers.

    If it caused enough of an uproar that Ubisoft was forced to patch it out (which in turn would be creating a precedent for any other companies thinking of using the same or similar shcemes), I would gladly donate my bandwidth to the cause.

    edit: They can still do server maintenance if they need to, all they need to do is do it in stages. I'm sure they'll have more than just one authentication server up at any given time.

    SmokeStacks on
  • -Loki--Loki- Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining. Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Squidget0 wrote: »
    TrippyJing wrote: »
    Not everyone has permanent connections, Squid. It is conceivable as all hell that my FIOS connection will drop for a second, in which case I would lose all my progress if I was playing a game involving such DRM.

    I do understand that, and this definitely sucks for those without good broadband. Hopefully Ubi will come out with some kind of solution - server autosaves, maybe? I can't blame you at all for not buying the game under your circumstances.

    It just feels like a lot of people here would bash on any DRM, no matter what it was. I've had enough experience having my products stolen to know how much it sucks, so I can't blame Ubi for trying to find some kind of solution. It's not like no DRM scheme has ever been effective - Bioshock went uncracked for 13 days, and MMO piracy rates remain pretty low even among people who aren't looking to group.

    I mean, many of the connection-loss scenarios people are talking about apply just as much to power loss. If my power blinks in a storm or a cable gets unplugged I'm going to lose my save games, and power outages aren't any less common than network outages for me. It just doesn't seem like this DRM is going to cause me any problems that I don't already experience.

    You are not getting it in epic proportions.

    I personally have access to a decent connection. it's not my house, and it's not always on, and even when it is, my PC is not plugged in. And it may get switched off without me being told. This sort of DRM would be terrible - basically, I'd have to organize my play time of a single player game around when the internet is actually switched on in the house.

    -Loki- on
  • übergeekübergeek Sector 2814Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    subedii wrote: »
    -Loki- wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    I think the best form of DRM was Batman: AA for the PC. They put out the game themselves in the torrent sites, and the game didn't allow you to use Batman's glide ability, effectively stopping you from being able to play after about 20 minutes into the game.

    I thought that was very clever. Especially when people went onto the official forums asking how to fix the 'bug'. One of the devs responded with something like 'this isn't a problem with your game code, it's a problem with your moral code'.

    Hah, that's pretty ace.

    They did similar with the Sims 3, leaking and seeding a cut down version of the game, enough to get people interested but nothing more.


    Nah, the crackers found a way around that too. Took them a month at the most. (I actually think it was 2 and a half weeks.)

    übergeek on
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  • TelMarineTelMarine Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    GrimReaper wrote: »
    There's one thing people haven't mentioned, people being dicks. You just know some idiot(s) at some point will DOS the ubisoft auth server either resulting in their servers being taken offline or the connection for players becoming intermittent resulting in people being randomly dropped out of their single player games like AC2 and Settlers.

    If it caused enough of an uproar that Ubisoft was forced to patch it out (which in turn would be creating a precedent for any other companies thinking of using the same or similar shcemes), I would gladly donate my bandwidth to the cause.

    edit: They can still do server maintenance if they need to, all they need to do is do it in stages. I'm sure they'll have more than just one authentication server up at any given time.

    well, there was enough backlash for them to drop StarForce, but that was a few years ago. PC space is not as strong anymore.

    TelMarine on
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  • CronusCronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    übergeek wrote: »
    subedii wrote: »
    -Loki- wrote: »
    urahonky wrote: »
    I think the best form of DRM was Batman: AA for the PC. They put out the game themselves in the torrent sites, and the game didn't allow you to use Batman's glide ability, effectively stopping you from being able to play after about 20 minutes into the game.

    I thought that was very clever. Especially when people went onto the official forums asking how to fix the 'bug'. One of the devs responded with something like 'this isn't a problem with your game code, it's a problem with your moral code'.

    Hah, that's pretty ace.

    They did similar with the Sims 3, leaking and seeding a cut down version of the game, enough to get people interested but nothing more.


    Nah, the crackers found a way around that too. Took them a month at the most. (I actually think it was 2 and a half weeks.)

    Yea. That's pretty much the result of any attempt to stop piracy. Though the Batman one is nice because it doesn't affect people who bought the game. Unlike Ubisoft who should know that this won't stop piracy of their games and will only hurt legitimate players. Hell this is probably just going to increase piracy as everyone who hears about this and wants an Ubisoft game will just pirate it to save themselves the headache of the DRM.

    Luckily I've got more than enough other games to play and am just going to not buy any Ubisoft games.

    Cronus on
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    "Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
  • JauntyJaunty Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I think this DRM is dumb. Obviously I have not yet seen it implemented but from its descriptions it certainly sounds like a very stupid idea, and I agree that having a penalty for not having a continuous connection in a single player game is a pretty stupid idea.

    I can't say it's going to change my buying habits for now, though, since I never buy single player games day-one and the only game by Ubi I'm going to be buying since PoP 2008 will be Splinter Cell Conviction. If it's a big problem there I guess I'll just hold off until their policy changes or the service improves.

    Jaunty on
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  • DaedalusDaedalus Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Daedalus wrote: »
    GrimReaper wrote: »
    Anyone else find the games industry a bit full of itself? Every other industry whether it's books, cars, computer hardware etc. There is zero problem with a used market, but the software market has this really self-entitled opinion about used games that somehow they're being ripped off. To me it shows the level of their immaturity.

    It's so petty, if someone wants to sell their property that's up to them.

    That's the battle that publishers have been fighting against public libraries for years. Technically speaking, when you buy a book, you're buying a license to the author's intellectual property. Though, yes, you own the paper, and ink and binding that make up the book, you don't really own the book itself. The only reason why book publishers don't fight as hard as software publishers is because it is so much harder to keep track of physical books once they leave the warehouse.

    Of course, this brings us to the Kindle and all the BS associated with electronic books. Like when Amazon "recalled" two George Orwell books that the customers thought they bought fairly.

    This is entirely bullshit, and you need to learn about the First Sale doctrine.

    Oh really, are you saying that Amazon had no right to take those books back? So far no one has bothered to bring a lawsuit alleging that yet.

    EDIT: Oops, I guess someone has.

    EDIT 2: Green text the part where the First Sale doctrine applies. The fact remains that even though I bought Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for 15 USD doesn't mean I have rights to J.K. Rowling's multi-million IP.

    No, but it means that the public library (or you personally) can pay $15 for it and then lend it to people as often as they'd like. You don't have the rights to copy (hey, I wonder where the word "copyright" comes from?) but you own your copy and can do what you'd like with it. When you buy a book, you buy a book, not a license.

    Daedalus on
  • LilnoobsLilnoobs Alpha Queue Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I sympathize with game publishers about the used market thing, though. But the issue isn't the used games which get sold 5 years after release for ten bucks. The issue is that Gamestop has set up it's entire profit engine around buying back used games for dirt, then turning around and selling the exact same game for less than 10% off the original price. People then come in and, instead of buying a new game which the publisher profits from, buy a used game for slightly less but Gamestop keeps all the profit.

    If the publishers had a half a brain, they would all tell Gamestop to screw itself until it stops being a parasite. As it is, Gamestop has a bunch of clout in threatening individual publishers because Gamestop is everywhere. And before people say that publishers should drop their prices, all it will mean is that Gamestop will keep up the same process. Since Gamestop keeps all the used sale profits, Gamestop could drop the prices for a lot longer than the publishers before the tactic starts losing them money.

    That being said, new and ever more intrusive DRM is just going to keep shrinking the PC games market. People will still pirate the game within hours of release (if not before release) and only people who actually buy the game will be inconvenienced. And yes, it really is a mystery how publishers can still not see this. They'll either put themselves out of business or just end up removing the DRM anyway so people will actually buy the game.

    No. Gamestop is not some evil entity. They are filling a niche that game publishers are trying to destroy. They are supplying materials where there is a demand.

    Why don't the publishers create their own used video game store that competes with Gamestop, where all the used sales go back to the publishers in some percent? This crap making gamestop a parasite or something atrocious just because they give the consumer the option to buy and trade their own games needs to stop. Can you imagine if used book stores had to deal with this? Used car lots? Flip the argument, are you going to argue that used car lots or book stores are parasites because they "take" money away from publishers?

    Get real.

    I mean for god's sake, you are arguing against your own property rights. Multi-bazillion dollar publishers don't need grass roots movement helping them too.

    Lilnoobs on
  • travathiantravathian Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    The difference being that if I go to a used car lot, they just sell used cars. Or even if I go to a lot that sells new and used, and say I want a new car, I don't get told I should have pre-ordered my car 3 months ago. Gamestop is a parasite on the gaming industry. It preys upon stupid consumers and uses FUD to get these idiots to pre-order a game they can find on release day at any Best Buy or Target or have delivered that day by Amazon. They purposely don't carry new titles because they don't make hardly any profit on them. They are nothing more than a pawn shop and every state in the union should force them to work just like a pawn shop does.

    But hey, you probably know this since you work at Gamestop dontcha?

    travathian on
  • CronusCronus Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    C'mon guys.
    • Gamestop hates new games and publishers hate used games.
    • Developers hate Gamestop and Publishers.
    • Everyone hates DRM.

    There's enough hate going around. Getting rid of DRM is a good first step to helping us, the consumer.

    Cronus on
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    "Read twice, post once. It's almost like 'measure twice, cut once' only with reading." - MetaverseNomad
  • subediisubedii Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    As an aside:

    You know, considering today's post, I'm thinking that it might serve Tycho well to occasionally visit the forums here.

    subedii on
  • UncleSporkyUncleSporky Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    subedii wrote: »
    As an aside:

    You know, considering today's post, I'm thinking that it might serve Tycho well to occasionally visit the forums here.

    I wanted to email him and say "not on YOUR forums, thanks to the rules you and Mike gave us!" Although I think you can still feel the sentiment behind everything that is said.

    The worst thing for me is how, barring a patch, these games will functionally be the same as MMOs. I have always loathed the thought that I could be paying for something and then all of a sudden I can't play it anymore because somebody a hundred miles away pulled the plug. This extends it to single player games as well. I guess at least there's no monthly fee!

    UncleSporky on
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  • jaziekjaziek Bad at everything And mad about it.Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Thinking about it, a crack for this will take quite a bit longer than usual to implement.

    You'd have to fool the game into thinking you were online, and direct it to look for save games in a place it thought was the ubisoft server, but was actually on your own PC. I have no idea how complex that would be to do, but its got to be a lot harder than just removing the cd-checks or whatever in other games.

    jaziek on
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  • GrimReaperGrimReaper Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    jaziek wrote: »
    Thinking about it, a crack for this will take quite a bit longer than usual to implement.

    You'd have to fool the game into thinking you were online, and direct it to look for save games in a place it thought was the ubisoft server, but was actually on your own PC. I have no idea how complex that would be to do, but its got to be a lot harder than just removing the cd-checks or whatever in other games.

    For implementations sake (and to avoid a lot of work) they've probably just implemented the same save system as on the 360 and ps3. In otherwords it will save the game to the hard drive.
    For the pc it will save to a temp directory and then upload that save to ubisoft and then probably automatically delete that temp save from the hard drive.

    As to any online checks, seriously.. that kind of stuff is trivial to work around. If crackers can do securom emulation, gfw live emulation and steam emulation then they can remove a simple online check.

    GrimReaper on
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  • richtovenrichtoven Registered User new member
    edited February 2010
    I'm wondering if Assassin's Creed II will be out on steam, and if they'll have such awful DRM in that version. I mean, you kind of prove that you bought the game by buying it on Steam.

    Either way, if the DRM goes through, the only Ubisoft game that I'm interested in is A.C.2. If I have to buy a boxed edition, I'll be waiting until there's a hack out so that internet connection isn't required to play. Charter Cable isn't exactly the most stable in the world, and I suck enough at games that I don't need to lose progress and wait 10 minutes to load again because of a lost connection.

    And you can well be assured there will be a hacked executable out or a way to cheat the system. I'm thinking maybe an app that runs in the background and grabs network packets and spoofs a correct response.

    richtoven on
  • DisDis Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Legit customers pay and have to put up with the DRM crap.
    Pirates pay nothing get the best of everything.

    Dis on
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  • GrimReaperGrimReaper Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    richtoven wrote: »
    I'm wondering if Assassin's Creed II will be out on steam, and if they'll have such awful DRM in that version. I mean, you kind of prove that you bought the game by buying it on Steam.

    Either way, if the DRM goes through, the only Ubisoft game that I'm interested in is A.C.2. If I have to buy a boxed edition, I'll be waiting until there's a hack out so that internet connection isn't required to play. Charter Cable isnt' exactly the most stable in the world, and I suck enough at games that I don't need to lose progress and wait 10 minutes to load again because of a lost connection.

    And you can well be assured there will be a hacked executable out or a way to cheat the system. I'm thinking maybe an app that runs in the background and graps network packets and spoofs a correct response.

    The typical crack is to wrap the executable in an emulator that intercepts the calls. You won't see a separate program doing that kind of thing, you'd need to install a driver into the network stack etc. Too much hassle, a program wrapper is the usual answer.

    GrimReaper on
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  • MegaMekMegaMek Girls like girls. Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Dis wrote: »
    Legit customers pay and have to put up with the DRM crap.
    Pirates pay nothing get the best of everything.

    But at what cost.

    MegaMek on
    Is time a gift or punishment?
  • richtovenrichtoven Registered User new member
    edited February 2010
    MegaMek wrote: »
    But at what cost.
    Not much cost, considering these are just ports of a game they've already made millions on. Are any Ubisoft games direct to PC?

    Sorry I'm a little cynical. :(

    richtoven on
  • GrimReaperGrimReaper Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    MegaMek wrote: »
    Dis wrote: »
    Legit customers pay and have to put up with the DRM crap.
    Pirates pay nothing get the best of everything.

    But at what cost.

    When I bought Bioshock I had problems getting it to work (I think 2kgames servers were being hammered), I downloaded the cracked exe. Problem solved, I could play Bioshock.

    So whilst I bought the game I didn't have to put up with the DRM crap (well for long) all thanks to pirates, thanks pirates!

    Funny thing is that for BS2 they put in the same kind of crappy DRM as BS1, so I simply didn't buy it. Plus from the reviews to me it looked like more of the same. I was on the fence about buying BS2 but when I heard about the DRM that simply tipped the scale in favour of "don't buy", 2kgames loss I guess.

    GrimReaper on
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  • DaedalusDaedalus Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I think the part that annoys me the most is that it's as if they're addressing a problem that doesn't really exist. People buying the game and then copying the disc and handing it to their friends (or whatever) hasn't been a major or even slightly significant vector of piracy for a long time. [insert Don't Copy That Floppy youtube clip here.] The game is going to hit torrent trackers within two weeks of release whether they did this or some more traditional copy protection (including none at all).

    Daedalus on
  • StormwatcherStormwatcher Blegh BlughRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Yeah, depending on a server to play a strictly SP game is fucking awful.

    EA just announced they're gonna kill the Mercenaries 2 servers on PC. Less than 2 years after release. No more Coop or MP. How long will Ubi keep the AC2 servers up? Or the Settlers 7 ones? Or Conviction's?

    I can play Wing Commander 1 and Ultima VII whenever I want, however I want. I bought both many years ago and they're 2 of my most beloved classics.

    People complain about Steam, but at least 1) it has a working offline mode; 2) The server check is for the steam app, not the game and 3) it doesn't ping the server PERMANENTLY. If I set fire to my router and throw my DSL modem under a bus while I'm playing, say, Xcom or Call of Pripyat, those games will keep working.

    No one ever took the whole "you just own a license" thing as far as Ubi. They're really abusing that concept.

    Stormwatcher on
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  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    travathian wrote: »
    The difference being that if I go to a used car lot, they just sell used cars. Or even if I go to a lot that sells new and used, and say I want a new car, I don't get told I should have pre-ordered my car 3 months ago. Gamestop is a parasite on the gaming industry. It preys upon stupid consumers and uses FUD to get these idiots to pre-order a game they can find on release day at any Best Buy or Target or have delivered that day by Amazon. They purposely don't carry new titles because they don't make hardly any profit on them. They are nothing more than a pawn shop and every state in the union should force them to work just like a pawn shop does.

    But hey, you probably know this since you work at Gamestop dontcha?

    I am pretty much the biggest anti-pre-order zealot you will find, and even I find the idea that gamestop is a "parasite" ridiculous. If you don't want a pre-order, don't fuckin' pay for one. I also don't know where you're getting the idea that they don't carry new releases. They don't carry niche titles and they don't have a huge stock in reserve, but it's not as though they're weeks (or days, or even hours) behind the rest of the retail world.

    Anyway.

    At some point publishers are going to realize that the way to stop piracy isn't to try and stamp it out, it's to compete with it and offer a better service. It sucks to have to torrent a game from unreliable seeds, find a cracked .exe that isn't a virus, do whatever else to get around DRM, and so on. When you ask people to pay a fair price for media and give them a convenient and easy way to access it, surprise surprise, most of them will pay. This is the lesson the music industry is finally beginning to learn.

    Beyond the fact that they're stupidly incentivizing piracy, I wonder if ubisoft has considered the longterm implications of actually teaching people how to pirate software. The barrier to being a software pirate is actually pretty high, if you don't know all the most useful websites and aren't familiar with how to crack a game and get it to run. This DRM is literally going to force a nontrivial portion of their paying customer base to go out and learn about these things, and I'm quite sure some of those people will decide they like the free route better.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    richtoven wrote: »
    MegaMek wrote: »
    But at what cost.
    Not much cost, considering these are just ports of a game they've already made millions on. Are any Ubisoft games direct to PC?

    Sorry I'm a little cynical. :(

    FarCry 2, supposedly. Except anyone who actually played the PC version would laugh at you for suggesting it. Though, they did include a decent map editor, which is better than a majority of PC developers these days, what with games not balanced for mods.

    Oh, and this is relevant to the thread:
    791728635_VJ8Qa-L.jpg

    Zxerol on
  • SurikoSuriko AustraliaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I grimaced at that comic mostly because nobody's making either argument.

    Suriko on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    That comic illustrates the fundamental issue.

    Some people aren't going to buy software at the price offered. They just aren't, and never would have, either because they don't have the money or just don't want to play it that badly. They might pirate it, but you're not going to get any money out of them.

    Those people, though, are a pretty tiny minority of the people who are interested in the game. Most people have a measurable disposable income and will just buy the game, assuming the act of buying it isn't a hassle.

    That's the point that comic is missing. The scarecrow was never going to buy the game anyway. Probably because scarecrows don't get paid shit.

    edit: also I thought that strip was meant to make at least as much fun of gabe as it was of the scarecrow, but maybe that wasn't the intention

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • ZxerolZxerol for the smaller pieces, my shovel wouldn't do so i took off my boot and used my shoeRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    More importantly, that's a strawman. As in, a strawman argument.

    Zxerol on
  • erraticrabbiterraticrabbit Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    i find it funny that their argument against the strawman is a strawman

    erraticrabbit on
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  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    yes, I get it

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • JintorJintor Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Wait, so is missing the point in the comic part of the humour, since the strawman is obviously set up to be easily knocked down?

    Goddamnit. I gotta go take a lie down.

    Jintor on
  • lilBlilB Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Daedalus wrote: »
    I think the part that annoys me the most is that it's as if they're addressing a problem that doesn't really exist. People buying the game and then copying the disc and handing it to their friends (or whatever) hasn't been a major or even slightly significant vector of piracy for a long time. [insert Don't Copy That Floppy youtube clip here.] The game is going to hit torrent trackers within two weeks of release whether they did this or some more traditional copy protection (including none at all).

    Even back in the days of the Commodore, cracking and piracy was a big issue. Modern copy protection was basically invented in those days, specifically tricks like making discs that cant be copied. Thats been the preferred method with CD's and DVD's for a while. What they are trying to stop with this new DRM is resale and lending. By making games internet dependent they can just flip the switch a few years down the road and your game becomes a coaster.

    lilB on
  • Eat it You Nasty Pig.Eat it You Nasty Pig. tell homeland security 'we are the bomb'Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    I would be really surprised if they ever intentionally "made your game a coaster" at some point down the road. Talk about a way to lose sales.

    Of course, ubisoft could always go bankrupt at some point, with the same result.

    Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
    NREqxl5.jpg
    it was the smallest on the list but
    Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
  • Sir CarcassSir Carcass I have been shown the end of my world Round Rock, TXRegistered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Saw this earlier today. Not sure if it's been mentioned yet.
    PC Gamer's Tom Francis investigated, and wasn't pleased with his findings.

    "If you try to launch the game when you're not online, you hit an error message right away. So I tried a different test: start the game while online, play a little, then unplug my net cable. This is the same as what happens if your net connection drops momentarily, your router is rebooted, or the game loses its connection to Ubisoft's 'Master servers'. The game stopped, and I was dumped back to a menu screen - all my progress since it last autosaved was lost," he said in a blog posting.

    That's not the worst of it, either. If Ubisoft's servers go down or are unreachable, every single player of the game will be dumped out and won't be able to carry on playing until the problem is resolved.

    Awesome!

    Sir Carcass on
  • Operator-COperator-C Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Dyscord wrote: »
    I would be really surprised if they ever intentionally "made your game a coaster" at some point down the road. Talk about a way to lose sales.

    Of course, ubisoft could always go bankrupt at some point, with the same result.

    And that's when those handy cracks are even more useful...because then they're required to play the game at all.

    Operator-C on
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  • lilBlilB Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Dyscord wrote: »
    I would be really surprised if they ever intentionally "made your game a coaster" at some point down the road. Talk about a way to lose sales.

    Of course, ubisoft could always go bankrupt at some point, with the same result.

    They wouldn't be the first ones to do it. Remember all those DRM music servers shutting down? Plus nobody cares about a SP game 2 years down the road. It's the resale industry they are after. The gaming industry wants to limit the lifespan of their games so they can keep selling you the same crap every year. Thats how you make money. Just ask someone at EA.

    lilB on
  • StriferStrifer Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    guar wrote: »
    They didn't have any DRM in PoP because they wanted to test the consumer's honesty. Apparently we flunked that test.

    It would have been great if they had made a good game to go with that.

    Strifer on
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  • lilBlilB Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    Strifer wrote: »
    guar wrote: »
    They didn't have any DRM in PoP because they wanted to test the consumer's honesty. Apparently we flunked that test.

    It would have been great if they had made a good game to go with that.

    No kidding, and to further make my point...

    Best selling PC game of 2009? Sims 3 (EA even said it was the best PC launch they ever had)
    Online activation? Install limits? nope. (good old fashioned disk based copy protection)

    Hmmmmm.... how interesting...

    So why the freaky DRM again? Subverting peoples rights maybe?

    lilB on
  • GrimReaperGrimReaper Registered User regular
    edited February 2010
    lilB wrote: »
    Daedalus wrote: »
    I think the part that annoys me the most is that it's as if they're addressing a problem that doesn't really exist. People buying the game and then copying the disc and handing it to their friends (or whatever) hasn't been a major or even slightly significant vector of piracy for a long time. [insert Don't Copy That Floppy youtube clip here.] The game is going to hit torrent trackers within two weeks of release whether they did this or some more traditional copy protection (including none at all).

    Even back in the days of the Commodore, cracking and piracy was a big issue. Modern copy protection was basically invented in those days, specifically tricks like making discs that cant be copied. Thats been the preferred method with CD's and DVD's for a while. What they are trying to stop with this new DRM is resale and lending. By making games internet dependent they can just flip the switch a few years down the road and your game becomes a coaster.

    Ah yes, the good old days. I remember when I bought Robocop 3 (which came out years and years before the film) it came with a dongle that used up one of the two joystick/mouse ports. (it wasn't a dongle where you could still plugin a mouse/joystick either, just a dongle that prevented you from using a port)

    On a side note Robocop 3 on the Amiga is to this day (in my opinion) still the best Robocop game, you could go round shooting badguys in first person then you could go driving around and after that you could go flying around in your jetpack.

    Best Robocop game ever.

    GrimReaper on
    PSN | Steam
    ---
    I've got a spare copy of Portal, if anyone wants it message me.
  • XeroskillXeroskill Registered User new member
    edited February 2010
    This DRM is going to make people stray away from the legit copy because it seems like it is going to become an utter nuisance. It is going to make the "pirated" copy seem better than the original since they won't have to jump through hoops at all times to make their game work.

    This is going to become like a pirated movie vs a dvd movie. Pirated movie's have no annoying previews, no menu screens to deal with, they just get to watch, the movie. With the DVD copy you got to watch and skip and go through all the annoying junk to just watch it.

    This sort of DRM is going to ruin the gaming industry causing more people to pirate rather than do the right thing and buy the games. ::sigh::

    Xeroskill on
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