It's that publishers are struggling to retain control of their once dominant position in the market, which are now being disrupted by indies, which in my mind is rather similar to the way mobile phone companies are reacting to first Apple's iPhone (a whole new eco system they were completely unfamiliar with, where I see parallels to digital distribution of games) and then along comes Skype, Viber and other solutions which almost completely renders them obsolete and robs them of the majority of their profit.
The publishers are facing a similar scenario and currently scared shitless of their future.
This is their final battle, and Ubisoft's strategy consists of spamming Uplay across all of the digital download services they "are forced" to use now. As I said earlier, I think it's just going to rack up collateral damage as it's not that different to the bloatware of the mobile phone companies. Also (and I think I'm going to loose many people here, if I've not lost all of you already) I've noticed how several car companies are doing concepts which are very far from cars, like bikes and stuff. What it all boils down to is that the future is changing like never before, and past superpowers are scrambling to try to retain control.
I think they will all fail, though (read Clayton Christensen and my mad ramblings might all come together for you... hopefully).
Perhaps I should have posted this in the industry thread...
eobet on
Heard the proposition that RIAA and MPAA should join forces and form "Music And Film Industry Association"?
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
Damn Ubisoft and their Orwellian ways! Such a horrible and unspeakable crime they have committed in making me sign up for their thing so I can play this fun game.
Let's not do this, it's just gonna get the thread locked. Ubi's love affair with over the top DRM not withstanding, it still doesn't change the fact that for a game on steam, it's pretty unnecessary. It's also redundant and lame to have to sign in to two separate services to play a 15 dollar game and people are not wrong to complain about it. It also doesn't change the fact that Ubi flat out told people the game wouldn't ship with this DRM scheme, and there's nothing wrong with complaining about that either.
I'm pretty even handed with how I treat games, and even I feel ripped off by this. Not so much by the DRM, but because this is a really, really lazy port. And that should not be a thing in this day and age from a AAA publisher. The simple fact is I will never buy another Ubisoft product, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. So while I'm sure their anti-piracy measures are cutting edge stuff, all it's done is piss off their actual paying customers, which will only cost them in the future.
people seem to be forgetting that this is NOT a steamworks game. It doesn't matter that it's on steam, it doesn't use the steam infrastructure. Every other site that you can buy the game from uses uplay, steam is literally no different in this regard.
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
Damn Ubisoft and their Orwellian ways! Such a horrible and unspeakable crime they have committed in making me sign up for their thing so I can play this fun game.
Let's not do this, it's just gonna get the thread locked. Ubi's love affair with over the top DRM not withstanding, it still doesn't change the fact that for a game on steam, it's pretty unnecessary. It's also redundant and lame to have to sign in to two separate services to play a 15 dollar game and people are not wrong to complain about it. It also doesn't change the fact that Ubi flat out told people the game wouldn't ship with this DRM scheme, and there's nothing wrong with complaining about that either.
Oh, it's totally redundant and silly. However, it's not so crippling that I couldn't just click through it and be on my marry way. However, if they publicly stated the game wouldn't have this Ubiplay thing, than people have a legitimate place to hurl stones from.
they publicly stated over and over again on every single retailer in big bold letters that it would require Ubi DRM to be able to play
they did not say that it would require you to be online every time you launched
Damn Ubisoft and their Orwellian ways! Such a horrible and unspeakable crime they have committed in making me sign up for their thing so I can play this fun game.
Let's not do this, it's just gonna get the thread locked. Ubi's love affair with over the top DRM not withstanding, it still doesn't change the fact that for a game on steam, it's pretty unnecessary. It's also redundant and lame to have to sign in to two separate services to play a 15 dollar game and people are not wrong to complain about it. It also doesn't change the fact that Ubi flat out told people the game wouldn't ship with this DRM scheme, and there's nothing wrong with complaining about that either.
I'm pretty even handed with how I treat games, and even I feel ripped off by this. Not so much by the DRM, but because this is a really, really lazy port. And that should not be a thing in this day and age from a AAA publisher. The simple fact is I will never buy another Ubisoft product, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. So while I'm sure their anti-piracy measures are cutting edge stuff, all it's done is piss off their actual paying customers, which will only cost them in the future.
people seem to be forgetting that this is NOT a steamworks game. It doesn't matter that it's on steam, it doesn't use the steam infrastructure. Every other site that you can buy the game from uses uplay, steam is literally no different in this regard.
We could argue all day about the DRM, if you don't have a problem with it, that's fine, but other people do, and they have valid issues. In my opinion Ubisoft has missed the forest for the trees with DRM this rigid, especially at this particular price point. Even Games for Windows Live isn't as obtrusive, and frankly, that is sad, because GFWL is terrible.
The DRM combined with bad port job is enough of an annoyance that I will vote with my wallet and spend it elsewhere in the future, but beyond a slight feeling of getting ripped off, I don't much care either way, it is after all, just a game.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
I'll just console myself with fond memories of playing in sand boxes.
Whats that you say? Gold ore lies under my house? Man fuck that you gotta dig for it.
There's two huge conflicts here. One: the bad stuff shouldn't be supported. Two: The good stuff should be supported.
In this case the good in this outweighs all the bad so heavily you should buy it anyway.
Which is, I think, a pretty telling indicator of just how good this game actually is. It really is that good. You really wont care once you get into it.
I feel genuine pity and regret for anybody who refuses to ever play this masterpiece because it requires a little work to get into it. This game is immensely satisfying if you sit down, relax, and put some patience into it.
If you refuse to play it on PC and have an xbox, buy it on xbox. The game is not so demanding that the console cursor will be detrimental.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Oh boy, just noticed on Reddit, apparently the DRM's already been cracked.
Edit: And just to be clear I am in no way advocating piracy, just pointing out that even the best DRM usually doesn't last long in the wilds of the internet.
I'll just console myself with fond memories of playing in sand boxes.
Whats that you say? Gold ore lies under my house? Man fuck that you gotta dig for it.
There's two huge conflicts here. One: the bad stuff shouldn't be supported. Two: The good stuff should be supported.
In this case the good in this outweighs all the bad so heavily you should buy it anyway.
Which is, I think, a pretty telling indicator of just how good this game actually is. It really is that good. You really wont care once you get into it.
I feel genuine pity and regret for anybody who refuses to ever play this masterpiece because it requires a little work to get into it. This game is immensely satisfying if you sit down, relax, and put some patience into it.
If you refuse to play it on PC and have an xbox, buy it on xbox. The game is not so demanding that the console cursor will be detrimental.
Lots of people decided to wait for the PC version over the 360 because they wanted better controls
guess what didn't happen
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited August 2011
Then buy the 360 version. Just buy it and support Eric Chahi. His game is amazing. He was just forced to go through assholes to make it.
There is a very large tendency on this hugely public forum for a smattering of bad to be generalised to the wrong thing. I'm trying to make sure people are aware that there's light at the end of the rainbow. This game is worth two or three times the money asked for it.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
For PC, it is my honest opinion you shouldn't buy it right now, though even with the hour I spent with it last night, I could tell there was a great game lurking underneath all the trouble. I do feel bad for the creator, sucks to have such a gem mired so badly. I think it did pretty well on the 360 though did it not?
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited August 2011
It might be wise to wait for a patch, but this is ubisoft so this is probably the best you can get.
A choice between annoyingly packaged genius and no genius, you should pick genius though.
The control scheme is annoying if you are expecting populous or any other molyneux style god game. However this game is not about being a god. It's about crafting the raw firmament of the elements as they move and shape the world around you. It's not about lightning storms and fireballs or micro managing your people.
There's one fantastic stage later on that gives you nothing but a few small islands and a volcano just emerging from the ocean. It's up to you to stick your hand in this volcano's guts to grab balls of molten rock and from it shape the world for your people to move about on.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Should have gotten this on Xbox. There don't seem to be any high end video tweaks so the game look like it does on Xbox and setting the resolution to what my screen actually supports puts the menu off screen. I had to guess at clicking until I got the options to change. Doesn't support launch options through steam and you can't directly launch with a short cut thanks to ubi. The mouse controls are sluggish, but that might be because I haven't futzed with mouse sensitivity yet.
The game itself isn't much fun simply because I've been spoiled on all the initial cool stuff from reviews and previews. I get the feeling I'd have a lot more fun if I didn't know about fire trees or lava or tidal waves before hand.
Its got enough to keep me going thoughand ill finish the game... if only to get the sandbox mode.
I'm building a real pirate ship. Really. Wanna help? Click here!
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
I'm sure Eric's a great guy, but I don't have a 360, and (assuming he was in no way responsible for the port) he's getting caught in the crossfire here.
Because, simply put, I will not buy a game where the controls are that terrible, performance is that bad (tearing problems and no vsync? Really?), and there aren't proper graphical options to attempt to mitigate things. I barely tolerate less crappy controls on larger games; I see no reason to reward the publisher for doing such a slapdash job.
In the event a patch comes out that fixes all or even most of those complaints, I will very cheerfully part with my hard-earned dollars, because I had my wallet open and was reaching for the credit card when I found out about the issues with the PC port. It's not about the price ($15 is at the "eh...I'll buy it if it looks decent" range), it's about not buying a broken product.
The game's trailer made me want it, but Ubisoft has succeeded in overshadowing that desire. Good job, guys.
The issue isn't the fact the game has DRM that requires you to be online, yes most people have relatively stable connections, but shit does happen. This isn't a deal breaker for me, even if I shouldn't have prove I own the game every damn time I try to launch it, especially since it is tied into steam for DRM.
But the real issue here is, they tried to play it off as if it did not have this DRM when it did. It would be like someone claiming "Game X doesn't have co-op!" then the publisher coming back and stating "No wai, this game totally has co-op!" then the game ships and it doesn't have co-op. They lied to you to get a sale, and you should not support BS antics like that.
Morkath on
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
Damn Ubisoft and their Orwellian ways! Such a horrible and unspeakable crime they have committed in making me sign up for their thing so I can play this fun game.
Let's not do this, it's just gonna get the thread locked. Ubi's love affair with over the top DRM not withstanding, it still doesn't change the fact that for a game on steam, it's pretty unnecessary. It's also redundant and lame to have to sign in to two separate services to play a 15 dollar game and people are not wrong to complain about it. It also doesn't change the fact that Ubi flat out told people the game wouldn't ship with this DRM scheme, and there's nothing wrong with complaining about that either.
I'm pretty even handed with how I treat games, and even I feel ripped off by this. Not so much by the DRM, but because this is a really, really lazy port. And that should not be a thing in this day and age from a AAA publisher. The simple fact is I will never buy another Ubisoft product, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. So while I'm sure their anti-piracy measures are cutting edge stuff, all it's done is piss off their actual paying customers, which will only cost them in the future.
people seem to be forgetting that this is NOT a steamworks game. It doesn't matter that it's on steam, it doesn't use the steam infrastructure. Every other site that you can buy the game from uses uplay, steam is literally no different in this regard.
We could argue all day about the DRM, if you don't have a problem with it, that's fine, but other people do, and they have valid issues. In my opinion Ubisoft has missed the forest for the trees with DRM this rigid, especially at this particular price point. Even Games for Windows Live isn't as obtrusive, and frankly, that is sad, because GFWL is terrible.
The DRM combined with bad port job is enough of an annoyance that I will vote with my wallet and spend it elsewhere in the future, but beyond a slight feeling of getting ripped off, I don't much care either way, it is after all, just a game.
?
i have a problem with DRM but saying ubisoft should make some fancy special version of their games just for steam when they aren't using steamworks is pretty silly from a business perspective.
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
So I bought From Dust and think it's great. since I play lots of games, and ubisoft makes lots of good ones!, I already have a uplay account, i was even alraedy signed into it! Uplay launched, updated itself, then relaunched, updated the game, then relaunched, asked for my cd key since it auto signed me in, and then i hit play. The whole process took maybe 2 - 4 minutes and will never happen again. Game is quite fun btw but it's a bit of a shoddy PC port, locked at 30 fps, no advanced graphics controls, etc. But i like it so far.
Now for the uplay stuff, every. single. online. retailer. has been advertising the fact in big bold capital letters that From Dust used the Ubi DRM scheme. This is not news o ra shock to anyone, if you bought the game and you didn't realize this then you didn't read the description of the game. It was said that it used Ubi DRM on D2D, Steam, GetGamesGo, GreenManGaming, and others (i hunted around for the best deal earlier so I saw it in multiple places).
Uplay is pretty fucking stupid though. In every single way. Not just because of the DRM.
Why in god's name do we need a SECOND system of achievements? Can't they just use the Steam/XBLA/PSN systems in place? They have to throw their shitty overlay on top of it.
Look, I won't not buy a game because it uses Uplay, but I absolutely hate Uplay in every way. The DRM is actually the least reason for me to hate it. I think it's an awful, awful, awful thing and all criticism of it is well deserved.
Because they have their own thing going where your achievements give you their "Uplay currency" to unlock things in their games.
Yes, I am aware of that. It's a crap system as far as I'm concerned. I don't want some meta achievement currency that you can earn in one game and spend in another. If you want to reward people for achieving something in a game, then tie the reward to an existing achievement IN THAT GAME.
I have quite a few games that use Uplay and quite a few Uplay points. I still think it's dumb.
It's that publishers are struggling to retain control of their once dominant position in the market, which are now being disrupted by indies, which in my mind is rather similar to the way mobile phone companies are reacting to first Apple's iPhone (a whole new eco system they were completely unfamiliar with, where I see parallels to digital distribution of games) and then along comes Skype, Viber and other solutions which almost completely renders them obsolete and robs them of the majority of their profit.
The publishers are facing a similar scenario and currently scared shitless of their future.
This is their final battle, and Ubisoft's strategy consists of spamming Uplay across all of the digital download services they "are forced" to use now. As I said earlier, I think it's just going to rack up collateral damage as it's not that different to the bloatware of the mobile phone companies. Also (and I think I'm going to loose many people here, if I've not lost all of you already) I've noticed how several car companies are doing concepts which are very far from cars, like bikes and stuff. What it all boils down to is that the future is changing like never before, and past superpowers are scrambling to try to retain control.
I think they will all fail, though (read Clayton Christensen and my mad ramblings might all come together for you... hopefully).
Perhaps I should have posted this in the industry thread...
The sole purpose of Uplay is to force the user to funnel through Ubisoft's crappy overlay so that Steam doesn't dominate the whole "digital overlay" thing. It's so asinine.
they publicly stated over and over again on every single retailer in big bold letters that it would require Ubi DRM to be able to play
they did not say that it would require you to be online every time you launched
But.... that's what Ubisoft DRM is.
no it's not. it's the cd key activation system they used as well. there are many forms of drm
Yeah they actually have 3 different types of DRM; always on, where if you lose your internet it closes. Alwaysonlaunch, where if you aren't connected when launching it won't. And then their not retarded one which doesn't require the internet at any point.
People claimed it had the first one, Ubi replied back with "No way it totally doesn't require an always on internet connection.", then never mentioned that it still had the second one which is just as bad.
Damn Ubisoft and their Orwellian ways! Such a horrible and unspeakable crime they have committed in making me sign up for their thing so I can play this fun game.
Let's not do this, it's just gonna get the thread locked. Ubi's love affair with over the top DRM not withstanding, it still doesn't change the fact that for a game on steam, it's pretty unnecessary. It's also redundant and lame to have to sign in to two separate services to play a 15 dollar game and people are not wrong to complain about it. It also doesn't change the fact that Ubi flat out told people the game wouldn't ship with this DRM scheme, and there's nothing wrong with complaining about that either.
I'm pretty even handed with how I treat games, and even I feel ripped off by this. Not so much by the DRM, but because this is a really, really lazy port. And that should not be a thing in this day and age from a AAA publisher. The simple fact is I will never buy another Ubisoft product, and I don't think I'm the only one who feels this way. So while I'm sure their anti-piracy measures are cutting edge stuff, all it's done is piss off their actual paying customers, which will only cost them in the future.
people seem to be forgetting that this is NOT a steamworks game. It doesn't matter that it's on steam, it doesn't use the steam infrastructure. Every other site that you can buy the game from uses uplay, steam is literally no different in this regard.
We could argue all day about the DRM, if you don't have a problem with it, that's fine, but other people do, and they have valid issues. In my opinion Ubisoft has missed the forest for the trees with DRM this rigid, especially at this particular price point. Even Games for Windows Live isn't as obtrusive, and frankly, that is sad, because GFWL is terrible.
The DRM combined with bad port job is enough of an annoyance that I will vote with my wallet and spend it elsewhere in the future, but beyond a slight feeling of getting ripped off, I don't much care either way, it is after all, just a game.
?
i have a problem with DRM but saying ubisoft should make some fancy special version of their games just for steam when they aren't using steamworks is pretty silly from a business perspective.
Basically because it's stupid to do on a 15 dollar game, as it makes Ubi look petty, myopic, and out of touch. $15 is the price point that PC indies reside at, and there is very little DRM from them, which makes the contrast to Ubi's approach all the starker. Indies provide a lot bang for the buck, and most DRM consists of polite statements from the creators about "hey we're just two guys doing this for the love of it, please don't steal." At best Ubi doesn't understand this market, more likely they simply don't care, instead choosing to focus on consoles. (Which is fine.) Still, I can't imagine the value gained in piracy retention is going to equal out the horrible press this game is getting because of their shortsightedness in tacking on an extra DRM layer, especially when it offers so little positive aspects to the player instead being yet another hoop to jump through.
Ultimately though, if the port was decent, I don't think this little tempest in a tea kettle over the DRM would have much legs.
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MaddocI'm Bobbin Threadbare, are you my mother?Registered Userregular
edited August 2011
DRM is as much or more a tactic to assuage investors who likely know very little about the situation other than "Piracy bad" than it is to actually prevent piracy these days.
Also, you totally missed his point because the DRM is only an "extra layer" if you bought it on Steam as opposed to D2D, GMG, Impulse, etc.
If you bought it from anywhere other than Steam, basically, it is not an "extra DRM layer", it is the "sole DRM layer"
Yeah, I mean I would prefer to play this on PC. But I have a 360 so I might as well use it sometimes. Unless the PC version is going to have some extra features, I have no problem just getting this tomorrow and not months from now.
Hell, I'd pro'lly end up playing it with my 360 controller on my PC anyways.
First off: I think that the delay is a necessary evil of releasing a game on the XBLA (microsoft doesn't want you to buy it on the PC and neglect their console). Second: it's not "Months from now", it's less than a month from the console release date.
read the preview, kinda dissapointed that it's actually a puzzler and not a sandbox game.
Still looks incredible though.
I have read that once you complete a mission you get to play that level in sandbox mode (with the powers earned up to that point).
Yeah now that I have it (only played the first few levels though) I have to say that it is pretty damn cool. My only complaint is that it lacks the epic feeling you want from god games. Probably unavoidable for a downloadable title though. I wonder if Eric Chahl ever played Populous: the Beginning.
Who am I kidding, no one played populous the beginning
Woah, hey, one of my favorite games. I only beat it once, but I was young and incompetent. I still carry it around in my main CD case (along with the Creatures series and BG2).
Oh boy, just noticed on Reddit, apparently the DRM's already been cracked.
Edit: And just to be clear I am in no way advocating piracy, just pointing out that even the best DRM usually doesn't last long in the wilds of the internet.
The more obtrusive DRM is, the more effort pirates will put into cracking it, unless the game is just terrible and nobody cares
People have problems with the controls? It works fine for me. Slide around and move stuff back and forth, barely even need the keyboard. I'm sure it's more precise than the gamepad.
The game doesn't run as good as it should though, and should have more graphics and audio options. I put that down to console development junk.. which I am starting to get used to on PC games which are cross-platform with consoles sadly. That said, I haven't had screen tearing or anything, just minor slowdown in a few spots (perfectly playable), but I do have a relatively fast GPU.
I personally don't care about the DRM as my internet is more or less always on, and if it wasn't I would read a book or something. But I understand why people don't like it. UPlay is essentially one extra button to click. It worked fine for me in Assassin's Creed, though when I was playing From Dust earlier today the UPlay service seemed to be overloaded or something, and it was having trouble syncing. Hopefully that is a temporary issue.
A Ubsisoft game would have to be really, really, really good for me to consider buying it on pc at this point.
Not even gonna bother with a shoddy port.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
so the next assassin's creed then? I play them on console personally but Brotherhood was a fucking AMAZING game.
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Amikron DevaliaI didn't ask for this title.Registered Userregular
Just so everyone knows, the DRM was cracked *before* the game launched on steam even. I'm not an advocate of piracy either, but I just wanted to clarify what was said above in this thread.
As an aside with the mouse scroll turned off this game is a gem, and I love games like these. I hope they do some sort of DLC in which they add extra animals and more interactions with the tribe. There is quite a bit of room they purposely left open to see how well the game sells like it is and despite it being an Ubisoft product, I hope it does do well.
it's the top seller on steam right now according to the best sellers list
And that's sad, because Ubisoft doesn't care about PC gamers.
Luckily for them, most people aren't very tuned into DRM issues, and only notice when they inevitably fuck up.
As much as I dislike Lolzsec in general, I'd love for them to DDOS Ubisoft's DRM for a launch week or two on a popular game just to show people how terrible this really is. Some people won't learn until it gets brought home.
I personally will be playing Bastion, which wisely opted not to include any DRM besides the effective non-DRM of Steam. I find it sad that a god damn cartoon company can provide a more intelligent DRM scheme than a dedicated games publisher.
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HardtargetThere Are Four LightsVancouverRegistered Userregular
meh it's not sad at all because It's a really fun game
I've asked Valve for a refund on this through Steam. Simply because I bought this game to play on long plane trips and the unadvertised DRM will make the game unplayable for these trips. So far Steam said "no way" but then I forwarded them a link to a blog that detailed the DRM and had links to Valve sites saying they were offering refunds, and Steam support quickly replied with "Hold on, maybe."
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
are there other tribes in the game than the one that appears in the demo?
because I find it highly suspect that the guy on the title art is so much lighter skinned than the very dark people in the game.
The tribe "elders" I guess cover themselves in white, you will have your dark dudes running around and a couple of guys that look like they covered themselves in white dust/mud/whatever using staffs to walk around.
edit:
Which is not uncommon for tribal cultures to do, for many reasons, to show rank, get ready for war, show off, and so on.
edit2: granted how he looks on the xbl art is a bit weird, as it does look like rambo stole some tribal gear, but I don't work for ubisoft so I don't know what to say there.
Posts
It's that publishers are struggling to retain control of their once dominant position in the market, which are now being disrupted by indies, which in my mind is rather similar to the way mobile phone companies are reacting to first Apple's iPhone (a whole new eco system they were completely unfamiliar with, where I see parallels to digital distribution of games) and then along comes Skype, Viber and other solutions which almost completely renders them obsolete and robs them of the majority of their profit.
The publishers are facing a similar scenario and currently scared shitless of their future.
This is their final battle, and Ubisoft's strategy consists of spamming Uplay across all of the digital download services they "are forced" to use now. As I said earlier, I think it's just going to rack up collateral damage as it's not that different to the bloatware of the mobile phone companies. Also (and I think I'm going to loose many people here, if I've not lost all of you already) I've noticed how several car companies are doing concepts which are very far from cars, like bikes and stuff. What it all boils down to is that the future is changing like never before, and past superpowers are scrambling to try to retain control.
I think they will all fail, though (read Clayton Christensen and my mad ramblings might all come together for you... hopefully).
Perhaps I should have posted this in the industry thread...
they did not say that it would require you to be online every time you launched
We could argue all day about the DRM, if you don't have a problem with it, that's fine, but other people do, and they have valid issues. In my opinion Ubisoft has missed the forest for the trees with DRM this rigid, especially at this particular price point. Even Games for Windows Live isn't as obtrusive, and frankly, that is sad, because GFWL is terrible.
The DRM combined with bad port job is enough of an annoyance that I will vote with my wallet and spend it elsewhere in the future, but beyond a slight feeling of getting ripped off, I don't much care either way, it is after all, just a game.
Whats that you say? Gold ore lies under my house? Man fuck that you gotta dig for it.
There's two huge conflicts here. One: the bad stuff shouldn't be supported. Two: The good stuff should be supported.
In this case the good in this outweighs all the bad so heavily you should buy it anyway.
Which is, I think, a pretty telling indicator of just how good this game actually is. It really is that good. You really wont care once you get into it.
I feel genuine pity and regret for anybody who refuses to ever play this masterpiece because it requires a little work to get into it. This game is immensely satisfying if you sit down, relax, and put some patience into it.
If you refuse to play it on PC and have an xbox, buy it on xbox. The game is not so demanding that the console cursor will be detrimental.
But.... that's what Ubisoft DRM is.
Edit: And just to be clear I am in no way advocating piracy, just pointing out that even the best DRM usually doesn't last long in the wilds of the internet.
Lots of people decided to wait for the PC version over the 360 because they wanted better controls
guess what didn't happen
There is a very large tendency on this hugely public forum for a smattering of bad to be generalised to the wrong thing. I'm trying to make sure people are aware that there's light at the end of the rainbow. This game is worth two or three times the money asked for it.
A choice between annoyingly packaged genius and no genius, you should pick genius though.
The control scheme is annoying if you are expecting populous or any other molyneux style god game. However this game is not about being a god. It's about crafting the raw firmament of the elements as they move and shape the world around you. It's not about lightning storms and fireballs or micro managing your people.
There's one fantastic stage later on that gives you nothing but a few small islands and a volcano just emerging from the ocean. It's up to you to stick your hand in this volcano's guts to grab balls of molten rock and from it shape the world for your people to move about on.
Should have gotten this on Xbox. There don't seem to be any high end video tweaks so the game look like it does on Xbox and setting the resolution to what my screen actually supports puts the menu off screen. I had to guess at clicking until I got the options to change. Doesn't support launch options through steam and you can't directly launch with a short cut thanks to ubi. The mouse controls are sluggish, but that might be because I haven't futzed with mouse sensitivity yet.
The game itself isn't much fun simply because I've been spoiled on all the initial cool stuff from reviews and previews. I get the feeling I'd have a lot more fun if I didn't know about fire trees or lava or tidal waves before hand.
Its got enough to keep me going thoughand ill finish the game... if only to get the sandbox mode.
caffron said: "and cat pee is not a laughing matter"
Because, simply put, I will not buy a game where the controls are that terrible, performance is that bad (tearing problems and no vsync? Really?), and there aren't proper graphical options to attempt to mitigate things. I barely tolerate less crappy controls on larger games; I see no reason to reward the publisher for doing such a slapdash job.
In the event a patch comes out that fixes all or even most of those complaints, I will very cheerfully part with my hard-earned dollars, because I had my wallet open and was reaching for the credit card when I found out about the issues with the PC port. It's not about the price ($15 is at the "eh...I'll buy it if it looks decent" range), it's about not buying a broken product.
The game's trailer made me want it, but Ubisoft has succeeded in overshadowing that desire. Good job, guys.
But the real issue here is, they tried to play it off as if it did not have this DRM when it did. It would be like someone claiming "Game X doesn't have co-op!" then the publisher coming back and stating "No wai, this game totally has co-op!" then the game ships and it doesn't have co-op. They lied to you to get a sale, and you should not support BS antics like that.
i have a problem with DRM but saying ubisoft should make some fancy special version of their games just for steam when they aren't using steamworks is pretty silly from a business perspective.
Yes, I am aware of that. It's a crap system as far as I'm concerned. I don't want some meta achievement currency that you can earn in one game and spend in another. If you want to reward people for achieving something in a game, then tie the reward to an existing achievement IN THAT GAME.
I have quite a few games that use Uplay and quite a few Uplay points. I still think it's dumb.
eobet says it best:
The sole purpose of Uplay is to force the user to funnel through Ubisoft's crappy overlay so that Steam doesn't dominate the whole "digital overlay" thing. It's so asinine.
Yeah they actually have 3 different types of DRM; always on, where if you lose your internet it closes. Alwaysonlaunch, where if you aren't connected when launching it won't. And then their not retarded one which doesn't require the internet at any point.
People claimed it had the first one, Ubi replied back with "No way it totally doesn't require an always on internet connection.", then never mentioned that it still had the second one which is just as bad.
Basically because it's stupid to do on a 15 dollar game, as it makes Ubi look petty, myopic, and out of touch. $15 is the price point that PC indies reside at, and there is very little DRM from them, which makes the contrast to Ubi's approach all the starker. Indies provide a lot bang for the buck, and most DRM consists of polite statements from the creators about "hey we're just two guys doing this for the love of it, please don't steal." At best Ubi doesn't understand this market, more likely they simply don't care, instead choosing to focus on consoles. (Which is fine.) Still, I can't imagine the value gained in piracy retention is going to equal out the horrible press this game is getting because of their shortsightedness in tacking on an extra DRM layer, especially when it offers so little positive aspects to the player instead being yet another hoop to jump through.
Ultimately though, if the port was decent, I don't think this little tempest in a tea kettle over the DRM would have much legs.
Also, you totally missed his point because the DRM is only an "extra layer" if you bought it on Steam as opposed to D2D, GMG, Impulse, etc.
If you bought it from anywhere other than Steam, basically, it is not an "extra DRM layer", it is the "sole DRM layer"
Woah, hey, one of my favorite games. I only beat it once, but I was young and incompetent. I still carry it around in my main CD case (along with the Creatures series and BG2).
The more obtrusive DRM is, the more effort pirates will put into cracking it, unless the game is just terrible and nobody cares
The game doesn't run as good as it should though, and should have more graphics and audio options. I put that down to console development junk.. which I am starting to get used to on PC games which are cross-platform with consoles sadly. That said, I haven't had screen tearing or anything, just minor slowdown in a few spots (perfectly playable), but I do have a relatively fast GPU.
I personally don't care about the DRM as my internet is more or less always on, and if it wasn't I would read a book or something. But I understand why people don't like it. UPlay is essentially one extra button to click. It worked fine for me in Assassin's Creed, though when I was playing From Dust earlier today the UPlay service seemed to be overloaded or something, and it was having trouble syncing. Hopefully that is a temporary issue.
Steam (Ansatz) || GW2 officer (Ansatz.6498)
Not even gonna bother with a shoddy port.
Currently playing: GW2 and TSW
As an aside with the mouse scroll turned off this game is a gem, and I love games like these. I hope they do some sort of DLC in which they add extra animals and more interactions with the tribe. There is quite a bit of room they purposely left open to see how well the game sells like it is and despite it being an Ubisoft product, I hope it does do well.
And that's sad, because Ubisoft doesn't care about PC gamers.
Luckily for them, most people aren't very tuned into DRM issues, and only notice when they inevitably fuck up.
As much as I dislike Lolzsec in general, I'd love for them to DDOS Ubisoft's DRM for a launch week or two on a popular game just to show people how terrible this really is. Some people won't learn until it gets brought home.
I personally will be playing Bastion, which wisely opted not to include any DRM besides the effective non-DRM of Steam. I find it sad that a god damn cartoon company can provide a more intelligent DRM scheme than a dedicated games publisher.
because I find it highly suspect that the guy on the title art is so much lighter skinned than the very dark people in the game.
Bridges, that's what.
Steam: CavilatRest
This, regardless of the silly hoops I need to jump through when first setting everything up and the DRM it is a very fun game.
The tribe "elders" I guess cover themselves in white, you will have your dark dudes running around and a couple of guys that look like they covered themselves in white dust/mud/whatever using staffs to walk around.
edit:
Which is not uncommon for tribal cultures to do, for many reasons, to show rank, get ready for war, show off, and so on.
edit2: granted how he looks on the xbl art is a bit weird, as it does look like rambo stole some tribal gear, but I don't work for ubisoft so I don't know what to say there.