DRM now for offline games.

[barak1001]

Ubisoft got egg on it's face this week over Assassin's Creed II's DRM scheme. Apparently it requires a constant internet connection just to play offline. So a group decided to do a DOS attack on their servers which killed single player play for quite a few people.

What's Ubisoft's response? Screw you pc gamers, we're doing this for your own good.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2...locked-out.ars

[Weatherlight]

Got cracked on the first day it was released.

[Aldaron]

I read elsewhere that it wasn't a group with malicious intent, but Ubisoft failing to anticipate the amount of connections to expect upon release. There's quite a few posts on their forums describing circumstances where playing during the day is fine, but in the evening it's next to impossible.

[Weatherlight]

If your servers cannot handle a number of concurrent connections equal to the number of copies of the game you have distributed then you run into a Titanic situation.

And also look like a group of jackasses because you hyped this up with news articles months in advance for your "big announcement" expecting that the customers would be pleased by your jackassery.

[barak1001]

The game being cracked in a day doesn't so much discount that DRM slows piracy as enforces that DRM pisses off paying customers. While people with pirated copies can play it at any time, the paying customers wind up not being able to play every time there is a glitch.

This is the same issue that all current DRM schemes seem to face. The ability to piss off the paying customers while not bothering a pirate one bit at all.

[Mhaddy]

This is the most assinine implementation of DRM I've ever heard. Reminds me once more why I dropped PC gaming oh so many years ago. Ubisoft, you may amazing games but you really should be ashamed of yourself for this stunt and your stance on DRM going forward. Sheesh.

[Maestro]

The philosophy is that piracy is eating up so much revenue that they'd be fools NOT to enforce DRM. Then again, as barak pointed out, sophisticated pirates are completely undeterred.

Really, I was fine with CD Key protections back in the day. But I guess too many of us "casual pirates" figured out ways around it that in a way consumers have done it to themselves.

[Weatherlight]

That's a lie. The smaller companies die out but the monoliths of the industry are unphased. To say it is endangering the industry is not only a lie, but a bald faced one at that.

[Steel Fire]

DRM is like gun control... The pirates don't give a shit, they just see it as the next challenge and opportunity to make the game companies look like idiot monkeys. The only people affected (read: screwed) by DRM are those of us who have no interest in pirating the game and shelled out the money for it.

The things endangering the industry are their continued inability to make quality, non-buggy games that people want to play rather than console trash and their wonderfully developed talent for pissing off the paying consumer.

[Mhaddy]

The philosophy is that piracy is eating up so much revenue that they'd be fools NOT to enforce DRM.

Links or it's BS.

[barak1001]

Of course there's no proof that DRM works, but you guys are missing the big picture about why DRM is used. The software distributors don't care about customer satisfaction. They aren't there to release great games. They are there to make money.

If by implementing DRM they are able to delay a game being cracked by 1 week, that directly translates into x number of PC sales that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. In fact that's the entire point of them using DRM at all. To generate greater sales during the initial release of the software. After that point most companies don't care whether the software has DRM or not. In fact quite a few companies release patches to remove DRM a few months after the game is released.

Now whether or not it increases sales to the point where it's worth it when you compare it to number of customers with real world issues is debatable, but it must be cost effective for the software distributors otherwise they wouldn't use it.

[Maestro]

That's a lie. The smaller companies die out but the monoliths of the industry are unphased. To say it is endangering the industry is not only a lie, but a bald faced one at that.

This is not my argument. I'm merely attempting to explain a rationale for DRM.

DRM is like gun control... The pirates don't give a shit, they just see it as the next challenge and opportunity to make the game companies look like idiot monkeys. The only people affected (read: screwed) by DRM are those of us who have no interest in pirating the game and shelled out the money for it.

The things endangering the industry are their continued inability to make quality, non-buggy games that people want to play rather than console trash and their wonderfully developed talent for pissing off the paying consumer.

I agree that customers lose no matter what happens. If DRM is too harsh, the customer suffers outrageous penalties on their content. If there is no DRM however, pirates get away with murder and the companies making the games are punished instead. I don't know if piracy is "threatening" the industry or not, but the way DRM is being pursued so aggressively I can only assume that they at least believe that large revenues are at stake.

Links or it's BS.

No. Sorry, I don't care enough about the argument to try and substantiate it, hell I don't even necessarily believe that the developer companies are correct. But I can assure you that DRM did not spring up from a well of evil. There is some rational business model at work which has spawned it. That the end results of that logic is a complete clusterfuck, I do not dispute.

If by implementing DRM they are able to delay a game being cracked by 1 week, that directly translates into x number of PC sales that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise. In fact that's the entire point of them using DRM at all. To generate greater sales during the initial release of the software. After that point most companies don't care whether the software has DRM or not. In fact quite a few companies release patches to remove DRM a few months after the game is released.

Now whether or not it increases sales to the point where it's worth it when you compare it to number of customers with real world issues is debatable, but it must be cost effective for the software distributors otherwise they wouldn't use it.

Thank you. This is what I mean - there is cash monies at stake here. I hate invasive DRM just as much as any of you, maybe more, since I don't actually play that many games anymore and when I do, I would much rather relax at my desk with my toy than have to fucking wrestle my software into a headlock before proceeding to play. However, what I want as a consumer is irrelevant to a company's anti-piracy policy - unless I opt to punish the company by not buying their software, period.

What I was positing previously is that the widespread nature of piracy has allowed many gamers (myself included, at times) to suffer a moral lapse and defeat DRM that was particularly weak. In other words, past transgressions (it was not hard to circumvent CD Keys, for example) have returned to haunt a collective community of people who have often eagerly sampled wares via torrents and participated in other shady (and illegal) proceedings which were for the longest time considered legitimate simply because they were so easy. Even today, pirating a game has widespread legitimacy, and if someone tells you they have pirated a game I highly doubt your first reaction will be visceral disgust. More likely, even if you frown upon it in general principle, you may have done it yourself at some point too.

That's all I was saying. And that is a personal theory, more of a musing than a theory even. If you are in the possession of cold, hard facts which would shatter this illusion with cruel scientific precision, then I invite you to fire away. The conversation has my attention.

[Steel Fire]

Honestly, I think the excuse of DRM allowing them short term sales gains is BS.. or more correctly, plain stupidity on the game producers part. How many people will not buy an Ubisoft game again because of this Assassin's Creed II mess?

I'll be hard pressed to buy another EA/Maxis game after the DRM fiasco with Spore and it never even caused any issues for me. EAxis ended up bending over backwards to implement a deauthorization tool and multiple usernames on an account due to the massive reviewer and user backlash over the DRM limitations. The abysmal sales figures for their Creepy & Cute parts pack and Galactic Adventures expansion, compared to initial game sales, only stands to support the longer term backlash against a company that implements oppressive DRM.... and makes a less-than-anticipated game, but they were counting on Galactic Adventures to overcome that issue. Spore had so much potential, but because EAxis pissed off most of their paying customers that potential will never be realized.

All oppressive DRM does is encourage more people to wait a week or two so they can get a cracked copy on download. Honestly, until the last year I have never concerned myself with what kind of security measures a game has in place, now it is one of the things I look for in reviews before even considering buying a game. For the record, I have not and will not ever pirate a game. If the DRM turns me off spending the money on it, then so be it. Other people are stupid however and do pirate games because of the DRM. You know what that tells game producers... "Wow! This game is really popular, we just need more and stronger protection to stop the pirates so people are forced to pay money for it." Can we all see the vicious circle of illogic in that...

[[-Trogan-]]

This is not my argument. I'm merely attempting to explain a rationale for DRM.



I agree that customers lose no matter what happens. If DRM is too harsh, the customer suffers outrageous penalties on their content. If there is no DRM however, pirates get away with murder and the companies making the games are punished instead. I don't know if piracy is "threatening" the industry or not, but the way DRM is being pursued so aggressively I can only assume that they at least believe that large revenues are at stake.



No. Sorry, I don't care enough about the argument to try and substantiate it, hell I don't even necessarily believe that the developer companies are correct. But I can assure you that DRM did not spring up from a well of evil. There is some rational business model at work which has spawned it. That the end results of that logic is a complete clusterfuck, I do not dispute.



Thank you. This is what I mean - there is cash monies at stake here. I hate invasive DRM just as much as any of you, maybe more, since I don't actually play that many games anymore and when I do, I would much rather relax at my desk with my toy than have to fucking wrestle my software into a headlock before proceeding to play. However, what I want as a consumer is irrelevant to a company's anti-piracy policy - unless I opt to punish the company by not buying their software, period.

What I was positing previously is that the widespread nature of piracy has allowed many gamers (myself included, at times) to suffer a moral lapse and defeat DRM that was particularly weak. In other words, past transgressions (it was not hard to circumvent CD Keys, for example) have returned to haunt a collective community of people who have often eagerly sampled wares via torrents and participated in other shady (and illegal) proceedings which were for the longest time considered legitimate simply because they were so easy. Even today, pirating a game has widespread legitimacy, and if someone tells you they have pirated a game I highly doubt your first reaction will be visceral disgust. More likely, even if you frown upon it in general principle, you may have done it yourself at some point too.

That's all I was saying. And that is a personal theory, more of a musing than a theory even. If you are in the possession of cold, hard facts which would shatter this illusion with cruel scientific precision, then I invite you to fire away. The conversation has my attention.

Good to see were still flaming Maestro

[BDUAres]

a full page quote for a 7 word response that doesn't even really say anything intelligent? c'mon...