What UBI should have done with DRM
 

I am neutral on the Steam debate, it is simply an anti piracy tactic that is to varying degrees necessary evil.

The part that is not only unconscionable and borderline unethical is requiring sign up with an online service to simply play single player missions, especially since he/she will pay at least $50 for the license.

unconscionable becuase one pays for the license from UBI, yet does not give the right to play it, and is forced to engage 2 other parties to be able to (Steam and 3ed party internet provider).

borderline unethical because to play it you have to sign up with Steam, providing personal information.

(would not be surprised if this is grounds for a a law suite)


What Ubi could have done:

1. Sell a USB Key. Yes, it would cost a little more to customer, but he would avoid all the online DRM hassle.

2. Create a LIMITED PLAY version of CoD for those who do not register. Half the aircraft, some limits on missions, but enough to lend hours of enjoyment. This can change over time as updates are introduced.


Honestly IL-2 is the only Ubi title I ever purchased, as a box set, so I have no particular animosity against them, but they way they are handling the CoD release (changing shipping dates, different prices depending on where you love, canceled/changed CE after announcement, insistence on using Steam, etc), and with comparisons to other Ubi released clearly show the lack of care or imagination.

If they wanted to avoid online DRM hassles, there would be much cheaper and effective options than a USB-Dongle.

such as?

its easy to make CD disk images, password generators, copy codes.

whats this "murdbi?"

secret code I been targeted for destruction? ;)

The dongle is checked by a software. I guess you can figure the rest out yourself.

If not, check out development of software like Autocad or, speaking of hardware protections for a software: Mac OS.

Any alternative is at least more cost-efficient.

I don't discount the possibility of multiple layers of checks, but even those are not immune.
For example, many crackers have manged to get OS X to run on non-Apple hardware, but what really hinders it is no drivers to take advantage of all the hardware features.

So, even with OS X one encounters hardware keyed protection in a round about way.

With the dongle, it can be set up in a way it cannot copied and faked

I've always liked the way "Fade" worked (Operation Flashpoint). If someone used a copied version, the game would start responding less and less to the user and start shutting down sooner and sooner. It made the game function like a demo and leave the user wanting more.

Still, I'm no fan of multiple DRMs, as it just adds one more thing that can fail and can be doubloe trouble if they don't play nice. Getting Dirt to play with Steam and GfWL was annoying.

The one thing that really bothers me is one has to rely on a number of 3ed parties to play CoD.

It may be a few years down the road the system/company that supports the DRM is not available, and now CoD cannot work anymore because no one is there to activate it!

^ In that case they could simply release a patch that does remove the need for the DRM, just like it was done with Wings of Prey some days ago.

Sounds good but will probably not happen in case a company goes bankrupt. Even more so if parts of the game are running on a central server, like with Rise of Flight. So I also have some reservations, even if it's highly unlikely that Steam will run into such troubles within the next few years.