SOW - with new DRM model by UBI ?

[AndyJWest]

Originally Posted by Wolf_Rider

An employer friend bought an English designed winch control program which he runs on concerts to enhance lighting effects... an interesting feature of the program, was in having to be online to install it as well as having to be online to uninstall it. In between those two situations however, there was no necessity to be online to run the program.


If it weren't for the pirates, there would be no need for protection methods eh?

Next year, the Ford Motor Company intends to release an 'online' control system for their cars: you don't have to be connected at all times, just when you want to use the accelerator or brakes...

Ridiculous? Of course it is. Nobody would even think of coming out with such c**p if it wasn't the computer software market. I don't know what the real solution is, but hopefully whoever is responsible for publishing SoW:BoB will realise from the RoF fiasco that p***ing off potential customers and encouraging the 'crackers' and pirates isn't a sensible marketing strategy. In my local supermarket, there are plenty of opportunities to 'pirate' a tin of baked beans or a bar of chocolate, but the profit they make on making purchases easier for the rest of us outweigh the losses. I'm no fan of the retail food industry, but at least they understand how to look at the big picture.

[MikkOwl]

Originally Posted by AndyJWest

Next year, the Ford Motor Company intends to release an 'online' control system for their cars: you don't have to be connected at all times, just when you want to use the accelerator or brakes...

Ridiculous? Of course it is. Nobody would even think of coming out with such c**p if it wasn't the computer software market. I don't know what the real solution is, but hopefully whoever is responsible for publishing SoW:BoB will realise from the RoF fiasco that p***ing off potential customers and encouraging the 'crackers' and pirates isn't a sensible marketing strategy. In my local supermarket, there are plenty of opportunities to 'pirate' a tin of baked beans or a bar of chocolate, but the profit they make on making purchases easier for the rest of us outweigh the losses. I'm no fan of the retail food industry, but at least they understand how to look at the big picture.

Good analogy with the supermarket there. I'm going to remember it for the future. Copyright crimes are very different in that no one is deprived of anything, unlike the supermarket analogy. But the concept of business doing something that is good/bad for them is absolutely the same.

[Flanker35M]

S!

Bought Silent Hunter 5, it needs internet connection when playing. No biggie for me, as RoF used it too. I understand the reasons why people dislike such features, but for me no problem at all. I have a legit copy of the game and no need to keep DVD in drive with this feature..much like Steam.

[mazex]

I get so tired of all this hysteria regarding DRM systems whatever they are called...

I just don't understand why people get so upset? Software has been protected by different versions of copy protection systems since the C64 days. Remember the tedious work of finding weird codes in those manuals? As it is now the online solution is the one that will prevail. Just face it. Everyone that are in the target group for buying games are connected now They have spent enough cash on a rig to be able to play the game and computers like that are in 97% of the cases connected to the Internet. The ones not connected are the ones travelling in the lap of their owner and that is a minor problem. People on 28k modems are not in the target group, and they have not been for 10 years.

I just installed Battlefield: Bad Company 2 yesterday and after the installation I got the question:

Do you want a DVD check when starting the game or online autentication that removes the need for having the disc in the computer?

I suppose you can guess what I choose? The alternative that makes it easiest for me as a paying customer. I just love that I don't to find a disc to play ROF.

There is only ONE developer of high budget sub simulators right now and their publisher decides to go with and online DRM system. What happens? Half of the so called "community" says they will not buy the game (like they refused to buy the excellent SH3 due to Star Force whining). It's fortunate that they are only a couple of hundred people so their crying will have no effect. The "men on the street" will hopefully buy the game so the whiners can get SH 6 in the end. Guess what? Whoever publishes it will sure have an online protection too. As will all other games in a few years. Start looking for your old board games while the rest of us enjoys the removed need to find those discs to be able to play.

Sure - as a customer I would love to have a game with no protection systems at all. But as it is now the companies are fleeing the PC market due to piracy. The invention of a fool proof DRM system (and that will require online authentication in some way) could actually be the solution that brings on a new renaissance of PC gaming where enough copies are sold to support nice markets like the flight simulator market...

/Mazex

[csThor]

The day when you have to subject to a monthly subscription even for playing offline games will be the day when you know why people object to such bullcr@p, mazex. This is only the beginning of a development that gives publisher executives wet dreams - DLCs at every turn, monthly subscriptions even for offline content ... I for sure won't act as cow for the publishers to milk for money at every corner.

[T}{OR]

Originally Posted by csThor

The day when you have to subject to a monthly subscription even for playing offline games will be the day when you know why people object to such bullcr@p, mazex. This is only the beginning of a development that gives publisher executives wet dreams - DLCs at every turn, monthly subscriptions even for offline content ... I for sure won't act as cow for the publishers to milk for money at every corner.

+1000. Well said.

[kimosabi]

Originally Posted by csThor

The day when you have to subject to a monthly subscription even for playing offline games will be the day when you know why people object to such bullcr@p, mazex. This is only the beginning of a development that gives publisher executives wet dreams - DLCs at every turn, monthly subscriptions even for offline content ... I for sure won't act as cow for the publishers to milk for money at every corner.

I agree. It is neat that they have the opportunity to update or patch your game at every available time that way but that function could just as well be implemented when you choose to go online. They sure are exploiting the DLC market and just look at what X-box has become now, you can't turn it on once without being prompted about updates or "necessary" or "cool" content for your game. It's annoying to say the least. Industry is industry and if things get much worse than they are right now, I'm not buying their games. If they implement that behaviour in SOW I'm not buying that either. Updating or patching should be a user choice, not publishers.

[AdMan]

plus it's highly invasive

Ubi is not the publisher, end of.

[Wolf_Rider]

Originally Posted by MikkOwl

Good analogy with the supermarket there. I'm going to remember it for the future. Copyright crimes are very different in that no one is deprived of anything, unlike the supermarket analogy. But the concept of business doing something that is good/bad for them is absolutely the same.

Actually, it was a terrible analogy, though ya get used to that sort of thing

but there is something which is quite, quite misunderstand there as well, I think... a purchaser, in reality only buys a license to run the game/ sim. The inner workings/ code. etc. etc belongs to the author/ developer/ publisher.

With copyright crimes... there is a hint in there... there are losers. They would be royalties, ownership, sales profit, etc.

Could you give some more detail on your hesitation at having to be online to perform an uninstall? (similar to online activation but for removal from the system... the uninstaller throws up a code for removal verification)


There was a court case down here in Australia featuring the movie and music houses versus ISP's. The issue was forcing ISP's to monitor and flick illegal downloaders. The plaintifs hired private investigators to join up to bittorrent, etc, and log IP addresses. The IP addresses were forwarded to the target ISP (IInet, which is the smaller of the big provider) at a volume of 3,000 per week/ over a few weeks and their refusal to honour their own ToS forced the legal action (the refusal was based on the sheer volume of complaint). The case went in favour of the ISP but is in appeal.... two weeks after that, a local got busted uploading the new super mario bros game, a week before release... his out of court settlement to nintendo was a ridiculous amount of money - AUD$1.5 million. The Federal Government here is battling to have installed a China type site/ keyword blocking service through the ISP's.