News Mass Effect and Spore DRM detailed

Steam is invasive, Who said it wasn't, I put up with it because it is also offers certain advantages i belive off set the invasive CP THIS DOES NOT.

It will check with out your knowledge till it BREAKS, that is the point which has been made a half dozen times now wich you seem to ignore. All software would be great if it worked as advertised but it doesn't it never will.

 

Take my sarcasm and shove it? That wasn't a sarcastic post?? And suggesting I am stupid and moronic too, is that really neccessary?

I never said Mass Effect and spore weren't quality titles and I never said they were overpriced???

Charming.

 

saying games are pirated because they are crap is a dumb argument, as some of the best game released in years, also happen to be the most pirated. If thatis your stand, then I laugh. many Pc games are cheap as it is, yet people pirate because pirating is free. Has nothing to do with the quailty of the titles. If there was a chance people would get caught, that is the only way people would stop, or prevent it from happening, which is difficult.

 

You are living in a fantasy world. I assume that titles like Mass Effect and Spore aren't good enough. And no, I'm not even referring to DRM here and Joe has already answered the utter tripe about PC games needing to be made cheaper than they already are; just look at the price of console games and they sell orders of magnitude more than PC games.

 

How is it invasive, it does it and you will not even know it. If that is invasive, how do you tolerate windows or many other software that alwasy try and connect for updates, etc....

 

Reading what the Bioware rep wrote in the MassEffect forum where the bomb went off, I don't see an issue here.

On the box it's stated that you need internet to play it. You are allowed 3 installations on 3 different machines and get validated every 10 days. Also he stated that on the 5th day it will try to validate the game. If it fails it will try on the 10th.
I don't know about Mass Effect but Spore will require Internet either way to download new content and species from other players all the time.

Two issues I have.

a) what happens few years down the line they pull the plug on the servers. We will not be able to play it?
Even is the Bioware rep said that by then they will release a patch to break the DRM it's the most worrying thing.

b) What happens when a key generator produces your key and becomes flagged. How I will be protected?
To tackle that, I prefer to be able to create account (up to 3), with my key, and enter username & password every time I want to play. I prefer than and I feel more secure.

Imho I like that and I will buy Spore. Better now because it will save me to buy second box for my wife, since she want to play it too at the same time. It will save us some money.

Closing, I believe that DRM infestation isn't good. However they are trying to protect their investments and I appreciate it.
If we stop using pirated copies they will ease the grip. Or else either PC gaming dies, or we play what we buy.

 

Where did I say that?

 

This is the thing. This is a kneejerk reaction, but it is a sensible one.

If any gamers out there love BioWare games and love Wil Wright and Sim City then they should be angry at pirates, not the developers and not the publisher.

DRM sucks. I know. It's a bad thing. I hate it and it's put me off playing Mass Effect PC a bit too. Unfortunately, because of pirates it's also seen as being needed by publishers because publishers are out of touch with the communities.

There is a solution, in three easy steps.
First - Don't get angry at developers and publishers who are just trying to protect themselves. They need to make money to live and none of them want to make bad games - they want to be famous for making good games if anything.
Second - Get angry at pirates. They are the ones who are out there ruining games by making this sort of stuff needed.
Lastly - Be vocal and contact publishers. In an example like this, EA isn't going to do anything unless confronted. They won't go to Steam unless told to. If you really want them on Steam and you want to see that, then contact them and tell them. Go to their website, grab an email address, tell them what you found out and then suggest constructively how to fix it.

You aren't going to change anything whining here. What you do instead is tell your friends not to pirate, tell them its hurting PC developers they claim to love, and contact publishers and let them know what to do to make things better.

Hell, if you have trouble contacting the publishers or whatever then let me know and I will personally either hand over your complaints or find the right channels for you to work through. My email address is on the About Us page, so let me know.

 

LOL, you do not even know what you said. You obviosuly said if they released better games they would see less piracy. BULL CRAP, the better a game the more it gets pirated, PC games are already very cheap, hell, at launch you can get mass effect for 30 bucks for one of the best RPG's in years.

 

So better quality titles for a better price is a bad idea?

Hmm well that's your opinion and thats fine. I think games are grossly overpriced, especially on consoles and would love to see a reduction across the board.

 

Yep, I'd really like an open session with some of the developers too. The people that make the games, because I'd want to shake them by the hand and thank them for all the enjoyment they've given me (and all the money I've spent, too... which is a frankly quite frightening amount).

Royal "them" of course. And excluding any who thought that DRM was a good plan. So.. that'd be Stardock and Bethesda in the modern climate, then.

Piracy is a problem, yes, but so are incredibly restrictive DRM systems and pricing that is slowly creeping up and up and up... there is no 'magic bullet' for piracy - and it certainly isn't DRM in the forms publishers seem to be trying out at the minute.

...

Y'know what would complete the trilogy now? The announcement that Fallout 3 was going to use this same DRM system.

...maybe I shouldn't give them ideas...

 

I don't I tell windows when i can connect not the other way around. Its only invisible till it is not available, bit like aeroplane windows.

 

Yep, amazes me when piracy is mentioned so many here tend to brush it off as not a big deal or almost OK, but when DRm is mentioned they grow horns. You can't blame them, it is either this or continue to see PC games disappear. Piracy needs to stop, so then will DRM.

 

If u think that is the only way Windws in invasive, well, I pity you.

 

LOL!!!

Piracy will never stop, what's next??

 

There is blatant sarcasm (fantasy island) in there and an obvious insinuation that these games are low quality and over-priced.

 

Where did I say it would? Please learn how to comprehend simple sentences.

 

For the industry, I think it's a bad idea to lower the cost of games, but for the consumer, it'd be great in the short term. In the long term, it'd backpedal though because quality would suffer.

You see, game development costs have spiralled upwards but the price of a game has remained largely the same over the last ten years. When you factor in inflation, you're actually paying less for more these days - I'll no doubt get quoted out of context here, but you're getting something that takes longer to develop for less money than ever before. I believe Crysis cost in the region of £20-30 million to develop and there are rumours that GTA IV cost upwards of £50 million... £25 for a PC game isn't a lot to ask, is it?

Hell, games like Battlefield Heroes will be free and the developer will (hopefully) make their development costs back on microtransactions.

 

Oh i know plenty ways that windows is invasive but then i don't use it apart to launch games, sir you obviously do use windows so allow me to pitty you.

 

Sarcasm????

The only sarcasm inferred was that I was being silly to expect cheaper titles increasing in quality. Nowhere did I suggest those two titles were low quality or overpriced!

I haven't even seen them yet!?