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News Mass Effect and Spore DRM detailed

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by CardJoe, 7 May 2008.

  1. Zut

    Zut What's a Dremel?

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    Nice one! I notice people completely ignore the folks without internet when they rabidly masturbate over Steam!! (btw whats the big deal with steam?!)

    You guys are LOOKING for things to complain about. I bought Bioshock retail and never had the slightest hint of trouble. And I installed it on two different machines too!

    I know the DRM situation is a bit ****, but we as PC gamers don't have much choice here. PC gaming is at risk, and piracy really isn't helping. At present console versions of games outsell their PC equivalents by 5-10 times. That doesn't make a very good case for developers spending much money on PC ports.

    I was very pleased but also surprised to see Mass Effect make the leap to PC. We can't take this for granted anymore... if publishers/developers decide not to make PC games any more they we are all f*cked.... I AM NOT GETTING A CONSOLE.

    In summary, stop whining about DRM lest we lose PC gaming altogether.
     
  2. Jipa

    Jipa Avoiding the "I guess.." since 2004

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    Like all this copyprotection BS would lead to anything but very pissed customers and a way around the protection...

    My 2 cents.
     
  3. Wicz

    Wicz What's a Dremel?

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    My sentiments exactly, and nothing whatsoever to do with piracy either ;)
     
  4. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Yes, piracy is as big a problem as they say it is.

    And you shouldn't need an incentive to obey the law, so stop being an idiot. It's harsh of me to say this, true, but as I said before I think the only way to correct this is to punish the pirates who are the cause, not the publishers who are defending themselves.

    Stop pirating. Stop being friends with pirates. Stop casually encouraging piracy.
     
  5. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    Then it dies, but lets face it if one pub dies moves on then anther will simply replace it. Its a multi million pound industry and it has been heavily pirated for 20 years, its still here it will continue as long as people continue to buy games for a very simple reason, people want to take your money from you. Since I and others wont buy the game with DRM of this type by not talking about it and just not purchasing a game it doesn't help the industry any.
     
  6. Tim S

    Tim S OG

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    DRM doesn't stop pirates from pirating... it generally stops casual pirates from acquiring the game before release when day-zero leaks hit BitTorrent - I think it has done that job pretty well over the past year. Think outside the box for a minute and look at the big picture: imagine the marketing dollars a publisher might spend on a game, building up the hype (through internet advertising, magazine advertising, TV advertising, etc) ready for a big splash of day-one sales. Games make most of their money in the first few days, so if it appears on BitTorrent before any sales can be built up, that's going to be pretty telling on the success or failure of the game. You (as a publisher) are advertising a game that's available for free if prospective customers know how to use a search engine.

    I remember back to Half-Life 2, when Steam literally broke - the uproar was massive because people couldn't play probably the most anticipated game of relatively recent times. Valve worked to fix it and there haven't been the same problems in subsequent releases. DRM, in the same way, is a learning curve and having spoken to publishers and people that work closely with developers, I can say that the industry has nightmares about the activation problems - they're not as evil as they may come across (because DRM is evil and therefore they must be evil too). The saying goes: everything looks perfect on a PowerPoint slide deck, but nothing ever goes that smoothly.

    Roughly 1 million sales to an estimated 2-3 million illegal downloads for a game like Crysis is a pretty big ratio. Saying that piracy is not an issue is incredibly short sighted. I am not of the opinion that all of those that pirate the game would have bought it, but it is certainly a little off-putting for anyone trying to make money building games for the PC.

    Cogs are being turned and heads are banging together inside the PCGA, but there's nothing I can report just yet. I just hope that the what I've been told is a hive of activity inside PCGA is actually coming up with the answers that PC gamers want to hear.
     
  7. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    Tim if thats all DRM is good for (zero day) then why have a ten day phone home?
     
  8. Wicz

    Wicz What's a Dremel?

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    What the hell is wrong with you????



    I AM NOT A PIRATE and I could have sworn I already made that abundantly clear?

    Can you please stop insulting me and for gods sake please stop insinuating that I am a pirate!

    I have never stolen any software from anyone in my entire life! I think the least you can do is apologise for your slanderous and totally uncalled for 'statements'!
     
  9. Zut

    Zut What's a Dremel?

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    Its not the publishers that will die, its the PC. Publishers will move to locked platforms that they can fully control, like the Xbox 360. PC users wont be able to play games anymore.
     
  10. cyrilthefish

    cyrilthefish What's a Dremel?

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    this is ignoring the fact DRM is pushing people to piracy ;)

    Basic fact is there needs to be a happy medium, make it easy enough for paying customers to be able to play the game without problems, and just enough CP to stop the more 'casual' people who will try to copy the game

    You will NEVER stop ALL piracy with excessive CP
    You WILL upset paying customers with excessive CP and drive them to piracy

    Consoles have 'okay' CP, enough to stop casual copying but it doesn't stop piracy on chipped consoles either.
     
  11. Tim S

    Tim S OG

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    Steam does a similar thing - Valve just chooses not to talk about it.
     
  12. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    Rubbish, if all PC games pubs stopped selling PC games tomorrow there would be HUGE gap in the market that would be exploited this is still a Multi million pound industry, the games may go more indy, yes the next release might not be as pretty, but the platform would remain and be exploited precisely because it is an open platform and not locked to an individual company, it may even improve as new blood is injected. PC gaming is not going to die pubs and devs will come and go DRM and piracy will eb and flow. Once the Console is the only source of games do you honestly belive that piracy wouldn't become rampant on it? In fact devs might long for the days of the PC when at least they could install starforce on your PC.
     
  13. mmorgue

    mmorgue What's a Dremel?

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    Hmm, I thought the real issue wasn't the "internet ping & check"..

    I thought it was with the "SecuROM" itself. While debatable, it's been likened to a rookit and installs software on your machine that *isnt* specific to the game in question it's meant to protect, meaning it has/could have knock on effects to other software on your PC.

    Of course, I (we) have a choice -- simply to *not* purchase the game(s). Which I won't. Any other CP, like serial nums, internet pinging, whatever, I'm fine with -- I just don't want to pay for a company to install poorly designed, poorly implemented CP software like SecuROM on my PC. Doesn't mean I won't snag a copy off the newgroups, as I do want to play these games.

    Shame EA didn't setup a "PayPal" donation area -- I'd *happily* donate the ££ of the retail cost of the game for a pirated version. I'm not against buying games -- just don't like their choice of **** CP protection.
     
  14. eddtox

    eddtox Homo Interneticus

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    Two things:
    1. That is what they would like you to believe. The truth is that for every company that moves away from PC's others will move towards it. It makes money! And some poeple don't even do it for the money. There are plenty of open-source games out there.

    2. There is no such thing as a locked platform.. except perhaps the GameBoy? Think about it.. even the PSP has piracy..
     
  15. Zut

    Zut What's a Dremel?

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    I think he means that by accepting piracy as an inevitability, were unconsciously condoning it. For instance you mention "the free version"... this suggests that you consider a pirated copy of a game to be a legitimate option. You also say "it has been heavily pirated for 20 years", as if its some kind of tradition.

    Piracy seems to have become legit by osmosis, but just because many people accept it doesn't make it OK.
     
  16. Wicz

    Wicz What's a Dremel?

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    Really? You noticed I mentioned the 'free version' but you didn't notice I was talking about someone else?

    Also I didn't say "it has been heavily pirated for 20 years", that was someone else too but he's right!!
     
  17. steveo_mcg

    steveo_mcg What's a Dremel?

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    No in fact i pointed out its been heavily pirated for 20 years, and i went on to point it that despite that its still a multi million pound industy and grows every year.
     
  18. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Apologies for any insult, but it does kind of seem that the whole 'my friend pirated it' was kind of a mask. And I do think that unless you confront people on this issue then you are casually condoning it, which is very much what your 'piracy in inevitable' stance seems to be doing and is something I disagree with.

    Help me out here - what would you like to see done and what are you views, in full, on this topic.

    That too.
     
  19. Wicz

    Wicz What's a Dremel?

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    Dude, any apology due is accepted but seriously, when did I say that my friend pirated the game?

    You assumed he did and that is part of the problem I'm afraid :(

    My friend is honest to the point where it sometimes becomes painfull. He didn't pirate the game, He simply returned his copy of the game ( which is precisely what I said ) when he realised what was required of him to own it ;)

    Of course hearing that pirates don't have to fulfil any of these obligations didn't win the bioshock devs/publishers any love either.
     
    Last edited: 7 May 2008
  20. Zut

    Zut What's a Dremel?

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    I think PC gaming goes back to the Speccy and C64, but the folks who can actually remember that are starting to get long in the tooth. Gone are the days when a single person could crank out a best selling AAA title in a few months (e.g. PacMac, which FAR outsold Mass Effect, Bioshock, Gears of War, etc..!). It takes years, huge teams, and millions of dollars to make a game like Mass Effect. If the big studios decide to leave the PC behind its going to get harder and harder for someone to come along and fill that void. Sure we'll probably always have indie games, but that's not enough for me, and I doubt it is for you either!
     
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