News Steam offering From Dust refunds

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2011/08/25/steam-offering-from-dust-refunds/1

 

I'm glad I waited instead of preordering now. As it stands, I won't be buying this, at all. Shame really, as I don't like seeing the developer being shafted. However I won't have Ubi's **** on my PC.

 

I still don't understand why companies like Ubi still put crap like this into their games. Are they really just that stupid. Buy game get DRM hate game because DRM spoils it/is annoying/won't let you play the game. Man, at least it stops all those nasty pirates. Oh wait. Pirate game no DRM problems. It's getting to the stage that you have to pirate a game you buy, so you can actually play the damn thing.

Next up in the world of DRM, Ubi adds a usb powered anal probe, that way they can truly fk you over when you play their games

 

Didn't they learn from the last time they had to patch a game because there DRM didn't work?

Guess the torrent sites will enjoy the extra traffic....

 

Cartman should have no prob then

 

- Valve do and people seam to fallover themselves praising gabe for it!

 

Valve require a constant internet connection? Do explain, I'd love to hear this one...

 

I've bought a fair few games off steam, and I've never had any issue with the DRM. Or playing them offline.

 

Ahh, the stereotypical hater / fan-boy...

... As usual, doesn't know the difference between facts and their own flawed interpretation.

STEAM doesn't do DRM, you can access your games offline, and I think you only have to log in once a month at most... Basically, I often play offline Steam games without a connection, no worries.

What Ubisoft are doing is natural for half-arsed companies that always look for the easiest, yet inevitably worst, solution to a problem; do what's easiest for them regardless of the impact to their CUSTOMERS.

Not a problem though, as idiots always have to learn the hard way

 

will steam refund me assassins creed 2?

ubisofts cretinous log-in does not work with my firewall, or half a dozen other popular firewalls, and i'll be damned if i'll take my pants down for the internet just to play their game!

 

Steam is a form of DRM as without it you will be unable to play the games you purchased.
However It is not a BS need to always be online bug filled piece of **** draconian form of DRM.

I am a happy Steam user, it is a great DRM platform and an even better gaming service even though I believe they should allow me to at the least change my logon ID, I'd even pay them to allow me to do this, and give unwanted titles away.

 

Some of us take our pants down to play any game. *looks shifty*

 

Gosh, so all those Steam forum threads reporting problems with offline mode are just figments of users' imaginations? Well thanks for the clarification. I guess Valve's Offline Mode FAQ (which, amongst other things, notes that you have to be online to enable offline mode for each game) must have it wrong too.

Your definition of DRM must differ from everyone else's too since Valve can (and regularly do) disable accounts resulting in Steam users losing access to their entire collection (examples here, here, here and here - plenty of others around).

And then there is the Steam Subscriber Agreement which contains clauses allowing Valve to:

• revoke your purchases at any time for virtually any reason (section 5: "Valve may terminate your Account...for any conduct or activity that Valve believes...negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers");
• charge extra amounts to your credit card as they please (section 4B: "Valve reserves the right to change our fees or billing methods at any time...") - they have to give 30 days notice but closing your account (and losing access to everything purchased previously, whether you backed them up or not) would be the only way to avoid any such charges;
• avoid liability if your system is hijacked by malware transmitted through Steam (section 9C: "VALVE DOES NOT GUARANTEE CONTINUOUS, ERROR-FREE, VIRUS-FREE OR SECURE OPERATION..."). This should be particularly significant given Sony's recent problems - at least Playstation owners didn't have to worry about their system being infected with malware allowing others access to their online bank accounts.

For long-term Steam users, section 4B should be the biggest concern since it could be used by Valve to bring in an annual, or even monthly, maintenance fee on all Steam accounts.

It's worth noting that Steam initially refused to provide refunds to many users (just like they refused to provide refunds on APB purchases following Realtime Worlds' closure) and only changed their policy when Ubisoft asked them to.

 

Steam has far more carrots than sticks, though.

Ubi DRM? It's all stick, baby.

 

Does that USB powered anal probe come with the Ultimate edition?

 

Does it run with Crysis?

 

It just like a lot of DRM. It tends to annoy, inconvenience and hurt the customer more than it actually prevents piracy.

Just like eBooks. You have half a dozen (maybe slight exageration) different DRM types as well as several different formats on top of the DRM. So great, you bought a book from Amazon for the Kindle, but the only way to get it to work on your iPad or Android device is with an Kindle reader app. Oh, and if you want to use it on your computer, you need the kindle reader app. If you want to use it on another eBook reader...sorry, you can't. Buy the book through the iTunes store, iBooks on your iPad or iPhone only, sorry.

I point out the issue with that, only because at least with songs and movies it is relatively easy to buy the physical media and convert it yourself to an MP3, MKV, MP4, etc with no DRM attached and use the movie or song you bought on any device you want. Where as a book, buying a phsyical book is hard, time consuming and annoying to convert to DRM freem digital form.

Etc, etc.

 

TBH it's a great game, I've sunk 12 hours into it since launch, finished the story mode and moved on to the challenge mode. It's a great little sandbox game but the lack of AA really lets it down, I've tried forcing it in the Nvidia Control Panel and it still doesn't take. I haven't had an issue with the UbiPlay stuff, but I haven't tried to play it offline. TBH I wouldn't mind a refund but I still do like the game. I'll just hope they patch the rubbish stuff out of it and add AA support in. Could also do with some less pixelated menus.

 

You have any idea how much kool aid I need to drink now to get over all that??

I've been aware for while tbh, although I have put so much money into my Steam account I try and live in denial (still, at least 99% of the games I have brought have generally been at dirt cheap discount price, and should I end up shutting steam cause they go for a monthly fee, I'd have gotten my moneys worth from most of the games).

I miss the days of simple 'none disk copy' DRM (where a simple no cd crack would deal with that for your own pc) and X-fire. I drunk the DRM cool-aid when I got given a Valve courtesy account that adds all Valve games for free.

Sigh, time to go and play one of the games I don't really fully own.

 

Not really
I play EvE online, I brought it through steam, to play it I just use the shortcut I made to the exe in the steam directory and steam does not start.
To further prove this point, to use the EvE test server I copied the directory from steam put it on a different drive and changed the server connection ip to the test server and still no need for steam.
Dirt 2 is another one I know for sure that works without steam if you use the exe in the game folder.