If you’d like to play the PC version of Bioware/EA’s hit XBOX 360 title “Mass Effect,” you’d better have an internet connection. Why? Because in order to remain “activated” the game will need to reauthorize itself via the internet every 10 days. Go 11 days without checking in and your game won’t work until you do. Some gamers are saying that this requirement makes them feel like criminals, and doesn’t make a lot of sense for a game that otherwise doesn’t require an internet connection.
From the Mass Effect forums:
It is good that Bioware and EA want to kill piracy — but really, though; at what expense?…If somehow a copy of MEPC game gets out w/out any protection around comes out, that copy won’t be hindered by any checks. Why should a legitimate buyer of MEPC have to pay money to be treated like he’s a pirate when he isn’t the pirate?
Say you, the legitimate MEPC owner, has lost their Internet connection — and it’s say not on your end, but your ISP’s. What now? Will you be locked out of your legit copy of your game for NO REASON?
Say you, legitimate MEPC owner, tried to get your copy verified online from its online check — but, for some reason, EA and Bioware’s servers are down. Or say, too many MEPC users are booting MEPC at once to get verified and you just can’t connect for a good while — whether it’s 2 minutes, 20 mins, or 1 hour or more. That’s an inconvenience. So, will the game boot b/c you can’t get your legit copy verified?
Let’s hope EA and Bioware are planning on operating these servers in perpetuity, because Mass Effect is very addicting, and if you don’t agree, my level 60 Adept Nemesis will Singularity your ass.
What do you think of this style of DRM? Are they punishing the ones who don’t steal? Or is this necessary to protect their investment?
Mass Effect for PC System Specs, SecuROM and FAQ [Bioware]
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And I think it’s interesting that all these arbitrary restrictions on proprietary software are actually driving customers away… which I’m sure is the opposite of what they intended to do…
One day China and it’s unforeseen future allies will take over the world.
On that day, this argument will no longer be relevant because of the almost unanimous Asian belief of community ownership. Just look at the Asian countries level of software piracy and lack of care for intellectual property rights.
A company that manufactures cars has to design the vehicle and than craft the raw materials, cut, shape, and mold the parts, and sweat and bleed to craft such a product to be sold… for each and everyone one. Each car must be constructed, requiring real work and labor.
Compared to developing an animate product, software is merely the “development and design period” of creating that product… nothing more.
Software requires a single period of work and labor to craft a product, which upon completion can merely be replicated at no cost. Each replicated product can be sold at any cost, yielding potentially unlimited revenue, and nearly 100% profit per sale after the cost of development has passed.
But for now; if you are a follower of the presumed western beliefs on intellectual property ownership, but still despise Digital Rights Management or any other form of anti-piracy, than you are either confused or are a hypocrite.
Mainstream standalone games aside, you always have an open source alternative.
I don’t get this at all.
Those who are going to pirate the game will do so once the cracks come out for it.
This check will do nothing to curb piracy in the least, and all those wishing to pirate it will still pirate it.
So who gets hurt from this? Joe Consumer and Sally Buysalot.. that’s it. Legit customers are the ONLY people who get punished here.
WTF is wrong with people *supporting* these draconian acts of anti-piracy? THEY DON’T PUNISH ANYONE BUT LEGIT CUSTOMERS!
This is the real reason why cracked software is popular, the cracked version doesn’t make you jump through all the hoops just to use the damn thing.
Just say NO! I don’t buy anything with DRM anymore, and I especially wouldn’t buy it from EA. This stuff will not stop until it hits these idiots in the wallet.
The first thing I do after buying a game, is download the crack for it.
That should tell you how screwed up the system is.
At least the two best game companies for the genres I play (Stardock and Paradox) don’t use any intrusive DRM whatsoever, just enter in a CD-key on install and you’re good for life.
The real solution to intrusive DRM is to let those companies lose enough money to go out of business, or to stop doing the practice. Buying the 360 version is worse then doing nothing as well, as that will just encourage them to move to consoles, which are more profitable for them, and less for the consumer.
@obamaramallama: Over 100 posts and this has been glossed over a few times already, yet it is the most damning argument against this type of DRM. There are cracks for Adobe’s DRM, and there will be a crack for this type of DRM. So how does this combat piracy again?
Wow. We really have an industry shill here in the form of ShirtGuyDom, don’t we… Dom, here’s my points to you:
1. “But, piracy kills games”. Bull. I’ve been hearing this for a long time, well before the internet. To combat piracy on the Amiga and Atari ST platforms, the response from the industry was to try a bunch of anti-piracy tactics ranging from requiring players to input specific codes from the manual every time the game was started to messing around with the disk format to stop direct copies. The special formats caused a bunch of problems if your disk heads were slightly misaligned, and guess what happened if you lost your manual? Yep, you couldn’t play the game. Pirate copies had neither of these problems, so people often chose those instead.
Part of the problem here is the general theme of my comments and lot of others here – it’s the paying customers, not pirates, who are penalised. I have a lot of games installed on my laptop with no-CD cracks. Why? Because I don’t want to have to take 20-30 CDs with me everywhere in case I want to play a game. So, not only do pirates demand the cracks, but so do paying customers – this stuff actually increases the pirate market!
2. Why would people who don’t have internet want the game? Well, first of all not everyone’s online. Some people can’t afford it (maybe choosing to buy games instead of browsing online), or live in shared accommodation where it’s difficult to spilt the bills.
Then, let’s remember that this requires a connection *every 10 days*. Here’s 2 scenarios where this is a problem. First, when I moved into my new apartment, it took nearly 2 months to get the phone line and broadband installed. Guess how I passed the time? Yep, playing games. Imagine this – my internet’s out, so I decide to pick up a couple of games to give me something to do when I’d normally be online. I get the game home, it needs to be activated. Damn. Maybe I take my computer round to a friend’s house to activate the game, but I can do this once, not every 10 days. So, I either take the game back, or I just accept the fact that I’ve been screwed. Not good.
Another example – let’s say I install the game, along with a few others, to play while I’m on the road. Maybe my wi-fi’s busted or maybe the motels I’m staying at don’t offer wi-fi. If I forget the activation before I leave or the activation runs out while I’m on the road, I’m screwed – again the product I’ve *legitimately* paid for is rendered useless because the vendor assumes I’m a dirty thief.
3. Part of the reason why DRM was so unpopular on music downloads was because they allowed you to *less* with your purchase. I buy a CD (or download and MP3), I can rip it to any device I wish and I can resell or lend it to friends if I want. DRM tried to enforce “you can only play this music on authorised devices and never let anyone else use it”. That pissed a lot of people off, and DRM is well into the process of being scrapped.
It’s the same here. The pirates don’t care about this – they see the DRM and activation as a challenge. When they accept the challenge and break it, the only people being penalised are those who *bought* the game. The people wanting to download it just have to wait a week or 2 longer.
Eventually, people get pissed off with this. They either stop buying the games with DRM, start pirating instead or they move to a different platform – remember it’s *PC* gaming that having problems, not console games.
Pissing off your customer is not the way to keep your business going.
@ShirtGuyDom:
I really think that you’re missing the big BIG picture in a general sense.
one of the things that drives me nuts in this world, or maybe it’s just the interwebs…dunno, is that many many people have misconceptions about how the world really works in small ways that are extremely fundamental and ultimately incredibly important.
let me explain. many people, for instance, confuse “illegal” with concept of say a breach of contract.
meaning – people will say: “if your break the EULA, that’s illegal.” No it’s not. It’s not ILLEGAL. It’s a breach of contract. It may also end up being a reasonable breach of contract. depends what the contract says.
There is no such thing in this country that says if you sign a PRIVATE agreement it is ILLEGAL to break that contract. I’m talking about illegal = police + jail. Not that you won’t be legally found liable.
on the flip side, in say a EULA they can write WHATEVER THEY WANT.
repeat – they can literally write ANYTHING.
Like: “if you breach, we get you 1st born.” they can say this if they want.
now, if you breach that provision, and they take you to court for your baby, the Judge will say: “Um..you can’t own people in this country so your claim on the baby is void.”
what the hell does this have to do with a stupid video game?
People are quickly believing that what perceived authority says and wants, IS law.
Like here on this site all the ID checking and receipt signing and the belief that many private entities have about what they can and can’t control in the public’s life.
so the BIG picture? People in this country (and elsewhere) are being “trained” or really slowly eased into to accepting the authority of private entity’s SELF INTEREST.
THAT’S my issue. everyday it’s something else. Something that we all think we HAVE to do to protect the self interest of a frickin business.
I personally don’t even care,in a day to day reality, if my game phones home, it’s that we do it because “hey, it’s a small sacrifice we make so that we play games”
this ‘sacrifice’ keeps coming and coming. growing and growing. and in the end people are accepting it more and more without really even understanding what they have to or don’t have to accept. I sure as hell don’t know entirely anymore..
But of course THEY never have to sacrifice. It says so, right in the EULA….that they wrote.
This protection will be bypassed. And just because of this I will not buy this game but I will get it for free.
Did the same thing with BioShock. I was about to order it but after reading about DRM problems I decided to simply get the game for free.
I understand companies exist to make money and I have no problems with it but I do have problems with jumping through hoops just to use my paid product. I do not care why the hoops are in place, I don’t want to know. If someone wants my $50 they better treat me with respect because if they already think I’m a pirate I might as well get it for free.
Besides there is absolutely no reason for a single-player game to require internet connectivity.
Draconian DRM drove me to consoles. I have no issue with a one-time phone-home or CD-key, but when games I love (and paid for) started coming with rootkits that interfered with things besides my gaming, I couldn’t take it.
I understand why companies put DRM on games, it’s as easy as it ever was to pirate games.
On a side note, I suspect that the horrendous amount of complaining people did about Crysis’ system reqs as well as Crytek’s long history making console games – has more to do with them switching to console only than piracy.
@ShirtGuyDom: “I remember hearing Crytek say that for every 1 copy of Crysis sold, there were 5 copies illegally downloaded.”
You know, for ever 1 copy of a book sold direct, NINE copies are bought resale or borrowed from libraries, and that model’s worked for a century and more. A 5:1 ratio simply isn’t that bad.
“I’d much rather let down a relatively small number of PC gamers 10 years down the line than let down every single PC gamer in a few years when I decide that PCs aren’t worth putting games on at all.”
Except that this solution — the one you’re advocating — INCREASES rather than decreases piracy and makes the problem WORSE, not better. This system will do nothing to stop pirates, who will simply crack it and ignore it anyway, and punishing legitimate consumers for obeying the rules makes them STOP OBEYING THE RULES.
YOU are the one missing the big picture. Misguided and illformed attempts to stop piracy MAKE THE PROBLEM WORSE. If you have a problem with piracy, don’t support efforts to combat it that result in increasing the problem!
I mean seriously. If you’re going to have an opinion on piracy, at least read up a little on the issue!
“I’m trying to help solve a problem.” You may be trying, but you’re so uneducated on the problem that your solutions make it worse. You don’t combat piracy by creating more pirates.
One of the real shames of all this is that it’s pushing everyone to non-generative platforms for gaming. On a console you can’t develop mods or tweak your games. They simply exist in a static environment where all the control is determined ahead of time and the gamer is a passive recepticle. Computer platforms (for now) allow a degree of tinkering that can enhance enjoyment.
On a broader level it is people like ShirtGuyDoom who will lead us to a bleak future of tethered internet devices and trusted computing where 3rd parties control what we can and can’t do on our own home computers. What’s the big deal, right? If we’re not doing anything wrong we have no reason to be worried, right? WRONG. There’s a certain value to our own privacy and that ability to develop new things. Forget about bittorrent, in a world like there might not even be an openoffice.org…
DRM is inefficient and only wastes money for the producers/distributors and frustrates legitimate customers.
I wouldn’t be so worried about the authentication servers being shut down. That’s an inevitability, but it’s likely that the game will be re-released sans phone-home when that happens. Pay for it again for $20 in five years and you get unlimited access afterwards. I’m not saying that’s fair. If I pay $60 now, I want to play it now and forever without paying another cent, but I try to remind myself that I’m not purchasing the game, only the privilege of playing it at the publisher’s discretion.
We’ve let them bork the legal system into allowing the seller to take back whatever the consumer has purchased at any time they feel. This concept has been around since the early days of floppy, if not before then. Our primitive ideas of copyright and IP have made all of our software purchases meaningless, and by supporting these companies that exploit these ideas, you are agreeing that when you pay $60 for a game, you are paying $60 for a near worthless slice of silicon and plastic and a pretty box. If you’ve paid to download it, then you’ve paid for nothing. The misguided attempt to foil piracy by supporting anti-piracy measures doesn’t keep the video game industry alive, it keeps the video game consumer oppressed. In fact, by their terms, you have more incentive to pirate the game than not to, because if you’re not purchasing the actual software, and you don’t really want that box and the blank CD/DVD it comes with, why pay $60 for them?
Of course, it’s a legal stretch to claim that it’s okay for them not to provide once you’ve given them money, even though that’s what your purchase agreement says (and yes, it does say that), but they will do and are doing what they can to make that stretch.
this drm is fine if they wanna pay for my internet.
And one last time: @ShirtGuyDom: “I’m just willing to sacrifice more to help combat piracy. … Until that day though, I am willing to do a lot to keep PC gaming alive. “
What you are sacrificing is PC gaming itself. You are not combating piracy. This kind of solution MAKES PIRACY WORSE. If you truly love PC gaming as much as you say you do, educate yourself on the issue and don’t support solutions that will kill the industry! Srsly.
I don’t think the question about your age was irrelevant, because it clears up a lot. I understand what it’s like to be 18 and think you have all the answers. I stand in front of a classroom full of 18- to 22-year-olds every day and teach them ethics (including issues related to piracy). I also understand that at 18, brains are still developing and the ability to understand complex ethical and philosophical issues is deeply limited, as is the ability to see more than one side of an issue.
Mature thought, which requires the ability to see others’ points of view, and to think through situations that are complex and multifaceted, rather than simple and black-and-white, develops over time, and philosophical thought is one of the last areas of the brain to fully “turn on.” The difference between an 18-year-old and a 22-year-old in my classroom is staggering. The 18-year-old may be smarter, but typically doesn’t have the nuanced thought the 22-year-old has.
I suspect you’re not aware of it, because you’re not processing at an adult level yet, but your comments do come across as very juvenile, and they do read like you’re willfully missing the point. Now that we know you’re 18, however, we know it’s not willful; you simply are not yet neurologically and developmentally capable of participating at an adult level in discourse of this type. I am sure that as you continue to mature, you will come to understand this type of debate better and will be able to participate in it in a more appropriate fashion.
Wait, wait… they’re doing this with *Spore*? I’ve been waiting for that game for THREE YEARS! Eagerly awaiting, even. And in one swift stroke they’ve removed all incentive for me to buy it. Good going. Maybe I’ll pick up a cracked copy or something.
Bioshock was going to be the first fps I ever bought – but after the foofah about the DRM, I didn’t bother. I already have games that can’t be played because the authentication servers are gone – and once that’s happened to you once, you don’t fall for it again.
Sadly, as much as I’ve been wanting it as one of the few games I get each year, I too will no longer buy Spore.
Obviously, they’ve chosen their most anticipated/popular title to sink a poison pill into. They wouldn’t have done this with a third rate title. But still, software that phones home is software that phones home. EA doesn’t respect its customers.
Well, now I’ll just warez a version of it with the DRM disabled. Way to go EA. You LOST a sale.
@GizmoBub: awesome point. i grew up on pc gaming, but gradually switched to consoles. back in my quake days, my favorite server was one that ran a mod with secondary functions on all the weapons (for example, you could use a grapple hook to attach yourself to any surface in the game & then switch to guided rockets & frag players anywhere – it was awesome). i used a character generator in baldur’s gate to make my guy so powerful that virtually every swing of his warhammer fragged an enemy in a wonderous shower of meat parts. i ran mods/tweaks on starcraft, c&c – hell, i even had a few mods on civ2.
the initial reason i switched was b/c i couldn’t keep up with the cost of running new games (late 90′s – virtually every game out required the latest $300 gfx card, new CPUs were being released about every quarter, RAM was undergoing some major changes & was expensive as hell, like 128MB for $150+). the industry alienated me by requiring more than i was willing to invest.
& although i’ve begun to buy pc games again (strategy games on consoles mostly suck), this is also more than i’m willing to invest. boo to you, ea!
Here’s the sad part, and why this is just mental masturbation on EA’s part. If they didn’t put in the DRM, the game would still make sales, but EA being greedy would claim because it didn’t make their impossible prediction that piracy is killing PC Gaming. With the DRM me and alot of other gamers aren’t going to buy it, and then they’ll again claim the PC is a dead platform.
All this is is an attempt by the software publishers to finally write-off the expense of developing games for a heterogenous platform. Weather they DRM the games or not, they will claim either Piracy or poor sales as the reason for the PC’s decline as a gaming platform.
I also wouldn’t write off the PC as a gaming platform, not until the console makers open their machines up to indie developers at least. The PC will still be a viable gaming platform as long as there are game makers willing to make games in their free time and for a small chance of getting any money. Valve seems to be very comitted to the PC going so far as delivering community features like you get with XBox Live. I mean, I don’t see the Xbox version of the orange box getting the Gold Rush map for TF2, nor the unlockable weapons.
I think there’s an important point being missed here.
Installing this game means that you are installing phone-home software of dubious intent.
Put your paranoid hat on for a minute: you just installed software that does God knows what (clearly not with your best interests at heart) to sniff around your hard drive and send whatever it wants, in a secret encrypted stream which you must allow, back to its masters.
This is the PC that you do your banking on.
Think game makers are above destructive shenanigans? The excellent Consumerist coverage of the UbiSoft/Starforce debacle is instructive.
Considering I just finished a round of games 10-15 years old, I’d hate to think what would happen if I tried to play Mass Effect a while from now. Think of what has happened to the customers of the MSN Music Store. Sure, Bioware will probably release a patch that removes the check in the future, but, for me, “probably” is not good enough. The 60$ cost plus internet checks does not outweigh the likely possibility of a patch in the future that would stop the checks.
This just highlights the endemic misunderstanding in the music, movie, and gaming industries. That is, they treat the customer like a criminal because piracy exists. However, pirated copies of games and music often DO NOT treat their “owners” as criminals, requiring no arcane measures like CD checks and phoning home. The same is true for pirated copies of movies. The customer chooses the path of least resistance and the business loses out as a result.
Companies need to focus on their actual fans, who will buy the game, and not on pirates. As Galactic Civilizations 2 proved, there are people who will buy a game no matter what, there is a small minority of people who pirate and then buy the game, and there is another minority of people who pirate the game but had no intentions of ever buying it in the first place. These people were never customers, why sacrifice your real customers for them? Add extras to the game for all customers, increase the value of the game as time goes on, remove protection that just hinders legitimate buyers.
Great… so if I go on a ten day vacation, I have to leave my computer on if I want to keep my copy of Spore validated?
Why can’t they change this to once every 30 days instead? Ten days is a bit too strict.
It isn’t like it will make a difference to begin with. You know the hackers will overcome the need for validation anyway.
I smell class action lawsuit for false advertising.
Unless they say on the box (outside) product requires Internet connection and can be terminated at any time they are in for a ball of trouble.
I am a heavy game user but I for sure will not buy any game with this kind of DRM.
@ShirtGuyDom: you mean, “you have nothing to worry about until the game is no longer supported.”
@pecheckler: I can’t really say, “right on,” but you definitely get it. I think copyright is a fine idea, but both sides want to have their cake and eat it, too.
The copyright holders want to get as much control as possible, including forms of control, such as most DRM, which would not allow use after support expires, much less after copyright expires.
Copyright now lasts far too long, and the penalties for illegal copying and distribution (sale is another matter) is far out of line.
On the other side, most of the people pirating are living in a culture and economy going more and more towards service. You pay for ongoing processes and support, and expect to be paid that way, yourself (most of us, anyway).
I won’t deny that piracy can hurt, just as it can help. One of the best FPS games of all time, Starsiege: Tribes, is an excellent example. It flew off the shelves, but then got pirated out of the profits it should have reaped. Sierra’s response to that is certainly a good bit of why Tribes 2 was never finished (I don’t mean, “never released”).
Finally, DRM like this does not stop piracy. By making the pirated copy superior to the proper retail, along with cheaper, anyone on the fence becomes encouraged to pirate.
However flawed, a system like Steam is probably the best compromise we have, at the moment.
I used to buy a game, then get the crack. Now, I just avoid the games altogether.
@ShirtGuyDom: That’s the dumbest reasoning I’ve ever heard and it’s also the reason I despise Steam. If I can’t get online, I can’t use steam (without first setting Steam to offline mode while I’m online). I can’t start steam in offline mode because for some reason it constantly crashes. This makes lan parties at Universities without open guest lines very difficult. We had to pull out a switch and get one guy who actually went to the University to log-in and ICS his connection the last time we had a Counter-Strike lan party because half the steam clients failed to start in offline mode. Note, this was a LAN party upwards of 30+ persons…
So yeah, this DRM shit is getting very annoying. I absolutely despise it and think it should burn. Atleast for Windows Media DRM’d material, I can strip it and keep it for my own usage. Hell, I might even re-encode it so I can play it on other devices. Does that make me a criminal because I want to be able to use the material I paid for the way I want?
Well if thats the case, then the system as it stands has gone to shit.
@ShirtGuyDom: Just put everything on Steam. I’d be elated if I never had to buy a PC game DVD again.
I’ll also point out that DRM does absolutely nothing to stop piracy. Period.
Perfect example, ask anyone who’s decided to encode their license based software for web development with ionCube how well that serves. Need a better example? Ask Invision Power Services…
@pecheckler: Racist much?
On some theoretical level, I agree completely. Intellectual property rights are paramount, and people have the right to protect them.
But first, the notion of the Asian Menace is a smokescreen. It has nothing to do with nationality and everything to do with getting a leg up.
Second, the right to protect is tempered by reasonableness. The point isn’t that some anti-piracy measures aren’t justified (though they may be counterproductive, but that’s another discussion) it is that some are unwarranted or excessive.
I don’t know about you, but this DRM thing has just prevented me from buying Mass Effect. Why? Because I refuse to activate XBox Live! and refuse to give my XBox access to the internet.
I will NOT pay $50 for a game I can only play for 10 days.
Here’s really why I don’t like this whole business:
Assume I have, as I, in fact, do, have two alternatives: the PC game and the XBox 360 game. Both have interfaces customized for the relevant platform. The PC game has free DLC. The XBox 360 game has…well, it doesn’t have an invasive copyprotect scheme. Which am I going to buy?
I was going to buy Spore. I was going to build a whole new PC for Spore I was that excited. Hearing this, I do not want to buy Spore. I’ll get a Wii and save the rest of the cash for my retirement or something, when us old school PC gamers will sit around and bitch about how games have gone to crap.
Piracy is hurting PC gaming. Anti-piracy is killing it.
@mac-phisto: mmm, Lithium? Don’t worry, PC games will also end up too locked down for that sort of thing.
“but, for some reason, EA and Bioware’s servers are down.”
This has already happened with Windows’ Genuine [Dis]advantage DRM scheme. The servers went belly up for a day, and many Vista owners saw severely decreased functionality because their copies were magically considered pirated versions.
EPIC FAIL. :’(
Its not stopping piracy of the game & its angering potential legitimate buyers. Its a lose/lose situation.
@cerbie: i think it was rune, but i can’t remember exactly. you’ll have to forgive me, it’s only been about a dozen years.
Whelp, looks like I’ll wait for the hacked version to show up on ThePirateBay then. I’m regularly without internet since I do a bunch of gaming on a laptop in a WiFi / internet dead zone and don’t have the patience to deal with this kind of DRM bullshit.
90% of the games I own are legit CD/DVDs. The other 10% aren’t because of crap like this or because they’re so old they aren’t worth the 40 bucks the company still wants for them. Come on, a 12 year old game that isn’t under 10 bucks now?
@ShirtGuyDom: hmmm…. Iraq, Afghanistan, other remote locations that your job takes you to for many months….
Peeps, you need to keep in mind that some people work in regions where internet is either totally unavailable or very expensive. Why should they be penalized for not having internet access for a game that doesn’t require it?
You guys are totally crazy. I though people who posted on a site like this would be little more intelligent than people posting on other forums and be able to take things just a tad more lightly. Just a tad. Learned my fuckin’ lesson, didn’t I?
Note to self: No more sarcasm or playing devil’s advocate. Jesus.
Frankly, this sort of DRM is a good reason to find a copy that has been hacked, so you don’t pay money for a crippled game.
@ShirtGuyDom: I’m sorry but are you a moron?
“Complaining and moaning about a possible (yet still admittedly flawed) solution is like welcoming the destruction of PC gaming.”
Do you seriously believe that the actual solution they’re putting in won’t ALSO be a cause of the ‘destruction of PC gaming’ like you say.
Hmmmmm, let’s see. Don’t even say ‘pirate’. There are 2 choices here that are relevant. 1 – game is purchased and 2 – game is not purchased. Do you really think that with the retarded as hell activation requirement as stated it is going to lean more to 1 or 2 – regardless of the ‘pirate’ word.
Sorry, if I just added onto the pile. But , you were like one of the first posts and I’m so tired of seeing these silly, uninformed, insane comments and arguments everytime the evil ‘piracy’ word is uttered.
Just download a cracked copy. No need to spend money on a copy you can’t use.
@ShirtGuyDom: It’s a good thing you stopped coming back to this article. I have never seen such a huge outlash against a commenter since a racist comment was made in another article by somebody else.
I don’t know about you, but we’re not a relatively small number. There’s a camp that’s solely for upgrading at every new hardware and software release and there’s also a camp that treasures some of the oldies. Both are a longtime PC tradition and still pretty strong.
To say otherwise is to simply expose yourself.
Everyone’s answer to copy protection always seems to be “why bother, they’ll just crack it.”
I work in the games industry. Simple fact is that fighting piracy is just a delaying action and we know it. From the moment a game is released you have a couple month window to make nearly all your profits. Most sales come in just a couple weeks. Then retailers boot you off the shelf for the next big game. So every week we can delay pirates results in more sales. People get frustrated waiting and buy a copy instead.
@Geekybiker: So why not do something like have the DRM at first, and then issue a patch that removes it after a year or so?
That’s just great. So what happens if you try to sell your copy of ME? I’m sure you get the typical limited number of servers per license crap, but if, in 5 years, the license server is kaput your copy is worthless – even as a trade-in. Ooh, wait, now I get it, this isn’t about piracy at all. This is an attempt to stem video game resale.
Nice move, EA, very clever.
dom: next time say you are playing devils advocate, say so in the beginning, so it doesnt look like a cop out when you admit. Or just apologize, no one will be mad.
Future Devisl Advocatate advice: when people prove their point, stop beating it like a dead horse.
I cant believe I am still reading this tread. Kudos to you for your endurance.
I wrote some more about anti-piracy, but I think everything that needs to be said has been said.
@redkamel: Like I said, I wrongly assumed that people here were smarter than people on other forums and would be able to more easily pick out sarcasm and me playing devil’s advocate. But I was wrong.
@ShirtGuyDom:
It’s obviously very hard to read sarcasm over the internet.
By the way, your servicemen quip was very, very low. You should be ashamed.