For the swarms of angry EA customers ticked off at the company for forcing players to play the new SimCity in an always online mode, the slow, problem-riddled servers have been a huge annoyance. Calls for EA (our Worst Company In America 2012) and Maxis to allow gamers to play in offline mode have been dismissed by the company as not possible, but lo and behold, one game modder is claiming it is quite possible. [More]
EA Insists SimCity Must Be Connected To Servers, Gamer Figures Out How To Run It Offline
By March 15, 2013
New In The SimCity Saga: Maxis Promises More Servers, Refund Rumors Abound
By March 8, 2013
Here’s Why Digital Rights Management Is Stupid And Anti-Consumer
By November 26, 2012
Comparisons of downloadable books and music to their ancient, tangible predecessors are an old, old meme, but sometimes the comparison applies. For example: if reader Synimatik had bought a paperback book a few months ago and picked it up to read now, the book’s pages wouldn’t magically glue shut just because the credit card she normally uses at the bookstore has expired. That’s how it works when you want to read a book downloaded from Barnes & Noble, though. [More]
Amazon Erases Customer’s Kindle, Wishes Her Luck In Finding Somewhere Else To Shop
By October 22, 2012
Compared to ebooks, physical books might have the disadvantage of being heavier and subject to wear and tear. But you know what’s nice about a printed book? Amazon can’t come to your house, take it off your shelf and tell you to go buy it somewhere else. [More]
Amazon Puts Your $1000 Kindle Library 'On Hold,' Apologizes, Shrugs
By November 23, 2011
One day in October, Kindle owner Ryan couldn’t log in to his Amazon account. He reset his password: no luck. According to Amazon representatives, the account is now “on hold,” but no one can tell him what that means. He was told that someone at Amazon would call him back within 24 hours. That was almost a month ago. [More]
UltraViolet Restrictions On Green Lantern Makes Reader Feel Ultraviolent
By October 17, 2011
Reader Justin is steaming because he just found out that the promised “digital copy included” isn’t actually a normal file, but a license to watch the flick through the movie industry’s new “UltraViolet” system. [More]
Warner Bros. Batman-Blocks Apple Users From Digital Copy
By August 16, 2010
Apple enthusiast David was annoyed to discover his Blu-ray of the animated film Batman: Under the Red Hood won’t allow him to use the download voucher to get a digital copy of the film that will play on his Mac or iPod. He feels misled because he had no such trouble with previous digital copy transfers, even from other Batman movies. [More]
Ubisoft Frees Upcoming Game From Its Digital Rights Management Lockdown
By August 13, 2010
Ubisoft has dropped its draconian DRM policy, which forces PC gamers to be online the entire time they want to play, from its upcoming game R.U.S.E. Instead the game will use the Steamworks DRM method used by Valve, which requires players to check in online before allowing them to continue their games offline. [More]
Apple Won't Let Me Re-Download My Lost Movies After Hard Drive Crash
By June 22, 2010
Adam is frustrated that his hard drive crashed and took out $15 worth of downloaded Apple movies with it. He writes: [More]
FCC To Control What You Can/Can't Record From TV
By May 12, 2010
At the MPAA’s behest, the FCC granted Selectable Output Control, which means you won’t be able to record certain “high value” stuff off your TV, ZeroPaid reports: [More]
Earn $200/hr Teaching Angry Man To Use Apple Products
By May 7, 2010
I guess Apple products aren’t idiot-proof after all. We have found your idiot nonpareil. There is a man in San Fran who needs help using Apple products. He is wiling to pay $200 an hour. This is his NSFW Craigsist ad/rant about how he is too busy to figure out how to get his credit card number from auto-populating when his kids buy stuff on iTunes, but has enough time for you to come over to his house and teach him how to use his devices. [More]
Downloadable PS3 Game Requires You To Be Online To Play
By April 22, 2010
Sony has taken a page out of the Ubisoft DRM-bungling playbook and required gamers playing the downloadable retro game Final Fight: Double Impact to be online in order to play. According to Joystiq, this must be a Sony-only thing because the game plays fine offline on the Xbox 360. [More]
Insane PC Game DRM Drove Me To Piracy
By April 5, 2010
An anonymous gamer wrote in to tell us why he felt justified to illegally download a copy of Red Faction: Guerilla: He bought it on one computer but found the DRM locked him out of re-activating the game on his new computer. When customer service couldn’t help him, he went rogue. [More]
Erotic Japanese Game "Cross Days" Tricks Pirates Into Posting Personal Info Online
By March 31, 2010
If you’re trying to pirate the Japanese erotic manga game Cross Days–and I don’t care what people say, I love that I live in a world where I can type that phrase–you should know that the game’s developers are wise to you, and they’re going to do their best to shame and embarrass you. [More]
Ubisoft Apologizes For Hosing PC Gamers By Offering Free Downloads
By March 26, 2010
Ubisoft had the fantastic idea of forcing gamers of Assassin’s Creed 2 to stay online while they played, to ensure via DRM that players weren’t pirating their wares. Then hackers brought down the servers, rendering the game unplayable. [More]
Ubisoft Authentication Servers Go Down, No One Can Play Anything
By March 7, 2010
Hey, remember a few weeks ago when we posted about Ubisoft’s draconian DRM measures that keep players from saving their progress if their Internet connection goes out? Today, players found out what’s even worse than that: the authentication servers going down. [The Escapist] [More]
Stay Online While You Play Assassin's Creed 2 On PC, Or Ubisoft Will End You
By February 19, 2010
Ubisoft is so bent on stopping piracy that it has turned itself into a virtual nanny, peeking over your shoulder at all times to verify that your PC copy of Assassin’s Creed 2 isn’t a torrented file. Shacknews reports that if gamers go offline while playing the game, they’ll have to stop immediately and no recent progress will be saved. [More]
Sony Blocks Online Play On Used Copies Of PSP SOCOM Game
By February 18, 2010
Video game publishers generally aren’t too happy that companies such as GameStop reap huge profits from buying and selling used games, and Sony has devised a way to hobble the system from sapping away sales of its newest PSP shooter — slap DRM on the game’s online mode. [More]
