New Ubisoft PC Game DRM Requires Constant Internet - WTF

Ausdoerrt said:
I dunno, my definition of a "fan" of a game includes wanting to play a new release as quickly as possible. I'd be curious to hear your definition.
Click to expand...
Fans wanting to play games quickly does not mean that all people who want to play games quickly are fans.

You're trying to group everyone into the same type of behaviour. Sure, some people behave like you say they do. But by far not all of them.
 
if they need to pirate it they are not fans in my eyes. A "true" fan would make sure to buy the game. Why? Cause he cares about his franchise and the devs and want to see it continue. If all fans would be pirates their franchise would stop to exist at some point. Thus a true fan will usualy or should at leat buy the game he is a fan for.
 
Ausdoerrt said:
Private servers are also a way to "hack" and MMOG. As long as a community forms against the said private server, it's as good as done. Still, I'd say the most important form of protection that MMOs have is the fact that they're heavily dependent on large communities of gamers and PvP interaction. That's also why all but the most popular MMOs have gor F2P recently.

The idea you have sounds almost exactly like what Ubi is trying to do here, and yet it's been dealt with already. Plus, there's multiple ways to forego the "server check" without hacking the server.
Click to expand...

As I said, yes, if the server is leaked, you can assist to the spreading of "private servers". But I don't think it's that much often that the server of a MMORPG is leaked.

Also, I suppose Ubi in the present case just added this as a feature on top of the game. If the game client just do a basic check, it's relatively possible to hack by watching the executable and injecting code.
But if the core features of the game are designed and coded, from the beginning, to function only with critical remote information, I think this would be virtually unhackable unless you reverse-engineer the whole game.

Sicblades said:
Sander said:
As BN noted before, apparently there's internal industry research suggesting that even a delay of one or two days in piracy release can save a lot of money.
Click to expand...

This is especially sad as it just shows you how little the fanboys are willing to wait for something. I'd rather have the $60 dollars in my pocket than saying "I was the first to get it at that midnight launch!!!111!"
Click to expand...

To me it especially shows that the average gamer in our society is so bored in his life and so desperate to find anything that could entertain him he must absolutely get any promising game the first day of release.
 
Weren't we all like that when we were younger, though? I remember when a game like Duke Nukem 3D, Dungeon Keeper and Fallout came out, I wanted to play it so much it was almost painful. I would spend most of my waking moments fantasizing about it and would have been perfectly willing to trade one of my parents for the game disc.
 
Yeah, I must admit I need to moderate my point. I was also like that. It's true that back then it was important to get the game the day of release. But I was also bored a lot when I was younger :)
Not saying boredom is not a good thing though. Actually I find boredom a necessary value.

Since then I've discovered other ahem... passions that changed this phenomenon.
I mean, apart from the fact that there aren't games worthy of being so hyped up anymore, I don't think I would react the same way if there was one.
 
Ratty said:
Weren't we all like that when we were younger, though? I remember when a game like Duke Nukem 3D, Dungeon Keeper and Fallout came out, I wanted to play it so much it was almost painful. I would spend most of my waking moments fantasizing about it and would have been perfectly willing to trade one of my parents for the game disc.
Click to expand...

One of the most horrible days in my life was when I had bought Dungeon Keeper in gothenburg, and had to wait til the next day when I got back to my home town to play it. I spent the evening reading the manual.
 
guys stop hidding just say the truth. I think its obvious why no one could wait to play it at home ...

Dungeon_Keeper.jpg
 
Arr0nax said:
Pretend that DRM helps companies gain more money is okay, even if subject to controversy (BN says he has data he can't show and that curiously has never been published).
But to pretend that they wouldn't make money without is just absurd...
Click to expand...

Nothing weird about it, no industry likes publishing internal research data.

Besides, from a PR standpoint publishing it is pointless. Publishers are interested in knowing what gets them the most money so they need these studies, if you throw it out as PR, it'll just be torn down by pirates and piracy-apologetics.

As for money, PC, and piracy, I would say that if piracy runs unchecked there is a good chance they wouldn't make any money from PC releases. Like I mentioned before, profit margins are really skewed in the gaming industry, and really sensitive to any bump or nudge.

(not that I like this Ubisoft DRM. I don't like excessive DRM. I don't think the answer is in excessive DRM. But I get why publishers flee to it. Glad I didn't buy Assassin's Creed II, the DRM bumped it down to discount purchase at best)
 
samothethief said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/7.179422-Ubisoft-DRM-Authentication-Servers-Go-Down

Harr harr harr, servers went down, and nobody can play Ubisoft games. :lol:

That's got to be sabotage, it looks too convenient. Or ubisoft servers are reallly that shitty.

I wonder what they'll come up next, "Our servers were overloaded because of the amount of people that wants to play, so play less people, and leave room for others!".
Click to expand...
aawesome ... so people bought a game they cant play. Heh I hope some wake up now.
 
It was a server attack, surprise surprise.

Ubisoft also claims 95% of the people were unaffected and no valid cracked versions of their games exist at this date
“Ubisoft would like to apologize to anyone who could not play AC2 or SH5 yesterday. Servers were attacked and while the servers did not go down, service was limited from 2:30PM to 9PM Paris time. 95% of players were not affected, but a small group of players attempting to open a game session did receive denial of service errors. All player with an open session during the attack were not affected. We also confirm that, at this time, no valid cracked version of either Silent Hunter 5 or Assassin’s Creed II are available”
 
This illustrates why games-as-service model won't work for single-player games. Crackers will destroy what they cannot crack.
 
fedaykin said:
The claim about no valid cracked versions is a lie, by the way.
Click to expand...

The part about the server attack might well be a lie, too. I'm not saying that it is, but I don't think Ubisoft is the best of sources in this case.
 
what ever if its a hack or not I am still thinking how just plain awfull the system is.

I mean we all know that sometimes with games you have some weird bugs showing up even if the game is relatively well coded. I remember in Anno 1404 you would have a nasty random bug that would destroy your savegames ... which is awesome after you play some 3-4 ours with a quite big city. Or games where you cant continue the game or where it is crashing all the time. Soldiers Heros of WW2 would not let me play the game regardless what I would do as I have tried anything apart from formating the system to get it run even with help from the official forum, to removing the drivers of the protection ( thats legal by the way ). I never figured out why the game gave me a blue screen or stoped working. At some point I got new hardware and now it works.

While this kind of issues though are more or less either caused by your system or the game it self I fear what happens when I get such a random rare bug with the server authentication/system ? Can I return the game I payed for even when I have already some account for it ? Will UBIs support try everything to help me ? Or will they at some point just give the same answer in the e-mails.

After I remember the issues people had with Steam which needed almost a whole year to get sorted out ... I am not sure what to think and expect from this UBI crap. I definetly care about my money. And I will very carefully think about purchasing any UBI game in the future.
 
Flop said:
The part about the server attack might well be a lie, too. I'm not saying that it is, but I don't think Ubisoft is the best of sources in this case.
Click to expand...
I'm willing to believe the part about the server attack. I mean, Ubisoft was practically asking for it.
 
Crni Vuk said:
Can I return the game I payed for even when I have already some account for it ? Will UBIs support try everything to help me ? Or will they at some point just give the same answer in the e-mails.
Click to expand...

i do not know where you live, but if the product fails to work for you, in the US we have the UCC which requires any seller or manufacturer of a product to accept a return within a reasonable time.

if you try to return it to the location you purchased it from, they may refuse.

if you try to return it to the creator of the product, they may refuse.

if they refuse to accept it, then per the UCC any protections that they seek are null and void. this includes any agreements that include parts of the UCC.

all EULAs incorperate parts of the UCC.

which means that by refusing to accept the software back at both locations, you can fully ignore any EULA.

now what you would/can do with a product without those EULAs, i do not know, but i do know customers are still constrained by the DMCA in the US. and other patent/copyright law.

but any EULA or other agreements are invalid.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top