Ubisoft forbids changing your own hardware!

aboniks said:
I can't say this is really a surprise. Most software is only ours to use "under license" anyway. If the EULA fine print says that Bob's Software can deactivate your copy of Family Planner 6.9 because your browser cache contains a link to the Popes fan website, then it is what it is. We don't actually own most of the code we use, but you know all that, I know.

We can either suck it up, or work around it. Anything a software company can throw at users, be it DRM or bad game design, can just be modded out of existence. It's a question of how far we're willing to go to get what we want. I'm not suggesting outright piracy either, but DRM isn't foolproof. They're going to continue to do dumb shit like this because it works on a large enough majority of their users that it's cost effective.
Click to expand...

Imagine if fender forced you to buy a new guitar every three string changes because of all the cheap strat copies made by small companies in hong kong and sold on ebay. They can legally do it if they want, doesn't make it any less of a customer fucking.
 
Farmerk said:
Imagine if fender forced you to buy a new guitar every three string changes because of all the cheap strat copies made by small companies in hong kong and sold on ebay. They can legally do it if they want, doesn't make it any less of a customer fucking.
Click to expand...

I'd be glad I was a percussionist, in that case.

Seriously though, I take your point, and it is a shitty business practice if you're on the receiving end. I wasn't trying to defend it, I'm just saying it's an annoyance more than a show-stopper. If you could write a [k] for your Fender and then roll on with your finger out the window as you drive by the Fender offices on your way to a gig, it'd be a different kettle of fish.
 
This is why I prefer account-based DRM. I usually don't care whether or not I have to be connected to the internet, I usually am anyway and most people are, so it's a much better trade-off. Add in Steam's offline mode and I'm satisfied. It's a fair compromise for me. That makes me wonder, when aren't people connected to the internet on their laptops? You can get free Wi-fi most places you go and if you're whining about not being able to play while you're camping then maybe you should think about how diametrically opposed those two activities are...
 
I was wondering if that makes the games basically rentals though. Will I be able to fire up Assassin's Creed II ten years from now? Will these verification servers be up indefinitely?
 
I don't think it would matter since you have the ability to play and backup your games in offline mode. Achievements and all other online content would be gone and redownloading them would be out of the question but you wouldn't be completely buttfucked by a valve shutdown I don't think
 
I'm talking about stuff like uPlay. Doesn't it have actual servers to continuously verify their game with no option to play offline?

I have come to accept defeat when it comes to Valve trying to shove Steam down my throat because they managed to turn it into a sort of a central hub for PC games. They added features that I wanted without fucking with me too much and they have awesome deals.
 
UncannyGarlic said:
This is why I prefer account-based DRM. I usually don't care whether or not I have to be connected to the internet, I usually am anyway and most people are, so it's a much better trade-off. Add in Steam's offline mode and I'm satisfied. It's a fair compromise for me. That makes me wonder, when aren't people connected to the internet on their laptops? You can get free Wi-fi most places you go and if you're whining about not being able to play while you're camping then maybe you should think about how diametrically opposed those two activities are...
Click to expand...
Yeah ... people totally never complained about it because they knew if the Servers required for those games are broken for what ever reason then you can not play a usually perfectly working game.

Totally. It is all just for our benefit! Like making laws restricting our freedom to protect democracy! - I know exegerating. But you get the point.
 
did ubishit ever get more of their drm servers so if one cluster goes down there are still others up?
 
Not sure but I have experienced what server downtime means 2 times since I purchased this game. It's bloody annoying.
 
UncannyGarlic said:
This is why I prefer account-based DRM. I usually don't care whether or not I have to be connected to the internet, I usually am anyway and most people are, so it's a much better trade-off. Add in Steam's offline mode and I'm satisfied. It's a fair compromise for me. That makes me wonder, when aren't people connected to the internet on their laptops? You can get free Wi-fi most places you go and if you're whining about not being able to play while you're camping then maybe you should think about how diametrically opposed those two activities are...
Click to expand...

- Planes. Ever been on a 15-hour flight?
- Server malfunction/overload/DDOS/etc.
- Countries that are not U.S. and a handful of others that don't actually have WiFi installed everywhere, and can even have spotty Internet connection in general.
 
TheWesDude said:
any of those outages recent?
Click to expand...

I haven't played the game lately so I wouldn't know, but I sure hope things have improved. It's no fun when the server "drops" in a MP game without the game telling you. (You could keep on playing but your opponent was replaced by an AI without you knowing)

The other issue I had was the DRM telling me I couldn't sign in because of server maintenance which meant I could start the game in offline mode but wouldn't have access to my "ark", the whole online metagame part and multiplayer.
 
Crni Vuk said:
Yeah ... people totally never complained about it because they knew if the Servers required for those games are broken for what ever reason then you can not play a usually perfectly working game.

Totally. It is all just for our benefit! Like making laws restricting our freedom to protect democracy! - I know exegerating. But you get the point.
Click to expand...
I never said that it was completely for our benefit but Steam is a good give and take. Battle.net and such are a reasonable compromise and short downtime for updates is annoying but hardly a disaster. Anyone whose played MMOs is used to far more frequent updates than I'd expect on Battle.net or anything similar. Don't get me wrong, UPlay being down was really annoying but that was largely becuase I wasn't getting a message that the server was down, it was telling me that my username/password couldn't be found.

Ausdoerrt said:
- Planes. Ever been on a 15-hour flight?
- Server malfunction/overload/DDOS/etc.
- Countries that are not U.S. and a handful of others that don't actually have WiFi installed everywhere, and can even have spotty Internet connection in general.
Click to expand...
-Fair enough
-That's what server redundancy is for and I haven't heard of DDOS on a game developer's server but that would be annoying, though not really their fault
-Western Europe is pretty well wired but yeah, in countries that aren't I agree that it's stupid. Granted, I'm skeptical that it costs less than it supposedly saves.

That all said, well designed offline modes get around all of that.
 
yes. Just that both battlenet and Steam have been rather "good" systems so far and in the past. It was no problem to play Diablo 2 for example even if you never cared about anything which happened in Bnet and Steam offers you some kind of off-line mode and you can change the hardware as you want which gives you the possibility to install games on your laptop from home and using it via offline mode while out of your home or what ever.

The current evolution though with the accounts, their "limitations" and all that are absolutely shit and would never ever work outside the gaming business.

I don't know why. But only gamers go with all those heavy restrictions. Gamers are special when it comes to that. They only moan. But still buy the products. Maybe there are more consumers of that kind with other products. But on top of my head I don't know which. usually if you do to TO much you will lose your consumers. EA ? Ubisoft ? No way.

But this might be because the Console does not (yet) require those things and that is where huge game companies today do their money. The PC is sure NOT dead. But that is what they "say" (or even believe) anyway. Though when I think about those account shit then I am not surprised why they think PC gaming is dead. For example. I don't buy ANY (!) game anymore which contains windows for life. Hell I would not even recommend anyone to pirate said games (just saying you should not pirate in general) because I had so many trouble with GfWl in the past that I spit on any game which is using it.

I can only say this.

Currently I am completely FUCKED UP from gaming. Seriously. I don't even have 1. that much time anymore and 2. don't care that much anymore. I am thinking about to buy or play some games but then I am thinking about those accounts I have to create (and sometimes manage ...), the issues with DRM and what ever else that I give up on it and simply do something else like watching movies, doing my art or sport or or or. gaming as a hobby and it was never anything more for me has started to become stale and much less interesting. Because I remember how it was 15 years ago when I started with it. Not everything was better. But it was "different". At leats I have the feeling that the "gamer" in the past was more then just a walking money bag which could be milked. It seems that piracy was not that much of a problem either. Granted I don't know how big it is today compared to the past. But at least back then some companies managed as well to survive. I am not really sure what changed. But the choice in games was much more interesting as well. I mean there was always a great niche market for everything. Strategy, Shooters, RPGs. Even simulations. Today it seems that there are not even really good strategy games out there (like Sim City, Age of Empires, Commandos, Jagged Alliance etc.)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top