EA to follow Ubisoft with always on DRM...

JinxyBoi said:
Man, the last few games I've bought were EA. This concept blows because I actually rarely game when I've got internet connected.

EA is such a huge freaking publisher, avoiding them like UBI isn't going to be as easy when I'm a fan of Devs like Bioware, DICE and Maxis.
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So far it seems like this is the only game they're doing this on.
 
I haven't had one problem from any game due to DRM including all the aforementioned titles in this thread. I couldn't play AC2 for an hour or two but that was supposedly because of DDOS attacks from hackers upset over the DRM scheme that was supposedly working otherwise. I never had any other problems playing it, and the game was worth the $ spent for me. As of right now I don't have any problems with EA implementing a similar scheme to Ubisoft's but I'll be watching closely of course.
 
Derangel said:
So far it seems like this is the only game they're doing this on.
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I'm relieved to hear that for now, though I did enjoy C&C for a time, I've been hearing that this is a title to miss. But you know, if they don't see the err of its use here, who knows if it'll creep onto the next Mirror's Edge or Mass Effect or something.
 
I hate it when they do this. I was pissed off I wasn't allowed to access my saved game in GTA IV when my internet went down. It's a stupid concept!!!

I basically could not play the game because my internet connection was down
 
Spare-Flair said:
I hate it when they do this. I was pissed off I wasn't allowed to access my saved game in GTA IV when my internet went down. It's a stupid concept!!!

I basically could not play the game because my internet connection was down
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Hmm, that's weird. I never had that* issue with GTA4. I guess it is a half bastard that needs to occasionally see that it's legit online, versus always seeing.



*apart from MANY other issues
 
Well this just puts another company on the list I won't be supporting if this is true. I knew C&C4 sucked so never bothered to look at it, but if this does turn out to be true then I'm pretty much done with gaming as well and all I can say is I hope it dies a slow violent death and backfires in the faces of developers publishing this crap.

I also blame this on all the slackers that supported AC2 and Ubisoft. I really don't give one flying flip if you never had a single problem playing AC2. I had a few days of trouble playing BFBC2 because of server issues. Severe snowstorms in Northern Colorado can knock out the net for hours if not days. There is a total of zero reasons as to why single player games need an always on internet connection. Yes I 100% blame pirates for this shit, but I blame your sheeple who purchase the shit given to us by developers. It is your money spend it on whatever the hell you want, but seriously, try looking farther down the line and what they are going to keep coming up with. What happens when they can't stop pirates or they decide to come up with measures to stop second hand sales on consoles?

What happens when Al Gore becomes President and the weather turns into the frigid wastes of Hillary Clinton's chocolate starfish and you can't play your single player game because ice crabs snipped your power lines? All I can say is I told you so.

Edit. Wow, late night and a little pissy. Sorry guys.
 
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RyanH said:
I haven't had one problem from any game due to DRM including all the aforementioned titles in this thread. I couldn't play AC2 for an hour or two but that was supposedly because of DDOS attacks from hackers upset over the DRM scheme that was supposedly working otherwise.
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You haven't had a problem....

But you couldn't play something you had already PAID for?
 
JinxyBoi said:
Hmm, that's weird. I never had that* issue with GTA4. I guess it is a half bastard that needs to occasionally see that it's legit online, versus always seeing.



*apart from MANY other issues
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I think if you make an online windows live account then you need to be online to play. If you make an offline account, you can play offline, but you might have issues if you want to transfer your saves to a different computer with an offline account. (I made an offline account and couldn't transfer saves easily to my new PC).
 
i don't want to argue the affects of piracy for these companies but it does exsists, they have to do something to stem the rampant stealing of their property. if this was a retail store putting up a security system to stop theft there wouldn't be one person saying the store owner is wrong.

now a lot of companies have tried many ways to stop piracy for PC games and each one has been met with internet nerd rage, because its a very hard thing to do and not interfere with the customers use of the game.

so look it at this way, either accept the way things are because of the situation or the more bitching and moaning the internet does the more its going to push game companies to just cancel all PC games altogether. they don't make money off them anyways and when the sell 200k copies of something but there are 1 million torrents available it doesn't help at all.
 
Mac[X-D];1035491978 said:
i don't want to argue the affects of piracy for these companies but it does exsists, they have to do something to stem the rampant stealing of their property. if this was a retail store putting up a security system to stop theft there wouldn't be one person saying the store owner is wrong.
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Because stealing from a retail store is a tangible loss to the company. Its a product that has cost them money to make, package and ship, then all that money is lost. Then the shop owner was probably relying on the sale to pay his shop's rent.

A pirated copy is far less tangible, you're losing something that you may well not have had in the first place.

now a lot of companies have tried many ways to stop piracy for PC games and each one has been met with internet nerd rage, because its a very hard thing to do and not interfere with the customers use of the game.
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The ones that get the nerd rage are the ones that are intrusive, or are perceived to be intrusive. You'll find 95% of the people complaining about it are legitimate customers, not the people who would normally pirate.

so look it at this way, either accept the way things are because of the situation or the more bitching and moaning the internet does the more its going to push game companies to just cancel all PC games altogether. they don't make money off them anyways and when the sell 200k copies of something but there are 1 million torrents available it doesn't help at all.
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Fact is, this sort of DRM is shit. There are too many people (like me) running shitty internet connections for this to do the PC gaming world justice.

At the moment PC gaming appears to get worse sales than consoles (though internet sales are often not quantified, which I'd suggest form a large portion of un-recorded sales). By giving your customers who dont have a reliable internet connection a big kick in the balls, you're only going to hurt your community and PC gaming in general. If companies are gonna fuck me over like this I'd rather they'd done it before I upgraded my PC so I would have known not to waste the money on it.
 
Tudz said:
At the moment PC gaming appears to get worse sales than consoles (though internet sales are often not quantified, which I'd suggest form a large portion of un-recorded sales).
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How about on a global scale? It's amazing how often that gets left out of these conversations.
 
Tudz said:
Because stealing from a retail store is a tangible loss to the company. Its a product that has cost them money to make, package and ship, then all that money is lost. Then the shop owner was probably relying on the sale to pay his shop's rent.
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That said, if it was a security system that somehow only *really* tended to affect paying customers most of the time, making them jump through all kinds of security hoops etc, I certainly wouldn't shop there.
 
I've said it before, I'll say it again: software DRM has little to do with piracy, and everything to do with stopping the used software market.

Talk to any game stop managers and they'll tell you where they get their best margins: resales of used games for consoles. Blockbusters are dedicating almost half their floor space now to games. DRM is the ONLY thing that prevents a PC used games section on stores/ebay/whatever.
 
Invasive, unreasonable and/or broken DRM implementations were the final straw that stopped me gaming on the PC years ago. The last PC game I purchased (excepting WoW) was Half-Life 2. No, I don't pirate either - anything - so Half-Life 2 was also the last PC game I played (again, excepting WoW).

The tendency for games to be broken and requiring patching at launch contributed to this too (I don't know if that has gotten better or worse). It didn't help when game A needed driver X, but game B needed driver Y either. But when games wouldn't run because they didn't like my DVD-drive, or my ISO-mounter (to save burning MSDN images constantly), or required that I uninstall Visual Studio in order to play, well that pushed me over the edge.

There have been a few PC games I wouldn't have minded playing, especially with what Steam evolved into (I hated it when it first came out and it contributed to my quitting PC gaming - it sounds like it has become a pleasant thing now), but memories of what a pain in the arse it was to get things to run properly (Half-Life 2 still hadn't had the stuttering fix by the time I quit for example), and the need to buy expensive video cards (or get half the experience) have kept me away.

I don't even miss it.

I still game, on consoles. Not because I think the experience is necessarily comparable - it's just less hassle. No thinking about system specs, no pissing around updating drivers, no wondering what an install is going to fuck up on my PC .... I just drop the disc in the drive and play.

This isn't even an anti-DRM post - console games have DRM of course. Just that the implementation there is completely non-invasive.

One day I shall have to sit down and figure how much money I have saved on this approach. In other words how much the PC side of the gaming industry cost themselves by driving just one customer away. I've skipped entire genres of games since they don't play well on consoles ... even when a console version was available, not to mention the PC only games that I've just totally ignored, lost PC/video card revenue and so on.
 
Fuck this. I don't see myself being a gamer much longer. This shit is getting ridiculous.
 
Yeah, I just recently took up oven mitt knitting, smoking crack and basket weaving, so I can't say I find much time for games these days. Full plate!
 
Once a gamer always a gamer. I quit gaming several times. ....


A dog returns to it's vomit.
 
I would rather have always-on validation that is encoded into the game itself than be forced to install Securom's malware on my computers, it is beyond ridiculous to have both on a game.
 
FYMbyIce said:
I would rather have always-on validation that is encoded into the game itself than be forced to install Securom's malware on my computers, it is beyond ridiculous to have both on a game.
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and when they take their authentication servers down, you're ok with being SoL?
 
Parmenides said:
Once a gamer always a gamer. I quit gaming several times. ....
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I very deliberately quit gaming for about seven years and spent my entire time socializing - the idea of playing a game was revolting. I wanted to go out and do some bloody living.

I found a group of people who were living a certain lifestyle downtown and with them I poured ridiculous amounts of money into wine, women, and song. Where did it get me - without realizing it, I became an alcoholic.

Today, on a cold, Friday evening, you'll find me in front of my monitor, gaming. I don't care what it takes, as long as the game runs. Damned nice being sober, I gotta tell ya.
 
Damn, why do publishers insist on making their customers' experience miserable? That's certainly not gonna stop piracy, but more likely encourage it as pirates never fail to deliver a more convenient product at a better price.
 
hmmm... stupid, but I guess I don't care just yet. Only game I'm looking forward to from EA is BF3 and that requires constant internet connection anyway. I just hope they will leave bloatware out.
 
EvilNando said:
Guess the future buys will come from Valve games...
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Yeah because they're really big on the single player games that you can play without a constant internet connection to Steam Community lately.... oh wait..
 
Torq said:
I still game, on consoles. Not because I think the experience is necessarily comparable - it's just less hassle. No thinking about system specs, no pissing around updating drivers, no wondering what an install is going to fuck up on my PC .... I just drop the disc in the drive, buy a new hard drive, wait for an hour for it to install and update and play and swap discs as necessary.
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Fixed it for you.
 
defiant007 said:
EA drm scheme has been CRACKED!
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ROFL, it only took them ten days to do it. Now if I was going to pick the game, I would choose convenience over the hassle of EA's DRM scheme.

Pirates win again. Legitimate buyers: grab your ankles.
 
We're still stuck in this fucking ridiculous loop.

1) Developer makes game
2) Pirates crack game
3) Publisher cry
4) DRM increases
5) Gamers complain but buy the games anyway
6) Repeat

What are we all fucking stupid? I care so little about this death spiral now, but I am still amazed by it's ability to sustain itself. The reasons to pirate stuff are increasing now at big rate, and my sympathy for developers is dropping, how can that possibly be good?
 
PrincessFrosty said:
We're still stuck in this fucking ridiculous loop.

1) Developer makes game
2) Pirates crack game
3) Publisher cry
4) DRM increases
5) Gamers complain but buy the games anyway
6) Repeat

What are we all fucking stupid? I care so little about this death spiral now, but I am still amazed by it's ability to sustain itself. The reasons to pirate stuff are increasing now at big rate, and my sympathy for developers is dropping, how can that possibly be good?
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Right.

All along I've stated: I'm in favor of whatever it takes to break and end this cycle as quickly as possible because this cycle guarantees the death of PC gaming at some point and it will spread to the consoles at some point as well.

That's it. I don't care how it happens.
 
PWMK2 said:
I actually cannot think of a single console game that has multiple discs and a mandated install and has an update that takes an hour long to download...
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How about every single game that needs an update, map pack or DLC that needs to be downloaded installed on your system (PS3)? The big RPGs on Xbox 360?
 
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