Some portions of the Internet are ablaze today, as the news of how the protection schemes used to stop people from bootlegging Mass Effect and Spore on the PC will work has come out. Most of the reporting sites are tracing the news back to Derek French, a technical producer at BioWare, who posted the info on EA’s plans to use SecuROM in both releases.
Here’s what French had to say back on May 3:
“Mass Effect uses SecuROM and requires an online activation for the first time that you play it. Each copy of Mass Effect comes with a CD Key which is used for this activation and for registration here at the BioWare Community. Mass Effect does not require the DVD to be in the drive in order to play, it is only for installation.
After the first activation, SecuROM requires that it re-check with the server within ten days (in case the CD Key has become public/warez’d and gets banned). Just so that the 10 day thing doesn’t become abrupt, SecuROM tries its first re-check with 5 days remaining in the 10 day window. If it can’t contact the server before the 10 days are up, nothing bad happens and the game still runs. After 10 days a re-check is required before the game can run.”
So not only will you need to be online to activate your copy of the game, you’ll also have be online at least once every ten days to prevent your copy from deactivating. Now, I’m sure most of you out there planning to play either game will probably be doing it on machines that are always connected to to the internet, so it’s probably not going to be a hassle for most players. But that doesn’t exactly make it right, either.
Personally, I’d feel a lot better about protection plans like this if they actually worked. But these days, that stuff doesn’t even seem to slow down the cadre of shady dudes looking to crack software and set it free for the bootleggin’ masses. So the pirates still win, and all we’re left with is a protection scheme that annoys legitimate users. Well… at least they aren’t using Starforce, right?
So I put it to you, the people out there actually playing PC games in 2008. You’re always complaining when consoles get games first, or bitching about how PC games are getting dumbed down for “the console kids.” But can you really blame developers for turning to consoles, when putting out a PC version isn’t much different from just releasing your game for free, and your effort to protect your investments with a protection scheme is met with forum posts about how dudes are going to boycott your game?
What would you do to reverse this? How much over-your-shoulder spying are you willing to put up with to stop pirates from torrenting the market for single-player PC games out of existence?
My solution: Everyone who purchases the game must submit a photo containing the person who purchased the game, one photo ID for said person, the receipt for the game, and a newspaper with today’s date on it. Every five days. Oh, wait, that’s right, I wanted you to try to make this easier. Never mind.
88 Comments
This is why I’m no longer a PC gamer.
Extreme measures are necessary because bootlegging is killing well over of 1 billion in profit for the industry.
Yeah, still totally buying Spore.
What’s the name of the dude in the hat again?
This is horrible, just horrible. EA does it again, and again, and again.
I like Stardocks approach to this. Sane and nice. In fact, I just bought three games there and I urge everyone else to do so as well to support their way more respectful approach to gamers.
I guess I still will buy Spore, but if it turns out this SecuROM is a huge annoying hassle I will swap out my legitimate copy with a fake one, because I’m pretty sure these “protection” schemes are illegal in my country anyway. (Norway)
Like every copy protection scheme it is only going to #### over the legitimated users.
His name is MC DP; I think I’ve remembered all the words to that song over the years.
My God…
You guys need Soul-Glo in your hair.
I am still a PC gamer today. And while the protection is annoying, it is nessicary.
But honestly, how much longer do you think consoles will be “safe” from mass pirating? 2 maybe 3 years? Most 360, PS3 and Wii owners already have their consoles hooked up to the internet all the time too (I know mine are, cause yes I have them too). But the day that it is a requirement for the same reason it will be here on Mass Effect, the communities will explode.
And that day is coming.
i personally perfer console gaming to pc gaming because i dont want to go through the hassel of buying and installing a new $300 pc componant every few couple of months. And i just dont feel comfortable with a mouse/keyboard.
Don’t copy!
Don’t copy that floppy!
These games are not future proof. While EA isn’t really in danger of going defunct any time soon, we have no guarantee at all that the servers will be up in 10 years or that they will be patched to remove this protection. I’m still playing older games from 1999, and I like playing games for years on. So, much like with BioShock (which also had the same installation activation) I will not buy these products. It’s thankfully not as invasive as StarForce, but the end result is the same. Personal Boycott!
Ah well, I had ME on Xbox 360 anyway. Though, I would prefer it on PC (awful pop-in!). Oddly, I ended up buying BioShock on 360 because of this protection. Maybe it’s a plot by EA to get us to give up on PC gaming?
“These games are not future proof. While EA isn’t really in danger of going defunct any time soon, we have no guarantee at all that the servers will be up in 10 years or that they will be patched to remove this protection.”
This is a very good point. I know EA have already shut down many of their xbox1 servers so you can’t play multi player on older xbox titles.
I don’t think that the consoles scene is pirate-free (especially the 360 and Wii), so you can’t put the blame solely on pirated software over the declining state of PC gaming.
At $400, you can only get a half decent PC, which is not going to be enough to run games at its optimal settings, or let say at the level of the PS3 or 360. So logic said that, why should I get a $400 PC, when I can get a $400 console that can run games, not sacrificing its visual fidelity?
On the copy protection side, why developers still choose to do that? It will all end in vain, because it will be cracked anyway. Can’t they just do what Stardock did with Galactic Civilization?
What i would do? I would release the god damn game on steam, like any publisher with sensible people working there would, for a lot less than shelf price (at least here in europe), way more convenient, and actually easier than stealing the game.
The main reason i have bootlegged games was because they are way overpriced in stores, and hey, I’d have to walk down to the damn store. Not very tempting right now! The only games I’ve actually bought for my PC the last 2 years have been through steam. Take that, industry!
I am a console gamer, so you wouldn’t be able to classify me as a member of the PC Gaming Master Race.
However, forcing online checks on a single player game is, for lack of a better word, retarded. If I play a game on my PC, that’s it. I play it on MY PC and do not feel the need to phone home just to make sure I’m not bootlegging it.
DRM and phoning home for anything that I’ve purchased is useless and will be circumvented by someone, somewhere. The sooner the companies realize this, the sooner they stop aggravating paying customers.
As someone who is almost always connected to the internet, I can’t say I mind this too much. And as someone who buys all his games legit, I also can’t say I mind this too much. It won’t stop the pirating in the long run, but the short-term inconvinence for hackers may be enough of an incentive to buy the game. On the other hand, this system is also an incentive to ignore the game. The PC gaming pickle grows, and I don’t really know what the healthy solution is.
Nah, I think that when PC gaming eventually dies, the pirates will just set their sights on hacking consoles, and get their fix there.
That is totally useless alright. Crackers WILL crack this game anyways, and probably before it hits the retail shelves. This totally sucks for PC gamers.
Game developers and publishers must face the fact that you CAN’T prevent piracy, you can only delay it. If you’ve got some really good protection scheme you might be able to delay it’s pirated release for a week max, but it’s going to get cracked eventually.
Furthermore, this isn’t any different from what Steam did with HL2. No reason to overreact now like you’ll did before. Steam is the future of PCgaming, and I don’t mind that.
It seems to be the popular opinion that pirating games is OK and that pirates don’t hurt anyone.. But measures like this are in place because of pirates, so the the people that make a living off of the gaming industry will get paid. Stealing games is the best way of shooting yourself in the foot. It hurts the industry, so it makes it that less quality games are out there and only big corporations can afford to make video games.
I don’t think that this is the way to stop pirates though. This will obviously only hurt the legit people out there just trying to enjoy the game. Sadly, the best way to stop PC pirates is to stop making PC games. It’s the sad truth that really hurts me personally because I feel that the PC has always been the superior gaming experience.
I hate that greed and selfishness is ruining my favorite hobby, PC gaming to be specific. Devs are already starting to realize that PC gaming is a waste of time on their part. EA not release Madden on the PC, as small as that may sound, I think is the beginning of the end for the PC as a gaming machine. Once everyone realizes that a PC port is essentially giving away your game for free, as EA obviously has, then we will see the end of gaming on the PC.
Sounds easy enough to me. Wait no it doesn’t.
BTW; Imagine this.
10 years from now, Mass Effect will be considered a “classic” game right? What if someone picked up this game and tried to play it (legitimatly) 10 years from now? do you really think that the servers are still going to be up then? No. And guess what will they do to get the game working… that’s right, look for an activation crack.
I’ll buy it, but then I’ll download the inevitable crack, because I refuse to have that spyware crap on my PC. Stardock ftw!
Luckily, I have mass effect on the 360.
But can you really blame developers for turning to consoles, when putting out a PC version isn’t much different from just releasing your game for free, and your effort to protect your investments with a protection scheme is met with forum posts about how dudes are going to boycott your game?
Exactly. That’s why I prefer getting my games through a reliable Direct Download service like Steam. Copy protection through those services is moot. The game already requires you to have all the necessary components to get it in the first place.
Besides, you don’t mess with Valve product protection methods if you don’t want to get burned…badly.
Everyone I’ve ever talked to that has a 360 plays pirated games on it so why the hell do people say piracy is the reason companies prefer to put out console versions of there games, I don’t beleive it I think the companies make more money from the console versions and there easier to develop for as the hardware is all the same unlike PCs that can have diffrent components.
Any way the activation of Bioshock took all of ten seconds to do on my PC and if your a PC gamer your PC is connected to the internet so this idea for ME and SPORE, although stupid and will probably be hacked before the game is even released, is more or less a non issue.
Your PC has to be connected to the internet to properly play Gears of War in single player for heavens sake and that sold fine [I think :D]
I do think the point about future proofing is valid, can we really expect a company to keep an authentication server running for years? Doubtful. I’d say ME [the one I’m interested in] would be a play and trade title, that’s if shops would take games you have to authenticate in for trade, which they don’t. DOH!
Steam is the ONLY pc copy protection I will accept. Because it actually helps me! If the game is in steam on launch then I get it faster than on a DVD and I have a permanent online backup. Now if they just could get some torrent action on the downloads ala wow updater then it would be awsome. If you make it easier to buy it legally than to pirate it then you have a chance. As it is now tpb is much more user friendly than gamestop or whatever. Only steam have a fighting chance here. Unless apple start pushing of games in iTunes :p
Most computers that can run Mass Effect or Spore will have always on internet anyway. I honestly don’t get what the big deal is.
And while yes, these games get cracked, the important thing is to eliminate day one piracy, when the real damage is done.
I used to pirate games a lot when I was a kid. Console and PC. I could barely make enough money to afford the hardware, let alone the games. I’d buy a few, but no way could I afford to buy every game I was interested in trying.
That all changed once I started making decent money. Now I can’t remember the last time I pirated a game, and I happily fork my money over to the studios.
Bottom line, it doesn’t matter if a game has copy protection or not. Whether or not people buy it will be based on how affordable it is to them, and how much they value it.
I also don’t see how putting in copy protection stops anyone from downloading games. When you download a game that HAD copy protection, it no longer does by the time you get it, or at least comes with a crack.
I think one thing they could do to make copy protection effective is to make it so pirated versions fail ever so slowly. The developers could code hidden layers of security throughout the game, not only on startup. The crackers would break through the initial door, making the game playable, but only for so long… If the game detects later on that the copy protection is broken then it could pull shenanigans, like:
- Locking doors crucial to the players progression.
- Making a key character disappear from the game.
- Cranking enemy difficulty through the roof.
If coded well it would be difficult if not impossible for crackers to determine what was copy protection, and what was regular gameplay. Maybe, just maybe, if this become a prevalent technique people would avoid pirated games just to avoid the risk of hitting one of these roadblocks.
On the other hand, maybe we could just go back to code wheels. Those things were impossible to copy!
It feels like a necessary evil to me. Of course pirates will still pirate the game. Hell, you but a lock on your door but people can still bust into your house. It sure does make it a hell of a lot harder though. I’m also going to go out on a ledge here and assume that EA has more data than we do on just how well these security measures work. As to the concerns about how future proof these games are, I’m pretty sure EA will quietly sneak out a patch that removes online activation a year or two from now once they’ve turned a profit on the game.
Having said that I don’t think they’ve found the right balance between customer inconvenience and keeping the game from being pirated. Given the tenacious nature of pirates, there is no 100% solution to this problem. Whatever you come up with, someone will find a way around it. Give this activation scheme time to mature and I think it will just become a seamless part of the install. You won’t even notice it. That’s my solution to this. During the installation the game connects to EA’s servers and says “Hey man, I’m I legal?”. “Let me check here….yeah you look alright.”. Boom. Done. And you didn’t even notice it. Will there still be problems? Hey, nothings fool proof. Will people still pirate it? There’s always someone out there who’s just determined enough to do it. But for every one pirate there will be twenty other people who will just say “To hell with it. I’ll just go buy the game”.
/rambling.
You’re ALL EA’s bitches. Learn to like it. This will not stop EA from selling one zillion copies of either game for the PC.
Before everyone goes and suggests they put this game on Steam as an alternative, realize that BioShock uses the same copy protection installation activation (though without the repeated checks) as these games (ME and Spore) will. You can only install BioShock 5 (or 10?) times before having to contact customer service, unlike the majority of the games on the Steam service which offer unlimited downloads.
This is also the same company that charges customers through it’s own rival download service for a “warranty” so they can re-download their digital purchase. Even if they did put the game on Steam, they can still use this SecuROM protection scheme if they choose.
Personally, I love Steam. It’s just the perfect amount of copy protection to me. Not as cool as StarDock, but I can live with that.
The best way to counter piracy on the first day and before the game hits the retail shelves is to put in an update that is required to play the game like Assassins Creed and other games have done. This on the other hand means you have to have and internet connection.
Something else that is very effective is having a big mulitplayer part in the game since you can’t play on a cracked game. Well you can but it is limited. Take CoD 4 for instance, great singleplayer and multiplayer and multi-platform.
However games like Mass Effect and Penumbra are left standing with not alot to be shown for multiplayer modes. So bottom line is pretty much this:
If you want new only-singleplayer games like Portal and Mass Effect support the game companies that make these games and if you don’t care that much stick to the games you like.
Vote with YOUR dollar!
~Gditz
Sorry, Jeff, but releasing a game for consoles can also be releasing it for free.
This kind of protection schemes are useless and unjustifiable, make people want to pirate the games, create bad mojo towards developers and publishers, and cost a lot of money which brings absolutely no benefits.
Either the suits running the publishers are total idiots, or they want to destroy the PC market.
@paketep
I’m well aware that console piracy exists, but with modifications needed to get burned discs to run, it’s not the same thing and doesn’t happen on the same scale as it does with PC games.
No big deal, as Jeff said, some people are online all the time. The game will activate behind the scenes and you will never know. I just want to play the game, as I am a loser with no XBOX 360 or PS3. I am also online all the time with broadband.
This will be cracked within a week and the pirates will have a version which is less hassle to run than the legitimate buyers of the game. Best way around this is to release it for a decent price on a service like Steam or come up with some protection that actually works.
Stardock, the guys who publish Galactic Civilizations, Sins of a Solar Empire, and the upcoming Demigod, don’t put copy-protection on their games for a reason - it doesn’t work, and it never will. You’re not going to tell a serious pirate to buy a game, they just aren’t gonna do it. They’ll find a work-around whatever you throw at them; there’s no reason for any of this. EA is just being stupid and overly willing to punish the people who are going to buy the game regularly instead of thinking that maybe, just maybe, unless they’re dealing with something like Steam, the pirates aren’t going to be phased and will still torrent the fuck out of the game.
Though I do wanna say that anyone who is going to boycott the game because of the copy protection is stupid. You’re not going to help, and you’re not going to teach EA any lessons. EA, like most corporations, is stupid; they’re not going to look at the shitty sales and say “well, this is because all these potential customers boycotted because of our draconian copy protection.” They’re going to look at it and say “PC GAMING IS DEAD! WE’RE GOING CONSOLE-ONLY NOW!!!”
as it was pointed out, it won’t be that much of a practical issue as most gamers have online access to begin with (and if they don’t, they will very NOT likely have access to the ‘piracy tools’ that the whole issue is about)–nevertheless, the principle is wrong (imho).. that being having to let it access the net every 10 or so days… that’s just, well, stupid…especially for Mass Effect since it has no multiplayer/online functionality (aside from patches and/or potential dl-able content)
in ANY case, i’ll STILL be getting Spore (bring it!)
Like so many before me, I’ll still pick up Spore. Unfortunately this really limits the portability of the game and may prevent many of us with a laptop from truly enjoying the game whenever we want.
Man, don’t copy that floppy!
And BTW, Stardock are not using copy protection because they do market research and release HARDCORE games that differ gameplay-wise to the most pirated games on the market.
So they don’t publish Shooters or random casual games. They publish hardcore strategy, space simulation and other niche games that most of the “pirates” won’t understand or will NOT want to learn appreciate. All of this making their games profitable because their target audience is not same audience that’s looking for the next COD or Halo experience.
And this is why EA has now lost out on $130 from me and climbing, yet I still have all the Sims2 titles—just haven’t paid since BV. Their actions are forcing players who would normally buy all their products into piracy or going without. With piracy so darned easy, what do you think people are going to choose?
After SecuROM disabled my antivirus, I used a crack for BV and have pirated the future titles. They have lost my loyalty due to their including a potentially harmful program in their product, not warning the populace, and then treating their community like a bunch of ingrates for even asking for support or saying there was a problem in the first place.
I’m really looking forward to Spore. I was really looking forward to paying for it and having the shiny box and CD to goggle over. I’m silly, but I love printed material. Now, I guess I’ll be going without…the box.
this good cause no moving cd @ dvd aroun
dont copy that floppy
So, if someone were just to edit the program so that it doesn’t check at all, problem solved? Methinks so.
Also computers are easily better than consoles, consoles come and go, but computers just upgrade. Unlike consoles, computers can emulate old software and have a backcatalog larger than any console you’ve probably ever played. Not to mention the obvious and legally dubious ability to emulate older video game consoles anyway.
Also EA can dump its money into anti-piracy all it likes, it’s a waste of funds unless they start a big-brother organization that stalks all customers to make sure they’re not doing anything illegal.
This move makes no sense since they know these games will still be pirated. The only people this will hurt are those who legally buy the game that don’t have a internet connection.
DON’T COPY THAT FLOPPY! OR I WILL EAT YER FUUD IN YER FRIDGE.
It’s just another bullet point on a list of “reasons to download a nocd crack”, really. Why leap through their circus hoops when, within a week of release, somebody will hack out an alternate route through that treacherous jungle - one that does not end at their pile of crap?
when faced with the option of “putting up with garbage” versus “bypassing that garbage”, most people will choose the latter. For every stupid SecuROM/StarForce/Whatever anti-piracy measure, that’s more legitimate consumers who got fed up with being treated like criminals and either went on to start pirating software or gave up and started buying games on consoles.
The only way to stop piracy from happening is to eliminate the PC altogether, and even then, you aren’t stopping piracy - you’re just slowing it down.
DRM is just another way of saying your renting the game. In this day and age of profit margins and cost cutting they are going to shut down that authentication server as soon as they aren’t making a profit from it. Then all you got is a couple of $50 coasters and a cardboard box.
I once used a program that had a similar name to SecuROM or it was SecuROM,
i don’t remember, but it was useful for playing dld games.
i’ve got an easy solution
…. Steam
Pirates will always prosper because it’s practically impossible for them the real hackers, with l337 cracking skillz to be caught. Who knows who these guys are? They might as well be some of the people that work on these anti-piracy schemes, from the insane amount of insider knowledge they have.
On the other hand, saying that piracy causes billions of dollars worth of damage is ridiculous, since most, if not all pirates would not actually pay a penny to play these games, if they weren’t for “free”. Some people, especially here in Brazil, will just download the games, burn them to discs, and keep them as part of their collection, or in a much easier way, just call some crazy assed dude whose number can be found on the ads section of the newspaper, and “buy” a bunch of pirated games, for crazy low prices.
Regarding console games, it’s very common for chipped consoles to be sold in stores in Brazil. The installation of modchips isn’t illegal, so the demand has “forced” these stores to sell the consoles with modchips already on them.
Even if that wasn’t the case, it’s damn easy to chip your own consoles, the XBOX 360, for example can be done at home, with the simple use of a SATA cable. The wii can be chipped just by soldering a modchip with a couple wires. The PS2 could be chipped just the same, or with the early versions of the console, you could put a Gameshark in it just to boot, then eject the disc and replace it with a custom one. The Dreamcast didn’t even require a damn modchip, it could run pirated discs just fine. The Saturn could run burned discs just as well. The Nintendo 64 had much fewer games pirated, since it was a ROM based videogame, but it still had. The same goes for Genesis, NES, SNES, Master System… The PSP can have it’s firmware downgraded to run homebrew, emulators, etc. just by the installation of some files via memory stick. The GBA and NDS can run games out of flash carts, which make te console even better, since you can have like 5-10 NDS games on a single 2GB SD Card, or a whole bunch of GBA games…
You see where I’m going with this?
Some of these consoles are actually greatly improved when modded…
It just takes will to do it.
But let’s face it, piracy is not cool, and should not be looked upon lightly, it hurts the industry and ends up harming the gamers.
I for one, am a collector, I buy the games and keep them in their boxes, mint condition. I’ll make a backup, and play that instead.
I’ll admit, I also love to play somewhat illegaly emulated games on the mobile systems.
And that’s my 2 cents
By the way, I know for a fact that the following steam only games have been pirated to run without it:
Half life 2
Episode 1
Orange box
Ragdoll Kung fu
Lost Planet Extreme Condition
So STEAM is NOT the ULTIMATE solution… It’s something else… Just don’t ask me what it is…
That’s just incredibly stupid and unnecessary.
It doesn’t really bother me…of course I consider the Internet a vital part of the PC experience these days. Piracy is no good, but those who are out there and are enterprising will always find ways around disc checks and other anti-piracy methods. Those are the risks that come with a relatively open platform like a PC.
If a game has a compelling online component, or frequent, free DLC then having to connect is even less of an issue. While imperfect, Steam does seem like the best thing going.
I’ve been salivating for Mass Effect and Spore for a while now. Too bad I’m passing on both now. I refuse to reward any company that uses intrusive copy “protection” schemes like Starforce and now this data gathering scheme that loots your computer for who knows what kind of information whenever it wants to. EA has a poor track record with this kind of customer crap (BF 2142 comes to mind) and I won’t support them or Bioware this time. Bioware, I hope you guys are happy with your 30 pieces of silver because I feel betrayed by you.
I suppose companies have every right to put whatever useless and offensive copy “protection” schemes they want to in their games. Its their choice. Just as it is my choice to flip them the bird and buy some other companies game that doesn’t automatically label me a pirate and require me to prove my innocence over and over and over again.
Bethesda should take note of this controversy and ship Fallout 3 (also a single player-only game) without draconian anti-piracy software infesting it. Oblivion did just fine but I guess EA and Bioware conveniently forgot about that, huh.
I prefer the PC for RTS games, and although I’ve become used to FPS on the console, I still think they’re more fun on a PC. That same mouse precision I need to get a headshot on a head crab zombie I can use in Photoshop.
I realized as I was playing the Universe at War demo for the 360 that the control scheme was great, and working well, but I was being force to learn an entirely new way of gang selecting, when on a PC I would already know how. All of the skills you need to move a bunch of files into a folder can also be applied to moving your siege tanks to higher ground. No retraining necessary.
The piracy sucks, as does the relatively useless copy protection, but I hope games keep coming to the PC. For Starcraft 2, Blizzard can put a lojack in my earlobe if feel like they must. I’ll be paying for it, and playing it right here.
Well thank you very much….
The last 4 days i am gathering info to get myself a new gamecracking pc machine, and after reading this mail again, why bother?!?!
Maybe getting a console(ps3 or 360??) is cheaper and easier…
Gerstmann….thank you very much
I don’t really see what all the fuss is about. I mean yeah it can be a hassle having to re-authenticated your game every 10 days and who knows if the server will still be available 5,6, or even 10 years from now.
However it’s stupid to boycott the game over this, all your doing is letting pirates win nobody wants that.
Seriously.
How big of a hassle it is to take 2 minutes of your time to active your games?
Less QQ more pew pew ye damn elitist PC gamers.
I think the key is choice, I think this particular scheme sounds fine for me, considering I *am* online all the time. But maybe for people who aren’t online all the time should be able to have some other solution. I don’t know though, it’s tough.
The hasle is having to do it every 10 days. That’s the only thing i’m kinda peeved about. I’m okay with having to actually register the game everytime you install it but this is rediculous.
What i don’t get it why people have to get so upset over it. MS has you activate Windows everytime you install it so this isn’t much different.
This using SecuROM is just like all the crap they put on CD back in the day, same with itunes now look at them it is gone or going. This is because they know it was not stopping anyone and was just making it very hard on the people that have done nothing wrong.
This why of doing it is nearly as bad as bioshock…where you only got 2 (well they upped it to 5) installs of the game…I come on what is up with that.
I still am a PC gamer, and like a lot of people have said Steam, is’ one of the best thing to hit PC gaming in a long time.
I know people that get pirated game…for about a week to see if they like them or not then go out add get the full copy as £30-50 is a lot of money to get something that you may not like.
Well that is about it from me
Damn they are a few typos…oh well.
One more in that one to….I fail at typing.
This is irritating. The machine we have that’s most likely able to run Spore won’t be the online one. What the hell would I do, connect intermittently to make sure I could still play the game I bought?
There’s actually quite a bit of software stealing for consoles too, it just takes more energy on the part of the thieves to do it. Maybe PCs could just bridge the gap, and have console-like dedicated peripherals which use different style discs than those commonly used in PC hardware. You’d hook it up to your PC, play games off it, then chuck it when the new generation came out. I dunno.
This latest copy protection is hare-brained. I hope enough people raise a stink that they’ll back off. Spore was one of the few games I was going to concentrate on this year, and now strangely enough the copy protection will discourage me from buying it…
Count me out on getting that game if they’re going to ‘nanny’ me like that. I mean damn, once you activated it whats the frigin point in anoying pc gamers that actually buy games any further? trying to anoy them into buying a console?
As for spore; why would they do that, seeing as they have the spore network as one of the features… u’re already going to be online alot to pickup new content and distribute your own -_-
Totally blows because i WANT that game badly but now will definatly wait for some reactions on their shitty SecuRom policies. Or until they realise they shouldnt be crapping on their own games and patch it to a milder state of anoyance.
oh, neighbor germany hasn’t even got 50% of their people online, aka either ‘count them out for your market fellas!’ or see a them all play it via cracks.
i think they’d have to come up with a more innovative and user friendly way if they want to see their games stay ligitimate… like Steam or something similar. Thats pretty nice to use, never gave me problems and to me seems pretty tightly secured against piracy.
If this stuff escalates in years to come, im going to have to pick up new hobbies… frankly im sick of being anoyed for being a ligitimate customer. and consoles make me wanna smash controllers.
There’s a lot of Pirated 360 consoles. They can even access LIVE and stay unbanned if they keep a low profile. The only reason it’s not as mainstream as PC games is 1) PCs have been around forever. 2) RROD doesn’t really encourage people to pirate their games since it voids the warranty…
The only clean gaming platform right now is the PS3. And SecuROM is a Sony product, so I’m guessing Mass Effect WILL be hard to crack. If not, at least we won’t see a month-early release like we did with Assassin’s Creed…
Also, I did email Giantbomb a while back on a way to PREVENT piracy completely by making GAME SERVERS and streaming the games to the users. It’s in effect at a very small scale right now, but in the future it might be the best way to prevent piracy and probably the cheapest way to play games by reducing hardware costs and distribution costs.
I own a PC, a 360 and a PS3. People argue how convenient console gaming is, but the only real difference is the fact that one requires some work and thinking while the other doesn’t. PCs can be plugged to your HD TVs. They do have wireless controllers and wireless mice and keyboards. And just a few years ago PC gaming was mainstream. Piracy existed back then but you didn’t see people NOT making PC games and you didn’t see GOOD games NOT selling.(Anyone remembers the leaked Half Life 2 code???) The only difference is the greed by the industry. Are the games really worth $65? Very few are… Funny how Microsoft is trying to revive PC Gaming after it had killed it in the first place by marketing 360 EXCLUSIVES… But that’s business.
Honestly though, I don’t mind consoles at all. I mean, I play them all the time. They’re the Now. The last game I bought for the PC was The Orange Box and that’s because I’m a speed run freak and I wanted precise controls for Portal. Right now I’m enjoying some great multiplayer in GTA. PS3 version, just for the nostalgic feel.
The truth is that, nothing will stop people from cracking games. They will always do it, and manage to do it.
Its the PC community that will have to take a long good look at them selfs here. Buy the games! Thats all, nothing more is required! If you start doing that, then one day; PC gaming will be back. And we all know, PC gaming is the best way of gaming.
Now, the developers have to understand this as well. They are a part of the PC community. By putting “recommended specs” on a box, that just aren’t true. You are pissing off the people who pays you’re bills. There is nothing more annoying than coming home from the store, only to realize that the game is basically as slide show, and that you’ve just bough a $40 coaster! And why dose every PC game have to have requirements UP THE ASS! Could it be that, you the developer; don’t really care how well it handles as long as it looks good? All I know is that I can play Bioshock and Unreal Tournament 3 maxed out, at 1440×900(not PC exclusive, remember). Only to find that World in Conflict and The Witcher are freaking slide shows(PC exclusives, thank god for those; right?). But at least those you could turn down the graphics and still have a enjoyable experience. Crysis is not a game like that. I pre-ordered that game. Because Chevat Yuril said that “A comphutar that coud run FarChry on max, can run Cryziz on low; no problem”.
FUCK YOU CHEVAT! I have a computer that runs rings around my previous one, the one that ran FarCry on max. No I had to putt everything on low-medium, and that would have been fine. If it looks okay. But man, it looks like shit!
So I guess what I am trying to say here is that, there are a lot of things that have to change. But don’t fucking blame it all on the gamers. There are reasons for everything. Man ligger som man reder, thats Norwegian for “You reap what you sow”…
Just like everyone else already said, protection schemes will always be cracked no matter how good a particular one is. Also, PC games rule the gaming world and always will.
I think that the main reason the wii is outselling both ps3 and 360 is that it is very easy to pirate games, a cheap mod chip and you have all the same services that buying shitty pricy games, ryan and jeff already said it, it is incredible the quantity of shitty games the wii has. By the way, the 360 weekly sales are boosted by the fact you can flash the firmware. I am from argentina and here no one is buying ps3’s, hell yeah, we have a lot piracy here, we only buy original pc games sometimes to gain access to the online experience such as Team Fortress 2, Company of Heroes and every must buy which features a great online multiplayer.
It’s a reality, 360 and wii hardware sales are being increased by the fact they are easily hacked and that’s why if the ps3 install base keeps growing faster than the 360, a lot of Exclusive games are going to be developed only because they know that 100% of the people playing them are going to buy it
My problem is I like to play 20 year old pc games, protection on games has a habbit of not working 20 years later.
Copy protection doesn’t work. No matter what they use, it’ll be cracked. The more effort you put into protecting something, and the more that people want it, the more that the cracker groups will work to make it available.
The easiest way to prevent this is to have the various games have online components that are only accessible if you have a CD-Key, or something like that. That way, if you want to pirate the game and try it out, you can, but you won’t be able to access that online portion.
That is the way that Introversion did the release of DEFCON. Sure, you could play the single-player version, but you couldn’t play against other people, or even your friends, without having purchased the full version. This is exactly what they should do with Spore. Sure, you can pirate it, but, without that CD-Key, you won’t be able to log onto the server to download any of the additional content, the creatures that other people have created, and every planet you explore is just a barren lifeless rock.
Once software leaves the box, EA really have no control over it, and they should realize that.
Something i missed, the best example is:
Konami/Square Enix: “Oh do you want MGS4 and FFXIII ugh? GIVE ME YOUR FRIGGIN us$60 PUNK”
Me: “well ok, i can live without seeing snake’s end and without a grear JRPG as the one i played in my childhood, here is your fucking money, you win”
But on the other hand
Mistwalker:”Oh do you want Lost Odyssey?? GIVE ME YOUR FRIGGIN us$60 PUNK”
Me:”I have just burned it on my DVD writer you sucker!!”
Publishers in other countries are using other protections. In Russia they will use StarForce and in Czech Republic for example SafeDisc.
Fnord, all games with online have CD keys. The thing is, popular games get cracked servers. Look at counter-strike. You need a valid key but there are tons of cracked servers for the pirated versions…
Sadly, that doesn’t help much.
Hackers are going to crack the game anyways, so why make it harder to play a game for a person who actually paid money for it?
So how does this stop piracy?
It doesn’t.
Everytime DRM is installed an angel farts and makes bad luck happen, and like err I miss my bus.
My early teenager has a computer of his own. He’s been looking forward to Spore. His computer is not, and never will be, connected to the internet. It’s a top-quality computer, sanse networking of any type. I guess he won’t be able to play this game, because my child is not getting on the internet in his room. Not anywhere I can’t see him, and what he’s doing. I call this responsible parenting. My children access the internet only under my supervision. This copy protection scheme will make it impossible for my child to play this long-awaited game at all. Shame on you, EA. It’s not nice, it’s invasive, and I don’t care two figs for pirate vs. no pirate in this case. It’s just wrong of EA to do this. They need to take a page out of Oblivion’s book.
It’s not pirates that are the problem. Pirating and hacking have been around since long before the internet. It’s about companies respecting their paying customers. It’s also about US protecting OUR PROPERTY. Securom from BV (The Sims 2 Bon Voyage) caused some major problems, and I had to upgrade some parts, and fix others. Its “phone home” feature caused problems as well, with my connection. It tried to stop me from using some legitimate software I had legally purchased. These things are unacceptable. It’s MY computer, and MY connection, and I should not have to put up with some crazy computer game company messing with MY stuff. Ever.
Mitchellcjs….
You’re letting your kid play a sci-fi sex simulator?
In his own room?
I have no problem with, this even though I do not like online verification for games. (gamers without internet get screwed. they do exist) I actually like that you won’t have to keep the disc in the drive. Besides, unlike Half Life 2, this only checks twice, not every time you want to play. It would be great if we didn’t have worry about protection schemes and developers didn’t have to worry about piracy, but we don’t live in Gumdrop Land. One only needs to go to a few popular torrent sites to see thousands of people daily downloading games like Bioshock to realize that current piracy prevention methods are obsolete and that developers really are losing a lot of potential sales.
While this proposed copy protection scheme is not perfect, at least it doesn’t require connection every time you want to play nor does it install a rootkit on your system.
Wow, Its like a new SW forum here
But yeah..Steam is by far one of the best ways to get things working (although there are many ways to work around that too
)
They dropped the 10 day activation thing… Might want to update the topic?
I agree, Jeff should post a follow up on this developing story. Also wouldn’t hurt to give a shout out to everyone at the BioWare forums who’s constant complaining cause them to remove the 10 day “phone home” feature.
I stick my copy of Mass Effect in my XBOX 360 , and it just goes.
Copy Protection on PC’s is so bad, like I cant count how many games I’ve bought recently that give my DVD drive a hard time: Hellgate London, Empire At War, Windows Vista (wait what?), F.E.A.R.
Yet C&C 3 works beautifully, how about that?
I don’t think PC owners should have to buy new DVD-ROM drives just to play certain games that have over-aggressive protections.
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