So Ubisoft's latest and most ridiculous DRM system is now out there, on Assassin's Creed II and Silent Hunter 5 - has anyone tried it yet?
For those not familiar with it, this new DRM system requires you to be online in order to play - no offline play at all. In fact, if your connection drops out while you're playing, depending on how it's implemented in that particular game, you may be booted out of the game and lose all progress since the last save point (such as in ACII). The servers have already suffered at least one DDoS attack, which made it impossible for some people to play their games for a while... proving just how weak this system is.
I was going to preorder the limited edition of the new Settlers game - but as soon as I read about this DRM, I changed my mind. I'd rather not pay good money to get a game with such a shonky DRM system - Ubisoft won't be getting any of my money for any game with this system active (they say they have the ability to patch it out of games if needed - wonder how long it'll be before they do so?).
Ubisoft are naturally trying to make the requirement to be online seem like a positive thing, by having your savegames be stored on their servers so you can "play from any computer" - and letting you have unlimited installs (which at least means that if Windows blows up, you don't lose your only acitvation...). I guess the cloud savegame storage could come in handy if you game on a desktop and a laptop - but I'd expect most people would use one or the other, not both... anyone beg to differ?
Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous; although I think this does go hand in hand with the economic climate at this point. Obviously publishers are looking for ways to increase their margins and they still see pirates as people who could have potentially bought the game (although that in itself is a wrong theory to have!).
The best way to prove the system doesn't work is for people to simply not buy the games. However, given how successful the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 boycott was... I don't think that will work.
Not only has there been a DDoS against the servers, but the DRM itself has been cracked - with the crack, instead of having to be online, you have to be offline or block the game from connecting to the 'net (or you can skip using the Ubisoft launcher).
It really isn't that hard. The easiest way to do it, is to run a local server that sends the same authorization data anyways. It's how Steam games are cracked as well.
Gabe Newell (co-founder of Valve) understands that DRM predominantly brings problems, diminishing the value of the game in the users' eyes. Let's hope that Ubisoft and others like them get on that bandwagon soon - and stop crippling games!
Hmm, hard to say about Gabe's point of view. I mean, Steam is making it hard for us to deal with lans.
Its just another step towards cloud computing, which I am against btw
I am teh Intanetz
Well, recent Steam client updates (after the last L3) have promised to make offline mode work properly - plus hopefully the 'net connection will be more stable this coming LAN. Hopefully, the combination of these two things will mean that one way or another, we'll be able to play Steam games - so long as they're games which actually work on LAN :facepalm:
Fingers crossed... Still early days yet.
I am teh Intanetz