DRM, yet again

Y

Yippee38

2[H]4U
Joined
Apr 21, 2000
Messages
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I saw Alice: Madness Returns on the Stream Sale and picked it up. When I went to play it, I discovered that you can't play it unless you log in to EA Online. Uninstalled.

I think this is the fourth time I've bought something on Stream only to discover that it was infected with DRM. I wish Stream made it more apparent when games have that crap in them.

I also got stung by the Humble Bundle recently. I thought all Humble Bundles were DRM free, but when I bought Dirt 3 I discovered that was not the case.

I hate buying games that I can't play.
 
Its pretty obnoxious. I wouldn't mind it as much if it was simple registration checks but it invariably fucks up my PC or add extra annoying shit I have to disable. I think the key word is "intrusive" DRM. My problem with Origin is that they didn't even bother to tie it to their main community based franchise battlefield so Origin literally on exists to push the EA store on you.
 
Yippee38 said:
I saw Alice: Madness Returns on the Stream Sale and picked it up. When I went to play it, I discovered that you can't play it unless you log in to EA Online. Uninstalled.

I think this is the fourth time I've bought something on Stream only to discover that it was infected with DRM. I wish Stream made it more apparent when games have that crap in them.

I also got stung by the Humble Bundle recently. I thought all Humble Bundles were DRM free, but when I bought Dirt 3 I discovered that was not the case.

I hate buying games that I can't play.
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Aye...I bought the physical copy of Alice several years back and, as soon as I saw the requirement to log into EA online I gave it away at our White Elephant gift exchange
 
Yippee38 said:
I saw Alice: Madness Returns on the Stream Sale and picked it up. When I went to play it, I discovered that you can't play it unless you log in to EA Online. Uninstalled.

I think this is the fourth time I've bought something on Stream only to discover that it was infected with DRM. I wish Stream made it more apparent when games have that crap in them.

I also got stung by the Humble Bundle recently. I thought all Humble Bundles were DRM free, but when I bought Dirt 3 I discovered that was not the case.

I hate buying games that I can't play.
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Do you not have the internetz?
 
bigted said:
you keep using that word...

:p
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Yeah. I know. 2 things. 1) I was on my phone, and autocorrect was getting me even though I didn't realize it. That's why it's spelled wrong.

2) It is DRM done right. It pisses me off that it's on Steam, and therefore DRM exists, but then I have to jump through other hoops to get the game to work. I work on the road, and I have a lot of down time in airports, hotels and on airplanes (in the back, of course). I often do not have internetz. So having a game that requires me to connect, means I cannot play that game at all.

Mostly, I am not a pirate, and I really, really resent that I'm treated like a pirate. Then again, EA has shown repeatedly that it has no clue how to handle an online community.
 
Yippee38 said:
Yeah. I know. 2 things. 1) I was on my phone, and autocorrect was getting me even though I didn't realize it. That's why it's spelled wrong.

2) It is DRM done right. It pisses me off that it's on Steam, and therefore DRM exists, but then I have to jump through other hoops to get the game to work. I work on the road, and I have a lot of down time in airports, hotels and on airplanes (in the back, of course). I often do not have internetz. So having a game that requires me to connect, means I cannot play that game at all.

Mostly, I am not a pirate, and I really, really resent that I'm treated like a pirate. Then again, EA has shown repeatedly that it has no clue how to handle an online community.
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So, you admit that you sometimes pirate content, but are made your treated like a pirate?

Hmmmmm.............

That said, steam is primary a content deliver service, not a DRM service, other companies can include additional content protection if desired.

And by the way, it says right under the game requirements thi:

EA ACCOUNT, REGISTRATION WITH ENCLOSED SINGLE-USE SERIAL CODE, INTERNET CONNECTION AND ACCEPTANCE OF END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT REQUIRED TO PLAY AND ACCESS BONUS CONTENT (IF ANY). SERIAL CODE IS NON-TRANSFERABLE ONCE USED. EA ONLINE PRIVACY POLICY AND TERMS OF SERVICE CAN BE FOUND AT http://www.ea.com. YOU MUST BE 13+ TO ACTIVATE SOFTWARE. EA MAY PROVIDE CERTAIN INCREMENTAL CONTENT AND/OR UPDATES FOR NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE, IF AND WHEN AVAILABLE. EA MAY RETIRE ONLINE FEATURES AFTER 30 DAYS NOTICE POSTED ON http://http://www.ea.com/2/SERVICE-UPDATES.
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Yippee38 said:
I wish Stream made it more apparent when games have that crap in them.
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They do. Right side of the screen, underneath the game descriptors (single-player, co-op, controller support, etc.). It will tell you if you have to agree to a third party EULA and/or use a third party program to launch the game. Alice does have a flag on it's page that states "Requires agreement to a 3rd-party EULA" with a link to read it underneath. A very quick skim of the EULA gives the following:

B. Technical Protection Measures. This Software uses EA Activation content protection technology. An EA Account, including the acceptance of EA’s online Terms of Service and Privacy Policy (available at www.ea.com), and an Internet connection are required to authenticate the Software and verify your license upon the initial launch of the Software on any unique machine (“Authenticate” or “Authentication”).
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Most people aren't going to read this far into things they buy, but most people also don't give a shit. You obviously do, so check this stuff out next time. All the information is there before you ever hit buy.
 
Yippee38 said:
I don't see where I said I sometimes pirate content.
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I'm guessing he read "Mostly, I am not a pirate" as "I don't pirate most of the time", where as I'm guessing you meant it as "the most important issue is that I don't pirate".
 
k1pp3r said:
So, you admit that you sometimes pirate content, but are made your treated like a pirate?

Hmmmmm.............

That said, steam is primary a content deliver service, not a DRM service, other companies can include additional content protection if desired.

And by the way, it says right under the game requirements thi:
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The comma is the key piece of punctuation here. Mostly is referring to the main point of his post, not that he 'mostly' pirates games.

It may be in the TOS, but so are about 1,000 other things. Assuming everything has an internet connection all the time is a bit ahead of its time as of right now IMHO. I recently got bit with my office 365 subscription and Powerpoint on my iPad. I was going to review a PPT file I had on the device but had not used PowerPoint in the specified time period (Im sure its in the TOS). So even though my account is active and it is installed on my device, it would not allow me to view/edit because I did not have internet to check that my account was still active. At the time I was unaware that I would have to let it check every time I wanted to use it. Kind of defeats the purpose of mobile...
 
aarcam said:
It may be in the TOS, but so are about 1,000 other things. Assuming everything has an internet connection all the time is a bit ahead of its time as of right now IMHO. I recently got bit with my office 365 subscription and Powerpoint on my iPad. I was going to review a PPT file I had on the device but had not used PowerPoint in the specified time period (Im sure its in the TOS). So even though my account is active and it is installed on my device, it would not allow me to view/edit because I did not have internet to check that my account was still active. At the time I was unaware that I would have to let it check every time I wanted to use it. Kind of defeats the purpose of mobile...
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See thats what is so comical about this to me. I never said jack crap about TOS, hell I don't care what is in the TOS. The fact is, the notice about EA's account requirement is smack dab on the system requirements on Steams product page.

Fact is, they warned ahead of time, its not their fault you don't read the system requirements.

Alice.jpg
 
Yeah. No question about it. I screwed up by not reading the requirements. I won't make that mistake again.
 
not sure someone can complain about DRM and still use steam.

there is no difference in logging in to an EA server or logging in to the steam servers.
 
Some DRM is worse than others. "Always on" is a greater level in hell. Having said that, steam has been annoying me more than usual lately. Update checks or offline mode just extend the time it takes to play my game.
 
Hmm, that is annoying.

That 3rd party EULA thing... I didn't think it had another DRM thing in it. Usually it just tells you that there is a 3rd party DRM.
 
Yippee38 said:
Yeah. I know. 2 things. 1) I was on my phone, and autocorrect was getting me even though I didn't realize it. That's why it's spelled wrong.

2) It is DRM done right. It pisses me off that it's on Steam, and therefore DRM exists, but then I have to jump through other hoops to get the game to work. I work on the road, and I have a lot of down time in airports, hotels and on airplanes (in the back, of course). I often do not have internetz. So having a game that requires me to connect, means I cannot play that game at all.

Mostly, I am not a pirate, and I really, really resent that I'm treated like a pirate. Then again, EA has shown repeatedly that it has no clue how to handle an online community.
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I assume this game uses Origin? It has an offline mode. Could try that to play while on the go.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/how-to/offline-mode
 
TheMadHatterXxX said:
lolwut
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They are widely spaced out. One was Batman: Arkham Asylum. I got a refund for that. (I later bought it again after the DRM was removed.) I also bought Dawn of War II in a pack and didn't realize it had DRM. Drive 3 I mentioned. Then this. There was more than a year between each except the last two.

WarriorX said:
I assume this game uses Origin? It has an offline mode. Could try that to play while on the go.

https://www.origin.com/en-us/how-to/offline-mode
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I haven't tested it, but the requirements says, "Internet connection and acceptance of end-user license agreement required to play..."
 
Parmenides said:
Some DRM is worse than others. "Always on" is a greater level in hell. Having said that, steam has been annoying me more than usual lately. Update checks or offline mode just extend the time it takes to play my game.
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You think that's bad, I recently started AC III and it had 6 updates that had to be downloaded and installed separately, the first 6 times I launched it I had to spend 5+ minutes installing the next patch(and it never warned me that there were more). Each time I had to agree to the eula and click through several pages and then the installer would hang after the patch was installed.

I've had my fair share of problems with origin and steam but uplay is pure garbage.
 
Ebernanut said:
You think that's bad, I recently started AC III and it had 6 updates that had to be downloaded and installed separately, the first 6 times I launched it I had to spend 5+ minutes installing the next patch(and it never warned me that there were more). Each time I had to agree to the eula and click through several pages and then the installer would hang after the patch was installed.

I've had my fair share of problems with origin and steam but uplay is pure garbage.
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Oh, I know that steam is the lesser of evils, uplay is well known for finding new ways to shaft paying customers. I had to go through update fest with uplay once, though not as bad as you. There was one game where uplay didn't give me issues, amazing when that happens right?
 
Just to be clear, for Alice: Madness Returns, you only need to activate the serial number on EA once. Once that's done, the DRM is finished; it's not an "always-online-to-play DRM", as may have been implied (inadvertently or not) by some in this thread.
 
evilsofa said:
Just to be clear, for Alice: Madness Returns, you only need to activate the serial number on EA once. Once that's done, the DRM is finished; it's not an "always-online-to-play DRM", as may have been implied (inadvertently or not) by some in this thread.
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Thanks! Good to know. I may play it now, or decide that I'm still pissed at EA for killing most of my favorite game franchises and say, "Screw it!"
 
Yippee38 said:
I saw Alice: Madness Returns on the Stream Sale and picked it up. When I went to play it, I discovered that you can't play it unless you log in to EA Online. Uninstalled.
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Only requires a 1 time activation. And does not require Origin to be installed at all. It has its own little thing. So nice try on the EA bashing.
 
Dion said:
Only requires a 1 time activation. And does not require Origin to be installed at all. It has its own little thing. So nice try on the EA bashing.
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I can still EA bash all I want. They are, have always been, and, in all likelihood, will always be a shit game company. It's a shame they work with (or own, until they shut down) so many high-quality development companies. I'd love to buy the games directly from the developers rather than having to go through EA.

My hate for EA cannot be overstated. They put some of my friends out of work, and made several of them give up on the industry altogether.

BTW, this thread is not about EA bashing. It's about bullshit (Can I say that here? You'd think I'd know the rules by now. I've been around long enough.) DRM in a world where DRM does nothing to prevent piracy, but only makes playing games more painful for non-pirate gamers. It is also, apparently, about bashing people who don't like giant publishers who force useless DRM upon their customers, publicly insult their customers, destroy great development companies, and grind online communities to dust under the heal of their money grubbing boots heels.

Do you see what you did there Dion? You made me turn my own thread from a DRM rant into an EA rant. You bastard!
 
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I use both Origin and Steam because it is pretty much my only means of access to English games in a Non-speaking english country. Also some DLCs are only available on Origin when the game is available on steam too (Mass effect 2 for example), but at least they have the courtesy of allowing you to redeem your Steam copy on Origin free of charge.

I thing I don't like about EA online is how long it took to go for the game to log in... (At least steam you don't really have to wait). Prices on some DLCs are also borderline ridiculous
 
Dion said:
Only requires a 1 time activation. And does not require Origin to be installed at all. It has its own little thing. So nice try on the EA bashing.
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Thanks! I tested it and you're right. I appreciate you setting me straight.
 
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