EA boycotts

One of the reasons why EA continues to implement draconian DRM is because they can. They probably expect the vast majority of their customers to be docile sheep willing to put up with the restrictions; heck, they probably don't want to do business with those who complain (us). They'd want nothing more than to be able to do whatever the hell they want.

Of course, this doesn't just apply to EA but to all businesses and governments.

The only way things will change would be if their DRM were to really backfire on them. Kinda like a Sony Rootkit situation but applied to video games (and several times worse since I'm not really sure if Sony really changed afterward).
 
SockMan! said:
The only way things will change would be if their DRM were to really backfire on them. Kinda like a Sony Rootkit situation but applied to video games (and several times worse since I'm not really sure if Sony really changed afterward).
Click to expand...

Starforce in particular has always been worse.
 
1) Is StarForce dead?
i want to say so, it seems that way to me since i havent not seen any new games with it?
But yes, Starforce was an example of the worst that was out there.

2) EA made a public statement dismissing the boycotts, While i dont generally disagree with much of what they said, i think that the issue is getting air time, which is good. I hope that this will not become an issue, but will hopefully go away soon. The best way to do so is to buy games that dont have DRM stuff.Many people, will still buy EA games, but they're not [H]ard :D
 
I will not install a program that includes starforce or securrom as a means to protection. Views of torrent files tend to validate that concept that neither are effective anyways.

I have a copy of Crysis that I never installed on my main rig (rather I did, but then discovered the problem and reimaged to a version prior to crysis).

That's where my boycott started. If the possibility that starforce is used, won't even bother looking at the game anymore. I am not some docile sheep that let's any software manufactured dictate what does or does not happen to my machine. It's not their job to watch what I do when I'm not playing their game. I look at valve as a model for distribution and copyright enforcement. Steam doesn't give a rat's ass about what I do when I'm not playing games and it doesn't insert itself kernel level so if I don't want it running on my computer, it's not.
 
I will end my EA boycott when they release "The Need for Speed 2".
 
I am certain the devs and pubs know that no form of DRM prevents piracy in single player games. They can't all have the intellect of 6 year olds and still be able to develop, produce, market, and sell games. They know pirates are going to pirate it. They know the pirates are never going to buy it. They wrote pirates off a long time ago. But they have to pretend it's about piracy, because they are trying to avoid lawsuits over the the First Sale Doctrine as it relates to used game sales. They need an excuse to toss out at a judge. They have certainly built the hype up around piracy enough for it to be almost common knowledge.

Activation limits sole purpose imo, is preventing second sales.

As to the boycott. Nope, not bothering. Won't do any good. I will buy the single player games I want, use the crack to play them, and if I feel like it afterwards, resell the game with none of it's activations used. No muss, no fuss.
 
I don't really boycott EA, but I don't buy new games by EA, either.

Edit: Err, i didn't read the first post very well. I've not bought any EA game with DRM, nor have I pirated anything. I have, however, bought a couple of EA console games within the last 3 years used.
 
I'm all for the antiDRM campaign but gotta show EA some love with their sports games. Big time Madden addict
 
It's funny really, the gamers are in the best position, see I really do want to give developers my money for a well made game, and I frequently do. However it's no real skin of my nose to grab a torrent of it.

So where as boycotting traditional goods goes, you have to suffer loss of not using the product, in order to protest x y or z, however with software you can boycott it but still use it.

It's a dangerous game to play by the developers, where as with physical goods you can wait out the boycott until users break and give in, with piracy so easy, we can pirate games indefinately....in other words we've already won, there's nothing they can do, and the sooner they give in, the lower their loss will be.

Given that, I have little sympathy for them losing business due to their own actions, they know better they're just being stubborn.
 
I guess I'm boycotting. I don't buy (or pirate) games with stupidly restrictive DRM.
 
Frostex said:
It's funny really, the gamers are in the best position, see I really do want to give developers my money for a well made game, and I frequently do. However it's no real skin of my nose to grab a torrent of it.

So where as boycotting traditional goods goes, you have to suffer loss of not using the product, in order to protest x y or z, however with software you can boycott it but still use it.

It's a dangerous game to play by the developers, where as with physical goods you can wait out the boycott until users break and give in, with piracy so easy, we can pirate games indefinately....in other words we've already won, there's nothing they can do, and the sooner they give in, the lower their loss will be.

Given that, I have little sympathy for them losing business due to their own actions, they know better they're just being stubborn.
Click to expand...
No. You don't fucking get it, do you? It's not their loss. It's MY LOSS as a fucking legitimate PC gamer. Their "loss" is of a juvenile, hyper-sensitive market of "enthusiasts" who will "boycott" (pirate) anything for almost any reason. Their gain is of a market that is a vastly smaller portion of piracy. The LOSS is to the PC platform of any developer large enough to have to make platform decisions based off of piracy, which is most of them right now.

Let me know in 5 years how fucking brilliant you thought this "boycott" of yours was.
 
You dont know the first thing about economics do you finalgt. You pretend to, but you are horribly ignorant. You believe piracy will end PC gaming because publishers will see too much risk, and not enough reward and stop investing in PC gaming. And you're 100% right. What you fail to realize, is a basic economic principle. Where there is demand, there will be supply.

While 200,000 copies may be worthless to EA, to some developer in his garage with 10 buddies thats a huge market. The moment the likes of EA, Epic, etc leave the business, someone else will step in. Also, you need to realize that some developers do very well for themselves on PC. As long as PC games sell there will be someone willing to supply them. Remember, Carmack was just a nobody in his basement once... Maybe the big names leaving PC behind will be a good thing and we'll find out who that next nobody is.
 
finalgt said:
"boycott" (pirate)
Click to expand...
I noticed this fairly obvious error in your post. Odds are you should fix it lest you end up looking like a miserable asshat to your fellow peers :)

Believe it or not, for some (myself included), boycott actually means boycott. We don't buy the games; we don't download the games; we don't play the games. I'm not boycotting EA, particularly, but I am boycotting (not pirating) these SecuROM-laden games.
 
I didn't buy Spore ( DRM secondary, trash primary ), Mass Effect ( DRM secondary, crappy console port primary ) and will not buy Dead Space ( DRM secondary, crappy console port primary ).

If a game is good, I might reconsider. But all of these games, for PC, are absolutely horrible.

Releasing PC games with gobs of DRM is useless. Look at any torrent site or newsgroup for all the flagship release coming in the next month. Many are up there to download, and ALL of them were pirated for the Xbox 360 first.

Console has pirates too. Jumping on the "we r pirated!" bandwagon because of poor sales from a POOR product on the PC is just an easy way out for publishers and developers.
 
demingo said:
You dont know the first thing about economics do you finalgt. You pretend to, but you are horribly ignorant. You believe piracy will end PC gaming because publishers will see too much risk, and not enough reward and stop investing in PC gaming. And you're 100% right. What you fail to realize, is a basic economic principle. Where there is demand, there will be supply.

While 200,000 copies may be worthless to EA, to some developer in his garage with 10 buddies thats a huge market. The moment the likes of EA, Epic, etc leave the business, someone else will step in. Also, you need to realize that some developers do very well for themselves on PC. As long as PC games sell there will be someone willing to supply them. Remember, Carmack was just a nobody in his basement once... Maybe the big names leaving PC behind will be a good thing and we'll find out who that next nobody is.
Click to expand...
How the hell are developers supposed to see demand when there's legions of 15-year-olds pirating every PC game they play to "prove a point"? What business capable of selling 200,000 copies of a game would look at that market and say, "Shucks guys! Looks like prime real estate! Let's round up some investment capital and jump on in!"

With Xbox Marketplace and similar venues opening up on Wii and PS3, why the hell would the next "nobody" decide the PC is a good market to sell 200,000 copies? Where is the economic sense in that for an upstart developer?
 
finalgt said:
No. You don't fucking get it, do you? It's not their loss. It's MY LOSS as a fucking legitimate PC gamer. Their "loss" is of a juvenile, hyper-sensitive market of "enthusiasts" who will "boycott" (pirate) anything for almost any reason. Their gain is of a market that is a vastly smaller portion of piracy. The LOSS is to the PC platform of any developer large enough to have to make platform decisions based off of piracy, which is most of them right now.

Let me know in 5 years how fucking brilliant you thought this "boycott" of yours was.
Click to expand...

The gaming market is just that, a market, it's not defined by the current developers and businesses in it, it's bigger than that. If one developer drops out of the market and moves to consoles because of piracy, another will move in and take its place, it's no different from any other market.

Their loss is revenue, straight up, if they think they can afford to mess with their own income then they can go ahead, I consider that a bad business and depsite what I think they're either going to float or sink because of their actions.

They can make you feel like they're justified in treating you like a criminal because of other peoples actions, but I'm not going to fall for it, how they treat their legitimate customers is their choice and theirs alone.

I will do what I have always done and support developers with my hard earned cash, who make good games, and I will boycott whatever I damn well please.

And boycott + piracy, or just boycott doesn't make a damn bit of difference, they're not getting my money either way, the only way they can do that is to stop being nubtards and do the rational thing for once.

With Xbox Marketplace and similar venues opening up on Wii and PS3, why the hell would the next "nobody" decide the PC is a good market to sell 200,000 copies? Where is the economic sense in that for an upstart developer?
Click to expand...

It's pretty simple, you make a good product that people want to buy, all the developers that do that sell well and make a very good profit.
 
TheCommander said:
I don't really see the big deal with DRM. How many times can a person install a game in a short period of time? Even if they do pass the limit, they can always call and get another activation.

As for what if the company stops supporting the game - a patch will most likely be released that gets rid of the activation.
Click to expand...

really?

YOU sure YOU CAN GET ANOTHER ACTIVATION BY CONTACTING THEM?

here is the letter I got from contacting EA about my Crysis Warhead activation..



Hi,

Thank you for writing to EA.com account services.

We only provide 3 activations per game/code and you can only activate the game on maximum three computers.
If you have installed on more than three computers within a ten day period, you will need to wait until the first installation expires.

Note: Re-installing your operating system will count as a "new computer" installation.

Please get back to me if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
EARep Sabin,
Electronic Arts.

-----------------------------------------

Did you see that Note there? Re-installing my OS still count as a NEW COMPUTER ?

Wooo... I fail to follow the logic there....I only reinstall my OS and that is a new computer..

I wonder how many new computer I have now :rolleyes:
 
finalgt said:
How the hell are developers supposed to see demand when there's legions of 15-year-olds pirating every PC game they play to "prove a point"? What business capable of selling 200,000 copies of a game would look at that market and say, "Shucks guys! Looks like prime real estate! Let's round up some investment capital and jump on in!"

With Xbox Marketplace and similar venues opening up on Wii and PS3, why the hell would the next "nobody" decide the PC is a good market to sell 200,000 copies? Where is the economic sense in that for an upstart developer?
Click to expand...


I know you hate this arguement, but you're really just chasing your tail on this whole piracy issue. Sins of a Solar Empire. Didn't sell a ton of copies, but the devs (according to them) are doing well and plan to continue to make PC games. See not every game needs to be from EA and sell 5 million. Someone will ALWAYS fill the void. It goes back to basic economic principle. If someone wants a product, someone will sell it to them.

Also, the revenue from 200,000 copies goes a lot further when you don't need to pay redunant secrataties for CEOs with overblow salaries. The gaming machine has become a horrid monster with companies like EA. They spend millions on overbearing advertising, millions more on drm, and then still rake in record profits.

Take all that excess shit out and focus on paying a developer and a distrubutor to print copies of your title, and even low sales volumes will be enough for you to live comfortably as a dev. I will not sit here and cry for multibillion dollar companies who want me to feel sorry for them. I'll be glad when they go out of business because then some fresh faces will step in, sell their 100,000 or 200,000 copies and embrace the PC gamers who support them.
 
Okay, so you think an industry can survive where every company in it is "indie," apparently. That happened before with the gaming industry, back in the 80's. Do you know what they called it then? A crash.

Like I said, talk to me in 5 years about how well this little gambit of yours paid off. If you're right, then the PC market will be awash in solid, honest indie titles without sequelitis. If I'm right, then yes, there will still be a few of those titles, but it will be absolutely nothing compared to consoles. The consoles will have the sequelitis, but it will also have the majority of indie developers as well, releasing their games via each console's respective digital marketplace.

You're not causing the big developers to re-evaluate their DRM implementation. You're instigating their withdrawal from the PC, and where the big developers go, the medium and small developers are soon to follow. Like I said, all we can do is postulate. But in 5 years, let's see who knows more about economics (and more importantly, about common business sense).
 
you do realize that whoever has predicted the demise of computer gaming, has thus far been wrong? just checking...
 
demingo said:
I will not sit here and cry for multibillion dollar companies who want me to feel sorry for them. I'll be glad when they go out of business because then some fresh faces will step in, sell their 100,000 or 200,000 copies and embrace the PC gamers who support them.
Click to expand...

I've a feeling (and hope) that's exactly what happens, as it's the same thing in the music world. It's usually the smaller, independent labels that release the best bands (particularly in extreme metal) while the larger labels (there are actually few labels that meet the criteria for being a "major" label) continue to focus on only bands that will appeal to a larger audience, tour and bring in more sales and more money.

Look, business is business, and everyone has to make money, but there's something that a lot of people, especially who run these companies, are forgetting: game development is an art form, and art is not about money.

The more that publishers (or labels) continue to prioritize their wallets over the art, the art suffers and the consumer suffers, by people cranking-out the same old garbage, whether it be games or music, and in regards to the world of PC gaming, using horrid DRM methods on top of an inferior release.

It's actually worse when a good release is plagued with something like SecuROM and install limits, because it's rare to come across a truly worth game these days, and when it's something you're truly looking forward to, you feel as though you're missing out on something, and for no good reason.

Just like in the music industry, once more and more musicians/bands began surfacing, bigger labels stopped taking on the truly talented and forward-thinking acts. At that point, small independent labels began popping up everywhere, and giving these band a chance to put there music out in the world.

I believe the same will happen with PC gaming. Let the large developers and publishers basically hang themselves, and smaller devs will step in to take their place, and more than likely release more quality creations, because they're doing so more for the art, than for the money. In turn, as what happens with music, they get treated with more respect, hence develop a stronger fan-base, and a new cycle begins.

I truly hope to see this where PC gaming is concerned, because we need fresh faces in the industry creating higher quality games, and not implementing such things as install limitations and rootkit-like DRMs.

While I might be of the mind that you cant let something like SecuROM completely keep you away from all games that you might want to play, I do also draw a line, and truly invasive DRMs with forced online activations and install limitations is that line. There are times I will make exceptions if something seems exceptionally worth it, because I'm a gamer, and gaming is what I do, but this situation with the DRM problem is getting out-of-hand.

If I have to activate something once online, no problem. If it's continual every time you reformat, upgrade hardware etc., and on top of that there are install limits, forget it... unless it's a really quality title, then I might tolerate it so I can get into something I'll enjoy.

I wont "boycott" at my own expense, but if the cons outweigh the pros (i.e. a "so-so" title infected with heavy DRM methods) then I'll more than likely pass on that title.

Hopefully soon, we'll start to see some fresh faces make their way into the industry with the right attitude about creating and releasing games.
 
AtramentiA said:
Hopefully soon, we'll start to see some fresh faces make their way into the industry with the right attitude about creating and releasing games.
Click to expand...

agreed with a lot of what you said. and i think your music industry example is right.

Here partly why:
in a big company, rarely do people care, because they are motivated by how many hours they put in. in a smaller company, people work harder usually because they have to/want to.

look at the guys who did the Witcher, look at the list and tell me how many people are over 30? they are youngsters who wanted to make cool games. and they did, better than the POS that was NWN2 which uses the same exact engine. But i am willing to bet that many NWN2 developers go home at 5pm, not so for the Witcher crew.
 
Megalomaniac said:
agreed with a lot of what you said. and i think your music industry example is right.

Here partly why:
in a big company, rarely do people care, because they are motivated by how many hours they put in. in a smaller company, people work harder usually because they have to/want to.

look at the guys who did the Witcher, look at the list and tell me how many people are over 30? they are youngsters who wanted to make cool games. and they did, better than the POS that was NWN2 which uses the same exact engine. But i am willing to bet that many NWN2 developers go home at 5pm, not so for the Witcher crew.
Click to expand...

Exactly, and I actually have first-hand experience in the music industry (from both ends; being signed to a label, and running a small independent label after that) and have seen these things happen first-hand, which is why I use that example.

As you said, when it's a small outfit, you work harder to create something better and focus on what really has something to offer. Once it becomes too much about business, the artistry gets choked, the focus is on what they can do to bring in more money, which in a situation like PC gaming, has turned into them trying to "protect" their investments in all the wrong ways, such as with nasty DRM ugliness.

Well, hopefully we will indeed see some of these new faces very soon in the near future. Hell, there's a ton of modders out there who create better maps etc. than devs themselves (custom Crysis maps, or HL2 mods, for example). New artists deserve their chance, and we deserve to experience what they have to offer, so bring on the fresh new generation of PC devs! ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top