Mass Effect DRM will be WORSE than Bioshock.. Securom strikes again!

R

Roufuss

Gawd
Joined
Apr 7, 2007
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I hope all of you that were outraged by Bioshock will be even more outraged at this.

http://kotaku.com/387846/mass-effect-copy-protection-an-opportunity-to-use-the-adjective-draconian

You'll need to remind EA's authentication servers EVERY WEEK you have a legit copy of the game, which sounds like you'll need a connection to the internet as mandatory as well.
Actually, Kotaku claims an internet connection will be required permanently.

And it looks like, from the article, Spore will use this same system as well.

So if, for some reason, the EA servers were to go down... well, you're screwed.
 
Bioware says that if the EA servers go down, they'll patch it to not require the activation.

But still. Rather annoying.
 
beanman101283 said:
Bioware says that if the EA servers go down, they'll patch it to not require the activation.

But still. Rather annoying.
Click to expand...

Then why don't they just do this to begin with?

It is just one big, unnecessary hoop people who legitmately buy the game have to jump through. Publishers need to stop pretending like this will stop anyone from pirating... in fact, it probably makes people pirate MORE.
 
Annoying but i will still buy the game because Bioware has always been a solid company you can depend on.
 
This is going to make even honest people buy the game and then pirate it to avoid the DRM.
 
I did NOT buy (OR PIRATE) bioshock because of this BS.
Wonder how many other people did the same thing because of this.
 
This is one of the main reasons I abandon PC gaming for consoles. No shit like Securom to fark up my computer.

Every time it seems like it can't get worse, it does. Pretty soon it will probably start checking to see if you have any other pirated games on your computer.
 
I'm not a fan of copy protection, but I think PC gamers love to knee-jerk. How many people were legitimately affected by Bioshock? Likewise, I think the vast majority of gamers will not be inconvienced by this. Yes, there will be some customers who are bitten, and that is a legitimate argument against copy protection, but I don't think sky is falling.

I just think it's a shame Mass Effect is an EA game, so it's not likely to be on Steam.
 
Well, I was thinking about buying this game. Not any more though.
 
Roufuss said:
Then why don't they just do this to begin with?

It is just one big, unnecessary hoop people who legitmately buy the game have to jump through. Publishers need to stop pretending like this will stop anyone from pirating... in fact, it probably makes people pirate MORE.
Click to expand...

0 day sales probably. Probably someone in a suit somewhere was shown statistical data that this will dramatically lower 0 day piracy and increase sales :rolleyes:

balthan said:
I just think it's a shame Mass Effect is an EA game, so it's not likely to be on Steam.
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If it does show up on steam it would likely have the call home "feature" and install credits still with it.

The calling home feature doesn't bother anywhere near as much as the limited installs. Right now it isn't known if upgrading your video card or cpu will cause it to go "Hey, this configuration is too different from before this counts as another install."
 
Looks like I will need to update my bit torrent client when the time comes;)
 
i purchased bioshock via steam.. no problems, loved the game.. dont know what the issue is.... people gotta stop complaining..
 
MD Agros said:
If it does show up on steam it would likely have the call home "feature" and install credits still with it.

The calling home feature doesn't bother anywhere near as much as the limited installs. Right now it isn't known if upgrading your video card or cpu will cause it to go "Hey, this configuration is too different from before this counts as another install."
Click to expand...

Yeah, I know. Bioshock still had the limits. But I never had any problems with Bioshock and installed it on 2 different computers and made hardware changes with each. And Steam "calls home" every time you log in.

I just wanted it on Steam as a matter of convenience. I've been buying my games mostly online these days (The Witcher is the only physical copy I can remember buying over the last few years), but I don't trust EA's digital distribution.
 
I don't buy into PC gaming is dying nonsense and I'm not anti "protect the software from being stolen" but it's like they're almost trying to sabotage PC gaming with this crap.

Absolutely anyone who buys these games legit should have ZERO headaches whatsoever when it comes to any kind of copy protection whatsoever.

Reality check: PC and console games get pirated left and right anyways. This isn't how you curb it, slow it down, or stop it outright.

Some would argue this is how you could even encourage more nefarious actions out of spite and frustration, but we'll leave that be.

I want Mass Effect and Spore quite badly and I suspect I'll take the plunge anyways but I'll be prepared to go to war at the drop of a hat if (when) I have problems.

Incidentally, I'm not sure how I got away with it, but Bioshock never gave any problems. *shrugs*
 
beanman101283 said:
Bioware says that if the EA servers go down, they'll patch it to not require the activation.

But still. Rather annoying.
Click to expand...

I thought the creators of Bioshock said they are going to remove it within a year when a majority of the players who want this game already purchased this game?
 
sparks said:
I did NOT buy (OR PIRATE) bioshock because of this BS.
Wonder how many other people did the same thing because of this.
Click to expand...

Same thing here.

Good thing I didn't buy it as well... or I'd have been locked out after about a week. As at the time it was released I was swapping hardware like mad and going through a reformat/reinstall about every 2-3 days or so... for most of a month. If you're curious about *why* I was putting myself through so much pain... I was tracking down an intermittent problem with a new build. Turns out that I had an incompatability with my video card and the specific version of the firmware on one of my two Samsung 204Bs. That was a real PITA (and the calls to the manufacturer's support were oh-so-great as well...)

Anyways... at least I can count on stardock to take my money. :D

Although stardock is evil in thier own way... namely they don't even require a CD check on thier games... so now I'm getting pissed with the publishers that do! :eek:

Evil stardock! Evil I say! :p
 
Thats some nasty antipiracy measures.

I will not buy this game when it comes out. I'll wait for them to fix it after it fails.
 
I was thinking about getting this game since so many people liked it on 360, but i'm much more likely to just pirate it, or crack it after buying it legtimitatly if it means i won't have to go through their crap
 
I still haven't been able to play Bioshock (due to DRM-related crashing I guess). Since my game PC isn't hooked up to the net, and is housed at a secure location where there is no evil internet contamination, I guess that means I won't be able to play this game either. Shame.

At least Steam lets me turn it to offline mode once I've hauled the box somewhere with a network plug.
 
hooray EA..

i'm sorry for saying this but i hate bioware ever since the EA takeover.
it was bad enough that they announced a PC version only a short while after ME's release. they even said it'll be an exclusive game for xbox even though they were already starting to port it to PC under EA. the PC version's more polished than the $60 360 version, plus they're including the add-ons for free while the xbox owners have to pay $5 extra. essentially, the xbox owners paid more for a beta-level game. Now, they're being complete Nazis on the PC version. sheesh. way to screw people over, EA.

dont get me wrong, i'll probably still buy ME2 and ME3 (and 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, inf - depending on how much EA milks ME) no matter how horrible they become; but it just wouldn't surprise me if bioware dies a slow death later on.
 
balthan said:
I'm not a fan of copy protection, but I think PC gamers love to knee-jerk. How many people were legitimately affected by Bioshock? -snip-
Click to expand...

I was. I am behind a very restrictive firewall -- I had to unplug my desktop, carry it to a friend's house, and activate from there. It was /far/ from convenient, and I will not be buying Spore or Mass Effect as I can easily see similar issues arising with them... only, you know, weekly.

I sold my copy of Bioshock. I did not pirate it. I will not pirate Spore or Mass Effect. 2K was put on my "do not buy" list over the crap with Bioshock (and their refusal to do anything about my having paid for a game I could not play or return due to DRM that actually broke their own EULA!) and EA will be on it as well unless this is dropped prior to release.

I am fine with checking CD keys when I go to play multiplayer. That keeps people honest and isn't troublesome because I'm online anyway. Going online so I can play a single player /only/ game, and potentially finding myself waiting on slow, overloaded, or just dead servers? No. That's never going to be acceptable to me, nor should it be to anyone else.

This cannot be the future of gaming -- if it is, gaming simply has no future.
 
Microsoft tried this with Vista, and the first time it bit them, it's my understanding that they removed it...

http://blogs.msdn.com/wga/archive/2007/08/27/update-on-validation-issues.aspx

I'm disappointed that given that even MS isn't big enough to make sure something like this always functions correctly, that a game publisher would try it...

It's bound to fail at some point, and when it does, they better just completely remove it... It affecting legit owners (especially potentially the same owner(s) again and again) on multiple occasions would seem very unacceptable...

Which certainly makes it sound like bothering to run the system and the servers for this is an utter waste...
 
I fully support Bioware's efforts on this matter. Will the DRM stop the pirates? NO. However, it might keep the bastards at bay for the first few weeks when most PC game sales are actually made. Then, Bioware can release a patch to call the whole DRM thing off and we all win. FTW!
 
Garret Jax said:
I fully support Bioware's efforts on this matter. Will the DRM stop the pirates? NO. However, it might keep the bastards at bay for the first few weeks when most PC game sales are actually made. Then, Bioware can release a patch to call the whole DRM thing off and we all win. FTW!
Click to expand...

Won't happen, and deep down you know it. This shit isn't going away unless the servers dive. EDIT: repeatedly. You know we'll get a month of "sorry"s before they do anything, if they /ever/ do anything.
 
Garret Jax said:
I fully support Bioware's efforts on this matter. Will the DRM stop the pirates? NO. However, it might keep the bastards at bay for the first few weeks when most PC game sales are actually made. Then, Bioware can release a patch to call the whole DRM thing off and we all win. FTW!
Click to expand...
50$ says there'll be a 0-day crack released and tons of irate legitimate customers who get screwed over.
 
having to have a net connection to play a game is one the stupidest, most idiotic, ridiculous, annoying, unfair, and just plain wrong ideas attached to a piece of software ever.

think if you buy it, go home, and you don't have any connection, you actually just want to game, oh I guess you can't play then can you.

reminds me of steam, which also pisses me off
 
I was excited for this game, but now I don't know what to feel.

Funny thing is, a day after this game is released, there will be a "patch" circulating within the "scene" to correct this DRM nonsense.

Honestly, if people are going to respect the work and love the company they'll pay for the game.
When companies start treating legitimate buyers this way, they just push them to pirate the software, seeing as how most pirates don't have to go through so much BS in order to play their games.
 
Garret Jax said:
I fully support Bioware's efforts on this matter. Will the DRM stop the pirates? NO. However, it might keep the bastards at bay for the first few weeks when most PC game sales are actually made. Then, Bioware can release a patch to call the whole DRM thing off and we all win. FTW!
Click to expand...

If Bioshock and 2K are a good example of promising just that and NOT delivering it. They even took 3 months to release a patch, to fix the TON of bugs the game had...

That's simply not going to happen in ME's case either, simply because SecuROM is there to stay and they need to get paid. They won't be removed from the game any time soon, if ever.
 
However, it might keep the bastards at bay for the first few weeks when most PC game sales are actually made
Click to expand...
hah!
haha!
hahahahahahaha...

It'll be cracked before you can get to the store and buy it.
 
Garret Jax said:
I fully support Bioware's efforts on this matter. Will the DRM stop the pirates? NO. However, it might keep the bastards at bay for the first few weeks when most PC game sales are actually made. Then, Bioware can release a patch to call the whole DRM thing off and we all win. FTW!
Click to expand...

This isn't porn. Very, very few games make the majority of their money in just a few weeks, especially if it is not released during the Christmas rush.

The outcome is exactly the opposite of what you're saying.

Pirates are going to be completely unaffected as it will be cracked faster than most will buy it.

The DRM patch that Bioware is supposedly going to release will come far, far off into the future when we're all done and bored with the game and we're waiting for ME2, if you even bother with ME and get it to work with all this crap.

Their sales will probably tank due to all this crap and they'll likely lean more towards console exclusivity in the future.

In the end: WE ALL LOSE.

By the way, what makes you think that it'll hold off crackers? You know that patch that you think will give us a win-win situation? That's just a crack made by Bioware. That's just announcing to the crackers that the groundwork for cracking that game is already in place.

The best part is, with games like ME and Spore, we're all paying for a single player experience, yet we need to be connected at any time to validate. Yes, all of us posting right now have some sort of ISP, but there are simply times when I want to game and I am not connected, like when my ISP goes down (which is a lot, thanks Comcast).
 
Neurofreeze said:
This isn't porn. Very, very few games make the majority of their money in just a few weeks, especially if it is not released during the Christmas rush.

The outcome is exactly the opposite of what you're saying.

Pirates are going to be completely unaffected as it will be cracked faster than most will buy it.

The DRM patch that Bioware is supposedly going to release will come far, far off into the future when we're all done and bored with the game and we're waiting for ME2, if you even bother with ME and get it to work with all this crap.

Their sales will probably tank due to all this crap and they'll likely lean more towards console exclusivity in the future.

In the end: WE ALL LOSE.

By the way, what makes you think that it'll hold off crackers? You know that patch that you think will give us a win-win situation? That's just a crack made by Bioware. That's just announcing to the crackers that the groundwork for cracking that game is already in place.

The best part is, with games like ME and Spore, we're all paying for a single player experience, yet we need to be connected at any time to validate. Yes, all of us posting right now have some sort of ISP, but there are simply times when I want to game and I am not connected, like when my ISP goes down (which is a lot, thanks Comcast).
Click to expand...


Bioshock.
 
Silus said:
If Bioshock and 2K are a good example of promising just that and NOT delivering it. They even took 3 months to release a patch, to fix the TON of bugs the game had...

That's simply not going to happen in ME's case either, simply because SecuROM is there to stay and they need to get paid. They won't be removed from the game any time soon, if ever.
Click to expand...


Bioshock sold well, and some (including me) attribute that in part to effective anti-piracy measures.
 
No-one seems to have bothered with the 3rd option that keeps everyone happy.

Buy the game but use the crack.

Thats what i'll be doing. I dont see the point of cutting my nose off to spite my face. I'm no pirate, but i dont have any problems using no-cd cracks with the games i buy. So much easier than hunting for cd's all the time.
 
Skirrow said:
No-one seems to have bothered with the 3rd option that keeps everyone happy.

Buy the game but use the crack.

Thats what i'll be doing. I dont see the point of cutting my nose off to spite my face. I'm no pirate, but i dont have any problems using no-cd cracks with the games i buy. So much easier than hunting for cd's all the time.
Click to expand...

That was mentioned many times, but that's not the point. The point is, we shouldn't have to. We bought the game. Why should we resort to "illegal" files to crack a game we bought ?

It makes no sense, especially since the so called anti-piracy measures, do not stop piracy and effectively reduce sales, since some legitimate users will avoid the game, due to those measures. I'm one of those people.
 
so called anti-piracy measures, do not stop piracy and effectively reduce sales, since some legitimate users will avoid the game, due to those measures. I'm one of those people.

me too Silus...very well said

consoles can't be pirated that is why all those companies are switching.
AND the GTA4 talk of piracy was all lies...you can't pirate consoles LOL

and consoles are connected to the net and I am sure they not only REPORT exactly what is purchased but what else you have purchased and Just how stupid you are for thinking that a console company or game company is your buddy and should be trusted.
THEY AINT YOUR BUDDY, OR YOUR PAL.....they don't give one F about you other then your money...I wish people could get that thru their thick heads.


companies that sell this anti piracy software go to the game developers and convince them that they WILL make $XXXXXXXXX dollars by BUYING THEIR PROTECTION, and will loose $XXXXXX if they don't.

I remember a few years ago a sub game was coming out and one of these companies was bragging on the net and in game mags that their software would guarantee this company at least 6 months of pure profit and how it was the greatest.
The cracked version was out 2 days before it hit the shelves.
I can't remember the name of this protection but just like all of them it was a joke

Why can't these companies prevent the pirates from getting the copies to crack before its released. THAT SEEMS TO BE THEIR MAIN PROBLEM
 
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