Ubisoft's "always-connected" DRM cracked in one day?
- Thread starter Matthew DeCarlo
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thebluemeaner
Posts: 64 +0
Most people complaining about DRM are the same people that pirate the games, just buy the game and be done with it. You can find very good deals if you look around the digital delivery services...
windmill007
Posts: 307 +5
Just use a Cd Key. That will may stop casual people copying the game. You will never stop pirates so you might as well not even have DRM in the game. Learn to live with what you make from legit people. People who pirate wouldn't buy the game anyways.
This is only going to get worse, with increasing profit losses and competition the antipiracy techniques will only get increasingly complicated. Anything that's fully available to the user is bound to be cracked. real time authentication with manufacturer's servers is the only visible solution to piracy woes for this companies.
Computer Application's are getting increasingly network intensive. so, it's better we start looking for better and reliable ISP's and routers, rather than wining about DRM. ofcourse. And yes, you can continue wining if u really not want to pay ...
Computer Application's are getting increasingly network intensive. so, it's better we start looking for better and reliable ISP's and routers, rather than wining about DRM. ofcourse. And yes, you can continue wining if u really not want to pay ...
Wolfleader
Posts: 45 +0
DRM Sucks...I understand the principle and I can agree with the idea of it. But schemes like this are what hurts the game developers. The more strict and a pain the DRM is the more people are going to use illegal versions in order to avoid issues like this. I don't know maybe I'm crazy or something but I seem to remember a time when a lost CD Key was the biggest issue you had with a game.
This post makes me sad. That sort of attitude damages PC gaming much more than any poorly executed and/or buggy DRM that punishes people willing to pay for the game. The publishers do have a point that if no one pays, eventually no one plays. Unfortunately they look to the short term and implement ever more restrictive (and expensive) DRM measures rather than develop fresh ideas to keep people paying and playing. When the publishers read posts like this, they assume ALL gamers have this attitude, and then either try harder with the DRM (Assassin's Creed 2), or give up on PC games completely and focus on consoles (as Crytek has threatened to do).
You are correct that "as soon as its released its gonna get cracked" [sic], but even many of the warez groups doing the cracking urge you to still buy the game if you like it. I personally look for a crack for every game I consider buying, so I don't have to keep the disc in the drive to play and still get the full functionality for which I paid. The ONLY time you may find an unpurchased game on my hard drive is if there is no demo available. I'll try the full version, and if I like it, I buy it. My purchased copy of Wheelman still has the shrink wrap, but I have been enjoying the game since i downloaded the cracked version in lieu of a demo when it first came out. Fallout 3 however wasn't for me, so I uninstalled and deleted my cracked version. But even my unauthorized "demo" was enough to get me hooked, and I did purchase the game later.
theosephus
Posts: 15 +0
it seems that consumers are paying full price just to co-own the game. restrictions such as DRM are serving to encourage the very thing they are trying to prevent.
if my government followed the same logic as ubisoft, we would not be able to leave the house without xrays and ID cards, and everything we earned with our hard work would be subject to removal under the terms and conditions of the purchase.
any mechanism that restricts freedom of use yet still asks for a full commitment of resources from the user is unbalanced and unfair. companies should not expect the consumer to pay full price for something which they do not subsequently own.
if my government followed the same logic as ubisoft, we would not be able to leave the house without xrays and ID cards, and everything we earned with our hard work would be subject to removal under the terms and conditions of the purchase.
any mechanism that restricts freedom of use yet still asks for a full commitment of resources from the user is unbalanced and unfair. companies should not expect the consumer to pay full price for something which they do not subsequently own.
G
Guest
Theosephus said it all: "paying full price just to co-own the game". I use the word "rent" for that.
DRM just seems like a way for us to not have the game forever. I can read books I bought 15 years ago; I can watch DVDs I bought in 2000. I can listen to my CDs from 1992. I paid full price to have them. I enjoy them whenever and wherever I can. Sometimes I crave playing a specific Gameboy or NES game, and I have the consoles and cartridges here.
So, for me DRM only feels like an on/off switch for me. I have to be constantly online, so I'll be only able to play while the company wants me to. In other words, when planned obsolescence comes forward, the company won't like that I still play my favourite game, and will just prevent me from running it anymore.
How is that *buying* a game if I don't posess it? So, DRM seems to be a way for us to only rent things for "full price". One day we will have to give it back, and as much as we crave playing it, we won't be able to. Enter a small abstinence crisis for each game I won't be able to play, book I won't be able to read (hey, Amazon deletes ebooks from Kindle) or music that I can't listen anymore.
We're in the age of "pay us, pay us, pay us, but you will never buy, just rent".
What next? A "property police" that will invade my house and strip me of all CDs, DVDs and books they deem "obsolete"?
That's one reason I don't intend to buy any Ubisoft games anymore, as good as they are. It's always Ubisoft. First with Starforce. And they never give up. I just don't feel like giving money to them; even if they create the perfect DRM system that's never cracked and I can't play it on the PC anymore. I also refuse to buy their console games. It's an ideology matter.
I don't want to rent games. I want to play them 20 years from now when I find my old discs in the attic and crave some gameplay. And it seems the only way to posess a hardcopy is resorting to piracy.
Way to go, Companies!!!
DRM just seems like a way for us to not have the game forever. I can read books I bought 15 years ago; I can watch DVDs I bought in 2000. I can listen to my CDs from 1992. I paid full price to have them. I enjoy them whenever and wherever I can. Sometimes I crave playing a specific Gameboy or NES game, and I have the consoles and cartridges here.
So, for me DRM only feels like an on/off switch for me. I have to be constantly online, so I'll be only able to play while the company wants me to. In other words, when planned obsolescence comes forward, the company won't like that I still play my favourite game, and will just prevent me from running it anymore.
How is that *buying* a game if I don't posess it? So, DRM seems to be a way for us to only rent things for "full price". One day we will have to give it back, and as much as we crave playing it, we won't be able to. Enter a small abstinence crisis for each game I won't be able to play, book I won't be able to read (hey, Amazon deletes ebooks from Kindle) or music that I can't listen anymore.
We're in the age of "pay us, pay us, pay us, but you will never buy, just rent".
What next? A "property police" that will invade my house and strip me of all CDs, DVDs and books they deem "obsolete"?
That's one reason I don't intend to buy any Ubisoft games anymore, as good as they are. It's always Ubisoft. First with Starforce. And they never give up. I just don't feel like giving money to them; even if they create the perfect DRM system that's never cracked and I can't play it on the PC anymore. I also refuse to buy their console games. It's an ideology matter.
I don't want to rent games. I want to play them 20 years from now when I find my old discs in the attic and crave some gameplay. And it seems the only way to posess a hardcopy is resorting to piracy.
Way to go, Companies!!!
G
Guest
Sorry about being a guest user. I'm feeling too lazy to create an account right now.
As we've seen with other media industries (e.g. music and movies) the problem goes both ways. When an item becomes too easily distributable, we see extreme levels of piracy. But on the other side, when unlicensed distribution becomes rare, the publishers are more than happy to take additional "bites of the apple" by expecting users to repurchase material whenever circumstances can justify it, such as when new technology no longer supports an old medium (Hi-Def vs. DVD) or new media players are not backward compatible with old DRM codecs (frequently in iPod and Zune development).
There was a reason we rebelled against Vista and Windows 7 having a phone-home feature, (known as the "kill switch"): Amongst others, It is a violation of the personal right to privacy, our protection from search without warrant. Microsoft doesn't have any more right to know your usage patterns than does the NSA. Only the customer base for operating systems is much larger, and is a greater class-action risk than that of Ubisoft's or EA's titles.
In my personal case, though, I'm biased, given an incident a few years ago in which EA customer service refused to replace a CD that was cracked during the packaging or shipping process. Rather than a proper apology and a rapid delivery of a pristine disc, they treated me like a criminal for daring to insist that I get from them a game on intact media, a legitimate CD key notwithstanding.
It was that day, thanks to the obstinance of EA's very own customer service, that I sought out the torrent communities to create my own copy of disc 2 (and NOT 1, 3, 4, 5) of The Sims 2, which EA refused to replace.
I still buy licenses for all my games (music is another matter - if I had the LP of a song, once, I believe I own the license to reacquire it in a current version), but if a game's DRM inconveniences me *in the slightest* I have no qualm with acquiring a means to override it, even if it means acquiring a cracked version of the game for which my license is legit. And those crackers who break the code to allow me to play without CDs, or to remove that infernal Sims mosaic or, heck, allow me to reinstall my game when my activation limit is exceeded, are doing me a just and welcome service.
One last thing. I wonder if those of you apologists for internet-leash play requirements will feel the same way once a company arbitrarily decides to cease installation or play activations. Microsoft is planning on ceasing XP Home Edition activations relatively soon. It'll be interesting to see if you guys feel it is acceptable for any entity to have that power once someone actually uses it to deny you your purchased rights. And, for want of server space if nothing else, they will.
As we've seen with other media industries (e.g. music and movies) the problem goes both ways. When an item becomes too easily distributable, we see extreme levels of piracy. But on the other side, when unlicensed distribution becomes rare, the publishers are more than happy to take additional "bites of the apple" by expecting users to repurchase material whenever circumstances can justify it, such as when new technology no longer supports an old medium (Hi-Def vs. DVD) or new media players are not backward compatible with old DRM codecs (frequently in iPod and Zune development).
There was a reason we rebelled against Vista and Windows 7 having a phone-home feature, (known as the "kill switch"): Amongst others, It is a violation of the personal right to privacy, our protection from search without warrant. Microsoft doesn't have any more right to know your usage patterns than does the NSA. Only the customer base for operating systems is much larger, and is a greater class-action risk than that of Ubisoft's or EA's titles.
In my personal case, though, I'm biased, given an incident a few years ago in which EA customer service refused to replace a CD that was cracked during the packaging or shipping process. Rather than a proper apology and a rapid delivery of a pristine disc, they treated me like a criminal for daring to insist that I get from them a game on intact media, a legitimate CD key notwithstanding.
It was that day, thanks to the obstinance of EA's very own customer service, that I sought out the torrent communities to create my own copy of disc 2 (and NOT 1, 3, 4, 5) of The Sims 2, which EA refused to replace.
I still buy licenses for all my games (music is another matter - if I had the LP of a song, once, I believe I own the license to reacquire it in a current version), but if a game's DRM inconveniences me *in the slightest* I have no qualm with acquiring a means to override it, even if it means acquiring a cracked version of the game for which my license is legit. And those crackers who break the code to allow me to play without CDs, or to remove that infernal Sims mosaic or, heck, allow me to reinstall my game when my activation limit is exceeded, are doing me a just and welcome service.
One last thing. I wonder if those of you apologists for internet-leash play requirements will feel the same way once a company arbitrarily decides to cease installation or play activations. Microsoft is planning on ceasing XP Home Edition activations relatively soon. It'll be interesting to see if you guys feel it is acceptable for any entity to have that power once someone actually uses it to deny you your purchased rights. And, for want of server space if nothing else, they will.
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