Hidden DRM and undocumented onine actvation(Zippy righteous indignation activate!)

[ZippyDSMlee]

Its nice to see the ECA stick up for the consumer on this ground, if you want to add DRM/Online protection into a game at least have the balls to document it and warn users of their limited rights, like the DO NOT lend warning on the Bioshock disc, or the surprise install limit and online activation oh wait the ECA is not standing up for consumer rights on this ignorance remains bliss even if its hidden registry entries that are a hairs breath from a rootkit that could damage your PC, it would be nice to have the ECA make a middle of the road statement that publishers can put whatever harmful or annoying protection scheme on a game as long as they document the damn thing beyond begin a hidden feature in the install process or vague statements "online required"...


On another note WTF is up with buggy games its one thing to have some issues but bombing a game back 4 years ago(though low settings) to make it run or toy with your 360 configuration to get it to run properly, theres a mini storm brewing over the bugs in bioshock I have even heard a few rumors of EB and GS exchanging the damn thing just to get consuemrs to shut up and 2K is more tight lipped about it than the big daddies that star in the game, they wont even list what fixes are on the way.

After ubi soft a stable and well know dev/pub house dropped support(patches) for Dark messiah is times like this I regret every bit of buying poorly bug worked games I swear I would have been better off gettign the cracked version and saving money and frustration(mostly because cracked stuff either run or not :P).


My point with this is I would like the ECA to nudge the industry with a nice article over the industry treating gamers like sht the hidden stuff in protections that are not installed with the game, documentation in the manual about the online activation that or a heads up so the consumer can make a informed choice to delay launch activation issues and saying online is required is not enough, steam is the current online activation king if bioshock was on steam I would skip the game altogether I dislike the data gathering and other things steam dose so I boycott the product 150%.

Sure some of my concerns are OTT but still some are normal consumer issues the ECA is slacking on.

Hall put a fire under it already,a middle ground would help the indutry sale more games if the status quo contenuies it will just gain more and more disenfranchised consuemrs.


PS:undocumented online activation would be the install token system.

[GamePolitics]

Zippy - I know more than I can say for now, but I can say with certainty that Hal is already on this issue...

:D :D :D

[ZippyDSMlee]

GP
*crys*
do keep us updated,


I'll post this what I posted in 2k forums, it covers the reality of online activation systems.

"I mean really when one of the these systems gets bought out do you see them supporting the activation of 5 year old games? hell no they will drop them to open up bandwith and support for new games that make them money, on top of this will the devs that worked so hard on these games even be around then to patch the game, because yet again I do not see a company like ubisoft or EA putting a department together just to patch unsupported online activation in older games.


this is mess thats coming to a head and when the sht hits the fan its not going to be a pretty sight."

http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=201460&posted=1#post201460
---------------------------------

I guess as long as cracks fall under fair use publishers can use any means they see fit to "protect" sales as long as consuemrs can do the same minus the illicit distro dance of course.

I wonder tho is a wild west western stand off between consuemrs and publishers over PC game protections the best for the industry?

[kurisu7885]

Well, eventually consumers will have to say it.

"We're tired to these mother****in protections on these mother****in discs!!!"

I have a pre Steam copy of Half Life and it's expansions Opposing force and Blue Shift. I like being able to put them on my PC without having to buy the game twice. Before I found my copy again, I had gotten Half life for my brother as it's an awesome game and I figured he'd enjoy battling online as well. Well, we couldn't install it. We called the owners of Steam, and even though we were able to recite off out reciet(sp?) and were able to show that we had legitimately purchased the game ,they refused to get us an activation code for it.

[beemoh]

I'll post this what I posted in 2k forums, it covers the reality of online activation systems.


http://forums.2kgames.com/forums/showthread.php?p=201460&posted=1#post201460

^this.

I think this exact situation came up on Boing Boing a bit ago with some utility software, you could probably find it if you're willing to skip through Cory Doctrow's tedious copypasta on the subject every time it comes up.

[ZippyDSMlee]

Well, eventually consumers will have to say it.

"We're tired to these mother****in protections on these mother****in discs!!!"

I have a pre Steam copy of Half Life and it's expansions Opposing force and Blue Shift. I like being able to put them on my PC without having to buy the game twice. Before I found my copy again, I had gotten Half life for my brother as it's an awesome game and I figured he'd enjoy battling online as well. Well, we couldn't install it. We called the owners of Steam, and even though we were able to recite off out reciet(sp?) and were able to show that we had legitimately purchased the game ,they refused to get us an activation code for it.
Steam can be stupid thus why I rail on it for being a half wit,the stuff that tis good at is nice but the down side is dark and steep and frankly I am to old and annoying to put up with it :P

^this.

I think this exact situation came up on Boing Boing a bit ago with some utility software, you could probably find it if you're willing to skip through Cory Doctrow's tedious copypasta on the subject every time it comes up.

Welcome to the future were you rent everythign you buy ^^

[Brokenscope]

You are buying a CD key which is tied to a single license of the game.

I can't see anyway to tie most receipts to a CD-Key. If all ti takes is proof that i purchased it, then what is to stop me from essentially requesting a second copy of the game to replace my "lost" copy.

Heck under the pre steam system(WON), there was nothing to tie a cd key to a computer. Someone could take your key and you had no recourse, other than to stay online constantly so they couldn't get on. Now they would have to steal your user name to do that.

They tell you for a reason, not to lose the CD keys. I found an old copy of Half life last year, gave my secondary steam account the cd key, and now I have 2 copies.

While I am all for consumer rights on this issue, I would have a hard time sending a free copy of a game to someone because they lost a copy despite having no proof they actually lost the copy.

Your buying the CD, not the software, hell I would make the software free though.

I have been a steam user since the day it came out, funny story admins tend to look at my steam ID then comment on how low it is... it was a hell of a lot worse back in the day, but it has become a damn fine system that has never not allowed me to play a game I payed for. It even allows me to pick up games I paid for at retail, they don't even need steam. I can access about 25 games I have bought since steams inception, retail and via steam, without having to carry CD keys or CDs. Trust me things could be a whole lot worse, though its rather annoying I can't change my user name.

Not to mention the fact I don't have to go patch hunting for many of my games.

[ZippyDSMlee]

You are buying a CD key which is tied to a single license of the game.

I can't see anyway to tie most receipts to a CD-Key. If all ti takes is proof that i purchased it, then what is to stop me from essentially requesting a second copy of the game to replace my "lost" copy.

Heck under the pre steam system(WON), there was nothing to tie a cd key to a computer. Someone could take your key and you had no recourse, other than to stay online constantly so they couldn't get on. Now they would have to steal your user name to do that.

They tell you for a reason, not to lose the CD keys. I found an old copy of Half life last year, gave my secondary steam account the cd key, and now I have 2 copies.

While I am all for consumer rights on this issue, I would have a hard time sending a free copy of a game to someone because they lost a copy despite having no proof they actually lost the copy.

Your buying the CD, not the software, hell I would make the software free though.

I have been a steam user since the day it came out, funny story admins tend to look at my steam ID then comment on how low it is... it was a hell of a lot worse back in the day, but it has become a damn fine system that has never not allowed me to play a game I payed for. It even allows me to pick up games I paid for at retail, they don't even need steam. I can access about 25 games I have bought since steams inception, retail and via steam, without having to carry CD keys or CDs. Trust me things could be a whole lot worse, though its rather annoying I can't change my user name.

Not to mention the fact I don't have to go patch hunting for many of my games.

No yfor steam you are buying the game itself not the media it came on,if and when it buy it on media its a just a hard copy bonus, lets not forget steam wanted to and has revolutionized digi distro, however this dose not remove me concerns over data gathering and all the info sent to them over it,I jsut royaly dislike that facet of it, I also dislike the bugy steam setup that dosent like to remember offline mode and update settings(and tis still known to happen).

Steam is not a total loss, they do need polish the client so it dose not have to run while you run a game in SP mode(while playing not installing), and I would like it not forcing install for retail boxed games..
-----------------------

So far I have had to install Bioshock 3 times (1 hard crash ate soem files,1 I messed up the Ini because it hides the user files in not mydoc like a normal game but in doc and settings/local folders, to make sure the 2nd time installed right)the 2nd and 3rd times I didn't have to type in a key, this worries me a bit as I fully un installed them and it didn't go through any noticeable procedures to un install the key from the key sever I have this gut feeling that you do not get your "tokens" back with un
install.

I need to install XP fresh on a another HD and see how it goes, last time COJ didn't want to work right because either a driver or something was just cocked up enough to nuke the game...

Why oh why do I have this feeling sony is keeping how the fcker works from the consumer....again......

[Brokenscope]

Not a total loss would be better phrased as, "Its good but it has some issues."

The fact is, they will never make it so steam doesn't run while you are playing. That is their copy protection, on valve games at least don't know about other devs, and I think I can live with it.

Offline mode never gives me trouble, and I never have trouble with patches.

Not to mention most of the games bought on steam that can be found at retail, don't need steam at all. Valve just lets you purchase them via steam.

[ZippyDSMlee]

Not a total loss would be better phrased as, "Its good but it has some issues."

The fact is, they will never make it so steam doesn't run while you are playing. That is their copy protection, on valve games at least don't know about other devs, and I think I can live with it.

Offline mode never gives me trouble, and I never have trouble with patches.

Not to mention most of the games bought on steam that can be found at retail, don't need steam at all. Valve just lets you purchase them via steam.

Damned if you damned if you don't for retail boxed stuff I wont put up with such foolishness and will bypass it every chance I get.

[Brokenscope]

The only games in the steam library that need steam when bought at retail are valves games.

[ZippyDSMlee]

The only games in the steam library that need steam when bought at retail are valves games.

So? I dislike steam on grounds of privacy and resource control, I will not use steam for their games, so before buying one at under 20$ used I make sure there are steam less versions of it floating around before I will get it, and then burn what works to a disc to stick in the retail package.

I wouldn't even install the MP stuff for Dark meshhia since it was infected with steam.