Lately it’s become clear that PC gaming companies are so nervous about game piracy that they’d rather screw their customers over a boogeyman than actually approach the problem rationally. Diablo III‘s online requirements are about to get them dragged into court. StarCraft II fans are extremely vocal over that missing LAN support Blizzard keeps insisting is totally unnecessary.
And now Ubisoft is facing a serious legal and commercial problem: Their UPlay DRM/achievements mix turns out to also have been a serious security hole. Ubisoft blames shoddy coding of a browser plug-in: Ycombinator flatly calls UPlay a rootkit. Either way, Ubisoft has a lot of explaining to do about this browser plug-in just months before Assassin’s Creed III hits shelves.
And this is just the preview. This is only going to get worse.
Honestly, I think Blizzard’s clumsy anti-piracy attempts are not the wave of the future. They can afford to anger their audience because frankly, that audience is still going to buy the games and still shell out $15 a month for World of Warcraft. But they’re in an extremely rare position in the games industry, a publisher with a handful of beloved titles they can take their time on and a cash cow that mints them billions every year. Valve is really the only other company in that spot, and they handle things completely differently.
Companies have the right to protect their copyrighted material, but the question becomes how far gamers are willing to let them go.
So I put it to you: how far is too far on DRM?
Image courtesy Ubisoft
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I could’ve swore Ubi tried that forced online thing and then stopped it. But yeah, not letting me play because my ISP is having issues is a step too far.
Too far is not permitting me to play a single player game if I’m not connected to the Internet. Too far is forcing me to install company-sponsored spyware if I want to play the game.
But perhaps I’m a minority, I also think calling my purchase a “lease” is fucked up and that’s industry wide so what do I know?
“Valve is really the only other company in that spot, and they handle things completely differently.”
By not releasing any games?
Pretty much everything Carl said.
The ubisoft rootkit is WHY their shit gets pirated in the first fucking place. These corporate protect-ip-at-all-costs warriors are just digging themselves a deeper hole with this garbage. Its the sony drm scandal all over again.
Overblown. There’s nothing wrong with DRM if it’s not intrusive. Complain about D3 all you want (that seems to be the popular thing to do these days), but Battlenet runs flawlessly. I still haven’t heard a valid complaint about the always online requirement that came after release day (and D3 must be the only game to ever face release day issues, right?).
The issue is DRM tied to clunky, intrusive online serves like GFWL and Ubisoft’s launcher. Go ahead and perform all the validation you want in the background, but stop trying to sell me things every time I boot up a game (you’re guilty too, Steam, though I do like your summer sales), and stop slowing me down with unnecessary cluttered content.
I tried to reply, but I kept getting Error 37.
Seriously, I’m glad it’s working for you. For most people, it’s not.
Why would that be the case? Are people trying to log on during Tuesday mornings? I’ve logged in enough over the past few months to the point that if it were a real issue, it would have happened to me at some point.
And no, it’s not an issue for “most people”. It’s a vocal minority that are very active on message boards; most of whom were already complaining about the always online requirement before the game even released, and were unlikely to change their tune.
I sympathize with those who somehow don’t have reliable internet these days and really want to play the game, but let’s not let a few disgruntled gamers (and let’s face it, is their a whinier group?) skew the facts.
Gruden — and you have what to back up your claims? You are claiming it’s a vocal minority, and I’ll like to know what you base that on. On the other hand, you are the only person that I’ve heard of who has NOT gotten Error 37 at some point.
The last time I got an Error 37 or another login error was on the 1.0.3 patch day. But since shortly after launch to now it has been problem free and that’s with at least one log on a day to cycle expired auctions.
Dan Seitz seems to be under the impression that logon issues is an ongoing problem affecting most, as in over 50% of the playing population, people. I would love to see his evidence that that is the case.
Because I’m not special. I don’t have a magic game client or internet provider that allows me to avoid issues that other people are having. I got error 37 messages on release day, and I’ve been unable to log in once or twice because of emergency maintenance. That’s with 100+ hours of playing time logged over a pretty evenly distributed amount of after-work and weekend free time. Odds are, most people have had the same experience.
It’s evident in the way complaints read nowadays, too. For the first few weeks, people did complain about connection issues (still mostly related to release day). Lately, it’s all balance-/loot system-/RMAH-related.
It’s not perfect, but Battlenet is stable and easy to use. You waste very little time dealing with their authentication servers, and if that’s what it takes to protect their intellectual property, I can deal with it. There are far worse options.
Maybe pirates should stop pirating games.
Just saying.
Well, yes, but unfortunately we’ve yet to figure out how to stop people from being jerks.
Maybe shoplifters should stop shoplifting. Would you use this reply if in order to purchase at item at the supermarket, you had to sign a 10 page-fine print waiver that gave the right of the manufacturer to come to your house and take back your groceries whenever they felt like it?
People who oppose the INTRUSIVE DRM aren’t all pirates. In fact, most aren’t. Why punish the 95% of your audience for the behavior of 5%?