Quote:
Originally Posted by janpitor
I´m totally for the ROF style drm. I never had any problem with the server. I can log in offline if my network connection is down (which was o good step I think), and if you play only offline, you really need connection only for updating/purchasing new airplanes. No problem and you buy directly from the team.
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I would be against ROF's system as well. I still haven't bought it because of that.
Many games use some form of online protection, but there are differences between them.
With RoF, the problem for me is that not all of the single player game modes are available offline. Correct me if i'm wrong, but last time i checked you could only play static campaigns and single missions offline, but not the dynamic campaign.
In my opinion the best online protection method would be an improved version of the one used in Starcraft 2. You buy the game, you make a free battlenet account, you enter the game's CD-key into your account information, launch the game and log-in with your account username/password and you're free to play.
You only need to go online once in order to activate your copy, activation is done by logging in with a valid account that's tied to a valid CD-key.
If you want to download patches or join a multiplayer session then of course you need to be online, but there's nothing stopping you from enjoying the complete array of single player features, from custom games to the entire single player campaign, in offline mode.
Or is there? Well, i guess there is and this is the where they need to implement some improvements. The problem with Blizzard's method is that before you can choose to play offline you still need to log-in online and press the "go offline" button, which totally defeats the purpose and retains the possibility of leaving you with an unusable game in the event of a sudden internet failure
However, if we had a system where activation was done the way it's done in SC2 (one-time online log-in, using the publisher's server instead of battlenet obviously) AND you could choose to use the offline mode upon game start-up, i think we'd have the ideal solution. It would be hassle free for the customer, plus the publisher wouldn't have to maintain a huge network infrastructure to deal with increased traffic, because nobody would go online just to play a single player campaign.
Long story short, any form of game protection that has the potential to make my game unusable for any length of time is something i don't accept and don't support with my money.
If a game says on the box "nVidia 460 or Ati 5850 or higher required" and all i have is a 4890, then i won't buy that game until i meet the minimum requirements.
The problem with always-online games is that their minimum requirements are like this: "100% reliable internet connection required". Since there's no such thing as 100% reliable connectivity there's no way to meet these minimum requirements ever, which means that either i will never buy it or the requirements will have to be reduced (officially or "unofficially")
Of course they don't print it like this on the box because they know there's no such thing and it would cost them sales
When i really want a game that has this kind of protection, i either wait for the "special edition" box/special patch with no DRM to come out a few months later, or i wait until the pirates crack it and then i buy it. Yes, i don't pirate it, i buy it and then i crack it.
And this is the irony of it all, depending on the pirates to improve a stock game by bypassing the DRM before i can buy it, effectively means that pirates are making sales for the publishers
